Running Bear's March 2020 Coffee Shop


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TOOT (RAY) ...Would it be the trucks? I am not a fan of modern locomotives.
No, not those. I can see it's got you all cornered. #4313 as a clue
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Thank you for the grain elevator post, it looks great! I replied there as well, that's exactly what I had in mind for that post.



In your user settings, go to preferences. Uncheck the box that says "Receive email when a new conversation message is received"

That said, you don't need to bother, I've already updated it on your account. However, in case anyone else has the same question, that's how to fix it.

Bob ..... Thank you very much ! :)
 
Bob, Where in Central Illinois did you live?

I lived in Astoria, in southwest Fulton county. It is the oldest incorporated town in the state. It is located in an area of the state that became known as Forgottonia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgottonia My 6th grade teacher's son declared himself as the governor of Forgottonia as a part of the protest in an effort to make the plight of the area known to politicians.

It's a small town that has managed to hold its own in an effort to remain a vibrant small town. However, the last decade has taken a toll on the town and surrounding area and the trend has generally not been positive. Up until about 1980, there were many good paying jobs in manufacturing and mining. About 1980 the decline began and steadily increased. Property values plummeted as jobs were lost and at best, things have been stagnant. Due to its location, read distance, from larger population areas it has managed to keep a small assortment of small retail businesses in place, but it is an uphill battle that they are slowly losing. A nice place, but, sadly, the face of small town rural America today.
 
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Bob- As of yesterday NY State has the highest in the country at 25,000+ Most in the NYC area. They now think that people that had the flu back in Dec and Jan possibly had Coven-19 and want to test them to see. I guess the only good part is if NY peeks now we can get past this here and the rest of the country can learn.


Good morning....Back to work today on the rotating shift. I just wish the weather would warm up.
 
Morning all,

Time for coffee and a short stack, thanks Flo!

Foggy start this morning and if the fog lifts quick enough we'll get to the mid-70's today. Some sun would be nice for a change.

No train time yesterday, although I could have made time I guess. I was going to get some HO stuff at Hobby Lobby yesterday before the stay at home orders took affect, but thought I'd do better if I had a coupon to reduce the price. So I didn't get anything. I do need to work through my wiring and get to running trains. Due to the stay at home orders for the county, All the hobby shops should be closed, so I missed out on my chance to modeling paint.

I found out how bad my internet at home has gotten when I took a MiFi from work home as a test. Not only am I getting 1/2 the speed I'm paying for, I'm also in a Verizon service hole. I only got 1Mb down and 300Kb up on the MiFi. About 18 years ago I tested several cell phones from various companies as the accounting firm I was working for at the time wanted me to be available 24X7,. At the time only Cingular had enough towers to get a decent signal at my location, so I chose them as the provider. Cingular later bought out by Southwestern Bell, who later bought and merged with AT&T and took their name. So I have AT&T as my phone provider now. Even after all these years, Verizon still doesn't carry much of a signal to be able to handle data. I currently live less than 1/2 mile from the house I did the testing in all those years ago. I do have Verizon on the work phone and for the most part can carry on a conversation, but it explains the data issue.
 
Good Morning All. 55° and clear. Only got to 82° here yesterday, partly dried things out. Today should bring 85° and they are now predicting 90° for tomorrow. Only a partly successful fiber-optic install yesterday, they're coming back Thursday. Two issues. One half of the two man crew had to leave due to illness in his family, and the original installers did not hook up our line to the main one in the "vault" out by the road. Union rules require some one else (not the guys that came yesterday) to do that part. Vault was also nearly filled with water from ground seepage. OK though as nothing of the old hook-up was disconnected. One of yesterday's crew will return after the main line is connected sometime Thursday.

Eggs over easy and a handful of bacon this morning Francine. I see that Flo is cooking this morning. Where's Mel? Covid-19? Oh! Just off fishing. Good. He deserves a break from you two beautiful ladies sometime.

Thanks for all of the likes and positive comments regarding the various progress photos; Bob, Guy, Mike, Jerome, James, Phil, Joe, Curt, BBob, Sherrel, Patrick, Karl, Garry, Tom, Chad.

Didn't get much done in the train shed yesterday due to accompanying the phone guys around for part of the afternoon. Thankfully they came after my nap! While I am not done with the scenery around the grain elevator yet, I did decide that I would work on that scrapyard in the foreground next. Especially since I now have the metal shredder that I had always planned on using. So I cleaned up the area a bit while the cows got used to their pasture.
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Trying to decide just how I am going to insert and hide the driveway from the back of the grain elevator, making it appear to go to the other side behind the building. The printed backdrop visible there is just some temporary one that I cut out of a larger one that was in some stuff that I got in an estate sale. I am thinking of moving it to the right to allow some artistic license behind the elevator.
Meanwhile over on the workbench, I started on the handrails for the second GP38-2.
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The front one was glued in place at some point, so I will have to be careful painting it without removing it.
Note that I am now using cardboard workbench protectors, to reduce the painting, cutting and scarring of the plywood surface. :) Almost time to turn this one over!

James/Guy - Y'all are making me feel cold just looking at your local landscape pictures. Here's what I see looking south from the back porch which happens to be our main entrance. I never have to shovel sunshine!
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Bob -
I read about that one, it's been making the rounds. It's in Europe or Asia or something.
It made the rounds before about five or six years back, it's in Italy. Google maps tell all. Pentagram Wye
Joe - That's fortunate that your grocery trip was not stressful.
Sherrel -
I'm not quite sure of what I am looking at there, JAMES?
Looks like locomotive cab parts to me!
Curt - Looking forward to your new build. What's your theme besides Pennsy steam? I' guessing at that one.

Didn't mention yesterday that I saw many gas stations with regular gasoline advertised at $1.25. Haven't seen that in over thirty years!
I mention certain celebrations from time to time, but today is more important than most. It is National Medal of Honor Day. A truly appreciated commemoration.
Everyone have a great day.
 
Good morning everyone. 51 and foggy - visibility down to about half a mile. Should warm to the 50s tody.

Hi, Flo - I'll take a couple of eggs over medium, really crisp bacon, hash browns, coffee, and a powdered sugar doughnut!

Wrote a post yesterday, but doesn't look like it ever posted. Tried several times to post it. Finally gave up and logged out. The forum site kept the text without posting - kept showing up at the bottom of each page of posts. So here is part of what I wrote yesterday:
Iron Belt Ken, James, Tom, Patrick, Texas Hobo, Sherrel, Burlington Bob, Flip, Garry, Guy, Wheeler, Chessie, Karl, Chet, and anyone I may
Burlington Bob - Nice new server. Seems to work well.
Mike - Looks like it will be a nice expansion of your layout.

Didn't have any time to run trains or work on the layout last night. Just one of those days, I guess.

So, here's today's news/post:
Mayor has issued a stay-at-home order for Springfield MO for the next 30 days. So starting tomorrow we all work from home (even though we're exempt from the order and could come in if we wanted or needed to). We'll work from home most of the time, maybe come in on occasion.

Willie - Nice work on your layout.
Burlington Bob -Don't know why it wouldn't post yesterday.

Gilligan's Island: Proof you CAN live without toilet paper!!

That's it for today. Have a good day everyone.
 
It's the number of steps.
That's it. The other is that the 4400's had the isolated cab, where the 4300's did not. The reason for the extra step at each corner was that MRL's order was tacked onto the end of 'Ace's being built for the Mexican railroads and built in Mexico as well. I think "The Wall" put and end to that production facilities use. So unless some of those locos show up north of the border, MRL will have the only ones operating within the US. It's also probably the reason Athearn Genesis has never made any models of them, being as there's only 9 on roster. There's 29 all up with the 16 of the original 4300-4315 and the 4, repatriated from the West Australian Iron ore Railroad, Fortesque Metals Group (FMG), 4316-19.
Walthers Mainline have done some 4400's, but have not modified that detail from others done.
 
And we're back... If you were on at 7:00 PM Pacific Time, you may have noticed a brief outage. Xenforo supports emojis (which are different than smilies) and they weren't working on the new server. I have to adjust the DB a bit. That meant closing the place for a moment while I did the updates.

And now we can do this: 😂🤣😅

And this: 🚂 🚋🚟🚞🚄🚝🚅🚈

Hmm, hope this is a good idea. :)
Yes, but can we do this: ?
 
Morning all,

Time for coffee and a short stack, thanks Flo!

Foggy start this morning and if the fog lifts quick enough we'll get to the mid-70's today. Some sun would be nice for a change.

No train time yesterday, although I could have made time I guess. I was going to get some HO stuff at Hobby Lobby yesterday before the stay at home orders took affect, but thought I'd do better if I had a coupon to reduce the price. So I didn't get anything. I do need to work through my wiring and get to running trains. Due to the stay at home orders for the county, All the hobby shops should be closed, so I missed out on my chance to modeling paint.

I found out how bad my internet at home has gotten when I took a MiFi from work home as a test. Not only am I getting 1/2 the speed I'm paying for, I'm also in a Verizon service hole. I only got 1Mb down and 300Kb up on the MiFi. About 18 years ago I tested several cell phones from various companies as the accounting firm I was working for at the time wanted me to be available 24X7,. At the time only Cingular had enough towers to get a decent signal at my location, so I chose them as the provider. Cingular later bought out by Southwestern Bell, who later bought and merged with AT&T and took their name. So I have AT&T as my phone provider now. Even after all these years, Verizon still doesn't carry much of a signal to be able to handle data. I currently live less than 1/2 mile from the house I did the testing in all those years ago. I do have Verizon on the work phone and for the most part can carry on a conversation, but it explains the data issue.
Apparently, the wife of Hobby Lobby's owner had a vision from God that told them to keep all their stores open, unless ordered to close by the Dept. of Health. Moeover, they are not giving their employees paid sick leave. I don't want to turn this into a (banned) religious discussion, most of you already know my views, but on purely ethical grounds but I will no longer give them my business. My personal boycott won't bother them in the least, but it will make me feel better. Either we're in this together, or we're not.
 
Bob- As of yesterday NY State has the highest in the country at 25,000+ Most in the NYC area. They now think that people that had the flu back in Dec and Jan possibly had Coven-19 and want to test them to see. I guess the only good part is if NY peeks now we can get past this here and the rest of the country can learn.


Good morning....Back to work today on the rotating shift. I just wish the weather would warm up.



Ya unfortunately the governor and the mayor of NYC never shut down the city in time. It should have been "quarantined" way earlier than it had. At least last month anyways but nope. It created a huge problem for the rest of NY and the rest of the country with people leaving the city. Yet they point fingers at our President instead of taking responsibility. Any moron knows with 6 million plus in NYC that it would be a problem. Its nuts.
 
Good morning ...

This is our 14th day of isolation.

James..... Any plans to make a model of that "rail car"? ..... It would be a unique item for sure.

Everybody ....... Have a good Wednesday.

Ahh no. Although I did attempt to make a galloping goose one time. I will have to dig that out and post it. It is so crude lol.
 
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Good morning America!. It's 52 degrees and cloudy now. Supposed to get to 64 with some sunshine this afternoon. The trees are getting quite a few leaves on them and it's starting to look really green and pretty. We had planned to get our second haul from our house in Illinois by now, but that is on hold for an indefinite period. Our motorcycle and pickup are setting in our garage wondering why they've been abandoned. If things ever clear up some, I might get to ride the motorcycle to our new home. Hopefully, that isn't wishful thinking.

Enough of that! I finally opened my LokProgrammer and there is no manual in that big box. Just the Lokprogrammer, a power cord and USB cord to connect to the computer. Oh, and two small pieces of paper telling me to watch a setup video on YouTube before I do anything. Maybe later this evening.

Some items are supposed to be delivered from Lowe's and WallyWorld today. Should have some stuff that will put me to work for a little while. Plan to take our furkids for a drive today to get out and see some of our new surroundings. Don't plan on stopping and getting out anywhere though! We do plan on going for a walk this afternoon for some exercise and to enjoy the sunshine. Might even mow the yard again today or tomorrow.

Here's a picture of a BNSF freight crossing IL Route 100 in Fredrick, IL after leaving Beardstown about 5 miles south of there, on the other side of the Illinois River. The tracks are built alongside and above the levee that runs along side the river. The coal docks for AMAX Coal Co. that I worked for from '76 to '83 are about two and a half miles south of here.

To the south (right side of picture) the tracks are elevated and to the north (left) the tracks go about 75-100 yds. before making their way up the bluff of the river valley. By the time the train makes it to Vermont, IL it will be out of the route bringing it up to "ground level". All with about a 1/2% grade the whole way.

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