Running Bear's December 2021 Coffee Shop


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gjslsffan said:
Yikes! Leave this thread for a couple days and there are 10 pages of responses. I am reluctant to opine to one post, as apposed to offending the other 30-40 posters. As I also value their posts. I am still working although not recently as a Locomotive engineer for BNSF. Hoping to be retired very soon. Maybe then I can keep up with a few of you folks :D:D
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I for one do not mind if you have no time to read my comments and just glance at the pictures,even the coffee shop should be fun and not a slog,if you feel guilty just breathe in deeply and let it out,this place is meant to be stress free living :D
 
PNKFLOYD said:
Troy- our club sectional layout is connected by 3" door hinges with pop out pins to hold the sections together. We have 6" track connector sections for each module connected with track joiners. Relatively easy to disassemble and reconnect WITH TWO PEOPLE, because we have removable legs. With casters, one person could handle it.
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Hinges are a great idea for good alignment
 
Hello Shop Dwellers!

Thanks everybody for the likes and comments on my Tuesday post.

Terry - bummer to hear about your latest crisis! Other than wishing you the best, I can't really add to what the others have said. Hope that opportunity in Lexington SC works out, everything I've read about your current town makes me think the sooner you get away from there, the better!

Christian - sorry to hear about your being mistreated on those other forums. Unfortunately the model trains hobby also has its own share of arrogant people like the ones who snubbed me over at MRH, that's one of the reasons I generally only post on this site - where people are more down-to-earth.

Troy - I second Louis' suggestion about making a removable module for that layout area in front of the electrical panel.

Smudge - I vote for Conrail since they used to serve the region I live in, and I'm kind of "partial" to that line.

* * *
Not much mrr activity for me the past few days, with Christmas looming large on the horizon. I was hoping to do some more work with my lineside industry signs, but those plans evaporated when a deliveryman showed up with a new dishwasher that my son is giving MOH as a Christmas present; I wound up spending most of the daylight hours helping him remove the old one and install the new one (takes a lot longer when you don't do that sort of thing for a living). Later I needed to drive into Baltimore to pick up my 23yr-old daughter from Penn Station, she'll be spending a week here with us until the school where she teaches at resumes classes on January 3.

Tomorrow will be spent helping the family tidy up the house for the annual 36 hours of Christmas celebration activities. If I don't find time to post here in the meantime: A MERRY CHRISTMAS to those of you who celebrate it...and just plain "cheers" to the rest of you!🥂🍾

Good Night - and have a Pleasant Tomorrow!
 
Jaz- I found a scene you should model on your layout.
 

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NYC_George said:
I got a letter from RR retirement today saying it's increasing 5.9 percent. That's real good increase My wife also receives RR retirement because she's married to me, and she get the increase. I would guess SS also receives the increase? Is that the case?
George
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yupper it does....

blog.ssa.gov

Social Security Benefits Increase in 2022

Approximately 70 million Americans will see a 5.9% increase in their Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments in 2022. Federal benefit rates increase when the cost-of…
blog.ssa.gov blog.ssa.gov
 
Alcomotive said:
yupper it does....

blog.ssa.gov

Social Security Benefits Increase in 2022

Approximately 70 million Americans will see a 5.9% increase in their Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments in 2022. Federal benefit rates increase when the cost-of…
blog.ssa.gov blog.ssa.gov
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James, I guess I've been too busy with my railroad I had no idea this was coming. Great for the model RR stores around the world and the horse tracks.
 
Just got done with a second round of gift wrapping for my 2 kids. The wife was there so did not get her stuff wrapped yet (well, one or two items were done in pass 1 last week). There were not that many things but it took a while. I am a ho-hum mediocre quality wrapper. But the job gets done. As usual, I went over budget.

No train stuff this year under the tree but I did buy a few firearms parts that were on a good sale that help me complete some projects. There are a few Japanese train sets and some KATO Japan made German and Swiss sets I'd like to get, plus a few European sets, but they have to wait this year.

On the house front, the pic below is from yesterday's hour or two of lunch hour / afternoon work. Where you see a 7th layer going up, it is because the main floor joist hangers span across from the 6th layer to the 7th layer. In the garage area, where the suspended precast prestressed slab goes, there won't be a 7th layer, except between the living arfea and garage, I'll have to split the blocks in two and just put up one side, with a small piece of wood form wall to make sure the floor joist hangers get covered in concrete but leaving the top of the wall free for the slab. (After the slab and floor joists arfe in we'll build higher with blocks and more concrete will go in above that area so any parts that are filled just to handle floor joist hangers will get filled in later).

I was going to not do anything on the house today as it was supposed to rain and I had day-job work to catch up, as I am supposed to be off from tomorrow until Tuesday Jan 4. But the rain was delayed, and some sun peeked out, and it was mid 40s, so I decided to go up and do a few things instead. It is supposed to rain and/or snow through next Wednesday, at a minimum, so I wanted to get stuff done before that happens. Lickily it is not straight snow 24 hours a day. Just a chance each day for rain and/or snow through Wednesday or longer.

I ended up being up there 3 hours or more until it got dark. I added another 6 or 7 blocks to the 7th layer, cut rebar and installed it in one wall section, etc. The lumber yard dropped off a block of floor joists (18' x 12" -- 22 qty) which we'll use first to attach to the walls to make them straight and true and then they'll later get reused in the floors. The problem is they laid them across the side walk, so tomorrow I have to go up and untie them, make a "bed" for them from some pallets I have, and move them off the sidewalk. I'll wrap in a tarp to keep them dry. WIth 5-7 days of rain/snow coming they'd get soaked otherwise, which is not good for them.

IMG_5237.jpeg
 
Good early morning as I type this it is 12:25am Central Time. Picked the son up at the airport and he is an unhappy creature. Didn’t like the commercial flight, said he needs a bigger plane. His plane he flies must stop between Austin and Madison for additional fuel. Thought he’d go commercial this trip, he didn’t enjoy the unwashed masses. Spoiled boy!

29 of the 40 invitees showed for dinner and most at least showed up 1 hour early. That’s fine Terry was ready. On the way to the airport she said this might be the last 12/23 dinner gathering, she is exhausted. No one wanted to run trains which I was sort of ok with.

The Christmas Eve dinner here is at the 6pm for family only and basically for the grandkids. Both the brother and sister are not coming so the gathering will be smaller. We will Zoom everyone after the g/kids do their presents. Always a great time and even though smaller we will still have family together. Much better then the all Zoom all the time last year.

Waiting for the son’s pizza to arrive at 1:30. All this food and he wanted a pizza!

I will type at you folks later
TomO

did this yesterday, a nightmare!
87A24DA4-C679-4167-8076-F678CDBA2D13.jpeg

Thankfully unsealed Pan Pastels are wonderful, was able to back it to this
622F2D66-9F6E-4160-9365-B3A2AA90167C.jpeg
68F86D32-1586-4659-B133-2D7DBED45336.jpeg

I doubt I can get back to this until after the first day of the New Year. Lots of folks will be roaming the homestead the next week or so
 
Good morning all! 47 degrees heading for a truly un-Christmaslike 60 for the day. I'm not complaining about the temp. Every day we have nice weather is another day I can take my lunch break at the park instead of eating in the store break room. I love going to the park where it's quiet and I may get to see a train or two. If I stay at the store I hear all the noise, PA announcements, customers screaming kids, etc. Home is 25 miles from work, so I can't go there for lunch each day.

Scheduled 8-4:30 at work today, then off tomorrow of course. After that I go back for 4 more days and then get a 4 day weekend. I think the company is finally starting to figure out that the biggest reason they keep losing employees is our terrible schedule. They have been making minor and sometimes major adjustments to make things at least a little more stable for people and are now going to give us one weekend off a month instead of every two months. Not sure how I got the 4 day weekend but I'm not going to complain. Another week of work after than and then a short vacation to use up some time I needed to use or lose.

@CHRISTIAΝ I enjoy your pictures and seeing your latest track plan. You're currently doing a lot more model railroading than I am.

Off to work soon. Hope you all have a great day and a Merry Christmas-eve. I'm looking forward to the day off tomorrow and time with the family.
 
Good morning y'all, and Merry Christmas Eve.

Flo- Coffee, leave the pot. Lots to do and need the go-go juice.

Let's start off with a quick check of the weather: Cold. And Dark-ish. App on the phone says that it is 30 with a feel of 25. High today is 59, which is kind of Christmas-y for the region, but tomorrow's forecasted high now sits at 70. Our outlook on weather in Carolina: Don't like it? Wait 5 minutes.

Today we are doing family Christmas with my wife's family, tomorrow we'll make the drive to Columbia to be with mine. Waiting for the time to become reasonable enough to fire up the saw and finish cutting the last few boards for the coffee bar we are giving the MIL this year. Since I can't use my garage as a workshop (a problem that will be remedied at the new homestead) I am stuck using the front porch. I generally keep to myself, but you never know when you may need a neighbor's assistance so I try to not be "that guy" that disturbs the peace at inappropriate hours.

Received the confirmation email that my detail parts for the newspaper office and the pizzeria have shipped, so soon I will only need time at the bench to resume progress on...something.

Y'all have a blessed day. Will check in as time allows.
 
TLOC said:
Good early morning as I type this it is 12:25am Central Time. Picked the son up at the airport and he is an unhappy creature. Didn’t like the commercial flight, said he needs a bigger plane. His plane he flies must stop between Austin and Madison for additional fuel. Thought he’d go commercial this trip, he didn’t enjoy the unwashed masses. Spoiled boy!

29 of the 40 invitees showed for dinner and most at least showed up 1 hour early. That’s fine Terry was ready. On the way to the airport she said this might be the last 12/23 dinner gathering, she is exhausted. No one wanted to run trains which I was sort of ok with.

The Christmas Eve dinner here is at the 6pm for family only and basically for the grandkids. Both the brother and sister are not coming so the gathering will be smaller. We will Zoom everyone after the g/kids do their presents. Always a great time and even though smaller we will still have family together. Much better then the all Zoom all the time last year.

Waiting for the son’s pizza to arrive at 1:30. All this food and he wanted a pizza!

I will type at you folks later
TomO

did this yesterday, a nightmare!
View attachment 137524
Thankfully unsealed Pan Pastels are wonderful, was able to back it to this
View attachment 137525View attachment 137526
I doubt I can get back to this until after the first day of the New Year. Lots of folks will be roaming the homestead the next week or so
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Nice yard ballast.
George
 
Well, Howdy there internet Christmas Cafe dwellers, and those who want to be immortalized in a scene on Jazz's layout

It's Troy again.

I'm up, but still in the PJs. Shower coming soon. Still on the first pot of coffee.

Whoever mentioned hydration to sleep through the night, thanks. I started trying to get an extra dose of H2O before bed, and it's helping.

Back on Track... no seriously. I've got a vid subscription to Model Railroader Video +. I FINALLY found the Gerry Leone series on building his new Bona Vista #5 (or whatever he's up to) following his move to a newly built house. (hint, use the search function and look for "Back on Track" ignore all of the hits that come back for all the other magazines in their lineup. (The switch to Trains.com is annoying at best... I curse a LOT when I'm searching for stuff on their site.)

Even though he laid out his overall loop in 3rd Planit track planner, he's still seat of hit pantsing it about turnout and town locations. Kind of like the "regular guy way" a la Steve Brown. (Who I've also subscribed to his YouTube members channel).

I think that's what I'll need to do with my new redesign. Get the overall loop figured out. Add in some elevations to get incline %s, then just lay track down, and finagle until I'm happy. Then spike/glue it down.

That leads me to the rolling removable section. I'm picturing a stream or small river at the edge of static section. The far shoreline will be the beginning of the removable section. Add in a couple of bridges that can be removed. Have an easy disconnect wiring connection underneath, pull a couple of connector pins, and wheel it out.

But, the connection of rails...

I recall David Popp at MRR doing a vid with a circuit board underneath the track where a removable section was. Wire power to the sliver of a circuit board and that conducts power to the rail on top of it. Hmmmm... Do that to both sides of shoreline. Bridge would only be about 6 inches wide. Just need to make sure the bride and tacks are able to "drop into a slot" so everything is aligned...

Anyone do anything similar with liftout, swing ups? What am I missing? Other considerations?
 
TLOC said:
Good early morning as I type this it is 12:25am Central Time. Picked the son up at the airport and he is an unhappy creature. Didn’t like the commercial flight, said he needs a bigger plane. His plane he flies must stop between Austin and Madison for additional fuel. Thought he’d go commercial this trip, he didn’t enjoy the unwashed masses. Spoiled boy!

29 of the 40 invitees showed for dinner and most at least showed up 1 hour early. That’s fine Terry was ready. On the way to the airport she said this might be the last 12/23 dinner gathering, she is exhausted. No one wanted to run trains which I was sort of ok with.

The Christmas Eve dinner here is at the 6pm for family only and basically for the grandkids. Both the brother and sister are not coming so the gathering will be smaller. We will Zoom everyone after the g/kids do their presents. Always a great time and even though smaller we will still have family together. Much better then the all Zoom all the time last year.

Waiting for the son’s pizza to arrive at 1:30. All this food and he wanted a pizza!

I will type at you folks later
TomO

did this yesterday, a nightmare!
View attachment 137524
Thankfully unsealed Pan Pastels are wonderful, was able to back it to this
View attachment 137525View attachment 137526
I doubt I can get back to this until after the first day of the New Year. Lots of folks will be roaming the homestead the next week or so
Click to expand...
The car looks good I like the weathering and why Kids these days can never eat food we have at the house my 2 daughters get that way sometimes but I will say this if they want something different they cook it them selves they love to cook like there Mother.
 
Good morning gang!


Half day of work today, and guess who didn't schedule any work for today! That's right, the wise old fox! The techs aren't gonna do squat today other than oil changes, and my co-hort has already filled that quota. Time to take it easy.

Flo my dear, can I get a western Omelet with a side of bacon, and coffee black. Just dip your finger in it, that'll make it sweet enough.

Sons 1-4 will be at the house tonight for Christmas, we have breakfast tomorrow with the daughter, SIL and the Gkids tomorrow morning the the rest of the day is ours. Wife and my siblings are too far away and with travel anxiety this year we will wait til later in the year to catch up. I'm sure there will be some video calls to be made tomorrow.

Troy. I'm interested in the wiring aspect of bridge work because my new track plan also calls for one. One thing to consider is a safety circuit, so that the approaches to the bridge also lose electrical feed when then the bridge is open, so that engines with good flywheels or keep alive circuits don't make the plunge.

Boris said:
Karl: How come it's always the gray and white Calico?
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Cuz the red and while Coon knows better! He makes the DIL look small.
starr.jpg


Christian. Don't worry a bit about any naysayers on your layout! Its YOUR layout, you do as you please. There aint no shame in your game!

In case I don't get back tomorrow, Everyone have a Merry Christmas, and may God bless us everyone!
 
kbkchooch said:
Good morning gang!


Half day of work today, and guess who didn't schedule any work for today! That's right, the wise old fox! The techs aren't gonna do squat today other than oil changes, and my co-hort has already filled that quota. Time to take it easy.

Flo my dear, can I get a western Omelet with a side of bacon, and coffee black. Just dip your finger in it, that'll make it sweet enough.

Sons 1-4 will be at the house tonight for Christmas, we have breakfast tomorrow with the daughter, SIL and the Gkids tomorrow morning the the rest of the day is ours. Wife and my siblings are too far away and with travel anxiety this year we will wait til later in the year to catch up. I'm sure there will be some video calls to be made tomorrow.

Troy. I'm interested in the wiring aspect of bridge work because my new track plan also calls for one. One thing to consider is a safety circuit, so that the approaches to the bridge also lose electrical feed when then the bridge is open, so that engines with good flywheels or keep alive circuits don't make the plunge.


Cuz the red and while Coon knows better! He makes the DIL look small.
View attachment 137527

Christian. Don't worry a bit about any naysayers on your layout! Its YOUR layout, you do as you please. There aint no shame in your game!

In case I don't get back tomorrow, Everyone have a Merry Christmas, and may God bless us everyone!
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Great Pic.
Just isolate that section of track, if you take power from your buss wire after the piece your removing when you disconnect the power to remove that section, the rails before it has no power.
 
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