Running Bear's January 2026 Coffee Shop
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I have to say I'd rather be in SLC than Denver -- you guys get hail storms "all the time" and it can be dangerous. A "shooter" friend of mine from Denver told me a bunch of stories of parking at the airport for a week and coming home to hail damage. And I was at a class in the Pueblo area a while back and out of no where black clouds formed and rolled through leaving several inches of pea hail in its wake... We almost never see much hail here and I've never seen any that would cause real damage. When I was younger and had gone back to BYU, there was a girl from Denver in our apartment complex and her care was covered with divots.
Good morning! It's Friday, 14Ā°F and mostly clear. 
Have a great day!
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Kusojiji
RANK AMATEURS OF THE MODEL RAILROAD FORM MEMBER
The normal tutus are not recommended.NEWS FLASH! Walmart has issued a statement regarding the approaching winter storm. They are recommending customers wear 2 pairs of pajamas when visiting the stores!
boogietrain94
Well-Known Member
and this is why I have it delivered to the house I don't people well
migalyto
Well-Known Member
santafewillie
Same Ol' Buzzard
There's 2 Walmarts in Denton, which are the closest ones to me. At the south side location there's always a sheriff's deputy car parked out front and that store has all of the customers that you might see on the "People of Walmart" videos. The location on the north side of town still has an unusual array of clothing, but no law enforcement out front. I prefer not to go into either, but sit in the car while my wife goes in.The Walmartians....
santafewillie
Same Ol' Buzzard
Grocery shopping today was a zoo. More people in Kroger than I have ever seen and a high percentage of aisle-blockers. Especially the handicap carts that seemed to have healthy people occupying them. Lines at the self-checkouts and at all three manned checkout lanes. Some shelves were bare, but I got everything that I wanted except the brand of unsalted butter that I prefer. Had to buy another more expensive brand.
TLOC
Well-Known Member
Walmart is not for me. We go to lunch at a Subway inside a WalMart after a work session one of the guys has. The greeter is no more here after we witnessed a fight years ago where a woman was said hello to and she just started punching and screaming at the poor and older greeter. He literally had no idea what happened as it was so quick. There were 6 of us just shocked at what we were watching. Before any of the 6 of us could react an off duty officer had her down on the ground screaming Iām a cop, Iām a cop, call 911.
kbkchooch
Verified Human
The storm is still a day and a half away. The local Aldi is out of milk and bread, but they do have a few dozen eggs. The local Food Lion has little produce left, no ground beef. The Walmart super center looks bad too! PEOPLE, we will all be back to normal Tuesday, get a grip!
The description says itās cut from pork loin. Not as fatty as pork belly. Interesting.
wheeler1963
Wheeler's Trains
Looks like mostly older SW7's. A coupler of the newer gold motors, they'll run forever. Glad to meet you Possum, I'm Jerome. Known around here as the SWitcher Guy. At one time, my collection of switchers was over 300.
wheeler1963
Wheeler's Trains
I'm back!! Lol
kbkchooch
Verified Human
Yo Jerome, where ya been buddy? We missed ya!
wheeler1963
Wheeler's Trains
Oh you know, here there and everywhere. LolYo Jerome, where ya been buddy? We missed ya!
trailrider
Well-Known Member
My wife stocked up at the local Kroger affiliate, preparing for snow and cold...which means Denver won't get more than a dusting! The poor local weather forecasters keep getting angry emails about their forecasting. Like they can control the weather. The Front Range of the Rockies are hard to predict because of the mountains to the west and the winds, moisture (of which we have little), and the cold fronts have to be just right for the upslope to bring us significant snow. OTOH, in 2003, I had just bought a new SUV, and put it in the garage. We had 38 inches on the back patio, and I couldn't get the garage door open! So you never know.
Best of luck to those in the path of the polar vortex!
Best of luck to those in the path of the polar vortex!
chadbag
Well-Known Member
Tonight was the last regular swim meet for the year for our local High School season, and since my daughter is a senior, it was her last regular meet in her HS life. (There is still the "Regionals" in a little over a week and "State" in the middle of February). It was a tri-meet with the three local high schools in our area -- in neighboring cities plus the one in the western half of our city where my daughter goes.
None of our school district's schools have pools in them, and one of these three schools is from a neighboring district that does put pools in their schools, but not in this one, since it is directly across the street from a large rec center with multiple pools. So all three of these high schools practice at this rec center. So a lot of the kids from the three schools know each other. Either through HS swimming, or if they also club swim (through USA Swimming affiliated clubs) it's likely at the club at this rec center, or they play water polo at the rec center as well.
Being the last regular meet of the year, it's customary to honor the seniors who will be graduating. Originally they were going to do the seniors from all three schools, but since it makes for a long intermission with three schools of seniors, one of the schools did their senior night at another meet. Their seniors were read out tonight but didn't walk with their parents across the side of the pool, one at a time, while the announcer read their names, their parents names, and said what the swimmer had written down as the highlights of their careers, things they ere proud of, what they wanted to do after HS, and a "quote". So my daughter and we, her parents, walked with her while they read out. It was nice. Each senior of the two schools who had their senior night did this so it took a while as each team had 10-12 or more seniors. The third school, as I mentioned, had their seniors read out but they did their special ceremonies early at the other meet, like I said.
But what was interesting and nice was how everyone from all the schools cheered each other, and the coaches from the host school mentioned her by name and congratulated her when presenting a little keepsake they gave each senior from both schools (not my daughter's school -- each meet has a host -- usually the team whose pool it is but in this case all three teams are based there so one team was "home" and did the senior night gift keepsake presentation). She had swum club there a few years ago but quit club to concentrate on HS Swimming and eventually water polo. So the coaches knew her but it was still nice. And how the kids from the different schools high five each other and cheered. (It helps that several of the boys from the other high school that was host, who also play water polo on the team my daughter was on, have asked her to the various school dances like winter formal, Sadies (Sadie Hawkins for us old timers), Prom, etc.
Even though it's competitive, at least here in Utah, I've found most of the swim teams are very open to encouraging all swimmers on all the teams. You don't get that rivalry as much as with other sports. It was kind of like one big happy team night and not three separate teams celebrating. It was fun and a nice atmosphere.
And afterwards my mom took us to In-N-Out. My Brother-in-Law was in the military and had gotten into some military appreciation relationship with In-N-Out and had gotten a very large pile of "meal gift cards" from them, which he passed on to my mom. So we benefited. While not the fanciest burgers, I like In-N-Out the best of the normal affordable burgers. Culvers being a close second. 5 Guys, while fine, are way too expensive and not as good anyway.
Anyway, while it was a long afternoon with the meet, the senior night festivities, and then the trip to In-N-Out, it was a fun night.
None of our school district's schools have pools in them, and one of these three schools is from a neighboring district that does put pools in their schools, but not in this one, since it is directly across the street from a large rec center with multiple pools. So all three of these high schools practice at this rec center. So a lot of the kids from the three schools know each other. Either through HS swimming, or if they also club swim (through USA Swimming affiliated clubs) it's likely at the club at this rec center, or they play water polo at the rec center as well.
Being the last regular meet of the year, it's customary to honor the seniors who will be graduating. Originally they were going to do the seniors from all three schools, but since it makes for a long intermission with three schools of seniors, one of the schools did their senior night at another meet. Their seniors were read out tonight but didn't walk with their parents across the side of the pool, one at a time, while the announcer read their names, their parents names, and said what the swimmer had written down as the highlights of their careers, things they ere proud of, what they wanted to do after HS, and a "quote". So my daughter and we, her parents, walked with her while they read out. It was nice. Each senior of the two schools who had their senior night did this so it took a while as each team had 10-12 or more seniors. The third school, as I mentioned, had their seniors read out but they did their special ceremonies early at the other meet, like I said.
But what was interesting and nice was how everyone from all the schools cheered each other, and the coaches from the host school mentioned her by name and congratulated her when presenting a little keepsake they gave each senior from both schools (not my daughter's school -- each meet has a host -- usually the team whose pool it is but in this case all three teams are based there so one team was "home" and did the senior night gift keepsake presentation). She had swum club there a few years ago but quit club to concentrate on HS Swimming and eventually water polo. So the coaches knew her but it was still nice. And how the kids from the different schools high five each other and cheered. (It helps that several of the boys from the other high school that was host, who also play water polo on the team my daughter was on, have asked her to the various school dances like winter formal, Sadies (Sadie Hawkins for us old timers), Prom, etc.
Even though it's competitive, at least here in Utah, I've found most of the swim teams are very open to encouraging all swimmers on all the teams. You don't get that rivalry as much as with other sports. It was kind of like one big happy team night and not three separate teams celebrating. It was fun and a nice atmosphere.
And afterwards my mom took us to In-N-Out. My Brother-in-Law was in the military and had gotten into some military appreciation relationship with In-N-Out and had gotten a very large pile of "meal gift cards" from them, which he passed on to my mom. So we benefited. While not the fanciest burgers, I like In-N-Out the best of the normal affordable burgers. Culvers being a close second. 5 Guys, while fine, are way too expensive and not as good anyway.
Anyway, while it was a long afternoon with the meet, the senior night festivities, and then the trip to In-N-Out, it was a fun night.
chadbag
Well-Known Member
I have to say I'd rather be in SLC than Denver -- you guys get hail storms "all the time" and it can be dangerous. A "shooter" friend of mine from Denver told me a bunch of stories of parking at the airport for a week and coming home to hail damage. And I was at a class in the Pueblo area a while back and out of no where black clouds formed and rolled through leaving several inches of pea hail in its wake... We almost never see much hail here and I've never seen any that would cause real damage. When I was younger and had gone back to BYU, there was a girl from Denver in our apartment complex and her care was covered with divots.
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Kusojiji
RANK AMATEURS OF THE MODEL RAILROAD FORM MEMBER
If you make the mistake of using Bachmann conductive oil on your wheel bearings and find out that it doesn't work, I finally found a solution. I used mineral spirits, electrical contact cleaner, tried reaming it out with a toothpick soaked in the spirits, nothing worked. The tram would stutter and die constantly. Finally, I got a graphite pencil, colored a paper towel with it to get a nice thick coating on it, and rubbed it onto the axle ends. Now it goes nicely like it used to.
This is a Kato SD40 truck with a coreless motor attached to it for a power bogie.
This is a Kato SD40 truck with a coreless motor attached to it for a power bogie.
Bruette
Well-Known Member
Good morning, Everyone!
I haven't checked in as often as Iād like, but Iāve been keeping up with most of whatās been posted.
Iāve been keeping myself busy, not Willie or Karl level busy, but busy for me.
My mini transformer buying binge sent me off exporing the wonderful world of AC transformers.
I set up a workstation to test and evaluate my expanding transformer collection, using an oscilloscope, multimeter, various analog accessories, and passenger cars with incandescent lamps as loads. It has been a fun learning experience for me.
I focused on analog accessories, and passenger cars with incandescent lamps because my TVS diodes for the ZW haven't arrived yet.
I canāt put into words the wonder and satisfaction I felt when I first powered up the ZW and heard that gentle hum that quickly faded away, that was the transformer doing exactly what a healthy postwar unit should do.
That brief hum comes from the laminations and coil coming to life as the magnetic field stabilizes. Itās the same sound these units made when they were fresh off the line in the late ā40s through the ā60s.
It told me:
A ZW that goes quiet right after energizing is a ZW with:
After that, I shifted my new obsession to learning more about the ZW.
If I haven't already bored, I posted a thread about the ZW.
I haven't checked in as often as Iād like, but Iāve been keeping up with most of whatās been posted.
Iāve been keeping myself busy, not Willie or Karl level busy, but busy for me.
My mini transformer buying binge sent me off exporing the wonderful world of AC transformers.
I set up a workstation to test and evaluate my expanding transformer collection, using an oscilloscope, multimeter, various analog accessories, and passenger cars with incandescent lamps as loads. It has been a fun learning experience for me.
I focused on analog accessories, and passenger cars with incandescent lamps because my TVS diodes for the ZW haven't arrived yet.
I canāt put into words the wonder and satisfaction I felt when I first powered up the ZW and heard that gentle hum that quickly faded away, that was the transformer doing exactly what a healthy postwar unit should do.
That brief hum comes from the laminations and coil coming to life as the magnetic field stabilizes. Itās the same sound these units made when they were fresh off the line in the late ā40s through the ā60s.
It told me:
- the coil is solid
- the varnish is intact
- the laminations are tight
- the transformer is taking power normally
A ZW that goes quiet right after energizing is a ZW with:
- no loose laminations
- no buzzing panels
- no internal arcing
- no carbon tracking
- no roller chatter
- no vibration from a stressed coil
After that, I shifted my new obsession to learning more about the ZW.
If I haven't already bored, I posted a thread about the ZW.
The Lionel Trainmaster Type-ZW Transformer
I also wrote a more detailed article that I shared on my website.The Timeless Legacy of the Lionel Trainmaster Type-ZW Transformer
Enjoy your day Everyone!
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Bill Tidler Jr.
Retired N&W/NS Signalman
Have a great day!
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