Running Bear's January 2019 Coffee Shop

[bnsf971]

Good morning. It's mostly sunny and 43.
My back injury seems to be healing, albeit seemingly slower than a glacier.

For those of us into trains, diesels in particular, and unusual diesels in more particular, ...
Most of y'all know I no longer belong to the local model railroad club, and have been slowly selling off the stuff that I had acquired specifically to run and operate at the club. Some of it was sold to pay on credit cards, some to get stuff that I personally wanted, more than what would fit in the club's locale and time period. I recently sold a quartet of F units, and used the proceeds to get a trio of more modern GE and EMD units for the local railroad. I got a "deal" from my friends at Scale Trains, and ended up with an N&W SD40-2, and a pair of NS C39-8s in their rivet counter series with DCC and sound. So far, I'm very happy with all three of them, and since I'm not putting them in and out of boxes, and subjecting them to random ID10Ts manhandling them, all those very fragile pieces and parts should remain in place. The GEs are unusual, in that they only sold to two roads (CR and NS), and were a transition model between the Dash 7 and Dash 8 models. They look decidedly odd, with a dash 7 cab and long hood, with Dash 8 radiators, dynamic brake hump, and short hood.
I shot a brief video of the GEs, and tried to upload to Youtube, but it looks like Google doesn't want to play nice. I'll take another video, and try again to upload it. All three of them look very, very good, and run as well as they look. The sound from them is also extremely good.
I only had enough Kadee couplers to convert two of them (ScaleTrains' OEM couplers look pretty good, but they are admittedly not that reliable, as far as operability), so I am using that as an excuse to head to my LHS today, and pick up a pack of 158s.

 

[migalyto]

Good Morning everyone,

Temps holding at 32 degrees, and clear skies.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. 38° and partly cloudy to start this fine day. Almost reached 60° yesterday, today and the next few days we're expecting 65°.

Thanks to all for the well wishes on my birthday yesterday. Thankfully I don't feel any older. It wasn't an especially notable day, did housework and sloshed around the estate. The rainwater doesn't really drain well in colder weather and some of my drainage swales need some work, leaf and grass clipping build up is hindering their work.
Out in the train shed yesterday, some progress was made on scenery. I touched up the recently ballasted main line, and painted some more plywood an earthen color. I also rotated out about two dozen freight cars from storage tracks to the staging yard. I realized that it's also time to begin this quarter's scheduled layout dusting/vacuuming/clean up project which usually takes about four or five days depending on the time spent each day. Let's see, this time I start with a forty foot stretch of the upper level beginning at the entry door. All track is inspected and vacuumed, all structures are removed to the workbench for dusting and any needed rehab; some get some added details or touch-up paint. Parts are added to the lost & found container, generally brake wheels or broken ladder remnants. The layout is far too big to do all at once so I have it divided into eight roughly equal segments and do one at the beginning of each quarter, thus a two-year rotation.

Joe - You posted about "fake news" yesterday, which really seems prevalent these days, especially in regards to politics. I have been reading some recent news articles about how Dollar General and similar stores are contributing to malnutrition in rural and inner city areas because they only sell packaged foods! The same article also stated that they were contributing to income inequality because they paid low wages. At least they were providing jobs and low priced merchandise to areas that "big box" stores will not locate in. Interestingly, I find that the best unbiased coverage of American politics is BBC news.
Karl -

You forgot Kato, the only one smoother than Atlas.

I totally agree that Kato engines are very smooth runners. I don't own any Atlas except for one Atlas Trainman and it's only fair. However I do now own four ScaleTrains engines and they run as well as Kato's.
Tom - Maybe it's just the particular model, but I have two Athearn Genesis F45's that are extremely heavy. Pulling power? I experimented once and I was able to pull 64 freight cars with a single one of them. You are absolutely correct regarding all of the Athearn blue box and many of the RTR locos. I have to add stick-on weights to most of them. ScaleTrains - I have replaced all of their couplers with Kadee since their couplers only work well with each other.

For the record, I have not experienced any issues with the forum speed lately.
Everybody have a great day and an awesome weekend.

 

[DairyStateDad]

Willie... don't know how I managed to miss that it was your birthday yesterday. Belated best wishes for the day.

Today is a big errand day for us. I am hoping that when we get back home the surge of energy I'm feeling will get me through cleaning out my son's old room. Feeling very highly motivated, because I need someplace adequately ventilated for using paints, starting with that sawmill project.

Have a good day, all.

 

[Bruette]

Terry, that is not really my genre of music, but that is a great song!
"He ain't heavy, he's my brother
If I'm laden at all
I'm laden with sadness
That everyone's heart
Isn't filled with the gladness
Of love for one another"

 

[max diyer]

Good morning everyone

Terry
Nice to hear your doing somewhat better.
Good luck at the LHS. I went the other day to pick up a few items. They were out of all 3. Slim pickins, after the holidays. So, not to make it a wasted trip, I browsed through the rolling stock and found a Bachmann 6-axle depressed center for $19. Not a bad price, so I came home with something.

Willie
Belated happy birthday!

 

[Bruette]

Willie, I read a story about Dollar General and others like them contributing to malnutrition. I can't comment about rural areas, I'm a city boy. In those neighborhoods they refed to in the inner cities they should be praising Dollar General! The alternatives are mostly small over priced convivence stores. In some cases it's a liquor store selling groceries as the only alternative. Dollar General is at least bringing affordable food to the inner cities. Dollar General also sells generic over the counter medicines and vitamins. They also sell inexpensive canned vegetables. Not everybody can afford organic foods, even from a large grocery store. Many Dollar General locations have dairy products, other refrigerated foods and frozen foods as well.

As for wages our Mayor said the same thing about small chain stores not paying enough. Even though she vetoed a measure by our city council to increase the minimum wage. Another example of playing both sides of the street!

 

[kbkchooch]

Good morning gang!

42° with light rain. Unusual diesels eh? I will admit to owning a RS3 "hammerhead", I also have 2, 25 ton Whitcombs,

and a 65 ton center cab Whitcomb (which someday I hope to get painted in MMID livery)
How it is now..

How it will be...

Today will be a good day to stay in. Yesterday I had an issue with some varicose veins in my left leg addressed. They went in and sealed off the offending vein. Now I'm walking around in thigh high stockings (which GF says are very shexshy) for the weekend . Monday I can go back to normal activities and calf high socks. This getting old thing ain't for sissies I tell ya!

Terry, Glad to hear the back is healing. Take it easy until it does, and stay off the damn tractor!!

L8ter!

 

[Bruette]

These horseless carriages were shown at one of the first automobile shows at the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore in the early 1900's

 

[santafewillie]

Terry, that is not really my genre of music, but that is a great song!

Louis - If it ain't Lemmy or Ozzie, then it ain't your genre!

 

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

I spent about 3 hours on the kit today. First I braced the wood walls (there are a bunch of fiberboard ones), then painted the interior Tamiya flat black, and after that dried I applied a coat of 2.5% A&I to the exterior walls (drying now under weight). Tomorrow I hope to start painting the wooden wall trim and exterior walls.

Karl- Interesting pictures especially the last 2.

Justin- Nice pictures. I don't believe I have seen that design on the front of the B&O (FA?) loco before.

Louis- I like the grain tower and RS photo.

Toot- I overlooked that one was a hammerhead until you posted and I went back and looked again.

Terry- I'm glad you're feeling a little better.

Willie- I saw that article but don't see any current alternative that isn't worse.



I hope everyone has a good night.




.

 

[NP2626]

"As the day wears on, I start thinking about what never seems to get done in both my personal life and in this country and that joy of living slowly fades away"! No indications of my doing myself in are intended in what I've said above. I also know that I have been gifted in how my life has turned out. There are things I could do better and there certainly are things in this country that could be better!

 

[Boris]

I'm a city boy. In those neighborhoods they refed to in the inner cities they should be praising Dollar General! The alternatives are mostly small over priced convivence stores. In some cases it's a liquor store selling groceries as the only alternative. Dollar General is at least bringing affordable food to the inner cities.

income inequality

Louis and Willie: Income inequality seems to be the new buzz phrase leading up to the next presidential election. Expect it to be frequently used and abused by those who don't comprehend the meaning of the phrase.

Incidentally, getting back to the "fake" news item I wrote about the other day, today, the same news outlet had a news item about the record rainfall in New Jersey during 2018. It actually rained on 179 days. So, where is the drought they talked about two days ago? Obviously, the newscasters will mechanically read anything put down in front of them, without anyone checking the validity of the story. It's what ever the producer wants to run with.

Boris

 

[Sirfoldalot]

So you had another Birthday - WILLIE?

Not sure that I commented on that, so here it is again .....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WILLIE!

 

[tootnkumin]

Toot- I overlooked that one was a hammerhead until you posted and I went back and looked again.

It seems the extra space was to provide for dynamic brakes and a steam generator for passenger duties. I would have called them beautiful uglies. The RS3 versions also had EMD 567 motors.

 

[tootnkumin]

Willie. Belated Birthday congratulations too.

 

[Beady]

This is one of those "light the fuse and run" kinds of questions. It is mostly based on opinion, but there should be some supporting evidence and experience: If you were going to buy an engine, which of the following brands would you say is the best/most reliable: Athearn, Athearn Genesis, Atlas, Atlas Trainman, Bachmann, Intermountain?
The fuse is lit . . .

I'll go to Kato first, probably because they're plug-n-play, user-friendly system has put them up-front for me. The reliability issue is a plus, of course, but I can't pretend to be tech-savvy enough to base an argument on that.

 

[Beady]

Willie had a birthday, huh?

Insurance: My wife wanted me to sign up with an advantage plan when I retired, but I ignored her and kept the full BC, BS policy. It's expensive, but it's the same plan Congress has for itself (I retired from Homeland Security). Smartest thing I ever did; seems like all the two of us do anymore is visit doctors and have various pieces and parts removed. Between that and Medicare, we don't even have to worry about deductibles after the new year.

Office Software: I got rid of MS Office ($90 per year) and downloaded Mobisystem's Office Suite ($25 per year). It has an equivalent program for everything in Office, is fully compatible with Office, and includes a three-part license (computer, tablet and phone). It can backup documents to most clouds, including its own.

Music: In my younger days I was heavily into Irish Folk and sea shanties. Nowadays, I'm not sure how to characterize it. For Christmas, I prefer Mannheim Steamroller (try it, you'll be surprised). Otherwise, I've been exploring Amazon's collection, and I'm discovering entire universes I never knew existed: Edith Piaf, Marlene Dietrich, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday...

Got a thyroid biopsy coming up on Thursday(?).

One last thought for Willie:

 

[Beady]

 

[GarryCBQ]

Joe - You posted about "fake news" yesterday, which really seems prevalent these days, especially in regards to politics. I have been reading some recent news articles about how Dollar General and similar stores are contributing to malnutrition in rural and inner city areas because they only sell packaged foods! The same article also stated that they were contributing to income inequality because they paid low wages. At least they were providing jobs and low priced merchandise to areas that "big box" stores will not locate in. Interestingly, I find that the best unbiased coverage of American politics is BBC news.

.

Willie .... That is quite an example of fake news. .... Dollar General sells a side variety of household items in addition to the food that is supposedly causing malnutrition. In our case, DG is only 2 miles away from home. That is better than driving 12 miles to our small town or 30 or 40 miles to a larger town. ... We do go to the larger towns to stock up occasionally. However, if we are in a hurry for a few items, DG is best.

Boris.... Your fake news example about rainfall in your area is remarkable. .... I always tell people to be skeptical instead of gullible,