Running Bear's December 2023 Coffee Shop

[KriegslokBR52]

I was out in western Maryland yesterday, chasing WMS. Did a little of hiking and picture taking. Weather turned out ok. First stop was at Cumberland, MD where the mallet was just about to leave the station:

Dreary sky was threatening with rain, but it did not come.

After fighting traffic in the city i found myself up on Helmsteters Curve. No time to hike to the tunnel, so i just set up at the west end of the curve:

Thought about chasing this beast around Frostburg, as they were going to travel back and forth in the area. Decided i stead to visit this antique shop up on route 96 few miles away. Found several albums with pictures of mostly B&O steam. Small picture was $3, while $5 was asked for a large one, had to be picky. Found a very nice shot of B&O T1 5500 and Delaware and Hudson consolidation. After that headed toward Holidaysburg to visit whatever there was. I was hoping to see the Everett Railroad mogul running since its a holiday season. Was not disappointed;

This is an ALCo 1920 product. Was chatting with the engineer for few minutes before departure. Turns out this was build for export to Cuba, but do to an embargo it stayed in the States untill purchased by some shortline upstate New York.

 

[KriegslokBR52]

Today I will string the lights. I'll do it while she's watching football and doesn't have time to make too many comments! I am prepared for the annual difference of opinion regarding "Bubble-Lights" which I absolutely hate.
Everyone have a great day.

I'm willing to send you the same gift which the main character of "A Christmas Story" wanted...just don't shoot your eye out

 

[ctclibby]

Just for fun, here's a pic of a computer similar to the one we used in our high school, circa 1977. We fed in elongated punch cards for each student, and it kept track of their grades, and would print out report cards.

View attachment 177855
And like several others, I've been subjected to COBOL, and prefer other languages....

Terry: About that same time I worked for a company in Spokane whom did hospital accounting. They had a 360 model 40 which is about 4 times the physical size of the System3. Everybody at that time kinda figured that the smaller stuff would not be better - boy were they wrong. The 360 I worked on in Hawaii *might* be able to be shoe-horned into in my house to give you an idea of the size. Needed a couple of 100KBtu air conditioners too. Some time after the System3 (couple of years I think ) we got the IBM PC - game changer. Also, I think that I still have an 'IBM' cup somewhere, need to look for it.

Later

 

[TLOC]

I used to be the President of a youth hockey organization (6 yrs) in North Central Wisconsin. 2 things I made sure of, stay out of the team infighting that our 2 kids played on. The other was back the coaches. Our coaches were volunteers. My grandson’s coaches while not greatly paid are paid and the volunteer hours are forgiven.

His coach this season believed every player needs to rotate through each position no matter their skill or KNOWLEDGE level of the position. They were 6 wins and 18 losses as a team after yesterday and finally the parents rebelled. After 2 heart breaking loses at a showcase tournament yesterday the organization president met with the head coach and assistants yesterday evening and the head coach she quit and pulled her kid. The new coach and former assistant put the lines and defensive pairings together that played last year. Where players moved on to the next level (3) they filled in with the newest members.

the Grandson‘ team won this morning. His line with his left wing he has not played with at all this year but has played the last 3 years together scored 7 goals in the1st 2 periods. The new right wing who replaced the old coaches son, she scored 4 times in the 3rd period. The old coach while a female also did not believe girls should be playing on the boys team and only played her a few minutes per game, because organization rules says all players must play.

I am so glad not to be involved any longer in youth sports. But, while it goes against everything I believe in, that is, supporting the coaches, this needed to be done. Ice hockey is expensive just to play, traveling makes it even more so. They are a “A” level team that means they are the best players of the age group and are meant to play to win!

Trains are so much easier to work with!

 

[JimKrol]

Good Morning All!

31F @ 88% and white is coming down again.

Our major storm I told you about a couple of days ago was a Pffft. Got about 6" of the stuff and it warmed to more than 36F. Been kinda nice for the last few days ... that is if you think anything over 32F is nice. Today we have new white at about 3" which started sometime after I went to bed. We did finally get all of the outside stuff done; tractor/rider mower/mower/pressure washer and chain saws are now under a roof, battery out of the rider sitting in the laundry room on a piece of wood. We pulled fence posts this summer and stacked them to deal with later. Welp, only have a few piles left to to slice up for cook stove wood. Got enough for this winter so that is that.

COBOL - boy this brings back memories. Never went to school for it, got my feet wet many moons ago on IBM 360 Mainframe with it although at that time it was COBOL D. Also around that time I started down the path of ASM. Still doing ASM to this day. Boy how stuff has changed. Can you imagine card punch nowdays? Never got the feel for RPG though and I hate C/C+/C++, reminds me to much of Perl. Perl used to be pretty easy to deal with but it got really conglomerated and is pretty much like C. Nope.

This forum is the 1st thing I do in the morning ( well, body functions and coffee are actually first ) and I totally enjoy reading and seeing pix of what y'all are up to. Keep it up as you are keeping an old guy interested!

Later

I first took Cobol in 1970, while dodging Accounting electives. Also took Assembler language. Got my first job programming in ALC for The Southern Pacific RR. Did a year of Cobol programming, Then got into Operating system support, picking up C, and Pearl along the way, and Unix OS support, then retired. I do remember punch cards vividly.

 

[ctclibby]

I first took Cobol in 1970, while dodging Accounting electives. Also took Assembler language. Got my first job programming in ALC for The Southern Pacific RR. Did a year of Cobol programming, Then got into Operating system support, picking up C, and Pearl along the way, and Unix OS support, then retired. I do remember punch cards vividly.

Jim: Boy that ages us doesn't it? Well at least me. My start was early 72 with IBM 360's and RCA's spectra 70; which got transitioned to Sperry/Rand 7045, then an Isam8080 and C64's and C128's for a bit after the military, 8051's in Electronics school. SCO Unix on a '386 at my 1st real job where I found the illustrious Z80 - 99 cent wonder, and the current Intel devices of the time 8088, [1/2/3]86's with a couple of Motorola devices: 6809, 68000. In today's world - 64 bit XEON's; MASM with windoz, NASM with Linux and a sprinkling of AtMel/Microchip devices. Keeps ones brain in line! Note that I do not bang the keyboard for anybody except myself anymore.

Oh, and I hope that you did not do what I did - dropped a case of punch cards ( 2000 to a box ). Sorter was down so EBCDIC here I come - took me about 6 hours to get it sorted right. Was not a program, was data from keypunch: MilStrips.

Later

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Welp! I'm back - sort of? Started a headache around midnight and now it has developed into a full blown one - complete with "scratchy" throat and head congestion? I just "popped" my second Tylenol to try and head it off.

Lights? You guys had bubble lights? We didn't have any lights until we moved to the city of one thousand two hundred people. Our tree was a Charlie Brown special!

WILLIE - Thanks for the mention of the wife. She must be feeling better as she is talking about attending some of today's games.

JIM ...TODD -- Did your punch cards have "hanging chads" as well?

Another clear day is the order and a temp with a 2 and 7 in it!

 

[bnsf971]

Oh, and I hope that you did not do what I did - dropped a case of punch cards ( 2000 to a box ). Sorter was down so EBCDIC here I come - took me about 6 hours to get it sorted right. Was not a program, was data from keypunch: MilStrips.

Later

I did that--with help from a classmate that thought it would be funny to trip me while I was carrying a stack of collated punch cards.
Several cards were damaged in the ensuing scuffle, and I ended up in the principal's office over the incident. And three day's detention for fighting. The classmate got 5 days.

 

[migalyto]

Good morning everyone!

the baking bonanza continues today. I was pretty lucky yesterday and only got corralled for dish duty a couple times.

Ended up getting most of my wiring done in the newly constructed area. Have a couple more feeds to solder to the main bus. Then I just enjoyed running trains back and forth with different rolling stock that has never seen the light of day yet.

Here’s a few of the kitchen goodies I will be enjoying throughout the Holidays.

 

[migalyto]

Welp! I'm back - sort of? Started a headache around midnight and now it has developed into a full blown one - complete with "scratchy" throat and head congestion? I just "popped" my second Tylenol to try and head it

Sherrel- I hope you feel better soon!

 

[Patrick]

First program written in the spring semester 1980. It involved the punch cards. It was the last semester the college used them.

Programmed Assembler on an IBM 360 of some sort (never did know for sure). Pascal, COBOL, C, C+, Basic (just because) and Fortran. I was doing repair and building PC's at the time, and just kept doing that, Gradually had Unix and AIX (IBM's Unix) and Linux administration. Now I'm a Windows Network Admin. So yes, I've been at it a long time. Figure to go at least another couple and as long as 4 more years. Although I'm ready to retire now...LOL

 

[JimKrol]

Jim: Boy that ages us doesn't it? Well at least me. My start was early 72 with IBM 360's and RCA's spectra 70; which got transitioned to Sperry/Rand 7045, then an Isam8080 and C64's and C128's for a bit after the military, 8051's in Electronics school. SCO Unix on a '386 at my 1st real job where I found the illustrious Z80 - 99 cent wonder, and the current Intel devices of the time 8088, [1/2/3]86's with a couple of Motorola devices: 6809, 68000. In today's world - 64 bit XEON's; MASM with windoz, NASM with Linux and a sprinkling of AtMel/Microchip devices. Keeps ones brain in line! Note that I do not bang the keyboard for anybody except myself anymore.

Oh, and I hope that you did not do what I did - dropped a case of punch cards ( 2000 to a box ). Sorter was down so EBCDIC here I come - took me about 6 hours to get it sorted right. Was not a program, was data from keypunch: MilStrips.

Later

Todd: I never dropped a deck of cards. Yeeeh! I did IBM 360/370 MVS and VM support. One of the great things was there were conventions for IBM users 4 times a year (Share). 5000 nerds with an open bar from 6:00 til Midnight. Made for an interesting week. Ahh, The good old days. About 1990 transitioned to Sun system support, Then HPUX. Retired a Unix Weenie.

 

[Grizzled]

I absolutely love it out there. If i was doing Northwest modeling, it would be probably Butte area. I could have my Milwaukee electrics, and interchange with some obscure mallets used by both NP and GN.

Obscure? When I stated grade school, in our daily trip to town from our small ranch north of town, I always was looking at what were no doubt Z3's or Z4's sitting across from the Bozeman depot waiting for the next helper push over Bozeman Pass. Unfortunately, trains were not included in the subject matter of my father's camera.

 

[Grizzled]

Morning folks,

Above freezing for the first time in a couple of days-yea! I'm trying to decide which of the probably 30 half finished models, resurrected from their 30 year slumber, I should set up first on the queue now that I have a work place again.

 

[Espeefan]

As promised, the 1967 Broadway Limited:

 

[KriegslokBR52]

Obscure? When I stated grade school, in our daily trip to town from our small ranch north of town, I always was looking at what were no doubt Z3's or Z4's sitting across from the Bozeman depot waiting for the next helper push over Bozeman Pass. Unfortunately, trains were not included in the subject matter of my father's camera.

Too bad your dad didn't appreciate those steamers. They're "obscure" to most non Northern Pacific fans i suppose. I my self just started dipping my fingers into NP and GN steam in the area. Being in the area this past vacation has definitely motivated me to get to know about the local mountain power back in the day.

Curved trestle near Butte on Northern Pacific.

 

[KriegslokBR52]

Good morning everyone!

the baking bonanza continues today. I was pretty lucky yesterday and only got corralled for dish duty a couple times.

Ended up getting most of my wiring done in the newly constructed area. Have a couple more feeds to solder to the main bus. Then I just enjoyed running trains back and forth with different rolling stock that has never seen the light of day yet.

Here’s a few of the kitchen goodies I will be enjoying throughout the Holidays.

View attachment 177871View attachment 177872View attachment 177873

Ssssweeeet. That last batch on the bottom you can send to me, i'll give you the contact address

 

[Boris]

As promised, the 1967 Broadway Limited:


View attachment 177875

Absolutely Awesome.

 

[migalyto]

Ssssweeeet. That last batch on the bottom you can send to me, i'll give you the contact address

Those are my daughters and my favorite one! We finally got scolded pretty good yesterday for grabbing them every trip through the kitchen.

 

[Bruette]

I used to be the President of a youth hockey organization (6 yrs) in North Central Wisconsin. 2 things I made sure of, stay out of the team infighting that our 2 kids played on. The other was back the coaches. Our coaches were volunteers. My grandson’s coaches while not greatly paid are paid and the volunteer hours are forgiven.

His coach this season believed every player needs to rotate through each position no matter their skill or KNOWLEDGE level of the position. They were 6 wins and 18 losses as a team after yesterday and finally the parents rebelled. After 2 heart breaking loses at a showcase tournament yesterday the organization president met with the head coach and assistants yesterday evening and the head coach she quit and pulled her kid. The new coach and former assistant put the lines and defensive pairings together that played last year. Where players moved on to the next level (3) they filled in with the newest members.

the Grandson‘ team won this morning. His line with his left wing he has not played with at all this year but has played the last 3 years together scored 7 goals in the1st 2 periods. The new right wing who replaced the old coaches son, she scored 4 times in the 3rd period. The old coach while a female also did not believe girls should be playing on the boys team and only played her a few minutes per game, because organization rules says all players must play.

I am so glad not to be involved any longer in youth sports. But, while it goes against everything I believe in, that is, supporting the coaches, this needed to be done. Ice hockey is expensive just to play, traveling makes it even more so. They are a “A” level team that means they are the best players of the age group and are meant to play to win!

Trains are so much easier to work with!

As a little league baseball coach my goal was to make sure every player had fun, regardless of skill level. I did not tolerate bullying among the players. If you don't have something nice to say, say it to me in private. Everyone will be heard. I tried to promote a family atmosphere among my teams. Respect was my golden rule. Respect for others, yourself and the game of baseball. That said I did my level best to win every game.

Along the way I taught the fundamentals and coached them to play as a team. I understand what the coach was doing by rotating positions. A good idea for practice day. Game day you must put your players in a position to succeed. As coaches we owe it to our players to put them in a position to win. It can be challenging to teach every skill level, but it can be done. The idea is for all players to learn and improve.

In almost twenty years of coaching my teams won more than 70% of our games, not bad for baseball. When we lost, I took all the blame for not having them prepared to win. When they won, I gave all the credit to the players. Afterall it was the players who executed what they learned.

Losing builds character but winning is fun. Kids play sports to have fun first and foremost.