Running Bear's January 2026 Coffee Shop

ModelRailroadForums.com is a free Model Railroad Discussion Forum and photo gallery. We cover all scales and sizes of model railroads. Online since 2002, it's one of the oldest and largest model railroad forums on the web. Whether you're a master model railroader or just getting started, you'll find something of interest here.


Status
Not open for further replies.
Strangely, there is a roadside marker about every quarter mile on the highway I travel on, where somebody (or several somebodies) were killed. It's a two lane highway with a 60 mph speed limit, lots of traffic, and good visibility. The road goes at least 5 miles before a gentle curve, then another 6 miles before another gentle curve. The shortest distance between curves is 4 miles. Nearly all those fatalities were from head-on crashes where people were passing slower traffic.
Yeah, head-on for me would be the end in my car. I'd lose to a 65 bug. The last thing going through my head would be my bung hole!
 
DINER_COFFEE SHOP.png
DINER_COFFEE CUP.png


Good morning! It's Saturday, 39°F and cloudy. :cool: Have a great day!;)
DINER_DOG1.png

1768032379089.png
 
Last edited:


I lived in Southern California for a total of about 4 years, and if you put a gun to my head and told me I had to go back there and drive for a living, I'd tell you to shoot me now.
Cal driving: 11ish years ago we were driving 10 speeds. When they forced us to automagics I went in kicking and screaming. Maria on the other hand went with the flow sorta speak and loved it. 1st time though LA with the auto changed my mind. Found that I was not as tired or sore after 10 hours behind the wheel which sometimes included the 5ish hours each way LA to San Diego. Could actually do something during our driver switch instead of just banging my head on the pillow; like eat, shower ... etc. Still think LA is the worst, followed by Chicago, Dallas, New York and any where in Pennsylvania. There are probably more metro's that rate up there. Wonder if they ever got the Penn Turnpike done finally?

L8r
 
Cal driving: 11ish years ago we were driving 10 speeds. When they forced us to automagics I went in kicking and screaming. Maria on the other hand went with the flow sorta speak and loved it. 1st time though LA with the auto changed my mind. Found that I was not as tired or sore after 10 hours behind the wheel which sometimes included the 5ish hours each way LA to San Diego. Could actually do something during our driver switch instead of just banging my head on the pillow; like eat, shower ... etc. Still think LA is the worst, followed by Chicago, Dallas, New York and any where in Pennsylvania. There are probably more metro's that rate up there. Wonder if they ever got the Penn Turnpike done finally?

L8r
I know the last time I was in PA, I-80 was a gravel road (!!!) for about 10 miles or more. That was the first, and hopefully last time I was on a dirt Interstate. I know it was that way because they were making repairs, but still...
 
Last time I drove in SD, about 17 years ago, it wasn't that bad. From what I've been hearing it is terrible now. Yep, glad to have moved to the slushbox. I remember driving my 87 Toy PU 5 speed from the bay area to LA. I'd pick up my cousin who lived in SJ to go visit our cousin in LA. Sitting in traffic to get out of SJ sucked.

Since he was about 10 years older than me, his tape had songs that I had been looking for, so we'd play name that tune.
 
Morning ladies and gents

Happy Saturday and my plans for the weekend include

- Hope to get the 2” extruded foamboard painted (using acrylic earth color) and glued down today (glued atop the baseboard of 1/2” Go Board I used instead of plywood).

- Then tomorrow cut and install (glue) the 4” barrier for outside perimeter (3/16” closed cell foam… from sleeping bag pads)


We’ll see what God’s plans are for me… you know what they say….

“If you want to hear God laugh, just tell Him your plans!” 😅
 


Good Morning All!
26F @ 81% clear. Had new white, then it would go away, repeat. Guessers say 49F on Tuesday. Ya, we will see.

Think I got the st00pid dishwasher figured out. There is no seal on the bottom of the door, none, notta. There is a plastic dam with a curved down edge that is supposed to rest on or very close to the bottom of the tub pan. Water from the spinner ( not the spray ) would wash under that and drain back to the pan center from the dam outside edges. Think that had something to do with filtering any 'floaters' into the plastic dam. It is almost like a tide coming in. Figured it was not the shape it was supposed to be and possibly bent up from temp changes. Water would shoot under that dam then out of the tub pan and wash the floor. Got a rubber ..um.. molding 3/16" by 1/2" by 22" and attached it to that plastic dam. Has run 3 loads since yesterday with out a drop coming out of the thing. Will post pix as I need to take it apart ...again... and epoxy the rubber thing in to survive water/heat. Anybody want to buy a good non-leaking experienced DW? Didn't think so.

Cal driving again. Used to be the powers that be would schedule drops and picks early in the morning. Going through LA at 0200 was a breeze. Sure, a little traffic. That changed. One of the reasons we quit. No matter what metro you tried to get through, nothing but cars at any time of day. We both still miss 'the road' on occasion, but not enough to back to it. We are happily sitting at home and don't want to go anywhere; pretty much hermits. We have been everywhere and have seen almost everything so the 'go visit' retirement thing is not.

L8r
 
On a Powercab system your 6 locomotives would have been starved for current.
I could with their addons, but at the time they didn't have a system out of the box to support a large layout. Our club was looking at them also and Digitrax gave you more for the money. Once I seen how well it performed I invested in the Digitrax so I can just take a controler from home and use it at the club.
 
Good morning all!

Woke up to the sound of rain this morning. It has since moved out of the area but there is a chance for more scattered showers. Currently
32F with an expected high of 34F. Might see a few peeks of sun later this afternoon.

No real plans for today as of yet. I will make the weekly grocery trip. and probably some laundry.

Will try and get to the basement tonight for some train time. Not much of it this week since we had things going almost every night.

Have a safe day everyone!
 
Good snowy morning from So Central Wisconsin where those white flakes are falling but melting when they land. 33f degrees now and the high show climb to 34 per the WeatherChannel app. Lots of slush going to be made this morning as the app and the TV guy last night said 2” of the white stuff by 6pm.

The only driving today is the 1 mile down the hill to the ice arena. The grandson has 1 game this morning and 1 this evening. In between the Badger Women will be on streaming on BigTen+. At 2!

FedEx was very interesting yesterday when I went to the store to ask about packaging and shipping. to Venice, Ca. the engine house and diesel servicing pads. They recommended one of the local pick up places here in town called Mailbox Extra instead of themselves. Spoke to an assistant manager who said he trusts this store more so than his own staff. Never heard of them. So… stopped at the store and spoke to a guy behind the counter. Turns out they are 6 former retired FedEx guys who wanted to keep busy. The assistant manager I spoke to at the FedEx store was this guy’s son! It’s $132. to package and supply materials and $165 to ship. Total $297 just to ship. Ouch! Basically a wooden grate with a box inside.

I can build it on a 1/2” plywood base and finish off the complete scene and the client in LA basically just adds it to his layout frame. Now to figure my costs. Good client or not this is one where I’m going to want at least 50% down and down payments are only by PayPal Friends and Family so down the road they can’t file a complaint and ask for the down payment back for any reason. The balance of payment is due before I ship and that is done via PayPal also but via Commercial services and that is the protection for the buyer. I’ve poured over the lack of directions, again typical of Walthers, but better than some of their kits. I’ve watched a few videos for some tips and advice what not to do. I can see building this for myself but for someone cross country, I don’t know!

Be well
 
The discussion in the diner the other day was DCC systems. I have been seriously contemplating for over a year improving my system and like Chadbag mentioned YAMORC replaces the fantastic yet out of business Digikeijes system.

If you want everything like signaling, Railcom, wireless and more this is a nice affordable system.


IMG_3863.png
IMG_3864.png
IMG_3865.png
 
Last edited:
Good morning folks, 46 here with sunshine. Supposed to be nice today, it will help folks at the gun show here today, I will go in to the store around 10 or 11 to help with lunches and the post-show rush we'll get. Hope to put some time in on the trains tonight, last night I just put up my feet and we watched a Miss Fisher Mystery. Hope you all have a great day.
 


Good Morning All. Clear and 38°, but it's Saturday here as well. Only headed for the mid-50's today, maybe 60° tomorrow. Moderate temperatures for the rest of the 10 day forecast, upper-50's to upper-60's. Maybe near freezing some nights. Now we're getting into typical January weather.

Noting new on the SFW estate, I cut another couple of downed branches into firewood and did more household chores than I thought I had! Today we're going to re-review the investment portfolio since my wife doesn't think we're being aggressive enough right now. While she's always had input when she wanted, she hasn't really made any decisions since I cut ties with the investment counselor 10 years ago when I retired and took over self-management. Ironically, she has always thought that I was too aggressive but over time I have made a 275% return in that 10 years! Now she wants to get more involved.
Other than that, I will probably fire up the wood-burning heater for just the second time this month, although it's still 73° inside. That means I have to resume bringing firewood in.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I resolved the dead track on the industry siding by tightening a loose rail joiner. Since I had to test it, that led to some train running. In addition, I removed and cleaned some of the other structures in Budville; Lone Star Feed/Farmer's Grain Co.
1768055029819.jpeg

Removing that rigging to get them over to the workbench took some time, but not as much as re-assembling it.
Next door is Majestic Hardware and Feed, a Bar Mills kit.
1768055333332.jpeg

That's as far as I got on them.

Michael - It took me a while to find the eggs in that picture!;)
Lonnie - I raised ducks and geese as well when I was younger. Had to quit when they found the swimming pool. My wife loved using goose eggs for baking, as one egg was equal to 5-6 chicken eggs!
Todd - Many years ago when I was working, our company chose to stop selling windows to companies in Kalifornia, primarily due to the transportation bottlenecks. To reduce costs, we would always get a backhaul from there, but it still tied up a driver/equipment for 7 days. Eventually we used contract carriers but that too became too cost prohibitive.

Rocker Pat Benatar is 73 today, while model train enthusiast Rod Stewart is 81.

Everyone have a great Saturday.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.




Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a commision from some of the links and ads shown on this website (Learn More Here)

Back
Top