Running Bear's January 2020 Coffee Shop


Good Morning All. Clear and 65° here. The Left Coast smoke hasn't really hit us here, but if the jet stream moves just a wee bit south, we'll finally see the effects. So far we have dodged some of Mother Natures bullets; no hazy smoke, hurricane Laura stayed east of here and the extreme heat stayed at Sherrel's house. Now we are getting ready to have a La Niña winter, which is good for us normally. More mild and drier than normal.
Made the grocery/beer trek yesterday and continued the dry ice purchases. I have found that the blocks are lasting me a bit longer than I was told that they would last, maybe 36 hours instead of 24. Some stuff is thawing however.:mad:

How about a large plate of sausage patties with a couple of sunny side up eggs for me this morning, Flo. And a toasted English Muffin to mop it all up with.

Thanks as usual for the likes and comments yesterday regarding the Oxford vehicles; Patrick, Guy, Lee, Karl, Jerome, Hughie, Curt, Phil, Joe, Tom, Chet, Ken, Justin, James, Jerry. I have to thank Oxford for making such great vehicles. Me, I just buy the right ones for my layout.

Let me see if I can remember what I did in the train shed yesterday! I did some more detail painting for the D's Diner. Painted a couple of ladies to sit in the convertable, but didn't get to paint the trim yet...just haven't opened that color yet. Started painting the other two bicycles, and almost got the candy cane-striped posts to my satisfaction.
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I carved up and painted a driver for the Dodge Charger "Daytona", but the picture is too fuzzy for me to post. I also gave the car a shot of dull coat.
I also checked out the parts and instructions for one of the kits that I purchased Monday. I don't intend to build it for a couple of weeks, but I wanted to check it out.
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As you can tell, it is a Blair Lines Feed Store.
And since it has been about ten days since I ran any trains, I did some running. As a preventative measure when I wait this long, I placed a Walther's track cleaning car at the head end of the first one.
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I like this car, it weighs in at just under 8 ounces and does a good job replacing the masonite car that I used for years. However I fault Walther's for its realism. Note that it is a design from the steam era days, with a roof walk and all. But look at this.
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Build date of 4-89??? While CSX was around in '89, I don't believe that they ever owned a reefer like this.:rolleyes:

Patrick - Great to read that all of the medical issues seem to be under control, including the doggie. Sounds like some serious rewiring at your daughter's home. Best to be on the safe side.
Guy - Sure hope that you can get out and get that elk before they all disappear.
Hughie - Happy Anniversary. You got me beat by 6 years, we celebrated 48 last week.
Jerry - Oxford vehicles are my favorite ones. They offer mostly common everyday cars, they are reasonably priced compared to others, and they are mostly easy to disassemble for adding drivers/passengers. Interesting that they are made in the UK. Most of their vehicles are from the 50's and 60's, but they have a couple of dozen from earlier. Here's a link to their web page. Shop around, I get mine 20% off MSRP at my LHS.
Oxford vehicles
I see a lot of them in Chet's layout pictures also.

Today is the Air Force Birthday, as well as National Cheeseburger Day. So hold that cheeseburger in your left hand when you salute a military person.
 
I've been warned that jars and lids may be tough to come by due to everyone Quarantine cooking.
I do quite a bit of home canning myself. Lots of excess produce from the garden. In this region, the dome lids are impossible to find right now. Jars with lids and rings are readily available. Lids and rings together are occasionally on the shelves. I happened to stock up on the lids before the pandemic struck. I had enough for my needs, but I have been checking every week for more that just aren't in stock. Jars and rings, I have several hundred of each already. There hasn't been this much demand since the mid-70's.
 
Good Morning All. Clear and 65°. We're definitely into our fall weather and fall doesn't even start 'til Tuesday. Highs in the low-80's and lows in the lower to mid-60's. Just for fun, the weatherman threw rain in the forecast for Monday and Tuesday.
Stayed busy yesterday, mowed the south part of the yard as well as parts of the "back 40", while doing laundry and emptying the dishwasher. Still making the daily trip for dry ice for the non-functional freezer while waiting on delivery of the new one Tuesday. Hope that it's not raining when they come! Wife and I did do some culling out of some frozen (still) stuff though, we found some frozen garden produce, chopped onions and bell peppers from 2014 that were in the back of the bottom drawer. While they were most likely still good, I have plenty of more recent harvests to use.

Received some interesting news yesterday regarding the window company that I worked for for 43 years. The owners who bought the company in 2000 and pretty much left it alone until 2013 when they consolidated two of their other plants into ours, are finally wiping out the very last vestiges of my original company. They had already moved all of the window and patio door operations (ours and theirs) into a new location and are now shutting down the extrusion and paint divisions that we had started in 1978. My buddy, the plant manager is totally distraught. He had planned to work at it for four more years and then retire. While he and all other employees have been told that they could have jobs at the other location, doing other stuff, he has always been adamant that he would never go to that location. By offering jobs to all of the employees, the company doesn't have to lay anyone off and avoid that issue. Most of the employees will not go. When they moved all of the other operations in 2015-2016, they only kept the then current workforce for 90 days because they offered a bonus of $300 if the employees moved and stayed that long. Most employees, approximately 450, stayed just two weeks longer so they could collect their Christmas vacation and bonus checks before the plant was totally devoid of employees after New Years Day! Even when I still worked there before retiring, I saw the owners make some pretty stupid and costly decisions like that over the years.

Hey there Flo! How about a Western omelet and a slice of raisin toast for me today.

Thanks for the many likes and comments yesterday everybody; Chet, Lee, Justin, Patrick, Rick, Jerome, Guy, Chad, Karl, Hughie, Phil, Curt, Tom O, Ken, Tom, Garry.

Spent some time in the train shed yesterday. While still dealing with painting details, I got to work on the next part of this project area. There is a structure to the right of the diner that I had painted and assembled a few years ago. It didn't really fit the location that I had originally planned, either size-wise or in keeping with the character of the location. So it languished on the shelf for many years.
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The structure is an older DPM kit called City Cab Co. That's not what I intend to use it for. I will be using it as an HVAC contractor business. Left side is offices and the right side is indoor storage with a drive thru garage. Out back will be multiple pieces of "junk" representing used equipment.
Yesterday, I installed clear styrene in all of the windows to get started, today I will search the parts cabinet for some roof details (I have many), and get them painted and maybe even installed. I may also start installing the road out front, and working on the parking area for the diner. I actually need to deal with the railroad behind this scene, as I haven't even painted the rail or ballasted it yet. Best to do that before I fasten the diner down. The base on the diner started warping slightly after I started assembling it and it also has fixed interior lighting. Otherwise I normally don't attach structures to the layout. This will be a rare exception.
Here are a couple of more close up pictures of some of the items that I purchased Monday on my visit to the LHS. First up is the Laube Linen Mill from DPM. Note that this LHS is a discounter and all prices are 20% off MSRP.
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And a structure (intentional repeat for me) from Smalltown. I will be varying the color and it will not be Tony's gym.
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By painting it a different color and giving it a different orientation, I don't mind duplicate structures. I'll show you a trick or two when I build it. There's really not enough different manufacturers any more that can provide different structures for larger layouts.

Troy - I don't (can't) dance either. I was forced to at each of my children's weddings. At least I didn't have to dance with my son!
Sherrel - Congratulations to Kate on her progress. Nice picture of the Austin & Central Texas RSD-15. It began life as a Santa Fe locomotive back in the 60's. As far as I know, it is still undergoing re-restoration after 15 or so years of service on the A&CT.
Seems that Joe explained the kettlebells already.
Tom O - Much congratulations on the 44th anniversary. Hoping that there are many more to come.
Garry - The stripes on those poles have been befuddling me for well over a week. They are getting closer to my satisfaction. First the red paint, then the white paint, then the red etc. That and I get cross-eyed and have to set it down and come back later. Impossible for me to do all of them at once!:( Thought about giving up and just painting them all one color.

Today is National Talk Like A Pirate Day. Since I am socially isolated and don't see anyone, I guess that I will not be celebrating.

OK, now that the sun has risen (or has it), I can see that the Left Coast smoke haze has finally drifted south far enough to affect us. That will screw up my Vitamin D intake for the day. At least it appears to be high enough in the atmosphere to not affect breathing. Thankfully.
Everybody have a great day and a wonderful weekend.
 
Good morning. It's clear and 55.
Wombat Tony is still around, he's just not as active on this forum as he used to be.
UNDERSTATEMENT. I know that he's active on some N scale forum that I don't visit, but he hasn't logged in here since December 2018. Did someone here piss him off? I do miss him very much. His adventures into outdoor G scale, HO scale and the shed N scale were always interesting. And he had a 1:1 line running besides his property. Wish that he would return.
 
I'm well stocked on 12 packs of soda cans. They work for holding the foam in place, even better than old paint cans.
Plus the contents are safer to drink!;)
While I don't use foam, I use beverage containers to hold cork roadbed to the plywood while the glue is setting.
 
Good Morning All. Clear and a rather cool 60° on this fine Sunday morning.
It appears that it was a good night last night for my wife's recovering knee. She didn't get up once (yet) for the ice water circulator, first time since she had the surgery done. She has also been walking about the house without her cane occasionally for a week now. I don't think that she really needs it anymore, it's more of a "security blanket". It's also easier to hit me with it to get my attention!
Can't wait to get the new freezer delivered Tuesday. These daily trips for dry ice are becoming a pain, not as big a pain as losing all of that frozen meat might be. Dilemma is that it's supposed to rain Monday night and all day Tuesday. Freezer is too wide for the back door so it has to come through the wider front door. Not normally an issue except the rain. Here in the country, we don't have sidewalks, just yard! As some might remember from pictures earlier this year, the dolly could sink or become extremely muddy. I don't care about the mud, it cleans up. I just want the freezer.

Ah yes! Sunday morning. I'll take the Sunday Special this morning Flo. Eggs Benedict with Taylor Ham instead of Canadian Bacon.

Thanks a lot for all of the likes and comments yesterday; Sherrel, Lee, Guy, Karl, Hughie, Jerome, Phil, Chet, Chad, Tom O, Ken, Justin, Tom, Jerry.

While it was another short day in the train shed, I did get a little accomplished before I threw up my hands and just ran trains for a while. I finally resolved my frustrating dilemma with the candy caned-striped poles.
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While the striped poles would look nice, it's painstakingly holding up my progress. All white poles would not look out of place.
For some reason I am having trouble taking a good clear picture of the Dodge Charger with its driver, but here's my best effort from the past couple of days.
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The internal roll cage somewhat obscures him.
While the other structure is over on the workbench, I am going to tackle the background/backdrop for this particular scene.
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I'll be painting a horizon along the backdrop, spray painting the track, and eventually ballasting it. Still undecided about the backdrop structure behind the tracks, although it's probably a keeper. Just need to decide on what kind of industry it will be. Then full force on ground cover.

George - Great looking job on the shed.
Jerry - That Walther's track cleaning car has a spring loaded abrasive rubber pad on it. No fluid necessary. It is essentially just an improvement over the old-fashioned Masonite car. It doesn't "clean track", but it "keeps track clean". It would probably remove some ground in crud with several passes, but that isn't what it is designed to do. Since I haven't had any ground in crud since building the train shed, (ten years ago), I cannot test it. I rarely even use my Centerline cleaning car any more. While their website shows my CSX car as discontinued, they have nine others, six of which are on sale.
Sherrel - You can keep your HOT or send it this way. I already covered up the pool this season and the water wasn't going to warm up regardless of the temperature.
Terry -
but we do have a small handful of people on the forum that seem to delight in shoving their opinions down others’ throat, in the most untactful manner possible.
Sad isn't it? But it seems that a few of the "my way" members have left over the past few months.
Hughie - I like that track plan. Plenty of industries to switch, fair sized main line, and any layout with a Waterfront Willie's is good by my standards!;) My only concern is the 40" wide unless it's accessible from both sides. If I recall correctly, you are N scale.
Lee - Nice looking chickens. If you're getting more than 6 eggs a day, I'd have that leghorn checked out!
Chet - I do not envy you free-lancers when it comes to decaling your locomotives and other rolling stock. What a pain!
Exchanging the body shells on the track cleaning car hadn't crossed my mind. I do have about two dozen 40' boxcars roaming the layout, so I will give that a look. Then I can run it with regular consists. Thanks for the idea.
Tom O -
This city boy has never touched a live chicken in soon to be 68 years.
I remember when my daughter was about 4 or 5 years old. My father asked her what she did the previous week, and she responded with "I helped Daddy take apart chickens"! He was actually impressed. As a teenager during WWII, he worked on a farm and didn't think that folks still did that any more.
Troy - You sure are moving fast on that layout.

Several commemorative days today, National Queso Day, National Pepperoni Pizza Day, and Wife Appreciation Day. Well I thought the last one was every day, at least in my domicile.

Everyone have a great day, stay safe and go to the church of your choice.
 
It will take years to get set up
I know the feeling. It seemed like forever to me. I built the new train shed with some help during the winter of 2010-2011, and then by myself, I insulated it, did all of the electrical wiring and installed all of the interior walls and ceiling during the spring and summer of 2011. I then did my first 2' x 16' section of benchwork for the 12 track staging yard, I needed to at least look at trains, haha! It took until late 2013 to complete the first level because I was still working at the time. As I progressed 12'-16' at a time, doing both benchwork and trackwork, I was able to run some trains from yard to "the end of the earth" progressively at the time. Lower level is about 165' overall. Retired in July 2015 and finished the upper level as well as some scenery on the lower level by winter 2016. Upper level with a 15' extra stoop-under section for continuous running is 180'. Still haven't done the helix, which is planned but may never actually happen. Happily I have been running for a while now on what is essentially two layouts. Still working on the scenery which I estimate will take til the end of 2023. I still have several large swaths of plywood with track running through, along with sidings for future industries that have been imagined but not yet developed.
So don't give up yet. It doesn't seem like you will anyway!
 
Good Morning All. Mostly cloudy and 61° this morning. Another week, another tropical storm approaching the Texas Gulf Coast. The trajectory this time will most likely send some rain this far north. Not a lot, but maybe an inch over the next two days. The coast is about 350 miles south of me, so it may not get this far at all depending on how far inland the storm comes before heading east to Louisiana. Meanwhile the coastal areas are already flooding.
Busy day yesterday with laundry, dishwasher and that damn trip to retrieve more dry ice. I'll be very glad when the new freezer arrives tomorrow. By the time I returned, the dew had dried and I mowed for an hour. After a shower and nap, we got a call from an old buddy from high school who I have known for 55 years, he was also the best man at my wedding. He and his wife are going stir-crazy from the Covid isolation in Dallas and wanted to take a road trip up to see us and get away from it all. We spent several hours with them which culminated in us going out to dinner at my favorite Italian BYOB restaurant. Needless to say, they're still in the guest bedroom right now, rather than driving home last night.

I'm ready for a tall stack of blueberry pancakes and a big pile of sausage this morning Flo. Send some complimentary doughnuts over to Troy, Jerry and Lee. Too bad that Tom left so soon, or he could have had some also.

Thanks guys for all of the likes and comments regarding my progress photos yesterday; Lee, Karl, Sherrel, Garry, Jerry, Ken, Chad, Guy, Tom O, Chet, Phil, Jerome, Tom, Justin.

Due to our visitors to the SFW estate yesterday, the only time I spent in the train shed was showing stuff off. OK though, as I only ran trains once in the last week. While I didn't get any switching done, I ran about a half dozen trains including a couple of continuous runs on the upper level. Ray hadn't seen the layout since the upper level was completed.
Since I have no current pictures, maybe I will post some random shots.
Here's a picture one of my GP60B units
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And a shot of the real thing. Not taken by me.
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Some day I will attempt locomotive weathering after I get more scenery done.
Here's a Blue Box model of a GP60M. Needs detailing.
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And the real thing, temporarily out of service.
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Garry - Condolences on the death of your friend Dan.
Troy - You're making excellent progress on the layout, looking good. Congratulations (belated) on the awards for the news photo.
Sherrel - I'm looking for Daisy myself.
I only got to ride on a 747 twice in my life. Lufthansa flights to and from Europe in '84. Sure was a neat plane.
Jerry - Thanks for the suggestion on the red tape; I already have some 1/16" and 1/8" red chart tape. But I have already determined that while the stripes look neat, they aren't necessary for the overall look. Right now I am going with solid white, but since I haven't assembled it yet, I am also toying with the idea of a red and white one at each end.
Hughie - Unitrack or not, good trackwork to begin with means the most enjoyment.
Tom O - A couple of pieces of fried chicken once a month or so, ain't all that bad unless there are underlying medical issues. I wish that I could make trees as rapidly as you do, or as good looking as yours, but tree making is my second least favorite part of this hobby after soldering.
Guy - Even though you hate it, you did a nice job on that Atlas market.
Chad - I could never play music on any instrument. But I can listen. As an amateur rock & roll historian, I have over 2500 contributions to Wikipedia,
along with over 60,000 mp3's in my collection. The reason for my hearing aids is primarily due to loud music during the 60's -80's.
Alan - I have always hated airline travel. It doesn't scare me or anything, I just hate it.

Everybody have a great day.
 
Good Morning All. Completely cloudy and 65° out there this morning. Despite having many window open, it's 76° inside, but there's a nice north breeze coming through the bedroom window on my side of the bed. Sure am tempted to go back! The weather rock is wet this morning but I can't detect any measurable amount in the rain gauge, so I checked with the Weather Underground station around the corner and they got .06" overnight. I get more than that with a heavy dew sometimes!
Spent part of my day yesterday taking a buddy from my old workplace out to lunch. He's the manager of the plant that the corporate overlords are closing after 40 years. The plant extruded and painted aluminum shapes for their window lines. They will now purchase them from outside sources instead. Despite the fact that the operation has been profitable for the last 9 years (since the housing meltdown); the property that the plant is situated on, has risen in value so much, that they cannot refuse an offer to sell it. Amazon recently bought five properties behind it and built a fulfillment center. They paid outrageous prices for them and made everything else rise in value. My buddy has been inundated with job offers including one from the company that is receiving the business. Meanwhile he is going to be busy shutting the place down and removing and disposing of all the equipment and machinery. He feels badly about the situation and is not going over to the corporate mother-ship to stay with them, especially after how badly they handled the situation.
Today's the big day, the new freezer is supposed to arrive today. I am a bit tired of making the 50 mile round trip every day for dry ice, not to say anything about the expense. But since the fan in the freezer is still running and circulating the air, I have been able to keep all of the contents frozen, albeit at 23° instead of 0°. Not looking forward to clearing out the old one so it can be hauled off, but my wife was adamant that I couldn't use it as a waterproof storage cabinet back in the garden.

Just a handful of bacon and an English Muffin this morning Francine. I'm still stuffed from supper last night.

Thanks once again to all who commented or liked the locomotive comparison shots posted yesterday; Jerome, Guy, Sherrel, Karl, Chad, Lee, James Patrick, Phil, Hughie, Tom O, Chet, Tom, Justin, Garry, Jerry. I'll keep you posted when I begin to weather those units.

I did several tasks out in the train shed yesterday. Cleared out everything in the latest project area to paint the horizon on the backdrop. Here are before and after pictures of my best Bob Ross attempts.
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Nothing too difficult here. I'll add some painted trees and some other shades of green next, and then spray paint all of the track and ties.
I did some piddling around over on the workbench with the two structures that are going in the foreground, the diner and the appliance repair shop. Re-purposed since I cannot locate my HVAC dealer signs!

Hughie - I wish you the best luck with the rain and potential flooding from Beta. I don't particularly feel sorry for the actual city of Houston as poor city planning allowed developers to build and pave over on flood plains and bayous that now aggravate their situation. I do feel badly for the residents affected though.
Tom O - I just hope that the home schooling is at least partly effective. End of my comments regarding that as I can get very political on that subject rather quickly.
Curt - Hope that you are feeling better soon.
Jerry - Not much but it's a start. Any relief from the fires yet?

Besides being the Fall Equinox Day, 8:30 am CST here, today is also National Centenarian’s Day. While I don't think that we have any here on the forum, I hope that a number of us (myself included) reach that milestone, in good health.
Everyone have a great day.
 
WILLIE - Question? What's that dry ice cost and where do you get it? I never bought or needed any - just curios?
Good luck on getting the new freezer in the house and setup.
Dry ice costs me $1.48/lb. plus tax. I get it at the grocery store. My local Kroger carried it up until about a month ago! I have now been getting it at a grocery chain called WinCo, which is actually about five miles closer to me. I have spent almost $400 on it since the freezer went out last week. Still cost me less than throwing out several hundred pounds of meat, homemade bread, frozen veggies from the garden, and assorted desserts. Plain ice would only keep stuff at 32° and produces a LOT of water as it melts. The dry ice will keep things colder and sublimates directly into CO2. Just don't take a big breath when you open the freezer door!:(
EDIT: We will find stuff that we no longer want or need when we re-stock the new freezer!:mad:
 
Good luck on getting the new freezer in the house and setup.
Thanks Sherrel. Delivery window was 1:30 to 5:30, but they showed up about 2:45. Successfully got it in and running and the old one hauled off. Supposed to wait four hours before adding items, but the internal temperature went from 75° when first plugged in to 35° in less than an hour. Yes I know that it helps not to open the door at this time, but I couldn't stand the wait. So I put some very solidly frozen hunks of meat in there to assist the cooling down process.
 
Freezer update: After four hours, internal temperature was 1°F. In went the rest of the stuff. I actually slowly added solidly frozen stuff all along without any detriment. Very happy! The dry ice kept everything except bread products well frozen.
 
Good Morning Everyone. Cloudy and 66°. Weatherwise yesterday was a somewhat miserable day for the first day of Fall. Temperature never got above 69° and it was overcast and near misty all day.
Quite a day yesterday with the new freezer being delivered. Spent the morning taking stuff out of the old one and putting it all in coolers and cardboard boxes with the dry ice remnants, and putting the boxes back into the freezer (kind of a very large cooler), for quick removal whenever the new one showed up. It actually came earlier than expected. When you're fifth (and last) on the delivery schedule out in the rural boonies, we normally expect to see them around 5:00. Efficient crew removed the back door, had the old one out and the new one in in less than fifteen minutes. Yes, I had to communicate with the crew in Spanish as their communication abilities "en Anglais" were rudimentary at best. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon monitoring the internal temperature and slowly filling it back up. It's at -5°F this morning. And I don't even have it set on "Super Cool". Afterwards I grilled chicken thighs and made Mexican corn for supper.

Did Troy bring in any doughnuts this morning Flo? No! OK then, I'll have one of Mel's apple fritters along with a handful of bacon.

Thanks to all who liked or commented on my landscape artistry yesterday; Sherrel, Justin, Guy, Joe, Phil, Garry, Patrick, Lee, Chad, Hughie, Curt, Tom, Tom O, Jerome, Ken, Karl, Jerry. And also many thanks for all who wished me luck with the freezer. It worked!

Due to other more important activities yesterday, I didn't get a lot of time in the train shed. But I did assemble the canopy on the diner.
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The all white support poles look just fine.
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I still need to finish painting the four bicycles that came with this kit.
Please note the misleading advertising on the kit box.
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Assembles in minutes might apply if you don't paint anything or embellish the detailing somewhat. I worked on it for over a week, but I only put in small time periods each day while waiting for paint or glue to dry.
Here is the next door business with sign, roof details and black paper view blocks inside.
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Guy - Those GP60B units, ATSF had 23 of them, were not robotically controlled. They were just cabless "B" units used with usually a pair of "A" units on either side. They're mostly still on the BNSF roster today.
Troy - Your wife did well. It's good to see others who do home canning. I'll trade stories with you next Spring. Get the can tongs, they're cheap and easier!
Hughie - Good to read that you were spared too much rain in your area. The weather geeks were forecasting much more for here than actually fell. Pretty much nothing, less than a tenth of an inch over two days.
Lee - Nice pictures last evening.
Dave - Congratulations on 47 years.
Chad, Troy and any others - Dry ice in the grocery stores is always kept in a cooler between the checkout stations and the entrance/exit door. It is not self-serve in any place that I have been. At the WinCo's that I have used, it's right at the self checkout register so they can bag and weigh it right on the spot. Handling it is tricky if you're not careful. The stores don't want that liability of customers getting their own and then traipsing through the store with it.

Everybody have an awesome day.
 
Good Morning Everyone. Somewhat cloudy and 65° to begin my day here in beautiful North Central Texas. Warming up to almost 90° for the weekend. Clouds are supposed to dissipate today, finally! Got in some mowing yesterday afternoon. Grass/weeds are a bit high, but not unsightly. Today being Thursday, means the weekly grocery/beer trek to the big city this morning. Reorganized two of the five shelves in the freezer yesterday. Found stuff that I didn't remember; at least the dates on it indicate that it is mostly all still good. I did find some spinach from 2003, that was most likely still good but probably not as tasty as when I put it in there. It went into the compost pile.
Today marks the fourth week since my wife's knee replacement surgery. Recovery has slowed down, but it is still ahead of the same time last year when she had the other one done. She is walking more without the cane, she is taking walks outside (on the gravel road) every other day, and she is happy to be having a glass of red wine every once in a while. She stopped taking those narcotic pain relievers about 10 days ago. Tonight on her first outing from the house, we will make a trek back to Denton to meet up with another couple for dinner someplace. I think that restaurants are at 75% in Texas right now, not a concern because Thursday nights are normally rather slow anyway.

Bacon, grits and scrambled eggs for me this morning Flo. Large OJ to wash it down with.

Thanks for the likes and comments yesterday regarding the two nearly finished structures; Sherrel, Jerome, James, Garry, Karl, Lee, Chad, Patrick, Curt, Chet, Tom, Guy, Justin, Ken, Tom O, Jerry. The diner has been a fun project that sent me into memory lane many times while building it, especially Flo and Francine in their younger days.

Out in the train shed, I kept busy on the project area. I first enhanced the backdrop/horizon with some additional green paint, here's where he actual Bob Ross comes in, Joe.
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As you might notice, I also spray painted all of the track through here with a rattle can of Model Master Light Earth. I'll return and paint random ties various different shades of brown and gray before ballasting.
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I also unintentionally sprayed the horizon!
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I may leave it alone or hide it with foliage, or repaint it.

Lee - Impressive pig yard. I haven't been able to find many trailers suitable for the small yard I did mast month. I may have to look on EBay, which I really don't want to do.
Nice tomatoes there, my late ones don't ever look perfect. Even though I had actually given up, I observed a few flowers on my tomato plants yesterday, as well as many Bell and Jalapeno peppers growing. Thankfully the grasshoppers have stopped eating and are just mating right now. While it doesn't really do much good in the overall big picture, I do get satisfaction out of stepping on them and squishing them out of existence when walking around outside.
Sherrel - Get well soon.
Garry - Thanks. Slowly but surely I am progressing along. I've had a few roadblocks to moving faster, some intentional, wife's surgery for example, some unexpected like the freezer dying, and Mother Nature caused me to spend excessive time mowing this year.
Jerry - That Charger model just jumped off the shelves screaming for me to get it for the diner. It is just a bit of a shame that the driver is not a bit more visible. I may eventually do some surgery on the side window.

Everybody have a great day.
 
Good Morning All. A cool 58° and partly cloudy this morning. Finally saw the sun yesterday afternoon for the first time since Monday. Today will be a repeat with a high around 83°. Warmer over the weekend and a major "blue norther" arrives Monday, with the high anticipated to be only 71°.
I am going to the lab(?) for a CT angiogram of the legs after lunch today. Nothing particularly wrong, but my doctor wants to check. Sounds exciting, doesn't it?

Blueberry waffles and lots of bacon for me this morning Flo.

Thanks to one and all for the likes and comments regarding the progress on the trackwork; Jerome, Guy, Patrick, Chad, Garry, Lee, Karl, Hughie, GT, Tom O, Curt, Phil, Ken, Tom, Jerry.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I made some trackwork progress. Since I had actually been testing the trackwork in that portion of the layout for over two years, I know that it is as "bulletproof" as I can get it. Started with painting random ties different shades of brown to represent replacements and aging. Yesterday, I used four other shades. I don't always use the same shades repeatedly when I do this.
Then I ballasted three sections of industry spurs and one stretch of main line.
09-25-20 001.JPG

09-25-20 002.JPG

I use the Woodland Scenics ballast exclusively as I never have had a problem with it. I use Light Gray (White) on main lines. I use Gray on industry spurs, and I use a Gray Blend, on passing sidings, (two tracks on either side of the main in the pictures). This is in keeping with what I observed on ATSF lines in the 70's-80's. I'll hopefully get to the sidings and switches after the 2:00 scan appointment.

Garry - Like what you did to the old Tyco car. Hard to tell from the picture what it started as. I only have one Tyco freight car on the layout currently, body mounted Kadee #5's and new trucks like yours. But I have a half dozen more in one of my boxes of pre-60's equipment that I have stored. Most have also been converted. They always made good filler cars.
Patrick - I did some computer programming for manufacturing back in the late 80's - mid 90's for my company with the assistance of my buddy in the IT department. There weren't any commercially available programs that worked for our business at the time. After he got an assistant, they wrote many more programs for other departments, like order entry and some limited financial stuff. Eventually when the folks who had to use them complained too much about their usability, his boss asked me to review any new programs (and the old ones) for "human interface ease", for lack of a better term; prior to making them live. No complaints about the ones that I originally had a hand in. It saved invaluable time with the final users who mostly didn't have the time or ability to discuss the issues with the programmers. Finally in 2002 or 2003, there was a program that we bought for the window manufacturing industry that replaced what we were using. We were able however to customize many programs to mirror what we had done and also to enhance what it did that would work for us. Sometimes, programmers did not realize that the final users were not as computer savvy as they were. Especially in the last century.

Everybody have a great Friday.
 
Good Saturday Morning All. Clear and 62° with a heavy dew outside. That precludes yardwork (mowing especially) for a few hours. But I ran the dishwasher before bed last night so I can empty it and then resume re-arranging and re-organizing the new freezer.
The CT angiogram went well yesterday. Nothing abnormal according to both the technician and the radiologist. I haven't bothered to look at the two CD's with 750 pictures yet! Not sure I could understand what I am looking at anyway. My primary care guy likes to help his fellow medical professionals by ordering additional (often unnecessary) tests. He had originally done a Doppler ultrasound in his office, although with inconclusive results.

A big pile of sausage patties and a pair of over easy eggs for me this morning Francine. I can't believe that Troy didn't bring any gourmet doughnuts this morning.

Thanks for the likes and comments made yesterday regarding my ballasting efforts; Karl, Patrick, Phil, Chad, James, Jerome, Lee, Curt, Guy, Ken.

Just doesn't seem like I got very far with ballasting yesterday, mainly because I didn't get home from the medical testing until after 4:00. Got about 3' of main line only.
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09-26-20 002.JPG

Just to keep busy while the glue was drying, I pulled out one of the structure kits that I purchased last week. It is a simple DPM kit called Laube's Linen Mill, whatever that is. I am not going to use it in this scene (well never say never), but need something over on the workbench to keep me occupied since I am about to enter the scenery phase in this area.
09-18-20 003.JPG


09-24-20 003.JPG

It is a bit unusual (many DPM structures are), in that all ground level entry doors are all on one wall. If put together according to the picture on the front of the package, that wall on the upper right joins the one next to it. That would put a ground level entry door leading directly into a dock high loading door. No room for an interior staircase! I am going to reverse the two side walls from their design. That double door on the ground level is also only a scale 8' tall, thus making it somewhat useless as a true ground level loading door. Yes, I am anal about that sort of thing! Stay tuned.

Jerry - I thought that only Louis posted about Christmas while we're still in September!
Troy - Man, you're making excellent progress. I've seen your other thread. Great idea as many fellow members don't come by the Coffee Shop, I think that Sherrel and Beady scared them off.
Alan - I wish that I could get into steam engines like you have. You do excellent work. I just feel more comfortable with diesels, and that is the era that I am most familiar with.
Curt - Maybe just a few scrubby trees in the area of the fourth picture. Otherwise, great job. Regarding the ballast; I have used some ballast from Arizona Rock & Mineral on a past layout, not much, just on a few spurs. It worked well but I have just gotten used to the WS stuff and use it exclusively now.
Sherrel - I have resolved the update fiascos with my computer by stubbornly hanging on to Win7. No more updates!
Lee - Thanks for the comment. Now if I could talk Tom O into sending me about 250 trees, I could really fix up some areas.

Speaking of Louis, we haven't seen him since 9-14. Hope that he is OK. Mikey is another who I'd like to hear from. I know that he has been lurking but hasn't posted since July.

Everybody have a great day and an awesome weekend.
 
Afternoon, 80 yesterday and today I'll take it for this time of the year. Getting things cleaned up and putting the summer stuff away and getting out the fall decorations. Going out to Long Horn for our 28th anniversary tonight then a couple glasses of wine by the campfire with dessert to cap the night off.
Congratulations on 28 years Tom. I barely remember my 28th in the year 2000!:cool:
 
Hello all...

I'm at our cabin


+tined (no sp ck) my wife Cathy tested positive fo the Coronavirus. I feel fairly good, but will be here at least a week or more until Cathy tests negative and Cathy is at home. Greg@mnrr
Whoa! Keep safe up there. From what I remember about your medical history, you don't need to be anywhere close to her. Positive thoughts and prayers for you both from me.
 



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