Running Bear's May 2020 Coffee Shop


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Thought this was interesting. Folks always talk about how coupler height is important. I see it can happen in the real world.
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Good morning Everybody!

Cutting the back yard grass yesterday kicked my butt! I did not even make an attempt to do the front. It's already rained today and they are calling for intermittent rain all day. I have a good excuse now.

I baked a half a ham yesterday. I deboned it this morning. The bone is in the pot with cabbage and potatoes and the deli slicer will take care of the rest. Man it smells good in here and my Mom is going to love it! Fresh backed ham and uncooked cabbage for breakfast, that was good! Did I mention I love cabbage? :)

Have a great day Everybody!
My mower is in the shop for a new drive belt and service. It rained all week here so I had to borrow the neighbor's mower. No power assist. Damn near killed me! I feel your pain.
 
'Evening Shop Dwellers!

Haven't read any other replies here yet, so I'll have to come back to those. I only have time for a drive-by post tonite, I've been spending most of my free time posting digitized slides of B&O roster shots I got back-in-the-day, over on Bob's other forum (prototype railroads) - hardly been here at all lately.

I finally gritted my teeth and made the chain link fence sections for the pipe-and-duct dealer property. Used enough profanity to make even a sailor blush! One of the few things I can think of on the "dislike" scale comparable to the Walthers fence kit, is stringing the cables on a bighook or a crane. Very tedious, hard to avoid screwing up and having to start over. That's why I was out in the trainroom for ~8 hours today struggling to get this section completed, between the pipe dealer property and the Steel Mill right-of-way.

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I still have to do the fencing along the road, including a gate for the rail spur. But that'll have to wait until next weekend...

Sayonara {sp?}
 
Good Morning all,

Today is Star Wars day! May the Forth be with you!!!!! 😉

Only up for 6 hours for most of the week and an extra long day on Friday as I have a vendor moving databases for me (remotely of course).

Got caught up on the yard work on Saturday after just not feeling into it on Friday afternoon (it was 88 for the high). I put the second round of fertilizer on the yard Saturday and needed rain by Sunday. It was supposed to rain overnight, so when I got up and looked out the window and saw that it hadn't rained, I told the Mrs I needed to run the sprinklers as it hasn't rained, just then the weather radio went off declaring a severe storm in my area (for a change) and we got almost an inch of rain in an hour and half. Then sunny the remainder of the day.

I did get some time yesterday to work on the layout.

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I got all but 2 of turnouts powered. As you see in the last photo, one is a manual machine and the other has a wire that won't cone loose, but the machine functions. Both are in the "yard" which is within easy reach of the control station. I did set the control switches on the board so that when I get some extra funds the 2 left remote machines can be wired. Thanks Willie for those switches. I did find a couple that didn't work, for the most part they cleaned up well enough to function properly. Now to actually run trains through them without having to manually move each individual machine. I have about 6 hours running the wiring, testing the switches for the control board, and actually hooking up and testing them.

I have them set in 2 rows, the top row has the 8 main track and siding machines and the bottom has the 5 yard machines. While they look crooked in the photos, they are even and straight. The 5th wire on the board is directly over a shelf support so I had to slightly move the connection which is why the wire is slightly askew.
 
Good Morning Everyone. Mostly clear and 71° to start the week here. Weather guesser's model has not been right lately. Original prediction of near 100° yesterday ended up at 89°. Today is forecast to be 93° and then 6 of the next 10 days it's not supposed to get above the upper 70's. No rain in sight.

Is that waffles and bacon I see over there Flo? Make up a plate for me with a double order of the bacon.

Thanks for the likes and comments yesterday, Tom, Chet, Louis, Bob, Guy, Karl, Sherrel, Chad, Curt, Patrick.

Spent most of my time in the train shed yesterday assembling the Walther's Ferrous Shear. I posted yesterday that the instructions looked pretty good for a Walther's product, but during assembly, I found one very obvious omission. The part is pictured, but no mention in the assembly instructions. In the end, it was not a major issue.
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Here it is in its intended position.
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I am still going to apply some more paint over and above the red, black, silver and concrete colors already done. These things are usually a shade of industrial green from pictures that I have seen. Of course, rust, scrapes and weathering will be necessary as well. In addition, from my experience with this type of equipment, I will need to add leaked hydraulic fluid everywhere!
In this picture you can also see the rail spur gates that will be added soon.

Sherrel - Thanks for the offer of hot weather, but it is not needed. It's actually sunlight heating the bottom and sides that heats up pool water much more efficiently than ambient heat. The darker the liner, the quicker the heat-up. While the air can get hot, it's really a terrible conductor of heat.
Tom - It is interesting that ScaleTrains has not yet released any four axle engines.
The coupler height picture was surely interesting.
Patrick - Sorry about the non-functioning switch controllers. Hopefully I sent enough extra to cover your needs.

Everybody have a great day and continue to keep your distance.
 
Your metal shear reminded me of a machine they had at a recycling yard in Auckland NZ. A Metal shredder. I never got to see it (or hear it, I'm glad to say) in operation 'cause the only time I saw it was when, just before emigrating to Aus, I took a truckload of our old fridges etc out to it. Couldn't sell them, too old by then. Wasn't all that big but it had two auto bodies, only minus wheels and tires, sitting on a sloping upward, ramp conveyor, waiting till the following weeks work to be dropped into it's hopper. What came out the other end was bits of metal about the size of a shoe.
 
Good (not so happy) Morning, Everyone!! If we are following after Willie, and naming days, then this would be 'Song Birds Die Day!'. Many of these birds that have migrated from the warm south will not land on a snow covered landscape.
Outside my window at 6:30am:
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Instead, they seem to choose a more earthen look dark spot. Like the blackish highway, where they will often get run over by traffic.
I've seen so many song birds die this way; one year the highway was littered with tiny bird corpses. There is nothing a person can do about it, but don't drive. I hope the virus self isolation will help keep the vehicles off the highway today; that would be the only good thing I see coming out of this virus pandemic. If the birds can survive the day, all will be ok. The snow should be gone by this afternoon.

On the train modeling front; I've been to busy to do much modelling. Yesterday, I did get my two flat cars painted rust red:
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Today, will be another busy day of working for other people, trying to get the yards n gardens ready for the May planting. So, I gotta go!
Have a great day, everyone!
Guy
 
Thanks Willie, you did send enough that I still have several more than I need. Not your fault that some were not functional as I believe you said they were sitting in a box of stuff you hadn't used in forever. So much of my stuff is second hand anyway that I expected some failures, so all is good! The wife wanted to know why I haven't started placing buildings yet, so I told here I need to get the electrical completed on the track stuff before I could really start thinking about what is next.
 
Good morning ........ Coffee and a pecan roll, please.

Toot ....... Thank you for replying to my question about where you live. I looked up Brisbane on the computer. I am favorably impressed. The city looks very attractive in the photos.

Boris .... That is quite a string of NYC E-units in your photo.

Ken .... Good to see you. I have heard those Walthers fence kits are very difficult and tedious. Yours looks good, but I'm not surprised about profanity.

Patrick ... It is good to see your layout progress.

WIllie ...... Your current project looks like "shear delight". ...... 😀

Guy .... It looks cold there. I would think staying indoors working on flat cars is a good idea.


Everybody .... Have a good day.
 
Good Morning Everyone......partly sunny and colder this morning.

First order of business is to adjust a coupler on that GP38-2. I made a custom coupler box cover to replace the one I lost. Second I need to blend some of the rust marks with their surrounding areas. I been cleaning the locomotive's wheels to improve operation. It's a smooth, quiet runner and I set the decoder's CV's for a road switcher. The photo isn't the greatest, but better ones to follow.

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Later I want to adjust a Tortoise switch machine's throw bar. It needs to be centered and it's in a difficult location to work on the mounting of the machine.

My order for three Digitrax decoders is in the mail. I want to install them in two matching MILW GP38-2 Proto Limited Edition models.

I been using a new connector for the Tortoise machines since I also control the turnout position signals from the connections on the machines. They're called Snaps by Accu Lite. They must be popular since Walthers is sold out at this time. They sure make attaching wiring to a Tortoise a "Snap".


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Short and sweet.....

Greg

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PS: Sherrel: We brought gasoline Saturday in Central Wisconsin and purchased 19 gallons of fuel for $11.40 with a coupon!!!!
 
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Afternoon All,

Started with some chores then the solar guys showed and then left since they wouldn't guarantee their work. On the electrical front I dug out the base station and the lighting still did not work. I unsoldered everything and tested everything individually and it all worked (no blown bulbs). I then hooked up resistors to everything and hooked everything back up and it works :). It only took 4 hours including yesterday for 4 interior lights and 2 exterior door lights. Tomorrow I start on the stairs.:(

Tom- Interesting photo. There's a prototype for everything.

Ken- The fencing does look great.

Patrick- Looks like you made real progress on your layout.

Willie- Nice job on the layout.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
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