Running Bear's March 2021 Coffee Shop


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ARGG -- The body is talking to me this day. Wonderful time at the San Diego Zoo yesterday. Daughter informed me this morning that we walked 3.8 miles (I feel it for sure).
I'll have to play catch up on the posts for yesterday and today after I realize that I am still alive ! Supposed to be another 79 today with sunny skies.

Coffee, FLO, and lots of it.

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Good Morning All. Around here it's clear and 55°, probably going up to 80° later today. Another cold front tonight will hold tomorrow's high to 63° and Thursday morning's low to 35°. Frost danger to many plants in the garden.

I'll have a chicken fried steak, cream gravy and grits this morning Flo. And a double helping of cornbread to go with it.

Thanks for the likes and comments regarding yesterday's progress report; Karl, Justin, Patrick, Guy, George, Hughie, Sherrel, Tom O, Jaz, Phil, Tom, Gary, Garry, Jerry.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I got very little time but there was a little progress. On one side I applied more ground foam and mixed gravel to extend to the switch along the side of the main line.
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I did the same on the other side along with an alley.
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Over on the workbench, I made and painted some more stuff for the grade crossing, culvert pipes, guard rails and sidewalks, but no picture yet.
I re-positioned the structures so I have additional pictures so Guy, isn't disappointed.
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Guy - That's really a new Railbox car in yesterday's pictures. Built in 2016, no wonder the paint looks so fresh. I am surprised that all of the graffiti is still there as railroads don't like it when the reporting marks are covered. Most taggers know that and usually don't cover them or any part of them since they know their "works of art" will be defaced by a car shop somewhere that restores the number.
Tom O - Back in my younger days, I also majored in sound engineering, thus my visit to the Sam the Sham sessions at the time. I also had a morning radio show on the campus FM station for a semester. In retrospect, I am somewhat thankful that I ended up getting a real job as the sound engineer lifestyle was a bit too excessive at the time...early 70's!
TLOC said:
I now use lists as a reminder.
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I resemble that statement!
Jaz - That seed-growing racket is big business over here as well, Monsanto, DuPont and Bayer are a few familiar names.. Fortunately there are still many good honest small time heirloom growers left, and their numbers are growing. But they're all too small for commercial farming.
Mikey -
PNKFLOYD said:
Somehow, I got promoted yesterday from draftsman and estimator to construction foreman and chief carpenter.
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And you didn't see that coming???;)
Good luck.
Sherrel - I came across an interesting article yesterday, in the New York Post no less, about some California lifeguards making nearly $400,000 a year! And 82 others making over $200,000.
California Lifeguards
Just another reason that your taxes are so outrageous!

Everybody have a great day. Stay safe. Pretend that I posted this two hours ago when I finished but failed to hit the "Post Reply" icon.
 
Sherrel, the important thing is you are with us here today and you had a great time yesterday. Congrats!

Hello everyone one from Wisconsin. High 50’s today with the wind gusts about 1/2 of yesterday’s 40-50mph.

Guy, the mule deer are beautiful in those pictures. Based on past experience with their cousins in Wisconsin, the white tail deer, yes I agree those are your tulip eaters.

I am not sure what today will bring but I will try to enjoy it. 2 more days till jab #2 at 11am, not that I am counting.

I read last night that now that the Suez Canal is back open even some of the ships that were heading to the Horn of Africa were turning around back to the Suez. That must be a frightful trip let alone how much longer it is.

TomO
 
santafewillie said:
Sherrel - I came across an interesting article yesterday, in the New York Post no less, about some California lifeguards making nearly $400,000 a year! And 82 others making over $200,000.
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Damn -- and to think I wasted my time flying planes when I could have been on "BAYWATCH"!
This state goes out of it's way to waste money and YES - That's a political statement!

TomO - Thanks - May I inquire about those antique dump trucks? They are great!

Willie - Always great photos and a story to boot!

KARL - Your layout is GREAT looking ... Quite a fleet of nicely done up locos!

GUY - Always glad to see your photos and narrative. I hope that you realize that I am just "poking fun" at you about the poles following your loco pictures. I wounder (since I have never taken the time to try it) if an edit program could do away with them?
Now that I have opened that can of worms - guess I will have to fine out?

OK, FLO - please ask MEL for a BLT with fries and avocado slices - a coke to drink while the daughter and I figure out the days activity.
 
It's not very often, that I'll borrow a photo during my net cruising. Every now and then, though, I'll find a nice one that I can't resist. This is an example:
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This photo of a CN operated 0-6-0 was taken a mere 8 months before I was born. So I kinda feel I just missed the boat, and wish dad had taken more photos when he had the chance. - Now, I hope to track down a similar engine in 1/87.

Sirfoldalot said:
GUY - Always glad to see your photos and narrative. I hope that you realize that I am just "poking fun" at you about the poles following your loco pictures. I wounder (since I have never taken the time to try it) if an edit program could do away with them?
Now that I have opened that can of worms - guess I will have to fine out?
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Sherrel - I knew you like to poke fun at things; and that is a welcomed feature of who you are. It's all good! Besides, I like those poles where they are. I'm still thin enough to hide behind them if a CN cop shows up.

Always wondered why the CN boys left engines running 24/7 around here. Found out the answer just today from a news story, and I quote: "locomotive engines use water rather than anti-freeze as the coolant. Engines cannot be shut down when temperatures are expected to reach 5°C or lower".
It seems some old ladies are complaining about the constant fumes lingering in the air. Here's the photo that accompanied the news article; they used a GP9RM photo:
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2nd post of the day. I suppose ya'll will be picking on me if I don't shut-up. I'd better go and do something else.
 
Good Morning Everyone......sunny and still a bit windy. TomO, our grass is greening up and I think in a week and a half we'll be cutting the lawn here in Southeastern Wisconsin.

Yesterday we took a ride to the cabin to check on things and found everything in good condition. Lots of branches on the ground from the high winds, but no trees down that I could see. It was the first time Riley was in the cabin and she wasn't too impressed, but she loved the outside and ran with Cathy in the fallen oak leaves and could smell the hundreds of strange smell in the woods. Still patches of snow.

It was a landmark day for Riley since it was the first day she did her potty outside. She was raised and trained to use Potty Pads so she never went outside, especially as a young puppy in winter and the cold winter. Someone asked to see another picture of Riley so here one is.

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Riley at five months old. She's a mini-long hair dachshund and a very strong dog for her size. She's Cathy's dog during the day my dog after supper.

We stopped at the local watering hole to see if anyone was there and we did see a old friend and we played slots for an hour. I like one game and have been successful at winning at this game over the past years. My earnings by playing quarters is very nice and will go to model railroading, or Scale Trains to be exact. I don't play the slots very often, but know when to quit when I'm ahead.

Riley knocked off my new MR&T box car off the table and from the fall, one of the plastic stirrups is loose and bend, ready to break off. So I guess a repair job is in order as soon as possible. I'll use canopy cement to hold it in place and glue it from behind.
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Guess no trains today since a fence company is coming to give us a bid on a new fence along the lot line. Our neighbor uses the area along his garage for storage of lawn junk and a small plastic shed and garbage containers. On top of the stuff stored, there's a black, wire, link fence on the lot line that the former neighbor installed and promised us that he would remove the fence if they ever moved. Well they moved and the fence is still there. I look at this "beautiful" scene when I sit at the kitchen table.

The new fence, a wood "Basket Weave" design will be directly on the lot line right next to the neighbors' fence which I thinks is partially over the lot line. Now the neighbor's view will be a link fence butted against a wooden fence.

The fence will be six feet high and I need a permit from the village and the codes are funny with the fence regulations varied depending on where you live in the village. Our side of the fence will be landscaped with flowers, shrubs and bird feeders.

Sherrel: $400,000 in annual pay to get a sun tan!!!!

McLeod: I would think that anti-freeze would be cheaper than all that fuel used to keep the "water" from from freezing. Also I bet those diesel engines are hard to start after all those operating hours pulling trains or switching duties.

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The DING....the section to the left is well over one hundred years old and the right side, by the red door, maybe 50 years old. The section on the right is the old dining room and dance hall. The new owners have covered the outside with split logs and it now looks rustic. Just down the road is an old "house Of Ill Fame", also over one hundred years old.

The tavern got it name the "DING" for when the bartenders rang a bell during prohibition telling everyone in town that liquor has arrived. The town was a logging, milling and gravel mining center, and the town burned down once and now all the existing brick buildings in town date back to when the town was rebuilt. The town has the DING, a post office, vehicle repair and used vehicle sale lot, a cafe, fire department and a few empty businesses.

The old mill on the river was built in 1851 and is now a residence owned by friends of ours.

Lunch time.....

Greg

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A view of Waupaca on the CN&M Railroad. The modified Atlas tower controls the mianline and the the branch line to the expansion area. The lighting is a LED.-Greg
 
Greg@mnrr said:
McLeod: I would think that anti-freeze would be cheaper than all that fuel used to keep the "water" from from freezing. Also I bet those diesel engines are hard to start after all those operating hours pulling trains or switching duties.
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EMD engines don't generally use antifreeze, as the welded assemblies can, and frequently do, leak. A water leak is a nuisance, an antifreeze leak would be a hazmat situation.
 
McLeod said:
Always wondered why the CN boys left engines running 24/7 around here. Found out the answer just today from a news story, and I quote: "locomotive engines use water rather than anti-freeze as the coolant. Engines cannot be shut down when temperatures are expected to reach 5°C or lower".
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While that is a primary reason, there are a few other secondary reasons. Another parallel primary reason, especially if there is a train hooked up to it, is maintaining air pressure in the braking system. Otherwise you can get into a situation like the Lac-Mégantic incident of a few years ago where runaway railcars caused a major disaster. A few other issues are if anti-freeze contaminates diesel lubricating oil, it destroys it. Being that the engine is many large hunks of metal, expansion/contraction of the individual parts due to heating/cooling can wreck havoc on seals, which in turn can cause cross-contamination. That's the reason for water/rust inhibitor only. And as I understand, there are no spark plugs on a diesel, and you have to rely on air/fuel compression to start them up, possibly taking a lot of time and battery power on a 3600 hp unit. Lastly, it is to keep the batteries charged up. Some lights, security cameras, computer monitoring systems and radio are always on and using amperage. While this is insignificant compared to the amperage required to start the engine, it can run down the batteries, especially in a less than well maintained unit.
This has been my understanding for many years. There may have been some engineering advancements recently that overcome some of this, but someone more up to date would have to address this.
 
Gasp! I don't know how I let this one pass by without remembering, but 3 weeks ago on March 9, marked the third anniversary of the passing of one of our most beloved members, Eric White (BigE). He was right up there with jeffrey-wimberly (Running Bear) in making something out of nothing.
RIP Eric.
 
troyphoto said:
sounds like it's dropping the shutter speed or ISO.

Newer camera's have sneaky ways of changing the ISO in low light conditions to compensate. Which make/brand is it?
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I bet thats exactly whats happening Av should hold the aperature constant and float the shutter speed . Cannon T5i . And now that I think about it , I think the Rebel 35 did exactly the same thing . I probably need to go to full manual. I'll try that tonight.
 
PNKFLOYD said:
Well, it is official now. My personal layout has just been shoved behind the back burner.
My daughter and SIL have decided to build a storage shed for a popup camper, couple motorcycles and a work bench, so a 16' x 20' building will work. I drew up some rough plans about 6 months ago to get a materials list. We checked Home Depot for lumber prices for an estimate.
Last week, we finalized some design details and checked lumber prices again. Big shock as most prices were up over 50%.

Last Saturday, we visited a local part-time lumber mill owner. He will cut untreated pine lumber in custom 16' lengths and 12" wide board and batten siding for about 40% of our estimated lumber cost. It will take 2 to 4 weeks to cut everything, but we are not in a hurry. Somehow, I got promoted yesterday from draftsman and estimator to construction foreman and chief carpenter.
I plan to impart a little of my construction experience to my SIL and two teenage grandsons. We will start with " measure twice and cut once".

I hope to continue a few small projects that I can finish on the club layouts.
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Why not share your project with us,it might be able to learn from it for modelling
 
McLeod said:
Engines cannot be shut down when temperatures are expected to reach 5°C or lower".
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I suspect it has as much to do with re-starting as water freezing. Diesels are notoriously hard to restart at low temperatures , the cyclinders and fuel have to be pre heated and it takes a considerable amount of time for the engine to fully come up to temperature. Its hard on the batteries ( the glow plug on my 3 cyl tractor draws about 15 to 20 amps) , they have to run a heater to heat one or more cylinders for several minutes and then turn over a 12-16 cylinder engine with ridiculouly high compression ratio's > 20 :1.

Add to that No 2. Diesel starts turning to candle wax below freezing . I don't know how available No 1 is these days , I 've heard of contractors having to mix No 2 and gasoline 50/50 to start equipment at low temps.

And I m not even considering what the cold temps do to the lubricants.

Coolant is probably just one of several reasons for not shutting down.
 
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