Running Bear's July 2020 Coffee Shop

[bnsf971]

This is the new place. Don't set off fireworks inside, the fire marshal gets annoyed when we do that.

 

[Bruette]

Good Morning Everybody!

Terry, thanks for always filling in the blanks.

 

[Patrick]

New digs!!!!

Love the color scheme!!! Coffee this morning, Flo. My week is on the downhill!!

I has a little time last night (about an hour) and did a little more on the fire station. Biggest issue is waiting for paint to dry....

Supposed to be another day like yesterday, we hit 100* and heat index of 109*. Today 101* and heat index of 110* depending on which weather forecast you believe.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Partly cloudy and 77°, a tiny bit cooler than yesterday. Yesterday's range of temperature was rather limited (12°) for this time of year, with a morning low of 79° and an afternoon high of only 91°. The forecast was for 97° which it is again today. Ongoing heat advisory in effect until September. No rain in sight!
Thanks for opening this morning Terry. I'll hold on to my fireworks for Saturday night in the freshly plowed field across the road.
Phew! Mowed the south, southwest and back yard yesterday. Always the toughest because of the septic system over in the SW, and the landscaping/pool around the house. Of course, due to the dry conditions and the wind, there's a layer of mower ejaculate all over the pool surface that the skimmer is still working on. Today, I tackle the NW part around the train shed, might even feel like hitting part of the "back forty".
Granddog has thus far survived "roughing it" here, since I forgot her bed back in Dallas. She got to chase an armadillo early this morning before dawn. Those things move surprisingly fast for such awkward looking creatures. I think that Sherrel has a story about that from his youth many decades ago.

Nothing special for me this morning Flo, just a pair of over-easy eggs, a double stack of sausage patties and a toasted whole wheat English Muffin.

Thanks for the likes and comments on the structure progress yesterday: Jerome, Guy, Chad, Sherrel, Dave, Patrick, James, Curt, Tom, Garry, Ken.

Worked a bit on the CUP yesterday out in the train shed. Started with this incomplete grade crossing.

Friday at the LHS, I purchased a twelve pack of Blair Line grade crossings, as they are easier to use than building my own from individual ties.

They are made for narrower crossings and are a scale 26' wide. I needed them wider to accommodate the pedestrian traffic there. So I used three and cut one in half, thus obtaining a 39' length. I beveled the corners and leading edge, both because that's what they look like in the real world, but also as a precautionary measure against dragging equipment.

Followed that up with a coat of brown India Ink.

Then on to the installation. Pretty simple process with these.

I use Walther's Goo to fasten them in place. Note that in this crossing, I have run the road surface right up to the rails instead of using the outside wooden entry's. Can't remember what they are called.
Once they were in place for a bit, I ran trains through to check clearance. All is well
Since I am at a standstill on the last structure, I got out another that I purchased for this project.

Haven't done anything except open the package and remove the parts, since I had already switched to running trains. Jessica's Salon is a Smalltown structure meant for a corner location. This will work for me even though it isn't destined for a corner location. It almost is! More later.

Chet -

They look just like the ones I use for my Husqvarna deck.

Good eye, I use Husqvarna blades.
Ray - I get the blocked video message as well. Yesterday's series of shots detailing the wheel/axle change-out was quite informative.
Raging question: I know that you are from the land down-under and you guys drive on the wrong side of the road and all that other stuff. I have a question that I always wanted to know. Of course your cars have the driver controlls on the right, but what about the pedal arrangement on the floorboard? On my manual shift car, the gas pedal is on the right, brake in the middle and clutch on the left. Is it the same on your cars or reversed?

Today is Canada Day for all of our north of the border friends and visitors. Happy Canada Day to all. And I remembered that today is officially the halfway point this year.
Have a great day everyone. Keep cool.

 

[MikeInHubCity]

Louis & Joe- Happy Bobby Bo Day. For those north of the SLS & 49th Parallel, Happy Canada Day .
Flo- I’ll have some hash & eggs with a cuppa black joe please.

 

[TLOC]

Good morning from So. Central Wisconsin. I am the new guy here. Joined the forum a few months ago but have been reading the Coffee Shop and hopefully you won’t mind me joining in. I live outside of Madison, Wisconsin in a city called Verona. Retired to here from north Central Wi. in 2014. I always have enjoyed modeltrains but finally built the first layout in 25 years. Like many even without the layout I kept buying. I now free lance after trying the protolayout style for 5 years but found it too constricting. I model my version of the CN Valley Sub in Central Wisconsin. I love Paper Mills and Ethanol plants and will find them on my shelf layout. Hope you all have a great safe day.

TomO

 

[Patrick]

Good morning from So. Central Wisconsin. I am the new guy here. Joined the forum a few months ago but have been reading the Coffee Shop and hopefully you won’t mind me joining in. I live outside of Madison, Wisconsin in a city called Verona. Retired to here from north Central Wi. in 2014. I always have enjoyed modeltrains but finally built the first layout in 25 years. Like many even without the layout I kept buying. I now free lance after trying the protolayout style for 5 years but found it too constricting. I model my version of the CN Valley Sub in Central Wisconsin. I love Paper Mills and Ethanol plants and will find them on my shelf layout. Hope you all have a great safe day.

TomOView attachment 114885

All are welcome. Feel free to join in and I like the photo of your layout!

 

[GarryCBQ]

Good morning

Terry ... Thanks for starting July coffee shop.

Tom O ... Welcome ! Nice photo of your layout.

Willie ... Nice work on the grade crossing.

Everybody... Have a good day.

 

[Greg@mnrr]

Tom: Welcome to the Forum and the Coffee Shop. I been to the Paper Valley and Nekooso, Wisconsin and seen the paper mills first hand. Very interesting operations with lots of rail action.

Great photo of your layout...!

Greg

 

[Sirfoldalot]

TomO - Welcome aboard ... nice picture of your layout ... hope you show us more. Always glad to see new folks in the coffee shop ... we may need to build an addition onto the side?

Willie - You better put up some warning signs at that crossing? The approaches look as if they could launch "General Lee" into the next county! I hope that the semi's don't hang up there?
I did not realize that I had told the armadillo story?

Weather is nice - partly sunny and breezy with a high around 83 - so they say?

 

[Greg@mnrr]

Good Morning Everyone....another hot and tropical day here in Wisconsin.

Deciding when I should go out and water some new grass seed where we had the ash tree removed. The seed is growing nice and I don't want to lose it. The neighbor also had a tree removed and we water his seed and ours when we are home and he does the watering when we are gone. The Mrs finally purchased a nice flexible hose and it replaces a hose that is as flexible as a steel pipe.

Going down to the train room after lunch with no real plans other than some cleanup and run the six axle units. No problems with derailing with the earlier Life-Like, Proto, Broadway or KATO locomotives, but problems mainly with newer Athearn units. I made some adjustments to the wheel-sets on the troublesome locos and that seemed to reduce derailments.

Finally, made up my mind how to scenic the small area between the interlocking tower and the tracks. It will be a sandy area for storage of drums, ties and rails. I add laid down a base of white glue followed by some "Real Gravel" and some weeds and then top coating of Woodland's Scenic Cement.

I like Woodland's Scenic cement for scenery for its wetting and holding abilities. I prefer white glue for track ballasting since it can be dissolved in water easier and faster than Woodland's. I also pre-wet the areas with a few drops of alcohol.

Chet: Great photos of your locomotives on the Livingston Club layout.

Willie: I still didn't get any of your tomatoes! Nice grade crossing. When riding our GoldWing(s) I always kept an eye out out for the armadillos crossing the highways. I would hate to hit one with the front wheel of the motorcycle!!!

Thanks everyone for your comments on my recent photo of the grade crossing and junk yard.

Happy Canada Day to all our friends across the border. I always enjoy visiting Canada and the hospitality shown to us.

That's all for now....

Greg

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[ShermanHill]

TomO

Nice trees!!! Really.

 

[TLOC]

Nice trees!!! Really.

Thank you. For the most part I followed the Luke Towan method on wire tree armatures. All in the picture but 1 tree (the dead pine on the right) are wire armatures trees. Created during a stretch of 3 or 4 NHL nights on the IPad Pro when they still played a few years ago. I can do about 30 complete trees during a Wednesday night double header of games. That is the only time a TV is on in the trainroom. IPad at the bench tuned to a game. The picture is my recreation of the tree tunnel on the Valley Sub north of the Paper Mill and Mosinee, Wi. along old Hwy 51.
TomO

I also have Bull Junior Creek.

 

[PRR Modeler]

Good Afternoon,

Spent a miserable night last night getting little sleep. This morning I did routine pool maintenance and was soaking wet from sweat when done. I cleaned up and worked on the last module. I finished up with cutting bracing and painting it which left me dripping sweat again. Unfortunately there were issues with the commissary so I'll probably be grocery shopping tomorrow. I hope to finish the last module tomorrow and get it mounted.

Louis- Nice picture. I actually lucked out several years ago visiting Horseshoe Curve. A historical group had a excursion being pulled by the NKP 765 with the second motive power unit being the one in your photo. Totally luck of the draw, but it was awesome. Too bad my photos were lost when Photobucket tried holding everyone hostage.

Willie- Very nice job on the road crossing.

Greg- Nice dirty looking switcher.

TomO- Welcome, you're always welcome and very nice scenes from your layout.

Joe- I hope you continue to do well.

I hope everyone has a good night.

 

[chadbag]

Welcome TomO. I look forward to more pics of your layout and other stuff.

 

[Boris]

Good afternoon y'all. I had my second and final visiting nurse visit, and my fifth and final visiting Physical Therapy visit yesterday. Had a good workout, really put some strain on those tight muscles in my left leg. And today, I'm paying the price. Tomorrow, I begin Out patient Physical Therapy, and Monday, I see the Surgeon.

The Train room is off limits for now, although I am doing stairs a couple times a day. Not much else going on here.

The 5:05 PM for Jersey City and NYC waits departure from Philadelphia's Reading Terminal in 1952.

 

[Flip]

Like the decor. Thanks TERRY.
Welcome TOMO. Very nice layout you have.

Phil

 

[montanan]

Good afternoon. What the heck happened to June ??? Nothing new on this end. Partly cloudy skies but it is warming up now in the mid 70's. Called down to the Nevada Northern Railway Museum to see if there were any restrictions and found out they due to the virus, they are only running on weekends. Bummer. May put it off until next year..

Terry - Nice of the host to get the new place up and running.

Ray - They did mention that it was the longest stretch of straight track in the world. Sounds like it would be one heck of a trip. Stops along the route to the small towns sounds interesting too. When I was in the Navy we stopped in Perth to fuel up and then sailed east to Sydney where we visited for 10 days.

Willie - I like the grade crossing kits. I had looked at them but many of my crossings were either at a curve or across switched. Also I have all code 70 rail and I believe that were too thick, especially looking at your photo. Couldn't use them. Good photos.

TomO - Welcome aboard. Nice photo. Keep them coming.

Greg - Love the weathering job on that locomotive. You'll have to get after the shop and get them cleaned up a bit.

Curt - Nice to see you continuing work on the bench work. Don't miss that constant sweating down there. I could never take the Florida Humidity. Nice and dry up here.

Joe - I know the feeling after a good workout with the PT, but it sure sped up the recovery. Had the shoulder replaced in May and was parcticing bowling with it in August. Keep up the work. Cool photo.

Guess I'll have to go into the archives for q few photos today.

Later

 

[chadbag]

So our house plans were finally approved yesterday. I should get the permit paid this week so we will be good to start. Still finalizing the construction loan but I have some cash on hand to start the excavating.

I think we could have been approved a month ago but there was a communication mix-up between the city and the junior architect who was handling the submission. They said we needed one more "architectural decorative feature" or some such non-sense back in mid-May and we decided to do the "porch swing", which was on their list of choices. The architect replied with that choice but it was not reflected on the plans. When we re-submitted they did not see any "choice" and so came back to use a week and a half ago with the same "comment"/"demand". So this time the porch swing was added to the actual plan, not just as a note, as previously, but also shown. And re-submitted last week. Got that item checked off.

There was also a list of issues from the "code" side of the permitting process back in May, and we quickly answered all those, but there was one that had been neglected as it required some electrical calculations -- we were finally able to get those calculations confirmed by an electrician and submitted last week and so we are now approved.

 

[CambriaArea51]

Afternoon, had to get coffee in the old place this morning, the paint wasn't dry yet. 90's for a week or so,pool is getting a workout and so is my water meter.