Running Bear's February 2020 Coffee Shop

[Robots_walk_the_earth]

Morning all,

I'll have some Blueberry pancakes this morning with a double side of bacon and coffee, Thanks Francine.

Took me some time to get caught up reading after my holiday weekend. No more of those now until Memorial day.

Well, I did get my train stuff on Saturday, but the weekend was shot to heck when the daughter who lives 70 miles away said they were coming on Sunday. Since it was mom's weekend to have her oldest, they ladies decided to advance the grandson's birthday party by a week some all the family could be there, so......I suddenly lost a week on a chess board I was making for his birthday, along with all the house stuff that needed done at the last minute. Then my truck decided to start having issues that should be fixed today (hopefully). Then the grandson needed help building his pinewood derby car so as he was off yesterday, that was my day besides shuffling vehicles to the various oil changes and service shops. It was busy but NOT what I intended.

On the truck, I really can't complain about it having issues. It is nearly 11 years old, I am the only owner, it other than routine maintenance (gas, oil tires, brakes, etc) I haven't put anything into it. When I get it back, they only idiot\warning light should be the tire pressure monitor light. I was quoted $400 to replace them at my last tire change this past October. I had the tire place put the old fashioned valve stems in. This particular system I've always hated as when you have a tire below its set point, it says low tire, not which tire is low. It only seemed to tell me I had a problem when it was either 5 degrees and blowing snow, or when it was pouring rain. Never on a sunny warm day. It should last me another few years. Many at the office thought it was newer as it still looks good for it's age. Even the body shop where I had the deer damage fixed, said it was in great shape. It did hit 165,000 miles on Friday and still averages 22 mpg.


Oh well, back to work.

Patrick: please share a pic of the chess board once you finish it. I’ve toyed with making one myself.

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Greetings from out here! Looking for a 75 high after a 73 showing yesterday. We are 2 inches below our average rainfall for this date - seriously need some - I will be forced to turn on the yard sprinklers. Also, supposed to be mostly clear today, sunny tomorrow and back to mostly clear for the next day.
Morning FLO, I will pass on WIllie's breakfast this morning - how about seeing if MEL can rustle up a chicken fried steak, eggs up, hash browns, and some sourdough toast ... I got some heavy lifting to do this morning.
SWMBO has decided that we MUST move the large couch out into the garage (where I just made a path) because the new furniture is coming Friday and she and I cannot move it without help. The smaller couch - two cushions - we can manage Thursday afternoon.

Patrick - I can relate to the tire pressure thing. Those were put on primarily I think for women who never check the oil, tires, washer fluid, and sometimes the fuel! I haven't lost it enough to not be able to pretty well know when a tire looks a little low?
Granted that some of the low profile tires are hard to tell.

Johnny - Nice Fire Station!

Willie - I'm starting to wonder what you will do when you complete your layout - I think you may suffer withdrawal pangs!

TOM - That hopper you just posted? Is that one of your "makeovers"? If so - it's really nice!

Well, better make a move towards doing something!
BBoB - Sometimes I think my dogs are smarter than most people! AND they seldom complain except at meal time - and I can relate to that.

 

[CambriaArea51]

Afternoon, a slow day at work so I took a half day. Thanks for all the likes on the hopper car.
Sherrel - That is one of the BNSF I was going to patch out but decided to paint the whole car and use some CSX decals I had. That'll be 1 of 6 that I'll do. I still have the other ones I patched out I had a set of 12 I bought off a friend of mine that got a double order a few years ago.

 

[max diyer]

Howdy everyone!

Thanks again to all who liked my stuff!

Flo - How 'bout a hot pastrami sandwich, sweet potato fries, a bowl of vegatable soup and coffee

James said - "these are good units...although the cabs are incorrect. I started years ago kit bashing new cabs for them. I have yet to finish them

maybe this will give you the incentive to finish the cab kit bashing Thanks for the link and the great photos!
At the show, I had every intention of purchasing 3-bay open hoppers, but when I saw this GP60 - I knew
it was going home with me. I was never interested in demonstrators, but this is one sweet little loco!

Willie - Great work on the elevator and the spouting truss kits!
My suggestion for the area between the facilities would be to keep it a little bit country. High grass, weeds,
a couple of trees and a few deer waiting to cross the tracks.

Sherrel said - "What's in the Chicken of the Sea can?" What else but toona! No but really - I use my
gondolas for leftover construction parts, pieces of rails, ties, drill bits, etc., etc., etc. All of my gons are full, so the excess overflow goes into the tuna cans. There's 10 or 12 round "storage units" on the layout. There not prototypical, but they work good. All of this seriously means I have to get more gondolas!!!

Bob - thanks for the layout comment! Great view of the TN countryside.

Jerome - good personal GP60 photos! I'll bet that's a great memorable experience. Thanks for sharing.

Curt - thanks for the favorable comment!

Tom - great lookin' ex-BN hopper! Nice job!

Johnny - Thanks for the layout comment. Good looking fire house and a great story!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I haven't done any layout construction, since Sunday evening. The Mrs. had two doctor appointments
yesterday and I had a eye doctor appointment this morning. I did make some signs for the side of
Nick's Garage. It's interesting how a few signs can really enhance a structure!
I'll finish painting the asphalt highways, let them dry and run the train a few times through the crossings
to make sure there's no clearance problems. Next I'll lay the highway across the other layout table. There's
two crossings, then the road starts up the hill and across the RR overpass. I built this overpass about
12 years ago and never finished it. So I'm kind of anxious to get it done, as it's a great feature for the
layout.

Everyone have a great whatever you're doing!
Jim

Here's some of my layout . . .

 

[chadbag]

Here's a picture we took last month at a scenic overlook just east of Sparta.

View attachment 44323

This actually reminds me of an outlook at a rest stop we stopped at in Sweden on the way to Oslo after we picked up our Volvo (RIP).

 

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

Continued moving things around the house and the dining room is now back to normal. Of course there's stuff for the sewing room in two other rooms upstairs. Son and I moved two dressers and a bed upstairs from the dining room.

Tom- Nice decaling job.

Terry- Sorry to hear about your truck.

Willie- Nice layout shots.

Alan- I had a PR3 years ago and I ended up throwing it away because I never could get it to work properly and the flashing light sequences were extremely hard to understand..

Johnny- Very nice firehouse and trucks.

Jim- Nice layout shots.

I hope everyone has a good night.

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Beady -- Hope this helps you to pack your bags?
Don't forget the suntan lotion!

 

[PNKFLOYD]

It has been a busy couple of days. I have been working on some ideas for more flatcar loads. I'll take pictures if they pan out. If they don't pan out, I'll still take pictures, but not share them with you.

Still taking boxes of Christmas decorations up to the attic. One more Christmas tree to go.

At train club last night, we started putting up the LG&W HO modules on legs and connecting them together. We will finish the last three modules next week with some new legs being made this week and attach the fiddle yards. The On30 layout was set up a couple weeks ago before all the big rains seeped into the the club room again. Lucky to have two drains that are now clear of junk.

Slid the dead three year old Frigidaire out of its hole in the kitchen cabinets and onto a runner rug to move it about 30 feet to the garage.
Home Depot has free delivery and set up of the new fridge, but wanted $25.00 to move out the old fridge. For a 10 minute effort (by a non-professional), I saved on a $300.00 an hour job. Too much of a cheapskate to do that.

OLD SOUTHERN SAYING- When blondes have more fun, do they know it?

 

[Texas Hobo]

Just to add a couple of things that I forgot in my first post....

I some times need some inspiration before I go down to the layout and I have several photos that I look at to get that inspiration and that anything is possible. Here's one of the photos....

View attachment 44293
A seldom viewed scene on George Sellios' layout the F&SM railroad. Lots of detail and realistic clutter to make the scene representative of New England in the 1930's. So many of the details items in the scene are available to most modelers to use and I think that the changes in grade, along with the attention to details, like the different fencing along the track and the narrow road and varied vegetation are examples of what George has created makes the layout so outstanding!-Greg

I been adding signs to my layout where ever possible and I believe details like signs bring a layout to life.

Greg

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

The Franklin and South Manchester is my all time favorite. I really wish I had the talent to emulate George's work on my own layout. Having the money would also help.

 

[Texas Hobo]

Good afternoon all. Well I think I finally caught up with myself. Sitting here with a scotch and water, reading the posts by you guys. I went to the Stafford train show last Saturday. It was totally crowded. It was very difficult to get to a table to see what was available. What was encouraging was the number of young folks in attendance and buying stuff (maybe dad was paying?). I didn't buy a thing, not even UCC tank car which I usually buy at every show I attend. There were none. Earlier this month a friend of a friend offered to give me an old box of Lionel trains. He asked if I was interested, I said sure. So if he is really going to give them to me, I'll find out next month. I'm thinking the "Grand Kay and Bonneville" would be a nice layout for it. Time will tell. Not a lot as been accomplished on the Deerfield and Apple Ridge since last I posted. Many, many distractions in the real world.
Happy railroading

 

[Beady]

Beady -- Hope this helps you to pack your bags?
Don't forget the suntan lotion!

View attachment 44330

I have no illusions.

 

[bnsf971]

O-kay...

Moving right along, I went back to the eyeglass place, and got them replaced, no charge, plus they let me keep the wrong ones. The prescription is good, so I'll use them for emergencies.
I got a call from the stealership, they still can't figure out what's wrong with my truck. Supposedly they are getting somebody from Chevy to help them out, because they swear they've never seen this before. I may have motivated them (probably not) when I told them if they couldn't fix it, they could give me the nice Silverado in the showroom as a replacement.

 

[Sirfoldalot]

I may have motivated them (probably not) when I told them if they couldn't fix it, they could give me the nice Silverado in the showroom as a replacement.

LOL - I might think that with your luck as far as motorized vehicles goes that they may have been motivated to get you one from another dealer?

 

[Boris]

O-kay...

I got a call from the stealership, they still can't figure out what's wrong with my truck. Supposedly they are getting somebody from Chevy to help them out, because they swear they've never seen this before. I may have motivated them (probably not) when I told them if they couldn't fix it, they could give me the nice Silverado in the showroom as a replacement.

Terry: What you described, sounds very similar to a situation I had with my 2002 Monte Carlo. As I recall, there was an under dash module which had gone bad, and I was able to find the replacement from Rock Auto. FWIW, this also had something to do with the disconnected OnStar system.
Check the Chevy sites and see if there is a service bulletin out that covers your truck.

Willie, I like the elevator. great work. Same with the truck.
Jim: layout is coming along nicely.
Johnny: Like the fire house.

MIL saga continues to deteriorate. Her mental status has changed in the last two months, she refuses to participate in physical therapy, and has lost the basic skills required for her to return to her assisted living facility. We are now searching for a long term care facility to move her to once she is cut off by Medicare.

GM&O's Abe Lincoln, Odell IL in 1965 Coming and going...

 

[wheeler1963]

New computer today. Not a laptop, not a desktop. An all-in-one. Computer is behind the monitor. I'll be days re-building bookmarks and moving picture files back on to it. OH Boy!!!!

 

[Burlington Bob]

Terry, you got those new glasses just in time for Beady's picture! I think I might have nightmares tonight!

Boris- Nice picture! That is now Union Pacific trackage and Amtrak runs trains at over 100 MPH. The tracks have been upgraded and it is all concrete ties and perfectly manicured. There are signs at the few crossings that warn "Trains go faster than 85 MPH". Pretty impressive for the cornfield capitol.
Here's a video from a while back around Dwight, IL. Odell is the next town south of Dwight.

 

[tootnkumin]

It's just going dark here and I could see lightning flashing outside. Went out into the backyard and looked up. Directly above me is clear sky. Just to the south a tad is this massive thunderhead cloud, not quite yet on top of me. Bright bolts and flares are racing across and through the cloud. Occasional bolt heading earthward. The base must be above a thousand feet and no sign of rain yet, far as I can see. The edge is clearly defined and stretches from S.W. to East of the sky. Oddly, the thunder is not loud by any means. Just have to wait and see what develops. No wind yet either.

 

[kbkchooch]

Good Morning gang!
47° and pretty much the daytime high now at 6 a.m. After lunch starts the downward spiral to the freezing mark, but at least there is no precip!
I did make it to the basement yesterday to set up programming on a NWSL Stanton drive wearing a TCS KA24 on its back. It's always a little strange when you are done running a loco, take it back to the workbench and the lighting is still active. But hey, that's what Keep-Alive circuits are all about!

 

[tootnkumin]

Well, the storm turned out to be just a lot of show as far as my place was concerned. Did get a heavy shower out of it, but apart from just some overcast, it must have moved away south. Was a bit worrying. Sydney copped a real beating from one a day or two ago.

 

[tootnkumin]

But hey, that's what Keep-Alive circuits are all about!

That's what concerns me a bit about using them on a club layout.