Running Bear's August 2023 Coffee Shop

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Train World's latest Marketing E-Mail features Bowser products, including pre-orders for the latest release of their RS-3. It includes three Reading Numbers. TW advertises them as "Hammerheads"
Following up on my earlier comments concerning Bowser's latest RS-3 announcement, MB Klein is also calling them "Hammerheads". Bowser's web page identifies the group as hammerheads, but the graphic shows a normal short hood. Bowser shows 3 Reading numbers, all due 6/1/24, plus a additional number exclusive to the Reading Historical Society. Bowser also advertises both Sound Equipped, and Decoder ready. Does not specifically say Hammerhead, but is not clear. So the source of the confusion is Bowser. Good chance they are correct standard height short hood RS3s, but let the buyer beware...
 
Good Morning All!
67F @ 53%

We did a 'gotta get outa here' thing on Sunday. Went to Yaak for lunch. 180 mile loop. Yaak is a tiny town somewhat NW of Libby about 70 miles from us. Has 2 bars, 0 gas stations, 1 Post Office, and various Forrest Service buildings. The Dirty Shame was closed due to remodel: had to do the kitchen or the State was not going to license them. During that process the front facade apparently fell off - so do that too. The Mercantile is where we ate. Was good to relax and not worry about nailing, wiring or insulating. In any event, a visit to the Big Boy's Room' turned up this pix:

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Sorry about the flash in the pix, st00pid Cell Phone camera.

Also, I remember somebody saying they wanted to see RR stuff along the RoW - These two are not Yaak, but Troy. Notice the selfie ..kinda...


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Later!
I was just there in Troy couple of days ago. Heading west from Libby sun was starting to set so instead of jamming on, decided to park my vehicle right near these wheels and got me a Corona Extra across the street. Sitting and sipping on cold beer while once in a while a double stack BNSF train would come was very relaxing.
 
Good evening. Here's a few more SD45 shots for WILLIE:
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Been bussy otherwise, back to work after vacation and project shed for a friend in the evenings.
 


Train World's latest Marketing E-Mail features Bowser products, including pre-orders for the latest release of their RS-3. It includes three Reading Numbers. TW advertises them as "Hammerheads", and hopefully they are not, as the only railroads to use "Hammerhead" RS3s were the PRR, (later LV and perhaps Conrail), and the WM. A odd combination of Dynamic brakes and Steam generator in the short hood. I will check Bowser's site to satisfy my curiosity. I have one of the initial release PRR units and it is a fine running machine. So hopefully the error is TW advertising, and not with the model.
I've seen the ads from Bowser, train word and others, I think the marketing folks dont have a clue as to what a hammerhead is.
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Several ads show a regular RS3, with a low short nose.
 
Good evening gents and the missing Ms. JazA.

Eyes, After my cataract surgery I only wear glasses to read, weather or write if within 4’. If further then that, I no longer need to wear glasses. Told you WILLIE how great and easy the surgery was!

Read an email from PayPal today. Rates are going up to 2.99% for goods and services on 10/1/2023. Can you say GREEDY!

Gas prices outside of Madison, Wi. today were $3.59 to $3.79 on the way home from the airport

It’s Friday and that means in WIsconsin Fish Fry Friday. But we have eaten out all week. The beloved wife has eaten fish at dinner every night we have been gone. So what does she give me to grill for dinner tonight? Yep, a fish. Mahe-Mahe! I grabbed a steak!

The pool water temperature is at 86f degrees tonight. I will swim in the morning. Back to high 80’s on Saturday and Sunday, then popping up to high 90’s for the rest of the week!

The University of WIsconsin Volleyball season starts tomorrow at one. Yes, we will be there. The loaded Badger women got a couple super portal transfer players from Minnesota and Northwestern. They start the season ranked #2 behind Texas! They are odds on favorites to win the Big 10 that actually contains 14 schools expanding to 18 over the next 2 seasons.

My brother got a text yesterday from a reality company based in California asking if he was interested in selling his property on Maui.

I started an inventory of track for the new layout. I never got an answer why I got partial shipments on my track orders. I will ask on Tuesday if I have no answers for refunds on the missing shipment balances

Now to go read the 6 pages since Wednesday??? I haven’t read here on the forum

Enjoy the night
 
Good evening everyone! Running some laundry and the sprinklers tonight while enjoying virtual railfan on Youtube (much cooler than the real thing right now).

Noticed this bulkhead flat car off the rails and its wheels earlier today while going through Fort Worth on an errand. Guessing from a derailment?
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Sitting here watching the Padres/Dbacks game - end of 6 with no score.
Louis - Darn good pitching on both teams; Padres have made so many "goofs" I don't know why the score is still 0-0! I DO NOT UNDERSTAND why a batter takes the first pitch, a fast ball strike, right in the middle - and then strikes out on a pitch down in the dirt? I see it time after time!

I hate to complain, but my UTI came back yesterday. I went to the store and bought 2 gal of cranberry juice and drank 2/3 gal last night - I am going to drown it! Seems to have helped.
My sore throat has never completely "welled" itself. i have a two scans programed for Monday - will see what they show.

CURT - The spousal Unit and I have been talking about just having one car. About the only thing I use the truck for is Doctor's appointments and to the grocery store; my construction days are past me now. The transmission has a time delay of engaging when first starting out (kind of bothers me) but it seems fine after that. I just do not want to spend $5-600 getting the A/C to work when the truck is only worth maybe 3k and I am too old to think about spending 50-60k for a new truck which I most likely will not be around to pay off?

Now going to the bottom of the 8th inning - still with no score!
 
I DO NOT UNDERSTAND why a batter takes the first pitch, a fast ball strike, right in the middle - and then strikes out on a pitch down in the dirt? I see it time after time!
Everybody tries to "work the count" at least make the pitchers pitch count go up. It can backfire and you find yourself behind in the count. Get behind and you are in trouble. A good slider can look like a fastball. Until it is in the dirt that is.

I was often a first pitch hitter. I always thought it was the best chance to see a fastball. You still must mix it up to keep the pitcher honest.
 


Good morning all. A bit of a breeze blowing with rain forecast later. A few jobs to do around the house, then maybe to the train room.

A Thought For Today --
“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”




Three pictures a little different to my normal postings.

We were on MSC Bellissima. On arriving in Doha, Qatar it was a Maiden Call. We were given the greeting for first time callers.

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On arrival in Antwerp, Belgium the two tank wagons are dwarfed by all the pipework

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Giving directions. I have been around road haulage virtually all my life. A typical scene I see.

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Thoughts & Peace to All who Require.


David
 
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Good morning. 63f degrees now heading to the high 80’s. We have excessive heat advisories till next Friday and Air Quality alerts due to the Canadian fires.

I started last night weathering some (14) containers for myself, just to get back into the swing of things. I figure another hour or so this morning to be done. I will start weathering this guy today. I already clear coated It. A Boley model of a “Linemen’s” truck. Got it on EBay last week and it arrived while we were gone

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At noon we will head to campus to see WIsconsin Volleyball start its season against a cupcake, University of Illinois Chicago, UIC.I am not a fan when any team in any sport does this. UW Women are ranked #2 in the nation and schedule a game against a team that has no chance but gets a good payday! Basically a practice game that season ticket holders pay to see. But, we are going! We did get a letter a couple weeks ago that the Field house is selling beer in certain sections of the place. We are in it, another thing I’m not fond of. They also are allowing it at LaBahn where the NCAA champion Badger women hockey play their games. These are 2 sold out crazy places without the drinking, it may get interesting at times this year!

enjoy the day
 
I've seen the ads from Bowser, train word and others, I think the marketing folks dont have a clue as to what a hammerhead is.
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Several ads show a regular RS3, with a low short nose.
The problem here is internet. Most of these guys instead of grabbing a book and spending some actually deepening their knowledge, just swipe on a site which has a mistake carried over and copied many times and they call it a day.
 
Good Morning All. Clear and 81°. No real change in our forecast, I saw 110° for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon. The 6% chance of rain on Monday has been moved to Tuesday and is now 3%. Yesterday, it actually smelled hot! It is a bit disconcerting to note that my overnight low is higher than many of you guys daytime high temperature.
So far the electric grid is holding up here in Texas, probably because there's very few EV's plugged in. Some of you probably know that the Texas electric grid is not connected to any outside grids for back-up, except for El Paso which is plugged in to New Mexico's connections. Foolish decision by the state regulators many years ago, actually in 1935. Because of perceived independence, that has not changed even today.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I spent most of my time running trains again. I made progress on the Magnuson reefer truck, but I am not near finishing it yet.
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Considerable touch up is needed mainly to the windows. I'm not sure what the residue is around the marker lights, as I only painted orange.
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Painting these resin vehicles is real tricky, even though I primered everything with dull coat.
Today is door hinge day along with the touch-up.
One crowning achievement (if you have ever built one of these) is that all four wheels touch the surface without rocking!

Karl - Cleaned and painted the bolts for the Cub Cadet? You must be a mechanic.;) LOL
Joe - I have made a few Magnuson vehicle models in the past, so I know a few tricks already. My real issue is with the windows. There is no way to convey a clear glass finish there, so I have to use silver paint to simulate glass.
Hughie - I am not a real fan of installing rafter tails either; and I model in HO. But the effect on some structures is great.
Tom O - Most likely I will ditch the glasses completely. In the train shed, I have two pair of Optivisors and 5 different strength lens's to use. Yesterday just for grins, I installed a coupler spring on a Kadee coupler without any vision aids. I still have the restriction on my drivers license that I will have to deal with. We can no longer just walk in, you are encouraged to set up an appointment on line.
I don't personally have an issue with beer being sold at sporting events, provided that proper supervision is used to prevent obnoxious folks from getting out of hand. Reminds me of the Saturday morning (11:00 am) that I went to a friend's daughter's college graduation a few years ago. It was held in the UNT basketball coliseum, and they were selling beer there. Seemed inappropriate to me. I skipped as I hadn't eaten yet.
Sherrel - We did the one car thing for 5 years until this past April. It actually worked out just fine for us, but Arlene just had to purchase the used Lexus, mainly because our daughter bought one and she likes to "keep up with the Jones's". I was a bit floored by the $50K price tag, especially for a used one. Amusing fact is that just one time since have we both been gone at the same time. I took the Lexus to the doctor and a couple of necessities stops, and she took the older Accura, 25 miles away to the car wash! But after getting there, she didn't want to pay for the automated wash and valet vacuuming and went instead to the coin-operated do it yourself place. Upon arrival home, I had to dig out the industrial shop-vac for her to vacuum it. Might as well have washed it in the driveway!o_O $8 in gas just pissed away...it uses premium.

Today is Bill Clinton's 77th birthday. Where's Monica???
Everyone have a great day.
 
I was often a first pitch hitter. I always thought it was the best chance to see a fastball. You still must mix it up to keep the pitcher honest.
Excellent Advise, Louis ...
I was a lead off hitter most of the time - I had good speed and was a "shallow hitter" - choked up on the bat and would hit just over the infield. I never let a pitch go by that I could reach!
All these guys always swing for the home run hit - very seldom do I see a guy choke up on the bat!
 


Starting the day at 67 degrees looking for 89 later -- with high clouds.
The weather folks are absolutely going bonkers out here predicting doomsday advisories!
RUN for the hills - Save yourselves - build an ARK!

Nothing really on tap for today ... OH, the cranberry juice actually seems to be working - I have almost finished the first gallon - well 90% actually.
My two scans today are at the new Kaiser facility about 14 miles away .. what a blessing not to have to drive to Riverside and back.

Nice looking refinery there, DAVID ... I am a huge fan of anything to do with oil!
Drilling, production, transportation - pipelines, trucks, trains, and ships. Did I cover them all?

Is FRANCINE around this morning? I would like a plate of her pancakes, bacon, and coffee!
 
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