Running Bear's December 2025 Coffee Shop

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I’ve not been to an Outback in ages. In fact the last time was probably here in Japan / Tokyo at Ikspiari, the outside the Disney park Disney shopping and Dining experience. Probably 10 or so years ago.

Today was our last full day in Japan. The boy and I wandered around after we went to the top of the Shibuya Sky. Mostly shopping for things he wanted. Nintendo store and that sort of thing.

Went to a little local gyoza and other foods (ramen, fried rice, various Chinese and Japanese rice and meat dishes etc) place that tourists don’t go. It’s full of workers and business men/women out socializing after work etc.

I went to Burger King in the late afternoon as I wanted to try the 1 pounder they have now. It’s a garlic burger. 4 whopper patties with cheese and this really good garlic based sauce. Also had some stuff like pickles and probably other whopper fixings. I don’t remember. Maybe not tomatoes. Pics to come.

So I only ate a spring roll, a sesame dumpling , and 6 gyoza while the wife and son had more proper supper.

Everything seems to be packed. We’ll get up and get ready, eat the stuff we bought tonight at the convenience store for breakfast, and head to Haneda airport. Eat lunch at the airport and just hang out there. I’ll try and get plane pics.

I have a lot of pics to post when I get home so I can make sure they’re not rotated. Trains we ride, Godzillas we saw, and a big honking whopper.
 


THOUGHT FOR TODAY
The real test of character is how you treat the people you do not have to be nice to.
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Christmas is approaching (fast).
Friends visiting this weekend. Presents to exchange.
Grandson number 2 has a birthday party to attend here, so a full house.

A Wintry Scene

During WW2 my mother was in the Air Transport Auxiliary ferrying new aircraft to bases in the U.K.
She flew solo (unarmed) a few times in these beauties. (Avro Lancaster)

LANCASTER.JPEG
 
That would be a great job to have. I used to ferry aircraft a short hop of 40 miles or so to the radio shop to have navigation and radio equipment re-certified on occasion for my flight school. It didn't happen very often, but it was free loggable flight time when I got to do it.
 
Good morning all from a very dreary and overcast hobo camp. Temperature is currently 53 and that is the high for the day. Temps to fall all day with off and on showers.

Outback is nothing like it was years ago. Like Migalyto, the Bloomin' Onion was the only draw, and once you read the nutrient values, you know you shouldn't be eating one. Our last visit to Logan's Roadhouse was a disaster, so much so the manager had to comp the uneatable meals. Texas Roadhouse is good, but busy and noisy. Longhorn is now our go to steakhouse.

Yesterday's train adventure was to try and run 4 trains simultaneously using my Digitrac Zephyr. It took a little doing but once I got them going it looked pretty neat.
A question for the assembled group. I have 2 Bachmann DCC locomotives, no sound, that no longer run/move. When I call them up, I can turn the lights on and off but no movement. Any suggestions.

STAY SAFE
LATER
 
Good Morning All!
32F @ 87%, no new white. I give up on the weather guessers - guess I will just stick my hand out the window.

Outback: I quit going there when the changed their meat from Prime to Choice. That was ~25 years ago and Western Washington. Talked with a manager friend and he said something to the effect: "People do not know the difference, besides Choice is cheaper." When we were OTR we stopped at one in Ohio, I think. Got plastic knives, forks and spoons with drinks in plastic. Ya, that was the Covid year, but still.

Got the track plan finalized for the Main, Block distances for CP's and Intermediate track along with the Divisional yard. Started on the Benchwork drawing and found that I have 3 switches with points right over a cross-member and that is just the lower level and middle transition. Need to move those around a bit, then will post the Benchwork footprint for all of ya to laugh at.

L8r
 
Good afternoon all, 33F here and overcast, supposed to rain later....ugh. We are leaving tomorrow for a week's getaway to Ozark Beach, Missouri. We've never been there before, so we will see how it goes. Just give my wife a chance to rest and recover from the Thanksgiving onslaught. Hopefully there will be a MRR or game store nearby. Anyway enjoying some coffee and catching up on forums. @chadbag have a safe and easy trip home.
 
Texas Hobo said:
Good morning all from a very dreary and overcast hobo camp. Temperature is currently 53 and that is the high for the day. Temps to fall all day with off and on showers.

Outback is nothing like it was years ago. Like Migalyto, the Bloomin' Onion was the only draw, and once you read the nutrient values, you know you shouldn't be eating one. Our last visit to Logan's Roadhouse was a disaster, so much so the manager had to comp the uneatable meals. Texas Roadhouse is good, but busy and noisy. Longhorn is now our go to steakhouse.

Yesterday's train adventure was to try and run 4 trains simultaneously using my Digitrac Zephyr. It took a little doing but once I got them going it looked pretty neat.
A question for the assembled group. I have 2 Bachmann DCC locomotives, no sound, that no longer run/move. When I call them up, I can turn the lights on and off but no movement. Any suggestions.

STAY SAFE
LATER
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Hughie, I have a pair of Bachmann DCC Onboard engines that do the same thing. There is no direct replacement for the factory decoders, at least for mine, and Bachmann didn’t have/wouldn’t sell me replacements. I ended up putting them in my parts drawer on the off chance I end up with another Bachmann engine with a good decoder and bad shell.
 


santafewillie said:
Good Morning All. Cloudy and 41° here. Can't compare to the temperatures that Mike and Tom O are reporting this morning! Radar shows rain here and all around, but my weather rock says otherwise...it's still dry. But looking out the NW window, it looks like it's raining up on the hill at a neighbor's house about 3/8 mile away. Temperature will not change much today, colder tonight and then another gradual warming up. An overall dreary day today.

Not a real notable day yesterday, I did get the ashes emptied from the wood-burning heater, one pail full. I left some since it wasn't all that urgent considering the weather forecast for next week.
I'm ready for the weekly grocery trek today after skipping last week. Have the list ready, coupons ready and digital coupons clipped online. Surprisingly the list is somewhat short. Have to make a stop at the UPS Store to return a defective product that we received from Amazon, that is too heavy for my wife to have taken earlier in the week. UPS is just across the road from Kroger. Later today, I have a phone appointment with the financial rep to discuss moving some retirement accounts around, to offer us some additional flexibility in investing. I also want him to set up a direct brokerage account for the RMD's that I have to take before the end of the year. I could probably figure it out on my own, but it would take longer.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I continued painting some figures and ran some more trains in their re-configured mode. I also painted and assembled a small outhouse from a Grandt Line kit. View attachment 250133
View attachment 250134
I'm trying to clear out some leftover stuff right now. This came as part of a kit with three company houses w/outhouses. Everything else in the kit has been used. I haven't scouted a location for this yet, but there are several possibilities.

Tom O - Regarding Outback Steakhouse: At one time they were not a bad casual dining experience. Prices were reasonable, menu selection was very good and servings were adequate enough. Their downhill slide began with Covid restrictions. Since then, every 6 months or so, they had a new menu with less and less items, while at the same time ever-increasing prices. Service has also suffered. It now takes 7-10 minutes to get drinks from the bar at the one closest to us. The menu today is less than half of what it once was, confirmed to us by the manager who is a friend of ours.
No one takes reservations in the local area, and there is almost always a short wait at Texas Roadhouse, Longhorn or other similar places.
That is one hell of a layout that you described yesterday. Most clubs around here don't have that much area. I limited mine based on how much I felt that I could maintain by myself as I advanced in years.

The late Beach Boy drummer Dennis Wilson was born on this day in 1944.

Everyone have a great Thursday.
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The friend is ambitious for sure. His previous layout was big but only filled half the lower level and just used some the garage space for staging. He hosted 140 sessions over 20+ years and during the last 20 sessions there were issues and that’s when he thought seriously about a new layout. But he never mentioned anything this big until maybe 6 months ago when he showed us the plans. He had a beautiful bar and home theater that we destroyed for this layout. He officially retired after Covid. There is a core crew of 5 of us that can get the layout up and running. If he schedules work sessions sooner we can have 10 guys show. The house will become his son’s place and he lives there now with his family. His son is bigger into model railroading than his dad is. So it will stay in the family for years.

He retired from professional railroading but most of the really big layouts here are owned by retired farmers. I know 3 have converted barns.
 
DeaconKC said:
Good afternoon all, 33F here and overcast, supposed to rain later....ugh. We are leaving tomorrow for a week's getaway to Ozark Beach, Missouri. We've never been there before, so we will see how it goes. Just give my wife a chance to rest and recover from the Thanksgiving onslaught. Hopefully there will be a MRR or game store nearby. Anyway enjoying some coffee and catching up on forums. @chadbag have a safe and easy trip home.
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You will be 55 minutes away from Iron Planet Hobbies in Rogersville outside of Springfield. Check them out online but make sure you call to double check if they really are open that day. Been burned once and that was enough a few years ago. I know of nothing else in that area. Have a fun re-charge .
 
bnsf971 said:
Hughie, I have a pair of Bachmann DCC Onboard engines that do the same thing. There is no direct replacement for the factory decoders, at least for mine, and Bachmann didn’t have/wouldn’t sell me replacements. I ended up putting them in my parts drawer on the off chance I end up with another Bachmann engine with a good decoder and bad shell.
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Which decoder standard does Bachmann use? 8-pin, MTC21, Next18, PLUX8, 12, 16, or 22, or something else? Manufacturers are supposed to adhere to NMRA or NEM standards.
 
RhB Michael said:
Which decoder standard does Bachmann use? 8-pin, MTC21, Next18, PLUX8, 12, 16, or 22, or something else? Manufacturers are supposed to adhere to NMRA or NEM standards.
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In N scale, it’s a custom decoder, I think from Lenz. They are hard-wired, and there are no aftermarket decoders that will work. They are board-replacement decoders, and in the case of the two I have, there is absolutely nothing that will replace them.
 
Well, I went to AI for help but got the answers I had already tried. In the process of looking for ideas I came across Digitrax info videos. I reset CV 8 back to 8. One engine responded to 03, the other just a light. While I was at it I had an older BLI that did nothing but light up. Reset it and it too responded to 03. So, of 3 bad locos I was able to recover 2. As I watched the Digitrax guy, he said something about Mars light effect. I have a Kato SD-45-2 with DCC but no sound. A great running loco. Per the Digitrax guy, set CV49 to 34 and you get a Mars light effect. Sure enough, my Kato now has a Mars light.
 


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