Running Bear's November 2024 Coffee Shop


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For anyone wondering, CSX has announced they are going to rebuild/repair the Clinchfield in North Carolina. This will be a huge job, as in many places, the railroad is simply--gone--without even a hint there was ever a railroad there. And it's not just a mile or two, it's miles and miles through the entire area.
Here's a video showing what is there, and you can see what will need to be overcome to build a railroad there again. I muted the sound on this, I really didn't care for the sound effects:
 
chadbag said:
Even with Covid, Trump (first time around) had about a 57% increase in the DOW (I did not check other indexes) and Biden so far has had about 40%. He still has a couple months to increase that.
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If you just look at the DOW, you're not getting the whole picture, it just contains 30 stocks; and they switch them in and out to remove under-performers. Yesterday's results, while probably shaped by the election outcome, boosted the current administrations gains, just like the gain after the election in 2016.
While not a news source I generally trust, here is an article from CNN last Friday to reference:
Biden is beating Trump on stocks. History shows markets do better under Democrats
I don't care, I did well yesterday, and also did exceedingly well in 2023.
 
santafewillie said:
If you just look at the DOW, you're not getting the whole picture, it just contains 30 stocks; and they switch them in and out to remove under-performers. Yesterday's results, while probably shaped by the election outcome, boosted the current administrations gains, just like the gain after the election in 2016.
While not a news source I generally trust, here is an article from CNN last Friday to reference:
Biden is beating Trump on stocks. History shows markets do better under Democrats
I don't care, I did well yesterday, and also did exceedingly well in 2023.
Click to expand...
The Stock Market notwithstanding, now would be a good time to stock up on all your Model Railroad supplies. When the tariffs come slamming home, prices will be going UP. Prices for Chinese products will skyrocket. Get them now while you can still afford them.
 
santafewillie said:
If you just look at the DOW, you're not getting the whole picture, it just contains 30 stocks; and they switch them in and out to remove under-performers. Yesterday's results, while probably shaped by the election outcome, boosted the current administrations gains, just like the gain after the election in 2016.
While not a news source I generally trust, here is an article from CNN last Friday to reference:
Biden is beating Trump on stocks. History shows markets do better under Democrats
I don't care, I did well yesterday, and also did exceedingly well in 2023.
Click to expand...

I'll read the article

But using the NASDAQ, Trump was up 144% over his first term. So far Biden is up 36% over his term to date. He still has 2 months to improve that.

I'm not arguing that in general Republican adminstrations are better for stocks or Democrats are worse but so fa both the DOW and NASDAQ for the two time periods show that Trump outperformed Biden. Even with Covid. I'll have to read the article to see how they defined it since the actual closing values for both indexes shows otherwise (my data was spaced at a week apart so I used the closest date to January 20 of each inauguration year).
 
Good morning, Everybody!

Stocks... my strategy has always been to pick a good mutual fund and let it ride. It has served me well.

Studying the market would drive me crazy. The only thing I know; the market always goes up, eventually.

During baseball season I'd rather follow games online and analyze box scores and stats.

During football season I don't even have enough time to watch all the games I record on the DVR.

Add in time for trains.

I'll stick to things I understand and enjoy.
 
good morning everyone

today i will tell you a "funnie" story haha :D

So i pre ordered 2 new engines from Scale trains. Two beautiful NS engines for my layout. Yes i know iam modelling a railroad from Canada or at least in this region, but i want to have at least one NS loco so i ordered 2 why not :D i just love the paint scheme of NS.

Yesterday i got the package from overseas, i was happy and opened the box. inthere where my 2 ordered engines, well in there where 2 engines :D
But not the one i ordered haha.

loco-edit.jpg



first i did not saw the pictures on the box so i opened the first box and saw the BNSF scheme, i was thinking wtf??? I opened the second one and saw the CN. i was confused ahaha. i mean the CN is nice, but not what i ordered hahaha.

so what happened? I think the guy that packed my box had a really bad day. because he mixed up the numbers as you can see on the picture :D

well long story short, the package is back on its way to scaletrains. they set my correct locos to the side, and will send them when they got those two. and i will get some shop credits because i have to pay for shipping and also customs on the wrong sending. that means, no new locos this weekend :(

Wish you all a great friday and soon weekend.

cheers
jay
 
Good Morning All. Cloudy with a touch of drizzle and 65Ā°. There's evidence of a light rain overnight, but it doesn't show up in the rain gauge. Quite a thunderstorm yesterday afternoon that really "boomed" and left 1.70" in the gauge over an hour-long storm. While this will close up the cracks in the ground and revive all of the vegetation, nothing made it to the creeks and ponds around here. Forecast calls for more today, once around noon and a 100% chance at sunset. It's already approaching from the west.

Another uneventful grocery trek yesterday, the store was quite devoid of customers. Gasoline locally is on a roller coaster ride. Two weeks ago, it was $2.51/gal, last week when I needed to fill up, it was $2.71/gal. Yesterday it was $2.49/gal. All of my other stops, Vitamin Shop, drug store and post office were smooth stops as well.
Looking forward to what's on the indoor "honey do" list today, since it's too wet to do anything outside and it looks like more rain will be here soon. In the next 30 minutes or so. Maybe nothing if she is still glued to the TV and post-election fallout. I forgot to post the other day, that she was flipping through channels on TV, and streaming on both her tablet and laptop all at once on election night. She spent most of yesterday watching the "blame game" develop, didn't even go with me to the grocery store. Why is nobody blaming the candidate???

This evening we have a dinner date with my grandson, my daughter and a friend of hers. They are returning from grandson's all day interview at University of Oklahoma. He is a National Merit Finalist and has been visiting various colleges. OU even paid for a hotel room last night for him. He intends to major in Aerospace Engineering and has interviewed at a few other places already. They'll be passing through around 6:00 and we will meet at our favorite Italian restaurant in town.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I kept it simple since with the thunderstorm, there's always a chance of power failure. Fortunately there was none. I got out the figure painting stuff and noted that I now had less than a dozen figures in the works...quite unusual for me.
1731072785550.png

So I got out the stash of unpainted Chinese figures. This set that my granddaughter gifted to me a few years ago, has 100 passenger figures. Since I have no passenger trains or stations, they normally get some surgery to make them useful on my layout. There's lots of duplicates as well. Here are a few that I am starting on. Out first is the single edge razor blade, Exacto #11 knife and a few files.
IMG_0002.JPG

Need to remove luggage and some of the hats first, as well as some flashing. Here's three of them alongside the original.
1731073255390.png

Second from the right has also had his coat shaved and filed off.
Moving forward, three got flesh color and the one got blue jeans with short sleeves as well.
1731073476619.png

I'll get to the 4th guy later. This is just an example of what can be done.

David - Good to read that Dawn is improving.
Tom O - That's a real shame about Terry's political situation.
You're correct about some layout owners are not modelers. I see that all of the time on home layout tours. I found that I liked the modeling aspect as much as the operating aspect, so I build my own models. I do wish though, that there were a few (even just one) close by fellow modelers that would like to assist in some projects. I'd be glad to assist others as there seems to be some things that I enjoy and can do better than others; track-laying and ballasting comes to mind. I am horrible at soldering and despise tree making.
Louis - I agree, my main exposure to stocks is through mutual funds and ETF's. While I have always invested a little in individual stocks, that is just a very small percentage of my retirement portfolio. However I recently increased my share of AI stocks and I am looking at defense stocks now, as I foresee a lot more global conflict coming up.
Karl - I may have missed a comment here or there, but are those recent pictures of Howard's layout? It seems that it is much cleaner than other recent shots that I have seen.

Musician Bonnie Raitt is 75 today. She has quite an impressive catalog of material. Today also brings back memories of my college days; it is National Harvey Wallbanger Day. Not any more though. I do not do well with distilled spirits and quit them in 1976.

Everyone have a great Friday.
 
Good afternoon all. A cold, cloudy day. After a busy morning preparing the house for Winter, getting the warmer bedding and clothing out, the afternoon is 'free'. Hopefully time in the train room.

Making a pan of broth.

Told by my doctor that everything looked relatively okay after my surgery. Just a few more tests to make. Received a letter yesterday to go for another scan towards the end of this month. o_O Oh! Well.

Time to have some broth.
Back later.
 
Good Morning All!
31F % 83% and overcast. Maybe get to 46F later. No white .... yet.

Have been kinda following some of your 'labor rates' threads. To me it boils down to if you are doing this for a living or not. We all know that the prices of rolling stock has pretty much gone through the roof which makes it hard for entry level MRR's to get into the hobby and be able to buy a fleet of those great looking new cars. In my case, I shudder with the thought of buying some car for $50! For a dang boxcar? Geesh. Ya, they look good and roll good, but still. Sure, I buy $$$ engines but I don't need 100's of them where as the rolling stock I do. Well, at least I think I do.

In TLOC's case, he does wonderful work and I think that he enjoys seeing his cars out in the wild. Over the last few months he appeared to be 'burning out' as the clients he was picking up became too many and it turned into a 'day job' and he was not having any fun with the weathering. Also his thread has me more than thinking about doing at least some weathering.

Years ago my Grandma would knit doilies just to keep her hands busy. Compulsive behavior - maybe. She could crank out a few a day on some days, at least one everyday. When they started to pile up she began giving them away to friends and relatives. Did not take to long and they started stacking up again as 'how many doilies do I need' came into the works. Mom suggested she join a knitting club which she did. They talked her into selling them for some measly amount and the piles again shrunk. She did not like making money with them but after she realized the price she got for them pretty much covered her supplies, she continued. She knitted for joy and accomplishment.

Back to the here and now. I do believe a person should get 'something' for their efforts. Just because maker x makes more money then maker y, it probably does not matter in the grand scheme of things. Maker y is helping keep prices somewhat down which will help those entry level folks and giving themselves joy and accomplishment.

Bottom line to me is: Do what makes you happy. Cover your supplies, possible future tool purchases, then maybe something for yourself. Oh, and TLOC - watch out you might have a day job you do not want. I have seen BNIB cars that are weathered ( crappy ) from the manufacture. Trend? Maybe - now you can manage some production line showing employees how to weather. Just think what joy and accomplishment you will get from that!

Later
 
ctclibby said:
Good Morning All!
31F % 83% and overcast. Maybe get to 46F later. No white .... yet.

Have been kinda following some of your 'labor rates' threads. To me it boils down to if you are doing this for a living or not. We all know that the prices of rolling stock has pretty much gone through the roof which makes it hard for entry level MRR's to get into the hobby and be able to buy a fleet of those great looking new cars. In my case, I shudder with the thought of buying some car for $50! For a dang boxcar? Geesh. Ya, they look good and roll good, but still. Sure, I buy $$$ engines but I don't need 100's of them where as the rolling stock I do. Well, at least I think I do.

In TLOC's case, he does wonderful work and I think that he enjoys seeing his cars out in the wild. Over the last few months he appeared to be 'burning out' as the clients he was picking up became too many and it turned into a 'day job' and he was not having any fun with the weathering. Also his thread has me more than thinking about doing at least some weathering.

Years ago my Grandma would knit doilies just to keep her hands busy. Compulsive behavior - maybe. She could crank out a few a day on some days, at least one everyday. When they started to pile up she began giving them away to friends and relatives. Did not take to long and they started stacking up again as 'how many doilies do I need' came into the works. Mom suggested she join a knitting club which she did. They talked her into selling them for some measly amount and the piles again shrunk. She did not like making money with them but after she realized the price she got for them pretty much covered her supplies, she continued. She knitted for joy and accomplishment.

Back to the here and now. I do believe a person should get 'something' for their efforts. Just because maker x makes more money then maker y, it probably does not matter in the grand scheme of things. Maker y is helping keep prices somewhat down which will help those entry level folks and giving themselves joy and accomplishment.

Bottom line to me is: Do what makes you happy. Cover your supplies, possible future tool purchases, then maybe something for yourself. Oh, and TLOC - watch out you might have a day job you do not want. I have seen BNIB cars that are weathered ( crappy ) from the manufacture. Trend? Maybe - now you can manage some production line showing employees how to weather. Just think what joy and accomplishment you will get from that!

Later
Click to expand...
Todd, I have over the years but more so since Covid experienced burn out. Itā€™s my own fault that I had taken steps to reduce weathering commissions, basically dropped custom structures for NEW clients, golf a lot and try to work more on my layout. My big issue is I get really involved and the ā€œreal jobā€ before retirement was like that. Itā€™s just me.

My idea for the Continuous weathering thread was to get forum readers involved as itā€™s not that hard. What is hard is getting over the fear of starting.

Not production line weathering but I did hire 2 to help on custom graffiti. Both were female, student/artists in training and 1 was a former government building tagger till she was caught at 17. She specialized in USPS buildings and trucks, but got caught doing a VA building in Madison. They both thought receiving $40 of a $50 project was not enough payment for their skills. Iā€™m not getting into the employee thing ever again.
 
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TLOC said:
Todd, I have over the years but more so since Covid experienced burn out. Itā€™s my own fault that I had taken steps to reduce weathering commissions, basically dropped custom structures for NEW clients, golf a lot and try to work more on my layout. My big issue is I get really involved and the ā€œreal jobā€ before retirement was like that. Itā€™s just me.

My idea for the Continuous weathering thread was to get forum readers involved as itā€™s not that hard. What is hard is getting over the fear of starting.
Click to expand...
I have weathered two of my locomotives...and i still have a fear of starting. When does it end?šŸ¤£
IMG_20240424_202905583~2.jpg

One of them:
 
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