Running Bear's August 2025 Coffee Shop

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Good day to all on the forum........

All drafting work is complete for now (until the next one comes) and I've got 3 invoices in.

Grocery store visit yesterday as they start a new weekly sales cycle on Wednesdays. Pecos cantaloupes are in, avocados were "buy one get one free" and they finally had some peaches that were not as hard as a baseballs.

Got some household type things to do today so I doubt there will be any time in the train room. However, over the past week or so, in the evenings, I have been assembling some Accurail, C B & Q hopper cars (six pack purchased in 2019). I have 4 hoppers done and one CB & Q boxcar.
I have another six pack of A T & S F hoppers with 3 more C B & Q boxcars to do. Kind of relaxing building these kits as they are not very difficult to put together , just a little "tweaking" here and there for a nice fit. And I add Kadee couplers and Intermountain wheel sets on all my kits.

On another note, I am guessing Micro Fasteners is out of business. I placed an order on 7/31/25 and nothing.......no response to e-mails or phone messages. I checked latest ratings at M.F. on the interweb and found about 8 other "one star" ratings as customers are having the same experience as I am having. To bad, as I have ordered from these folks in the past and always received quality items and quick shipping.
I'll be filing a claim with PayPal later today and hope I can get my money refunded. Luckily, my order was for less than $20.00.

Everyone have a great afternoon.......John
 
Good evening all. Gee the temperature is plummeting. Just managed 12C today.
A busy house with all the grandchildren here. Two are sleeping over.

Made an Indonesian style curry for dinner. It was well received.

Class 37 Highland Region

IMG_0471.JPEG
 


Maybe not quite as hot as yesterday. We got to at least 101F yesterday. Now at 2:15pm it is 97F and some clouds have rolled in. Not totally overcast but certainly quite noticeable.

We'll see.

The roller blinds seem to have helped a little already. The last hour or 90 min of sun coming through the window before the sun passed to the south and stopped coming in directly in the E windows was blocked. It feels slightly nicer than normal in my office. Still quite warm. Tomorrow will be the test.

My mom just called. She has some garden produce and mail to bring by. I guess I need to go get my guest clothes on... Instead of lounge around the house in underclothing by myself mode.
 
Well, howdy there internet peeps, and for those of you with slow forum speeds:
Wellhowdythereinternetpeepsandforthoseofyouwithslowforumspeeds:

It's Troy again...

Got the ears lowered, then headed to the hearing aid center. Audio test showed no change from last year. Updated firmware to the H-aids. And they used the suction device to remove a bit of wax from my right ear.

I got a fresh baked cookie, and they assure me the new office on my side of town will have fresh baked cookies too, once it opens.

In between those two appointments today, I decided to tackle an issue that I just learned about. Seems the build plates on a lot of midsized 3D Resin printers are getting past quality control with bowed plates. That's not good. The plate is supposed to be flush with the flat glass of the LED screen under the resin. The resin is light sensitive, and needs to harden onto the build plate. If it's bowed, then the center is higher than the edges and that's where I tend to get prints not adhering to the build plate. That's bad, and makes me dump the resin out of the vat, clean the vat, and reinstall everything.

So, how bad was it bowed?

plate 1.jpg


That's after about 10 minutes of rubbing the plate on the 320 grit sandpaper, that is laying on a sheet of glass (flattest surface I could find).

Here it is after going to 120 grit for 5 more minutes, then another 5 with the 320 grit. Note that the fancy pattern with the charcoal finish was edge to edge before I started the process.
plate 2.jpg

When ran a straight edge along it, with a light directly behind it, I got only the faintest of slivers of light leakage.

Grumble grumble that they come this way. But, I'm glad it was an easy fix. Half an hour including cleaning the build plate before and after, then reinstalling and releveling the plate to the screen.

It's cool enough here that I've got the windows open at home. Turned off the upstairs AC. We'll see if that holds for the next week. Be nice to have a lower electric bill this month.
 
santafewillie said:
It did rain here this morning and continued moving south in your direction. But at 0.2", all that it did was get everything wet!
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Our bit of rain didn't even register in my rain gauge, and it's already gone. :(

santafewillie said:
BTW The forum seems to be behaving much better this afternoon.
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Yup. I'm convinced that whatever the issue was, it's resolved. Which is really good; I'm impatient with web sites. :)
 


It's 97F at 5"15 though I saw 99F in between now and my earlier report. Not quite as hot as yesterday. Mom came and went, and I ate some lunch, took care of other business, and am back at the computer. Yesterday I started working on my DCC throttle again after a few months not doing it. I'm trying to get some time in every day. That and my "iOS Lead Essentials" class I am taking online (paid). The DCC throttle app besides being interesting, is a way for me to come up to speed on some new tech and with the few months break I'm rusty and having to relearn what I had done before... Arghhh. But it's tech a lot of the jobs I've been looking at and applying for require. I did it a little last summer at my last job and I've also done some tutorials on it and did a "challenge app" for a potential employer in it earlier this year (and they liked what I did). I just need to do it enough that it becomes second nature and not something I have to look up every time... Fake it until you make it I guess.

This is why the DCC Throttle app is important.

ETA: One of the new roller blinds won't go back up. I pulled it all the way down in spurts trying to get it to go back up and it's all the way undone. I need to contact them to see how to re-tension it. arghh.
 
Today's "Surprise" rain has provided us with ¾" of rain. Some attributed to Hurricane Erin, which is out in the Atlantic, others to the cold front that will push Erin further out to sea. In any event, it's been dry here so the rain is appreciated. Today's temperature range was 60° and 71° with a 15 mph wind out of the East. Currently 66° but it looks like the rain has stopped for now.

Spent the morning at Jersey Shore Hospital, where I had X rays of the cervical spine, followed by a visit to the Surgeon. Good news: After next Wednesday, I will be able to sleep or sit in a chair without the Cervical Collar. Six weeks later, I have another x Ray and CT Scan,and will then be able to ditch the collar completely.

Believe me, the Cervical Collar is not comfortable or pleasant.

Meanwhile, one by one, the collateral issues post op are being resolved.

I have started building kits again to have something to do beside the computer. Have three Bowser Cabin Cars and a LNE covered hopper in progress. Biggest issue: I cannot sit in one place for any length of time without getting stiff.
 
bnsf971 said:
You can consist the tail light decoder to the engine address, and have it controlled by the locomotive’s headlight controls.
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That's a cool idea, but I think I'm too lazy to break out a separate car right now. When I run these, I have two throttles open (JMRI) for the loco and the set of cars. When the loco butts up to the cars, I turn on the cabin lights and the tail light.

Thanks for future info as I get more experience with operations.
 
chadbag said:
You’re a better man than me. Even though I designed a light board (see the other forum) I’ve not really done more than install one or two in Shinkansen. I’ve not gotten function decoders and lights out in (yet). It’s one of those lost items that never makes it to the top.
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These are train-o-matic 6 pin function decoders. About $18 from Tramfabriek in UK. I can set light intensity and if I want it to simulate a fluorescent light with the intermittent flickering, fade in and out time and stay alive cap charging delay so that all cars don't try to charge at one time. Have to solder wires to the chip for the Vcc and the + and - for the caps.

Will check out your build.
 
chadbag said:
Finally got the (temporary) roller shades installed in the office. There is no direct heating or cooling in the bonus space above the garage and mudroom/pantry and entry way, and the rooms that face east and get the morning sun directly in their windows get quite warm. The other two offices in the bonus space without east facing windows are pleasant. Once the sun passes and is in the south or west in the afternoon it's not an issue.

I bought these treated fabric blinds on sale at Home Depot for about $18 each (regularly $65) and decided to hang them until I can afford the cellular shades (one piece all the way across the window) I'd like to put in. We'll see what it feels like in here tomorrow.

The train room next door with huge east windows still has no window coverings so that will heat that up which will spread. For now I think I am going to hang a bed sheet across that window to try and block as much as possible. Ideally I'll find some inexpensive shades of some sort to put in there.

Last week we had. cool spell for a f ew days but yesterday my sensor on the N side of the house (so no direct sun) read 101F. Last night at 10:30pm when I went for my walk it was still 81F (and 78F when I came back). Almost 10F warmer than the evening before.

And this morning it was already 86F at 9am and 95F at 11:15am.

View attachment 235799
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When was the last time you played with window tint film?
 
I wasn't able to get my haircut today. The barber didn't show up. Made two trips there, but no barber. The owner shows up whenever she feels like it, or when something else doesn't get in the way of making a living.

Her employee works opposite days, so when the boss doesn't show up, no one gets a haircut. I'll try again tomorrow and see if her employee shows up. She's good about showing up.

Dewpoint is still 68°F, but it usually rises a few degrees at night. It was 66°F late this afternoon. I expect it to be even lower tomorrow.
 


chadbag said:
I designed a light board
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Found that thread. Man, that was a lot of work! I cannot believe the cost of printing(?) the board was only $.65 (back then). I've made a few of the piecemeal ones with the light strip that you had in your later photos and would continue with those except that I cannot find a lower kelvin light strip for sale. I think about 2800K is my range now but it is not a favorite for the masses, I guess. I could just layer kapton until the right color is achieved...
 
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