Running Bear's February 2021 Coffee Shop.


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Good cold Valentine Day to all from down here in Texas. Can’t it by the weather though - we are currently at 18 and it going to drop throughout the day. Willie I think you made the right call. In 1983 when we had a similar cold snap our washing machine lines and drain froze up. Trying to keep that from happening this time. Put some carpet and plywood over that area on the outside. Inside I am keeping a small electric heater pushing air behind the washer and dryer. Lots of dripping faucets throughout the house. Thank goodness this only happens every 20 - 30 years.
Flo- any more coffee back there. Any maybe some biscuits, gravy and sausage.
 
Good Morning Everyone.....over cast sky and -8 degrees below zero. Cold enough that the automatic garage door opener button sticks open. Several inches of snow yesterday and Cathy used the snow blower twice to clear the driveway.

Going to order a RAPIDO MILW SW1200 switcher today. I like that over head exhaust assembly on the switcher I like the best.

I remember the ice storm we had in 1976 that caused heavy damage to trees and power lines. It rained for days with temperatures at or just below freezing and the ice coated everything. My father said he would take care of a neighbor's home while they were in Florida. The house is a Tri-level and the sump pump runs every few minutes. On the second day of the storm the power when off in the neighborhood and he hand carried the sump pump water out to the yard. I took a small generator from work and hooked up the pump so at least that handled that problem.

We took turns, my Dad during the day and myself at night to watch and refuel the small tank on the generator. The basement chest freezer was holding temperature, but just barely. Finally we would switch the generator from the pump to the freezer. This lasted six days until the owners came home. Most of their trees were damaged or broken beyond saving and the trees across roadways prevented the plows from clearing the snow and slush that covered the roads.

The owners came home and purchased the last generator in the southeast Wisconsin. It was a huge trailer mounted job and I connected the entire house to the generator, plus ran a line to a neighbor's house. The owners when shopping for food and other items and never checked the generator's fuel. Soon after they left the generator ran out of gas and the surface water coming in through the sump pump and basement drain filled the basement with four feet of water ruining the chest freezer and everything else in the basement. Hundreds of dollars of frozen food ruined. Minutes after I arrived the utility power came on and I disconnected the generator. Never really got any thanks for the six nights I spent in their basement. I did help myself to their bar stock and was in a cheerful mood come each morning.

Our apartment just two miles away and it maintained power and it was a warm spot for my parents to come and relax. A long story of a terrible event.

Since it's Valentine's Day I don't dare go into the basement to play with my trains.

Willie: A cup of RV anti-freeze into the tarp should keep the trap from freezing when not in use. Don't use anti-freeze for vehicles since it is poisonous and can kill wildlife and the bacteria in your septic tank.

At the cabin, the pump house is well insulated as well as the cabin (no heat when not occupied) and we have had temperatures as low as 6 degrees and no freeze damage after filling the system with water. The pipes may freeze, but not solid enough to have the pipes break and these low temperatures are only for an hour or so and then rise rapidly to above freezing.

Too much of non-railroad related stories.....

Greg

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Good Morning all! Well we're about as ready as we're going to be for this coming cold snap. At the moment 38 with a feels like of 34. The guessers have us seeing sleet and snow starting tonight. Some guess at 4 to 6 inches. I did manage to get a few bundles of firewood, just in case of power outage.
Nothing new from the train room. I need to order some supplies in order to continue scenery work. Meanwhile some switching will keep me indoors.

STAY SAFE & WARM

LATER
 
Hey it’s 11:33 in Wisconsin and it has warmed up. -4f real and -22 wind chill. Still I am not going out.
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A very quick good morning. Going to make it quick. Have been feeling under the weather and found that I have Covid-19. I have had felt worst with a cold.
18 below this morning, but we should be warming up into the 20's and 30's by the middle of the week.
Going to watch the Daytona 500.

Later
 
Afternoon All,

Started out the day helping to get my Mom off the floor after falling again. After getting back home I pulled up the bricks that were used as the foundation for the old hot tube. After that I just vegged out.

TomO- Great layout shot.

Hughie- Nice layout shots.

Dave LASM- Nice historical shot.

Willie- Nice layout shots. Are those bikes on the way to Daytona Bike Week?

Patrick- Happy Birthday.

Sherrel- Good for you.

Karl- Nice planter and doggo.

Troy- Nice progress on the layout.

IB Ken- Good luck with the grab irons.

Chet- Very sorry to hear that news.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Howdy ... I’m still checking in from FL panhandle . 55F this afternoon with clouds and some rain.

It’s good to read your posts.

Chet ... I’m sorry to hear about your Covid. Get well soon.

Greg... the Rapido MILW switcher sounds like a great model.

We are anxious to return home in KY, but tomorrow will not be a good day for that based on weather forecasts.
We would be driving in freezing rain in northern AL and snow in TN and KY. I don’t want to drive across the Tennessee River In Alabama on the I65 bridge during freezing rain because that would be very dangerous.

Tuesday is forecasted to be much better and that should be our travel day.

everybody.... Have a nice evening.
 
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Wow, Chet! Hope you get well and there isn't any repercussions. Gotta take care of yourself at this point.

I haven't had any contact with Covid, and I don't know anybody who admits to having had it. All I know is what's been on the news for the last year.
We've been very careful, though, and have treated it as if it's right next door. - Don't think I can afford to get it.

Good luck!
 
OK everybody, it's time for me to get in on the snow pictures thing. We don't often get snow here in any real measurable amounts, this is about 3" and still falling. But it's getting dark and colder so I snapped this one tonight. Maybe another tomorrow.

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Happy Valentines Day everyone!

It snowed off and on yesterday (not much accumulation) and through the night (about 3-5" -- hard to tell with some drifting). Right now at 4pm it is 30F and has been sunny off and on throughout the day. This is the first really measurable snow in the Salt Lake Valley this winter. I need to go shove the neighbors driveway and walkway -- they are out of town and his mother in law is home with the kids. I always look out for her when they are out of town. Don't need an elderly lady out shoveling snow.

We've had other snow that might leave an inch or so but that would be gone within hours or the end of the day. So this 3-5" is double or triple or more what we've had. Luckily the mountains have been getting it when we get rain. (The water supply in summer comes from melt-off from the mountains mostly).

Chet -- good luck with the Covid. Hopefully it stays mild.

Patrick -- Happy 60th. I am not that far behind (turned 55 last month). Both my kids are still in school -- my son graduates this year. I need to lose that 40lbs Willie speaks of.

Willie -- good luck with the snow and cold streak. Luckily we've not had much of a cold streak (like 10F or below) this winter. A few days in the teens and a lot in the 20s with high teens at night. And a lot of warm weather. It was 50F at the high most of this past week until Friday.

Willie -- I like your Chick Corea album you like best. I have that and really enjoy it. I like most of his stuff -- especially the Return to Forever "Light as a Feather" and "Romantic Warrior" albums, all the 80s Electrik Band albums and especially the 1989 Akoustic Band album. "Spain" is probably my favorite in all its many forms. In the late 80s / early 90s I wanted to go to Berklee College of Music to get their "Professional Degree" in music composition (in addition to the BS CS I was pursuing and over 1/2 done with at the time through BYU and Boston University) and one of the major draws that lead me to that was that Chick Corea was a guest or visiting faculty member who often taught there. I ended up getting accepted but it was like 10 or 11 months after I applied and I and already, due to the lack of response, ended up back in Utah to finish my BS CS and went another path -- which is probably for the better, though it would have been fun. (Their "Professional Degree" is no longer listed on the Berklee website but it was basically a Bachelors degree without all the general ed classes -- a 4 year music only degree program).

Not much railroadiing to report. I accidentally slipped and ended up with 3 SD70ACe and 1 ES44AC, all UP and all KATO (N). Two of the SD70ACe are the special liveries (the military on and the our people one). One is Yellow and the ES44AC is Yellow. Both with the flag on the side. I also ended up with 5 sets of Gunderson Maxi IV 3-car articulated sets from KATO (two TTX, two Pacer Stacktrain and one BNSF) and a few misc well cars or flat cars in TTX yellow. Since UP is the predominant RR here in the SL area, with BNSF also present and having trackage rights over the UP lines, I figured UP is what I wanted to get to represent the US of A on my tracks. Most of what I see are intermodal though I also see mixed freight and other stuff. But I like containers -- my Japanese freight is overwhelmingly KoKi cars (container flat cars) and Japanese containers of all sorts, and I have a good assortment of flat and pocket cars (like a well car but for Piggyback) with various containers on the Germany/Swiss/Austrian side as well.

I was able to get 3 of the 4 KATO locomotives with TCS decoders built in from KATO and since most of them were "last years" models or so, they were discounted down to $115-$120 for the most part with decoder (plus shipping). The one DC model I got for about $75 on sake from Kleins with their online show discount and I already have a TCS decoder on the way for it. (I use TCS and not Digitrax for the drop-in -- also Japanese KATO often take the same boards -- as TCS supports RailCom). Just need to keep the wife from seeing and asking questions since I am on a self imposed moratorium for new train stuff now (while we try and get our house build off the ground).

Some of the e-Bay misc Walther well cars came with "universal" (== Rapido) couplers so I need to figure out what I need to do to replace them with some sort of knuckle coupler. Rapido are what I use on my Japanese and European trains as most freight and passenger cars come that way no matter the maker but most of the US stuff I have is KATO and comes with knuckle, and they also seem to work better on my test track (which does not lay perfectly flat at the moment).
 
troyphoto said:
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Bourbon, Wargaming and model trains all in the same post. Nice class. I miss my Warhammer days sometimes.


McLeod said:
Yep, Willie! Time to redefine the theoretical borders of the 'Great White'!
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Sorry if I laugh. All the southerners are getting snow and ice and here Minnesota is just super, super cold. No precip for us due to the frigid temps. At 10am my phone said our ambient temp was -15F. Right now its saying -8F. The joys of being a northerner...
 
Been in the mid to upper 30s here all day, and our snow is melting! Funny how it often melts off 1st over the septic tank!
Tonight temps will remain above freezing, and eventually give way to rain.

No trains today due to V-Day and B-day. Tomorrow is Presidents day, we'll see!
 
For sure. Here, it's more or less typical Jersey Shore weather, continually confounding the forecaster. Yesterday's rain started late, and ended early, leaving a nice glaze of ice on untreated surfaces. This afternoon, the temperature hit 40° which restarted the melting process, after a week of mostly sub freezing temperatures. More ice is on tap for tomorrow night into Tuesday, followed by a milder temperatures....or so they say.

I tried to watch the Caps at Pittsburgh, this afternoon, on NBC. Hope someone else gets theNHL TV contract, as the NBC is horrible. I'm willing to ship Pierre Maguire back to TSN except they probably don't want him. I turned it off before the game began, which was probably a good thing, since the caps lost their 4th straight, :mad:, 6-3.

Chet: Sorry to hear the Covid bug bit you. Get well soon.

Willie: Stay warm, this will be over soon.

Wife and I both slept in this morning, then exchanged cards. Later, she baked a nice heart shaped Strawberry cake, and used the remaining batter for cup cakes. We also had a nice Turkey breast dinner, with mashed potatoes and peas.

On the railroad front, The wife came down to see my newest concoction, a PRR local passenger train, hauled by a DCC/Sound Bowser Baldwin RS-12, including a Bachmann PRR PB70 "Hot" baggage/coach combination, and two BLI P70R Ice Air Conditioned coaches. looked (and sounded) pretty good, although I kept finding flaws in the Bachmann. Interesting that the Bachmann has a higher price point. In any event, it appears that my end of line runaround track may accommodate a fourth car, so I have to find one tomorrow and test fit. (I'm never satisfied, I guess) :rolleyes:.

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Another view of Exchange Place Station, in Jersey City, this one by Rich Taylor on 11/17/1961. That's Harborside Terminal Warehouse to the left background, and the train in the background is most likely the "Broker" for the Jersey Shore, with an older diner as "Refreshment Car". Lower Manhattan's Skyscrapers to the right background. Upright silver poles on the two platforms to the right are probably cab signal test switches, used to test cab signal and Train Control devices on outbound trains. The wooden "rails" between the rails, outline the portion of track coded for cab signal testing. The photo commemorated the very last day of PRR passenger service to Jersey City. (Which may account for the cleaner than usual appearance of the PRR equipment. After 11/17/1961, commuters from lower Manhattan had to make their H&M (now PATH) connection at Newark, Penn Station, and all trains originated in New York Penn station. In 2021, all of this service still operates under the Auspices of NJT and PATH.
 
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