Running Bear's September 2020 Coffee Shop


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OK, for us non professional railroaders, what the heck is a "promotion to the Blue Room"???

Willie: I sometimes forget that. The "Blue Room" was the Conrail System Operations center, located in Corporate headquarters. It was a 24 / 7 operation, and these were the people who assigned road power, and essentially ran the railroad. Working as Night Lead Trainmaster, was a 12 hour night, six days / week and one off. The Blue Room was 8 hours, six days, two days off for more money, and you didn't have to go to derailments or chase trains in bad weather.

today is the official start of the fire season here in CA!

Sherrel: That's like saying that the Hurricane we had in December, 1997, wasn't a hurricane because the hurricane Season ended on November 30. The Sustained 80, MPH winds, heavy rain and flooding were every bit a hurricane, irrespective of the date. Hopefully, the fires will end soon, so y'all can go into the next phase of your weather.

Thanks for the comments / compliments of my layout / bench work. The DCC controller extension plates from Tony's Trains arrived today. now, I can move on with the wiring.

BEDT # 26 Brooklyn - Warren calloway.jpg

BEDT # 26 in Brooklyn, NY. Warren Calloway photo.
 
Spent most of the day with the 2-10-4. She didn't want to cooperate. The language got rather spectacular. I got all the clean up done, tender, lead and trailing trucks assembled, and got the driver springs and drivers installed, the bottom cover plate on, and then attached the side rods. Here's where it got interesting. It had a rather severe bind. A bind in a steamer's running gear will for sure teach you patience, and probably a few new words. Since I hadn't taken this thing apart I was flying a little blind. I tried several things with no results. I ended up having to take it all apart and start over. Checked the drivers for quarter, chased the crank pin threads, checked the driver springs. Then reinstall everything. You also have to make sure you get all the driver's hot sides correctly oriented or you'll have to do it again. I found the issue in the end, and once again it was the assembled chassis that helped. The side rods look the same front to back, but they only fit one way. The crank pins look to be all the same length, but they aren't. It is hard to tell, as there is so much slop in this mechanism (so it'll go around curves) and I ended up having to measure them with a dial caliper. Of a total of four per side, two were very slightly longer than the other two. Just .001-.002, but that's all it took. The chassis is all back together now and runs smooth as silk. This is a good place to stop for the day. After this photo I dabbed a drop of black paint in the head of each one of those brass screws as well as a couple of places where paint had gotten rubbed off during handling. Next up is the motor mount and installing the new motor. It should be back together next weekend.

View attachment 117287
What radius curve will it take? What is the brass job behind the black one?
 
What radius curve will it take? What is the brass job behind the black one?
I don’t know what the minimum radius for this model is. I wouldn’t try anything less than 30”. All drivers on this model are flanged, but there is plenty of play in the mechanism. My club has a 48” minimum radius so it’s all good. The brass chassis behind the black one is an unpainted version of the same model. The center driver of that model is blind so that version might take a little tighter curve. The PFM 2-10-2’s and 2-10-4’s were both run multiple times, some with blind center drivers and some with all flanged.
 
Joe. Nice pic of the Switcher

Louis. Thanks for posting all those great variety of pics.

This is a old Athearn Blue Box my brother and I built he installed the clear and red led lights and I painted/ decaled the shell and added some details like grab irons, spark arrestors, Mars Light housing, air horn and windows. Have a good night and thanks for the complements and likes today.

 
Sherrel: That's like saying that the Hurricane we had in December, 1997, wasn't a hurricane because the hurricane Season ended on November 30. The Sustained 80, MPH winds, heavy rain and flooding were every bit a hurricane, irrespective of the date. Hopefully, the fires will end soon, so y'all can go into the next phase of your weather.

Joe- I seem to recall Dec-May coastal storms being referred to as Nor’easters, regardless of wind direction or direction of the storm track.
 
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