Running Bear's January 2020 Coffee Shop

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. 39° and cloudy skies here. Another bland cloudy day for us. Good day for the weekly grocery trek. It appears that retirement didn't last long for my wife. Came in yesterday to find her trying on old work clothes. She got a phone call making her an offer that she couldn't refuse from someone two notches above her at H&R Block. Seems that the office needed someone with her experience and someone with her EA (Enrolled Agent) certification from the IRS. In other words, they were losing lucrative complex returns without her. Part of the reason for retirement was a new stupid office manager who actually let her go because she was three hours late getting some kind of paperwork returned to him (misunderstanding on his part); and then failed to make any effort to contact her after making the initial error in judgement.

How about a couple of sausage, egg, cheese and potato breakfast burritos this morning Francine. Some of that good old hot salsa on the side. That should get me fired up this morning.

Thanks for the likes and comments yesterday regarding the additional farm pictures and rehab project; Patrick, Mikey, Chad, Bill, Joe, Bob, Sherrel, Justin, Jerome, Jim, Chet, Garry, Curt, Karl, Johnny, Hughie, Tom.

Started adding ballast to the latest project area out in the train shed yesterday. Not finished yet but I made some progress. I'll get to the turnouts when I finish all of the easy parts.

Meanwhile over on the workbench I continued painting some figures.

Johnny - I didn't miss the question, I missed answering it. I use Evergreen Styrene sidewalk sheets to make the sidewalks. It comes with several different size pre-embossed squares; I mostly use .5" and .25". It is .040" thick, which I think is about 3.5 scale inches.
Bob - When I wish to speak to a human on automated phone systems, I just keep hitting "0" until one finally comes on. Works with most systems although they never state that option. Good that you did finally get it resolved.
Thanks for the comment. Next tour will start in early April when I tackle the next quadrant of the lower level. Meanwhile there are plenty of other projects to keep me occupied.
Beady - Around here, true Spanish (Cuban, Central and South American) speakers consider Mexican Spanish as "dirty Spanish" because of it's slang usage and it's use of "Americanized" words. However they always seem to acclimate themselves to it or risk being ridiculed.
Sherrel - I thought about you while out driving the other day and observing all of those regular gas prices at $2.04 and below. I know that there are places at $1.99 but I just haven't seen them yet.
Curt -

What's the white circular plate on the edge of the layout.

Come on Curt. You should recognize that as an old fashioned phone jack! It is used to plug in my walk-around momentum throttle. There's five of them placed strategically around the layout.

The MRC Tech II next to it in the original photo supplies the power to the base station.

I got this from a member of this forum when he got out of the model railroad hobby, a neighbor of yours, Larry "the old fart".
Joe - Great story about your wife and son.

Everyone have a great day.

 

[santafewillie]

Move over Karl, let me join you. I once bought a covered hopper from ExactRail at $47, and in a moving train it is no better than all of my Accurail covered hoppers for $15@. Never again.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. 40° and cloudy again. I read yesterday that this has been the cloudiest January for this area since 1972. It has been a dreary month. Supposed to be in the 70's Sunday, although cloudy again.

I'll take the Friday Special today Flo. Oh! You don't have a Friday Special! Then make it two eggs sunny side up, hash browns and sausage for me this morning.

Thanks for those likes and comments yesterday; Chet, Sherrel, Jerome, Chad, Jim, Garry, Phil, Karl, James, Tom.

Did some more ballasting yesterday in the train shed. No pictures this morning since I didn't take any.
In the meantime here's another archive picture of American Plastics. It is a plastics extruder made from a Pikestuff kit with a few enhancements.

To the left are a couple of remote switches that I cannot reasonably reach over the building. Most of mine are controlled by ground throws.

Garry - I have always liked your scrapyard.
Chet - I have seen photos of your throttle and noticed the similarities with the one that I got from Larry. I also do not remember who made it, and the nameplate has been worn off. I have another from MRC that I don't use. I do like the GML brand but I can't justify the purchase since I already have two that work.
Karl/James - I only talked to Larry a few times, and only after he decided to get out of the hobby. He did have a rather eclectic layout judging from the pictures. He had a great train building as well. Besides the throttles that I purchased from him, I also purchased 240 vehicles. Unfortunately much of his collection went to a fellow in Alabama who for health and monetary reasons was unable to do much with it. I always thought that his other hobby of metallic art was quite interesting.

Everybody have a great Friday.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Afternoon.
Sherrel - Are you liquidating stock market positions again? Just because a planeload of folks from China landed in your state is no reason to panic.

 

[santafewillie]

Terry must be sleeping in late this morning. I found the new place across the street. Come join us over there.

Running Bear's February 2020 Coffee Shop

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. 34° and clear. Headed for the mid 60's today, upper 70's tomorrow. Flirting with freezing temperatures at night later in the week, but daytime temperatures in the 58°-62° range every day except Wednesday.

How about some sausage patties, scrambled eggs and whole wheat toast this morning Francine. I think Flo is over at the old place cleaning up and serving stale coffee.

Thanks for the likes and comments regarding the plastics factory yesterday; Jerome, Joe, Karl, Garry, Phil, Sherrel, James, Chad, Curt, Justin, Tom, Dave, Jim, Ken.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I continued with ballasting. Got a couple of the turnouts done and several of the staging yard approach tracks done. I don't intend to do the staging yard, just the first 5" - 6" past the underpass. I also started gathering materials for the materials yard that will go into this scene.
For lack of any progress pictures, here's a visit back to a debris strewn vacant lot that I did a couple of years ago.

Garry - I really like the trucking companies name on the side of the trailer.
Sherrel -

Last time I did this was first week of November 1918.

I knew you were around in the last century, but that far back?
Tesla would have been a great buy at $400 around Christmas.
Justin - Glad to read that you got the dirty track gremlins out of the way. Now run trains every day to keep them at bay.

Today is National Serpent Day. Chances of sighting one in the wild are slim since they are all hibernating right now except maybe southern CA or FL.
Everybody have a great day and an awesome weekend. You'll find me in front of the grill for a few days.

 

[santafewillie]

My wife is stable, and improving regarding her knee, though she's unwilling to give up her walker.

Good news. When my wife made her three week visit, the doctor came to the door of the waiting room and told her to walk toward him without using the walker. After 12' or so, he told me to take it away from her. She did use the cane for another couple of weeks.
Is she still using the ice water machine? We learned after the fact that you can just use frozen water bottles (recycled soda bottles) in the machine with some water to circulate and rotate them out instead of purchasing ice. Our ice maker couldn't keep up.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Clear and 46° here on Groundhog Day. Weather today and tomorrow is supposed to be clear, sunny and a temperature of 77°. Then snow before dawn on Wednesday, and back to the 60's by Friday. I think that there is a football game later this evening, at least my wife says so. Only one of the season where they actually show the halftime show. Today is my wife's first day back to work. Word spread fast, she is already booked up for the whole day. They do close the office about 30 minutes before the game starts, if that's on time! For starters, I am making her some crab-stuffed mushrooms in vodka sauce and shrimp cocktail with homemade shrimp sauce. Then I'm grilling some chicken wings that have been marinating overnight in a chili powder/lime juice/soy sauce concoction.
I spent much of the day yesterday doing yard maintenance since it is now almost dry on the surface. Raked up some leaves, picked up tree debris (twigs and huge acorns) that had fallen; all in preparation for the first mowing of the year during the next week. Also planted some basil and parsley plants in pots for the back porch herb menagerie. Nothing like freshly picked herbs when you're preparing meals. They'll go alongside the perennials already out there like rosemary, sage, oregano and spearmint.

Good Morning Flo, I'll try some of that Ham & Potato Hash that's on the specials board this morning.

Thanks for the likes and comments regarding the scene with the vacant urban lot yesterday; Rick, Jerome, Garry, Greg, Phil, Chet, Sherrel, Joe, Tom, Mikey, Jim, Curt, Karl, Justin, David. It was one of those odd little areas that worked out well for me. It is also at the edge of the upper level so it is just about eye level for optimal viewing.

Managed some time in the train shed late yesterday. Continued the ballasting at the staging yard entrance and started preparing a derelict boxcar for storage in the planned materials area next to the tracks.

It's an old MRC (Roundhouse) kit that no longer fits my era.
Mostly ran trains on the upper level while waiting for the ballast glue to dry. Snapped a couple of motive power pictures as well.
A pair of Dash9-44CW's from ScaleTrains.

Another pair from Athearn.

I thought that I took a third picture, but it's not here.

Garry - I have always liked your sense of humor regarding signs and industry names.
Greg -

Hopefully I'll keep the layout room at least partially clean.

Never lasts too long in the train shed!
By the way, good luck with the NMRA visit. Continued success with the program, I think that you posted that it is the Golden Spike program.
Tom -

There's a youtube video called 11' 8" where trucks hit this bridge like there drawn to it by a magnet.

I have seen that video and the accompanying website. It doesn't appear that any of those drivers are professional drivers. Mostly rental trucks and RV"s.
Sherel - I didn't notice that the picture had bluffs and a beach in it!
Chet - Pretty awesome looking vehicles.

Everyone have a great Sunday.

 

[santafewillie]

I have a question about Scale Trains locomotives. Do the rivet counters come RTR or are they kits with railings, grab irons and other accessories that need to be attached?

They are RTR, No assembly required. And they aren't overly expensive, both the Dash 9's and the SD40-2's that I have gotten were right around $150@. The SD45's that I pre-ordered are Operator models (no rivet counters in ATSF) are around $100. They also offer detail kits for the modeler to bring them up to Rivet Counter quality. I don't know if grabs are on the Operator models, but the railings are.

 

[santafewillie]

Well if Chet can show off the view from his place, then so can I. Currently 79° but they're still predicting snow for Wednesday.

This is the wheat field across the road. Nice to see that much green on Groundhog Day

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Looks like 54° and partly cloudy to get the day started here. Temperature made it up to 79° here yesterday, a bit cooler today at 72°. Cooler tomorrow and then a major cold front Tuesday night bringing snow on Wednesday. It seems that everyone is getting the roller coaster weather effect this winter.
Busy day yesterday for me. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen after church preparing various party dishes. Buffalo wings, crab-stuffed mushrooms in vodka sauce, shrimp cocktail with homemade dipping sauce and some zesty homemade pimento cheese spread. In between, I cleaned the ashes out of the wood burning heater and spread them out in the garden. And I also took some time out to trim my beard, a stressful event to say the least.

I'll have a couple of those sausage, egg and cheese biscuits this morning Flo. I'll pass on the leftover wings from yesterday.

Thanks for all of the likes and comments for the posts yesterday; Joe, Bob, Jim, Garry, Sherrel, Phil, Justin, Jerome, Chet, Karl, Curt, Chad, Tom.

Limited time in the train shed yesterday due to the rest of life. I did start adding ground form to that 6' x 2' section of blank plywood that I am working on. I also weathered the derelict boxcar that I am going to use as a materials/tools storage shed in the materials yard going into this scene. No progress pictures yet, so I'll dig through the archives for these.
ScaleTrains SD40-2's lined up for pictures.

A couple of close-ups.

Bob - A belated Happy Anniversary from me. 45 years is pretty good. We're going to celebrate 48 in a few months.
Garry - I could read the "Heel Towing" on the one truck, but couldn't read the other one. Another of your clever business names.
Phil - Get well soon.
Jim - Those were a couple of nice pictures yesterday.
Sherrel - Those CF7's are still needed here as they are the primary power used for switching maneuvers, SD's are for pulling tonnage. They were pretty massive for their day.
Greg - Thankfully we are not in the range of groundhogs here. Mainly north and east of our area. It may have something to do with coyotes that really like them.
Jim/Greg and others - If you intend to get a ScaleTrains engine(s), get them on pre-order. They sell out fast. No money needed until they deliver them.
Terry -

Operator detail kits come with grab irons and coupler cut levers.

Thanks for that info, that's what I thought but I have never purchased one.

Today is the 61st anniversary of "The Day the Music Died". On this day in 1959, a plane crash killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. Ironically, Waylon Jennings, who was part of Holly's band, gave up his seat on the plane to the Big Bopper. Some of us might remember that event.

Everybody have a great day.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Two hours ago it was 61° with rain, now it is 45° and still raining lightly with 15 mph winds out of the north. Still predicting snow tomorrow, actually just past midnight tonight, with 3"-6" accumulations. That coming after three 70°+ days. The rain gauge has .5" since sunset yesterday. The cat is not happy.
Ahead of the anticipated rain, I did some planting in the garden yesterday. Just a few early spring greens like lettuce, spinach and arugula. No it isn't too early here. Any snow will insulate the ground and slowly irrigate it when it melts. I am actually a bit later this year than normal.

A couple of eggs over easy and some of that Taylor Ham this morning Flo. Good to see that you stock it year-round now.

Thanks for the comments and likes yesterday regarding the motive power; Joe, Phil, Patrick, James, Dave, Justin, Sherrel, Chet, Jerome, Karl, Garry, Jim, Curt, Bob, Bill, Tom, Ken.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I continued with ground foam and fine ballast in the parking areas of the feed mill/grain elevator.

Still need to ballast a few more switches in the upper right corner. You can see the beginnings of the materials storage yard here. And a closeup of the converted boxcar, not quite done yet.

Over the next few days, I'll be moving over to the left and adding scenery around the Majestic Hardware store.

Now I need to remember the mix of fine ballast that I used on this base.

Alan - Hope to watch your video today while conditions outside are yucky.
Patrick - Continued best wishes on your recovery.
Tom - Good luck with the taxes. It's too soon to hear of the tax preparer horror stories from my wife yet. Since she missed January, she missed all of the welfare cheaters and EIC frauds. These are generally the folks who will pay H&R Block and a local bank $300 to get a rapid refund that will be used to get a family member out of jail. Well actually you and I are paying that fee since they game the system to pay no taxes.

Everybody have a great day.

 

[santafewillie]

And how did that ancient bastard get inside my bathroom mirror?

Well, I fixed that here. I just don't look into the mirror.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. 33° and raining. Supposed to warm up today to 37°. So far the large band of snow/ice has been staying west about 20 miles away. It will probably move in about the time that my wife has to drive to work.

It's going to take a little extra to get me going this morning Flo, how about a double order of bacon and a pair of over-easy eggs with a whole wheat English Muffin. Follow that up with an apple fritter and a second glass of orange juice.

Thanks for the likes and other comments yesterday regarding the scenery progress; Johnny, Chet, Rick, Dave, Chad, Sherrel, Justin, James, Phil, Joe, Karl, Bill, Patrick, Jerome, Ken, Mikey, Curt, Tom, Jim, Garry.

I didn't get a lot of time in the train shed yesterday, I watched some cab ride videos and some other model railroad stuff. Time flies!
In lieu of any progress reports, I will post some more motive power pictures.
First is the other pair of Dash9-44CW's that I couldn't locate the other day.

These are Kato models from about 20 years ago.
My favorite locomotive, a pair of Kato SD40-2's also from about 20 years ago.

And from Athearn, a pair of GP40X's that are a bit younger.

Behind them are a pair of GP60's from P2K.
And just for Sherrel, a pair of Athearn CF7's, known around here as "Ugly Ducklings".

Johnny - No beard picture for now, let's just say that I am now closer to the avatar picture. Ballasting is actually a task that I don't mind doing, except around switches. You need to "dirty-up" the area around the lumber mill with weeds, overgrowth and loose materials. Good scene though.
Beady -

Willie - Here's an opportunity for some easy beer money. Looks like they have openings in your area. No need to thank me.

No beer money there, it says "volunteer"
Dennis - Interesting story about the supply boxcar.
Mikey - The converted boxcar did take longer to weather than to build. It will take even longer to "plant it".
Jim - Doctor appointments have been taking up way more of my retired life than I had envisioned. And the fact that every doctor is 25 miles away doesn't help matters either. Roxy's is really looking good.

Everybody have a great day.

 

[santafewillie]

Well, it started sleeting about ten minutes ago. Then it magically stopped, thankfully. I have enough dry firewood in the house for today, tonight and tomorrow morning. Just started bringing some in to start drying for tomorrow night. Fortunately, firewood only gets wet on the outside and dries rather quickly. Still at 32° so the melt will be slow.

 

[santafewillie]

One other thing, anyone have experience cutting acrylic glazing?

My only experience is with material 1/4" thick for skylights when we made them at work. We used a standard table saw with a big table. We used a regular carbide tipped blade. Any circular saw can be used for straight lines. Use a jigsaw for curves. For hobbyists, I assume that there is a similar blade that can be used with a Dremel tool.
Hope that this helps.

 

[santafewillie]

Is there a danger in using the fireplace without the "brick looking" panel in place?

Depending on how large the cracks are. They can let heat escape and warp the metal enclosure. Without the panel in place might be a definite no-no. They carry some at the local Lowes around here. You might try them.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. 24° and clear. A toasty 75° in the house. The snow finally showed up around 4:30 yesterday and there is maybe .2" out there. So much for the 3"- 6" that the weather people were predicting. Every nearby school district was closed yesterday in anticipation of the non event.
Can't stay here long this morning, I have an 8:00 appointment to have my teeth cleaned followed by the weekly grocery/beer trek and a trip to the credit union. I need to straighten out an issue with them not transferring money to my retirement accounts. Tax-free interest in a Roth IRA versus taxable interest in money market account.

Make it scrambled eggs and sausage links this morning Flo.

Thanks for the likes and comments yesterday about the motive power on the layout; Jerome, Chet, Justin, Joe, Patrick, Bill, Jim, Chad, Greg, James, Karl, Sherrel, Curt, Phil, Ken, Tom, Garry.

Too chilly to do any real modeling out in the train shed yesterday, so I just ran trains.

Greg - I use wedding veil material for chain link fences. It's known as tulle. I have 100's of sq inches left from when my wife made my daughters wedding dress years ago.
Chet - Yes, Scaletrains engines are now my favorites, finally surpassing the Kato engines that I bought 20 years ago. Those Katos are still great runners, but factory detailing has come a long way since then. P2K and Genesis are also excellent runners for me.
Jim - I have a picture for you that I will post later, diner related.

Gotta go now, it's a busy morning starting real soon. Everybody have a great day.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. 33° and mostly cloudy. Busy day yesterday with the dental visit, grocery trek, Sam's Club to pick up my wife's new glasses, cat food at Dollar General and four other stops along the way. Successful stop at the credit union where they explained what went wrong with my funds transfer (my error) and refunded $64 in overdraft fees.

French Toast, scrambled eggs and bacon this morning Francine.

After a busy morning, I finally made it to the train shed around mid-afternoon. Patched and painted some rough spots in the backdrop and spread over 24 sq " of ground foam. Progress pictures tomorrow after a little more landscaping is done. I still need to ballast those last three switches at the visible entrance to the staging yard.

Jim - When you posted those pictures of the diner, one thing that caught my attention was the exhaust fan from the kitchen. I like how you made it with wood and a rivet. It's a detail that I don't see on many layouts. I always include them but I use old hearing aid batteries that I generate at the rate of two/week!

Excuse the broken fence in the second picture, I originally had a truck backed into it, but removed the truck to use elsewhere and haven't fixed it yet; or placed another vehicle there. I do try to rotate vehicles around to avoid the same old view.
I don't know what Curt feeds his skunks, but my local ones like to eat the avocado skins and remnants from the compost pile. Who knows what else they get out of there!
Beady - What type of camera did you use for that selfie?
Greg -

Ended the day working on 2019 taxes.

Sounds like a fun project.
Great skunk story.
Patrick - Continued best wishes on your recovery from all of your ailments. Seems like you're well on the way. Following along on the 3D project. I don't know much about the process but I am learning.
Garry - Best wishes on the upcoming eye surgery.

Everybody have a great day.

 

[santafewillie]

Go back to bed Beady.