Running Bear's March 2022 Coffee Shop


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moermusic said:
guessing a plumper is actually a plumber. ⁉️
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Yes he works as full time plumper for a company in the area. The heat exchanger in our furnace wasn't working properly and I asked my neighbor if he knew any good plumper's. I was going to do the job myself but then thought maybe I should just hire someone. He did a good job with that and then replaced some cast iron waste pipes with PVC. He did a good job with everything so I'll use him again.
George
 
moermusic said:
guessing a plumper is actually a plumber. ⁉️
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No, this is a plumper!
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moermusic said:
In my 70 plus yrs, I've never seen fuel oil at the *local gas station*, When we used it I was too young to know or care where it came from but you should never stick your tongue on the storage tank in winter time !! Thats an ouchy right instantly.
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Diesel

ETA: My understanding is that Fuel Oil #2 (that used in residential situations) is basically Diesel #2 but without all the automotive additives (like detergents and stuff) that would be in the diesel automotive fuel. Probably also not low-sulphur compliant but that is a guess on my part. And of course, automotive diesel has special road and fuel taxes attached, which fuel oil doesn't (though that might have other taxes attached depending on where you are). When Y2K came around, I was living in New England and bought a diesel Dodge Ram. I figure if the SHTF, all my neighbors were gas stations for my truck since they were mostly all oil heated homes. Only in the actual urban city areas did they have gas lines and most small cities and towns have the majority of their residents outside the normal suburban style neighborhoods or urban style blocks and out in the boonies where everybody had 1/2 to many acres of land. (And septic tanks and fuel oil heat).

I remember flying out of or into MHT (Manchester NH airport -- now called something like Boston Manchester airport or something stupid) back in the late 90s and I was on a turboprop commuter type plane and it was flying at 15k or 17k feet instead of the normal 25-35k feet the jet airliners were at. I had flown from Utah to New Hampshire for a job interview and gone SLC -- LaGuardia -- MHT and this was the LGA -- MHT segment. It was night. Unlike flying into SLC, where looking out the window it is pitch black below with big blobs of light right where towns/cities are (until you hit the SL Valley area), flying over New England, especially at lower altitude where you can see the ground better, it was like a swarm of fire flies looking at the ground. All the houses out in the woods where everyone has their 1/2 acres to a few acres and a house. So dots of light everywhere all the way to MHT. (I did get and take the job and move from Utah to NH -- I lived about 20 miles north of where I had grown up in Mass on the NH border -- this time I was on the NH side, but all the same haunts mostly -- was there almost 5 years and we moved back to Utah where I've ben since -- not a Utah born native but have lived here in Utah longer than any other place in my life).
 
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Good afternoon, We are up to +7°, hasn't budged much from the +2 at 5 AM.

Flo - I could use a steaming cup of coffee, and a piece of coconut cream pie.

Getting plans in my head for the weekend work session, I will hope to hook up the track to the Wyoming module and half the layout will have skeleton railroad service! Then it will be hydrocal ground work.

Hughie - I love those old railroad movies!

Boris - thanks for the compliment on my street and industrial scene

McLeod - you don't fool around with the sheet rock, do you. Really some quick work, there

Ken OBTC - We love Culvers too. They were the first to open their dine in areas during the pandemic. During the lockdown, our special night out was drive through at Culvers and sit in the car near a park and dine.

Willie - I love the long trains!

I heard on my news feed we were supposed to do a meatless monday to save money. Supposed to tank up on carbs and reduce protien. Someone needs to talk to a nutritionist, not much iron in those noodles!!

D&J - Hope the train show goes well! I was a Boy Scout.

Sherrel - Last year I went to the eye doctor and she said I need a new perscription. My eyesight magically improved over a two year period.


Here are a couple scenes I am trying to incorporate in my new layout:

hoisting sandstone circa 1915.jpg


- From the Minnesota Historical Society (above). Sandstone readied for transport, on the edge of the quarry. Notice they use a snatch block and chain configuration. Tracks are standard gauge, goes straight to GN mainline in this instance. From the Sandstone MN quarry.

Below - Railroad bridge across the St. Croix, Rush City to Grantsburg, WI. Looks like a wood truss bridge. I will put something easy in there temporarily then build this at a later date. I already own S-10 328: This is a Ron Nixon photo.

328 St. Croix 2.JPG



Fun Facts:

In 2012, there went over 100 active drill rigs in North Dakota. Today, there are 28.

In 2012, they were pumping at a rate of 10 million barrels of oil per day out of the Bakken oil reserves. The Saudis were not happy. We were supplying the world with oil. There was something of a competition going on with North Dakota trying to outdo Texas.

An oil well can be refracked in 5 years, refreshing its capabilities.

Many of the wells we fracked were very difficult to access, even by pickup truck. It was very slow for Tanker trucks.

I loved working on the fracking crew, but it is very demanding. My take home pay maxed out at $4,000 for two weeks work. Pay went down as competing companies ramped up. The pay was after room and board were subtracted.

More later, Dave
 
McLeod said:
Here's my rant for today:
I know everyone's been talking about prices going up drastically, but, more than double is quite a-bit out of line. This is our March electric bill that just came in the

More than double last months bill.
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Hmmm, so was mine - almost double. I wouldn't think my electric bill would be linked to oil prices because as far as I know the generators are using natural gas. ?!??
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NYC_George said:
The Penn Central got rid of the fireman I thought around 1975. I remember being on my own in the cab around that time. It was definitely less safe for everyone. They now relied on the engine's dead man in a emergency but missing a single or speed restriction around a sharp corner was now up to one guy.
George
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The Board (PLB 282) back in 1964,sided with the carriers. The award required Firemen on Passenger engines, and 10 % of all freight assignments, including road, local and yard. Also required use of Firemen on all Freight and MW extras, as long as there were people available on the extra board. Surplus firemen were awarded the choice of a $10,000 severance, relocation to another region where there was a shortage of firemen, or taking a Furlough, (and hoping to be recalled). Most firemen, accepted the severance, and hired out as trainmen. Most were offered their jobs back, as new employees, but in prior seniority order in 1965 -1966. By late 1966, the railroads were hiring firemen off the street again.

In 1972, (about the time I was promoted), the manning agreement was modified, co incident with the establishment of the Engineer Training Program. That agreement defined fireman's work as passenger service, and hostler service. It also eliminated the use of firemen on freight service and lite engine service. Also grandfathered existing firemen as primary source for promotion to engineer.

In 1985, the fireman's position was officially eliminated as part of the 1985 UTU National Agreement. This rule, made trainmen the primary source of promotion to Engineer positions, and made promotion mandatory as a condition of employment for those hired after the effective date of the agreement.

This agreement did not apply to Amtrak,Metro North, NJT, Septa, all of which had manning agreements of their own since 1982.

I hired as a Fireman in December 1967, and was Promoted in May 1972.
 
Good Afternoon Everyone in Trainland.....sunny but colder than what's seasonal here in this part of Wisconsin.

Going to spend the rest of day re-reading my John Allen book by Lynne Westcott. A wealth of information and modeling ideas for just about anyone's railroad. I purchased my Model Railroading with John Allen in I believe 1981 when the first edition became available at only $19.99!!! I been emailing Randy Decker who's making a recreation of the Gorre & Daphetid railroad and he's making real progress in his effort to redo the G&D layout. A massive project!!!

Imagine if John Allen were alive today and had the lastest in scenery materials, what the G&D would look like?

Willie: Nice catch with your Scale Trains Santa Fe locomotives. I agree about no weathering, but maybe a little dust on the trucks???

Trip to the doctor this morning for a three month check up and review of my blood work. Every thing was within range for my ancient age.

Finished up with the taxes and I'll wait a week or so to do a third review and then print for filing and write the checks.

For many years, when I worked at the retail and office complex, I had to predict how much natural gas we would be purchasing in two moths from the supplier. I had to be within 10% +/- of gas purchased and gas reserved each month and I had one chance each month to make changes in the amount of gas reserved should my "educated guess" be wrong. If we used over or even under the 10% we paid a lot more for the gas per therm. We had Interruptible Natural Gas Service which meant during cold periods the gas supplier gave us two hours notice to go off of natural gas and burn oil. We kept just a bit less than 19k gallons of fuel oil on hand for these "interruption of service" times which could come at anytime. We would burn upwards of 5k gallons of oil per day. Fuel oil was delivered in large tankers and they would come at time at night when the need for the tankers was low.

The central plant had three, 600 hp, low pressure steam boilers that were operated much like a railroad steam engine. At 18 feet long and 12 feet each the boilers were monsters. We estimated that these boilers could heat 1,800 normal sized homes.

Tomorrow for sure a day spent in the Train Room. I have to get the supplies ready that I'll use for my model building when Cathy is gone to Arizona. The kitchen table will become my workbench.

That's all for now..................

Greg

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Iron Horseman said:
Wow, so many curved tracks. Looks like they were trying to fit stuff onto a 4x8 layout.
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The argument for retaining the Fireman position, was essentially one of safety, so most of the photos submitted showed obstructed visability and congestion, areas where another set of eyes was useful. The carrier's submission contained photos showing the fireman asleep on the seatbox. FWIW, perhaps the carrier's evidence was staged, but some firemen did make their bed, once they left the terminal. The carriers used the same tactics in 1985, showing sleeping Flagmen in their Cabin cars, to eliminate not only the flagman, but also the Cabin car. Again,in some cases, the worker was more than happy to oblige.
 
With all the high prices world wide on heating the house...I feel lucky to live here in Iceland, where almost everything is crazy expensive except for a few things. We pay around $30 each month for electricity and heat. Hot water is pumped to all houses straight from the ground up, and common habit here is to just open the windows when it's too warm inside. Some roads are even heated, mostly up hill, very strange driving on 2 inch of ice and around the corner a clear road.
 
Iron Horseman said:
Hmmm, so was mine - almost double. I wouldn't think my electric bill would be linked to oil prices because as far as I know the generators are using natural gas. ?!??
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Our electric bill for Feb was only $99, just . I should be thankful, although that is the highest electric bill we have ever paid. We will see what happens next month.

Our propane rate was locked in. We did prebuy, where it is the lowest rate. Then we paid an extra $50 to lock in a price if we ran out of prebuy. Well, we only have about $259 left in our prebuy, will be using that up next week probably because the tank is down to about 24%

We live in a 1250 sq foot manufactured home which is only a year old, it is pretty tight. Also, I have the fireplace going every weekend and if the sun is shining in our windows we get a ton of heat that way too.

Dave
 
Iron Horseman said:
What did a fireman do at that time as there was nothing to "fire"? Just watch signals, and engine vitals?
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That plus keep the steam generator going to heat the train. Even in the summer the 20th Centry Limited used steam to run the air conditioners.
Make sure the engineer stays mentally awake. The train that took the curve to fast on the Pennsy a few years back is one good example. There's many more.
George
 
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