Running Bear's January 2021 Coffee Shop

[IronBeltKen]

Greetings Shop Dwellers, time for another 5-minute drive-by post! Currently 30*F and clear with a 3mph N wind. Luckily my area avoided the sn*w that is hitting Terry's region.

Luke - nice job on the details you added to the P2K GP18! To my untrained eye, the factory paint on your model looks like a fresh-painted version of this photo of 4318 I found on George Ellwood's website, except for it being faded with age. I always bleach my B&O loco models by airbrushing a heavily diluted layer of Tamiya Flat White over the shells. Here's a before n' after set of photos of a Genesis geep that I did that with:

...of course, I'm no expert on MoPac loco colors. But I've noticed that as prototype locos have been in service for awhile, their paint tends to fade to the point where no two of them look exactly the same. Just a little food-for-thought

Terry - I don't envy you having to deal with driving in that snow! My wife's experience during our last winter storm (dec16) is what convinced me I needed to invest in a snowblower for our 300ft driveway. Hope it gets here before the next time we get another nor'easter...

Speaking of which: I Called the trucking company today and was told there terminal had been "choked with traffic" ever since the holidays, with their being closed on weekends plus so many of their drivers taking vacation time. The customer service lady I spoke with promised that the terminal manager would "reach out" to me tomorrow to give me a clearer picture of when they'll deliver it; will believe that when I see it!

Time's up, I gotta hit the rack now - cheers!

 

[bnsf971]

Good morning. It's not snowing and 34. NWS says it's snowing, so it must be snowing at the airport (Smith Reynolds).

 

[2Tracks]

Hello Model Railroaders, welcome to the leading edge of the weekend! Freezing has gone, rain took it's place, that's good, I'll take it!
Ken, that is amazing that just doing that one step makes such a difference like that.
I do have a picture for weathering reference......(rust)

There was another TILX car that had the same kind of rust except more of it and it seemed to be brighter,--- burnt orange color.
Couldn't get a pic of that car.....

EVERY BODY HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

 

[Patrick]

Morning all,

Cloudy (still) and 30° this morning.

Son has his house. Seller had a inspection done, so after we walked through with the inspection, we tagged the things we thought were most important and what we could live with doing ourselves. Turns out he had ALL the flagged issues repaired and provided the names and service contracts for the stuff that was repaired. That means once we repaint the rooms to something other than white, and redo the floors (off the cuff bid was $2500 to sand and refinish) he's able to move in. Should speed him in by having a lot of what we thought we'd have to do done.

Still going to be a busy weekend.

I saw some weird hopper\gondola style cars being pulled this morning. Had rounded bottoms between the trucks (think loco fuel tanks) with tank car style roofs, but the cars were boxy not tank style. it was way too dark to get a good picture.

 

[kbkchooch]

Good morning gang!

28° and partly cloudy, Terry, keep that sn*w down south of us will ya, I just got my truck cleaned!!

Flo, a large cuppa Joe please, and a short stack of blueberry pancakes to start.

New vendor has been buying us lunch all week, pizza, fried shrimp and crab cakes today!!

I did get to the basement last night, but no train stuff. working on a 1:64 diecast race car, as a change of pace.

 

[MoPac_Eagle]

Good morning everyone.

The school has been shut down for the first time until January 19. We are going to be "all remote." I never thought I would say this but, I hate not being in school.

Ken- Thanks a lot! Now I have another GP18 I have to model. I am trying to model the engines (mostly GP7s, 9s, and 18s) that hung out around St. Louis, and you found another one! I weather my rolling stock, and I will be weathering my engines too. I just think the blue is too dark actually. I have to repaint it anyway because I have made too many paint chips and the old paint is cracking in some spots. Once it is done, it will get weathered. Nice job on the B&O Geeps, by the way.

Well, almost time for "school" to start, so see everyone later.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Cloudy and 41°. Not snowing here either. Sun might come out later today. Hasn't been out since Tuesday.
Happy Birthday today, Elvis. Yes, I know that "Elvis has left the building"! I believe that he would have been 86 today.
My life cycle is seemingly back to normal now that the Thursday grocery/beer trek is back on schedule. It went well yesterday despite having to take my wife along. She's not good at sticking to the pre-made list and wanders off occasionally. Then yesterday she abruptly left the store at 11:00 to go sit in the car to listen to Rush Limbaugh. Due to her back to back knee replacement surgeries, she hasn't been going with me too often for the past 18 months or so. Good news is though, that she has completely recovered even if she still doesn't walk as fast as I do.

Poached eggs and Taylor ham today Francine. Where's Flo? Whoops! Out back sneaking a smoke.

Thanks for the likes and comments regarding yesterday's current project pictures; Dave, James, Sherrel, Tom O, Karl, Chad, Hughie, Jerome, Luke, Tom, Justin, Guy, Ken, Troy, Rick, Jerry.

The layout cleanup project continues out in the train shed. Moving on down the line, the next structure to come off the layout for cleaning is a yet unnamed warehouse. This is also a Magnuson kit that I painted and assembled. It is named Cyclops Railroad Supply. This is the aisle side.

Backdrop side.

This kit resided in my barn for over 15 years before I opened it again and started assembly. One of the resin walls was badly warped and no amount of oven heating or hot water immersions could fix it. So I ended up cutting a piece of plywood to fit, and used epoxy and screws to straighten it out.

Other than reattaching the junk pile in the corner of the loading dock, this one just needed cleaning. Still haven't figured out what kind of industry it is yet, so I just switch boxcars occasionally.

Resuming the Year 2020 review, in June, I started the major project of constructing the town of Charlottesville, named after my granddaughter.
This is what I started with. A blank 2' x 16' canvas to work with.

Obviously first I finished painting and ballasting the track through here.
Progress shot.

Since I had many of the structures already built, this build only took around seven weeks to complete, well almost!

I cannot seem to be able to find a better shot right now.

Dave - I don't remember where I got that "Reddy Kilowatt" sign from, but that is an opportune place to use it. Wonder where he went?
Karl - I always loved those vendor lunches.

Everybody have a great day.

 

[Boris]

I always bleach my B&O loco models by airbrushing a heavily diluted layer of Tamiya Flat White over the shells.

Ken: Question, what ratio do you use to get the paint thin enough? Question #2 What do you use to thin it? nice fade on the B&O Geep.

Willie: Good fix on the Magnuson structure.

Another sunny and pleasant day, currently 29° going up near 40°. Heading out to HD and Staples in a little bit.

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Good Day Railroaders!
It is 41 degrees starting this day and the guessers say it will be 73 later on with variable clouds.
The Spousal Unit's knee replacement surgery, even though it was to be on an out-patient basis, has been cancelled. All elective surgery has been cancelled due to need of all medical personnel on deck.
According to first hand reports, every spare inch in the hospitals here are being utilized.

 

[McLeod]

Morning all!
I don't put a lot of faith into predictions, but, the story is that we are supposed to have a very mild January here in the NW. So far so good. This morning it dipped down to 18°F. Supposed to bounce back up to near 30 come the afternoon. - I saw a report yesterday, that the polar vortex is supposed to be swinging down into the east and missing us here in the west completely. If that's true, then the east coast might be in for some misery, even as far far south as Florida.
One things for sure; we haven't had much snow, and arn't expecting any for the next week. The snow shovel is feeling unloved.

After 3 days of solid ice-fishing, I'm just going to relax today. Perhaps I might get some modeling done. The wife is gone to work.
First, though, multiple coffees with 2-eggs over easy and link sausage well done. Whole-wheat toast.

Luke - You are a lucky feller to be still in school. Cherish the time, as it dosen't last. - It's my wish on the stars to be back there.

Ken - I like the diluted flat white idea to bleach an engine a-bit. Thank you for the suggestion and photos. I'm thinking very diluted white, and less is more in this case. Probably best to set the paint application bar low and work ones way up.

Gregmnrr - I like the casted pedestrian figure in your photo. Good idea!

Joe - Always great photos shared by you. The scenery in the photos attracts me just as much as the equipment.

Jerry - Thanks for the rust-streaked hopper photo. There are companies producing paints that will simulate that effect very well (Mig and AK, eg).

Curt - The track layout on your center peninsula table looks so beautifully symmetrical; it's like an artwork.

Willie - It's very interesting to follow you along in the train shed. I wondering if all the structures are just sitting on the layout free and unsecured?
I had a mind to glue mine down, but on second thoughts, perhaps that's not a good idea. Someone brought up the idea of using rare-earth magnets; a thought that I like.

Here is todays photo series; a lumber loaded center-beam flat. As it happens, the cargo is made by the company where my wife works. West Fraser has a sawmill and MDF plant in our local:

I photographed this car in 3 sections, so I could read the information along the side frame:

I suppose this is about as long a post as I've ever made on this forum. Hope the photos help out some folks who may not have access to the real thing.

I did download the photos I've taken onto a flash drive so I can bring them into court next Tuesday. There is 1,114 photos of CN activities 2020 here in Whitecourt on that card. Hoping it all helps me in the court case coming up. I have a plan!

Have a great day!

 

[TLOC]

Good morning from still gloomy but overcast not foggy So. Central Wisconsin. High today might be 29 and that also is the current temperature.

No time yesterday at all in the train room. Helped Terry clean. The usual vacuuming days are M/W/F and I have been doing those since we left North Central Wisconsin at retirement in 2014. 25+ years before that I hired a cleaning service to clean and it was great. We moved down here and for 800 sq ft. less of a house to clean was almost 3 times more per week. I can vacuum and dust and do. Takes me at least a couple hours.

I did test positive from the Covid test, I can test again Tuesday. Therefore I still have to isolate, not happy but can’t do anything about it.

McLeod, absolutely love your pictures both from the ice and your rail pictures. When I had access I didn’t take enough CN pictures. Now I am very far away from any decent train activity. I model 2015 and orginally was prototype modeling of the CN’s Valley Sub in Wisconsin. Now I freelance, or working on it but still the Valley Sub except in my modeling world the CN sold the Valley Sub to my railroad.

Enjoy your day
TomO

 

[GarryCBQ]

Good morning ....

I've been really busy the last two days. ..... Among various things, I was at the at the oral surgeon Wednesday getting implants in my mouth.

Yesterday, I had the first dose of the Covid vaccine. Second dose will be 28 days after that. ....... One of our sons has been very sick with Covid for about a week and a half. Now, he is slowly improving. His wife (our DIL) also has Covid, but her symptoms are not very bad.

I see I have much to catch up on here. There are many posts including pictures of your model railroads. A lot of stuff going on in your lives, too. Thanks to all contributors who keep this place so interesting.

Tom O ..... I just saw your post saying you tested positive. I hope yours is the kind with no symptoms.

WIllie .... You certainly keep busy on your layout. Hats off to you for that. I like the red and silver Santa Fe locomotives .

Ken ..... The B&O geep weathering looks good.

 

[Texas Hobo]

Good Morning all. A rather cool sunny morning here, 48 degrees with a prediction of 55. It's not to bad if you stay out of the northerly wind.
Not a lot happening on the layout though I did manage to put in some of the roadway. I did come up with a name, Apple Ridge Rail Services. Yea, I thought about that too, arse. Been spending some time working on my version of Car Cards and Switch List in Excel. I used to be very good at Excel, but it is amazing how much you can forget when you haven't done something for 10 years. It is coming back, though slowly.

STAY SAFE

LATER

 

[GeeTee]

I read that some where on the order 10,000-20,000 postal workers have bee quarantined and over 7,000 have tested positive .....BUT ITS OK TO OPEN YOUR MAIL...good luck.
The reason the mail is not being delivered is they didn't think you REALLY wanted it right now.

The counts here in TX looks like close to 7% of the population has or has had the virus. Being mid winter I suspect its going to be closer to 15% -20% by the time spring gets here .

The CDC has recommended that postal workers be next in line . Of course its easy to make recommendations , you just write it on a piece of paper and stick it in the mail...

 

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

Just got back from the hospital with Mom for her Biopsy. I didn't post yesterday since I didn't get home until 7 pm after Mom's 2 MRI's. I got up early this morning for the supposed 7 am start time. What a joke, she actually started at 10:30 am. Got to love hospitals-not! Tomorrow I hope to hook up the reverse loop on the peninsula.

Thank you for the likes for the photos I shared.

I noticed that the WI snowbird is back again. He rents a room in a house in our cul-de-sac but acts like he is a home owner with the personality of a 2x4.

Joe- Nice 1:1 photos.

Greg- Great layout photo.

Guy- It just turned out that way.

Hughie- I would like to do something with car cards and waybills but I tried the Micro Mark system several years ago and I found it complicated.

TomO- Interesting looking trees. We don't get much of that in FL. Hope you have no symptoms.

Justin- Great video about DCC frustrations.

MoPac- I have a Polaroid Cube (1 inch square). It has a removable SD card and does great video. I think it goes for around $100.

Willie- Nice layout scenes.

Dave LASM- Nice layout shot.

I hope everyone has a good night.

 

[logandsawman]

Good afternoon, it is 23 and cloudy. We got about 1/2" of snow last night.

I walk to work, it is about 1/2 mile on city streets. I cross the Green Line light rail at University avenue along the way. There were some slippery spots but it wasn't to bad.

I started on a cool new model I purchased on ebay. Will have photos to post next week.

TomO - sounds frustrating to get the + again.

THANKS for likes and comments

Shot of my Proto 2000 on my old layout:

more later, Dave

 

[Alcomotive]

I read that some where on the order 10,000-20,000 postal workers have bee quarantined and over 7,000 have tested positive .....BUT ITS OK TO OPEN YOUR MAIL...good luck.
The reason the mail is not being delivered is they didn't think you REALLY wanted it right now.

The counts here in TX looks like close to 7% of the population has or has had the virus. Being mid winter I suspect its going to be closer to 15% -20% by the time spring gets here .

The CDC has recommended that postal workers be next in line . Of course its easy to make recommendations , you just write it on a piece of paper and stick it in the mail...

Ya and don't forget to lick the envelope and the stamp lol

 

[CambriaArea51]

Afternoon, working on a couple of sound system installs in locomotives.
Willie- Interesting that you ballest the track first. I've always done it last, basically landscape towards the track.

 

[LesterL]

To Hughie, Texas Hobo and anyone else who is interested there is a car forwarding program on ebay named "Waybills that I have been using for the last 25+ years and I have a ball. I think the cost is $40.00

 

[Texas Hobo]

Afternoon All,

Just got back from the hospital with Mom for her Biopsy. I didn't post yesterday since I didn't get home until 7 pm after Mom's 2 MRI's. I got up early this morning for the supposed 7 am start time. What a joke, she actually started at 10:30 am. Got to love hospitals-not! Tomorrow I hope to hook up the reverse loop on the peninsula.

Thank you for the likes for the photos I shared.

I noticed that the WI snowbird is back again. He rents a room in a house in our cul-de-sac but acts like he is a home owner with the personality of a 2x4.

Joe- Nice 1:1 photos.

Greg- Great layout photo.

Guy- It just turned out that way.

Hughie- I would like to do something with car cards and waybills but I tried the Micro Mark system several years ago and I found it complicated.

TomO- Interesting looking trees. We don't get much of that in FL. Hope you have no symptoms.

Justin- Great video about DCC frustrations.

MoPac- I have a Polaroid Cube (1 inch square). It has a removable SD card and does great video. I think it goes for around $100.

Willie- Nice layout scenes.

Dave LASM- Nice layout shot.

I hope everyone has a good night.

If I can get my ideas to work I will share. I have Car Cards working, just a redesign of what I found on the web, The switch list is what I'm hoping to use for an operating session.