Running Bear's August 2026 Coffee Shop

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Watching more of the motor oil geek, in this video, the 10 minute mark was the most interesting to me and gives a vote towards using synthetic oil, especially for the direct injection engines. My engine is a port fuel injection engine, but the way it does the PCV is that it pipes the vapors all the way to the air cleaner box after the filter and gets sucked into the throttle body. My old car had a lot of oil there that I had to clean out once in a while.

 
Good morning. It's clear and 75, with another heat advisory.
More idiocy at work, involving our corporate overlords.
I currently have 24 pay stubs, all showing the company hasn't paid me overtime. I'm checking the statute of limitations, and if it extends long enough, I'll submit all of the pay stubs to our state's department of labor after I retire for reimbursement. So far, it's a couple hundred hours of time and a half owed.
 
bnsf971 said:
Good morning. It's clear and 75, with another heat advisory.
More idiocy at work, involving our corporate overlords.
I currently have 24 pay stubs, all showing the company hasn't paid me overtime. I'm checking the statute of limitations, and if it extends long enough, I'll submit all of the pay stubs to our state's department of labor after I retire for reimbursement. So far, it's a couple hundred hours of time and a half owed.
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You have all of your time cards as well?
 


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Good Saturday morning, Coffee Shop! It's 71°F (22°C) and chance of MORE rain! :cool:

Have a great day! ;)
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Well, howdy there internet peeps and those with H2O

it's Troy again.

Speaking of weather, parts of NE Indiana have received upwards of 7 inches of rain this month, while the Summit City of Fort Wayne only got about 3 inches. I've poured at least four inches total out of the rain gauge this month.

Yorktown IN, a small town right outside of Muncie IN (Home of Ball State University) had some devastating flooding. The town's small library was hit hard:

www.wishtv.com

Yorktown Public Library devastated by flooding, vows to rebuild

Yorktown Public Library recovers from devastating knee-deep flooding as the White River crests nearby. Staff vow the facility will reopen.
www.wishtv.com www.wishtv.com

I think it was a 10 or so years ago, Muncie and vicinity experiences some nasty flooding. The White River eventually runs through Indy, and should be cresting there today.

So, we have more rain in the area this weekend.

If any of you drought area folk want to run a few thousand miles of garden hose, bring your sump pumps. I'm sure Yorktown's library has some water to donate.

In other news, I'm off to the game store today for some dice rolling. Currently, I'm laying on the heating pad, trying to get the piriformis to loosen up. I slept from about 10p to 4 am. that's rare, without a pee run around 2.

That means all the Ibu and Acetaminophen have worn off. The sciatica was screaming this morning at 4. So I got up.
 
And an interesting piece from New Haven IN (basically Fort Wayne East, since the cities are in the same county and share a border)


from the piece:
In New Haven, the stretch of railroad that splits the city in two runs directly through its downtown area. According to the city’s “Move the Train” campaign website, the railroad crossing arms come down around 22 times a day. If a train becomes stuck or stops for any reason, half the city is cut off from the other half until the train moves. That could be just a few minutes or a few hours.

The website also details that regular blockages can quickly become safety hazards, saying that schoolchildren have been seen attempting to climb through stopped trains to make it to school.
and:
The question is: why haven’t towns, cities, and states been able to act on their own against rail companies in the past? An Indiana statute had previously barred railroad companies from stopping trains at crossings for more than 10 minutes at a time. Any company that violated that statute was fined $200 for every violation. Norfolk Southern had amassed 23 violations in one year and was expected to pay $4,600 in fines.

But in 2018, Norfolk Southern claimed that two key federal bills, the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act and the Federal Railroad Safety Act, preempted Indiana’s statute. The rail company argued that if it were to comply with the statute, it would have to increase train speeds, run shorter trains, or divide longer trains into segments, which would take at least 10 minutes of reassembly. Additionally, traffic blockages were caused by train-switching maneuvers, track congestion, and mechanical defects, which were among the most common reasons.

The Indiana Supreme Court sided with the rail company, and all 23 fines were dismissed. The ruling was temporarily reversed by the Court of Appeals, but the Indiana Supreme Court later reinstated its initial decision.
 
May I ask who was there first? The train tracks or the city? But yeah, agree that cutting the transportation lines if a train has to stop is not a good thing.

Tokyo has so many trains that people will risk running under the crossing signals rather than wait. I don't know how to properly word the search to find a video of it, but it was on FNN.
 


Several weeks ago, I found a kit to add to the new club layout. Grusom Casket Company has been around for years. This is an AHM branded kit, but the base is marked as POLA.
I spent a couple weeks painting parts and applying an alcohol/ink stain to parts. Only when I started to lay out the walls to start assembly did I realize the the walls for the one story building were missing. Other doors and windows were missing also.
After a complete inventory of parts, I decided a kit bash was needed.
20260814_203224(0).jpg


Here is the Frankenstein industry I put together.
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I still have a little more weathering to do, but it is time to find a location on the layout to plant this building.
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Kusojiji said:
May I ask who was there first? The train tracks or the city? But yeah, agree that cutting the transportation lines if a train has to stop is not a good thing.

Tokyo has so many trains that people will risk running under the crossing signals rather than wait. I don't know how to properly word the search to find a video of it, but it was on FNN.
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Being there "first" doesn't really matter as it concerns interstate commerce which the Feds control. Rulings against the railroad (NS) aren't likely.
 
Bill Tidler Jr. said:
Being there "first" doesn't really matter
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Yeah, understand, but it does fuel my fire. Waikiki Shell is another case where the shell has been there forever, but the losers that moved there started complaining about the noise. The Shell is an open air stage for music and these whiners knew that before buying. So now, the Shell has to end their concerts early so that these f-ckers can get their beauty sleep that doesn't do them any good.

Ah, I feel better. Thanks! haha
 
Kusojiji said:
Yeah, understand, but it does fuel my fire. Waikiki Shell is another case where the shell has been there forever, but the losers that moved there started complaining about the noise. The Shell is an open air stage for music and these whiners knew that before buying. So now, the Shell has to end their concerts early so that these f-ckers can get their beauty sleep that doesn't do them any good.

Ah, I feel better. Thanks! haha
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Gun ranges have the same problems often. They were there way before the neighborhood that builds around it …
 


Good Morning All. Clear and 80° here. Not any change in the forecast for the next 10 (at least) days; highs in the triple digits, lows near 80°. Although the nights might start getting cooler around the end of next week. This is the time of year around here that the NWS just goes on autopilot for a month. Rain??? Not until October.

Nothing of note yesterday, the usual household tasks. Topped off the pool with water and it cooled down by 2° which was nice.
Another road trip today, taking the Lexus to the dealership in Plano (North Dallas suburb) for the 35k maintenance. Interesting that we have owned that vehicle for 18 months, and I have never even opened the hood to look around!

Nothing notable from out in the train shed yesterday. I did look a bit more for those missing Chinese figures, but came up empty-handed. Lesson to be learned: Make notes of where you move things when cleaning a train room, especially if you're moving something that's been in one spot for years and years. I did at least, re-familiarize myself with the newer locations of some other stuff. Maybe I just have too much stuff? Not! I did find a "to do list" from 2017, that was historically significant, especially since I had completed 85% of it without using the list itself! Among the items on it was building the workbench. I had previously just used unfinished benchwork for that. Train running took up some more time in between.

Kusojiji -
Kusojiji said:
@RhB Michael - I unwatched that thread since that guy never came back.
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It is unfortunate that we have so much of that here. And the sporadic outages aren't helping lately.
Troy -
troyphoto said:
Norfolk Southern had amassed 23 violations in one year and was expected to pay $4,600 in fines.
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$4,600 is less than pocket change to NS. One day in court probably cost them way more than that.

Drummer and co-founder of The Spencer Davis Group from 1963 to 1969, Peter York is 84 today. He's still beating the skins today. Guitarist/vocalist/founder of the Doobie Brothers, Tom Johnston is 78 today. They're on tour right now, co-headlining with Santana.

Everyone have a great Saturday.
 
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