Running Bear's November 2020 Coffee Shop

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Perfectly clear, starry and 40° to start this fine morning. Perfect new moon last night!

A short stack of blueberry pancakes and a handful of bacon today Flo.

Thanks for the likes and comments on the ongoing bar tour; Troy, Joe, Tom, Tom O, Phil, Guy, Sherrel, Garry, Rick, Kevin, Hughie, Curt, Chet, Ken, Jerry, Patrick.

Got one more drinking establishment to showcase today.

Nine Mile House is another laser-cut kit from American Model Builders. Detailing and figures coming up.

About the only progress that I made in the train shed was more ground cover for the maintenance yard. Finished up some more detail parts for the Feed Store but I haven't installed them yet.

Jerry - A couple of additional pictures of The Green Door Lounge just for you.

Guy - I like your photos of the real thing. I don't have the chance to get up close to most of the cars that I photograph. Those tankers are in nice shape for what I estimate to be 20 year old cars.
Chet - I hear you on sitting in front of two computer screens all day. I never had time to get on the Internet while at work, and when I did I ended up just going home early. Now I intentionally limit myself so as not to get hung up in watching video after video (mostly cab rides) all day long. I like yours because they're not too long.
Congratulations on becoming a grandpa again. Hope that all goes well.
Curt - You're correct about there being a lot of bars here in Texas, but just in "wet" areas. There is still a large swath of Dallas where there are no bars or liquor stores, and no beer at convenience stores

Everyone have a great Monday. Stay safe and don't become a statistic.

 

[Espeefan]

Several posts ago with the tank cars, Alan & I had mentioned cutting off the trip pin levers, which means uncoupling by hand, and this question if for anybody that uncouples by hand....in HO, what do you use?
Here's the tool I use, I got it in a box of RR stuff I "picked" from a hobby store that is now predominantly an RC cars & planes store.

Not a real great photo, but I use the blade on top. I was using it on the new tank car and had an ah hah moment. I had heard of people using tooth picks, which I tried, (that worked), but what I had finally realized, ONLY UNCOUPLE ONE COUPLER! For some reason I was stuck on, you had to manipulate both couplers to get them open. I had always heard of people using different tools & what not, but don't recall anything of technique.
N scalers, I'm not familiar with those couplers at all, what do you guys do? Tuff to see, but the bottom blade has two little "wings" bent in opposite directions, would this work for N couplers?

HAVE A GREAT DAY----DO THE RIGHT THING!

Bamboo skewers from the kitchen department!

Speaking of tank cars, Here are mine. The Hooker is an Atlas, the red Pennsalt Mfg. Co. is a Broadway Limited (6,000 Gal. Chlorine), the SP and Flying A's are all Intermountain. The rest are Tangent. I think I got an addiction problem here! The only larger collection of cars on my roster is the PFE reefers! But seriously, look through them, you'll see some glad hands removed, some shortened, some still there. I pick my way through these and work on them as need requires. One other reason for the pics: Beware the bright color schemes. They are attractive, but if your tank car collection starts looking like a five flavor roll of Lifesavers, you may be overdoing it! The most common colors were black and silver. Structure your fleet accordingly. There's also a pic of a single car that shows the Placard decals just for your reference.

 

[troyphoto]

Greetings.

Wife is masking up and heading to the hair salon this morning. I'll be her chauffer, since the LHS is right around the corner. Then I go get my ears lowered this afternoon. That will be enough exposure to the latest surge for one day.

Learning curve is deflating slightly. I'm getting better at soldering. I aways seem to cut one tie too many off a joint, though. Then I have to pin the heck out of joint on a curve to get it to hold shape.

Here's one I did well on...

and one not so well on. I've got a gap to fill with plasticard, and some filing to do. It might work.

Overall of the run that I had to redo yesterday.

And that big grey space with no track... that's where I blew a turnout apart with sloppy soldering.

Got more work to do today. Turnout install, finish the curve which comes around into this switching section from the lower end of the pic. then I need to start dropping and soldering feeders. Yes, I know I should do that first. One catastrophe at a time, please.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Try staggering the joints in a curve.

 

[Patrick]

Ok,

I'm back. First day back from vacation and while the place didn't fall completely apart, it's been a busy morning.

I have time for a big stack of pancakes with extra bacon this morning. Thanks Flo!
(Don't know why I'm craving them today.)

First the pictures I promised last week:

Nice running BB model, once I cleaned the wheels and lubricated the moving parts. Other than putting some Kadee #5 couplers, it still in this condition. I took the cab section off to get windows installed. Anyone recommend an LED to replace the lamp on the front? It only gets brighter as the DC goes up, and kind of dim when rolling slow. I could also use a BB guide\parts sheet for it if anyone has one they can scan. I have the box and parts for a GP35 and not the GP9 this model is. Took me a couple of hours to clean the wheels. A 9 volt battery does wonders moving the wheels while working on the bench. It actually moves along better than my E7 units.

I also got some work done on the building, although waiting for glue to dry is trying my patience. It seems the older i get the more instant I want things to happen.....

I have the stairs and east coast guttering in place and a start in the railing for the staircase. I also had time to run trains and no derails as long as I have the stupid turnouts in the right positions. Stopping on a turnout not set where you think it is causes loco's to want to go sideways...

Kids got out of quarantine yesterday with no one testing positive. Now if we can keep it that way.

Troy: I hated those tiny N-scale connectors when I built the grandson's layout. While I didn't use a thimble, I did use needle nose pliers.

 

[Boris]

Good morning, y'all. 49° and sunny. Not bad for a Monday.

Willie: I thoroughly enjoyed your Saloon tour. Reminds me of my days of bar hopping.
Guy: Great Tank car photos, and the Homestead looks good in lights.
Chet: Congratulations on being a grandfather again !

Since mid day, yesterday, I have been feeling kind of funny, although nothing obvious. BP is good, and I;m taking all my meds and avoiding people, plus it's been a full week since I had my flu shot, so that's not the problem, these things happen, maybe, I'm a tad dehydrated? WTF. This aging is not for the faint of heart, eh?

One of the structures from the last layout fell apart, and became a parts source, yesterday. It doesn't fit where it was any longer with the new design. Possibly portions will be recycled as background.

Spent part of yesterday going down memory lane, found some really interesting photos of old fire trucks once used by my old department, as well as some old fire photos. Going to set up a folder to keep them on my HD and back-up drive.

I didn't see the glue bottle until just now. The Pennsylvania RR test train taking lunch. Could use a little weathering, eh? I really need a 600HP Baldwin, for the PRR era, the EMDs didn't appear until the PC era, but in the absence of a decent DS 44-600, or VO-660, this or my P2K Alco S-4, will have to do. As Chet remarked, the Atlas Code 83 looks somewhat clunky compared to the Code 70 in the background. Weathering and Ballast will fix that, though.

So that's what caused the Toilet Paper shortage, eh? This fire occurred mid day, two blocks down and one block over from my house, back in 1959 or so. The building was leased by Scott paper Co, and the loss was a then Astronomical $400,000.00. I was eleven when this occurred, and was terrified watching the flying brands of flaming material carried above my house in the smoke cloud.

Lots of little details, captured in the photo.

Conrail (ex. Reading), MP-15 substitutes for SEPTA (ex Reading), FP-7 on the Reading PA - Phladelphia Push-Pull train, which utilized "Streamlined" coaches from the Reading's 1948 Streamliner fleet. Note the guy with the lawn mower waiting at the crossing. late 1970s.

 

[McLeod]

Morning!
I suppose my blood is conditioning to the cool weather for the coming winter. At 20°, I was outside wearing only a short-sleeve polo shirt and it didn't feel all that cool. A lack of wind and a touch of sunlight makes all the difference. - Today is supposed to be very similar to the fine weather of yesterday.

I'm going for something easy this morning. Honey-Nut Granola cereal and coffee. That gives me only 3 dishes to do when I can't pay the bill.

It's good to see that most seem to like the prototype photos. They are all I have to offer right now, as I haven't been doing any modeling the last few days. Even the hardware remains unfinished at this point. Yesterday, I did prime paint the interior of a cafe', but, that's not worth a photo.
So, I'm going to continue with various prototype photos for the next while.
One thing I wanted to do, was get close-up photo's of railcar parts and workings, for modeling purposes. I don't like having to guess what something looks like in real life. Photos give me a hard reference if I want to try and make things look real.
Here is the trucks on two different 2-bay hoppers, close up for modeling reference:

I believe there is a need for the 'walk-around' type of photo sets. I believe many modelers can use and appreciate such photos.

Willie - Those tank cars from yesterday were Blt: 12-09. I wonder why the 'artist's' mostly paint boxcars, and seem to leave tankers and hoppers alone? At 11 years old, one would think there would be a goofy picture painted on the side of the tank.

Hughie - I really enjoyed the baby praying photo!

Troy - An interesting story as you go along with the layout. I do hope it all works out for you without too much issue.

Patrick - Very nice photos! The structure looks very nice, and that is a very cool looking GP9.

Boris - I hope yer not coming down with something serious, and get feeling back to normal. - I like the photos today. Aside from the fact it is a terrible fire, the scenery is wonderful. A nice old open-cab fire truck and vehicles in there.

There you go, my post for today! Time to get on with something else. Have a good one!

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Morning from the West. I have been up for a couple hours where it was 44 and present 48 degrees on the way to 86 for a high today under clear sky. At the moment not a leaf is moving anywhere!

I'm still working with the new saw. Pretty sure I will keep it with a couple "swaps" from my older one. It sure is quite; prior one's bearing always rattles and sounds as if it about to jump the rails.
The Spousal Unit is on my case about "her" car sitting outside - so I had better finish scooting stuff around and haul the other saw down to the church today. Then have to go and work on the SIL's roll top desk since the weather is going to be nice today for working outside.

KEN D&J - good to see you in the coffee shop for a visit. I am not sure why someone had not already made your suggestion on TROY's progress?

Try staggering the joints in a curve.

TROY - My other suggestion would be to solder your flex track together before bending the curve? It looks to me (maybe it is just the camera angle) as if your joints have a "kink" in them?

Jerry - Good to hear of your rain. Send some of it further South!

Willie .. Others beat me to the punch - I was going to comment on the number of bars too NFN that you are in the Bible Belt as well?

JOE - Nice little SW-600 you have there. I like them and the NW-2's.

Patrick - Tired of waiting on drying glue -- USE CA Gel.

 

[Greg@mnrr]

troyphoto: Here's a couple of unsolicited comments on your rail joints and joiners after looking at your photos of the rail joins.

- Are you using any flux when when you are soldering the rain joiners? A liquid flux brushed on works great.

- Is you soldering iron hot enough to properly melt the solder? A hot soldering iron is essential for clean solder joints of any type.

It takes some practice to solder rail joiners and the suggestions to not remove as many ties, stagger the joints and solder the rail when straight make a lot of sense.

Thanks.

Greg

 

[troyphoto]

troyphoto: Here's a couple of unsolicited comments on your rail joints and joiners after looking at your photos of the rail joins.

- Are you using any flux when when you are soldering the rain joiners? A liquid flux brushed on works great.

Yep. dab a little on with a brush. Using the gel flux.

- Is you soldering iron hot enough to properly melt the solder? A hot soldering iron is essential for clean solder joints of any type.

Usually plug it in a good 5 min before using.

It takes some practice to solder rail joiners and the suggestions to not remove as many ties, stagger the joints and solder the rail when straight make a lot of sense.

Staggering the joint? How many ties between the rail cuts? Seems counterproductive to stagger more than one or two ties apart since the ties keep the rails in gauge.[/QUOTE]

 

[Greg@mnrr]

Some times solving troublesome model railroading problems require the simplest of solutions. Previously in the Forum, I wrote about the problem that several of my newer six axle diesels were derailing on a decreasing radius curve coming off a 22 inch plus radius down to 22 inches. I worked and made adjustments to this area until I was ready to quit the hobby. All with mixed results.

What made the problem even worst was my older six axles never exhibited any problems in this area and I would run the diesels for hours without a problem. It was only until I purchased several new six axles that the problems surfaced. I did all of the normal checking of the wheel clearances, flanges and tightening the clearance of the middle axles. Occasionally, it seemed that I had corrected the problem after the locomotives ran for hours with a problem. Then the problem resurfaced.

One day when placing a six axle diesel on the main line for a run the solution came to me!!! It was so simple.

We all know when re-railing a six axle loco it takes care to make sure all six axles were seated on the rails. In my case the leading axle wasn't securely on the rail. It looked like it was on the rail....but wasn't. It was slightly ajar and my old eyes would miss this sure potential for a derailment.
Running on broad radius curves the leading axle even off the the rail it could keep the other axles on the track with out incident. After one, two or more laps around the mainline the derail would occur.

It seemed that rerailing most of my six axle diesels the visibility of the front axle was better than with the locomotives I was having the problem. The over head layout lighting would cast some shadows on the locomotives wheels and I would miss the front axle being slightly amiss. Now when I placed the couple of locomotives that provided me the most problems, I use the built-in flashlight in my Digitrax 400 series throttle to check that all axles are properly seated on the rails. Now I know why Digitrax added these LED flashlights to their throttles.

The other solution is to select the locomotives I want to run on the layout and keep the idle locomotives in the Saxeville Interchange until needed and then just run the locomotives down to the mainline eliminating the need to handle the locomotives and prevent the misalignment of the lead axle.

Problem solved.

Greg

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Staggering them is something that you will have to work with to find you specific solution.

 

[Greg@mnrr]

Now on to another problem.

My Win 10 goes through periodic updates and usually after an update my computer is missing some features or something is amiss. After my lastest updates, my spelling correction isn't working the way it should.

The spell check will catch a misspelled word and after I correct it, it will revert to another word those spelling is close to the word that I'm looking for and didn't receive.

On to the realm of spell check.

Greg

 

[troyphoto]

Welp... waiting to get my ears lowered in about 45 min. Got time to make a post.

Following advice here, and from a few of the videos, I decided I'd solder all of joints first, then re-mount the track around the curve. So, I pulled track back to the upper tunnel (about where the black handled knife is at the 1 O'clock position. Clear push pins are the end of the glued down track.

Going clockwise from the black knife, I had a joint to solder above the blue sanding sponge, another down at the 5 o'clock position, and the third about 9 o'clock. the turnout heading under the overpass was already soldered on all three joints, so I just had to tie into the mainline track there. It, however, is NOT glued down from the underpass all the way back around to the tunnel is just pinned.

Tonight, I'll prop the track up, spread caulk (again) and work my way around from the tunnel down.

The joints look much better when I'm not trying to cut and solder on a curve. Need to get some denatured alcohol and clean the leftover flux off the rails, and do some filing. Some of the solder pulled through the gaps on got on the inside of the rails.

 

[GarryCBQ]

Good afternoon.

Troy ..... When soldering flex track..... I don't nail it down close to the joints until after they are soldered. While soldering rail joints, I hold the rails straight end-to-end. After soldering, then I curve the rails. In your photos, you can see the rails are kinked at the joints, and you don't want that. .... Greg has good advice about flux and about a hot soldering iron. It is also important for the solder iron tip to be clean. While it is hot, wipe the solder iron tip in a clean, damp cloth.

Ken D&J ..... It is good seeing you here again.

Willie ..... Apparently, nobody on your layout goes thirsty.

Alan .... That is a remarkable group of tank cars.

Everybody...... Have good afternoon.

 

[chadbag]

RE: solder

After being clued in to these guys in another forum I swear by this companies products: both flux (liquid and paste/gel) and solder.

H&N Electronics Soldering Flux

Superior No.30 Supersafe Flux products, the Premium Flux for Electronics since 1949. Soldering Flux for most metals, including Flux for Jewelry Artisans.

www.hnflux.com

Made lots of solder jobs easier. I also have a digital soldering station ($100-$120 on amazon for various brands like Hako [mine] and Weller). Keeps a constant temperature that you can set. Makes soldering (anythiung from decoders to more substantial things) a lot easier, including steel etc. (in my case wire from a decoder to a steel "bus" in a cab car).

 

[Greg@mnrr]

I'll second Chadbag on using a soldering station like Weller or Hako. Several Christmas' ago my Nephew (Electrical Engineer and Attorney)
was in my train room and saw my 25 and 45 watt pencil irons and he said I needed a soldering station. So he called Amazon and ordered me a Weller Station and it's been great.

Greg

 

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

Started with some chores then double check the locos on the right curve without issue . Dad showed up and I gave him the tour of the layout. He really liked the improved access over the last layout and the "rubber rocks". Traffic was light down and back from the VA and his appointment actually happened on time. Tomorrow I plan on painting the engine servicing area track with a black wash.

Guy- Nice truck shots.

Willie- Nice building.

Alan- Nice collection of tank cars.

Troy- Just keep at it and things will improve.

Patrick- Decoder installs are not my thing. More power to you. Nice job on the tower.

Joe- Nice photos. Good to see some Pennsy on your layout.

I hope everyone has a good night.

 

[Boris]

Joe- Nice photos. Good to see some Pennsy on your layout.

Curt: thought you would approve. As time goes on there will be more... I have quite a few PRR shifters. Your layout is really coming along nicely, BTW.

 

[GEfan]

Question for the brain trust:

Rail joiners (N-scale specific) - Does the brand matter? I use Peco Code 80 track and I'm halfway through my 2nd bag of Peco code 80 rail joiners. My local hobby shop stocks Atlas track and accessories. Will Atlas joiners work with Peco?

Not sure if this helps you or not, but in the UK, a number of N gauge guys (including myself) don't use rail joiners any more. They look wrong and are clearly visible in photographs. Instead, careful positioning of the track, which is glued to the trackbed surface is the method. Each piece of track should have one or more electrical feeds anyway (I use three for example on a metre-length straight).

Just a thought for you....

Rich