Running Bear’s November 2021 Coffee Shop

[Alcomotive]

Good Morning All. Mostly cloudy and 61° on the SFW estate. Thunderstorms this afternoon are still in the forecast.
Spent a good part of the morning and early afternoon, cutting and stacking firewood from the branches trimmed off the oak tree last week. Then I shredded some of the smaller stuff and leaves to provide mulch and soil conditioner for next spring;s garden.

Just a bowl of Corn Flakes and milk and a glass of apple juice this morning Francine. I see Flo in the kitchen helping Mel this morning.

Thanks for the likes and comments regarding the bus populating project; Steve J, Troy, Christian, Guy, Patrick, Sherrel, Hughie, Mikey, Curt, IB Ken, Tom. After viewing the results, the next bus is getting a driver only. I'll be yanking most of these out and using them in more visible situations.

Nothing new out in the train shed yesterday. I finished up the out and back switching run that I started Monday and then just ran other trains for almost an hour before coming in to fix supper. That run was to switch out the fertilizer distributor and the flour mill in Vernon. Just to vary things a bit, I ran it backwards this time so all of the moves were facing-point spurs. I used a pair of GP38-2's as power. Could have used just one since there were only three cars and a caboose, but I like to run everything in pairs.
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Note that these GP38-2's are the only EMD power ATSF owned that do not have dynamic brakes. 11 of them were acquired in the acquisition of the TP&W in 1984. These locos are Athearn blue box units with only minimal internal upgrades.
They came into town on the passing siding since they had to be out of the way of a manifest freight that came by first. Then the new cars and caboose were moved over to the main, a load of fertilizer for the distributor, a loaded hopper of wheat for the mill and an empty airslide covered hopper also for the flour mill.
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Had to remove the empty fertilizer hopper first since that tail track is a short one with room for only the engines and one car.View attachment 135174
Then it was over to the flour mill to remove the empty grain hopper and the full flour hopper.
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At that point, all three cars and the engines made a run-around move back to the main and backed up to the caboose. At the same time, they pushed the three new cars down past the north siding switch. They then went back around to the south switch and returned to the siding after dropping off the removed cars and caboose on the main near the switch for the return trip.
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To be continued tomorrow since I have run up against my picture limit for one post.

Guy - Regarding the neighbor, I only refuse money for something that I would do for free once...after that I'll take it. Usually no sense in arguing. At the same time, I only offer once when it's the other way around!
Hughie - I agree with Mikey that older plastic structures can almost always be upgraded with additional details and weathering.
Tom O - That is so great that you have a SIL who shares your modeling interest.
Sherrel - Outliving your 401 is both good and bad. Too bad that you didn't take that opportunity to buy the Tesla stock you posted about a couple of years ago. I've always stuck to safe ETF's instead of lucrative individual stocks, occasionally seeing what I thought might be sure picks (like Tesla and Moderna) skyrocket immediately afterward.
Curt - I have thought about using real dirt before but never attempted. Thanks for posting your experience so I can be prepared if I ever do.
Dave - Too bad that pine makes such lousy firewood except for a fire pit. I like the covered bridge.
Joe - The local (to me) Target has 26 check-out lanes and 8 self check-out registers. I rarely see more than two of the 26 manned with checkers.
Jesse - My next project is actually going to be adding figures to the inside of a bank. Big windows and lots of them.
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Today is the Marine Corps birthday.
Gotta go and take care of some of my wife's needs right now. Everybody have a wonderful day and stay safe.

Willie I love the Cotton Belt, Coop and Cargill hoppers! Nice work!

 

[TLOC]

Good early morning from Paradise. 66 now at 4:30am heading to 83. Just another wonderful day coming.

The brother gets up at 4 every morning to check in with his businesses in the Midwest and Eastern USA. He just showed me the 4 offers he got on the house here and any of the 4 are a great deal. They all want to be in by 12/15/2021. I told him don’t worry about us, we can go back to Wisconsin or Texas. He is thinking about the one that wants all the furniture and 2 cars to stay to stay. Cars are tough to find over here and furniture takes for ever to show up just like at home.

Meanwhile, my tough day coming is do we walk the almost 4 miles to the new house site or ATV up and walk downhill back? No golf for me today, tomorrow though.

Enjoy your day
TomO

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Were you able to get out to Seligman?

NOT this trip, KEN! Mistakenly left the key on after we stopped for the night in Laughlin where we lived for a couple three years. After that I could not pry my beloved away from the Bingo Hall - she does love that game! (she plays 18 cards at a time)
Back to the story at hand - jumped the car, but the next morning it was dead again so we did not venture out away from civilization - stayed close. After we returned home with it in tow, I found out that the alternator was DOA.
Next time we go that route - I would like to stop in Seligman for awhile to rail watch as well as get up to the Canyon and down to the Sedona area. On the way back we rest stopped between Amboy and Ash Hill ... there is usually quite a bit of action around there during mid afternoon to early evening. There were six trains there within sight at the same time. I just wish that the State would repair the bridges on
"old 66" between Amboy and I-40 - they have been out for a couple of years now - I like driving the old H/W.

 

[bnsf971]

Thanks Ken, I tried Edge - - - exact same results. I first changed the password. Loads fine not logged in - enter PW and blank screen. Odd and annoying. Further suggestions?

Are you sure your account hasn’t been suspended or banned there?
Although, even if it has been, you should get some kind of message.

 

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

Spent a couple of hours running errands then after lunch I put in 2 small areas of static grass. I started out with 7mm Straw then added a 12mm layer of light green and dark green. I find that it is very messy. Note to self: Tape areas to keep areas clean while application is in progress. You also need a low power vacuum to be able to recycle all the loose grass. The WS one works well (not strong enough for anything else). Going out to supper later.

Thank you for all the likes yesterday.

Dave- Sorry about the tree. That's a neat looking bridge.

Joe- Nice photos.

IB Ken- Very nice grain (?) towers.

Willie- Nice step by step on the local freight and pictures. What is the purpose of the open shed over the track?





I hope everyone has a good night.

 

[bnsf971]

Sherrel, nobody talks about this, but modern alternators are designed to keep the battery charged, not charge a dead one. The stress of outputting maximum amperage long enough to charge a dead battery will ruin a modern alternator.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Sherrel, if ya make it as far as Sedona, go about 15 more miles southwest to see the Wyoming Division Model railroad. Well worth the visit even if they aren't running trains during the week days. Usually they do op sessions on Saturday's. Don't need appointment, just go on in like it was a public setting.

 

[Greg@mnrr]

Sherrel, nobody talks about this, but modern alternators are designed to keep the battery charged, not charge a dead one. The stress of outputting maximum amperage long enough to charge a dead battery will ruin a modern alternator.

Terry:

Something I didn't know. Cathy's 2002 convertible always has a dead battery in Spring just after coming out of storage. Usually, we just jump the battery to get the vehicle started and let the battery charge itself while driving the vehicle.

Last year, the alternator failed while we were in a isolated area and we needed a tow back to our storage garage. The alternator failed in July and the vehicle came out of storage in May.

Is there a range of years that the alternators were designed for maintaining a battery's charge.

Thanks.

Greg

 

[bnsf971]

Greg, it started about the time cars began having multiple high-powered computers. 1995 and newer, and of course the newer the more prone to fail from excess charging they are. Assume if it has an OBDII connector you should charge a dead battery before operating the car.

 

[Texas Hobo]

Good Afternoon all! Late Afternoon. Today we were back with humidity at75%. Not real bad but one does feel a little sweaty.
Today was errand day but a I did get a little time to start placing Jefferies Point. I moved it from it's original spot. It is just too nice a building to situate in the back. The new location also places it in the same general vicinity of the other Bar Mills structures allowing it to blend in better. I need some trees and a fence .

STAY SAFE
LATER

 

[Boris]

Your new computer will be obsolete in just a few months.

Probably sooner . Considering the one it's replacing is still functioning, (barely), the new one will be a major improvement.

 

[Boris]

CMOS battery, usually looks like the battery for a car remote. If the battery is the one for the entire laptop, they are pretty inexpensive these days.
With that said, the new Windoze operating system requires, among other things, Intel 8th gen I series, AMD 2nd gen Zen, or equivalent processors.

Terry and Chad: HP Tech was vague as to whether it was the battery for the entire laptop, rather they implied that there was a separate smaller battery that they no longer supported. The other thing is that the battery is not accessible from the outside, ya have to open up the case to access it. it's a lot easier and more fun to set up a new one. The existing one was acquired in 2016, a couple of I generations sooner than the minimum for Win 11. For that matter, the latest Win 10 upgrade caused this machine to really slow down.

Today is the Marine Corps birthday.

Willie: #246...Hoorah! Nice buildings to keep your local busy.

Ken (MD): Nice view of the Cement distribution building.

Guy: Nice photo from Jasper. I'm running a bit cold myself. I generally look for photos that relate to my interest, or a line I have worked over. I have several albums or 35MM prints I made while working for Amtrak. They have to be scanned, and shared

Hughie: Great spot for the building. Looks great!

Garry: Praying for a good report from the Cardio guy. Sound like you're feeling better at least.

Only Hockey on TV is Dallas and Nashville at 8:30 PM EST. Last night, the Devils played their best game of the young season, beating a very good Florida Panthers team 7-3. It was on ESPN+ nationwide, and I completely forgot about it.

Northward Metroliner passing Odenton, MD Interlocking, around 1972-1973

 

[santafewillie]

Well the evening rain finally hit in the form of some 1.5" hailstones. Sounds quite eerie.

 

[IronBeltKen]

Hello Shop Dwellers!

A quick shout-out to those of you who "clicked the button" and/or commented on my Summit Cement photo: Joe, Jaz, Sherrell, Hughie, Christian, James, Patrick, Rick, OB Ken, Karl, Willie, Tom-C51, Tom-O, Guy, Steve-J, Curt

Garry - continuing my prayers that the cardio doc will give you a "passing" grade

. . .
IbKen - How do you get all those beautiful photos of railyards without there being a lot of power poles in the way! I usually have problems with power poles competing to get in the frame. - Anyway, you take wonderful photos of a great layout.
. . .

Thanks Guy for the compliment, coming from you that means a lot!
About the [missing] power poles - since I like to model an "ideal world", I try to avoid modeling the negatives of life - like fires, wrecks, vandalism, utility poles - J/K, the real reason they aren't there is because I designed my layout to accommodate guest operators, and utility poles would pose a "snagging hazard" to the guys reaching over to uncouple cars or do any other necessary hands-on activity. What I might try doing, is to drill holes that I can stick the poles into and easily remove them before each op session...yeah, that's what I'll do!

. . .
IB Ken- Very nice grain (?) towers.
. . .

Thank you Curt, those are supposed to simulate large drive-thru cement silos - similar to the modern coal mine flood loaders, except these load trucks, not trains.

. . .
Ken (MD): Nice view of the Cement distribution building.
. . .

Appreciate the compliment Joe! On the topic of old 'puters: I also bought my old ASUS machine back in 2016, when they were still being shipped with Windows 8 (). It still functioned OK (aside from being fast as a turtle), but its battery was pretty much spent - couldn't hold more than a <5-minute charge, so it always had to be plugged-in. I handed it down to my wife [who's computer-illiterate and proud of it!] so she can do her paid online surveys that can't be done with her iPhone.

* * *
Well gang, I'll have to leave you all with an "archive" photo of yet another steel mill scene. (Some of you forum old-timers may recognize it from when I posted it here ~10 years ago?) Remember the triple-trains photo from Monday, which included a switcher with two gondolas full of fresh (not-yet-rusted) scrap metal? This is the place it was headed to: the Basic Oxygen Furnace [BOF] mill. It will be dumped on the the bottom of the furnace vessel to protect the firebrick lining from being damaged by the larger chunks (old engine blocks, etc.) that get dumped in later; after that, the liquid pig iron gets poured in (as simulated in the photo) and melts everything:

The "fire" is actually a 40-watt light bulb with fiberglass insulation batting over the hole; the vessel is made of self-hardening red clay. The charging ladle is a resin casting from a kit marketed by one of my steel-modeling friends in Ohio.

Good Night - and have a Pleasant Tomorrow!

 

[PNKFLOYD]

I did get a little time to start placing Jefferies Point.

Hughie- This is a great structure to blend with the other buildings you have in the area. Looks very realistic.
Don't forget to have a few people giving a little action to the scene.

 

[PNKFLOYD]

he real reason they aren't there is because I designed my layout to accommodate guest operators, and utility poles would pose a "snagging hazard"

IBKen- you can always tell folks that the area has underground utilities.

 

[bnsf971]

IBKen- you can always tell folks that the area has underground utilities.

That will also give Ken the excuse of placing utility access points and buildings around the area. We have many access points here for telephone line access. They look like railroad mileposts, painted Industrial Green.

 

[Sirfoldalot]

TERRY -Thanks for that little tidbit of info. That may be exactly what happened that the car was "jumped" and left to idle and run for a while - which could have shot the alternator!
I did not know about that.

 

[chadbag]

Well the evening rain finally hit in the form of some 1.5" hailstones. Sounds quite eerie.

Hopefully your vehicles are OK. That sounds large enough to maybe put some small dimples in...

 

[CHRISTIAN]

Hello Happy and Unhappy RR modelers !
In France it's 8:39 AM. Have a better day than ever.
Texas Hobo - Is there a thread about your wonderful layout somewhere ? Thanks.