Running Bear's February 2025 Coffee Shop

[Patrick]

Well,

Some of the school districts in the area have begun to call off school for tomorrow. Still in the 5-8" inches with gusty winds, so blizzard and white-out conditions are expected.

 

[westtexjohn]

Plans today are to work on installing some servos for turnouts and some work on mounting a control panel.

I have sold a couple of items and had planned to take them to my post office to mail today. Post office is about 36 miles round trip. Due to Presidents Day, my post office is closed today so PO trip will be tomorrow.
That being said, it is about 65 degrees here today with plenty of sunshine.......a nice day. But tomorrow when I have to go to town, temps are predicted to be 36 degrees for high, 7 degrees for low, overcast all day with rain and drizzle in the morning turning colder.
They say timing is everything.

Everyone have a great day.......John

 

[NYC_George]

Some more work done on the engine service area. The diesels will be fueled on the far track with 2 fueling stations. The steam engines will be supplied with coal, water and sand on the nearer track. The middle track is used to supply coal and sand to their towers, like in Brewster NY where I use to work. In Brewster a spotted sand car dropped sand into a hopper that was then pumped up to the sand tower. The car would remain there until it was emptied. The spotted coal car on the middle track of coaling tower will drop coal which will then be lifted up to fill the coaling tower, like in Pawling and Wingdale NY. I bought 2 Tichy Train Group water sprouts which will draw water from the water tower and will be positioned in 2 different areas of the pad. Any questions?
Swal

 

[Texas Hobo]

Any questions?

Any fears with the track so close to the edge of the table?

 

[NYC_George]

Good question Hughie but it does get a facia board with a 1/4 inch lip. I did have an engine fall of the upper deck onto the concrete floor a few years ago.
Swal

 

[D&J RailRoad]

House temperature has been pretty good today. I opened the plantation blinds so the sun was pouting into the main part of the house this morning and the temp was up to 70 by noon.
HVAC called and said they found the right fan and can install it tomorrow afternoon.
Temps will only get down to the upper 20s tonight, so just one space heater in the bed room and leave the other out in the main room so the whole house doesn't cool down too much.
The think the ground temperature has greater effect on my basement than I thought. This whole time, the temp down there hasn't gone below 65.

 

[Bruette]

House temperature has been pretty good today.

Great news!

I opened the plantation blinds so the sun was pouting into the main part of the house this morning and the temp was up to 70 by noon.

Now you are going old school, well done!

HVAC called and said they found the right fan and can install it tomorrow afternoon.

Even better news!

 

[kbkchooch]

Finished my Sears house kit #1 this weekend, and planted on some Masonite with foam and some scenic materials. I got tired of installing decoders and laying tracks and running bus wires, so I needed a diversion.

It was an interesting kit. No interior walls, but interior staircases are there. Also it can be built with a full basement, or cut down with a partial basement, or no basement or foundation showing at all. The walls and windows went together fine, the roof was a @#&$!%:#@! to get the 4 main panels aligned and glued properly. I added the curtains as they were not part of the kit. Not sure where it will eventually go yet. Just got bit by the kit bug a little.

 

[Patrick]

Well, I'm on the office machine shutting stuff for tomorrow.
They called it early, so now I can stay up late and watch a movie!!! LOL

SNOW DAY!!!!!!

 

[traiNscale]

@NYC_George are you not scared, that a engine could fall off the cliff? for me that track would be too close to the edge, but overall looking good. i like the coal building in the back.

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good morning! It's 6°F and mostly cloudy in Tipton.

 

[kbkchooch]

Good morning gang!

16° under partly sunny (or is it partly cloudy) skies, daytime high of only 29°. With the wind right now it "feels like" 3°. Brrr

Need more coffee!

BBL

 

[TLOC]

Good morning from a chilled So Central Wisconsin. The actual temperature is at -12f but the dangerous it feels like -30 is the problem. Bundle up if you're venturing out. Later today we should hit +9 actual.

3:45am the smoke detector outside my bedroom door started chirping every 60 seconds. Out to the garage and grabbed the 10' ladder. Climb up and replace the battery. About 60 seconds later it chirps. Check that I installed the 9 volt battery correctly, I did. Chirps again. Grab another 9 volt battery and my cell phone to use as a flashlight. Flashlight was unavailable. It's now 4:10 and I am chuffed but looking online it's says everything I've done except clean it out with the vacuum. Well it's 4:15 and Terry has sleep issues so I'll wait till 7am when if I wake her, I wake her. 6:20 and I haven't slept because every 60 seconds the detector chirps. Get out of bed, do what I do, grab a diet Dr Pepper and sit in the love seat in the living room and the detector chirps! But it's chirping from maybe 3' away from me from the electrical outlet that has one of the F...ING Carbon monoxide detectors wired to it. Wait another minute, then again and yep it's chirping. Pull the CM detector and pull the backup batteries, it's still chirping! Hit the reset, grab new AA batteries and the house is quiet again! I do have a 10' ladder sort of blocking my bedroom door though! When Terry wakes I will put everything back. I was hearing the chirping from the detector near my bedroom door. But I know with high ceilings sounds can get confusing but I'm not real thrilled with this morning adventure!

At 9 I am being picked up to head to a layout work session. I need to tell the guys if I zonk out on the hour ride, sorry I snore but wake me when we get there!

Spent most of yesterday in the train room. I did put down the rails on the Central Valley ties and per the gauges they should be good. Tonight I will test with some cars! Started a personal weathering project that proceeded into putting some intermodal equipment on the FB buy/sell sites. Surprised how well I did. The 1st set of 10 containers I sold as I was adding the information to another site. So pulled out 20 more containers in 2 lots of 10. But I did note I was reducing my intermodal fleet. A bunch of FB Messenger messages later I had sold quite a bit of my Intermodal equipment. Very happy! Amazon and FedX containers from Scaletrains still is a hot seller. I got many questions if I had any and I do but will investigate how much they are going for. Last Summer $100 to $150 for a pack was not uncommon but is also gouging! IMO. I'll check tonight as last evening I spent my time packaging up the sales I had.

Enjoy the day

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Cloudy and 44° here ahead of the Arctic Vortex coming up. Winds will shift around mid-afternoon and rain with possible freezing rain will hit ahead of it about noon. Not looking forward to this event, as the temperature is not expected to get above freezing until Friday. Then it is into the 70's next week! All of this is contingent on the NWS being right, but even if they're close it will be an interesting next 10 days.

Today starts with a dual doctor appointment with our primary care guy. We had already re-scheduled this one from January to avoid driving in the snow, which actually happened as predicted. It's a 9:30 appointment 50 miles away. Why so far away? When we started using this doctor in 2005 he was located only 25 miles away, but he moved twice since then getting further away. We both like this guy so we just dealt with it. All doctors that we see are 25 miles away since we live out in the boonies. There's rumors that they are planning to put an Urgent Care facility in a town about 12 miles away, so that's a positive. After getting home, we'll just "batten down the hatches" for the rain and possible ice. I have 3 days worth of dry firewood already stacked on the sheltered porch or in the house, so that's not an issue.

It appears that we have become unintended owners to two cats which seem to have been dropped off close by sometime in the last two weeks. I have spotted each one twice, I think that they have taken up residence out in the tornado-damaged barn. They don't appear to be feral, as they are well-groomed and seem a little fat. I haven't left out any food yet, because that will draw varmints. There's plenty of rodents out there and around the wood piles to keep them going for a while, or at least until they start to get near the house when I will leave food out during the daytime. I have left out water for them though.

Not a lot going on out in the train shed right now. I did take some time to finish painting a few figures and lined them out for their dose of Dull Coat.

The only other thing that I did yesterday was to run the track-cleaning train over the main lines on both levels, after a few days of running other trains. It was needed in a couple of minor spots, but overall my track stays relatively clean.

Swal - It's a toss-up as to who gets to the Coffee Shop the earliest. I know of several, myself included, who get in early but don't immediately post. I normally check in about 4:00 Central time but I don't usually finish my post for a few hours.
I too am concerned about track being that close to the layout edge. My brother has track that close and his grandchildren have knocked freight cars off to the floor more times than he cares to count. And it is not always because they are careless, I saw a granddaughter turn around in the aisle (I think that his are too narrow at 24"); and the sleeve on her fancy dress caught on a car that dragged 4 others to the floor.
Tom O - That's quite a collection of well cars, containers and chassis'. Too bad that I am at my limit or I would be contacting you for more information.
Ken - That's good news on the heater fan.
Karl - I love that Sears house. Looks real good mounted on that Masonite.

For those who might care, Yoko Ono is 92 today. Sick joke: Why is Yoko Ono like an Ethiopian? They both live off dead beetles.

Everyone have a great Tuesday. Stay warm.

 

[kbkchooch]

Sick joke: Why is Yoko Ono like an Ethiopian? They both live off dead beetles.

Sick, but funny!!

 

[Patrick]

Morning all,

4° and cloudy with the next round of snow coming in.

About 1" thus far, but wind chill of -19. 60's by next week.

 

[shortwrench]

Finished my Sears house kit #1 this weekend, and planted on some Masonite with foam and some scenic materials. I got tired of installing decoders and laying tracks and running bus wires, so I needed a diversion.
View attachment 212202View attachment 212205View attachment 212203View attachment 212204
It was an interesting kit. No interior walls, but interior staircases are there. Also it can be built with a full basement, or cut down with a partial basement, or no basement or foundation showing at all. The walls and windows went together fine, the roof was a @#&$!%:#@! to get the 4 main panels aligned and glued properly. I added the curtains as they were not part of the kit. Not sure where it will eventually go yet. Just got bit by the kit bug a little.

Nice job. Is that tree in the front yard scratch built?

 

[kbkchooch]

Nice job. Is that tree in the front yard scratch built?

yes

 

[NYC_George]

I too am concerned about track being that close to the layout edge. My brother has track that close and his grandchildren have knocked freight cars off to the floor more times than he cares to count. And it is not always because they are careless, I saw a granddaughter turn around in the aisle (I think that his are too narrow at 24"); and the sleeve on her fancy dress caught on a car that dragged 4 others to the floor.

Willie I'm going to add a 1 X 3 to the edge before I attach the fascia board that should solve that problem. Right now, I'm fixing the ballasting job on the main line in back of the yard. I did a fast job of it to get the trains running and it looks terrible. The service yard will be mostly made up of a concrete pad. In Brewster NY where I use to hostile there was a lot of concrete that made up the engine service area.
Swal

 

[shortwrench]

Good morning from a chilled So Central Wisconsin. The actual temperature is at -12f but the dangerous it feels like -30 is the problem. Bundle up if you're venturing out. Later today we should hit +9 actual.

3:45am the smoke detector outside my bedroom door started chirping every 60 seconds. Out to the garage and grabbed the 10' ladder. Climb up and replace the battery. About 60 seconds later it chirps. Check that I installed the 9 volt battery correctly, I did. Chirps again. Grab another 9 volt battery and my cell phone to use as a flashlight. Flashlight was unavailable. It's now 4:10 and I am chuffed but looking online it's says everything I've done except clean it out with the vacuum. Well it's 4:15 and Terry has sleep issues so I'll wait till 7am when if I wake her, I wake her. 6:20 and I haven't slept because every 60 seconds the detector chirps. Get out of bed, do what I do, grab a diet Dr Pepper and sit in the love seat in the living room and the detector chirps! But it's chirping from maybe 3' away from me from the electrical outlet that has one of the F...ING Carbon monoxide detectors wired to it. Wait another minute, then again and yep it's chirping. Pull the CM detector and pull the backup batteries, it's still chirping! Hit the reset, grab new AA batteries and the house is quiet again! I do have a 10' ladder sort of blocking my bedroom door though! When Terry wakes I will put everything back. I was hearing the chirping from the detector near my bedroom door. But I know with high ceilings sounds can get confusing but I'm not real thrilled with this morning adventure!

At 9 I am being picked up to head to a layout work session. I need to tell the guys if I zonk out on the hour ride, sorry I snore but wake me when we get there!

Spent most of yesterday in the train room. I did put down the rails on the Central Valley ties and per the gauges they should be good. Tonight I will test with some cars! Started a personal weathering project that proceeded into putting some intermodal equipment on the FB buy/sell sites. Surprised how well I did. The 1st set of 10 containers I sold as I was adding the information to another site. So pulled out 20 more containers in 2 lots of 10. But I did note I was reducing my intermodal fleet. A bunch of FB Messenger messages later I had sold quite a bit of my Intermodal equipment. Very happy! Amazon and FedX containers from Scaletrains still is a hot seller. I got many questions if I had any and I do but will investigate how much they are going for. Last Summer $100 to $150 for a pack was not uncommon but is also gouging! IMO. I'll check tonight as last evening I spent my time packaging up the sales I had.

Enjoy the day

I kept reading and was waiting for you to say "I finally ripped it off the wall ----------".