Running Bear's September 2020 Coffee Shop


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Good morning y'all. 66° and sunny.

both my Green and Brown barrels are full.

Sherrel: 'splain please...

Jerry: Cool Lionel Ad.

Lee: Cigar Band scheme looks great.

Well this morning was frustrating that I made such a rookie mistake.

Curt: Been there, done that, and will probably do it again.

(all started by spontaneous combustion from climate change),

Dave: Building is coming along nicely. There is another word for spontaneous combustion...Arson!

SS Manhattan.jpg

SS Manhattan during enlargement, overhaul and conversion to an Ice Breaker in the early 1973 at Sun Ship, Chester, PA. Box cars are part of a Penn Central drill, passing through ship yard, enroute to switch Scott Paper's #81 Building, a distribution warehouse that was originally part of the Ship Yards WW2 expansion.
All of this is gone now, replaced by a race track and Casino.
 
Good Morning all. Cool 63 degrees in the Ozark Foothills. Flo Coffee and a Blueberry muffin.

Jerry. Nice Ad. from Lionel thanks for posting

Alan. The paint job looks good

Guy. Thanks for the complement on the video it’s a little spooky at first going int the caves your pics look good always enjoy you posting them

Sherrel. Nice pics of the Frisco. I hope Dave and all the others living far left of me are safe I’m praying that all we be safe and these fires will end.

Joe. Thanks for the complement be safe and that’s a cool pic.


Thanks for the complements and likes yesterday. No bench work last night it’s hard for me to just total get out of HO it was my first love in Model Railroading I doubt I ever dismantle my HO layout I still like to run it once in a while. Since the O Scale is focused mostly in 1950s I was thinking of maybe have the HO in the late 60s-70s just a thought. Take care I’ll check in later.
 
A really Good Morning to All. Clear and 67° here in beautiful North Central Texas. Expecting another great weather day, high near 87°, with a little breeze later this afternoon. For all intents and purposes, there was no wind yesterday, unusual for here. Weather bureau shows that our average yesterday was 1.5 mph!
Really busy with household chores and yardwork yesterday, won't bore anyone with details. I already miss not having the pool to relax in.

Just a BLT sandwich and hash-browns for me this morning. Include a slice of cheese on that sandwich please, Francine.

Thanks very much for the reactions (likes) and comments on my layout progress yesterday; Phil, Lee, Guy, Sherrel, Karl, Garry, Tom O, Justin, Jerome, Hughie, Curt, Chad, Tom, James.

My primary focus in the train shed yesterday was painting details and such for the diner. Trash cans, light posts, planters etc. I also glued the interior stuff in, but didn't take a single picture. Things are coming together nicely. I did find that one of the figures and his arm, that is supposed to be there was not in the box. An E-Mail to Woodland Scenics is upcoming.
OK, I don't have any layout pictures to post today, so I'll give a menagerie of critter pics that I have taken in my yard over the past few years.
A very wet raccoon.
raccoon 2.JPG

A juvenile skunk.
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This one was on the road.
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The pond has it's fair share as well.
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Overhead of some visitors from the north.
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And my favorite, "Sammy the Snake"; reference to a Sesame Street video.
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My wife would have a heart attack if she knew how close I got to Sammy.

Lee - That's great that you have an employer that was able to accommodate you with local runs.
At some point I am going to have to "bite the bullet" and set up a YouTube account. My grandson has offered to assist me the next time he is here. At 12 years old, he is the "go to" guy at his private school for setting up school issued laptops!
It's too bad that my Dad did not live long enough to see some of your O scale and Lionel pictures (or others) that are available on the Internet. He was a big fan of Lionel three rail, but two of my brothers inherited all of his stuff. He started in 1937 and his first set (and all subsequent sets) still runs today.
Guy - That's one heck of a gantry crane. I am really enjoying your collection of first-hand pictures from your area.
Sherrel - Thanks for the update on Kate. That's wonderful news.
Dave - Wow! 53 years in the trucking industry. Do you think that retirement will "stick" this time?
Weathered structure looks good.
Troy - Looks like progress on the toilet front. I hear you about painting once it's out of the way, much easier.
Curt - Wiring can be frustrating at times. Glad to read that you got it worked out. You're making excellent progress.
My daughter flushed once and the valve stuck and the water overwhelmed the septic tank and spilled out of the toilet for several hours. Fortunately it was all clean water that flooded, but I did have to replace all of the underlying particle board and the carpet. My wife wanted a tiled bathroom anyway.
Most all of my roofs are removable in case I want to add details or lighting. I use that Woodland Scenics Scenic Accent repositionable glue for some that tend to move.

Well, I came back to the computer a few minutes ago and realized that I hadn't yet hit the "Post Reply" button, so apoogies to any one waiting for this post.
Have a great day everyone.
 
Wanted - Experienced Railroad Personnel - Immediate, to fill positions that recently became open!
 
Dave - Wow! 53 years in the trucking industry. Do you think that retirement will "stick" this time?
Weathered structure looks good.
Willie, I got a job washing trucks during Easter break as a sophmore in 68, and it went downhill from there;) As for retirement, it will stick if they can find a schmuck to take my place. They know I wont let the truck sit while they hire an outside co. to haul their equipment. So its 50/50.....


McLeod At least truckers stop when they hit a bridge!:oops:

Here are 2 pics of the Union Sugar mill. 1st is from the 40s or 50s, 2nd is after demolition started in 1997. Pics are hard to find and I am trying to get a simple representation from these and "memory"
Inkedunion sugar #3A_LI.jpg
Union Sugar w color.jpg
 
Sherrel: 'splain please...

JOE - We have 3 64 gal waste containers colored Grey(recyclables), Green(yard), and a Maroon(trash).
We are supposed to use them as depicted in the photo, but many folks don't play nice.
Overflow from the Green can go into the Maroon - no trash or recycle in the Green.
They are collected weekly except recycle is two weeks.
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Willie, I got a job washing trucks during Easter break as a sophmore in 68, and it went downhill from there;) As for retirement, it will stick if they can find a schmuck to take my place. They know I wont let the truck sit while they hire an outside co. to haul their equipment. So its 50/50.....


McLeod At least truckers stop when they hit a bridge!:oops:

Here are 2 pics of the Union Sugar mill. 1st is from the 40s or 50s, 2nd is after demolition started in 1997. Pics are hard to find and I am trying to get a simple representation from these and "memory"
View attachment 117271View attachment 117272
Dave. You started trucking when I started life I was born October 1968
 
JOE - We have 3 64 gal waste containers colored Grey(recyclables), Green(yard), and a Maroon(trash).
We are supposed to use them as depicted in the photo, but many folks don't play nice.
Overflow from the Green can go into the Maroon - no trash or recycle in the Green.
They are collected weekly except recycle is two weeks.
View attachment 117273
I was about to scold you for being color blind. Those cans all look green. But, I finally noticed the lids. Though the grey still looks blue to me. ;)
 
Ah, miserable afternoon. Just finished packaging up some trees when my wife starts yelling at her TV. Seems Hula is pixelating her Packer game and the over the air antenna is not picking up FoxTV. Found a good picture at NFL.com for her but this is no way to start the season. Called the daughter 3 miles away, Her over the air antenna is fine and she says Hula is not working there either. Her neighbor next door cannot pick up the game either over the air or Hula. My brother in Hawaii has no issue with the NFL ticket on DirectTV. Never mess with Terry during her Packer games.

Nice weather finally, the weather TV guy said 1st sunshine in 8 days. I am shipping 42 trees,Ihave 28 finished trees to plant and have 141 trees waiting for polyfiber then leaves. Between trees, learning how to log in the grandkids for online school tomorrow and the TV mess with football, I am done for awhile. Just going to turn the music on and veg out in my office. Pictures tomorrow morning. Be safe. TomO
 
Good morning. Been busy again as usual. I've been getting the last of the summer chores out of the way and getting ready for winter to move in. Although warmer temps have been forecast for the near future, I've been putting up hoses and checking power equipment such as a snow blower making sure that they will work when needed. Did the last of the mowing needed with the push mower and will probably do the last lawn mowing next week with the tractor and the take the mowing deck off and mount the plow. Where did summer go ??

My wife is down in Denver for a few days at Oracle to get caught up with one of their programs that her company started using. He boss wanted a certain report generated that had been done for yours. My wife told him that with the new program, she didn't know how to do it. His response was the deer in the headlight look. The next day she found out she was headed to Denver. I imagine that her butt is dragging her tracks out ten feet behind her. We had our first night of league bowling Friday night and when we got home she had to get the team deposit ready because she had to take odd at 7 AM Saturday.

Sorry ladies, had to make my own breakfast this morning. Diced up some bacon, onions and potatoes and just add eggs.
thumbnail_20200913_085907.jpg It was good.

Willie - Love that D's Diner. I wanted so bad to add this to my layout but just didn't have the room. It would have been so appropriate for my time period but in reality none of my towns would have been large enough to justify it. Can't wait to see it on your layout. You can keep those critters down there.

McLeod - Enjoying your prototype photos.

Karl - I hope this isn't inappropriate, but men stand, pussies kneel. I stopped watching football when Kaepernick took the knee and the NFL did nothing.

Lee - Those underground warehouses are something else. Back in the 90's I delivered to one a few times, in Missouri if I remember correctly.

Dave - Congratulations on retirement. I worked in the trucking industry for years. I was working in Electronics until the recession in the 80's when my company downsized. They wanted me to move to Ohio where the company was based but that wasn't an option. No CDL back then, just a chauffeurs license. Drove to the east coast from Montana for around 5 years and tried to quit. Ended up dispatching. Finally did quit and tried to retire early. A gut who worked for me started his own company and worked for him in operations for around another 10 years and finally retired.
ENJOY RETIREMENT it's great. Liked the video. My son thought he was a good driver, until I put him behind the wheel of a 13 speed Peterbilt. He found out that it wasn't easy. Did get him his CLD which helped him through college and is still a help for the company he works. for now, although he is not a regular driver.

TLOC - Great looking trees. I made some using wire for armatures and here sre my sage brush trees. The sage brush makes a freat armature and has an excellent bark look. I drill a hole in the bottom and put a short piece of brass rod in so it can be easily removed for any work and then replaced,
01011.jpg 010102.jpg IMAG0148.jpg

Curt - You're moving right along with the layout. Enjoying the photos and progress. Interesting wiring story. Have done that myself. Moves like that deserve the "Golden Dipstick Award".

Terry - It can be comical to see where an order can go. May have enough miles on iy to make a trip around the works. Had an incident when we mailed a letter to go 27 miles and by the time it cot there it had traveled over a thousand.

Garry - Those photos you posted the other day were nothing but outstanding.

Sherrel - Love that Frisco photo. No special trash cans here. We have a private company pick it up. My neighbor takes it to the dump himself. Put whatever you want in the can,

My son and his wife just arrived. They're building a lot of furniture and they started their kitchen table yesterday by gluing cut pieces of logs to a base for the table top. Have a little work to do so the epoxy top can be poured.

thumbnail_20200913_124112.jpg

Later
 
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Afternoon All,

Started out cleaning the bird room then headed to the train room. Today I plastered the upper part (above track) which required me to kneel on top of the layout in the back corner. No issues construction wise but hard on the knees. Last time I mounted the "rocks" and then plastered. This time I plastered first and will paint before putting on the rocks. I did mount the lower rocks and put together the cardboard lattice work. I'll plaster those 2 areas tomorrow and paint the upper part brown.

Lee- Nice video. Good job on the F3.

Dave- Nice looking trestle. The building has real potential.

Joe- Interesting to see the size difference between the box cars and ship.

Willie- Neat pics of the local inhabitants.

Guy- I guess it makes sense that it happens to trains also.

Chet- I do deserve the award for that. That table top will be interesting.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Here in our city we have the same basic trash can setup but our colors are

Green -- green waste only (grass clippings, hedges, etc -- I've stick a small Christmas Tree in when they did not pick it up as announced)

Black -- Trash

Blue (kind of intense Blue) -- Recyclables (and only the ones on the list)

----

A week go I started my retirement project :) (and I won't retire for 12-15 years). I am making a DCC control app for iOS and macOS (throttle to start, adding in library, train / layout control, etc later). Last week I started with some low level networking for Z21/XBUS and yesterday got a test harness app able to tell my locomotive to go and stop, emergency stop, and change direction. I still need to finish defining the whole XBUS protocol so I can start the actual app. The app should also have Loconet (WiThrottle) support added and the goal is to try and support as many different command station protocols as possible. But right now I am starting with XBUS protocol over Z21 since my Digikeijs DR5000-ADJ command station supports this natively and my handheld throttles are the WLANmaus from Roco, which are or the Z21 system. I also have the DIgitrax LNWI module plugged in on the Loconet so I should be easily able to add the WiThrottle/Loconet compatibility soon.

Here is my test harness app main screen (the real app will be totally different -- this is just for me to be able to develop and test the underlying networking code)

Z21TestHarness-initial-shot.png
 
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OK Sherrel, now I understand. I have one 96 gal for trash, with twice per week pick-up. recycles get picked up once every two weeks. "Grass clippings" get recycled in place. Other leaves and branches have to be taken to the dump. Fortunately, I don't believe "Knucklehead" Murphy has any desire to change this right now. He's got bigger aspirations.

Dave: That's quite a complex. The one in Philly, (Domino), now is the site of the Casino.

McLeod At least truckers stop when they hit a bridge!

The reason I was reassigned from Baltimore to Jersey was that the previous lead Trainmaster, took the blame for a dispatcher misrouting the OISE via Hoboken and Weehawken, rather than the (ex Erie-Lackawanna) Northern Branch. The loaded multi - levels out of Doremus Ave, struck the Weehawken Tunnel, making Convertible Jaguars. When the dust settled, he got a promotion to the Blue Room. When i saw the video, I just cringed.

Old staging removed September 2020.jpg

My old "East" staging yard prior to removal.
New Staging benchwork 1 september 12 2020.jpg

New benchwork, I gain 12" of length, and 12" of additional depth.
New Staging benchwork 2 september 12 2020.jpg

End view, Reading line to right, PRR line to left... I actually do occasionally do stuff in the layout room (23.5' x 16').
 
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