Running Bear's March 2021 Coffee Shop


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I need a drink...Make it a Jack on the rocks forget the rocks and leave the bottle.

I got some of my internal folks having an issue with a new feature on a software product. Won't take payments, so between the software vendor and the payment center, it's determined to be an issue with the city system. So my folks create the ticket to me to fix the issue on our end. I look at the error message coming from the software and send an email to the software vendor to change the data type in their software to the correct data type. They've been working on this issue for a week. This isn't the first time I've had to fix their helpdesk people.

Basically the SQL database is looking for alpha characters and the payment center is sending numbers. Database field setup incorrectly from the start. 5 minutes later, my user gets an email to try again. Guess what works...I guess helpdesk folks can't read and understand the error message from their own software. 15 minutes later I get a thanks for the correct fix message from the vendor's helpdesk. I guess I don't usually know anything since I'm a nobody living in a small town in the middle of no place. Spent way too many years doing this already.
 
I have been off the forum for the last couple months for the short story of Covid-19, a nasty sinus infection, income tax preparation and slowly improved chest congestion. Had some computer problems and a tornado dropped down about 4 miles south of my home. The amount of damage so far is unknown.
I would borrow my wife's laptop about once a week to see what is going on.
Alan- excellent building! All the pictures of the rolling stock and other structures contributed has been an inspiration to me. Thanks for sharing with us.

I see that another line of storms is about to come through my area, so I will go hide under the bed for awhile.
 
Good Afternoon all! A very pleasant day indeed.
I just didn't know. If Patrick is having a Jack, I want a Jameson.
Sculptamold, yesterday I just wadded up one and threw it away. I checked on the remaining one, still damp. I intend to leave it just to see if it ever hardens.
I did do a little scenery work and ran some trains yesterday and today.
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This is the start for Smokey Park. I need to find the slide, seesaw and merry-go-round. There in a box somewhere.

STAY SAFE
LATER
 
santafewillie said:
Justin - Do you keep maintenance records on your rolling stock? I find that it helps me identify problematic locos, but I have a few more than you do and I forget stuff!
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Sadly I dont. I usually know when it's time to work a locomotive by listening to it. If it sounds more like a coffee grinder I know it's time to pull it and get it cleaned up and relubricated. Now the issue with my C&O GP35 is its rock pilots sit lower than my other locomotives. So any lift or drop in my track it picks up on and causes a slight hesitation. It still runs. Just not very well across one of my turnouts.
 
chessie_system3 said:
Sadly I dont. I usually know when it's time to work a locomotive by listening to it. If it sounds more like a coffee grinder I know it's time to pull it and get it cleaned up and relubricated. Now the issue with my C&O GP35 is its rock pilots sit lower than my other locomotives. So any lift or drop in my track it picks up on and causes a slight hesitation. It still runs. Just not very well across one of my turnouts.
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I’ve had that issue with a few Athearn and MTH engines.
My simple and far from elegant solution is to carefully file just enough material off the bottom of the plow to clear undulations in the track. You can see something similar on real locomotives with low plows, the bottom of the plow is bent away from the rail area, looking almost like a groove has been cut in the bottom of the plow in line with the rails.
 
Evening fellers. I hope everyone is doing well. I have been reluctant to continue working on my layout as of late. I guess I'm waiting on it to fix itself. I'm curious as to why my issues are all turnouts? Every one of them I have to work on has lifted in the center. I know it's an expansion thing as the one section I did the track lifted itself off the layout by a good 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. I thought that in itself was strange. Hind sight I should have waited for warmer weather before I did my track work. The joys of a garage layout!
 
chessie_system3 said:
Evening fellers. I hope everyone is doing well. I have been reluctant to continue working on my layout as of late. I guess I'm waiting on it to fix itself. I'm curious as to why my issues are all turnouts? Every one of them I have to work on has lifted in the center. I know it's an expansion thing as the one section I did the track lifted itself off the layout by a good 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. I thought that in itself was strange. Hind sight I should have waited for warmer weather before I did my track work. The joys of a garage layout!
Click to expand...
When I lay track, in the summer I generally butt the ends of track pieces pretty close together. In the winter, I leave a 3/32" gap to allow for expansion. Spring and fall is somewhere in between. Some switches actually have greater gaps of almost 1/8", but I insert some homemade styrene fillers in there. Once painted, there's no difference. I also do not solder track sections together except in some rare cases of flex on possible tight curves. I have the luxury of being able to have 32" radius curves on all of my main lines. Of course I don't have a garage layout which helps with both expansion and dirty track. My previous three layouts were all in a non-climate controlled, non-dust proof room on the upwind side of a gravel road and a 100 acre regularly plowed field; so I experienced all of your woes and had to cope with them.
 
bnsf971 said:
I’ve had that issue with a few Athearn and MTH engines.
My simple and far from elegant solution is to carefully file just enough material off the bottom of the plow to clear undulations in the track. You can see something similar on real locomotives with low plows, the bottom of the plow is bent away from the rail area, looking almost like a groove has been cut in the bottom of the plow in line with the rails.
Click to expand...
Funny you mention this. I actually did file the pilot's on my Chessie GP35. It was rubbing hard enough that it stopped it and made noise depending on which direction I was moving in.
 
santafewillie said:
When I lay track, in the summer I generally butt the ends of track pieces pretty close together. In the winter, I leave a 3/32" gap to allow for expansion. Spring and fall is somewhere in between. Some switches actually have greater gaps of almost 1/8", but I insert some homemade styrene fillers in there. Once painted, there's no difference. I also do not solder track sections together except in some rare cases of flex on possible tight curves. I have the luxury of being able to have 32" radius curves on all of my main lines. Of course I don't have a garage layout which helps with both expansion and dirty track. My previous three layouts were all in a non-climate controlled, non-dust proof room on the upwind side of a gravel road and a 100 acre regularly plowed field; so I experienced all of your woes and had to cope with them.
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Well its apparent my gaps weren't enough. I do wish I had a better spot to build my layouts. Pretty sure the location is playing a huge part in the loss of my previous layout and it's trying to do the same with this one. However I refuse to sleep on this. Eventhough its driving me up the freaking wall!
 
I fell asleep while hiding under the bed. The cat woke me up licking at my nose.
The tornados have been deadly in Alabama today We have 5 dead in weather related injuries and several hundred homes seriously damaged.
We just got another flash floor warning in my area. We have gotten about 5 inches of rain so far and it is still raining.

I may need to Goggle plans for building an ark.
Now that would be something to model in HO scale.
 
chessie_system3 said:
Evening fellers. I hope everyone is doing well. I have been reluctant to continue working on my layout as of late. I guess I'm waiting on it to fix itself. I'm curious as to why my issues are all turnouts? Every one of them I have to work on has lifted in the center. I know it's an expansion thing as the one section I did the track lifted itself off the layout by a good 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. I thought that in itself was strange. Hind sight I should have waited for warmer weather before I did my track work. The joys of a garage layout!
Click to expand...
Maybe leave a bit more gap with the fishplates, our loft can get very warm,we had this tluckily before all glued down the other half widened the fishplates by such a tiny fraction but the problem went and was not - cross fingers - seen again
 
PNKFLOYD said:
I fell asleep while hiding under the bed. The cat woke me up licking at my nose.
The tornados have been deadly in Alabama today We have 5 dead in weather related injuries and several hundred homes seriously damaged.
We just got another flash floor warning in my area. We have gotten about 5 inches of rain so far and it is still raining.

I may need to Goggle plans for building an ark.
Now that would be something to model in HO scale.
Click to expand...
I have read a lot about tornadoes,seen tornado chasers on tv luckily we don’t get that ty pe of weather,you do build the cellars which are so handy for veg storage,I don’t know if weather proof enough for layouts, we have a sturdy dinging table 2 in fact in different rooms in case an earthquake ever hits but I have only ever experienced one and it was a mine shaft collapse not plate shift and it mostly shook the lights and a slight unnerving tremor, the uk has of recent years had a lot of flood issues but then the government for years has been letting builders build on what is low flat areas near waterways the insurance just cuts them off,it drives me mad because there is much safer land that could be turned to building land, but of course it is big farming land that gets sold as massive profits with planning permission that land has usually systematically been bought up by insurance companies or other big financial groups from hard pressed farmers when they lose a crop to those same rains,then surprise surprise planning permission,it is who you know how big their hands for the backhanders,then those same insurers wont give flood damage or the exceptions are so broad you might as well not have the insurance, luckily my father was a building control officer I used to hear all the sob stories and I have had a good idea what to avoid - but the poor buggers who buy those new houses are inevitably just buying grief.not sad angry but you can’t change how the people who control money act.
still thoughts are with you, hope you do ok.

on the other hand I like modelling water
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