Running Bear's July 2025 Coffee Shop

[migalyto]

Japanese N scale is darn cheap. (And Japanese H0 is darn expensive).

I wish they would release more of their N scale offerings. Their Ho scale Mavi IVs are the best rolling/tracking well cars on the market.

Sadly they haven't been released in several years so the stock has dried up and the secondary market is wanting between $175-$200 for
a set of 3 that was available for under $65.00 5 years ago.

I understand N scale is their "bread and butter", but....

 

[Bruette]

Is that the museum behind it?

Was it an old roundhouse?

Yes, that is the museum, the B&O Roundhouse. CSX donated the property.

@kbkchooch beat me to it, with a more detailed answer.

 

[chadbag]

I wish they would release more of their N scale offerings. Their Ho scale Mavi IVs are the best rolling/tracking well cars on the market.

Sadly they haven't been released in several years so the stock has dried up and the secondary market is wanting between $175-$200 for
a set of 3 that was available for under $65.00 5 years ago.

I understand N scale is their "bread and butter", but....

Even their N Maxis in the U.S. are $117 or so which i find expensive. But for 3 of the 53 ft ones with containers I guess it’s not that bad. It’s 5 Maxi-1. For 40’.

I don’t do a lot of US but what I have is almost all intermodal with a few normal flatcars for truck trailers.

 

[logandsawman]

Mornin', folks. It's 90.5/62% on the patio today. Never did get much above 94F yesterday, to my considerable surprise; we'll see how today is. The weather app says a high of 89F with a 50% chance of rain in four hours. Already half wrong, so I'll believe the other half when I see it!

Spent a bunch of yesterday putting together what I am now calling my "playout". Just a bit of Unitrack that lets me play with trains until I get something more permanent designed and built. It is still amazing to me just how easy Unitrack is to work with; nothing was ever this easy when I was a kid! And I don't think it's just because I'm older now...

My cats have also discovered the trains again. One is terrified of them as expected, but the other... well...

View attachment 233463

I had to bring a cat bed in; most of the time he prefers that to sleeping on the tracks. The rest of the time it's a fight.

One of these days I'll figure out how to take good stills off that camera with decent focus. Video works fine, and I'm currently too lazy to either figure out how to focus properly, or to extract frames from the video.

I still have a lot to do in the train room, but at least it's starting to actually look like a train room now. I expect it will take weeks to get a design somewhat finalized, and then I can start building something more entertaining. I'm looking forward to it.

Only things on the plan for today are (maybe) a haircut, and receiving of more track bits for the playout so I can extend it along the other side of the table. After that I'll probably do a bunch of train tinkering and sketching my plans. Then again, sometimes things don't go as planned, so we'll see.

Hope y'all are having a good day!

Steve,
Try misting your naughty cat with water. After one or two applications, just leaving the mister in view may be enough.

We trained our cats with the mister and treats. They never jumped on a table.

On a couple of my old model railroad youtubes they make cameos, always well behaved.

I am a cat lover.

 

[logandsawman]

Good afternoon

Woke up to 66, currently 86 with a nice wind out there.

Spent all morning in the train shed. Installed all my remaining switch stands and completed some more ballast and scenery.

Just about time for my afternoon coffee break, then two Con-Cor truck kits to dig into.

Later. Dave LASM

 

[migalyto]

Even their N Maxis in the U.S. are $117 or so which i find expensive. But for 3 of the 53 ft ones with containers I guess it’s not that bad. It’s 5 Maxi-1. For 40’.

That's actually not a bad price. I think in 2017 when I was still in N scale they were around $100.00 a set for the Maxi-I 5 car set. I was always able to get them at around $90.00 with the 10% off coupon MBKleins used to send out several times a year for being a rewards member And no sales tax on internet purchases back then.. I had a bunch of sets of the Maxi-Is and Maxi-IVs in N scale. That's why I didn't hesitate to buy several sets in Ho scale. Sadly you cant find them anymore for a decent price, and who knows when a re-issue will come along. They dot seem very interested in doing them again.

 

[Bruette]

Even their N Maxis in the U.S. are $117 or so which i find expensive.

I have two Kato N scale locomotives

137-2015 - GG1 Conrail "4800" Bicentennial DC (DCC friendly) $102.39
137-2021 - GG1 Amtrak "913" Black DC (DCC friendly) $84.94

Both prices include tax and shipping. Most importantly, to me, they were worth every penny!

 

[insomniville]

Thats a great test track!

Thanks! I'm just itching for my additional track to get here so I can make it more interesting...

When I switched from N scale to Ho, After I built my bench work I used unitrack to get up and running. I ran all this on 1 feeder and DCC for several years with no issues. I ended up doing it permanently in flex track.

I bought 2 huge totes of it on auction, so it was pretty inexpensive. Still have all of it tucked away.

I'm envious; I'll have to keep an eye out for a bunch of used Unitrack. =). I've shied away from it so far because I intend to do the layout in flex (and I'm still having a debate about which track system -- Peco 55 with the concrete ties has a definite attraction. I like the concrete ties!).

Try misting your naughty cat with water. After one or two applications, just leaving the mister in view may be enough.

I keep meaning to buy a spray bottle, and I keep forgetting. One of my cats rarely gets up on counters. The other one -- the one in the picture, actually: this is his house, and don't you forget it!



Someone mentioned Chinese. Time to wander off to the local Chinese place, because that sounds really yummy...

 

[migalyto]

The other one -- the one in the picture, actually: this is his house, and don't you forget it!

You need to get this sign and hang it in the train room as a reminder.

 

[chadbag]

That's actually not a bad price. I think in 2017 when I was still in N scale they were around $100.00 a set for the Maxi-I 5 car set. I was always able to get them at around $90.00

The $117 is street price. It’s around $135 (?) MSRP. Yeah I’ve gotten some under $100 in the past and in fact got some in Japan 2 1/2 years ago about $105 street price.

Compared to euro prices and U.S. prices I’ve seen in most cases it is not a bad price.

 

[troyphoto]

Just woke up from my nap. Wonder what the weather is...?

Hmmm.... Looks like popcorn for dinner tonight. Don't feel like leftovers or a can of soup.

 

[kbkchooch]

19 pound cat, too chunky to get on 44"-49" benchwork! Raise the layout and feed the cat more!

 

[logandsawman]

View attachment 233505

19 pound cat, too chunky to get on 44"-49" benchwork! Raise the layout and feed the cat more!

Your cat carries his (?) weight well! Very handsome!

It hit 90 here today! I brought my truck kits in the air conditioned house to work on them, train shed no ac, it usually doesn't get that hot here...plus I don't like the wind in there

They were a super cheap ebay buy, but are turning out nice, I will post pics when done

 

[DeaconKC]

Hit 97 here today with storms forecast for tonight. Worked at the gun store today, it is our slow time of the year, so it was not overwhelming by any means. The Missus is making tacos for dinner and it really smells good.
On the subject of Kato locomotives if you like steam engines, look for their C50s and C56s, they are superb runners and if you can ignore the 3 axle tenders, the ones without elephant ear smoke deflectors are great runners.

 

[bnsf971]

Here she is at the B&O Railroad Museum
View attachment 233456

This train is fascinating, I need to learn more!

It's been a long time, but I think one of the people behind the AFT was Ross Rowland, who I mentioned passed away a few days ago.

 

[westtexjohn]

View attachment 233448

What passwords...........

 

[Kusojiji]

I bought a C56 chassis and printed a body for it. Runs way better than anything that I bought from that side of the pond. I removed the traction tires so now has 6 wheel pick up. No hiccups or stalls. And heavy enough to pull. I wish Kato gets into the UK steam models. The owner is interested in them.

 

[Kusojiji]

My Athearn parts finally arrived. Since I bought two sets of powered trucks, I changed out the trucks onmy caboose. It had kadees that used axle wipers. They worked but had a lot of drag and some flickering. I have a bridge rectifier and capacitor for stay alive. With this set, I now have 4 wheels per side picking up power vice 2. I also put a flashing tail lamp on it. Took a few shots to catch it.

 

[Kusojiji]

I wish they would release more of their N scale offerings. Their Ho scale Mavi IVs are the best rolling/tracking well cars on the market.

Sadly they haven't been released in several years so the stock has dried up and the secondary market is wanting between $175-$200 for
a set of 3 that was available for under $65.00 5 years ago.

I understand N scale is their "bread and butter", but....

Yeah, Kato USA... not sure what they are doing. Just had some problems with them with a faulty light board and a crushed N scale motor. I sent them email on the light board, they answered and sent me a replacement. The motor, however, no response to 2 emails. Added Kato Japan (parent company) to the email and started poking at their product and their lack of customer service. I got an immediate response but had some attitude in it. They gave me a couple of tracking numbers and then a few days later, another. So, I get another light board, which had already been taken care of. I don't know what the incoming shipment is, but I hope its the motor. They either can't read or don't care.

Kato Japan also responded and apologized for the inconvenience. They said that if I had issues with parts from the US, I can send them an email and ask if they can handle the repair/replacement, which they may not be able to in most cases. But they offered.

What we have here is a serious lack of communication!

 

[westtexjohn]

Good evening to all .......

Well this arrived today. I like these little H660/600 Alcos. Brand new. Came USPS Priority mail from California in 2 days. A new record.
I'm waiting on a boxcar kit I order on July 11 from California. Tracking shows it went from California to Dallas, to Ft Worth Tx, to Aurora Colorado then to Denver then back to Dallas and now has sat in Ft Worth for 3 days. Maybe it will be here someday.

Got up today at 8:30 am took my 2 scripts and went back to bed. Up at 11:30, fed my outdoor cat, checked mail then checked e-mails. A sandwich at 5 pm then a nap untill 8:30 pm. Fed the outdoor cat again and got on the forum. Not exactly a productive day.

On another note, a couple of weeks ago, I tried to pair up my DJI drone controller to my wifi router. This is necessary BEFORE you fly the thing to register the unit and set flying parameters.
The controller recognized my wifi unit name and number. It recognized the security code and password. But when I hit "connect to wifi", I get a note saying "connection failed". I spent about 3 and a half hours searching the interweb for answers and the DJI question/answer forum. I found a couple of suggestions on how to solve my problem but neither one worked. I carefully repacked everything and set the thing on the upper shelf in my closet. Much like the BLOCKSignaling servo controllers, this drone may find its way to ebay. As stated before I am NOT going to waste anymore of my time trying to "fix" things that should work. They either work or they are out.

Take care....John