Running Bear's August 2021 Coffee Shop

[Patrick]

Morning all,

Supposed to be in the mid-90's today with feels like at or just above 100°. Not much going on here at the last day before vacation, although I know someone will try to screw it up. We are watching the youngest granddaughter this weekend so her parents can get the walls painted. So's 2 so just at that fun age. I had to swap vehicles with the wife as she'll be working late today and I have to get the kid. I don't really have any anchor points in the truck. While it's supposed to be a 3 person split bench, you really can't get more than 2 adults into the truck (single cab). The car seat would sit in the middle, which in my case being 6'2" (lost an inch over the years) and 250+ pounds, put 1/2 the car set where I need to be. Don't quite yet understand how you'd get 3 adults in the thing or 2 and a small child in the front seat, although my 1/2 grown 11 year old grandson could fit the seat with the car seat.

I'll try to get on during my vacation as I'm on vacation, while the wife isn't. So I'm not going anywhere, but I hopefully can squeeze some train time in. been 8 months since I really had any time.

Everyone have a great day!

 

[Rabοliοt]

 

[TLOC]

Good morning from a wet So. Central Wisconsin. How can the weather guessers be so far off? The percentage chance yesterday afternoon was 22% we would get rain. We had a decent 1 hour rain event. At 3 this morning we had a significant rain storm with just over an inch per the weather station on the property. 18 years ago I said to Terry I hated the rain gauge I had, too hard to read and was thinking of getting a station to hook to the computer. Got one for my birthday that year. On my 4th one now and there are 3 on different ends of the homestead.

I believe because of the meds the Doctor gave me for my sore throat I slept much of yesterday afternoon. But, today is the 1st morning I woke up without the sore throat. They gave me a Covid test on Monday at the clinic even though I have both jabs. Should have the results today.

Many of the stores are requesting you wear masks if unvaccinated. In HomeDepot yesterday all employees were back to wearing them. Today’s grocery run is curbside pick up for us. Terry has COPD, the sister had throat surgery 4 weeks ago today and I am a diabetic. I would rather be safe then sorry.

The son is flying up from Austin today. He, the SIL and 2 of the SIL’s neighbors are going to fly up to Door County for a few nights.

I maybe destroying a bathroom at the daughter’s. With her hubby gone she wants to redo the bathroom he uses creating a larger shower for him. The contractor promises to deliver the cabinets and plumbing stuff after 3 today so the SIL is gone already. The tile is stilling in our garage. If she runs into problems we will have the grandkids and I will go over.

toot, when the 24 hour around the clock Strategic Air Command (SAC) used to fly the B52 bombers the contrails over Wisconsin and Illinois, USA were a constant in the skies. Rarely see the contrails now. Still as cool as when I was a kid.

Have a great day
TomO

 

[Rabοliοt]

Every time I try to build a layout the dragons are there...

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning Everybody. Clear and 70°, it turned out to be another cool night outside allowing me to turn off the A/C once again and sleep with windows open. Shortly after 6:00 pm yesterday, a thunderstorm blew across Oklahoma near us and the wind outflow really cooled things off here. Temperature dropped from 88° to 75° in about 30 minutes. No rain here, but some within 8-10 miles away. Meanwhile due to the mild cloudy days and mostly clear nights, the pool temperature has not risen above 84° since Sunday. This has been a wonderful mild summer for here so far. Tomorrow it gets back to near normal with highs in the upper 90's, or so the NWS says. But they have been close only about 20% of the time this whole year.
I made something a bit different for supper last night with some leftover prime rib that has been in the freezer. It was Philly Cheese-steak Stuffed Bell Peppers. Delicious. Fried up onions and mushrooms, then added thinly sliced meat for 3 minutes, stuffed it into Provolone lined halved bell peppers and topped with another slice of cheese and broiled for 3 minutes more. Bell peppers were baked for 35 minutes to soften up prior to assembly. The actual recipe itself that I roughly followed, calls for fresh sirloin steak, but I have been looking for a way to use the prime rib since I had run out of "aus jus". Since it was close to rare to begin with, it worked out great. Made extra to eat tomorrow. Tonight is Italian food at our favorite restaurant 12 miles away.
Sometime Wednesday night, our IRS tax refund finally made it's way to our bank with an added $10 interest. Tax return was filed and accepted back in April. They've been too busy sending stimulus checks out to people according to press releases that I have seen.
Stopped by Home Depot on the grocery/beer trek yesterday and bought a pair of 4' and a pair of 2' LED light fixtures for mounting under the upper deck in areas where the room lighting doesn't reach the layout very well. Bought 100' of 14/2 wire as well. $180 for the works. More later.

Nothing special today Flo, eggs over easy and sausage patties with OJ.

Thank you very much to all who liked or commented on Jack's; Christian, Guy, Steve J, Tom O, Patrick, Chad, Hughie, James, Karl, Ken, Rick, Tom, Gary S, Gary R, Moermusic.

Yesterday in the train shed, I went in a different direction sort of. I spent more time than I should have installing the first of the overhead light fixtures. I installed a 4' one over the area of Graham that I am currently finishing up. Of course I had to take everything off the layout, another reason that I rarely attach anything permanently, and go from there. Then locating the attachment screws to the underside of the upper level was like working on under the sink plumbing! After that it was easy.

Just three more fixtures to go, plus two others that I had previously bought. Why hadn't I done this sooner? I just never thought to purchase the fixtures while I was in town. Old Timers Disease!
Then I ran trains for a while. Today I get back to adding more weeds and details. Note that in the picture above, I had added vehicles to the Wally's Country Mart on the right. Yesterday, I also added dull coat to a few more that may or may not end up here.

Patrick - The real trick to enjoying your vacation is to not tell your kids and relatives that you're on vacation to begin with. Cleaning track is most likely going to be your first project. Pushing a track cleaning car around first will prevent any train runs from mashing whatever loose dust and debris that is there into the track. Use a lint-free cloth soaked with some rubbing alcohol if you don't have a track cleaning car yet.
Steve J -

Good idea or bad idea, I am joining the curve to the turnout with a ME code 83-70 transition joiner

As long as the tops of the rails are even, filing shouldn't be necessary. Run your finger over the joints to check as well as using a straightedge.
Jaz - Here's some of my Muscovies from a few years ago.

Guy - The trap that "Dizak" is using comes in very handy around here.

Mine's a size larger.
I have only one part-time squirrel here who forgets where he buried the acorns.
James - Back to Eric and his locomotives. What he did and I don't begrudge him in any way, was to go for volume to constantly replace the ones that he took off the layout as he moved his era forward every few years. He has a large empire and needs a lot of motive power and understandably he was unable to "super detail" every one. The price that he gets is simply because his name is on the certificate of authenticity, not because they are great works of art. I do think that he does a good job especially considering that he has to paint and letter every one for his private road. My most expensive locomotive is a recent $149.00 one from ScaleTrains, at DC only.

Today is International Beer Day. You know what I will be doing later. Everyone have a great day and an awesome weekend. Maybe Sherrel will wake up today. Don't remember seeing him here yesterday.

 

[TLOC]

Well I am back on this now humid Friday morning. Seems while I slept away yesterday I also lost the day. I truly did not realize today is Friday. I found out when I asked Terry when Brian was landing. She said yesterday at 1 is when he landed and the 3 guys were waiting for him at the airport.

Wow, felt foolish. So today I will attempt to get the hair cut and swim. I think this is funny, no politics on my end, just laugh at it!

 

[TLOC]

Evening, fellas. Or night, I guess.

It's been an interesting week. I've been lucky to be able to afford being in two HO scale clubs side-by-side, both in time and financially. Well, with the way things are and a full tank of gas very close to $50, I'm pulling the pin on the more distant club. Shame, cuz it's arguably the best club in Minnesota (5,000 sq ft room full of layout!), but it has too many growing pains, drama issues and aformentioned distance to make it worth my while these days. I think I'll be missed, but I'm not sure how much I matter amongst 70 members.
I'm going to scale down a little and focus on my first club, which is now trying to grow following some loss and needs some focus. We don't have committees or departments like the 2nd club, but I have the car repair skills, the loco repair skills, and I'm catching on quick to this scenery stuff (and loving it!). We're trying to get ops going (I think..) I found custom-painted, custom-lettered club DC locomotives waiting for a new lease on life, and no one other than me has touched the scenery in a very long time.
View attachment 130743
Y'all always said scenery was fun and I was never sure about it. Nope, scenery is definitely fun. To think I can throw a bunch of crushed rock, green stuff and weird foam at a surface and make it look like mountain scrub is pretty cool.
View attachment 130744
Also going to be sending my Genesis Northern Pacific Z8 to Milepost 70 customs for weathering soon. Jon also said he could upgrade the loco's speaker/s for me, theyre way too quiet. I want to hear this beast roar!

Evening, fellas. Or night, I guess.

It's been an interesting week. I've been lucky to be able to afford being in two HO scale clubs side-by-side, both in time and financially. Well, with the way things are and a full tank of gas very close to $50, I'm pulling the pin on the more distant club. Shame, cuz it's arguably the best club in Minnesota (5,000 sq ft room full of layout!), but it has too many growing pains, drama issues and aformentioned distance to make it worth my while these days. I think I'll be missed, but I'm not sure how much I matter amongst 70 members.
I'm going to scale down a little and focus on my first club, which is now trying to grow following some loss and needs some focus. We don't have committees or departments like the 2nd club, but I have the car repair skills, the loco repair skills, and I'm catching on quick to this scenery stuff (and loving it!). We're trying to get ops going (I think..) I found custom-painted, custom-lettered club DC locomotives waiting for a new lease on life, and no one other than me has touched the scenery in a very long time.
View attachment 130743
Y'all always said scenery was fun and I was never sure about it. Nope, scenery is definitely fun. To think I can throw a bunch of crushed rock, green stuff and weird foam at a surface and make it look like mountain scrub is pretty cool.
View attachment 130744
Also going to be sending my Genesis Northern Pacific Z8 to Milepost 70 customs for weathering soon. Jon also said he could upgrade the loco's speaker/s for me, theyre way too quiet. I want to hear this beast roar!

Steve,

didn’t realize I follow your FB page Milwaukee Road: Twin Cities West till I saw your update post today.

TomO

 

[Texas Hobo]

TGIF! Well sort of. In the middle of assembling the gen shed the rains came. I hollered "Rain Out" going the beer joint. Well that's what my brain said, my mouth said "it's raining guess I'll get a shower and finish later dear".
J did manage to get the yard mowed yesterday before the rains hit. I did get a little work done on the old Dominion structure but at the rate I'm going it be another 4 or 5 days to finish it.

STAY SAFE (Houston just move to RED status)

LATER

 

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

Spent the day at Dad's so no train room time. Yard work on the schedule tomorrow and hopefully train time later.

Garry- Thank you.

Tom- Excellent job on the hoppers. The meme is funny.

Toot- Interesting looking contrail.

Patrick- Enjoy your home vacation.

TomO- Great track scene.

I hope everyone has a good night.

 

[CambriaArea51]

I try to build Another simple switching layout but unfortunately the dragons are always there...

View attachment 130811

Talk to Jaz she seems to have hers trained.

 

[chadbag]

Saw this a week ago but lost the link. Interesting post by BNSF corporate that shows track replacements etc. Interesting how the track is already in one piece and laid just like we lay our MRR track (well, they use cranes and stuff and we use fingers)

Track to the future: Southern Transcon work continues a long legacy

BNSF’s Southern Transcon route reaches from Southern California to Chicago, and more than two thirds of the way across that distance sits the Emporia Subdivision, named for the nearby city and operating from Wellington to Kansas City. It is one of 11 BNSF subdivisions on the Transcon and the...

www.bnsf.com

Also, with regards to squirrels and stuff. A little over 20 years ago I rented a house in the woods of Merrimack NH. One day I noticed we had a visitor come down the chimney. A squirrel had come down and I think couldn't find his way back out and was hiding. I got one of those cage/traps and trapped him and took him out and let him go. A day or three later he was back. Trapped him again, and took him down to S Nashua NH, and let him go in the parking lot of a larger commercial establishment off the Daniel Webster Highway. Never saw that one again and never had any more such visitors in the house.

I did find a long dead and mummified squirrel when I was cleaning out the wall space where the breakers were in the basement. (They had a "door" in the wall and behind it the breaker box, and as it was built into the wall behind the main wall, in a corner piece -- hard to explain -- that inside of the wall had accumulated a ton of stuff from way before I lived in the house.)

 

[TLOC]

 

[GarryCBQ]

Howdy everybody ....

Neighbors came over with their adult children and their grandchildren to see the train layout. Everything was working perfectly before they arrived. However, gremlins were all over the layout when I was running trains for them. Oh well.

 

[CambriaArea51]

Evening, thanks for all the likes on the hopper cars. Next project will be flatcar loads.

 

[Rabοliοt]

 

[Rabοliοt]

I'm currently building Another simple switching layout. The length of the layout has been increased a bit (from 6' to 7'6"). Therefore the length of the trains too. I laid the track just for a test (no glue, no nail, no screw). I'm very pleased with the result so far.

 

[Jaz avalley]

I

Good Morning All. Cloudy and 72°. The barely there north breeze shifted overnight to a barely there south breeze which will mean that last night was the last night of sleeping with the windows open for a while. Still only expecting a high today of 92° heading to 98° from Saturday through most of next week. Absolutely no rain in sight. Had the plumber out yesterday to fix a decades old issue with the drains under the kitchen sink and in the walls leading to the graywater drain line. Sweet young lady in her booty shorts and tank top with multi-colored hair did a great job replacing the whole mess. She is fully licensed and is half of the husband/wife team known as the Jolly Dream Team. This is the first step in a long overdue kitchen remodel. The problems go back a few years to when I had a major foundation disaster that took a team of 4-5 guys three weeks to go under the house and dig out and replace 36 piers and add 24 more. Replaced and added all of the beams as well. They also removed over 18 yards of dirt to be able to gain room to do the work. They used a little red wagon with no wheels and a rope tied to each end to do that while doing the digging by hand with "shorty" shovels about 30" in length.
Time today for the weekly grocery/beer trek into Denton. I think that I'll wear sunscreen so the people around me won't get sunburned.

Facebook - I do not use it, I keep up with family and friends the old-fashioned way with the telephone. You know that thingie that you use to take pictures with! This forum and the Coffee Shop in particular is my Facebook, considerably less clutter.

Western omelet today Flo, with extra bacon on the side. The usual OJ will do.

Thanks for the likes and comments regarding yesterday's ongoing structure tour; Patrick, Christian, Tom O, Karl, Chad, Garry, Curt, Rick, Jaz, James, Guy.

Yesterday in the train shed, was pretty much a repeat of the last couple. Progress made but not real visible yet. I did get started with the weeds but did not take any pictures.
From the archives today: The build pictures of my favorite Bar Mills kit, Jack's Back Yard.
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The structure itself was fairly easy, I really enjoyed painting all of the details that went with it. I can't locate the "planted" picture right now, but I added more details behind the back fence next to a chain link fence separating the properties.

Jaz - Until you mentioned it, I had forgotten about my adventure raising Muscovy ducks that I sold to a small group of Asian families in the college town near me. They liked them because they could keep them in their apartments until needed for a meal, and since they didn't make noise the neighbors never knew. Besides that, they dressed out a lot heavier than typical ducks. Not sure that I made money or not, but the eggs were delicious and the young males were also.
Uploading photos - I just "drag and drop" them directly into my reply. Dragging a thumbnail results in a full size picture after the forum software reduces it to an acceptable size. You've seen the results.
Tom O - What the heck is a Marilyn Monroe burger? Sounds decadent.
moermusic - Condolences on your losses. Glad that you were able to get the last chance to see dad.
Curt - Good to see you getting "back into the groove".

A side note regarding non-vaxxers - My wife's sister in Tennessee is one of those who just thinks that she is invincible. At age 68, she brags about never having gotten vaccinated for anything, flu, pneumonia, tetanus...etc. She hasn't had her blood pressure checked since the birth of her daughter in 1970, and brags about never having had a mammogram. She doesn't see doctors except for her eyes. While I felt that way for years, I realized about 15 years ago, that while doctors can be a PIA, they are also usually good for us.

Gotta go and make the rest of the grocery list. Everyone have a great day. Please excuse any mistakes here as I haven't had time to proof read this post yet.

think Jacks is one of my favourites on your layout,the sidewalk/pavement the overflow of junk/detail makes for a spot you stop and check out,smiling as you recognise those little details,and the picket fence is just lovely with a nice aged grey wood.

 

[Jaz avalley]

Good morning from a wet So. Central Wisconsin. How can the weather guessers be so far off? The percentage chance yesterday afternoon was 22% we would get rain. We had a decent 1 hour rain event. At 3 this morning we had a significant rain storm with just over an inch per the weather station on the property. 18 years ago I said to Terry I hated the rain gauge I had, too hard to read and was thinking of getting a station to hook to the computer. Got one for my birthday that year. On my 4th one now and there are 3 on different ends of the homestead.

I believe because of the meds the Doctor gave me for my sore throat I slept much of yesterday afternoon. But, today is the 1st morning I woke up without the sore throat. They gave me a Covid test on Monday at the clinic even though I have both jabs. Should have the results today.

Many of the stores are requesting you wear masks if unvaccinated. In HomeDepot yesterday all employees were back to wearing them. Today’s grocery run is curbside pick up for us. Terry has COPD, the sister had throat surgery 4 weeks ago today and I am a diabetic. I would rather be safe then sorry.

The son is flying up from Austin today. He, the SIL and 2 of the SIL’s neighbors are going to fly up to Door County for a few nights.

I maybe destroying a bathroom at the daughter’s. With her hubby gone she wants to redo the bathroom he uses creating a larger shower for him. The contractor promises to deliver the cabinets and plumbing stuff after 3 today so the SIL is gone already. The tile is stilling in our garage. If she runs into problems we will have the grandkids and I will go over.

toot, when the 24 hour around the clock Strategic Air Command (SAC) used to fly the B52 bombers the contrails over Wisconsin and Illinois, USA were a constant in the skies. Rarely see the contrails now. Still as cool as when I was a kid.

Have a great day
TomOView attachment 130800

This area is lovely,said it before,but it also strikes me as a great place to add and change a little detail and do a low down in tight photograph, I would pick your best automobile place it near the track and place a camera phone literally touching the floor and play with the car until you get sone photos you like, you may wish to add A couple of real branches which broken off will give some nice detail, I know I have weathered mine but you get the idea.

 

[Jaz avalley]

Tom O For sure...I just don't understand people, I guess, but I suppose some just like to take chances, and hope they will escape the consequences.

The media have made it worse by talking about herd immunity, it clearly projected a picture where if most got the injection others could benefit without taking the risks,and once you think on that it makes sense,but like the lottery it can go the other way,just follow the lockdown rules,masks cleaning hands vaccinated or not,and to be fair it is all a lottery,but the more you socialise the more you risk,the fact mask wearing has seriously reduced the spread of the flu which in itself is a major killer tells it’s own story. The big thing is to not beat yourself up over your choices,and to do what you want not what others tell you,we are all entitled to our opinion,BUT that is it an opinion and we should not expect others to be intimidated by our opinions,we have free will,you need to still take precautions with or without the vaccine you just need to tweak to which choices you make,everyone go safe.I have been on both sides of the discussion,1.suspicious - and hell that never changed, and 2. Deciding to go with the flow, and adjust as necessary.We all have reasons for our choices,and that should be respected.

 

[troyphoto]

Well, howdy there internet model RR people

It's Troy again

Been a happening week this week, but, alas, no hobby time with RR. Which is actually good (see below)

MIL news: on the mend. Whatever she had is easing up. Then the middle daughter showed up. She's the "troubled" one who usually lays the blame game on everyone. I strongly suspect she's on the Aspbergers end of the spectrum. But, she's from the age where those diagnosis were only being given to the most extreme case (she's just past 60).

Unfortunately, she's not getting vaccinated. Her choice. She's not into any misinformation campaigns. She's just one of the lucky souls who misinterprets a highly active immune reaction as making her sick. A flu shot knocks her on her butt for three to five days...that sort of thing. So she's convinced that she has "bad reactions" to the vaccines.

Never mind one of her sisters is med lab tech (my wife), and the other is a nurse. She's positive that vaccines hate her, even if they are good... (No egg allergies, surprisingly, that was our first thought).

Luckily, everyone she came to see, including grandkids are vaccinated. She swears if her employer mandates it, and she ends up in hospital, her kids are suing the pharm company.

We're just rolling our eyes and letting her rant. It's not missinfo about the vaccine, just about how her body reacts.

Back to Hobby...

I got some painting in on figures, then a couple of games with them over the past week. If you're a gaming blog type of person, here's the write up I did for the blog I'm editor of. https://nodicenoglory.com/2021/08/04/building-a-saga-anglo-warband-the-warlord-way/

If you will recall, I was debating on changing my layout by chopping one third off of a three sided folded dog bone. Still planning that. Finally figured out that 90% of what I was doing on that end of the layout was a downgrade next to a future staging yard. Downgrade is just landscaping on this layout, behind the staging yard. This layout has a LOT of just country scenery.

1. Eliminate the downgrade. Shift the main line over to the lower elevation track.
2. Old upper elevation become the mining spur line. Mine will be in the newly relocated end of the dogbone.
3. The new end needs to go to cookie cutter design, instead of foam on plywood sheets. Because:
4. The staging yard will be moving to under the old layout sections.
5. And the new dogbone end right by the electric main panel for the condo lets me do a lift-out center to access the breaker panel.

My subconscious was almost done with this yesterday, and I could see the layout when in the hours after the three am piddle break. I'll probably start sketching it out on graph paper later today.

I should only have to take the section from the gorge in the center of the back to the right apart and reconfigure for cookie cutter on the front half, so I can begin the descent to the hidden staging yard. If I'm doing my internet maths correctly: 2% grade = 2 inch drop every 100 inches (roughly 8 feet) I can get to 6-8 inches under the left side of the layout easily by dropping the front of the back side (don't worry, it makes sense to me.

And, that allows me to relocate the treadmill, which I've been using on rainy days to get my (new goal) 12,000 steps in. Current location, I stare at a wall. New location, I'll turn the layout on and rail fan for half an hour once I get the track redone. Thankfully, there's DCC. Just need to get the wireless for the system.

More on this later. Need to get to sketching to make sure my ideas pan out.