Running Bear's July 2026 Coffee Shop

[westtexjohn]

Happy 4th of July!
View attachment 269144

While Anheuser-Busch remains a wholly owned subsidiary headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, and continues to brew Budweiser in the United States, the ultimate parent company is Belgian.

 

[RhB Michael]

Too bad it doesn't taste like it.

 

[davidone]

Been hot here in the NE Pennsylvania, 103 on Friday and 101 today. Only in the 90's the rest of the week Hopefully cooler soon. Didn't go anywhere over the holiday beings I can't drive and my family except for a few are in the south, mostly in Florida.
Even though railroads no longer use caboose's, I put a caboose on every train just because I like them even though my layout is based on today's railroading. Not prototipical, I know but I like caboose's. Anyone else do this?

Dave

 

[santafewillie]

Very abbreviated fireworks in the neighborhood this year compared to most in the past. Bubba to the west, only set them off for about 45 minutes. Must be a down year financially for his business. And Jim, next door to the north didn't set off any at all. I guess that the Parkinson’s finally has taken it's toll and limits his ability to light the fuse.
Granddog is happy that they are over as they make her very fidgety. Of course, being in Texas, we don't have a basement for her to hide in.

Happy 4th to everyone.

 

[Snowman]

Loving most everything today. God bless my country and my countrymen...who God has already. and long since blessed.

Thank you for your kindness once again.

 

[Kusojiji]

caboose on every train

I do as well, just because I put work into it to get lights going. Took 4 shots to catch the red blinking light on the ATSF...

 

[Kusojiji]

So I needed a refill of my lisinopril. Sent a message to my doc. No response. A couple of days later, sent another. Still no response. I search around the website and find another way to request a refill. I finally get a response and it gets refilled/renewed. That was last Thursday. Pharmacy is off on Friday as expected, but then I find out that they also get Monday off. Dang! If I knew military would get all of these 96 hours off, I'd have stayed in and not retired 22 years ago. Maybe this skunkstool would have been a 20 star general by now...

 

[Kusojiji]

Uh oh, site is taking hits again. That was short lived, unfortunately.

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good morning, Coffee Shop!
It's Sunday, and 70°(21°C) and mostly cloudy.

WEATHER:
Mostly cloudy toward daybreak then partly cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms. Humid with highs in the lower 80s. Light and variable winds becoming northwest 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.

Have a great day!

 

[bnsf971]

Good morning. It's clear and 80, with rain incoming.

 

[Snowman]

I never report on the weather, but I will report on the day: 250 + 1. And more power to US.

 

[Boris]

Independence Day 2026 - the morning after. I thank God we still have our Country to live in.

Three consecutive days of 100°+ heat, (104°, 101° and 101°), and two consecutive evenings of severe wind and rain. Many people in our town are still suffering power outages from the night of the 3rd.

My goal is to have my railroad demolished and removed by the end of July, as we want the house on the market by August 15.
I was fortunate to have some Amazon boxes large enough to save some of my structures. I do intend to rebuild a smaller version at the new place.

Going to be cooler with a lot of rain forecast, during the upcoming week, now that my lawn is burnt toast.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Clear and a much cooler 71° out there this morning. And what's this??? They have added a 35% chance for PM thunderstorms to the forecast for today. Nobody saw that coming!

A much quieter evening close by last night than I expected, although I could see quite a few other fireworks off in the distance. Note that they are not illegal where I live, although some years we're under a grass fire alert. Not this year though.
Pretty much another routine day around here yesterday, dishwasher, laundry, mowing and pool maintenance. Supper ended up being baby back ribs instead of the choices that I posted yesterday. They were delicious. I still have all of those other choices left for today, although we're due for a night out.
Nothing yet on tap for today except for Mass and bed linen laundry. May get another 45 minutes on the mower if temperatures aren't too stifling...only supposed to be 93° with a THI of just 96°. That's actually below our average range for this time of year.

Another day of just running trains out in the train shed. Sent a local out to Charlottesville and switched out the beverage distributor, grain elevator and fuel distributor. picked up an empty at both the chemical distributor and feed supply place without leaving a full one. Then I spent time on the lower level switching out the TOFC yard, grocery distributor and yet another fuel distributor. Interspersed a few unit and through trains to keep all engines in running shape; i.e., clearing the cobwebs!

Snowman -

Kudos on the size of your circle of family and friends.

You'd freak if you came to one of my family's three annual gatherings, between 46 and 54 folks all directly descended from my parents, or married into the family. I'll be hosting Thanksgiving this year. Sadly, I believe that these gatherings will start to subside once the first generation starts to leave this world.
Michael -

Too bad it doesn't taste like it.

Clydesdale piss is what it is known as around here.
Dave -

Anyone else do this?

I have a Dust Monkey on every caboose, so I use them all of the time, although I mostly run trains in the caboose era anyway. I also use them to track where the end of the train is in case any part of a string of freight cars gets loose! No caboose! Go look for the missing cars.

Everybody have a wonderful Sunday.

 

[RhB Michael]

72°F//71°F this morning. Good morning all. Hope your celebrations were safe last night.

Much better temperature here since the storms last night. Dewpoint is still high, but is supposed to be falling throughout the morning.

Tomorrow is grass cutting day. It might take awhile too since it is so high now. The front isn't too bad, but my patch of fescue in the back is going to be tough to get through. I'm glad it's not very big.

Have a great Sunday and I hope all of you still have all of your fingers!

Servus!

 

[bnsf971]

The front isn't too bad, but my patch of fescue in the back is going to be tough to get through.

Do you think you'll need to call Fescue 911?

 

[migalyto]

Good morning all!

Slept in a little today since it was after 12:30 before the neighborhood fireworks tapered off. We will hear a few stray booms
the next few nights while everyone fires off the leftovers.

Should be a pretty decent day today with the dome of heat out of the area finally. Currently its 68F under partly cloudy skies. The
high is expected to top out at 79F. More typical summer temps for us in the north.

Today I will have to do the grocery run and laundry. Those two tasks are usually done on Saturday, but since we were away yesterday
at the family reunion they did not get done. With all the storms the last couple of days the grass has really gotten plush green again.
I will probably wait till tomorrow to do that.

Have a safe day everyone!

 

[bnsf971]

I did some diagnosing on the Whitcomb. I took it apart, removed the decoder, and installed a DC connector in place of the decoder. It runs great on DC. I put the decoder back in it, put it on the programming track, and could not read back from it. I put it back on the track, ran through its startup sequence fore both engines, rang the bell, blew the horn, turned on all the lights. Everything works like it should. Then, I tried moving it. It immediately stopped, and the headlights started flashing distress signals again. I was able to turn off power and turn it back on again, and reset the decoder on the main. No change, other than all my settings went away. I then tried running it on DC only, and it did nothing at all. Tried once more on DCC, everything worked until I tried moving it. The flashing lights are supposed to mean the motor is bad, which is why I was looking for a motor. Since it works like it always has while running without the decoder, it may be the decoder. At 144 euros plus tax, shipping, VAT, tariffs, etc. If I want the Whitcomb sounds on the decoder, it looks like the only place to get it is Piko.
I'm still going to give them a call on Tuesday, though if the call goes the way I think it will, the engine may be permanently parked on the dead line.

 

[bnsf971]

There are days I dazzle everyone with my brilliance, and there are days I look for my glasses while I'm wearing them.
Today looks like a mix of the two.
It dawned on my that I have another identical unit here, that works like it should.
I pulled the decoder out of that one, swapped decoders around, and the problem is following the decoder. So, it's a decoder problem. I guess I can get a NEXT-18 decoder that doesn't have sound, and use the problem child that way. It would be a lot cheaper and less hassle, since many places have those decoders in stock. I'm still going to give Piko a call Tuesday. You never know what they'll say.

 

[RhB Michael]

If that decoder is from the 2021 to 2023 time frame and it is an ESU decoder, there were problems with those decoders from ESU unwittingly (so they say) using sub-standard parts on the decoders. The Chinese parts were out of spec and frequently failed. The voltage regulators used on the Next18 decoders were suspect. ESU recognizes the problem and admits to it, however, they say they have been unable to reproduce the failures under lab conditions. Their warranty is as good as ever though subject to conditions.

I had three decoders from this time frame fail. One was replaced and it also failed. I gave up on all three of them. I've yet to get a replacement and the unit sits and has been replaced by a newer unit.

The conditions are: they will replace a stand-alone purchased decoder here in the US. If it came as an OEM install, the locomotive must be returned to the dealer where purchased for warranty service. The warranty is for two years. The dealer may balk at this as many don't know ESU conditions. If this happens, contact ESU in the States, and they will call the dealer and set them straight.

 

[bnsf971]

If that decoder is from the 2021 to 2023 time frame and it is an ESU decoder, there were problems with those decoders from ESU unwittingly (so they say) using sub-standard parts on the decoders. The Chinese parts were out of spec and frequently failed. The voltage regulators used on the Next18 decoders were suspect. ESU recognizes the problem and admits to it, however, they say they have been unable to reproduce the failures under lab conditions. Their warranty is as good as ever though subject to conditions.

I had three decoders from this time frame fail. One was replaced and it also failed. I gave up on all three of them. I've yet to get a replacement and the unit sits and has been replaced by a newer unit.

The conditions are: they will replace a stand-alone purchased decoder here in the US. If it came as an OEM install, the locomotive must be returned to the dealer where purchased for warranty service. The warranty is for two years. The dealer may balk at this as many don't know ESU conditions. If this happens, contact ESU in the States, and they will call the dealer and set them straight.

It's a Piko proprietary decoder, made by Zimo. I purchased the engine in late 2023 at MB Klein's going-out-of-business sale that nobody knew was a going-out-of-business sale. Piko is the only one with the correct Whitcomb sound files.