Running Bear's July 2026 Coffee Shop

[bob]

View attachment 269137

Bought mine 50 years ago. The Lionel version. Bought a couple more sets last year.
Yesterday I visited one of the last remaining (barely) Freedom Train cars in Elbe, WA

 

[bnsf971]

Bought mine 50 years ago. The Lionel version. Bought a couple more sets last year.
Yesterday I visited one of the last remaining (barely) Freedom Train cars in Elbe, WA

The model is certainly in better shape than the prototype. Is that one MRSR used for excursions, or has it always been a parts source?

 

[ctclibby]

Good Morning All!
52F @ 64% severe clear. Only made 80F-ish yesterday. Guessers say 87F today.

Had booms and bangs on the 3rd but not close to us so the dogs were not going berzak. Last night was a little worse, no problems with the dogs though. I did not shoot any mortars last night as I did not want to make Lil jump out of her skin or make the dogs shimmy and shake.

Maria made Ham with Potato and Mac salad, with baked beans. It was yummy! Will slice up some of the ham later today for sammies, chunk some for ham/beans and mac/cheese and omelets; well at least the stuff that makes it past me eating while cutting.

4th events around the country seemed to go pretty good and Fox was on the 250 celebration and showed some of the bigger ones around the country; only a few were canceled due to weather; rain, flash and booms. If you did not know: 250 celebration did a new record - 4 or 5 shots a second which works out to about an hour of stuff with 186,000 shots queued up.

Suspect more bangs and booms tonight; probably less than the 3rd though.

Chicken/Goat house is waiting. We were gonna go to Ponderay on Friday, but decided to wait until day after tomorra to go. Need more pressure treated 8'x2"x4" for the deck, pier blocks, sealer, paint and a few associated things.

L8r

 

[ctclibby]

Bought mine 50 years ago. The Lionel version. Bought a couple more sets last year.
Yesterday I visited one of the last remaining (barely) Freedom Train cars in Elbe, WA

Bob: Think that there still is one in Parkwater ( Spokane ). Been awhile since I have checked though.

Site worked fine with my last post, this however...nope so far - 4 tries.

L8r

 

[RhB Michael]

When did Piko switch to Zimo? They have been using Doehler & Haass for decades. They call them 'Piko' decoders though but D&H has/had making them.

 

[bnsf971]

When did Piko switch to Zimo? They have been using Doehler & Haass for decades. They call them 'Piko' decoders though but D&H has/had making them.

I read a year or so ago that Zimo was making the 5.1 decoders, which were loosely patterned after ESU. Of course, now that I want to find that info, it's disappeared.

 

[TLOC]

Good morning from the left coast. 67f degrees now at 8:35am 86 later but an Air Quality Alert due to air particles from the many fireworks displays that started surrounding Pasadena around 8:30 to 11pm. Just a crazy wasted taxpayer expense IMO. When we returned to our hotel the beautiful lobby must have had 10 dogs huddled with their owners.

We watched ABC’s coverage of the Nashville fireworks and drone show

Today is up in the air. Not exactly sure what’s to do. The air quality issue maybe a problem for Terry and her COPD. We do have her portable oxygen tanks. I will spend time in the pool. Most of the kids that use the pool here are grandkids of the residents and I was told Sunday is a travel day for them to return home and the pool is usually empty of users…

Enjoy your day

 

[TLOC]

 

[Texas Hobo]

Good morning, all! Well last firework was around 12:45 this morning, or I went to sleep and heard no more. I see the gremlins are attempting to enter the forum again, as I got 4 "Oops" as I read my way through.
Not much planned as the heat index is going to be high. Maybe I'll run a train or two since they haven't moved in about 4 days.

STAY SAFE
LATER

 

[Marlin39]

This must have been smoldering all night and just took off. I heard a bunch of sirens around 8am and saw this about 5 miles south of us.

 

[chadbag]

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.

Back when Daimler still owned Chrysler I used that logic to say my RAM 2500 was a German truck. In fact I used that logic yesterday when talking about it. (Haven't had a RAM since 2013)

 

[Espeefan]

Afternoon All! 77 today, going to 80. A bit cooler today thank heaven. May cut the grass before the rain hits later. I'll have to check and see how dry the lawn is from yesterday's showers. I anticipate a quiet day. Enjoy yours!

 

[troyphoto]

Well, howdy there internet peeps and those with decoders, stumpy nubs, or anywhere in between.
It's Troy with 10 fingers again.

Had a game this morning against my usual opponent at the game store.

Had to call it after three turns, and I barely lost. But almost doesn't count in this game! Still had fun. The rules for my force got an upgrade, so I was test piloting them! Takes a while to get the touch. But, I'll still lose even after I get good. Thats why I enjoy the hobby side more than the game side.

I managed to put some pigmentation on the giant "Chroneus" demon. He's been renamed "Puft-oneus" since I didd the head swap to the StayPuft marshmallow man. Still have a lot of painting to do, but he's not brown any longer.

And the slimers got some fun kills in! Despite getting charged in the flank, which is never good.

the goal of the game was to collect as many of the Brown and black disks by the end of the game. they traded hands several times.

Wife is having a blah day. Fatigue with her arthritis. Doc has referred her to a rheumatologist. Wife will make the call on monday. We picked up a steroid prescription for her, but she can't start until Tues. She gets labs drawn on Monday, and doc said to keep them clean since they're for her liver condition. The next prescription with be for methotrexate in low doses. Yes, that's a cancer drug, but its the main front line defense (much lower dose than cancer treatment) for RA. That one can bother the liver, so they need a baseline to watch for changes.

Our birthdays are 8 days apart, so for one more day, we're both 61. And we'll head off to Willie's favorite place, Outback, for my dinner (birthday person picks). Hope she's having an up day and is able to go with. If not, i may have to call her sis, the vegetarian, and get her to go instead.

 

[santafewillie]

Well, well, well; the NWS got that one partially right. It did rain just after noon, but maybe just barely 0.2", and no thunder to be heard. It's just 81° out there which is unheard of for 2:00 pm on July 5!

Troy - No, Outback is not my favorite place to eat, but it cracks the top 6. Favorite is the local Italian place in Sanger TX for everything but pizza. There's another local place that makes a better pizza.

 

[westtexjohn]

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.

You might want to contact the guy that runs SBS4DCC. I can't remember his name but I have talked with him before. He carries ESU and ZIMO and is very knowledgeable on all things DCC. I know he has some sound files that are his own wav-files and does some custom sound downloads. He might have a line on the Whitcomb sound file.
Hey.....its only a phone call, so if he can't help, you have lost nothing.

Hope this helps....John

 

[NYC_George]

No walking the dog yesterday July 4th I was at the Stormville Airport tag sale at 7am selling some Lionel train track and a few other items. Luckly 2 different model railroad guys showed up early on and bought $300.00 worth of track. I sold a guitar I never use for $150.00, not my Gibson SG, a golf club, drawing of a Greyhound and some jewelry. I think I made around $500.00 total. No one was interested in the 2 nice pet carriers I had for sale. After giving a classmate of mine 200 ft and selling $300.00 worth at the flea market I still have 400 feet of track left over. Two full circles of 072 track, lots of 48-inch straight track and about a 100ft of 027 curved track in great condition. My location was very near the parking lot so I could leave without using any of the walkways and slipped out of there at 12 pm. It was 90 degrees in the hot sun. Swal

 

[davidone]

It was really cool today, only 95, hopefully the streak of really hot weather will be over soon. Normally it is not this hot!!! Did not do anything or go anywhere this past weekend. Can't drive anymore and the kids now live in Arizona. So I ran trains a couple times.

Dave

 

[Kusojiji]

for one more day, we're both 61

Happy early B-day! (normally belated, but I'm bucking the trend!)

 

[migalyto]

Happy early B-day! (normally belated, but I'm bucking the trend!)

With the time difference in your part of the world, you may be right on time!

 

[troyphoto]

With the time difference in your part of the world, you may be right on time!

It's the 7th. Tomorrow is the last overlap age.

apologies for the conversion