Running Bear's May 2020 Coffee Shop


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I think it would take more than a discussion of Graffiti on cars to offend Willie. ;)

Chad, I hope you are right, the last thing I would want to do is to offend anyone, especially somebody like Willie. He, like most of the guys on this forum are of the highest quality.

From my experience, train people are generally great people, although truly unique individuals. There are almost as many ways to enjoy our hobby as there are hobbyists. Nobody should ever "rain on anyone's parade".

I want to be perfectly clear, it was not and it will never be my intention to degrade someone else's hobby in any way.

My preferences and my opinions apply only to my unique and goofy way of enjoying my hobby.
 
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Bromo Seltzer Tower Building postcard postmarked, May 24, 1916.
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Source: Charlie SniderBaltimore - History and Photos - NO POLITICS Facebook
Take note of the name of that Facebook group!
 
Good morning Everybody!

I hope everyone is remembering our fallen heroes and enjoying this great American holiday their sacrifice made possible.
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I slept for almost 10 hours last night. I don't think I've done that in 30 years! Unconscious for days in several hospital stays does not count. I really must have been pretty busy this last week or so, but I feel great! I think I have finally figured out how to work around the house without over doing it; breaks, breaks and more breaks!

I've had a great holiday weekend so far! :)

My wife made a special Hungarian cake for our daughter-in-law's birthday and dropped it off on their front porch as my grandson and I played "Gears of War" on the Xbox. Well I mostly followed him around trying not to get killed, but I did get a few hits in on those crazy monsters, "take that you evil bastards!" We/he cleared several levels and made it to a check point before his Mom came to pick him up. Luckily my grandson speaks like an alter boy, not yet using poppy's vernacular. The worst I've heard from him is "what the freak?!"

I did a "drive by" at my long-time friend Willy's place. He had a stroke several months ago and is slowly doing better and better. I wore a mask and kept my distance. I know Willy loves the smoked chicken breast I make on the Weber grill so I dropped off a big tray of them hot off the grill. His nephew TJ took the tray inside. As I suspected Willy is not yet up to grilling. He loves his Weber grill and uses it almost everyday when the weather is nice and sometimes when the weather is not so nice. He told me "I probably could have cooked on the grill, but I did not feel up to it yet, but soon I will". I told him "you can't make my chicken breast anyway" ;) But I did tell him to let me know when he is feeling up to grilling and I'll bring him some of special blend of seasonings.

My special blend of seasonings are simply: Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Course Black Pepper, Salt and real Hungarian Paprika. It's great for chicken and pork, but for beef I like to use McCormick's Montreal Steak seasoning.

I was glad to see my old buddy as he came out onto his porch. He told me he is just now getting around without his cane. He looked good, thank God, but it's hard to see my old "head knocker" buddy struggling, but time catches up with us all. In his youth Willy was an impressive man, 6'2" nearly 300lbs, quick like a shark and the ladies loved him. He was as gentile as a lamb, but God help any man that gave him a reason to be otherwise. I never felt more secure than to know Willy "had my back". We could go anywhere together and never be bothered. We were "large and in charge" :)

Willy's nephew TJ is a good young man. He moved in with his aunt and uncle to help them through Willy's recovery. That's the thing with young people; we always hear about the bad ones, but the good ones often go unnoticed.

My wife and I stopped at Burger King's drive through on the way home. After the long drive to Havre de Grace and back (65 miles) we did not feel like doing any cooking. In my book you can't beat Burger King's Whopper and the 2 for $6 deal seals it! We even got one to split with the beagles and we both tried the new Impossible Whopper, it's not bad, but the real thing is much better. The dogs were more than happy to finish it off. All in all it was 4 whoppers for $12.72 can't beat that!

Other than that is was a pretty uneventful day.
 
Good morning America, how are ya? Sitting on the front porch on a beautiful, sunny morning listening to the birds sing and drinking coffee. Life is good! It's 68° with a high of 85° and a 30% chance of showers in the afternoon. That also means there's a 70% chance of no rain!

Trying to decide what I want to accomplish today. Some of my time is going to be spent studying for my driver license test. I need to take the regular one for cars and one for motorcycles. We've got til the end of June before the deadline for new residents is up. Don't want to forget about it! Stay safe and six feet away!
 
Good Memorial Day Morning Everyone. It's cloudy and 65°, chance of thundershowers all day long. Yesterday's early morning shower gave way to sunshine until another brief thunderstorm around 3:00 left me an additional 0.4" in the rain gauge. Rather large storm about 50 miles south moving this way right now. While the pool is maintaining a low but usable temperature of 79°, the lack of sunshine does make it less than inviting right now. Where was all of this rain when I was filling it up? Now I am dumping it out!:mad:

I don't remember what I did yesterday that is causing some aches this morning, unless it was all that bending over to clear out the old plants in the garden. I'll skip the Ibuprofen though and just work them out. Maybe I can get my walk in before the rain hits. Today I am going to load up some computer stuff like obsolete monitors, modems, towers and printers from the last century (and this one too) to take to the electronics recycling center tomorrow. They don't pay for it, but at least most parts are recycled instead of all of it going to the landfill.

Lots of bacon with a side of grits and a couple of sunny-side-up eggs today Francine. Where's Flo? Oh! she's just running late while she looks for her mask.

Thanks for the likes and comments yesterday for the progress picture for Earl's Oil; Sherrel, Phil, Guy, Jerome, Bob, Louis, Chad, Karl, Garry, Curt, Chet, Hughie, James.

Spent much of my time in the train shed yesterday making Insta-Fence for Earl's Oil. The Bar Mills footprint for this kit is 12.5" x 7.5"; meaning that one needs 27.5" of fence to surround three sides. They only provide 18" so I had to open a package from the kit shelf for some more.
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Painted up those detail parts on the right as well. Today I hope to cut and add the fence posts.
I added weathering powders to the roof, drive and some around the base of the door; and also built and added the rooftop sign.
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Over in the paint booth, I was able to prime the three oil tanks, which I will assemble later today. There's more detail parts that I cleaned up and I will prime them today as well. Looking around the place for some more to add here and to the salvage yard.
Eventually I ran trains as it has been a couple of days since the last run. After all that's what they are there for to begin with.

Sherrel -
Willie - Your garden always amazes me to no end!
Thank you very much. Mother Nature sometimes helps me.
Enjoy your trip in the "sub".
Mikey -
Willie- I still think you have a great place to put in a Garden railway.
I don't really need another hobby right now!;)
Chet - Yeah! It's tough to do tomatoes if you don't have 65 days.
Karl - Glad to read that the leg is getting better and you are able to get back to trains.
I grow my spearmint in a pot on the back porch. It's actually quite an invasive plant, at least here, and can take over if you're not careful.
Louis - No offense taken with your post. How can graffiti be bad if Lionel does it?🙃
Mike -
When I start to assemble my layout, I will have a shirt track speedway, like a mini- Martinsville. Already have the HO race cars.
My favorite has always been Bristol. Saw races there on both the old and new track. Lots of traffic. Slower speeds and bumping (a lot of it) doesn't cause wipeouts. Usually doesn't even bring out the yellow flag unless something falls off. They just keep going.

Rain is still headed this way, now about 30 miles away, although it looks like it is diminishing somewhat.
Remember our fallen heroes today. The only one in my family is my grandfather's brother, William, my namesake, who died in 1917 in WWI.
Everybody have a great day.
 
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The Montana Rail Link Railfan Society Heard on the scanner of a switch job that was departing Livingston with the two local's power and whatever train they had so off I went from Bozeman and met up with the train on the east side of Bozeman Pass ( I thought we were done with snow but I guess not)
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"Where did the green go?!!
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Muir
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Out of the tunnel and over the summit
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Down the West side and towards Bozeman
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Leaving the snow behind
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Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No...it's .............umm... a bird.
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The 8 loco power move and train comes to a halt at Bozeman, where some switching will be done. Presumably, because 404 and 405 are the usual power for the Bozeman local, they will have detached from the rest and remain once the others move off. So the power move comprised 2 SD40-2xr's, 2 SD70ACe's and 4 GP35's.
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Good morning gang,
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Woke up this morning to my cat and dog going from room to room looking for the kittens. Nope, they all went to their new homes yesterday. Ahhh, peace and quiet.

BBL, SWMBO wants me to take her to a fruit and vegetable stand in a nearby town named Boring.
Seriously



.
 
Good morning ........... Today we are honoring soldiers who died while serving our country. Prayers for their surviving family members.

Willie .... I'm thinking of dispatching a train of reefers to your place for some tomatoes. :) ... Nice work so far with Earl's.

James.... Very clever names for your cats. .... Our three cats were rescued from three different states (OH, TN, and KY) .

Chet ... Good to see you. Apparently, you are very busy .

Louis .... For you ....

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I grow my spearmint in a pot on the back porch. It's actually quite an invasive plant, at least here, and can take over if you're not careful.

Willie: Back when MOH was into planting perenials, we made the mistake of planting mint...Still pulling it out! :rolleyes: Earl's Oil is coming along very nicely.

SWMBO wants me to take her to a fruit and vegetable stand in a nearby town named Boring.

Karl: I suppose you are going to go via the Boering Hwy? :D

Louis .... For you ....

Garry: That's absolutely awesome! ;)
 
Louis and Boris ... Glad you liked the Lionel GP9. I rode in the cab of that engine when we still lived in Michigan about 25 to 30 years ago.

Karl. ... It sounds like your remaining critters miss the kittens. There are times when I wish we could communicate with pets well enough to explain to them what is happening.
 
Afternoon All,

Started out with a couple of inside chores since it's been drizzly all day. On the workbench I made up 2 lights for the build, made 2 signs (paper instead of a decal, put together the base of the smoke stack and dirty upped the inside of the windows. I decided I will make the crane myself instead of spending $25-30 (with shipping) and it won't be easy to see. I also opened the next kit (Red Wing Mills) and took a look at the parts and directions. I also figured out what the colors will be.

Chet- Nice layout shot.

Karl- Nice layout shot. No jack stands (saw the recall) just batteries. Hope you had a boring time :).

James- Nice looking kitties.

Willie- The building looks great with the signage. Bar Mills Insta fence is a great product.

Toot- Nice MRL photos.

Garry- Interesting photo. There is a prototype for everything.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
While I am doing some day-job catch up work in my basement office, I decided to let a couple trains run. My daughter's private railway EMU (Seibu Railway Series 30000) with the Gudetama character is running on the inner loop and I am running a GreenMax JR 103 8 car train of the Osaka Loop Line". This is called "Sayonara Osaka Loop Line" as t commemorates the last 103 series to run on the Osaka Loop Line. This one has had a hard wired motor decoder added but not yet any cab car function decoders for the lights. (Sorry they are slightly blurry -- train in motion). I have a KATO JR 103 for Osaka Loop Line (probably an older vaiant) in DC that I will run on the DC loop later, once I get around to getting my daughter's rain put away.

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Well, the trip to Boring was exactly that, the wife bought lettuce, thyme, and more mint (groan), I sat in the truck and listened to the radio, stopped and filled the truck and gas cans. the truck to 15 gallons, the gas cans 20. This oughta run the tractors for a bit. Afterward lunch and then I actually got my stepson off of his phone and onto a self propelled push mower to do a few areas the tractor cant reach. Wife says it's gonna snow!

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Here's a shot of a special operation that the Maryland Midland has underway. They are hauling dirt from a sight being excavated in Westminster to New Windsor, to fill in an old drainage pond. 8 gondolas of dirt with their own ride along backhoe shuttle the loads. dual excavators on both ends handle the ground work. GP38-3s handle the power. From what I understand, this is going to take another month or 2. Talk about your pike sized train!

Why it is here outside of Union bridge I can only assume it is heading for the yard for the night, and UBST is heading east and will take the run around track. The Y here leads to the Lehigh cement plant in Union Bridge.

Can you hear the Farmer?
When asked, "where's your farm at"
"Y"
"Cuz I wanna know"
"Y"
and so on.......... 🤣 😃 😉
 
Good afternoon. Garry was correct. Quite busy. The wife went into town and picked up some hanging plants top put around the porch and some other annuals to put in a couple of barrels. The daughter came over later with the grand kids as well as my son coming over to finish the coffee table that his wife has him building. Unfortunately she had to work today.

We also had a bit of an air show while we were outdoors. A number of war birds were circling the valley, but unfortunately I was busy and didn't get to take any photos. Had quite the assortment, a P-47, P-40 painted for the flying tigers, a P-51 and P-38 as well as a B-25. There were also a number of bi-planes flying around. They flew for around 45 minutes. We have not only a lot of veterans in the area, but also quite a few gold star families.

A perfect event for Memorial Day. Yes, I had my flag up.

chadbag - Nice photo. I'm sure that you made your daughter happy.

Willie
- Great photos as usual.

Garry - Like the Lionel locomotive.

Karl - Interesting photo. Need your stepson to mow under my trees, but he would have to work as the mower is NOT self propelled.

Ray - Nice MRL photos. Saves me having to go out and railfan.

Nice day today with the temps in the mid 70's. The grand kids are out riding their bikes and I'll have to get to work and help the wife prepare supper and get the grill started.

Here's the table that my son and his wife built. Grabbed this photo before he put it in the back of his Outback.

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Later
 
Good evening. It's cloudy and 66.

In previous years, we've traveled to another location, this year, obviously we aren't. Something I keep meaning to ask somebody, but keep forgetting:
Why are many of Virginia's state road numbers improper fractions? Like route twenty five thirds, or seven sixths? The route numbers look like : 25/3 and 7/6.
 
Good evening. It's cloudy and 66.

In previous years, we've traveled to another location, this year, obviously we aren't. Something I keep meaning to ask somebody, but keep forgetting:
Why are many of Virginia's state road numbers improper fractions? Like route twenty five thirds, or seven sixths? The route numbers look like : 25/3 and 7/6.

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It must save sign space instead of Virginia Point Drive 4.2857142 :rolleyes: 🤣 😃 😁 😄

See if this helps https://www.virginiadot.org/info/resources/route-index-07012003.pdf
Then take 2 aspirin and dont call me in the morning!🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️
 
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