Running Bear's January 2025 Coffee Shop

[Bruette]

4:36a local time

Who else is up?

I was up. At 4:30am, Eastern Time that is, I was on the road. I am back home now with a day's work done and over.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Clear and 37°. Abrupt but predicted cold spell has arrived. NW winds are currently at 17 mph. Should return to our normal weather by Friday.

Yesterday was spent going to the car dealership in Plano TX, just to the north of Dallas. There was the car that my wife has been dreaming about; I don't care, I just wanted smooth reliable transportation. We test drove it and did about 5 minutes of haggling over price, and started signing away. I never signed as many documents in a day at work as I did in 15 minutes yesterday. We now own a '24 Lexus RX. The always thinking financial wife pointed out that there was a branch of our bank about 3 miles away, so we were able to drive over, get a bank draft and drive the car home yesterday. Slight delay at the bank, while they waited for an "officer" to return from lunch to sign a check that large. We went to lunch in the interim. This 2024 model was used by the dealer as a loaner with 15K miles, which meant that it was mostly used by other Lexus owners who treated it with care. Noted that gas in that "high-rent" part of Dallas County is still in the $2.46-$2.49 per gallon range.
Otherwise I did wood burning heater maintenance. Before we left, I removed the cooled ashes out, since I let the fire go out overnight Wednesday. After returning, I got out the chimney sweeper mechanism and was able to make a rare January sweep. Theoretically I can go the whole heating season without a mid-season sweep, and have done so many times. But I had already decided to take advantage of the warmer weather. The air draw is much improved now.
Headed out early today, for the semi-annual train show in Plano...just down the same road as the car dealership. That and the home/club layout tour will occupy the whole day. I'll need to bundle up.

No train shed time yesterday, or probably today either.

Len -

Although its a big city and capital of Wyoming it's actually about the same size as Tyler

That ain't very big! Kinda like Austin was 50 years ago.
Forgot to hit "Post Reply"??? Been there, done that more times than I like to remember.
Lee -

Willie that looks awesome

Just shows what can be done with an old Roundhouse freight car.
Louis - That's a drag not being able to grill in the winter.
Todd - I know that I am in a minority, but I love liver & onions as well. That looks absolutely yummy.

Everyone out there, have a great Saturday. I'll see you at the train show if you're going.

 

[Bruette]

There was the car that my wife has been dreaming about; I don't care, I just wanted smooth reliable transportation.

I'm with you Willie, starts, runs, and stops. "Happy wife, happy life."

We now own a '24 Lexus RX. ...This 2024 model was used by the dealer as a loaner with 15K miles, which meant that it was mostly used by other Lexus owners who treated it with care.

Congratulations! I'll bet those few 15K miles saved you big time!

Louis - That's a drag not being able to grill in the winter.

Yes, it is.

 

[NYC_George]

Bowser has em coming!

I've got one ordered in WM

Karl I see this one Delaware & Hudson unit with the steam generator exhaust stack on the short end. The rest must be freight locos. All nice-looking engines.
Swal

 

[NYC_George]

I'm trying to figure out if I have enough material to add this new engine servicing yard to my layout without making a trip to Home Depot. I'm using some cardboard templates to figure this out.
Swal

 

[NYC_George]

I hear there's a pretty girl over that way.

I'm only interested in one at the moment Troy
Swal

 

[AuburnCentral]

Asking if they have any damaged pieces of what ever your looking for can save you money

 

[bnsf971]

Good morning. It's cloudy and 66.
I started feeling rough yesterday around lunch time. By 8 last night, I had a fever and chills, along with sore throat, coughing, etc. I just got up, which is unusual for me.
I just tried to change my grocery pickup into a delivery, but they can't do that. So I changed the pickup to 2 today instead of 6.

 

[kbkchooch]

Good morning. It's cloudy and 66.
I started feeling rough yesterday around lunch time. By 8 last night, I had a fever and chills, along with sore throat, coughing, etc. I just got up, which is unusual for me.
I just tried to change my grocery pickup into a delivery, but they can't do that. So I changed the pickup to 2 today instead of 6.

Feel better Amigo!

 

[shortwrench]

Good Morning All!

25F @ 76% overcast. Guessers thought 5F today, well, not a good guess. Overcast and Cabinet Mountains are probably holding the ...um... warm in.

When we went to Spo the other day, also stopped at a little meat market. One of the real ones, 25' of meat in glass cases of which you choose what you want then they cut and wrap. The Roesaurs store here has maybe 10' of case. Anyway, got a slab of beef liver and did that last night. Boy it was tender:
View attachment 209340
Bacon, Liver and Onions with smashers. It put our lights out.

All I have for today .. except

Got pulled over and the officer walked up to the window and ask me 'Do you know why I pulled you over?" I said, 'That was rude, can't you see I am on the phone?"

Later

My wife loves liver & onions. The rest of the family doesn't. I would make it for her but I don't know how
to cook it so it is not tough.

 

[Len Turner]

Nurse Judy likes liver & onions.. not me...

 

[Texas Hobo]

Just wondering if my local Home Depot has snow shovels?

 

[troyphoto]

Hughie: Wait a day or two. It will melt

Anyone know how long it's been since one of the major loco makers has made Southern Pacific GP-9s in Black Widow paint scheme IN N SCALE. Not finding any new, and I'm afraid to look on flea-bay.

I love the BW paint and the Daylight scheme- but the DL only on the E and F unit diesels. Figure I need at least one SP if I'm modelling SoCal in part.

 

[CambriaArea51]

Found some more old water meter readers that they wanted to toss. More coil loads but need more gondolas.

 

[shortwrench]

Just wondering if my local Home Depot has snow shovels?

Recently I had to replace 2 snow shovels where the front metal piece that contacts the ground
had worn down. Don't know about Home Depot but went to the local hardware store. Their
shovels didn't have the metal front piece so I decided to go elsewhere. We were shopping at
Target and they had the shovels with the metal piece for the same price as the hardware
store.

 

[shortwrench]

Found some more old water meter readers that they wanted to toss. More coil loads but need more gondolas.
View attachment 209380View attachment 209381View attachment 209382

That wire wound on sewing machine bobbins will make nice wire spools for the layout. The could be placed
almost anywhere; railroad areas, along roadsides, adjacent to industrial areas--adding some variety to things
on the layout.

 

[troyphoto]

Mail call! I got two packages today! check out my layout thread (in my signature) to see the sexy new goodness.

But first, I want to register a complaint about the loose nut in front of my keyboard, and how he doesn't slow down to read ...

I ordered a book! off the used site Biblio. Used them before. It's a clearing house for independent booksellers. Decent organization.

I ordered this:

Or so I thought I had.

I got this...

Now, before you jump my case about this:

• Yes, I KNOW who the author is for both versions
• Yes, I KNOW how much institutional knowledge there is in that one tome. More than just about any other model railroader alive today.
• Yes, the price was decent. As a bookseller, it was great for a second ed in that good of shape.

Had I READ the DESCRIPTION next to the pic the page, instead of looking at the pic of the cover, and the price, I would have seen they were attaching old editions to the new cover image.

Why am at grumpy at that loose nut?
Because I"m at an age where my eyes appreciate the more modern approach to publishing formatting. That's why I wanted the third ed. 1990s me read the 2nd ed a long time ago, when that was still mostly in fashion. I could see better then, and I still had trouble reading through the grey blocks of text popular back then.

Instead of sleek graphics and easy to read blocks of text mixed with pics and diagrams, I got the version with this style of formatting.

I'm already using a magnifier for text like that. With those big solid grey blocks of paragraphs, I find myself losing my place easily. I have to take a note card, and slide it down the page as I read to keep from skipping lines.

So, to the loose nut in front of the keyboard, I'd fire you, but then I'd sit in one spot and gross moss instead of doing the fun stuff.

OK, Self-deprecating rant over... At least I have a John Armstrong design book to read.

 

[TrucTrain55]

old Roundhouse freight car.

Yes Willie you can. I enjoy rebuilding and detailing the older rolling stock like Round House.

 

[TrucTrain55]

feeling rough

Hope you get to feeling better

 

[Bruette]

Had I READ the DESCRIPTION next to the pic the page, instead of looking at the pic of the cover, and the price, I would have seen they were attaching old editions to the new cover image.

Troy, I have done the same thing only with eBay.

If it is any consolation the 2nd Edition you have is selling on Amazon starting at $74.50

Amazon.com

The third edition starts at $44.98

Amazon.com

eBay prices are all over the place!

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