Running Bear's September 2024 Coffee Shop

[santafewillie]

$25? A loaf of bread and a six pack?

Forget the loaf of bread, there's a sandwich in every beer!

 

[jmupton2000]

I am normally a tea drinker but after the shift I have just come home from, black coffee please, three sugars... Nutters and loons everywhere tonight!!

Meanwhile when I did get home, this little bargain was waiting for me:

An old Proto 2000 GP18 in LV maroon, only cost me about thirty quid, needs new gears and a little bit of TLC but I just couldn't resist it when the ebay seller offered me 20% off the list price and nobody else wanted it.

 

[TLOC]

Thanks for the Anniversary wishes.

A Farmers Market and breakfast out this morning. Then a couple hours on the front porch trying hard to stave off the food induced coma. I failed that! Just back from a couple hours in the trainroom.

Later its dinner out a a favorite Italian restaurant. The ritzier higher priced place when I made reservations this morning replied with an explanation that any time at the table over 60 minutes would be charged at $1.00 per minute times the amount of diners. So $2 per minute if we stay over 60 minutes which we normally do with a good meal. Needless to say I cancelled the reservation. I then posted this in the Foodie page I belong to here in the area. Turns out there are a few more of the more snotty pretentious places have started doing it in Madison. We will not visit those places.

Teachers, I come from a family with teachers in both Wisconsin and Illinois. My wife who became an administrator in a North Central Wisconsin school district was always shocked by the pay differences between Illinois and Wisconsin for the 1st 15 years she taught, with Wisconsin winning out. That turned to Illinois having better pay and a very good pension the last 25 years my sister taught in Illinois. Terry had already moved into administration. Illinois also after retirement allowed retired teachers after 18 months retired to double dip by coming back and teaching. Problem with the Illinois pension is it’s tied to a state that is very close to bankruptcy. If Illinois goes under the comptroller and bankruptcy judge will determine pension payments. It frightens my sister as it should. Terry’s pension is independent of Wisconsin State control.

I am packed (carry on) and Terry was looking for flights to Phoenix. I report to Mayo at 8am Sunday so we will need to be there Saturday. For $680 each we can go non stop Madison to Phoenix. For $318 each we can go Madison to Denver and then to Phoenix. Our son is trying to find a charter that would put him close to us and then fly to Phoenix. We’ll decide before midnight what flight plans we decide on. I hate planes but like direct non stop, Terry has no issue sitting between planes!

 

[troyphoto]

Well howdy there internet MRR peeps and those with reservations at non-snooty restaurants

It's troy again.

Got a poser of a question for the plumbing minded amongst you.

Remember we had a water main break in our neighborhood.

Wife's bath vanity faucet is low water pressure but the rest of the house is fine.

When we remodelled her bathroom, I had to extends the water supply lines and used sharkbite inline shutoff valves to connect to the PVC supply lines. Her bath is on the top floor. Water supply shutoff is two floors down (in the basement)

I suspect that the air in the lines from the repaired main broke loose some of the 50-year-old build up in the pipes, and the lines are getting clogged with that debris at one of the shut off valves similar to this:

Suggestions on how to clear the crud short of pulling the vanity and pulling apart the plumbing?

 

[bnsf971]

Good evening. I just got off the phone with paypal--again. What they told me was if I want to continue using their services, I will have to abide by their terms of service, including uploading a photo ID.
I now no longer have a Paypal account. I also closed my Paypal credit account, and my Paypal credit card.

 

[shortwrench]

Well howdy there internet MRR peeps and those with reservations at non-snooty restaurants

It's troy again.

Got a poser of a question for the plumbing minded amongst you.

Remember we had a water main break in our neighborhood.

Wife's bath vanity faucet is low water pressure but the rest of the house is fine.

When we remodelled her bathroom, I had to extends the water supply lines and used sharkbite inline shutoff valves to connect to the PVC supply lines. Her bath is on the top floor. Water supply shutoff is two floors down (in the basement)

I suspect that the air in the lines from the repaired main broke loose some of the 50-year-old build up in the pipes, and the lines are getting clogged with that debris at one of the shut off valves similar to this:
View attachment 199405

Suggestions on how to clear the crud short of pulling the vanity and pulling apart the plumbing?

There usually is an aerator at the faucet where the water comes out. Normally screwed in and some
faucets may need a special "wrench" (comes with the faucet) or may need pliers to loosen it so it can
be unscrewed. Remove the aerator and check behind it for a buildup of debris before tearing the
plumbing apart.

The shutoff valve you show is a "ball" valve. When in the open position, there is
unrestricted flow through the valve and is unlikely anything is stuck there.

 

[troyphoto]

There usually is an aerator at the faucet where the water comes out. Normally screwed in and some
faucets may need a special "wrench" (comes with the faucet) or may need pliers to loosen it so it can
be unscrewed. Remove the aerator and check behind it for a buildup of debris before tearing the
plumbing apart.

The shutoff valve you show is a "ball" valve. When in the open position, there is
unrestricted flow through the valve and is unlikely anything is stuck there.

Thanks! That did it. Took forever to find the wrench. It's the one with two teeth that press into slots.

 

[bnsf971]

Thanks! That did it. Took forever to find the wrench. It's the one with two teeth that press into slots.

The "West Virginia" wrench?

 

[shortwrench]

Thanks! That did it. Took forever to find the wrench. It's the one with two teeth that press into slots.

Glad it worked out for you. Who said this is a railroad only forum?

 

[bnsf971]

This is probably a topic for its own thread, but over the last year or so, I've been--stepping back from some features of my trains. Many sound-equipped units have left the property, and have been replaced by DCC-silent units instead. Part of it is the much smaller space and smaller layout leading to sound detracting from the effect of a railroad. It's really tough to move an engine to another "town", only to hear it idling away a foot from where it was. Has anybody else pulled back from sound, or even digital?

 

[TLOC]

This is probably a topic for its own thread, but over the last year or so, I've been--stepping back from some features of my trains. Many sound-equipped units have left the property, and have been replaced by DCC-silent units instead. Part of it is the much smaller space and smaller layout leading to sound detracting from the effect of a railroad. It's really tough to move an engine to another "town", only to hear it idling away a foot from where it was. Has anybody else pulled back from sound, or even digital?

Terry you are not a loner in the pursuit of no sound in every unit. I operate on a layout that has to have between the trains and the 2 Enginehouse 200 diesels. All with sound. Most of the trains are run with 3 engines and 200 of them make a huge annoying racket. He has taken to removing the sound in the 2nd unit of the consist. He also put on/off switches on each track segment at the engine houses to reduce the noise. A session operates 30 trains with probably 90 diesels moving around. Those other 100+ units sitting in the engine servicing centers could get damn loud. Others in the group have said to the owner how much nicer it now is.

At most on my layout I run 5 diesels at once. I have lower the sound volumes especially on the bell.

 

[chadbag]

This is probably a topic for its own thread, but over the last year or so, I've been--stepping back from some features of my trains. Many sound-equipped units have left the property, and have been replaced by DCC-silent units instead. Part of it is the much smaller space and smaller layout leading to sound detracting from the effect of a railroad. It's really tough to move an engine to another "town", only to hear it idling away a foot from where it was. Has anybody else pulled back from sound, or even digital?

I have sound in a couple of units (factory) and one or two with sound capable decoders added (though not necessarily with the correct sounds in them yet). For me it's more of a novelty. I'm on N-scale and with the right sugar cube style speaker they actually don't sound bad but its mostly just a distraction. I like to show people but almost never use the sound when running trains for myself. I find the sound of the trains running on te track makes a kind of realistic sound of a train running on track (the clickety clack) and its enough for me to just hear that sound...

 

[NorthBrit]

Only sound on my layout is birds tweeting outside. The open window helping.

 

[traiNscale]

good morning

- airport is running so is the printer migration
- sky is covered so no sun atm

yesterday i got my plates for my workbench expansion. put them on, but they need some fine tuning.
overall its great to have it finally. i think after some around the house work on Saturday i can finally install the new machine woohoo.

picture of today:

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good morning! It's 64° in Tipton.

Coffee is on me!

 

[NorthBrit]

Good morning all. Could today be another sunny day?
A large coffee and blueberry muffin please, Flo. I'll sit by the window.

Usual morning of seeing to Dawn before anything else.
Youngest grandson is visiting today (I believe).

Seen at Leyburn Station
Yes the usual- Heritage Railway signage & posters; it is the post with the details on I like.
Not only where the trains go to, but the time of the next train. Not only that, but telling passengers it will be steam locomotive or diesel one.
So much information on a piece of wood.

 

[troyphoto]

Well, howdy there internet peeps and those with silent locos

It's Troy again.

Sciatica overnight wasn't bad - got up at 12:30 to refresh the tylenol, and managed to sleep in til 5a

Yesterday we ordered a small hydroponics grow system for the wife. She really wants to garden, but our condo just doesn't get sunlight in the right proportions to grow anything edible.

So... hydroponics... But Amazon couldn't find the item in their warehouse

I went to open the kitchen window, and there was a package on my door. Looked at the iPad, and it was delivered about 10 minutes before I got up.

Had to remind the wife that we live in Indiana. Our overly-controlling politicians take the fun out of life, and she's not allowed to grow anything that would make her hippie sisters happy.

She went for little zucchini balls (not the long zucchinis). I'm not sure how she's going to handle a plant inside that grows up to two-foot tall... but it's her hobby.

As for my hobby, I cut a piece of backdrop for the yard area. This is the backside of where I cut the tunnel access to the other side.

I need to widen the tunnel opening on the other side now that I know where my elevated track will run.

I also made a run to the big box hardware. I had some Menards rebate forms to use up, and the wife wanted a new outdoor thermometer. Ours is stuck on 80°f, but goes up higher when the sun hits it. I got her a $5 window mount, and got me this for lighting the layout's lower deck:

I will start on the non-photographic yard side of the layout. If the light dispersion is good enough, I'll add more to the rest of the layout. But I have my doubts that I'll get what I want from the wafer lights. They are quite a bit brighter than my LED tape strips I have in the rest of the layout. I was looking at tripling the amount of strips in those sections. And if these don't work out, there are several spots in the rest of the house where I want to add wafer lights.

 

[troyphoto]

Good morning all. Could today be another sunny day?
A large coffee and blueberry muffin please, Flo. I'll sit by the window.

Usual morning of seeing to Dawn before anything else.
Youngest grandson is visiting today (I believe).

Seen at Leyburn Station
Yes the usual- Heritage Railway signage & posters; it is the post with the details on I like.
Not only where the trains go to, but the time of the next train. Not only that, but telling passengers it will be steam locomotive or diesel one.
So much information on a piece of wood.


View attachment 199415

Sandwiches and a collection of cakes too!

 

[NorthBrit]

Sandwiches and a collection of cakes too!

Typical to a Heritage Railway.

Seeing what you see ------ the unusual
A platform either side of a train. Seen in Santa Apolonia Railway Station, Lisbon

 

[bnsf971]

Good morning. It's 76 and raining.