Running Bear's January 2022 Coffee Shop

[TLOC]

TomO: In the second photograph of your engine house construction, in the lower right hand corner is a TTK box car that was weathered. How was the weathering done. It looks very realistic!

Thanks.

Greg

View attachment 139251

I had to go out feed the cat the goats the birds and I was wrapped up, winter underwear thick jumper, inner gloves outer gloves neck wrap up over mouth to keep my air warm, hat, leggings winter trousers,two socks, Solomon boots, I didn’t have to go far,but my right hand was frozen,my right food was frozen,and I by passed the sofa and f’ed off back to bed under the duvet - lost the out er trousers kept the hat until I warmer up, it was only minus 3 degrees centigrade but there was a wind chill factor,even the goats were in the stables and only came out once certain food was on offer,and the ice broken on the water, the birds were grateful to see me,geese honking, everything a flutter, the cat wanted a cuddle but he can’t cone in he just won’t potty train,now it might not be your type o f cold,but I was really cold, I have sone minus 30 centigrade jacket and trousers, and sone minus 20 centigrade,and if I have to go out again in the cold and potential wind factor it will only be after I find one o f those sets…..brrrrrrrrr
reninds me of the one time we got haw View attachment 139265View attachment 139266View attachment 139267View attachment 139268View attachment 139269View attachment 139270frost

Beautiful pictures. Too bad it takes nasty Mother Nature to create those subjects

TomO

 

[Boris]

Pays .25 to rent a shopping cart each visit.

In Ocean County, they have ordinances requiring a deposit of 25¢, per use, probably to discourage leaving the carts in the roadway. The 25¢ is refundable once you put the cart away in the designated spot. Here in Monmouth Co, we don't have such nonsense, except at Aldi, where the 25¢ is refunded when the cart is replaced...Here there would be no tolerance for a charge to use the cart...and they know it.

How much in prescriptions!

Last year, my out of pocket expense for prescriptions was $1477.71...and the Insurance Premium was $1372.80...the wife's premium was also $1372.80, but her out of pocket was significantly higher...The February out of pocket for her 30 day supply of Rinvoq was $1500. Of course the retail price of that RA drug is $6,000 for 30 days..I still have to compute her out of pocket for everything for the year.

BTW, you seem to have quite a collection of Beatles. One thing about the VW Beatle was that it was cheap to operate. Even back when regular gas went for 27¢ /gallon.

I am building a Enginehouse for the layout replacing the scrap/recycling yard.

That looks like a Sydam (California Scale Models or Alpine Models), metal engine house kit. That's going to look nice when finished.

Spent some time running trains this morning. After dinner, I plan on returning to work on a module.

B&O RR Curtis Bay Terminal, Baltimore, MD, 1955

 

[Smudge617]

HA,HA -- That's good but don't think that is what HUGHIE had in mind!
I always heard that it referred to a "not so good looking date" where two bags were used over the head in case one failed!

Our version is, one for her and one for you, in case hers falls off.

 

[bnsf971]

2 paper bags, one in the other, for extra not falling through strength, least thats what it was when I packed grub back in 1966

When I was in college, a two-bagger was one for you, in case the girl's broke...
Obviously long before we had such a thing as political correctness.

 

[santafewillie]

When I was in college, a two-bagger was one for you, in case the girl's broke...
Obviously long before we had such a thing as political correctness.

Might be politically correct these days in view of Covid!

 

[Texas Hobo]

Our version is, one for her and one for you, in case hers falls off.

That's it!

 

[TLOC]

TomO: In the second photograph of your engine house construction, in the lower right hand corner is a TTK box car that was weathered. How was the weathering done. It looks very realistic!

Thanks.

Greg

View attachment 139251

Thanks Greg

That is an Exactrail car. This is light medium weathering.

My standard weathering is find a picture first then 70% Isoprofuel Achohol as a wash across the whole car. This allows for cleaning the car and starts the fading process. With the yellow I usually do this 3 times as yellow doesn’t seem to easily fade. I do have 91 and 99% IPA’s but I only use those when trying to remove lettering. 70% is cheap and easily controlled. On the side and front panels of the car I then use Pan Pastels trying to get more dirt into the panels. I then will hit the car with Testors Dull Cote. I keep repeating that process for the most part until I get what I want. The roof is heavily coated with various Pan Pastel colors making sure I forcibly push the sponge into the panels. Dull cote and after it drys repeat the process. What I do is by feel and what looks good to me. That is why I need a prototype picture. If not I easily get carried away.

TomO

 

[Texas Hobo]

Good afternoon all! Well the sun is setting so it's cooling down, predicted low 30's this evening.
I did a little scenery work at the refinery, mostly to get the fire wall set and finished. Overall looks pretty good.

After looking at the photo I realized the tanks are not sitting on concrete. I'll need to add that to my to do list.
The really large tanks do not sit on concrete. I have helped move them by flooding the fire wall inside, and an empty tank will float
and can be wenched to different location.

 

[Guilford Railman]

Lastly we are 9 days away from the BIG "E" Amherst Train show in Springfield, Mass. So if you are going hit me up and we can meet there!

I will be attending after a 3 year hiatus. Can’t wait!!!

 

[TLOC]

Afternoon All,

We have a high today of about 55 with wind and misting rain. I had to turn the furnace on to get the chill out of the house. Had a lazy morning doing nothing then after lunch I used a flat metal file to clear any paint in the roof bracket slots. After that I glued in 12 window frames, "glass", and shades on the upper rear office add on structure. I can't put it on until the roof is in place. I also painted the 5 truck ramps with Microlux (Micromark brand) aged concrete. It will take the place of the no longer made Model Master color.

Thank you for the likes yesterday.

Smudge- Congrats on the new addition.

Ken (IL)- I saw a somewhat similar tower (can't remember where) that was raised across 2 tracks. For some reason I seem to remember it was a NYC modeler that made it.

Willie- Nice scenes. I also built that years ago but gave it to a young modeler just getting started with several other buildings I was not using.

TomO- That should be an interesting build. What are the PVC pipes for?

Joe- That will be a nice addition to your empire.

Troy- You are obviously happy your wife is home.

Tom- Excellent weathering.

George- Very nice so far.

Patrick- Interesting history of ALDI. It's one of our monthly stops although currently it's being refurbished.

Louis- Save-A-Lot is also one of our stops along with Key Foods and Wally World.

I hope everyone has a good night.

Hi,

One is the ejection pipe for the sump pump. The French drains are connected to it, rarely runs even in rainy weather.

The other is for Radon and runs 100% of the time on a low speed fan

TomO

TomO

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Well, howdy there internet peeps and those who know who Herbie is, and why that matters so much.

It's troy again

Yep. Happy the wife is home - even if she is spending most of today working to catch up for super slow rural internet at her mother's place. she does need to go back this coming week. Wed will be the initial meeting with the asset protection attorney. Wife, her sis, and MIL are all going to see him. Hope he's got a big office.

Wife hopes to make it home for good next weekend. MIL is doing well enough, and this weekend was the "Push her out of the nest so she learns to fly again trip. Or, as I said, a warning shot across Mom's bow that she can't get too comfortable relying on the daughters when she's proving she can keep on keeping on. Just slower and with less energy.

In other news, Carnival Cruise lines just announced to Travel Agents that they will continue to have Vax required for cruisers and crew on their ships. For those who booked hoping it would be gone, there's several weeks grace to cancel and get your money back. But, you must show you are vaxxed to cruise.

We sail on NCL (Norwegian Cruises), and I'm hoping they come out with the same requirement. Since cruises visit a lot of foreign ports, international mandates and regulations play a big role in whether a ship gets all of their ports approved. Pre-Verifying vax status saves the cruise lines money, and removes a barrier to entry for the ships. We've been watching ship after ship get turned away from port after port because their infection rates are too high.

Hopefully, when we book our cruise for this fall/winter, they'll have all the bugs worked out and we can just upload our vax cards, etc, and only need to show passport to board the ship.

Edit... forgot to put the cruise ship pic in... somewhere in the Mexican Riviera... View attachment 139271

TROY ....
Winston Churchill on Italian cruise ships:
After his retirement he was cruising the Mediterranean on an Italian cruise liner and some Italian journalists asked why an ex British Prime Minister should chose an Italian ship.
“There are three things I like about being on an Italian cruise ship” said Churchill.
“First their cuisine is unsurpassed.
Second their service is superb.
And then, in time of emergency, there is none of this nonsense about women and children first”.

 

[bnsf971]

 

[TLOC]

View attachment 139281

Good luck with that

TomO

 

[CambriaArea51]

We don't like it either.

 

[troyphoto]

Those pesky northern types are sending me a whole host of unassembled snowmen. Supposed to start arriving about 3am tonight.

Anyone from south or parts west who needs some snow (aka frozen water) is welcome to get the snowmen from my patio and walkway. Some assembly required on the snowmen.

 

[bnsf971]

 

[chessie_system3]

Figure a post before bed is in order. Put my other GP7 together tonight. It too will need some work. I'll have to run through the gears tomorrow and get them dialed in.

The mail finally made it up to my place today. Have been iced over since last Sunday. I received some more good reads from the C&O Historical Society. A book on tipples and actual track diagrams for small load outs.


Hopefully these will help in my next build I'm planning. That's all I have for now. I'll stop by again when I get a chance. Hope everyone has a good night.

 

[MikeInHubCity]

Ha ha ha… paid time off and holidays…
Real funny, guys…
Twelve years in a technical job.
Paid holidays: 0
The business is closed one day— Christmas.
If I want to be paid and take a day off, I get to use a vacation day.
That’s the only good thing, after 12+ years, I get 22 of them, but can only take up to 5 at once. No two week vacations here.

The job I worked before I moved up to Wisconsin, we had 6 paid holidays(many companies do not consider Easter to be a paid holiday, since it’s the only holiday that always falls on a Sunday- when offices are typically closed anyway). They bought out my previous employer & grandfathered our start date with the previous company for things like anniversary dates & vacation accumulation. When I left, I was capped at 160 hours(4 weeks). Since I would take my vacations as “wraparound weekends”& link them with my 2 days off(i.e. Work Sun-Mon, “off Tues & Wed” vacation days Thursday-Sun & off the following Mon & Tuesday), I managed to stretch 4 vacation days into 8 days off. I was able to stretch those 20 days into 5-6 weeks of vacation.

 

[Bruette]

For groceries I forgot to mention, Walmart and Target. Walmart has some great prices! Target, not so much. Both offer a wide selection of all kinds of stuff. Walmart offers even more, including automotive stuff and hardware, even paint!
My wife likes Target for things other than groceries. I'm a fan of Walmart because of the great prices. Did I mention I'm cheap?! Both are worth shopping at for the convenience.
Occasionally I will cherry pick sale items at Harris Teter. Usually when we go to Target because they are next to each other.
We also sometimes pick up a few items at Weis markets, only because it's the closest to us.

 

[Bruette]

Upset day in the NFL! I feel bad for the fans of the #1 ranked teams. Losing at home is always hard to take. Especially when most of the prognosticators say your team will win easily.

"Any given Sunday" or in this case Saturday.

Try as the NFL might to make the league quarterback centric, defense and running the ball can still be the difference maker.

Just like it is in almost everything in the world, "blue collar" men and women get the job done.