Running Bear's January 2025 Coffee Shop

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It is a beautiful place! Once you are there you won't know you are in the city. It is a fitting place to honor your brother-in-law.

If you see a sign saying, "no shoot zone", don't believe it. If you take the beltway to 83 south and get off at Northern Parkway west to Greenspring Ave south you will avoid the "no shoot zones".
Yes, it is a very nice place! Had a great time reconnecting with my cousins and other family members.
I did take the route down as you described so we didn’t see the no shoot zones. I probably would have looked like a hypocrite in the zones anyway seeing that my truck has a large Ruger decal on the back window.
 
I was a half owner of a stock car when I was 14 years old. The other half was owned by my 13 year old friend. We built most of it in a shop class project. We ran it in the sedan class at Arlington and Rhinebeck speedways. It was a 1938 Plymouth and we called it the Double 00 injector. It had a painting of a mad doctor with a big needle on the side. A friend of ours Billy Boo a racecar driver had a friend of his tow it to the speedway. No one really wanted to drive it so they flipped a coin to see who the lucky person was. We came in 3rd once. It keep me out of Vietnam. I knew just enough about cars that they placed me in the motor pool. They didn't use trucks in Vietnam.
Swal
 
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Hello gentlemen, long time not here, but i'm definitely active on modeling side. Yesterday i finally got my junker out from mechanic and instead of riding a bike to pick it up, i decided on a hike:
IMG_20250124_164557736_HDR.jpg

After slipping and sliding on every tie, i eventually got back on pavement since time was not on my side. Did a few train chasing trips and on one, i came face to face with Monongahela unit from Norfolk Southerns heritage fleet:
IMG_20250118_162812027_HDR.jpg

On the modeling side the tender for the decapod is fully detailed and today i actually cleaned it for tomorrows painting:
IMG_20250112_144409143_HDR.jpg

The locomotive itself still needs several details added before painting.
IMG_20250112_141315701.jpg
 
What have I done?

Not only am I reading this.
Screenshot 2025-01-25 at 7.28.19 PM.png


I discovered Dave Abeles Onondaga cutoff FB page and some vids of it on Trains.com...

I need more blue in the roster!

Serious question: when did Piggy Back give way to double stacks in earnest. I know they overlapped for a while. I remember Blue in the backyard with piggybacks, but not double stacks.
 
What have I done?

Not only am I reading this.
View attachment 210093

I discovered Dave Abeles Onondaga cutoff FB page and some vids of it on Trains.com...

I need more blue in the roster!

Serious question: when did Piggy Back give way to double stacks in earnest. I know they overlapped for a while. I remember Blue in the backyard with piggybacks, but not double stacks.
 
What have I done?

Not only am I reading this.
View attachment 210093

I discovered Dave Abeles Onondaga cutoff FB page and some vids of it on Trains.com...

I need more blue in the roster!

Serious question: when did Piggy Back give way to double stacks in earnest. I know they overlapped for a while. I remember Blue in the backyard with piggybacks, but not double stacks.
Earliest doublestack experiments date, if i remember right, to 1985 with odd looking Gunderson five unit sets. Those Gunderson units were still visible in trains untill recently. But it was really at the end of 1990s when class one railroads were raising clearances on their double stack routes. I at least remember articles during the last few years of Conrail about them adapting their former Pennsy mainline across Allegheny mountains to proper clearances. That included removing some of the lower sitting Pennsy signal bridges and boring out one of the tunnels under Tunnel Hill in Gallitzin, Pennsylvania.
 
What have I done?

Not only am I reading this.
View attachment 210093

I discovered Dave Abeles Onondaga cutoff FB page and some vids of it on Trains.com...

I need more blue in the roster!

Serious question: when did Piggy Back give way to double stacks in earnest. I know they overlapped for a while. I remember Blue in the backyard with piggybacks, but not double stacks.
First Double Stack trains in and out of South Karney were in 1987 Weekly round trip via the Southern Tier. I forget the Symbol. Gradually, the usage increased, but when I left Conrail in 1998, before the Transaction, it was still mostly Trail Van. Also some Road Railers.
 


Out west on the ATSF lines, they started in 1986. I remember that SP had them about a year or two before.
I'm looking more for the crossover moment: when was it obvious that piggy back days were dwindling.

Basically, I'm not a fan of the double stacks. Right now I'm reconnecting with my late youth when Blue came on the scene. I couldn't remember when the crossover was - but it sounds like the tipping point came well after the era I want to model. Early ConRail, up through about 82-4 should have all the Piggy Back trailers I need.
 
I'm looking more for the crossover moment: when was it obvious that piggy back days were dwindling.

Basically, I'm not a fan of the double stacks. Right now I'm reconnecting with my late youth when Blue came on the scene. I couldn't remember when the crossover was - but it sounds like the tipping point came well after the era I want to model. Early ConRail, up through about 82-4 should have all the Piggy Back trailers I need.
There's still some piggy back action to be seen. Just recently i shot a mixed TV amd double stack coming west on former Reading line:
IMG_20250108_114239520_HDR.jpg

Shot on January 8 this year. First several cars are TV. But yes, up to mid 80s pretty much standard solid TV consists. Being in California during entire summer 1994, i don't remember double stacks, but i do remember plenty of TV trains, including now obsolete two axle flat cars with trailers on them.
 
Well, howdy there internet peeps... and those looking forward to eating peeps at Ēostre time.

Today is game day, so I'll be off to play with little toy soldiers.

Cut the extenders to attach the fascia to the front of the bench work. But, with the foam down, I need to be able to screw from the top down to hold it in place, and there's 2 inches of foam there. Not sure if I want to cut out a piece of foam - then re-glue it - where each extender goes? Or drill down through the foam to run the screws?

I'd go with only horizontal screws through the understructure of the deck, but this section need to hold up the part where I'm mounting my Aegis Power Supply into the fascia.

Here's a pick from Larry Puckett's channel of him installing the same power supply:
Screenshot 2025-01-26 at 6.33.16 AM.png


That's tomorrow's project.

Today is orcs on dinos day. Or, should I go with Knights and Men at Arms? Hmmm
 


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