Running Bear's January 2021 Coffee Shop


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Good morning from frosty foggy and very damp So. Central Wisconsin. A possible white fall of an inch or so 5pm to midnight. Seems the weather guessers totally forgot they promised dry weather at least till Friday.

Jesse-the commercial I saw was for Lawton and Case partners at law. I think Case, Law and Associates flows better. Good luck finding something but almost immediately after that commercial I posted my suggestion to you. I lead such a shelterEd Covid life...

Willie-Tesla cars are all over the Austin area and that was before they even thought of the TerraFactory outside of Austin by the airport. One of the highest % based on population I read in some business article.

Great pictures and lots of comings and going’s.

Instead of posting my Grain Terminal pictures here an email suggested I start its own thread, so I did.

be safe
TomO
 
Morning!
It has been suggested we will get a high of 30°F this day, and it's supposed to warm up come mid-week. Wow! What a mild winter so far. We don't even have enough snow to make a decent snowman. Seems like the east is getting all the snow this year; lucky guys! - Knock on wood!

I want to apologize; I read through every post every day, some days faster than others. Sometimes, I forget to press the like button. In fact, that seems to happen a-lot. I only notice my evil ways when someone lists names to acknowledge the readers.
Just want you to know, it's not because I don't read the posts; it's more like I get so deep into reading that I just forget to push the button. I like most that is written.
And thanks for the likes I get on my simple posts. Every one is appreciated!

Today, I'm going to talk about a package delivery the other day. A new lighting system for the layout.
I have purchased one lighting arrangement from the WS Just Plug system. It seems very good, however, fairly expensive. - So I went looking for something else.
The system in pictures below, is very similar to the 'Just Plug' system, but far and away cheaper. It's marketed by a group called 'WeHonest' on the bay. At first I thought what I bought would be shipped out of China. As it turns out, the outfit has a Canadian connection as well, and the items were shipped from Toronto.
Here's the system I purchased, edited by me to be self-explanatory:
LiteSystem_01-02-2021 (3).jpg

LiteSystem_01-02-2021 (2).jpg

LiteSystem_01-02-2021 (1).jpg

I'm not trying to bad-mouth the WS system, as it is very good and has advantages over this system (like a separate dimmer for all light groups).

This system is better for me though; it can support up to 29 LED's per board and accepts a wide range of supply voltages in AC/DC. I wanted a system for supporting many lights to lite-up my layouts town.
I could have bought a doorbell x-fmer and lights at an electrical wholesaler, but, buying this system seemed cheaper and more convenient.

Anyway, that's the story!

I'd better have another coffee and a nice warm BLT for breakfast; throw on some fried onion.

Happy Birthday, Willie!

Patrick - Well done on the structure!

Thanks to everyone who is posting those excellent photos! Well done, indeed!

Seems like I'm writing a book here! I'd better leave before I get muzzled!

Have a great day!
 
Morning: Coming up on 7:30am at the low of the day at 39 degrees. Supposed to reach 66 later on with bright sunny skies and NO SNOW in the forecast!

Love the posts - getting harder for an old man to remember whodunnit? WILLIE - Happy Birthday to you! Wishing you could re-live 69 again? - I wish I could re-live 69 again as well .. PHIL too!!
I wish I could give you the last piece of that wonderful Pecan Pie that the Spousal Unit made for me.

I have to go look for TomO's new thread?
Later gang.
 
Welp... the ceiling gophers have been chased off and their holes plugged.

In the rest of the basement, I've got the more yellow 3000K lights, which I prefer for general activity and reading. But over the train area, I put in 4000K "cool white" lights.

Then I made it to the big box hardware this morning, and too many of my neighbors are re-doing their drop ceilings. Only had two choices in for ceiling tiles. So I now have a FOURTH variant in my basement. But the three 4-ft fluorescent tube lights have been relegated to the trash pile in the garage. I'll recycle the bulbs once I head the direct of Batteries/Bulbs +

Oh, and I installed a dimmer. How bright do I want it?????
Screen Shot 2021-01-04 at 11.24.11 AM.png


Screen Shot 2021-01-04 at 11.23.47 AM.png
 
McLeod, if that board was available 2 years ago I would have gone LED instead of fiber optic.

Sherrel, the build thread has a very creative name, Grain Terminal Build. Basically my photos of the build. It’s in the construction forum.

Troy, looking great and fun.

Willie, happy birthday.

TomO
 
Texas Hobo said:
Good Afternoon all. A chamber of commerce day here. 68 degrees, bright sunny day. Conductress said lets go out for a ride so there will be limited train time. Started working on what type cars each industry might need for materials in and products out. The plan is to rebuild an Excel spreadsheet I have somewhere on my computer and have it randomly set up a car movement for a operating session. The first iteration worked OK, but I think I can actual use car numbers to specific industries rather than just saying move box car to X place. Anyway I'm going to try.

STAY SAFE

LATER
Click to expand...
About your operation on trains. On ebay there is a program that does use car numbers, named "Waybill" I have been using this program for about 20 years, works on Windows 8 and higher. I have a ball using it.
 
Afternoon All,

Son has the grandkids out doing paintball. Started with some chores this morning then painted the rails I've been working on. I also ran "the train" for about 40 minutes. I found 2 spots with momentary hesitation, but cleaning the rails took care of that. Tomorrow I plan on running down to the LHS to pick up 5 more pieces of flex track to finish up the track laying. That will make 45 new pieces of flex track and a bunch of used pieces on the layout.

Terry- Beautiful scene.

Alan- Good to see you posting. Nice small passenger consist and video.

Joe- Very nice looking scenes and Baldwin.

Justin- The layout shots look good.

Jesse- You should feel sorry for us retirees. We never get a day off or a holiday off!

Willie- Nice scenes and little people. Happy Birthday.

Patrick- Nice looking tower. I feel your pain. Years ago when we were all working the wife, myself, daughter and her husband on a lot of consecutive weekends made home repairs then completely painted the inside and outside of daughter's house that she was selling. After that we landscaped the yard and finally packed her up. Needless to say I was happy to go to work each week and really happy when it was sold.

Dave LASM- Nice layout shot.

Troy- Nice job on the lighting.

Guy- I have bought several different types of LED lighting from them and have always been happy with the product. Their trees OTOH are definitely thumbs down.

I hope everyone has a good night.


'
 
LesterL said:
About your operation on trains. On ebay there is a program that does use car numbers, named "Waybill" I have been using this program for about 20 years, works on Windows 8 and higher. I have a ball using it.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I'll have to look into it. I have one called Switch Generator I have used. I have modified it a little, which is what leads me to believe I might be able to work with car numbers to specific industries. The big hiccup is each time you make a change all those formulas with RANDOM change.
 
Happy birthday Willie! Your just 10 years and about 6 weeks older than me. I graduated in '79, damn that was a long time ago.... So my grandson says....lol

And thanks to all for the likes on my interlock tower. I'm using it in my switchyard. I can't think of a better place for it. Just need to weather and get the landscaping in around it, but I have most of the layout behind it to get done first so I don't crush the foreground buildings and 'scaping. Still undecided about what and where I'm putting things.
 
Howdy ...

Everybody: ....Thanks for the comments and likes for my photos of the NP RS3's.

Alan ..... I like your Del Monte train.

Willie ......... HAPPY BIRTHDAY ! .......I like your layout photos today.

Dave LASM ..... I like today's photo from the archives.

Boris .... It is good seeing your layout progress, and a like the Baldwin double ended switcher.

Patrick .... The interlocking tower looks great.

Guy ..... Your lighting project look like it will be fun.

Troy ..... You are building an impressive layout.

Justin .... Your scene divider looks good so far.

Cheers !
 
Willie -- Happy Birthday. And many more to you!

Today it is a bit warmer -- 43F. It was sunny earlier today but has clouded up some and is no a bit overcast. No more warming sun through the window to warm up the house. Luckily we did get 3-4 deg F increase in the house before it clouded over.

nothing to report on the train side. Been distracted with some rifle building and getting my reloading presses back into action. Over t6he long holiday vacation I was able to clean up the man cave some and get one of my reloading presses cleaned up, repaired, upgraded with some cool after market parts, and used it to actually load 30 rounds of 300 AAC Blackout (300 BLK). I decided to finish one of my semi-built (for the last 7 years) rifles in 300 Blackout and ordered a barrel before Christmas. Got it all built up but of course need some ammo to run through it. I bought 100 cases and the stuff to convert bulk 223 cases to 300 BLK for more cases so was able to make 30 test rounds to try the rifle out and as a start to getting a good load. I'll test fire and work up from there. I may also load another 30 test using a heavier projectile.

The whole turn to my firearms hobby came about because my son wanted to put his rifle together. He had been collecting (read, getting for his B=day and other events) parts for the last 5 years. So that got me going again -- got his put together and also got me going again. My non-train man cave has both my reloading presses, my work bench for working on and building the rifles, plus all my woodworking equipment for making electric basses / guitars. But the room itself is not really big enough for any one of these, let alone all three, so I had to clean up a ton of wood dust, put stuff away, get stuff out, clean, fix, adjust, etc.

I am still slowly working on my train software for mac and iPhone -- my temporary re-assignment at work has kind of cause me to go slow ith the personal project since I am having to learn a bunch of new stuff for this assignment and my efforts are there temporarily...

Anyway, had to go back to work today -- always hard -- and staying focused is difficult after a long vacation and indulging in hobbies and family time for a week and a half.
 
Willie, 68 years ago, you were twice my age, not anywhere near that now. Mathematically, if we live long enough, I could catch up. Happy Birthday! I should post a train picture. This is SMVRR #205 when it was donated to the Santa Maria fairgrounds in the early 50s. Every kid in town played on it at one time or another til my co-worker and I moved it and the tender to the RR yard for it's trip to Oregon in 1983. It built a fire again about 3 years ago I hear...
SMVRR X205.jpg
 
Oh, and I forgot. Happy 11th Day of Christmas to everyone! Enjoy the 11 pipers piping!

Tomorrow will be the 12th Day of Christmas, which is 12 drummers drumming if you need gift ideas.

Then Epiphany / Three Kings Day on the 6th. That officially wraps up the Christmas season. We still have our tree up. We use a live tree purchased from a guy who cuts his own (by permit) from the local mountain forests. These trees are a bit "thinner" in their bushiness, which makes it easier to hang ornaments on since the ornaments are less likely to just sit on other branches, but they are also fresher, and used to the dry climate, so they last forever. Ours we've kept watered, and it has hardly dropped a needle (and we got it a few weeks before Christmas) and in fact most of the branches have up to a cm of new light green growth on them... We'll see how long after the 6th it stays up and how long it stays "fresh".
 
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