Running Bear's February 2021 Coffee Shop.


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Good Morning all! Well it's 36 with a feels like of 31, stiff north wind, but sunny. We made it through the night without a blackout. We were able shower and prep a hot meal. Tonight is predicted to be our last hard freeze for the foreseeable future. I'm certainly glad this doesn't happen often in this part of the state.
I went in to the train room just to check on things. I couldn't stay long. All the peasants wee people complained about the cold and how long the the so called rolling blackout was. A few even accused me of going to Cancun.
 
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It was about 28F this morning and got to the high 30s today. Supposed to maybe precipitate a little tonight and over the weekend. The percentages are low. Today has been mostly cloudy but a few patches of sun.

Train wise, a couple nights ago I assigned real DCC addresses to my 4 US locomotives (all KATO with TCS decoders) and last night I tried creating 2 "advanced consists". Worked great. Today I cleaned off my test track table, cleaning off all the crap and taking the underlying green cloth off. The track stayed. The goal is to be able to make small holes and trenches for wiring in the foam so that the track lies flatter...

Will be working on some decoder issues (putting Zimo MX616N nano decoder on a special EM13 compatible board made to take a D&H decoder -- an experiment), testing a decoder I may have burned out a while back, and working on my app some more. It has been a while since I worked on my app due to some temporary re-assignments at work).
 
Some pics of my tests today after getting the test track running again.

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Hiya gang
Did ya ever have one of those days that everything you touched turned to 💩. Started with the Doctor. Still not happy with the healing process, gonna leave the stitches in another week.
Then Bachmann 2-8-0, the one with the boogered up lettering from the factory, looks worse now. 20 year old Champ decals, went through 3 sets of them, none of them would lay flat and stick. I'm tossing it back in an alcohol solution to strip off the paint and crappy decals, and start over. I ordered new decals from Tichy, along with another pack of 18" grab irons. Finally I had 3 custom done grain hoppers I picked up at an auction. 1 had metal wheels, I went to upgrade the other 2. Popping the old axles out I managed to break off two of the stirrups, thank goodness they didn't fly far and were reattached easily.
Some days it don't pay to get out of bed!!
 
Howdy, everybody.

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There has been no boating here at the lake. LOL

In other news, neighbor lady lost control of her SUV while driving on snow and ice down the steep hill at the beginning of our road. She crashed into trees . No injuries.

we had a power outage for about three hours today.

Water began dripping into our family room from a ceiling light fixture this afternoon from an apparent roof leak and melting ice.

weather conditions are forecasted to be improving over next several days.

thanks much to those who commented and liked my recent post. .
 
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Ghost ice leaves from melting Austin, Texas from the son. The snow is going quick, still has electric but no water and no sewer. He is at the G/f place east of Austin in Hornsby Bend. His house he had drained and he has electric there but no water but has sewer now. Crazy and sad.

Good night I am off to sleep early for me
TomO
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With the two UP locomotives and a bunch of well cars for an intermodal train (see above post and pics), I decided to get out all my modern German container and pocket (like well but for piggyback) cars and get a german intermodal train going.

I got the Trix DB class 189 freight locomotive (Siemens ES 64 F4 -- 8600 HP electric locomotive) out and hooked every flat car with containers or piggyback trailer pocket cars. Unfortunately, there is too much friction which causes some of the cars to derail so I never made it all the way around the loop with the train. From the picture you can see that the train itself is almost 1/2 the loop long.

They are all Rapido couplers and some of the wagons, mostly HobbyTrain brand, don't roll that freely -- I need to inspect and clean up the trucks (bogies in Europe) to get them to roll freely. Some are also articulated dual wagons and the joint between the two on some is not as flexible as it should be. I guess the prototype has two flaps between the two wagons over the shared bogie that intertwine and I may be getting some friction there. The Trix locomotive had no problem pulling all 22 or so cars until they started to derail and then it struggled, so once I can get everything free rolling well I think it will have no problems.

In other MRR news, I took a Zimo MX616N nano decoder and adapted one of my EM13-style boards that was made to take a decoder from Döhler & Haas and put the Zimo on it instead as a test and it works in my test JR 223 Series Kansai Airport Rapid Express train. I may try and get the original files for the board and re-design it for the Zimo (instead of using a dremel on the D&H boards). Zimo decoders are easier to get in the US than D&H, which I have to order from Germany.

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Good Morning All. Welcome from deep freeze central! It's clear and 24°, saw 6 hours above freezing yesterday. Around 0900 this morning it is supposed to go above that mark again for 36 hours before dipping below for a brief period Sunday night. Much of the snow has already melted. Upper 50's and lower 60's predicted for at least a week afterward. Good possibility that my water pipes will thaw out, but in the interim, all of my sewer lines have frozen. Those will take longer. I haven't bothered to turn the water back on yet. Looking forward to see how many (if any) leaks will develop. Because the freeze-up was so slow in setting in, I may get lucky but probably not. There is still no actual information from the water company regarding whether we have full pressure yet, their website and FB page just have a boil advisory in place.
Our road trip to Dallas yesterday to shower up and do laundry went off without incident. Roads were all clear until we actually drove into the neighborhood roads in the city. They sucked big time. Our little used rural country road was in much better shape than those were. I also took along a shoe box full of silverware to wash, as we are running low on a couple of items. We stopped by an Outback restaurant on the way home, they were not serving water (or soft drinks) at all. Alcohol only. But they were putting ice into drinks!

Ham, hash browns and two eggs over easy for me this morning Flo.

Thanks for the comments and likes regarding the courthouse yesterday; Chad, Tom O, Rick, Patrick, Guy, Karl, Tom, Hughie, Justin, Gary, James, Ken, Garry, Sherrel.

Another day of inactivity out in the train shed, but it was 49° out there when I got home.
Back to the archive. How about an assortment of businesses.
I'll start with Import Motors, a Walther's kit. I supplied all of the figures and vehicles, most of which came from Malibu Models.
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Jim's Red Owl is another Walther's kit. It is actually a kit that they previously released as the Gemini building, previously released by Magnuson Models before Walther's bought them out over thirty years ago.
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Speaking of the Gemini Building, here is what I did with it back in the 90's.
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Appliances on the right, auto parts on the left. Note that the sales manager on the right is the same Preiser figure that is pictured in the car dealership behind the door.

Karl - While I am sure that it is a bummer for you, stick with the doctor on this one. Much better to be safe than sorry.
Garry - That sure is a bummer about the leak.

Everybody have a great day and an awesome weekend. Stay safe and wear those pesky masks when out and about.
 
Morning!
The winds are supposed to blow in at 16mph today, so I'm hoping it's a chinook. I love chinooks, they're so warm and cozy.
Right now, it's 17°F outside, and I just walked outside in my underwear to start the wife's truck. I can tell it's a pleasant day because I didn't shrink too much.

Yesterday, I had to do all the stay-at-home hubby work, like vacuuming and dusting, so there was no progress on the layout room reno. My wife has a weird sickness in how clean the house should be, and she wants it kept real clean. So I take the time one day a week to do so. Keeps her happy.

Thanks for all the likes on yesterday's prototype photo. It was probably a repeat, but, that's what I'm down to for awhile. I haven't been going down to the local CN yard as much as I want. It was too cold and the snow was too deep for the past little while.

Just because I must post a photo to stay healthy, here's another one from about one year ago. Probably, it's a repeat as well:
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Going downtown yesterday, I noticed there was a line of gondolas parked on a siding. So something in the MOW department is going on. I'll have to keep my eyes on it, and try to get some photos. I'm thinking CN is likely replacing more ties this year.

Tom - That's an interesting sculpture your son has in the front yard.
Garry - Looks perfect for cross-country skiing. In itself, a fine self-isolating pastime.
Chadbag - Thanks for posting all the photos. It's cool to see what other modelers are up to.
Karl - I believe that as we age, we have less healing powers than we would like to believe. Ya gotta take care of yourself and just relax until it's time.
Willie - That Gemini building looks suspiciously like a Woodland Scenics building. I think the manufacturers just reuse and rename all the time. Seems like it, anyway. - Not a bad thing, I suppose. The trouble is, all the mistakes get passed on as well; like that out-of-scale Atlas Market I built earlier. I think that was a Life-Like building turned Atlas.

I probably won't be coming in to the shop for a few days. I'm all out of photos, and don't want to keep posting repeats. So, I intend to just get on with the layout room reno for now.

Have a good one!
 
Good morning from chilled So. Central Wisconsin. It is +9 and the wind chill is the same, 9. Best of all the sun is brightly shining again.

Garry, a wonderful scene to wake up to daily. That is the only thing I miss about not living in Central Wisconsin, we had a nice waterfront scene too

guy, the son said he’s glad he took the picture, something pleasant to remember this miserable week by. Said it melted about an hour later. I feel bold going out to the mailbox in a jacket...

Willie, the son texted he has full water now. Seems he woke up at 6 this morning to rushing water coming from the garage. The water softener split apart at the pipe connections. The only leak so far. Still no sewer. He says he’s actually happy because he knows he has water again. Good luck with your pipes and septic.

The little fish called the granddaughter will be here at 1. Hockey parents only at games no siblings. So we will get some pool time in while her brother plays a couple games on the ice this afternoon. I am not sure if I will see the trainroom today.

Enjoy the day
TomO
 
Flo- More bacon please. I seem to have eaten it all, and I'm sure that Sherrel will soon be in looking to snag a few pieces.

The weather is improving steadily. It stopped raining mid morning yesterday and the USO has returned in full glory. Rumor has it that it is actually the sun, finally unencumbered by the clouds and rain, but I have my doubts. I will conduct my own investigation into this. We are supposed to be rain-free for the next couple of days, but it will return on Monday. I am concerned about this because yesterday I had a strong desire for bread and I'm pretty sure that I saw a small growth of feathers under my left arm.

I see we have had some nice photos over the last few days, both models and prototypes. Thanks to all who shared.

Glad to hear that the weather is breaking for all you out Texas way, hopefully life will return to normal soon.

Patrick- Congratulations on your newfound fortune. I propose you invest in a suitable site and recreate the Transcontinental Railroad from beginning to end in your scale of choice. I am partial to N, due to ability to put more in less space, but I'm sure you will be able to recreate detail much better in HO. Who knows, after you are done (and Uncle Sam has had his cut), you might even have enough leftover to afford the power to run the trains too.

Not sure when work will resume in the Crossroads, crews have not been returning my calls or messages. Tracks are still in shambles and the cargo terminal is still in ruins. Hopefully business can resume soon, railroad brass has been grumbling about payroll expenses and no income to bolster them. I heard that Town Council is also upset. It appears that they are as eager to see the money start flowing again as well. There has been talk around town that a new project is on hold to due lack of funds for development. The Town is considering the annexation of another 2x4 section of land to begin building the town center on as well as a second 2x4 on which to allow expansion of industry to increase tax revenue. The new land would connect to the existing development in either horseshoe configuration or as one of those funky Tetris pieces that are always so difficult to place. Approval for these annexations has not been received yet, but Council is pushing forward will development plans in conjunction with railroad brass. Updates to follow.

Y'all have a blessed day.
 
Morning Everyone! We are at 40 degrees this morning and looking for a 65 high under a bright sunny sky; it actually was 73 here yesterday and a beautiful day!
Here is the blurb for today: Saturday as a low pressure system drops inland from the Pacific Northwest. This system will also bring gusty west winds to the mountains and desert slopes Saturday. Winds will quickly shift into a Santa Ana pattern Sunday and Monday, with much warmer temperatures expected as high pressure builds in.
I might add that forecast is calling for low to mid 70's all next week.

Willie - The last couple building you have posted are very nice looking. Glad things are looking better for you weatherwise.
All my kin back there have been mostly in the same boat as you. Some of them "bunched up" together as they had no heat due to power loss - so much for 'All Electric Homes"?

GUY - You just keep re-cycling the photos; I don't mind a bit -- I can't remember what I had for dinner last evening!

Here is a nice scene from Arkansas:
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Well, I see that JESSE finally arrived and is over in his favorite corner. FLO, A large cup of "black" this morning and a fork to go with it. I'll just "bum" from JESSE's plate while MEL cooks US up another. Who else wants some bacon this morning? L'll buy!
 
Good morning all! Well the sun is shining, feels great, temp at 55. Spent yesterday helping the conductress clean house. Dumped nearly everything in the frig and freezer. The second freezer didn't thaw so we able to keep that stuff. It appears our next hurdle is going to be groceries.
Willie - Can beer go bad if frig loses power? Asking for a friend.
Guys, some great snow pictures.

STAY SAFE

LATER
 
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