Running Bear's December 2025 Coffee Shop

ModelRailroadForums.com is a free Model Railroad Discussion Forum and photo gallery. We cover all scales and sizes of model railroads. Online since 2002, it's one of the oldest and largest model railroad forums on the web. Whether you're a master model railroader or just getting started, you'll find something of interest here.


Status
Not open for further replies.
Well, howdy there internet peeps and those with sore ears and/or sore teeth

it's Troy again.

My comment was NOT a reflection on Chad's musical exploration. Rather, my sleep bud was causing discomfort in my "down" ear. I was struggling to get it not casing pain. Feels like I rubbed a spot or two a bit too much and the pressure of the bud's outer shell was pressing against those spots when I had that ear down on the pillow.

After I let the ear rest, and have my wife look for red spots of wear and tear on the ear, I'll try going to a different size of silicone "wing".

As it is, I really like the sound and effects for sleep, but the bud being uncomfortable is not good.

Forgot to hit post at 6 am, so I'm back! I've swapped out the gel wing and dome on the earbud, opting for the larger ones to keep the bud from going as deep into the ear canal. Feels better with pressure applied from a flat hand. I'll give it a try tonight. If it's still bad, they'll get returned.

Not sure what is going on today, other than dealing with board member stuff for the gaming group. Seems there is one person who has a vendetta vs the group president and is taking to calling him terms for a certain German WWII leader on facebook. He's been banned from the facebook group for the club.

But... his own personal page is his domain. However, we discovered the bylaws don't address how to suspend or remove membership from anyone. This case is giving the board an impetus to set up rules and procedures for such. Once officially adopted by the board and added to the bylaws, we'll see if said behavior continues.

Other than that, it's laundry day.

Dinner tonight will be left-over pizza from the good but cheap Mom-n-Pop place. Primarily a carry-out place, but with a seating area that's as big as the kitchen and counter area. About a dozen 4-top tables. Order at the counter, fill your own soda cups, they'll bring the order to you when it's ready.

Man, they really need to raise their prices. I've worked Pizza through high school, and some of their pricing is barely above what we charged back then. I don't see how they're making ends meet. But they are BUSY! We never try to go on a Friday or Saturday due to the carryout line being so long.

If you need to see pics of the pizza, go back to any of my old ones with the big Mom-n-Pop pizza notes.
 
Good Morning All. Clear and 34°. Cool now, but back into the 60's later on and then mostly upper 70's and even 81° predicted for next Friday. Chances of any kind of precipitation are negligible.

Somewhat busy day yesterday, starting with the weekly grocery trek and the plumber showed up earlier than expected; but that was a good thing. I did have to walk him through the task of troubleshooting and repairing an electric tankless water heater. But he now knows them and can work on them for others. He's getting ready to start a new gig on the side of his own plumbing business in January, as a manager of a group of apprentice plumbers working on new construction in commercial apartment complexes. I like the guy (and his partner wife) and he's always done a very good job on my plumbing projects. He's always quick to respond but I hate paying for all of those cigarette breaks; always has to get something off the truck!
Today is going to start with the dishwasher again, and then some prep for the gigantic family Christmas party tomorrow. Looking forward to that. I'll have to refrain myself from talking politics with a few of my nieces and nephews, especially regarding the Congressional Kardashian who just entered the Texas Senate race. Some of my relatives live in her current congressional district.

Not a lot of time out in the train shed yesterday, but a lot done. For the Fifth Day of Christmas, I opened another Walther's Gold Line RTR tanker. It's not really RTR, as it has a package of grabirons to add. Got the horn-hook couplers as well! This car is a 16,000 gal tanker.
1766152340042.jpeg

1766152390526.jpeg

Once again, those shiny Walther's Proto metal wheels.
Step one is to run the truck tuner in the trucks, and like the car the other day, there was a lot of flash.
1766152759990.jpeg

It's interesting also that it is an old model that Walther's included Kadee #5 couplers, before they used McHenry's. At least I didn't have to change them out.
1766152520065.jpeg

Now the challenges. Challenge #1 is to drill 16 holes with a #80 drill bit (.0135") without breaking the bit. The second is not to drop or lose any of the eight grabs! Success on both. However due to the locations of the holes, each corner has a spot where they intersect with each other. That meant trimming about 1/32" off one leg of four of the grabs to allow it to seat properly. Fair enough, I made it this far!
1766155801923.jpeg

Ran out of time but I got them all installed. I'll follow up today and paint them. I'm happy that my hand/eye coordination is still good and I have the patience to still do this kind of thing.

Tom O - Well, I bit the bullet yesterday and succumbed to the temptation to buy the Beef Tenderloin. The sale price had dropped to $24.99/lb and the meat manager allowed the butcher to cut it so I only had to buy a ~3 pound hunk. Freezer right now while we sort out the upcoming meal menus.
Chad - The CoQ10 didn't help when I was having the statin aches and pains. I do still take it for other reasons.
Joe -
Slowly working on the layout, probably because I will begin dismantling it in January.
What's up with that? Did I miss something?
Kusojiji - That 3D scanner at the dentist was an interesting change from the old method of making a mold, when they first used it on me. However the first one that was made was a bust and had to be redone. Funny to me that the temporary crowns always work out, but have to be exchanged for permanent ones a few weeks later.

Everyone have a fabulous Friday.
 
Last edited:


From 12am - 12pm yesterday my weather station said 2.98" of rain. That's a lot when the ground is already super saturated and it's hilly.

There are streams percolating out of the hillside down the street. We usually get one after several days of heavy rain, but this time it's multiples.

There's some flooding and mud slides, but it's localized to the more rural areas.

The skies are clear this morning.....for now.
 
Good Morning All!
40F @ 65% partly, no new white although the guessers were guessing it.

Gawd, 6 pages of 'The Shop'. Have not even started with the other topics. Guess that is what I get for 36 hours with no electrons in the house. We have tree limbs everywhere. Many trees shed'd big time. House up the street had a 36" dia pine 'tip' onto the house roof and break in half. Had a couple of huge cranes playing together to get it on the ground. Went back later and there were branches sticking out of the roof that should not be there. Roof *looks* okiedokie, but no idea of what things look like in the attic.

We did not open the fridge or freezers and went out for breakfast/dinner. Yesterday I started asking friends about generators as we needed to tickle the fridge and freezers. 2 showed up on our front porch last night. As soon as we moved them inside - power came back on. We really must have scared those daft electrons! Maria had the forethought to fill the bathtub with water. Least we could flush the toilets and had water for coffee. Cook Stove did good keeping the house above 60F, so we only had to wear an extra sweater/pull over. I think that there are only a few outages left. Ya, of course 'big wind' again today. We will see.

I finally found a pen that writes underwater. It also writes other words too...

L8r
 
Good Morning All!
40F @ 65% partly, no new white although the guessers were guessing it.

Gawd, 6 pages of 'The Shop'. Have not even started with the other topics. Guess that is what I get for 36 hours with no electrons in the house. We have tree limbs everywhere. Many trees shed'd big time. House up the street had a 36" dia pine 'tip' onto the house roof and break in half. Had a couple of huge cranes playing together to get it on the ground. Went back later and there were branches sticking out of the roof that should not be there. Roof *looks* okiedokie, but no idea of what things look like in the attic.

We did not open the fridge or freezers and went out for breakfast/dinner. Yesterday I started asking friends about generators as we needed to tickle the fridge and freezers. 2 showed up on our front porch last night. As soon as we moved them inside - power came back on. We really must have scared those daft electrons! Maria had the forethought to fill the bathtub with water. Least we could flush the toilets and had water for coffee. Cook Stove did good keeping the house above 60F, so we only had to wear an extra sweater/pull over. I think that there are only a few outages left. Ya, of course 'big wind' again today. We will see.

I finally found a pen that writes underwater. It also writes other words too...

L8r
Our storm from yesterday is your storm today. Hang in there and be safe. We have clear skies so far this morning.
 
Good morning everyone!
I've been on fleeBay the last 2 hours looking at railcars. I found 2 flats and a covered gon to purchase from the same seller to get the combined shipping and saved a few bucks. Probably won't get them
in time for Christmas, but it sure would be nice if they arrive by the first of the year.

Didn't make it down to the layout yesterday, so I'll be heading down in a little while. Earlier I turned the heater on to bring it up to a more comfortable temp as I keep it around 58 when I'm not working on the layout. My dog Nico prefers it warmer too and if not, he'll go back upstairs.

Have a nice day.

Here's one of my scratch-builds and the proto -

1766159203260.jpeg
DSC00533.JPG
 
I didn't feel the Christmas vibe, but I did enjoy it. YouTube showed me a few more of your songs I had missed. I liked them all and really enjoyed the Shogun one.
The AI decided to be inspired and use “What Child is This” (aka Greensleaves) in its creation, despite me trying to get a medley of 3 different Christmas tunes.

Most of the time I’m not trying to use existing melodies or anything in the “creations” but for Christmas, to get some Christmas references, I’ve been trying to get it to use specific tunes after not having luck with some non specific prompting. But it’s starting to use tunes other than I specify most of the time. Not sure I’m sure how it’s now behaving.

I have another one that references a couple Christmas tunes — it’s not playing the tunes but references the riffs or melodies. And another one that sounds familiar but I can’t figure out exactly what it’s referencing.

More to come.
 
Last edited:


Good afternoon, all! A rather nice day here in H-Town, 64 degrees with a slight breeze. Mostly sunny. Made a run to the grocery store for some last-minute items. The hope is we can skip going next week thereby missing the crowd. The youngest will be here tomorrow to bake Christmas goodies with the Conductress. Our son will come in from Oregon on Monday, so the entire family will be here for Christmas, which is my Christmas gift.

I'm spending some time in the train room, relocating a few buildings. In the process found a few things that needed cleaning and a few needing repairs. The car I order from eBay that set off my journey into eBay address change arrived. The guy at the shop that the car was delivered to graciously offered to help should another order get sent to him.

Since I worked for Union Carbide for 25 years I like to pick a car or 2 used by UC. I had never seen this one before and so I thought I add to the collection. (I buy a UC tank car at every train show I attend).

1766175972127.png


Poser for the group - In the word scent, is the s silent or is the c the mute one?

STAY SAFE
LATER
 
Another Christmas Song in the prog metal tradition. It's not a direct cover but is inspired by or borrows from a couple of traditional Christmas songs.


I may have one or two more Christmas themed songs. I have one more I'm working on and have some ideas to see what will happen with some new ways of prompting for them which may be interesting.

(After the holidays I promise I'll get back to posting maybe once a month for the songs).
 


Status
Not open for further replies.




Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a commision from some of the links and ads shown on this website (Learn More Here)

Back
Top