Running Bear's February 2020 Coffee Shop

[santafewillie]

This looks like the new place. Watch the wet paint, it's still sticky over in the corner.

 

[CambriaArea51]

Thanks Willie, hopefully the coffee is fresh the other place tasted like yesterday coffee, a little strong from sitting in the pot.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. 34° and clear. Headed for the mid 60's today, upper 70's tomorrow. Flirting with freezing temperatures at night later in the week, but daytime temperatures in the 58°-62° range every day except Wednesday.

How about some sausage patties, scrambled eggs and whole wheat toast this morning Francine. I think Flo is over at the old place cleaning up and serving stale coffee.

Thanks for the likes and comments regarding the plastics factory yesterday; Jerome, Joe, Karl, Garry, Phil, Sherrel, James, Chad, Curt, Justin, Tom, Dave, Jim, Ken.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I continued with ballasting. Got a couple of the turnouts done and several of the staging yard approach tracks done. I don't intend to do the staging yard, just the first 5" - 6" past the underpass. I also started gathering materials for the materials yard that will go into this scene.
For lack of any progress pictures, here's a visit back to a debris strewn vacant lot that I did a couple of years ago.

Garry - I really like the trucking companies name on the side of the trailer.
Sherrel -

Last time I did this was first week of November 1918.

I knew you were around in the last century, but that far back?
Tesla would have been a great buy at $400 around Christmas.
Justin - Glad to read that you got the dirty track gremlins out of the way. Now run trains every day to keep them at bay.

Today is National Serpent Day. Chances of sighting one in the wild are slim since they are all hibernating right now except maybe southern CA or FL.
Everybody have a great day and an awesome weekend. You'll find me in front of the grill for a few days.

 

[bnsf971]

Good morning. It's cloudy and 35. Most of the surprise snow has melted from yesterday afternoon, which we only had enough to cover the grass, anyway.
My wife is stable, and improving regarding her knee, though she's unwilling to give up her walker. The doc said it was kind of like a security blanket, where she doesn't need it, but has been using it so long, she's scared to let it go.

 

[santafewillie]

My wife is stable, and improving regarding her knee, though she's unwilling to give up her walker.

Good news. When my wife made her three week visit, the doctor came to the door of the waiting room and told her to walk toward him without using the walker. After 12' or so, he told me to take it away from her. She did use the cane for another couple of weeks.
Is she still using the ice water machine? We learned after the fact that you can just use frozen water bottles (recycled soda bottles) in the machine with some water to circulate and rotate them out instead of purchasing ice. Our ice maker couldn't keep up.

 

[bnsf971]

Willie, she only has to use the ice gizmo if she notices her knee swelling excessively. She hasn't needed to use it for at least a week, now.

A quick tip for anybody needing to put something cold on them, you can use a bag of frozen peas in a pinch.

 

[GarryCBQ]

Good morning ....

Mikey, Greg, Jim, Beady, Dave, and Willie. .... Thanks for commenting on my scene with a truck and a low clearance trestle.

Willie .... You are very observant. I'm glad you saw the humor in the name of the fictional truck company in my photo. .... Your scene with vacant lot is great. You modeled urban blight in HO scale.

Dave ....... Your comment surprised me. Of course, you are good forum friend, and I certainly would not wish to offend you. My scene is in no way intended to be insulting to the truck driving profession. Cheers.

Everybody ......... Have a good Saturday.

 

[Greg@mnrr]

Good Morning Everyone.....still overcast for the 11th day in a row, but still mild for this time of the year.

Willie: That vacant lot photo is great. Lots of attention to good details.

Down to the trains in a short time to continue the room clean up. I saved a lot of junk that's getting tossed like flat boxes that I used at least ten years ago to make a a zillion Puff Ball trees. Then I vacuum all the carpet tiles and concrete and get into the back spaces and around the storage containers. Hopefully I'll keep the layout room at least partially clean.

Later, if I have time I'll go into the second of the two pop up access points on the layout and clean the tracks in the mine area and maybe even finish the ballasting of the mine spur. The mine structure is at about eye level. Then I'll run some locomotives on this section track and see how they run.

That's all to report....

Greg

 

[Boris]

Dave ....... Your comment surprised me. Of course, you are good forum friend, and I certainly would not wish to offend you. My scene is in no way intended to be insulting to the truck driving profession. Cheers.

Dave and Garry: Not for nothing, the scene Garry portrayed, is officially known as a "Bridge Strike". Bridge Strikes happen quite frequently, especially in areas where overhead bridge clearance is restricted, probably due to a lot of reasons. Just like in any other profession, some truckers do not meet the standards set by the profession. Does not mean that all are careless, or that it's always their fault. Not all locomotive engineers were on their game all the time either.

Willie: Nice!

I've been icing my knee more frequently of late, I have a few gel packs I procured from a hospital PT department. just use and refreeze. Wrap them inside a kitchen towel. They conform to the knee's contour. Gel injections have two more weeks before they kick in. Last time, with a different gel, took a couple of months to work.

I have been working on the layout of late, the Ford Plant tracks are in and the PRR main has been relocated.

 

[truckdad]

I sure hope everyone realizes my comment about being offended by Garrys scene of the truck stuck under the bridge was 100% humor.
Dave

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Happy February All! Nothing special, just don't forget Valentine's Day for your significant other?

Was 79 here for a high yesterday and 82 is expected for today with deep blue skies.
Not to fear - we will be back into the 60's in a few days - for the "rainy season" we are woefully short even though the total amount overall is about even for this time of year.

There is so many good photos of members projects and prototype too that I'm just giung to say that they are all GREAT! I am going to try and accomplish some chores today as I have been terribly deficient as of late.

I will say to TERRY that I am glad to hear of Marie's progress.

JOE - the photo of the "pike size" passenger train reminds me of many I saw during the 60's in the South - A mixture of old/new equipment and types.

 

[CambriaArea51]

I sure hope everyone realizes my comment about being offended by Garrys scene of the truck stuck under the bridge was 100% humor.
Dave

Being a truck driver I've seen many stuck under a bridge and just wonder how they miss all the warning signs. There's a youtube video called 11' 8" where trucks hit this bridge like there drawn to it by a magnet. They raised it but some still think they can fit.

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Just another last day of January at the beach yesterday!

 

[montanan]

Good morning. Where did January go??? We're supposed to be in the mid to upper 50's today and then they have colder temps forecast with up to 8 inches of snow tomorrow. I'll believe it when I see it. Their forecasts have been miserable for the past couple of months. Daytona is just a few weeks away.

Garry - Like the photo of the van being turned into a chip truck by the bridge. We had a few guys do things like that when I was in operations with a trucking company. Need a sign like this.

truckdad - We had a driver try to go under an overpass in Milwaukee with a warning sign (12;3) about 100 feet from the overpass.

$150 for a caboose? Someone is dreaming. Will probably go on sale for half the price and still have problems selling it.

Beady - Sounds like Murphy paid you a visit. That woman on the scooter may need an upgrade also. Liable to break that one. If she had to haul butt, it might take her three or four trips.

Greg - Sounds like you have a bit of work to do cleaning the layout. Hope you can back the train through the return loop. When I was building my last yard I backed trains through every conceivable combination of switches before I was satisfied and started ballasting.

Justin - Good photos.

Jim - Good photos. I have seen similar situations up here in Montana on Mullan Pass where a train can cover a lot of the landscape.

Joe - That GG-1 painted for Amcrap brought tears to my eyes.

Willie - As usual, excellent photos. The junk in the vacant lot, Great news about your wife.

Got a package in the mail from the UK. Another order of Oxford Diecast vehicles. They seem to be improving with each new release. The Oldsmobiles were really well detailed as were the 55 Buicks. They did a really good job on the '54 Pontiac. The grill is excellent and the headlights are improving as well including on the '57 Caddy. Also picked up the green DeSoto. Already have the other two.

Those of us that are modeling the transition era are quite fortunate with the variety of vehicles available for that period. 4 door sedans, station wagons, and other "every day" vehicles instead of corvettes, muscle cars, European exotics and such. I will admit that the availabiliyof modern trucks is a lot better though.

Later

 

[Greg@mnrr]

Took a break for lunch.

Chet: Great car collection you have assembled for your layout. I enjoy the photos as well. Please keep the snow in Montana.

Backing an ore train through a reverse loops with its two turnouts can be a tricky operation especially with the short wheel base ore cars. I just take it slow and smooth when backing up with the loco which is the MILW SD-9 or a KATO DM&IR loco. The ore cars having a load makes them track better, but their short wheel bases can be troublesome. Like Chet, I ran a lot of equipment on the layout before ballasting and found several spots that needed attention.

The layout cleaning isn't bad since I'll working in small sections or areas at a time and the layout is of modest size. One of these days I need to draw a track plan.

Sherrel: At the beach...isn't a bit uncomfortable to lay on those rocks??? Nice foreground beach scenery. (Keeping my comments clean.)

I received confirmation that my logo decals will be mailed on Monday from Canada. $60 for a sheet of two different sizes and that prices includes the set up charges, production and mailing. There's over 75 of each of the two sizes of the logo on the sheet. I never realized how my diamond shaped logo somewhat resembles the diamond shape of John Allen's G&D logo. But the CM&N logo was modeled afet the MNS diamond logo.




In my cleaning I found several cans of DullCote and a bunch of wheel sets that I'll do a rust treatment on them and use them for trackside junk.

Willie: Glad to hear that your wife is improving and getting stronger especially if the walker is now history and she can walk without it. As we age it takes long to mend as I'm finding out since having my health problems last year.

Back to the basement...

Greg

#######################

The real MILW 533. -Greg

 

[PNKFLOYD]

Willie- your vacant lot looks a lot like my back yard. Great scene!
Sherrill- I thought a beach should have sand on it. However, your beach picture has the most important elements on it; girls in bikinis!

OLD SOUTHERN SAYING: Sometimes I wish I was an octopus so I could slap eight people at once.

 

[Greg@mnrr]

Doen for the day and soon Rummy with the Mrs. at $5/game. She's a good player and hard to beat.

Found a way to make a RTR box car into a kit. I had one jump off the layout and on the floor. One Kadee coupler took a beating and the shell and the floor separated entirely. Lucky no damage to any parts, but I painted the trucks and wheels flat black and weathered the truck's springs. I took the time to installed Kadee Whisker couplers. The Whiskers sure beat the old #5 and using those bronze spring boxes for coupler centering and their inherit lack of strength.


Tomorrow's Ground Hog after predicting more winter.-Greg

Slowly but surely the room is getting cleaner.

Tomorrow another day.

Greg

##################################

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Sherrel: At the beach...isn't a bit uncomfortable to lay on those rocks??? Nice foreground beach scenery. (Keeping my comments clean.)

GREG -- A Bunco friend does a lot of photography and caught this photo yesterday over on the coast. Outside of a few isolated spots - from my observation - a very large portion of the coastline consists of bluffs (as in the photo) and a goodly portion is strewn with rocks (as shown). There is a world of difference between coastlines along the Gulf and Atlantic vs the West Coast.
HA! - - All of which are preferred to feets' of snow, ice, and cold!

TOM -- Your remark about the "day old" coffee this morning made me laugh!

CHET -- Those really are nice looking autos. I need to find about an early 1960's model long nose international tractor, tandem rear wheels for a model I'm trying to make of a tanker that I drove during parts of my summers while in school.
I do not believe that it was diesel? memory fades here.

 

[truckdad]

Heres a nice picture of a RR bridge 1/2 hour west of me.

Dave

 

[max diyer]

Howdy everyone!

As always, I appreciate everyone liking my stuff

Mikey - I hope you got that honey-do out the way so you can get to the important task of load
building. I have a couple more structures to finish, then I'll make a load or two.
The CSX and NS are the main roads up here also, but it's still better than the 50's & 60's with the
dreary-looking old Pennsy's, the B&O and Norfolk & Western.
I like your southern sayings. Here is an old southern saying of a different type:

Sherrel - There's something wrong with your beach photo. I'm having trouble focusing past the
first 30 or 40 feet!

Chet - When I traveled "out west" I was always in awe of the vastness and the beautiful
scenery. Before I get too old, I hope to take another trip through the 11 western states.
The Oxford cars are looking better than previous models.

Greg - I've had a couple of those "kits" and after rebuilding them, they actually looked better.
The whisker couplers are much better than the old #5s, but I have a couple dozen of them left.

Everyone have a nice day!
Jim


Squamish BC 2013