Running Bear's August 2022 Coffee Shop

[Sirfoldalot]

From my friend Tom Holly's home layout. The FA #5216 has been overhauled and a new 567 engine installed: The spark arrestors location is the give-away!

 

[beiland]

Here's a crane for Steve J. Click photo to magnify. Note the tool car's contents.
View attachment 150443

Beautiful job there!

I have the crane kit and boom car brand new in kit forum, and I don't believe I will ever have time to build them. I belive I will have to sell them.

 

[TLOC]

The trick is that you add insulin in the sauce, so no matter what you eat with sauce (pizza and pasta for example) your covered.

I truly wonder if anyone has ever tried that in the old days of medical costs. The price of insulin today doesn’t allow for these type of experiments at home

 

[OBTC 1909]

Good morning all! 72 and cloudy with 80 and possible thunderstorms later.

Went to the town I used to work in to visit the hospital for a routine blood draw. Dropped my wife off to do some retail therapy while I did that. I also went back to the Lowe's store I worked at and visited with former co-workers. I really miss all of them. I even helped one of my friends cut electrical wire in my old department. He doesn't work in that department but they had no one working and he wasn't sure about something related to doing it. They are so short-handed and corporate does not care. They expect the same level of work from fewer people and it just can't happen. My old department was a wreck and I'm happy I don't have to fix it. No one there was happy and most are looking to find something else as fast as possible.

Came home later and watched the Indycar race. Pretty good race but got interrupted for a couple hours by rain and lightning.

Planning to stay home today and relax before going back to work and class tomorrow. Hope you all have a great day!

 

[TLOC]

Good late morning for me from the fairly confused weather of Wisconsin. Weather guessers really need to look out a window this morning. It’s foggy and the wind is howling as the trees are trying to touch the ground. The guy on TV that Terry just replayed for me says it is a calm clear morning as the fog is lifting. Well not at our place. My 3 computerized weather stations across the property all say the winds are in the high teens. The WeatherChannel app is saying 5mph. The trees say it’s windy!

While normally awake around 6AM today it was 8:18. The morning routine is a mess and a nap would feel good about now.

Steve, if you want the crane, buy it. Your skills are good enough. Follow the instructions letter by letter! Plus if you take your time and ignore the frustrations of a good manufactures kit it will turn out great.

Willie, I like straight forward constructive criticism when I post a picture and ask for it. I generally get that on the HO Scale Shelf Modelers group and here. However, every now and then I get someone who just won’t let it go even after being told it’s a model RR not real life. BUT, I was having trouble sleeping so around 3 this morning I moved the LP tanks again. Further left but maybe still not enough. Terry looked at it this morning while I was still sleeping and just said, what time did you move the tanks. Told her and she said, take the tanks away and put a shed there to hold the equipment you need in the facility

I want to use the tanks but really have no available space elsewhere unless I place a small facility in one of 2 areas of what Lance Mindheim calls “negative space.” Empty scenic only spaces.

Ken, glad the op session went well. I miss attending those

Gary, burning orange? Maybe pieces of a rocket, satellite or the burning bush! If it’s the satellite pieces it will end up on local news somehow. I know media here in Wisconsin has been talking about Chinese parts coming back to earth, like no other nations stuff ever returns. For sure if it was a meteor someone will report it

Terry, sorry to read of the Nest troubles. We have used them for years and rarely had issues. But, there have been recent Nest software upgrades and my wife Terry keeps asking me if I changed a setting and of course I have not. I have been not worried about it, today though I will check all the settings. Great news on the arrival of that FedX vehicle. Enjoy

My Transload facility had a owner mistake occur yesterday. The above picture shows the foam board cut out but also shows the locomotive serving pit. I did cover the pit with .020 styrene sheet before adding the foam board. As I was cutting out the track section to embed track in the pavement I forgot it was there and the new blade sliced it like butter. Oh I did feel added tension while cutting but didn’t think about it too much, obviously!

Today, we have to go to Kohl’s as the lady of the house has expiring coupons, expiring Kohl’s cash and whatever and I need new shoes for my walking exercise and yard work.

enjoy the day

 

[MilwRoader_Steve]

Here's a crane for Steve J. Click photo to magnify. Note the tool car's contents.

Beautiful!! Thanks! Still not sure that will be within my skills level.

 

[Patrick]

Morning all, (barely)

Grandkids all here for the weekend. They haven't been together in a while, so it's been busy. Oldest is 12, youngest is 3.

BBL

 

[logandsawman]

Good morning all, 79° and mostly sunny in East central Minnesota!

I got to work on the layout yesterday for a couple hours, did scenery then cleaned up everything for now,

Terry - Smart move on the dumb Nest.

Jeff - I could not watch SMokey and the Bandit, seemed too stupid for me. I get that reaction to many shows now, some even that I used to watch. Not sure what happened that changed my tastes

Tom - Cambria - Just thinking I hadn't seen your posts for a couple days, glad you were on this weekend

Steve - I build the Tichy Crane and tender a couple years ago. The instructions are excellent. Was not as hard as it looks. Mine does not look quite as good as Sherrels photo, I don't have the decals and my crane tender car is different, was the on from Tichy that matched the crane. I will dig the crane out and get a photo. It does take a lot of room on the layout, my biggest gripe with it. I altered my assembly slightly otherwise instructions were spot on. Didn't really take long to build as I recall.

Ken - good to hear about the operating session

Sherrel, that crane is magnificient. Like I said to Steve, is a bit different from mine.

Weekends progress so far,


Before:

After:

The engine house goes on the end of the spur, same location as the real Sandstone quarry

There will be a hoist house on the sand platform between the two tracks. That is a future project.

Back tomorrow, Dave LASM

 

[TLOC]

Good afternoon to a group of disgusted listeners to telemarketers, former nest users and model train lovers.

Shoe shopping, as mentioned this morning, need to daily shoes and the wife had coupons and Kohl’s cash expiring. Drove to Kohl’s, found the shoes I liked online. Tried them on, they fit great packed them up and said ok to Terry. What do you mean. I mean we are done these are the ones let’s go. Cashier checks out $140 pair of Sketchers, $20 off shoe sale for today, $70 Kohl’s cash, 30% off with some coupon she had. We just had to pay the tax, put it on her Kohl’s card where she earns cash rewards for the $139.99 original price. No wonder brick and mortar department stores are in trouble?

Next is brunch out. Original suggestion was in a Oregon, Wi. nice place we like and 2 miles from Kohl’s on the highway I say, Sonnie’s Kitchen I think is closed for all of August. Ok, we will head to some place a few miles closer in Belleville, Wi. I missed a turn and we are in Oregon. Great little coffee shop kitty corner from Sonnie’s Kitchen, we will go back again!

Then the gas station. $3.49 on the sign and I have $3.79 HyVee gas earned rewards per gallon. 14 gallons later the pump says $.28 because they have to charge us something and it’s $.02 per gallon. We still have $.30 per gallon left over for at least another 3 weeks before it expires. That’s another 2 trips for groceries for additional rewards!

So, I did buy some lottery tickets Friday, I shouldgo check them.

For those extended car warranty calls we get

 

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

I think I came really close to a case of Heat Exhaustion earlier. I was working outside and my heart rate got to 140 and I could only breathe by panting. I feel much better now after several glasses of water and a cool shower. I wasn't very smart. Earlier I prepared the 4 light pole parts and was going to solder everything together but got called away for a family issue so I should finish them up tomorrow.

Thank you for all the photo likes yesterday.

Dave- Very nice scenery.

Gary- Thank you. Congrats to Team Canada.

Terry- It worked out for you in the end but it took the geeks 2 months?

Steve- I haven't built one and although it looks somewhat advanced I would think you could do it. Just take your time and have patience.

Willie- Would a shim fix the problem?

Sherrel- Your friend does great modeling.

I hope everyone has a good night.

 

[Patrick]

Grandkids helped pick some more peaches. A full 1/4 bushel this time. Still a lot of green ones. Tally so far is 1/2 bushel. Running a 2nd batch through the dehydrator as I type. Not as pretty as some are showing the effects of hail from spring storms. Mostly just skin deformities. Not the kind of peaches you'd want from the store, but if you're making cobbler, jam, pie, etc they still eat well

 

[BigGRacing]

Gary, burning orange? Maybe pieces of a rocket, satellite or the burning bush! If it’s the satellite pieces it will end up on local news somehow. I know media here in Wisconsin has been talking about Chinese parts coming back to earth, like no other nations stuff ever returns. For sure if it was a meteor someone will report it

Yes you are correct, I suspect it was burning space junk, I heard about it on the news over the past couple weeks also. I have reported fireballs before to one of the research sites, but this was definitely different from those.

 

[santafewillie]

Yes you are correct, I suspect it was burning space junk, I heard about it on the news over the past couple weeks also. I have reported fireballs before to one of the research sites, but this was definitely different from those.

It's possible that it is still remnants of the annual Perseid Meteor shower which are visible for 3 more days (August 24).

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Forgot to mention it, JOE, but that was some game yesterday betwix the Cubs and Brewers ... score tied at 1-1 then 4-4 for many innings then the cubs won it in the 11th.
Marvelous game!

Watching an Eastwood marathon on TCM today!

TomO - heck of a purchase on the shoes!

 

[BigGRacing]

Perseid Meteor shower

Yes it could have been, it was pretty impressive whatever it was.

 

[Bruette]

Curt, I'm glad you recognized the signs and took steps to treat it.

 

[Smudge617]

Good Evening Ladies and Gentle Persons.

Well. made it home in one piece, despite having several near misses with idiot's towing caravans, mainly by either not knowing how long the whole thing is, or how to use mirrors.

There was one young idiot travelling way too fast, caravan was swinging so much it used two lanes, eventually he realised there was a problem, and did the dumb a*& thing of hitting the brakes, so jackknifed the whole kit and caboodle, ended up with the SUV facing the wrong way with the caravan sitting next to him, luckily his wife and kids were fine, I stopped and helped straighten the thing up and got him to the side of the road, but no way was it drivable.

Found out the guy lived in the next village along from my daughter, so offered to take family home while he waited for a tow truck, according to his wife, the SUV and the caravan belong to his father in law, so don't think he'll be a happy bunny when they tell him.

Had a great weekend freeing up my sister's and BIL three computers, (would help if the allowed updates and didn't use so much storage that the machine's basically didn't work.)

So now I'm home and having a much needed break from the world, and flipping computers.

Hope everyone has an as uneventful week as I had at the weekend.

G'nite all.

 

[Alcomotive]

Good evening to all.

Willie, I love it. He’s probably trying to explain what happened on your call to his supervisor as to why he couldn’t keep you on the line.

Patrick, something will show up for your wife. It’s great she will stay on though.

Well I traded for 10 pulpwood cars and lots of cash for 20 of my weathered ones. He drove 130 miles after a sales call in Green Bay to try to negotiate the prices after we had a deal if his pulp cars were in good shape and they were! Finally told him 6-8 weeks for me to weather his cars that he could leave or buy my 10 and trade your ten. Then he says can you sweeten the deal if he buys 20?

So some retail therapy will be needed tonight! In 10/2021 I had 71 pulpwood cars in inventory. Yes, crazy, I know. Now I have 14 of which only 4 are weathered. I need to find 10 more. The 4 I have left are Wisconsin Central and are my ace in the hole for dealing if I need to. WC pulp cars in Wisconsin are like having your own cash printing press. He wasn’t interested in the WC cars as he lives in Watersmeet, Mi. located in the Upper Penisula. He said about 6 hours to drive home. I offered dinner to him but he said thanks but needed to head towards home.

Terry is watching the Pack.

I was in the trainroom trying to figure out why I made the pulp wood car deal?! He left thrilled. I was sort of feeling bad about what I thought was overcharging where he thinks he got a great deal, so I stopped feeling guilty. He did ask if I would make 20 pulpwood loads and I said no but showed him how I make them and gave him enough pulp sticks cut to size for at least 25 loads. He asked if he could buy my pulp wood piles in the pulp yard on the layout. No f…ing way but I would sell him the piles not on the layout for an outrageous price. He purchased all 5 piles! The 2nd paper mill to be built yet will no longer use pulp wood, just recycled pulp products! Those extra 5 piles were built in 2017 and were in a rubber bin. He still had cash in his wallet and like I said he was thrilled when he left. Ah, to be 32 again with no wife and money to spend on hobbies!

Well back to the train room

That is really awesome Tom! Don't feel guilty, people for the most part know what they are buying. Not everyone has the talent, creativity or most importantly TIME. So just go with it and count your blessings.....er money lol and buy more stuff for your MRR empire Main thing is no harm done and it's a win win situation for both parties......right?

 

[Alcomotive]

My cell phone alerts me to incoming Spam or Telemarketer calls. I don't know how, but sometimes I look forward to having some fun, especially after a couple of cold brews. Tonight:
Me: Hello
Caller: I'm [insert name here], (usually spoken in an Asian accent); and I'm calling about your vehicles extended warranty that's about to expire.
-First of all, I haven't bought a new car since 2009 and have never purchased an extended warranty.-
Me: I don't have an extended warranty. You must have a wrong number.
Caller: No, our records indicate that you have one with [insert company name here]. Is this xxx-xxx-xxxx?
Me: Yes
Caller: Perhaps I can I interest you in one this evening?
Me: I really don't have the time, as the hot new maid had a few drinks and is now naked with me in the pool...
Click!

Hmmmh! That worked too quickly for me to have much fun with. I'll have to hold that line and waste more of their time in the future.

Willie! I was not expecting this read.....I just snorted half of my Rum n Cola laughing at this story! LOL Oh my! Fantastic!

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Wrapping up the weekend with a deadhead power move video