Running Bear's September 2020 Coffee Shop


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Good morning from Oregon's high desert, the air is clear this morning, awesome view of the Milky Way. Very little light pollution here. Don't expect the clear sky's too last long.....and, a chance of thunder storms Thur. Fri. That's what we need!! I just wanted to say how enjoyable this forum is, it's great looking at the projects & pics., along with the comradery. Thanks all for the likes...
Speaking of projects, Willie, that burger shack is nice, I really like the free standing sign, gives the place a lot of character. Louis, keep the pictures coming.......Lee, nice little vid on the f7, but I'm partial to covered wagons anyway, and thanks for the comment on the ad, and here is one more,
from 1953..
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So, what is MAGNE-TRACTION supposed to be? There is a bare mention of it in the '50 ad, no mention in the '52 ad, and they've got it up front & center in this ad.
Here is a picture of my yard, before I tore it down. After I got it operational, I found out how much I enjoyed switching, so down i came, and a new plan devised were the long 20 ft wall will be the site of the new yard.
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EVERY BODY BE SAFE OUT THERE....
 
Morning all,

I woke up tired this morning. Must be old age or I didn't sleep as well. Must be the My Pillow. I was given one at Christmas and don't find it's the best sleep of my life. I use it as a base with a second firm pillow on top. Oh well, so much for advertising.

Willie's correct on the magne-traction on the post war Lionel engines. Any loose magnetically attracted bits always ended up on the wheels. Those stuck well enough to pull the tack and several sections of rail with it if your rails weren't nailed down.

Gone tomorrow as I've got to escort the daughter to her Chemo. One more after this one. Waiting on the reports of the wife's stress test, which we'll get Thursday afternoon. For the dog lover's, the son's dog is doing fine after her bout of illness. She's as ornery as ever.
 
[walks in rubbing eyes]
Morning, all. Strong dark roast and a donut this morning Flo.

Got into the low 50s last night, so we slept with the windows open. And an extra blanket. Still not chilly/less humid enough for the quilt to venture onto the bed. So, I slept in.

Thanks to all who have made suggestions so far. If you see something I'm missing, please let me know. I'm in the head scratching phase of trying to get my continuous run mainline to happen.

Spent some time noodling with 2% grades last night. Unfortunately, I'm fighting what I didn't expect on this layout. I don't have enough room.

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The problem is the grade, and the height I want for the rearmost run on the back wall. I'm trying to get that up 4 inches. A 2% grade takes 16 feet to get there. A 3% grade takes 12 ft.

The other problem is trying to figure 8 the layout on the left side to get my crossover so the underpass portion is at least 2.5 inch, I end up with the grade beginning at or before the back-left corner (before in photo below). That's where I wanted a tunnel, and I've been trying to avoid a tunnel on grade.


In this image, I've got the underpass (blue tape line from the end of the curve) at a 2" riser. No problem, just drop another inch (hence the 4% grade starter wedge to illustrate the extra descent.

I'm about to put the 3% grade back here, and just run consists. But, since I only have two pieces of rolling stock at the moment... ;)
 
Good Morning, Everyone!
Whether I like it or not, I'm going to be fencing today. Hunting season starts on Thursday and I have a cow elk draw that it took 7yrs to get, so I need the fence out of the way. Best time to get you're elk is in the first few days of the season; after that they become invisible.
It's only 39F this fine morning, so it feels a bit cool. At least it quit raining.

Patrick - Prayers for the daughter. She must be a wonderful person, as that kind of stuff only happens to the good people of this world. Criminals and my ex-wife seem to go on forever and ever.
Boris - I really like the photo this morning. I would date it either late fifties or very early sixties, but, it's difficult to make out the vehicles in the background. The mid 20th century is the look I'm after when I build my layout, so it is nice to see railway scenery pics from that era.
Jerry - I'm spying the narrow width and extra length of your layout in the photo. I might borrow that idea, and not use the full width of the room my layout will be in. I feel an 8'x12' area of the 12'x24' room will be plenty big enough, as I'm mostly interested in the scenery modelling as compared to the track layout. So long as it has a town yard and a track going through a mountainous area with a water feature, that's good enough.

Coffee and toast this morning, I will be heading out soon. I'll get something more substantial at 10:00am coffee break.

I'll leave you with an SD70M-2 study group of photos that I took down at the town yard yesterday:
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I'm glad it was down in the yard, as I didn't have SD70 pics in my collection.

Have a good one!
 
Good Morning All. Mostly cloudy and 70° out there this fine morning. It's a little warmer than predicted, but the highs in the next ten days will remain in the mid to low 80's, like the past few days. Continued light breeze from the north has made sleeping next to the open window rather nice right now. Unlike Tom, no heat for at least another six weeks, and we've only run the A/C for about two hours in the late afternoon.
Doctor visit went well yesterday, it was the annual physical along with everything else. He scheduled a return visit in December, so he expects me to live that much longer. I made the nurse practitioner fill out those stupid depression/anxiety and slips/trips/falls paperwork for Medicare, I just did that in May or June! And how many times do I have to tell them that I quit smoking tobacco in 1970? Mandatory eye photographs as well. The nurse doing them had obviously not had a lot of experience doing them, and after a couple of minutes of trying, the nurse practitioner showed her, again I think from the tone of their hushed voices. EKG was good, weight while not ideal is good, 40 pounds lighter than last September. Blood test results from last visit were nearly perfect. Calcium is slightly high. A1C was 5.6, so beer consumption does not need to be curtailed. I have to be careful as a borderline diabetic. I take enough medications already!

Enough of my health, Flo. How about a healthy portion of bacon with a pair of over easy eggs and raisin toast this morning. Of course that large OJ to wash it all down with.

Thanks a whole lot for the likes and comments on yesterday's progress report; Karl, Chad, Lee, Jerome, Sherrel, Guy, Chet, Patrick, GT, Justin, Phil, Tom O, Hughie, Curt, Tom, Garry, Jerry.

Among other things yesterday, I made a trip to my LHS, 65 miles away, Discount Model Railroad. I was in need of a few supplies and I was late in getting myself a Labor Day present.
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The Labor Day present is the Accurail Frisco covered hopper in the upper right hand corner. I quit buying freight cars in 2014 because I didn't need any more, but like a puppy at the pound, this on just jumped out to me.
Got four structures, three of which will end up in the town scene that's on hold from last summer. The fourth is a laser-cut feed store from Blair Line. That's going into a not yet built hamlet along with a number of other laser-cut structures that I have posted here before. Also picked up a few packs DPM modular walls that I will be using for some future background structures, although I might not be able to start soon because they were sold out of four others that were on my list. Managed to purchase four more vehicles, all from Oxford. I really need a lot more. Strange for me to say since I already have over 400 scattered about on the layout. I also resupplied my stash of metal wheels, Insta Fence and ground throws plus some Evergreen styrene and dull coat.
Time in the train shed was limited yesterday, but I did finish off Flo and Francine. I'll have to take a few close up pictures to determine if I want to "doll them up" some more.
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I did assemble the vehicle that came with the kit without painting the trim yet.
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I am also debating whether or not to attempt white wall tires. I will also look into the figures stash box to see if I have any appropriately dressed (and aged) companions to add.
Some details remain to be done. There are four bicycles, a fire hydrant and a messy trash pile. I already have some additional family figures that are going into the scene. This kit also has interior lighting kit to put in place. It's not WS's plug in system so I don't have to deal with that, just yet.

Tom - Grain spillage on top of covered hoppers seems to be quite common in trains that I see, especially when I watch from a nearby bluff in a friends back yard. It is more prevalent during harvest times, when elevators are rushing to load as much as possible in the shortest time. What is more interesting is when it sprouts after a light rain and there is wheat or oats growing on top of the cars. Lots of unit grain trains from the Midwest, pass my friend's yard on BNSF on their way to the export port in Houston.
Amusing story about the water line.
Troy - Sorry that I set off your paranoia of serpents. You're not alone. I should have posted a disclaimer. As I posted, my wife nearly has a heart attack when she sees one. I recognize the particular scream when she finds one in the house and she locks herself in the bathroom until I remove it. She also hates that I just release them unharmed instead of killing them, but they do an admirable job of rodent control here in the country. Note that they don't get into the house too often, especially now since I replaced the semi-rotted floor in the bathroom from when my daughter let the toilet overflow.
Your layout progress is looking good. Those railcars need some more friends.
Jerry - Love reminiscing on the old Lionel ads. I am too young to remember them prior to 1958 or so, but my dad kept all of his old catalogs and I did see them a lot during the 60's when "imagineering"
Lee - My dad had probably 10 Lionel engines and 120 freight or passenger cars. His mode of operation was running trains only. He only had temporary layouts set up around the tree in the emptied living room/dining room, every other year at Christmas. We spent about 10 days setting up right after Thanksgiving (on green velvet ground cloths), and began dismantling after New Years Day. He had two ZW transformers on different house circuits (blew fuses when on the same one), and delighted in running eight different trains at once. We always set it up so the trains could run independently on their own loops, some of which could also split into two different loops. Some were also interconnected and he used some old KW transformers to power those interconnecting tracks. He never shot for accuracy but he never bought "gimmick" cars like the submarine flatcar. Some of my brothers and I would all share duties when we were allowed.
Sherrel - Interesting factoid about the wildfire season. Here we just ended our grassfire season without any major incidents.

Among other things being commemorated today, it's National IT Professionals Day. A day to commemorate folks like Patrick who work in their caves in the back of all of our offices.
Wow! I feel like I just wrote a novel!
Everybody have a great day.
 
Good Morning all. Flo Coffee and Waffles. Cool 52 degrees in the Ozark Foothills with hazy skies from the Western smoke still praying for you guys out there.

Chet. Thanks for Video nice

Patrick. Praying for you Daughter and wife as well and hope your wife’s test are ok

Jerry. Thanks for the complement and posting another ad 1953 that’s when my F3 was made and there’s a pic of it in the ad thanks and the layout is nice

Guy. Nice pics as always this CN stuff is starting to rub off on me

Thanks to all who Gave me complements and Likes yesterday. I’ll leave you with some pics of that Lackawanna F7 I built and a couple Boxcars



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Patrick - Prayers for the daughter. She must be a wonderful person, as that kind of stuff only happens to the good people of this world. Criminals and my ex-wife seem to go on forever and ever.

GUY - Don't forget to add politicians to that list!
Nice photos of the "70" - that's a BIG machine!

Good morning from the far southwest. We have had three 94's in a row - now it is time for a 96 today and supposedly a blue sky rather than the murky grayish we have been having.

Just coffee this morning, FLO, I'll stop by later today and have a samich for lunch. The spousal Unit and I drove up the hill about a mile away for the daughter's "Reveal Party" -- we had popper tubes and did not start any fires!
It's a boy - the 7th male Gson - no girls allowed!

Patrick -- I'll add my prayers as well to your list for the wife and daughter. I apologize for not commenting on them before.

So much news today on here ... Troy, Good on you for the toilet install. I spent a goodly amount of time looking at your layout Delima with nothing concrete in mind. You could have the grade longer on one side than the other and operate going up the longer and down the shorter (I did that on one of my layouts .. 2.5% up and 4% down).

I thought we hid LOUIS' Post Button! Just kidding, Louis, A smattering of nice photos all around.

TERRY - Somebody's got your number - that is unbelievable!

BTW - Along with TERRY's woes -- My folks managed to buy my LIONEL 2-8-4 Berkshire the only year that they stopped Magna Traction due to the Korean War. It was never a real good puller - especially with the heavyweight passenger cars.

Willie - I liked the wildlife photos you shared - I don't mind the "Sammy's" as long as they don't have the triangular
head- I doubt you would have been that close if so? Speaking of slithery things - There have been two of them caught in the MIL's house this summer! No one can figure out how they are getting in - no doors are ever left open?

That's it for now - except TOM - The water line story is funny!
 
Good morning. Another smokey day today with temps in the low 80's predicted. Going to have to pass on going flying again today. Here's a photo that a pilot friend took the other day of the area that burned. This is just part of it. As of today the fire is 75% contained and 28 homes have been lost. My friend could not get any closer as the air space is restricted because of aircraft fighting the fire. The fire continues to the upper right of the photo. The Bridger Bowl ski area is at the top of the photo but the fire did not get close.

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Terry - I often think that if you didn't have bad luck you wouldn't have any luck at all.

Willie - Nice job painting the figures. Like the red panties. You picked up a lot at the hobby shop.

Louis - Priceless photo of that GG-1.

Curt - That for bringing up the tree removal company. Need to call and make an appointment to have my hedges trimmed.

Hughie - Interesting problem with the locomotive. Glad that I am operating DC only at home. I do have some DCC equipment that I run mainly at my club. Had to send one back to Walthers last year.

Jerry - So you caught the switching bug. My layout was built mainly for switching. I enjoy switching problems and purposely built them into the layout. If I just want to run trains, I can go to my club.

Joe - Great photo of the Alco switcher.

Troy - The grade can be quite a problem. The steeper the grade is can present problems. I have a two and a half percent grade at home which just happens to be the same at my club. At home, a normal trains is about 10 cars long with a max of 14 because of the length of passing sidings. All of my Atlas Alco units run at the same speed and I can always just add a locomotive. The club is a different story with DCC locomotives having so much of the internal weight removed to make room for the electronics and speakers. Almost every member of the club complains about that to some extent. I picked up an Atlas RS-1 switcher to run at the club. It was a wimp. If it could pull 10 cars up the grade I was lucky. Running it at home I had the same results whereas my DC Atlas Alco units could easily pull 15 cars up the same grade. I ended up getting a Walthers Mainline F-7 A-B-A set which had a wider body shell allowing for more weight. Those three locomotives pulled 67 cars up the grade at the club and could have probably pulled more. The photo below wasn't the entire 67 car train.

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Being that I am grounded by smokey skies, I guess I'll mow the lawn, most likely for the last time this year. Here are a few more photos from the club.

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Later
 
Ok Midday check in

Joe. I’m sorry but I missed that pic this morning thanks for sharing

Willie. First off WOW what a haul. Sounds like it was fun as a kid at your house did you ever have a O s ale layout? I never was into the gimmick stuff. Your figs look good as well as your car. My Brother was a IT and computer draftsman for 36 years just retired this June with a boat load of money.

Terry. Never heard that one

Sherrel the other day you mentioned FFE I built this about 10 years ago had the decals Custom made and sold it on eBay one of my last trucks out of 500 I sold on eBay from 2003-2010 some day I’ll share some pics of all of them I build between those years





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Good afternoon all you railroad affectionados. Another hot & humid day in H-Town.
Hopefully I'll get some operating in today.

Willie - nice haul, that ought to keep you busy for a few days.

Jerry - I to like your Lionel ads. I, along with many of my friends had Lionel trains. Mine was just a oval. Two of my friend's Dads were into trains as well so their layouts were a lot bigger and better than mine. I had Lionel, Marx and some American Flyer all in boxes and put away. My Mom felt sorry for a very needy family and gave all the trains to them while was away in the USCG. I sometimes wonder what ever became of those boys and the trains.

Some great photos from you guys. I really like pondering some of them as possible scenes on my RR

STAY SAFE
 
Good Afternoon All. Not a great morning on the SFW estate. Seems as if Murphy took a side trip from Terry's house to visit us. Our 26 cu ft freezer was up to 32° inside and some things were in danger of thawing. I looked at things that I could fix myself, and drew a blank. So a call to the service department of a small local appliance dealer that we have patronized for over 40 years was made. Meanwhile I made a quick as I could trip to purchase some blocks of dry ice about 25 miles away. As luck would have it, the service manager juggled some appointments and Daryl our favorite repairman is coming out this afternoon. They seem to believe that it is the start relay that is not working. I could most likely fix that myself, but they most likely have the needed part in the truck. We'll see. They can fix anything normally, and he will know for sure if that's the problem. Many years ago, the same thing happened on our previous freezer and I simply wired around the relay and the freezer just ran continuously until we decided to bite the bullet and get this one.
Fingers crossed.
 
Good Afternoon All. Not a great morning on the SFW estate. Seems as if Murphy took a side trip from Terry's house to visit us. Our 26 cu ft freezer was up to 32° inside and some things were in danger of thawing. I looked at things that I could fix myself, and drew a blank. So a call to the service department of a small local appliance dealer that we have patronized for over 40 years was made. Meanwhile I made a quick as I could trip to purchase some blocks of dry ice about 25 miles away. As luck would have it, the service manager juggled some appointments and Daryl our favorite repairman is coming out this afternoon. They seem to believe that it is the start relay that is not working. I could most likely fix that myself, but they most likely have the needed part in the truck. We'll see. They can fix anything normally, and he will know for sure if that's the problem. Many years ago, the same thing happened on our previous freezer and I simply wired around the relay and the freezer just ran continuously until we decided to bite the bullet and get this one.
Fingers crossed.


Some dont have a start relay they have a start thermistor. The little Emerson I have out here in the shack had one go out , I managed to get a replacement on Ebay for 5 or 10 bucks . I believe lighting storm hit the power lines and knocked it out . As it warms up from the start current it opens up .
 
Afternoon All,

Started out with a couple of chores then started in the train room. Today I did a lot of brown (dirt) painting, added rock faces and added a single siding that goes to the power plant and future substation. I've ordered bushes (4 colors) for the hillsides. I saw a picture of a hillside from Howard Zayne's layout and like how it looks for the near vertical hills (like I have). Tomorrow I'll solder the rails and track feeders for the siding. Also tomorrow is son's 37'th birthday so we'll be going out to supper with him.

Chet- Great club photos.

Guy- Nice 1:1 engine photos.

Troy- Congrats on the working toilet. Can you cut the foam down so the track is actually below "ground level" going under the cross over? Obviously the foam would need to be inclined for this to work.

Terry- That's really bad luck.

Louis- Nice pictures.

Lee- Nice looking F7 and consist.

Jerry- Nice looking yard.

Joe- Nice photo.

Willie- Nice haul and details. Good lick with the freezer. Our garage one went out a couple of months ago and believe it or not we could only find 2 in stock from the normal stores in the Orlando area.

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I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Troy- Congrats on the working toilet. Can you cut the foam down so the track is actually below "ground level" going under the cross over? Obviously the foam would need to be inclined for this to work.
That's what I was planning, with the 4% grade wedge signifying at the end of the 2% run. The problem I run into is that I still have to get down from +4 inches, and it takes 16 feet to do that with a 2% grade. To shorten the length, I need to either increase the grade, or shorten the end (go from +4 inches above table to +3 inches).

I swung by the local hobby store and picked up another 3% grade pack from Woodland Scenics. If I do 3%, I can get the short length of run, taller off-table height, and still drop the grade for the underpass.

Next up, I need to find a 1:160 scale 1963 (or 4 or 5) Buick Riviera for the layout. A buddy has restored one to indoor car show specs (and won a few trophies). He said he'd paint it to match if I put it in the layout. May need to get that diner's smaller cousin that Willie just assembled.
 
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