Running Bear's January 2021 Coffee Shop


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I don't even like the ones made by 3M! Recipe for disaster they are. If I can't solder it and shrink wrap it, I won't trust it. All it takes is yanking out a clump of hair a time or 2 to teach you.
I ordered five terminal strips with jumper bars to put under my layout

Karl and Guy: Not for nothing, Suitcase connectors really are not the way to go...For me, neither are soldered spliced. I do like the idea of terminal strips, and I'll admit, I never thought of jumper bars. Lowes and HD are really not the places to shop for this stuff either. Especially that NOW I'm in the mood to and feel well enough to do it. Tomorrow, I haveto solder a couple of feed wires to the a siding, and "re-power" a chunk of the Reading main that was previously powered by 20ga wire, held together by wire nuts. (Jumpers bypassing insulated frogs.) That's right, the two rails were the buss, and the wires jumped dead frogs...Nothing sophisticated on the C&DR. Now, that I am re-doing this "correctly", the old way no longer works.
Lesson learned...what's there is there, for better or worse. I have four more sections to build, and I'm going to be more careful about pre-wiring and labeling the feeds.
 
Hypothetically speaking, if one wanted to research what sort of "intermodal" train cars say, UP uses (better uses in this area) in the modern era, where would one look? I've been trying to use a search engine but don't get any substance.

Looking at models of various well cars, flat cars, cars with trailers on them, etc. I see all sorts and not all are connected to a RR company and I am not sure what would be valid for UP
A look at RR picture archives list nothing for UP well cars. I've only seen UP with other (TTX for example) on their trains. A source would Youtube and watch older videos like early 90's to confirm. With that said you then have to look at other railroads that UP bought. One that comes to mind is Southern Pacific who did have well cars. I Looked at Google images also.
 
Hypothetically speaking, if one wanted to research what sort of "intermodal" train cars say, UP uses (better uses in this area) in the modern era, where would one look? I've been trying to use a search engine but don't get any substance.

Looking at models of various well cars, flat cars, cars with trailers on them, etc. I see all sorts and not all are connected to a RR company and I am not sure what would be valid for UP
 
Good Morning from Southern Oregon, Model Railroaders! Hope this day finds everybody well! Took me pert neer 2 hours to catch up on the happenings here.... Ran out of WI-FI time last week. When I use up my allotted gigs, bits, what ever, the transfer rate drops, no sense in even getting on the 'puter then, if you know what I mean. Really tired of US Cell! (internet supplier) That's going to change shortly. And just got another rate increase from Dish! They too are in for a dumping! OK, I'm calm now.... ;)
Flo, can I get a short stack of french toast with a side of biscuit/gravy and a couple of over easy eggs on top please? large glass o milk, thanks.......
Great progress on layouts, projects through out the forum, along with an infusion of new blood, that's nice.

BE ALERT--BE SAFE!
 
Tom-C - I had to laugh when I read your post about the bird feeder. We have squirrels constantly devouring the seeds we put into our feeders for the birds; they always seem to find ways to either outsmart the anti-squirrel devices, or - when that fails - literally chew thru them! I asked my wife if she'd like to see raptors swoop down and devour the squirrels, but she said "Absolutely not - that would be too gruesome!" 😄

You just gave me an idea for a side business for 2-3 days a week after retirement. "Rent a raptor" I just need a hawk or falcon that wont stray more than a half mile from a moveable perch. I can set it up and leave the bird for some time until the problems are gone, then move on to the next house!
$$$$$$ always thinking !! ;)
 
Morning all,

Time for a cup and a Western Omelet.

Well, the truck and paperwork showed up on time, and 15 minutes later the wife and I were on the road taking the old truck 75 miles away to the daughter who thinks she can get a good price for it. Drove the new one this morning really for the first time. Almost got the first deer with the new truck as well. Gotta get the brighter bulbs in the new truck.

Armor All ought to be made illegal. They used it on almost every surface, so the steering wheel, rubber floor mats and door panels are slicker than heck. Once it starts really evaporating in the sun, it will take some time to get the glaze of the stuff off the inside of the windshield. I never liked the stuff. I'll toss a couple of pictures of the truck up once the sun comes up.

Son-in-law listed the truck for $3800 and has had several inquiries. The old one still looks good and runs, albeit it is starting to get a little rough. Someone with shop space can have a pretty good little truck for not much outlay. I have neither the space, tools or time.
 
Good morning y'all. Looks like we might be experiencing a heat wave here, It's already out of the 30s and isn't even 8am yet.

Flo- coffee and bacon please, I'll decide if I'm having breakfast after the coffee works.

PRR & IBKen- I noticed the lower kink right after I pinned the track in place, but I had a very eager 4 year old waiting to see trains run so I didn't take the time to fix it. Didn't make the connection to derailment because the diesel passes through just fine. I had not previously noticed the upper kink, or the uneven joints in the top curve. I'm planning to rotate the track slightly and reposition the inside sidings for extended length. I also want to duplicate the outside siding on the lower right to serve for future expansion on both ends.

I've been thinking about what industries I can fit inside my oval and I've decided one will be the transfer terminal between the rail line and the company owned truck line, but I'm still stumped on what to put on the second siding, but I'm sure I'll think of something. I plan to scratch build these buildings anyway, so that will keep me busy for a while. I am still a ways off from being able to start my downtown district, but my inner story teller has been working on the backstory of one of the town's residents, the previously mentioned owner of The Sole Man Shoes. Once I get it organized into a cohesive format I'll post it over in the Nathan's Crossroads thread in the Project Room for anyone who is interested.

Gotta head out soon, life in the trenches is calling and I have a lot of pipe to lay today. 🤪 Get your heads out of the gutter gents, I'm referring to corrugated drain pipe. Y'all have a blessed day and try to stay out of trouble, which might be difficult if Willie keeps posting all them girlie pics of his. 🤣
 
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Good Morning All. Overcast and 44°. Radar shows that it's raining here, but I just made a trip to the woodpile and didn't feel any. But I expect that I will see some before too long.

I'll start the day with a pair of sunny side up eggs and a plateful of sausage links this morning Flo.

Thanks as always for the likes and comments regarding the recent layout pictures; Karl, Patrick, Gary, Guy, Sherrel, Tom O, Justin, Dave, Jerome, Hughie, Phil, Tom, Ken, Garry, Rick, Joe, Jerry.

What the heck do in the train shed yesterday? Well I added some of those trees that I made Monday to more fully enhance the trailer scene. Just need a couple more to shield the trailers from the ROW.
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I started the new feed store kit by taking out and examining the parts.
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Added the stripwood roof supports.
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Later after the wind died down I went outside added primer to both sides. Too late for a picture but it wouldn't be too interesting any way.
Meanwhile since the girlie pictures have elicited so much comment, Here's a few more.
Here's one with Sherrel in it!
IMG_5553.JPG

A couple of girls looking for dates outside the Coco Club.
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And even girls have hobbies
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Jesse - Get well soon. The NMRA gauge is an invaluable tool, although I don't have as much of a need for it anymore. I still need it to check wheel gauge on locos when I overhaul them though. Used it all of the time when I was still using plastic wheels on the freight cars...they always seemed to slip out of gauge.
Joe - Bet that you're glad that your wiring project isn't as complex as some of your recent prototype pictures!
Karl -
Hmmmm, lotsa legs in Willieland!
Ya gotta have legs to stand up!
Guy - I have been sold on terminal strips for many years.
Mo - Dad must be in real good shape if he didn't have a heart attack when that picture was taken!;)
Hughie - Great scene.
Jerry - I guess that I am spoiled in my corner of rural America. My Internet has come from my local phone company located in a town of 1500 folks, for about 30 years (mid-1991). There has never been limits and everyone was upgraded to DSL around 2004. We now have fiber optic service (courtesy of a grant from Uncle Sam to upgrade rural services) and everything happens almost instantly. Never raised their prices and the upgrades were all at no cost except for the new router/wifi when it switched to fiber optics. Interesting sidenote. One of my neighbors who had dropped his landline about ten years ago, had to pay for the fiber optic service to his house. Those of us who had maintained our landlines received the installation for free. The neighbor just couldn't keep up reading stuff on his phone's small screen and he was forever running over his data limit.
Patrick - Good luck with and enjoy the "new" truck.

Speaking of legs, I have a leg of lamb thawing for supper tonight. Got it on sale last week at Winco.
Today is National Cheese Lovers Day. I fit into that category very much. Wife and I actually have over 20 different varieties in the fridge right now, and I consume at least three varieties a day. She eats more, but some of hers are real niche varieties that I don't often indulge in.
So, everybody have a great day. Be safe. It's still not raining yet.
 
Morning fellers. I completed my scene divider last night. Its officially ready for plaster! So here soon there will be no cardboard strips and paper balls for my landscape. Didnt get around to looking at my GP7. I did run it through its motions last night without its headlights. Who's gonna see it anyways? I do have some grain of wheat bulbs I could use. They are 12V bulbs so I won't need any resistors. I actually lost one of my bluebox sd40s because the one installed was against the cab. It kinda melted it. This was a while ago however. That's all I have for now. I'll stop by later if I get the chance. Yall have a good day.
 
Ahhh..... Armor All....

Once upon a time in the 1980’s I was a service manager for an independent car dealership, and we hired a new detailer. He seemed to think the answer to everything was “more Armor All”. I had to run an errand, and grabbed a freshly-detailed 1976 Thunderbird to drive. This particular car had vinyl bench seats. I pulled out of the lot and made a U-turn. Well, I actually pulled out of the lot and started driving in circles in the middle of the road after I slid across the seat, and couldn’t reach the steering wheel.
When it was all over, I forgot what errand I was going to do, and we had a new opening for a detailer.
 
Morning!
Blizzard force winds developed yesterday late afternoon and there is still a very healthy breeze this morning. It's been suggested those winds came in around the 50mph mark. Right now, it's still a warm 30°F, but, those darn winds are going to blow away the heat and bring in the cold. Supposed to be closer to 5°F come next weekend.

Karl - I like the 'Rent-a-Raptor' idea. Problem is, you'd have Peta demonstrators chaining themselves to the front door of head office. And you can't kick them.
Willie - All the cool girlie figures you have are very good. Thinking about it; when I try to remember the pretty girls walking down our town streets, I can't seem to remember if they were accompanied by men. Never notice them. So, I suppose it seems very realistic to have many pretty girls on the layout. - I also noticed on Montanan's layout, that he has a pretty girl sunbathing down by the lake. Can't remember if she was with someone.
Patrick - We'll need a photo of the new truck, or it didn't happen. I can't show you a photo of the big fish I caught yesterday; because it didn't happen.
Joe - I am very grateful that you have found value in some of my recent post's involving layout wiring/soldering. Here I sit as a newcomer in the train hobby facing those with years of experience, and you make me feel like I've got something to share. Thank you for your kind words.

Also, thanks to all who have liked and commented on my past posts.

As you know, we went fishing yesterday, so I don't have fresh hobby related photos to post this morning. You'll have to settle for prototype photos.
Here we have a review of GNRR center-beam flat 7386, blt.:10-96.
GNRR is Georgia Northeastern RR.. Seems weird to me that a flat-car from so far away found it's way up here in the northwest. It also seems so complicated to keep track of these railcars all over the continent; that I don't even want to know how it's done. Here's some photo's:
CntrBm_GNRR7386_09-07-2020 (2).jpg

CntrBm_GNRR7386_09-07-2020 (3).jpg

CntrBm_GNRR7386_09-07-2020 (4).jpg

CntrBm_GNRR7386_09-07-2020 (5).jpg

CntrBm_GNRR7386_09-07-2020 (6).jpg

CntrBm_GNRR7386_09-07-2020 (7).jpg

There! That otta give you an idea what a rusted-up flatcar looks like, just incase you want to weather up your current roster.

Have a great day!
 
Hypothetically speaking, if one wanted to research what sort of "intermodal" train cars say, UP uses (better uses in this area) in the modern era, where would one look? I've been trying to use a search engine but don't get any substance.

Looking at models of various well cars, flat cars, cars with trailers on them, etc. I see all sorts and not all are connected to a RR company and I am not sure what would be valid for UP


RR Archives is a good place to look but when researching UP. I always go to Don Strack site as he is basically a historian of UP.



He also covers other RRs including:

Utah Railroads
Rio Grande
Utah Railway
Southern Pacific
Western Pacific
UTA Trax and Frontrunner
Street Railroads
Amtrak
 
Good morning on this great day of peaceful change. It is cool in So. Central Wisconsin at 8f degrees with the wind chill of -3. It is sunny and of course breezy with about an inch or 2 of new white.

My Covid test again came back positive and I have restarted my Lymes medicines. I feel good and there is no need to worry about me as I have no symptoms as I am a carrier. I am now on the Wisconsin vaccine list as priority 65+ with medical needs. Maybe in a couple weeks. Isolation continues for me.

The small stresses I have had were alleviated last night with what my wife, daughter and women world wide do. Retail therapy, and my PayPal account took a big hit and it works, I am happy.

be well, be safe, wear the mask
TomO
 
Good morning, y'all. 32°, breezy, with mixed clouds and sun. This morning's thin coating of snow, will be gone before long, without human intervention.

Yesterday, we picked up the wife's re-fill for Rinvoq, her RA medication. This is the fourth purchase, and the fourth different price. (Same pharmacy and Part D Plan). It was $100 over what I calculated, based on Plan literature. I would like to spar with their customer service reps over the pricing, but need more information, which won't be available until early March. (Convenient, eh). Next month, will be the big cost,(over $1200.00), and from then, it will decline, for the balance of the year...Not much I can do about the cost, but it would be nice if I was able to budget for it....

Bet that you're glad that your wiring project isn't as complex as some of your recent prototype pictures!
Willie: Yeah, true...now you know why I chose an Industrial operation, based of Manual Block Rules...simplified operation. ;)

I am very grateful that you have found value in some of my recent post's involving layout wiring/soldering. Here I sit as a newcomer in the train hobby facing those with years of experience, and you make me feel like I've got something to share. Thank you for your kind words.

Guy: Not for nothing, being "new" to the hobby, does not diminish your other skills, (like soldering). As long as I have been in this hobby...dating back to before my railroad career...I have been challenged by some of the aspects of the hobby. When someone, as yourself shares a new technique, that is better than what I'm doing, I appreciate it.

Ken: Nice mod on the F7 :) That baby is going to look great.

Chad: I may have some useful information to share. When I managed South Kearny and North Bergen Intermodal Terminals, we saw all sorts of contemporary intermodal equipment coming in and out of the terminals daily. I'm pretty certain that that would apply industry wide. So for modeling purpose, any era appropriate equipment would be OK.

First of 25 additional ALP45DPs NJT 4535 deliverd to NJT's MMC from Port Newark on 1-18-2021.jpg

Marc Glucksman captured this Conrail crew leaving Port Newark Marine Terminal with the new ALP45DP, (Dual mode), motor, to deliver it to South Kearny Yard, for interchange with NJT, on 01-18-2021. (The NJT Meadows maintenance Complex, is adjacent to CSX South Kearny Intermodal Terminal, which is served by Conrail).
 
Good Morning all! Well we awoke to a thick fog. It's mornings like this I'm glad I don't need to drive. Predicted to burn off by noon.
Thanks to all for the "like" on the Earl's Oil scene. It's funny, you take a picture, post it and while you are looking at it you see the oops. I notice the crossbuck was turned the wrong side out.
Some really great photos from you guys.
Today's project should be wiring up the program track. Maybe, might, it's a possibility, I really ought to.

STAY SAFE
LATER
 
My Covid test again came back positive and I have restarted my Lymes medicines. I feel good and there is no need to worry about me as I have no symptoms as I am a carrier. I am now on the Wisconsin vaccine list as priority 65+ with medical needs. Maybe in a couple weeks. Isolation continues for me.

Tom: Not for nothing, have you considered that the test is faulty? Considering your isolation, it is highly unlikely that you would continue to be a "carrier", this long. The key to this is the lab reading and interpreting the tests, as well as the chain of custody for the specimen. Maybe you should try a different testing site, or a different test.
 
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