Running Bear's March 2021 Coffee Shop


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Morning from the West ... where it is 45 degrees on the way to 71 today with clear, sunny skies.

Joe - REALLY nice photo!

Willie - Like the photos you posted today - the colors are pretty!

Just have sone coffee this morning, FLO - I'm busy finishing doing nothing that I left uncompleted yesterday!
 
Good Morning All! Will be doing mid 40's, breezy & drizzle today, hopefully dryer tomorrow. Biscuits with sausage gravy please Flo, w/OJ.
Garry---good to hear you're on the mend. The tree house is a really neat detail!
Dave---new house, Nice!
IronBeltKen said:
It seems that the mistake that started this whole debacle was NOT my decision to apply numerous coats of highly-diluted flat white
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Ken--- I like watching your progress on the F7. So the learning curve is a little longer than expected, they're over rated anyway! 😁
BigG, looks like an excellent day to hang on the inside. Is that the "resident" deer herd?
Jaz avalley said:
mice are in the loft and we hear them chewing
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Jaz---good luck with that nasty rodent problem...☠
Willie---nice door detail, now you'll have to detail under the building......;)

Something is going on with the economy, lumber wise anyway....I've heard that bnsf is running every center beam car they had in storage.
The UP uses a lot of the back tracks & such on the Modoc Northern line for car storage, they ran a train by the house the other day that must have taken 10 minutes to pass by, all center beams headed for Klamath Falls. Well, at least somebody is selling lumber, Oregon isn't! Too many "endangered" things here, birds, fish, animals, dirt! OK, maybe not dirt, but I'd bet their not far from it! Anyway.....
I posted this in the "back in the day" thread also, just to help more people see it...... A little bit of history for ya....
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EVERYBODY HAVE FUN---STAY SAFE!
 
dang, I had already sold my second set of model railroad stuff by then and gone off to the Marine Corps to travel the world and destroy stuff.

Ken
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Ken I snipped the above quote out from another post. What years were you in the USMC? I also was trained to destroy stuff but thank God I never got a chance to use any of my training. In the 1966 they sent me to the Sahara for desert warfare training. The enemy were mostly scorpions & snakes that would attack at night while you were sleeping.
George
 
Friday again fellers. Merchants row kit is finally on the layout. Still learning my new throttle haul. They are different than what I an used to. So trying to learn them as best as i can. The Cab Control 55 isnt as bad as I initially thought. Just have to know where to turn the throttle knob to per locomotive to get the best results. I've gotten used to using my thumb and working the throttle in a slow manner to get my movements just right. So more messing around with it should give me decent results. Came across something of interest on ebay. Anyone have any experience with front range locomotives? Are they any good? That's all I have for now. I'll try to stop by later if I get a chance.
 
chessie_system3 said:
Friday again fellers. Merchants row kit is finally on the layout. Still learning my new throttle haul. They are different than what I an used to. So trying to learn them as best as i can. The Cab Control 55 isnt as bad as I initially thought. Just have to know where to turn the throttle knob to per locomotive to get the best results. I've gotten used to using my thumb and working the throttle in a slow manner to get my movements just right. So more messing around with it should give me decent results. Came across something of interest on ebay. Anyone have any experience with front range locomotives? Are they any good? That's all I have for now. I'll try to stop by later if I get a chance.
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Front Range did freight car kits and locomotive shells, frames and detail kits. I have one here somewhere. They were great for those of us driven crazy by the too wide Athearn Blue Box GP 7/9 hood made to fit the old Jet drive with the clunky motor. These components were made so you could mount your Blue Box drive to their frame and shell. Nice models for the time. I'm 99 & 44/100% sure you'll find an Athearn drive under there.

<correction> I saw one listing that said "Mashima can motor" If true, this would place the Front Range powered model in the same category as yellow box Atlas.
 
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There is a rule that for every one person who manufacturers something 11 other people make money off it, the driver,the shop,a secretary, etc. whatever, and yet one off items are inevitably expensive, we keep stuff boxed in case it reaches a premium price later, but the reality is the premium price often still only buys a similar up to date version of the thing your hoarding,somethings sell dirt cheap on sites Hatton for instance and then when the last barely able to get rid of train or wagon is gone the prices jumps back up, Sod’s law, the trick seems to be buy two of something you like but no one else does, play and enjoy it, later when no one has kept this unloved item and most have hit the bin, there is a scarcity value and suddenly you can get a good price...the only thing you can guarantee is the ones YOU bought as investments are likely to not be worth the trouble, so buy what you like love it use it break it cobble it back so it limps and enjoy the moment. This inevitably is the same for non railway kit, and if you get something really nice my other half had the slightly smaller version of the Kawasaki Tom rode in topgun..... BUT some git knifed the rear tyre twice and they cost a fortune, he eventually sold it as the cost of a new tyre was killing us and we had a new baby.....on reflection I think we should have kept the bike and sold the kid.......winks.
 
Howdy .....

Getting better..... I actually ran some trains on my layout. Two Burlington passenger trains with E-units. One Burlington freight train with SD24's. One Great Northern freight train with a pair of GP7's (long end forward).

Jerry .... Thanks for your thoughtful comment.

Everybody else: .... Thanks again to all who posted encouraging remarks to me.

Is there any news from Curt? I recall he was caring for his mother who has health issues.

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Good morning. Friday means Friday night bowling for me. Other than that it only means that the next day is Saturday. Nice being retired. Mother nature has been nice to us with the temperatures getting up into the 60's for the past few days. Have Been outdoors with the new dachshund teaching here where she can and can't go.She's doing well. Supposed to cool off tomorrow with some precipitation.

Garry - Like your photo. Don't believe that I have seen it before. Those SD units are sweet.

Willie - Like the details you put inside the buildings. Thanks for the complement. You are correct about the original Magnuson resin kit. That's how long ago it was built. There weren't as many choices 50+ tears ago. Here it is across the street from the freight station. Still haven't put up any business signs. Talk about procrastinating. Am I good or what?

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Dave - The house is looking good. Don't envy you on the move. Looks like the beginning of "Mud" season there.

TomO - Like those trees.

Gary - Good photos. The trestle is a winner, nice work.

Ken - I will agree with you on the F unit. A big improvement.

GeeTee - I will have to agree with you on the freeze putting production behind. Any reason at all to gouge the public. Our refineries up here in Montana haven't had a single problem but the gas prices still went up.

Jaz - Excellent photo again.

Joe - Sure like the photo of the GG-1 on the bridge.

Time to dig into the photo archives again. Guess I'll show the rest of trip through town.

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Later
 

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Good morning or afternoon, as I type this it is 11:56am in Wisconsin CDT. It will hit in the 50+ mark for the temperature and hopefully finish off Monday’s snow piles.

The son and g/f flew off to an auction in Ohis somewhere, they say they will be back Sunday.

Finished painting some LP ( people) for the layout. The population is growing from 1.

Not sure what today will bring other then shrimp and a baked potato this evening. Enjoy your day.

My 1st attempts at adding a conductor to the crew.

TomO
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Espeefan said:
Front Range did freight car kits and locomotive shells, frames and detail kits. I have one here somewhere. They were great for those of us driven crazy by the too wide Athearn Blue Box GP 7/9 hood made to fit the old Jet drive with the clunky motor. These components were made so you could mount your Blue Box drive to their frame and shell. Nice models for the time. I'm 99 & 44/100% sure you'll find an Athearn drive under there.

<correction> I saw one listing that said "Mashima can motor" If true, this would place the Front Range powered model in the same category as yellow box Atlas.
Click to expand...

One word on Front Range.
After Front Range's demise the GP9's were sold under the "Trains Unlimited" banner in kit form. One more avenue to investigate. I've had a few with the Mashima can. Nice locos, I don't think I would elevate them to Atlas status, but they sure are a great deal better than BB Athearn.

Justin , lookee here! C&O GP9!!
 
kbkchooch said:
One word on Front Range.
After Front Range's demise the GP9's were sold under the "Trains Unlimited" banner in kit form. One more avenue to investigate. I've had a few with the Mashima can. Nice locos, I don't think I would elevate them to Atlas status, but they sure are a great deal better than BB Athearn.

Justin , lookee here! C&O GP9!!
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Who do you think the one bidder is? 🙂
 
kbkchooch said:
One word on Front Range.
After Front Range's demise the GP9's were sold under the "Trains Unlimited" banner in kit form. One more avenue to investigate. I've had a few with the Mashima can. Nice locos, I don't think I would elevate them to Atlas status, but they sure are a great deal better than BB Athearn.

Justin , lookee here! C&O GP9!!
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Not today's Atlas, the early yellow box. :)
 
Espeefan said:
Too true! Gas (crude oil specifically) has been on the uptick since last May. There are lots of reasons but no President can do much about them. He can start a war, he can tap the strategic reserve to stabilize prices, but that's about it. It's all supply and demand. The Russian and OPEC production cuts, the Texas freeze, show me a year except possibly last year when gas prices don't go up as spring approaches. Then there's the pandemic. It's winding down, or at least people think it is, and they're traveling again. I hope they're right. Think its high here? Look at prices in Europe!
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Yours seems to run roughly a gallon for our Liter in Aus (4 ltr per US Gal, currently around AUD 1.30 ltr
 
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