Running Bear's February 2021 Coffee Shop.


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Good morning y'all. The new place looks just like the old place, except cleaner somehow. Y'all try to take it easy on it, yeah?

Ok, where to begin? Ah, yes. It is cold, wet, and dark. Enough about the weather, it's nearly as depressing as politics.

Flo- Coffee please. I'll also take a tall stack of flapjacks, two scrambled eggs, and a pound of bacon please. Tell Mel not to burn the bacon please.

I decided to go with the foam roadbed as it looked easier to work with. I also ordered another set of terminal joiners so that I can wire up the switcher siding and one of the outer sidings to toggle switches. I'm going to run the main power supply to a terminal block and then run feeders off to the main track and my isolation switches.

I planned and cut out the components for the office/parts area for the maintenance shed yesterday before church, but wisely decided to wait until another time to glue them together. Given my current relationship with superglue, I deemed this sound judgment.

There is more rain in the forecast, so I may get time today to assemble the office and maybe even work on a dock. Right now I am only working on the exterior of all the buildings. As soon as the roadbed is in, I plan to add another layer of foam to the board and then put the track and structures down permanently. Once that is done I can start detailing the interiors and adding scenery around the yard.

I have some errands to run today, but until then I'll be hanging around. Don't worry, I'll try not to drink all the coffee or eat all the bacon.

Y'all have a blessed day and Happy February. We have successfully completed the first segment of 2021 and ought to celebrate,
 
'Mornng Shop Dwellers! 30*F and sleeting here in central MD.

Don't have time for a long post since my [virtual] workday starts at 7:30 and I still have to eat breakfast. Just figured I'd check in.

It appears that Murphy got the last laugh after all. In spite of all the hype being spewed by the Weather Channel, Accuweather and all these other clowns, we only got ~2" of snow yesterday and it looks like mostly just snow "showers" today. So not enough to make it practical for me to use the snowblower; all my Saturday preparations were for naught. Guess I'll go ahead and pump the gas back out of it tomorrow afternoon and put the cover back on it.

At least the weekend wasn't a total waste: I was able to airbrush my Stewart F7 shell with its base Enchantment Blue paint. I'd been dreading that task because airbrushing requires a lot of setup time and cleanup time, in addition to the time it takes to apply ~30 micro-thin layers of thinned Tamiya paint to get decent coverage. Indeed, I hate airbrushing but I consider it a necessary evil to achieve my desire painting goals. The result was worth the effort, I'll post photos tonite after I'm off the clock.

Cheers!
 
Good morning model railroaders, hope every one is doing well. New coffee shop looks good! Fill up my thermos please Flo...
I got the new internet service, a local company, enough signal that I can stream with it, so I picked up a Roku box (2 of them) since I don't have smart tv's, got all that hooked up with a Sling package, and Dish has been chopped off at the ankles! US Cell is next!
Question for you tech people.....I have a Motorola E4 phone, and I can not get it to hook up to the WIFI signal. It says it has authenticating problems.
The lap top will hook right up, no problem. Any suggestions? Thanks.......
EVERYBOSY HAVE A GREAT DAY---STAY SAFE
 
Morning all,

28° and clear this morning. Supposed to get to 52° today, but it hasn't been nearly as warm as they have been predicting due to the clouds not moving out fast enough.

Got the remains of the shed at the daughter's completed yesterday. Bought a blade for the Sawzall to cut through the "steel" 1/2" bolts holding the sill plate of the shed to the concrete slab it was built on. Got the 3/8" ones cut free and was really worried about the larger ones. Turns out they were actually brass and cut like butter. Brass is much softer than steel, but I still destroyed the blade running along the slab. So they are supposed to start the new shed this morning and haul the dumpster out. The kids worked in the rain on Saturday getting the remains I had cut into the dumpster. We just had the wall and roof part that fell on me the week before and the anchor bolts and sills to cut free. Took about 2 hours to get it completed.

Now back to working on the boy's house next door.

Remember that tomorrow is Pork Sausage day!

The wife told me to put ketchup on the grocery list. Now I can't read it.
 
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Morning All! I'm still working on O'Neill's, though not getting as much bench time as I'd like. Only one do-over so far: The white metal stacks didn't do well. The manual says epoxy them to the roof. Unfortunately epoxy doesn't have much initial tack, and you have to play the waiting game of letting it react until it does, but not so long it gets too hard. I ended up drilling a pair of holes and using thick CA. After that a little white glue with black paint mixed in for "tar". The main building is now finished except for the tower roof which you do at the same time as the welding shop roof. I'm about half way through the 110 pages of instructions. The welding shop is a small very detailed building. You get four laser cut frames that you apply siding to board by board. The siding is detailed in advance with grain, knots, and wear. It's going to look interesting!

Droopy stacks. Yuck!

Smokejack.JPG


Drilled holes:
Stack Re-do 2.JPG


Much better!
Stack Re-do 3.JPG


Welding shop framed sides:

Welding shop walls.JPG


Welding shop siding:
Welding Shop Siding.JPG
 
New month....new room. Brought a locomotive out of storage last night. It had running issues caused by wheels being out of gauge. Fixed that. Fixed its handrails. Its layout ready now. Itll practically be a new face on the layout. Speaking of the layout. Had to finally do a thorough track cleaning. While I was at it went ahead and cleaned locomotive wheels as well. Really productive night for me last night. That's all I have for now. I'll stop by later when I get a chance.
 
Good morning from So. Central Wisconsin is freshly covered in a new layer of white. A unannounced additional inch of snow brings my unofficial totals for Saturday night and all day Sunday is 10”, plus some great looking drifts. The sun is shining this morning and looks great against the trees.

Not sure what the day will bring. Be safe.

TomO
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'It appears that Murphy got the last laugh after all. In spite of all the hype being spewed by the Weather Channel, Accuweather and all these other clowns, we only got ~2" of snow yesterday and it looks like mostly just snow "showers" today. So not enough to make it practical for me to use the snowblower; all my Saturday preparations were for naught. Guess I'll go ahead and pump the gas back out of it tomorrow afternoon and put the cover back on it.
Cheers!

What a difference a 20 minute drive makes, we had 3-4 inches by about 4 pm yesterday so I unleashed the beast and made short order if the driveway just before dark. That with a little bit of salt meant I only had to clear off my truck this morning. I did have to bust over the snow berm at the end of the driveway that the county provided. I'll get that tonight. Roads were snow covered all the way to work, but there was no traffic, so it was an easy drive.
 
So... This is the "new" place- huh? I wasn/t finished with the old one. The days, weeks, months are spinning by very much too quickly!
Yesterday wasn't as nice out here as was predicted; cloudy and cool for 80% of the day ... I needed to do some outside work, but was just not comfortable doing it.
In tresting about ST taking over MTH? Perhaps they could offer a reconstruction program for replacing some of the components of the MTH locos? That would surely gain some kudos with the modeling crowd?

We;re starting the day at 53 and that's the low - going up to a 67 high with cloudy all day.
I have to go and place the trash barrels out - A quick coffee to go, please FLO. Back later!
 
Good Morning All. Clear and 32° in the neighborhood. New place looks nice with the fresh paint, at least Karl didn't track in any slush to spoil the floor. A repeat of yesterday's weather here, mid 50's but not so much wind. Gradually warming to the mid 70's for a few days and then the next cold front comes Thursday night, possibly dropping the lows for Saturday and Sunday night into the lower 20's.

Good Morning Flo. Oooops! Too much leftover BBQ brisket from yesterday and chopped beef BBQ sandwiches are on the Specials Board this morning. OK here, Make it two for me, with a Root Beer since it's too early for the real thing right now. Too bad that Mel had to bring all of that extra food over from the old place.

Thanks for the likes and additional comments regarding the progress report yesterday guys; Jesse, Rick, Karl, Guy, Justin, Sherrel, Tom O, Curt, Hughie, Ken, James, Tom, Garry.

Minimal time in the train shed yesterday, the usual Sunday stuff keeps me away. I did some painting on some figures and ran a train or two. No progress pictures today but I'll post a few "looking down the tracks" shots that many like.
Today we'll travel north into the town of Vernon.
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Never mind that Scenemaster box blocking traffic on Main Street.
As we cross the grade crossing we see a waiting drag freight "in the hole" on the passing siding.
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Our last shot is as we cross the switch.
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Jesse - I don't have a real issue with Gorilla brand Super Glue. The regular takes a bit longer to set up than some other brands, but gives more time to unstick stuff like fingers. Their gel type takes even longer, but I am not always in a hurry. The gel has a better tack rate but is still forgiving. Idle question - If you're only gluing cardstock together, why mot use Aleene's Tacky Glue instead? It's similar to Elmer's White Glue but better in my opinion. It will take longer to assemble a structure.
Guy - You posted "Quit bragging! I've never mowed in January!". I have never operated a snowplow or blower either! I'd rather be mowing than dealing with the white stuff any time of year!!!
Alan - The droopy stacks might have actually fit the character of the structure. ;) The build looks really good so far.
Justin - You posted last month about possibly assembling a Walther's Merchants Row I structure. I have two of them, on different levels facing different aisles. I like them. Hear are a pair of pictures that might give you some inspiration or ideas for painting.
Here is my original one.
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From L to R, a Mexican food restaurant, a women's apparel shop, a bar, a far eastern bazaar, and a liquor shop.
The second one was a Christmas gift from my son.
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From L to R; a southern grill, something that I don't remember, a hardware store, camera shop and a bakery/deli.
While there are some similarities between the two, it was unintentional.

That is interesting news regarding ScaleTrains and MTH. Knowing MTH's history, Mike probably is screwing them somehow. I really hope that it works out well for them, I like the fact that a new manufacturer of model railroading stuff is succeeding as they have. I just wish that they had come together 10-15 years sooner before I had already acquired 800 freight cars. I can justify (to myself) the nine engines that I have gotten from them, but cannot justify more freight cars from them or anyone else for that matter.

Everyone have a safe day on this Groundhog Day Eve. Be safe, stay warm and keep your snow to yourselves.
 
Morning Ya'll!

Willie I love those ground/rail shots the 1st (3) pictures! Awesome!

Ahhh the fresh aroma of paint....

Well here in Albany, NY capital region area we are bracing for small storm that varies with snow from 12-24 inches. I suspect it will be more where I live in the ADKs I usually get 4-6 inches more than Albany. I ain't no dang city slicker so I commute the distance to the country side. I prefer that.

Anyhow it will be fun the next 24 hours. The loonies cry wolf and can't figure out how to slow down in the snow or just stay home. So many block heads out there that think if they have 4 wheel drive or all wheel drive they are invincible on the road. Makes for great amusements when you see them in the ditches.

so.... I owe some updates this week. I made some progress over the weekend. but I have not posted it yet. I also made some more purchases too. I will try to get that up soon.

Lastly I am going to repost my previous question from last month's coffee shop. I am hoping to get a response.

"I have a questions for you DRG&W guys.......

Did the DRG&W have black paint scheme on their box cars? I know they black cattle/stock cars. Did they do a scheme in black say on the 50' FMC or AFC or any of those cars? All black, silver roof maybe and the usual orange lettering? "

I only ask this question because well.....I found (2) cars painted in HO scale this way. I liked how it looked but suddenly realized they may not be prototypical or rather might just be fantasy schemes? Nonetheless I went ahead and bought them. It will be interesting to share the photos when I get them. I will post on RPO, I think I should have them @ 02/08/21.


Ok ya'll be safe in this winter squall coming. Later!

Peace
 
Justin - You posted last month about possibly assembling a Walther's Merchants Row I structure. I have two of them, on different levels facing different aisles. I like them. Hear are a pair of pictures that might give you some inspiration or ideas for painting
Speaking of that kit. I actually unboxed it and looked at it yesterday. Doesn't seem too complicated of a kit to put together. Atleast not as complicated as my camp houses. Now would it be easier to construct before or after painting?
 
"I have a questions for you DRG&W guys.......

Did the DRG&W have black paint scheme on their box cars? I know they black cattle/stock cars. Did they do a scheme in black say on the 50' FMC or AFC or any of those cars? All black, silver roof maybe and the usual orange lettering? "
JAMES - I meant to comment on this, but had a senior moment. I don't recall seeing any like that - only the orange and silver type ... but then I don't remember seeing all of them (boxcars) neither? I'll ask a friend!
 
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