Running Bear's January 2026 Coffee Shop

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I'm awake. Just like I was three hours after I went to bed.

Fortunately I feel back asleep around 2 am and got up at 7.

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my tinnitus flared and I got a headache right as the batch of rain and that front moved through our area. Looks like the cold weather is moving in.

It's laundry day, and I have two more paperback covers to redo for the other print service. That takes about half an hour each cover. Simple, but a lot of boxes to check on the checklist.

Still waiting on the coffee to kick in. I might need another cup.
 


Good Morning Everyone!
The last four mornings I went to town running errands, grocery shopping, etc.
So this morning I slept in. Just finished my first cup and now taking the dog out for his sniff around.
Grabbing another cup and heading down to the layout where I plan to spend the rest of the morning.
I bumped one of my mainline truss bridges yesterday and loosened a couple glue joints (I hate when I do that 😉) so first order is to repair it before my operating session.

For you guys that work - TGIF
and for the rest of you, have a great day ☺️
 
Good morning all

Thank you to everyone that responded to the question I had about what system you use. Very informative.

Currently here is 33f high of 45f with rain going to a mix snow rain. We’ll see, haven’t really gotten any moisture to speak of and looks to me like the winter wheat hasn’t gone dormant yet. Need some snow.

Ya’ll have a great day!!
 
You’re not using the ESU ECoS based system?

I’m interested in getting an ESU Cab Control unit like Tom posted the pic for from Streamlined.

I like the ESU stuff but they really want you to only use their add-ons like detection blocks, switch decoders, etc.

That’s why I went with Digikeijs and now it’s successor YaMoRC. (Yet another model railroad company— Karsten, the engineer behind it, is very active online so you can get help, make suggestions, etc). They connect to everything.

I too mainly use D&H (Doehler & Haas), Zimo, ESU, and built in Fleischmann and Trix decoders, plus TCS for board level locomotive swaps. They all support RailCom. For my KATO trains which expect EM13 style KATO decoders, which are made by Digitrax, you have ESU and Zimo EM13 compatibles to choose from or I use a PCB someone developed and posted on JNSForum.com that takes a D&H decoder though I’ve also adapted them to use small Zimo and ESU decoders.

It's EcoS based, but it is not the same contoller. It does much of what EcoS does, but not everything. I'd have to check a comparison to know the differences for certain.

Good morning to everyone. 48°F and mostly cloudy here. Started raining about 2300 last night and it was over in about an hour. I'm gonna need a nap later today after being up until after midnight last night. The wind was very strong too when the front came through; rain was blowing sideways from what I could see from my bedroom window.

All the antennas survived another pounding. My HF longwire was bouncing around like a rodeo rope.

Have a good day everyone! Servus!
 
Good morning. After being in the middle 50’s yesterday we might break 40 today. It’s raining now and per radar it should be east and north of us but Mother Nature has her own way of doing things.

Work session today was cancelled yesterday due to illness. So nothing planned and I actually was cleaning and re-organizing my bench last night when the text came in. I still have not ordered the paints I need to replace. None of the 3 places have 100% what I want and to make shipping acceptable I need to order a lot of paint. The LHS refuses to carry Vallejo but doesn’t carry enough colors in stock to make Mission worth a try. It’s a good paint just a touch below Vallejo in my book. I can’t even go to MicroMart as their brand made by Vallejo for them isn’t complete with too many “unavailable” listings. Tamiya is the same. Ordering partials from my 3 main choices is cost prohibitive because of shipping. I’ve already in the last 8 months raised my prices twice, so that’s out!

The solution though is near: I’ll stop at Hiawatha Hobbies next week on the monthly trip to Racine and Terry’s friend. I’ll buy what I can. On the way home I can detour to the Chicago area and hit up DesPlaines Hobbies and Lombard Hobbies. I can do that and it be ok because Terry needs us to stop and shop at a furniture store in Schaumburg and then we’ll breeze the mall nearby. There also is a big outlet mall on the way closer to home on I90 that has a shoe store I like. So it’s a Terry shopping trip that was going to happen anyway, just earlier than she planned. Only if our strange weather patterns stay dry. No need to go to the Chicago area in iffy weather conditions.

Last night a guy from Illinois dropped off all the materials I need to continue building the power plant and start the structures on the paper mill. He was coming to a very local, 3 miles away, OPS Session. I have met him before but know him just enough to recognize and say hi to. He saw my build on Facebook and asked why I stopped. Told him not enough styrene sheet or structural pieces. Lack of availability, lead times and prices I won’t pay. He asked what I needed and he gathered it from his local group and was super reasonable on pricing. $9.00 minus my discounted LHS price is crazy at $7.80 for a sheet of .060 plain!

Be well, enjoy your day
 


Well today the wind is blowing, and its raining from time to time. good to be at home in home office :)

yesterday my delivery from AMMO came in. 66kg of awesomeness ;)

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the shelf is alreay built. they did also send me the display with the american trains. thats so nice from them.

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boxes full of really neat stuff.
yes i will sell this and not keeping it for my self. maybe here and there ;)
So i know what to to this upcoming weekend.

Cheers
Marco
 
I'm awake. Just like I was three hours after I went to bed.

Fortunately I feel back asleep around 2 am and got up at 7.

View attachment 253888

my tinnitus flared and I got a headache right as the batch of rain and that front moved through our area. Looks like the cold weather is moving in.

It's laundry day, and I have two more paperback covers to redo for the other print service. That takes about half an hour each cover. Simple, but a lot of boxes to check on the checklist.

Still waiting on the coffee to kick in. I might need another cup.
Quite the temperature differences for the northern Midwest and Eastern states for a January
 
Cool, but pricey. $499.00 for a throttle, plus the adapter module at $99.00 to connect to NCE. Not me. I'll keep my wireless and tethered throttles.
I had 2 of them during Covid as I was on the pre-order list while it was still being designed over at the MRH forum pages. My wife and I loved them as we operated the layout together in 2020. When Covid broke the guys coming over for ops sessions had all sorts of complaints about them. Being too big, I got to look at it, to confusion how it worked. That was strange because the 5 or 6 year old grandson at the time had no trouble with learning it. The current or former professional railroaders loved them.

Definitely made for switching realism as once your out on the mainline it’s just another throttle. I highly recommend one if you have switching
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Wow, look how clean those freight and pulp cars are. Even the log loaders are clean in this picture dated 6/20/2020. Except for the log loaders those freight cars now operate weathered elsewhere!
 
Good Morning All. Clear and a chillier than expected 42°. It is supposed to get colder tonight for a few days before warming back up Monday. Rain yesterday was a joke, upon further review, I got just 0.2", all dry before noon.

Yesterday's grocery trek was uneventful, there was less people at Kroger than I have ever remembered. Gas price has risen since last week, around $2.39/gal just about everywhere.
Today is totally unplanned. No household tasks or honey-do list. Chilly right now, but upper-60's later on will draw me outdoors for a while. Better than reading nothing but depressing news.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I returned to my dead section of track. Found that it is harder to get down and up off the floor any more! While I still haven't resolved it completely, I did find that only a part of that DC block is without power. Now to determine just exactly where the power ends and go from there. Accidentally yanked a couple of unrelated unmarked wires loose and had to spend some time sorting that out, but was ultimately successful. One was a track feeder and the other was part of the lighting buss. They are now marked though.
On the Branchline structure that I posted yesterday, I decided to add a chimney and looked through my "chimney drawer" of spare detail parts.
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Couldn't find one with the right slope so I had to do some cutting and filing, and then some more to get what I needed. It's a bit shorter than planned but it will work.
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I opened up a couple of the windows.
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And then I added curtains/blinds to all of them.
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While cleaning up afterward, I found this.
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Yep! It's the missing piece of coping from the Commissary building, that I ended up fabricating earlier this month. Into the scrap box it goes now.

Jim in Iowa - On coupler boxes like that, I usually shave the peg off the cover and drill a hole, and use a screw to re-attach it.
Karl - There was nothing to compare to grabbing a warm egg as soon as mama hen laid it, when I still raised chickens. Store-bought white eggs just can't compare.
There's a reason that I own two pairs of knee pads! Just saying.

Rocker Dave Mathews is 59 today.
Everyone have a great Friday.
Got to remember to hit "Post Reply" when I am done composing!
 
Good morning all!

Not quite as nice of a day today as yesterday though we had a pretty rainy mid morning into early evening yesterday. Currently 40F but
with the wind it only feels like 24F. High is expected to only reach 44F.

Usual Friday household chores this morning. Dog has her yearly check-up and vaccinations later today. Seems like this week has been stupidly
busy. I also have to run my daughter later to the Orthodontist for the 6 week braces tightening. Lots still to accomplish today.

Daughter has practice tonight for her travel volleyball team, so I will be taking her later tonight. No basketball practice or games again tonight.

Have a safe day everyone!
 


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