Running Bear's January 2024 Coffee Shop

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So, a couple of hours ago I listed a couple of laptops on Fecesbook marketplace. In thirty minutes I had 5 different people contacting me about them. All of them wanted to text me a code "to prove I'm real". THIS is why I'm so against the current crop of "text a code" security measures for online accounts.
Terry: Went through this issue with CraigsList last year. Those people are creating accounts in YOUR name and # for whatever nefarious plans they have. I thought WTF is this? One even sent me txt's over and over again calling *me* a spammer. Got to thinking about it I decided to report their TN as spammer. After a hour or so, no more txt's. Have no idea of how far that went but what the heck.

More than ten years ago, we got the 'We will send you a cashiers check + extra for your trouble and have our delivery/pickup person come and get the item'. In that case the item was a class C motor home of which we were asking $8000 for and actually got a check for $14,000. Took it to the bank and they could not see anything physically wrong with it and would have deposited in our account. Sure 20 days before funding as usual. Come to find out research on my part turned up a non-existent bank in a city that did not exist in the printed State. The check 'on us' did point to the same bank name, so our bank missed the details.

Always be careful with this stuff.

Later
 


Good morning all. A bit of a breeze blowing (Storm Isha). (Just a windy day in days gone.)

Monday evenings is taking younger granddaughter to Brownies. It is a bit of a rush all round. Cooking dinner and the Brownie run there and back. Dawn suggests cooking our dinner in the slow-cooker. Prepare it now and slow cook over the day. Less hassle for me later.

Siblings. We married 'late' in our thirties. Son is now 44 Daughter 42. Both married when nearly 30 years of age.

Back later
 
Morning all,

The things I have to do to get files downloaded.

Currently 30° and cloudy. Some light freezing drizzle that's supposed to turn to rain later.

Yesterday's views:
One of 2 new carts (almost filled):

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Ballasting scene: I did the 3rd (left track).

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And finally I ran this train I rebuilt for over an hour in both directions on the main outer loop:

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You can see my version of a cross over between the inner and outer loop, along with switch yard\parking area I'm working on ballasting.

In all I spent about 3 hours not getting much accomplished.

I also took the paint off the AHM switch locomotive as I wasn't happy with what I did. There was a bunch of loss of detail in the grills, but I scratched it up pretty good when I was taking the 50+ year old paint off to begin with. No pictures of this though (thank goodness).

BBL
 
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Good Morning All. Cloudy, misty and 33° here on the farm. A kind of a wintry mix yesterday evening just after sunset, here it was possibly freezing rain, elsewhere it was very light snow. I have ice on many raised surfaces and the cars, but I haven't been out on the paved road yet. Hoping that there is no issue there as my wife has a 9:00 dental hygienist appointment and I have a separate 10:20 cardiologist appointment much further away. I don't expect any problems on the Interstate once I get that far, I just don't know about the roads to get there. If my road is clear, then there should be no issues. I am more concerned for my wife since she has less experience in icy conditions. She won't have to go as far as the Interstate.
Otherwise, I am looking at gradual rising temperatures into the mid-60's by Thursday, albeit with rain in the forecast every day.

Minimal time out in the train shed yesterday, as is usual for a Sunday. I cleaned a few more small structures on my way around the layout, and inspected and cleaned around 16 more freight cars. No repairs or maintenance was needed except cleaning the wheels on one gondola. Upon looking at my maintenance records, I noted that this particular car had not been cleaned when I moved from the old "dust-laden" train room to the present train shed.
Continuing with pictures from the club layout that I visited after the train show Saturday. As I posted yesterday, this is the Texas Northern Model Railroad Club, located in North Dallas. I have been there before, but I went back because there is a lot there.
This lady on the mower had moved!
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And a gigantic steel mill.
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Hughie - Isn't that generator brand new? Good luck with all of the appliances.
Swal - 105 car trains are the norm on the BNSF main that is near me. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to walk the entire train looking for an issue; especially given the terrain along the tracks around here.
Joe - I can do continuous running on my upper level via a "stoop under" bridge across the shed entrance. But I find that I rarely use it, instead I stop at the yard just before the bridge.
Patrick - I like the carts. Good to see that you got some time in the train room finally.

Today is National Grandpa Day. Let's see if my grandkids know it! Vocalist Steve Perry of the rock band Journey is 75 today. While I saw Journey in concert three times, I never saw them after he joined the band. I just couldn't really get into that whole "arena rock" thing. I liked him in the band though.

Everyone have a great day. Be safe.
 
Good morning, everyone!

Currently sitting at 26 degrees. Impending ice event is supposed to be on the way. Schools have all cancelled for today. My daughter is loving it and has returned to bed. I keep telling her these are not free days. They will be tacked on at the end of the year. I believe this is #4 so far. They have to make up at least 5.

On the train front, I had my first piece of buckled track yesterday from what I'm assuming is expansion. In all these years, I have never had this happen till now. It was a pretty easy fix, but I need to do some research and probably add some expansion joints.

What do you all do for expansion joints? How many, and how far apart?

Have a safe day all!
 


I don't have any set distance between expansion joints, but I guesstimate about every 6'-9'. I use a standard business card to determine the gap.
That about what I do. 6 to 9’ but never on a curve. On a previous layout i used a credit card to determine the gap. Boy you knew it was there. I like Willie now use a business card for the gap distance
Awesome information! Thanks.

Do you use a Dremel, or is there a good Jewlers saw recommendation?
 
Good morning. I am avoiding looking at the weather app. I have no where to go today and I am clearing up projects in the train room. It is 68f degrees with no wind chill and a humidity reading hovering around 30% in the train room and cave…

This morning I updated the inventory of rail cars. I have just a couple handfuls that do not fit the new 2010 timeframe. I had previously had 2005 for the modeling time and sold off the cars that didn’t fit. Just that 5 years change found more cars (11). When I return from the February travels I will try to sell them. There will be no more rolling stock purchases until I return but I have budgeted for 6 axle diesel buys.

I will be finishing up commissioned freight car weathering projects this week. I will have everything promised for January completed Friday/Sat/Sunday and hopefully paid and shipped by Tuesday the 30th. That will just leave some diesels promised for late March deliveries. My weathering free day of Tuesday is suspended this week and possibly Thursday. After all I will be weathering free for most of February.

enjoy the day
 
Morning from a wet SoCal. 53 degrees with maybe a 59 high. It has been raining steady for the past 3 hours; actually off and on rain for over 24 hours such as California rain ... visibility is slightly less than one mile ... but we will accept it graciously.
Supposed to start a warming trend Wednesday.

Glad the Chiefs won. At least I still have one dog left in the hunt! I thought they were going to give it away during the last few minutes!
 
AFC Championship - Kansas City @ Baltimore - Sunday 1/28/24 3:00pm (eastern time) Broadcast on CBS

NFC Championship - Detroit @ San Francisco - Sunday 1/28/24 6:30pm (eastern time) Broadcast on FOX

The AFC Championship finally returns to Baltimore after 53 years. I've been waiting a long time for this! By a cruel twist of fate, more like my own stupidity I'm too decrepit to go. But I will enjoy the game on TV!

The 1970 season AFC Championship was first championship of the newly created American Football Conference (AFC) after the merger of the NFL and AFL. It was held on January 3, 1971. The Baltimore Colts (11-2-1) played host to the Oakland Raiders (8-4-2) in Baltimore's Memorial Stadium. The Colts defeated the Raiders 27-17. The Colts went on to defeat the Cowboys in Super Bowl V.
 


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