Running Bear's July 2020 Coffee Shop

[CambriaArea51]

Could be the cure we've been looking for and it's right under are noses.

 

[MikeInHubCity]

Good Morning Everyone.......sunny here in this part of Wisconsin. Could use some rain.

Trip to the hospital (clinic) today and then out for dinner which ruins anytime for model railroading.

Sherrel: You're correct about losing all interest in major league sports. I don't need watch them to see various politic and other agendas presented before, during or after the game. It should be sports and only sports related. The police brutality stickers now being allowed on NFL helmets this season was pushed me over the edge. I guess not watching any professional teams and maybe include college sports now that they want to pay college players, I'll have more time for model railroading.

It's been taking since April to get credit for two cable boxes we returned to ATT. It still isn't resolved and we're paying for boxes we don't have or use.

MikeInHub City: Mike, I heard from a friend that there's a good model railroading hobby shop in Marshfield. Is this true?

My MR&T caboose should arrive today or maybe tomorrow.

That's all for now.

Greg

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Greg- the property our club is looking to relocate to. The owner wants to expand & build a hobby store on the property. Across from Brown’s Bar(which is next to Marshfield FD).

 

[GarryCBQ]

Sadly, Neil Besougloff , former editor of Model Railroader , passed away . He had been in the hospital with Covid-19 for several days and then had a fatal heart attack .

I obtained this information From MR General Discussion forum.

Sherrel .. Praying your wife’s surgery is successful.

...

Thanks everybody for well wishes for my eye surgery . Also thanks for commenting on my photos.

I will probably be a absent from this coffee shop for a couple of days or so.

 

[bnsf971]

Ill still say a "widdle prayer" for the Mrs. Sherrel, she married you didn't she?

In that case, she needs all the help she can get.

 

[tootnkumin]

Greg- the property our club is looking to relocate to. The owner wants to expand & build a hobby store on the property. Across from Brown’s Bar(which is next to Marshfield FD).

Somebody WANTS to open a hobby store???? They must think the brick and mortar sector has been decimated enough to create room.

 

[Alcomotive]

Good morning. Been AWOL again. Been out working in the shop trying to get my last few items taken care of. The fuel with no lead and now containing alcohol has been driving me nuts. The cars going up for sale are remaining dead stock. If the buyer wants to upgrade them, more power top them, but many do want them as they were manufactured. My keepers have all had the fuel systems upgraded to stainless steel to deal with the alcohol in the fuel and the engines have finally had all of the valves and valve seats converted to hardened steel to deal with the unleaded fuel. My son came over yesterday to help me with the '54 Pontiac. I can handle a regular head on a 6 or V8, but the head on the straight eight in the Pontiac was a bit too much for me to handle alone. It's back on and all that needs to be done is a tune up on it. Also changed the oil on 4 of my cars, my son's Subaru and even the garden tractor.

James - I will have to agree with you on sports. With all of the political opinions of the players I have also had it. It's sure nice to have the additional time spent watching sports to use on other things.

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Willie - I sure enjoy seeing all of the small details you've been adding to your towns. Excellent work. Those new Scale Trains locomotives are beautiful. Wish they made something I could use.

Curt - Hope that you are finally able to get a hold of your new doctor. I am impressed with your benchwork. You have done a lot of planning and it's going to be so much easier to get the wiring done without having to crawl under the layout. Nice work. Like the coaling tower.

Louis - That menu you posted a few days back was interesting. Reminds me of when we were still living in Miami and had season tickets for the Dolphins at $145 each for the season on the 45 yard line. Nice photos.

TLOC - Enjoying your photos a lot. Excellent work.

Garry - Really like those Great Northern FA units.

Joe - The photo of the train at the Red Bank station is a winner.

Justin - I keep some of that LaBelle oil both in the train room and upstairs on the work bench, along with some Teflon grease. Enjoy those locomotives.

I did get over to the club last night again but I sure didn't like the bullshit of having to wear a mask as the Museum told the club we had to do. I have a copy of out dipshit governors mandate and it says that if we ARE NOT OPEN TO THE PUBLIC masks are not required. If I wear my glasses, they get fogged up and if I take them off, I can't read the Digitrax controller. Here are a few photos. One guy brought over a really nice AmCrap train. I have this thing about AmTrak because they dropped the southern route across Montana that we used to take to Chicago when I was a kid, but I do like passenger trains.

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One member also brought a nice NP Challenger.

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It was hard trying to take photos as we had 7 trains running at the same time and you couldn't lollygag around or there would be a wreck. Here's my F units pulling a 58 car train around the layout.

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A few of the members hadn't seen the A-B-A units before because I normally ran on week days. They couldn't believe the pulling power of the three units.

Have to go move some rain birds. Later

Your second photo is very interesting. Do you think you can share more of the train in the back ground? The wreck recovery train....that's cool!

 

[Alcomotive]

I did alright on my tournament....

 

[Boris]

Good morning. Happy Monday. 68° and clear, Swampside at the Rutgers weather station. Going up to 97°. ..Well, it's still July!

Back to the physical therapy at 1000, then maybe a haircut, if I feel up to it.

It's a shame about Neil Besougloff, passing.

Nice catch, James!

Mike: " Across from Brown’s Bar" ...Now that's convenient, isn't it .

Bought this engine for $39.95 from MB Klein, around the time they moved to Cockeysville.. It has since reposed in the box. Yesterday I installed a NCE P2KSR decoder, new axle sets, Kadee #153 couplers and some lubricant. When I put it on the layout with the default address, it just sat there. Finally, with a few grunts and groans, it started to move. The more it ran the better and quieter it ran, but it still sounds so Blue Box. Going to set up a uni-track loop so it can break in once and for all.

Reading Company's Erie Avenue Engine facility, in Philadelphia. The Wreck Train (The Reading called it a "Relief Train"). and a pair of GP35s

 

[Patrick]

Morning all,

Wow...4.5 pages in here since I was on last on Friday morning. It was a busy weekend though.

Took Saturday off and too 2 of the grand kids to the Spring Creek Model Train store in Deshler, NE. That is a dangerous place my friends....LOL Dangerous for the bank account and me as there was a lot of stuff I can't get locally and stuff I really wanted. I have a wish list started with the OH. It was nice to go someplace that wasn't work, home or the 2-3 other stores we frequent. The place is in a small town, so with proper precautions was relatively a safe place

That said the grandson spent some of his money on kids for his school building and some peel and stick road so there are places to drive. I got 3 bottles of ballast from the discount rack for me, and one for the grandson. I also purchased 2 NMRA gauges, one for each scale. I'd been needing one for a while.

Spent all day yesterday catching up on the yard work I neglected on Saturday.

Now to play catch up here.

 

[Espeefan]

Terry, Joe and anyone else. When ST 1st showed their products at a Trainfest in Milwaukee a few years ago I asked Shane about couplers.I truly don’t understand ( I do, it’s profit margins) any company let alone a new company making their own as Kadee’s are so great and so prevalent. Personally, I had trouble with the 1st batch of couplers on the Museum Turbines and the Classic box cars. I never have had an issue with any Rivet Counter coupler, and they are all the same accept the shelf couplers on the oil tankers. My last patch of cars came from a weathering company with springs missing. ST is second to none and as good as DirectTV was when Paul Allen was alive and still owned it. Replaced immediately by ST. I think they should have left off the couplers but Shane said, then folks would not buy as they don’t know how to install things! The flamefest was such a shame and so childish.
TomO

This goes back quite a ways. I believe the real problem is that Kadee, while their couplers are excellent, isn't the easiest company to work with if you happen to be an OEM wanting to use their products. Years ago when Intermountain and Red Caboose were offering kits and assembled cars, they wanted to include Kadee couplers. Kadee insisted that their couplers be included in the box, in Kadee packaging. Thus was born that disaster of a coupler, the McHenry. Kadee wasn't negotiating from a position of strength. Their patents had expired. I suspect that the Scale Trains issue may relate more to a failure to negotiate terms than actual cost, but who knows? Maybe some night at a show post plague I'll see him again and buy him a few drinks and see of I can pry it out of him

 

[Patrick]

Great pictures everyone!

The baby Hi-cube is a BB from the 70’s and may have been part of the 1st bunch of boxcars I purchased. I am using that as part of my dumpster weathering thread at the MRH forums as we were trying to imitate dents using canopy glue. Not working out so well, actually a failure but a good experiment. TomO

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I got an email from MRH about weathering old dumpsters and thought of you doing it. I hadn't connected about you actually being the one doing it with them. Nice work!

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Unseasonably cooler this morning at 73° and partly cloudy. No rain in sight for us yet. Looks like the hurricane Hanna decided to squat over northeast Mexico instead of coming in this direction. Our forecast of rain tomorrow looks like it may come from the land of Doo-Dah!
Grandkids went home yesterday after a very pleasant two day visit. Missed having the third one here, but he just wanted to stay home. Five year old granddaughter got to run trains again yesterday. I think that she gets more pleasure out of unplugging the walk-around memory throttle and moving to the next plug-in. She then has to move to the next one since she is late at each one! Doesn't quite understand that she can skip one or two along the way and the train will still run!
Looks like mowing is back on the agenda today, since I skipped a few days while they were here. That task has slowed considerably. Speaking of mowing, my hayfield yield was a little disappointing for the first cutting. Only got 1 1/2 large round bales per acre which is about 1/2 bale less than normal. I have gotten as many as 3 1/2 bales a couple of times before, rare though. If it rains tomorrow and Wednesday as predicted, I could get a second cutting in late-September. Second cutting is always pure profit! In this case, the first cutting at $120/bale, will pay the taxes and fuel plus a little.

I'm ready for a couple of Bear Claws and a large glass of OJ this morning Flo. I need a sugar fix to get motivated.

Thanks for the likes and comments regarding yesterday's RR scenes; Jerome, Karl, Joe, Phil, Guy, Justin, Tom O, Chet, Chad, Garry, Curt, Rick, Tom, James, Patrick.

While things sorta got back to normal yesterday in the train shed, I still did no modeling. I did run some more trains and re-staged the ones that the grandkids ran.
Here is a mixed freight headed up by two ScaleTrains SD40-2's, approaching another waiting on the siding in Vernon.

The "elephant style" lash-up is a pair of SD45's from Kato.

As you might notice, I am living life on the edge, no pun intended. While the lower level has a guardrail around the "turnback" curve, I have never installed the one on the upper level. I haven't needed either one yet and it's something I really should finally get done. Much as I like to think that I have perfect trackwork and will never have a derailment around there, something will inevitably go wrong some day.
Meanwhile over in the South Yard, an older (chronological) diesel is preparing to go on a "sweeper run" to pick up empty freight cars along the tracks. It is a GP20 from P2K. ATSF did periodic "sweeper runs" that did nothing but pick up empties, which made later "peddler runs" more efficient when spotting cars.

They normally did not pick up loaded cars but it eased sorting back at the yard later.

Karl - Take it easy and get well soon.
Tom O - That paper mill complex is going to be one heck of a scene when done. I am glad that you found us here in the Coffee Shop. You have been a welcome addition along with many many others.
Sherrel - Was it Kate's knee replacement or gastric band surgery that was postponed? Give her my best wishes for whichever one it is. And yes, a special prayer for her for being your wife.
Chet - The shop should be empty enough soon for a super-sized layout! Have you started planning yet?
Interesting thing about ScaleTrains is besides not offering anything from your era yet, they have not offered any four axle power at all to my knowledge! We just need to give them time.
Curt - Nice work. I guess that I am just not used to it, but I sure don't know how guys like you, Joe, Sherrel and others put up with stairs! I dislike the four that I need to climb to get into the train shed!
Greg - What an adventure in cabin country. Good to read that other than financial, you were able to come through unscathed.
James - Yummy looking catch.

For what it is worth, I did not intend to knock ScaleTrains for the lack of Kadee couplers in their products, many other manufacturers use their own couplers. I am just disappointed that the coupler boxes are not "Kadee-sized". Kadee whisker couplers work but are a bit tight.
I have not joined any discussions on the sports and politics here recently, because I gave up on most all sports over 15 years ago, for reasons unrelated to politics. Colin K drove the final nail in the coffin though. So I really don't know "who's on first, what's on second" or anyone else's stances so to speak!
Sad news about Neil Besougloff. Despite the heart attack, he will be listed as a Covid death to further somebody's agenda.

Today is National New Jersey Day. It's also National Scotch Day. They may go hand in hand!

Everybody have a great day.

 

[TLOC]

I got an email from MRH about weathering old dumpsters and though of you doing it. I hadn't connected about you actually being the one doing it with them. Nice work!

Thank you, I got the same email and 1st thought was cripes, those are mine. It has been a little adventure that got derailed for a couple days. Some good ideas and pictures were tossed about.

TomO

 

[bnsf971]

Willie, instead of a guard rail, you could put in a guard berm on that curve. It only has to be a ridge tall enough to direct the wheels back toward the layout, and you can cover it with grass, making it look like a ditch along the tracks.

 

[TLOC]

Good morning from the front porch in Wisconsin. The back deck is too sheltered from the breeze this morning for it to be a comfortable place. Less humidity, mid 80’s but good winds.

My paper mill has been my main project since I retired in 2014. After I got the framework up and trains running every building on the layout were foamcore standings to see what it felt like and what would fit. Even though the layout will be 6 years old in November, the 1st 2 years was running, running and running. It has been fun. About 18 months missing in those 6 years to be, were missed for health issues and maybe another couple years for travel. I will get around the next corner and start posting the other side of the layout.

Greg, let me know if you got the email and pictures

Marshfield, Wi. With a hobby shop. Spent 21 years working in Marshfield and another 5 years for the same company but on the road for 26 years and never would have thought of a LHS there. One of the best is outside Wausau, across from the Domtar paper mill. Ted Bulman started the Hobby Connection in Rothschild, now run by Tom, his son. Wisconsin still has some good to great LHS.

pictures later, the wife says we are leaving, I said ok!

TomO

edit. Back from the meat run at the grocery store. 1st time for Terry going into the store since March. Money off per gallon for every $20 meat purchased today. $.83so far on my next fill up, maybe late August!
I was asked somewhere whatis my favorite scene in the Mill. This is one of them...

 

[Sirfoldalot]

pictures later, the wife says we are leaving, I said ok!

I didn't know that SWMBO has a relative in Wi? Love it ..

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Morning from the West -- where it is going to be 93 they say; however, they missed yesterday's high - it ws 95 and I felt it! Finished cleaning up the debris in the yard by borrowing TWO extra green containers .. one from each of my neighbors. SWMBO already made a trip to HD for additional plants to replace what we removed. For some reason I just cannot convince her to plant something we can EAT, but no - she wants flowers ... my dad was right ... "husbands are a sorry lot"!

Speaking of spouses and such -- she is off to San Diego with the local daughter to see an eye doctor. ALI has had full blown diabetes from the age of around age six, shortly after wife and I married. I don't want to think about it - but there is a possibility that she may lose her eyesight - hopefully we will know more after today's visit - so it may be a blessing that the wife's surgery has been put off for a few more days. WILLIE, It's the gastric band surgery that Kate is having done first. They are emphatic that she loses a "ton" before the knee work; I wish she had done it a year ago but there was a lot of "schooling" to attend - and then the virus hit.

GREG - That is quite an adventure you two were on. Glad things worked out the way they did for you- not sure that I could have left the spouse alone as you did - EEK!

Thank you all for the well-wishes! YES, I am very lucky she married me even if she will not allow me to build a layout in the 16x28 foot dining room area ... would have made a nice "2 rail O scale" shelf layout for my D&SL 2-6-6-0 and All Nation F-3's to wander around.

Better go dig her a couple holes before it warms up too much.
Great posts and pictures everyone!

 

[Greg@mnrr]

GREG - That is quite an adventure you two were on. Glad things worked out the way they did for you- not sure that I could have left the spouse alone as you did - EEK!

A second thought now that's its all over....that maybe she could of went with the guy who offered a ride and returned with my truck. A case of poor judgment on my part.

The road we were on is little used by vehicles, but used by many local Amish who use it as a short cut. But, alias the Amish's cellphones would likely have dead batteries since they don't have any electricity to charge the cell phones.

Greg

 

[Greg@mnrr]

Here's a easy question....how likely would it be to see a Southern Pacific locomotive on trackage in Wisconsin?

Thanks.

Greg

 

[moermusic]

Got questions answered this am about vibration/twitching on my 09 G5 Pontiac
Broken rear coil springs, 3 ! tire separations, lower control arm bushings shot... 1900$ (CA) should be back on the road tomorrow.
Master card gonna take a hit. [ tires, springs, bushings, alignment ]
Finally got summer here: 3-4 days of near 30 C ! perfect for me. no clouds or rain