Running Bear's Coffee Shop LVIII

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Evening All,

Just got back from the club Christmas party. My decoder came in today, so hopefully it will be installed next week. The dryer trip did not go well last night. The trip took 80 ninutes instead of 45 because of traffic. We still got to the address 10 minutes early. We were supposed to meet at the same house that we were at last week. The owners were out of town but their son (adult) was supposed to meet us there at 6 PM. By 6:30 the son was a no show and he did not answer his phone or text messages so we left. About 20 minutes later he calls saying he had fallen asleep. Sooo, we are going to the Navy Exchange by OIA tomorrow and get one.

Montanan- Really love the TT pit and nice job on the loco's.

Lynn- Every time I try playing your video it says it's private.

BigE- Sorry to hear about your computer issues.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
What computer issues Curt?
That was website work that is gone.

In the mean the time I returned to my endeavors under the table and heard a loud hot-rod outside racking out. Didn't think much of it really. Then I heard it rev a time or two more and reminded me of someone I know that had a scary-wicked-fast Mustang. I came out from under the table and peeped out the blinds as the car backed into my drive. Same guy but with a new car this time. Chrysler 300 with 5.7 HEMI motor. He had my former neighbor and his 2 boys (grown men) with him all wanting to take me out for a ride. Why not?
Good God is that thing fast!!!! Been a REALLY LOOOONGGG time since I've gone over 120 and this car did it with ease.
I've known the driver for some time and if I owned a race-team I would have zero problem putting him in a car.
Not sure what sort of exhaust system he had going but I promise it was not stock - same with my Mustang and the Mustang he had before.
I'm sure Chet will have plenty to chastise me about my little adventure tonight. And rightfully so. I've done stupider stuff than that - stone cold sober. One afternoon returning to Atlanta (Stone Mountain in particular where I lived), I opened my 'Tang up.
5.0L HO motor.
Light traffic, sunny good weather so I decided to "see what this thing can do".
I did. I left in 4th gear around 120 and the tach was still just around 4500. So I put in 5th floored it.
It pegged at 140 and I was still accelerating. The closing rate on cars was the scariest part. Most could see me coming fast and got over. Some not so much and I had to back off hard. Good thing people didn't have cell phones back then!! (no I ain't proud of that). Red-line on that car of mine was around 8k and we never got over 5k. I can only guess I was going around 155 or so. I never bothered with the calcs because I really didn't want to know.
My thought became of the other drivers that day. They're tooling along in the right/slow lane and here I blow by over 100mph faster than they are going. If I would have been one of those drivers I would s..t my drillies! 100mph is fast. But if I'm minding my own business and tooling along like everyone else around 65-75 and someone blows by me 100 by my door!!! Holy crap!! I'm pulling over to change my shorts!!!
Once I started to think of everyone else's point of view and how scary that was, I shut it down.

Well during our venture tonight we stopped at someone else's place. They weren't home so it made for a smoke and pee break.
While looking for a pee spot myself, I got stuck in the eye by a bush I was trying to tuck under. Right eye is now totally foggy/blearing - probably scratched cornea.

So after all that excitement I have sweat pants back on and will head back to the train room.
My documentation needs to get updated. Of course it doesn't really mean anything to anyone but me - or perhaps to someone who might need forensically analyze my layout.

Back to the trains by golly!!
I'm definitely one-eying thing right now.
Fortunately my left eye is the better.
I'll just put on some music and forget about for now.

E.
 
Good evening Spike Drivers & Ballast Tampers,
It was fairly cold this morning and today and at 5:42 it dropping down again.
It's now; Mostly Cloudy 43.5 °F/Feels Like 44 °F;
Winds are from East at 1.7 mph;
Tonights low is supposed to be 33 °F;
The Barometer reading is 30.18;
Hum-i-dity is at 87%.


I did a bit more track work earlier then decided I'd better get a good load of wood in the garden cart while it was still light out. Last night, more like very early this morning I was out getting wood to keep by the back door as I saw yesterday it was supposed to get colder yet today, it did, and more rain tomorrow. Sure glad I got my roof patched up good. I'm sitting here eating a nice big slice of DiGiorno Pizza and now having coffee and cookies.


GarryCBQ said:
Good morning everybody ....

Chet .... Your turntable is magnificent...... I like the NP F9 photo. I have NP freight F-units operating on my layout.

MILW113 ... Evidently, your attendance at Alco Anonymous meetings are not taking effect.

David ... All of the pieces on the road grader are glued in place, and so the wheels don't roll. .... I wonder why you have a duplicate post.

Speaking of road graders, I still have a large toy road grader from when I was a kid. It is a Model Toys, Adams road grader, and it looks ver much like the 1/87 model I now have. My old toy now is a collectors item getting high bids on Ebay.

Terry (NC) ... You are correct, the A&B operated ex-GTW GP9's. One was painted to look like a Lionel GP9. The other was striped like a NYC unit but the color was olive drab. I recall seeing an Alco which was (I think) and RS3, and it was painted like NYC with black paint, but I was told it was not an A&B locomotive. It belonged to a private individual if I recall correctly. It has been about 15 years since I saw the A&B and my info is not current. The Alco may have been at another location and my memory is fooling me.
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Say Garry: I wasn't sure, but didn't think the WS had wheels & tires that revolved. I also had a road grader when I was quite young but I don't recall the brand but it was very sturdy.

As far as the double post I have No idea what caused that. I attempted to post every as one long post but it was too long so I cut the second half and posted the first portion and then immediately posted the second half. Double posting happens to me a fair amount and yet I don't try and do it


WJLI26 said:
Good morning. 49°, and sunny. Going to maybe 67° today? Nice!

Thanks to all who expressed their kind thoughts concerning my MIL. Because of our "close interest", they are somewhat more "co-operative", and the level of care and concern has increased. What we have uncovered, "boarders" on Elder abuse, and attempted identity theft. That is not all, the MIL, allowed her "helpful" next door neighbors too much access to her personal and financial information. The potential leaks have been plugged, and access blocked. Further, all account numbers have been changed, and all mail is being forwarded to our address. Some other chinks in the armor still need to be closed, but the big stuff is secure. And... we are evaluating attorneys that practice this type of law.

This is putting a crimp on my railroad building, so...
Click to expand...


Say Joe: It good that you and your wife are staying on top of things able to get things changed around. It can be a real hassel indeed! I also sure does eat into your layout construction I'm sure. I went through Hell handling my mothers' situation too and the Convalecent Hospital was also involved.


Hope everyone has a good night.
 


Eric, our current car is electronically limited to 112mph. I found this out last March, when my brother ended up in the hospital, and worse...
 
bnsf971 said:
Eric, our current car is electronically limited to 112mph. I found this out last March, when my brother ended up in the hospital, and worse...
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Well.... this was not to limited 112. I watched the speedometer from plain view in the back seat. Nice and super comfy and warm by the way! I was thinking about how right I am with Jesus an God on that ride none the less.

On a train subject, my buddy that called today was talking about a feller who knew everything about every engine made. I told him I know some one like that!!! Thinking of you of course.

Break over. Back to documentation and wire bundling.
E.
 
montanan said:
GarryCBQ said:
Chet .... Now I will embarrass the daylights out of myself..... I was commenting on the NP F9 AA pair in MN. MILW 113 posted the photo. ... Oops !... Of course, I would like seeing a photo of the NP Geep

We'll just chalk that up to old timers disease Garry. Here is the Northern Pacific geep. It is an Athearn. The dynamic brakes were removed and the fuel tank was lengthened where the air tanks came from the factory under the frame by the fuel tank. Air tanks were mounted on the roof along with lift rings, spark arrestors and other details were added on the pilots. The motor of course was replaced with a can motor and constant directional lighting was installed. My only problem with it is the extra wide hoods Athearn had a the time to allow for the motor. One nice thins about it is that with the can motor, it runs at almost the exact speed as my Atlas Alcos.

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What was a real pain in the a** was the red striping on the hoods. The stripes along with any lettering are Micro Scale decals. Nobody made any Northern Pacific geep at the time either. Sometime you just do what you have to to to get what you want. It is still a fantastic running locomotive and around 25 years old. Seems just about everything I have is old, just like me. View attachment 54569
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Beautiful lass that you've got there Squire!
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new guy said:
To my utter shock, it works pretty good!
View attachment 54563It's got the Fairbanks in a nice grip. It's the extra hand I need to do anything with the underside of these things. Now I gotta get one of those BIG lenses with the LIGHT around it! Sure, now it don't move but I can't SEE it!
Click to expand...

Pretty good. Just one thing, if you've still got the foam packers that were fitted between the long hood and the handrails, put them in place to prevent the rails and stanchions getting distorted. Watch out for things like the sun visors on cab sides for the same. Athearns are brass with pins pushed into the sides of the cab, but Protos are only plastic lightly glued on, will break off in a breeze. They also catch in the foam padding.
 
NFG, I have used kraft paper laid on the foam to keep it from catching the little detail parts.
 


Good Morning All. It's 52 degrees and drizzling here today. The rain predicted for yesterday morning didn't actually hit us until after 10:00 pm, about 1 1/2" in the gauge this morning. Good thing it came late because I drove 65 miles each way to Dallas and back yesterday; over 30 of it was Interstate under reconstruction. Didn't get much done in the train shed yesterday as I was involved all day at the granddaughter's first birthday party. I did tune up a couple of older Athearn freight cars with the "tuner" and exchanged the wheels for metal ones. Added some weight to one of them. I still have about 110 older cars left to convert to metal wheels. 680 are either already converted or came with metal to begin with.

new guy - Your cradle is looking good. I especially like the "adjustment" aspect. If your fingers are big like mine, you may still want to trim the sides down a little to provide a little easier access. They don't need to be taller than your tallest freight car or engine. Instead of a big lens with a light, I use "Optivisors", which can use interchangeable lenses with varying magnification. They are the most used tool in my railroad workshop.

борис циник - I wish you the best in the care of your MIL. I respect your decisions and commend you for going out of your way to keep everything on the "up and up". Many others in this day and time would look the other way. While I hope you can get things taken care of without resorting to legal intervention, sometimes you have to bring in the "sharks" when needed.

BigE - Your friends and neighbors continue to amaze me! As to your mishaps, I hate to hear about a beer going to waste...LOL. I hope your eye is just a minor thing and you don't need another ER visit. I can certainly relate to it as I have done the same as I frequently "step behind the bushes".

That's it for now, it's off to the train shed to make up for missing time yesterday.
Willie
 
LOL! Thanks, I DID trim it down! The one I'm copying had slotted brackets but I could not find any so I "slotted" the wood! I was proud of my engineering skills to overcome the 'problem'. I'm no builder but I like to solve problems and 'make it work'.
 
Good Morning. Today is the Third Sunday in Advent. Time sure flies by, doesn't it? It's 57° and overcast this morning. It may get into the 70s. if you are holding oil futures, SELL!

I try to keep up here, but truthfully, I'm not paying close attention. I do appreciate the kind words of encouragement.I haven't really audited anything since college, but now I'm trying to work backward, and get a handle on MIL's finances. What a convoluted mess. I believe we can find her a really nice place to live close to our home. Fortunately, she has the resources to afford decent, not extravagant, care. Meanwhile, the level of care and attention at the current location has suddenly "improved".

It's going to be a busy week.
 
Golly mercy I hate eye-pokes!!!! It's running tears constantly besides causing a chronic headache.
Although it's super bright and sunny out it's going to be a blinds closed day for me. Green eyes are light sensitive enough to begin with. I could use cutting some hair but I think I'll wait until I have full stereo-vision back before I do that.

I did manage to get almost all the scenery lighting documented and straightened out. It's still something of a bird-nest but at least it's a better organized and well labeled bird-nest. Better yet is I didn't knock over another beer either!!! yay!
Not certain if I'll document the track feeders today or not. It would be nice to get it done though.
It's not like any of this is really necessary given my little rig.
Actually, it is handy having the scenery lights at least labeled.

All the turnouts are wired completely separate. Well duh. They have to be since they are AC and everything else is DC. Now that I mention that the 2 new turnouts I put in for the maintenance shed aren't wired up at all but they are right there in front of me where the cab is - plus I'm not certain I have enough ports on my bus strip for them both. All this wiring and electronics business is what got me distracted away from building a layout almost 40 years ago.
E.
 
Joe, is your MIL capable of an assisted care facility? My Grandma Palmer is in one and she's 95 almost. She's pretty much blind but her mind is still 100% and she had the where-with-all to even to give me a call on my birthday a few months ago. In my Grandma's case she turned over all POA and financials to my Aunt Elaine since she can't see. No one has had their hand in the cookie jar so to speak without Elaine's knowledge and OK. However, she was at a facility a couple years ago where there was some suspicion of abuse. They moved her elsewhere - much to her pitching a fit about it. But she's since acclimated (for lack of a better word) to the new place and is super happy and loves it.
My Grandma White ("Granny") on the other hand is completely "out of it" mentally. Dad is in complete control of her finances - has been for many years now. She'll be 98 this coming March.

Sounds like your situation is quite different however. I haven't quite got the whole story but I you talking doing your own "forensic accounting"? Gods what a pain!! I wish you the best of luck. Sounds like you're getting a handle on it though.
Eric
 
santafewillie said:
With genes like that in his background, I guess we'll be stuck with Eric for quite a while...LOL
Willie
Click to expand...

NOT if he keeps taking those car rides and poking himself in the eyeballs. lol

Just wait till you get older, Eric, you will be able to pee anywhere .. You won't have to "search" for a place. lol
 


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