Running Bear's June 2022 Coffee Shop

[TLOC]

Good afternoon fellow modelers, train spotters, plus those from prequels and sequels life times.

The doctor this morning said I can ease back into driving. So yes, I asked what does ease back mean? Trips of 30 minutes or less for 2 weeks. I can handle that. She wants my radiation treatments to begin the end of June knowing full well the plan was we would be on Maui. The plan is we stay until September. I found maybe an hour ago a treatment center on Maui. Now for a referral.

As of this morning I can swim again with no restrictions.

My 10# lifting restriction was removed last week. I have been lifting the last few days mulch bags. We finished 2 hours ago. Normally what we would do at most in 1.5 days has taken 3.5 days about 10 hours real time of work. Terry is out walking the trails with the daughter. I wasn’t invited and am starting to wonder what’s up.

Willie, you will love this. The son believes his mom and dad should relocate to Texas, close to him but not too close. So his realtor gave him a listing for us to look at, 60 miles south and about 20 miles west of Austin. Spring Branch, Texas. 167 acres totally out of our price range but what made the wife pause was it is an equestrian farm. I texted him asking if he thought he would inherit it once we were gone, no response yet.

Saw the gas prices for no lead was $4.79 with diesel at $5.29. Total greed by the oil companies.

It is 74f degrees on the north facing deck. The next 3 days it shall be tough to even hit 60 per the TV guessers plus they say 3-5” of rain.

enjoy the day

 

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

Motivated myself to do some ground cover on the layout then built the framework for another track crossing that will serve the miners village, coal trestle and the second coal mine. This should be the last one which makes me happy because they're a pain to get right. Tomorrow we should just get minor wind and rain from the approaching storm.

Hughie- Nice scene.

Chad- That looks very rich. I agree about Tom Cruise. The word in the Navy was that he treated the real sailors like crap during the original movie shooting.

Sherrel- Isn't it good to know your wife cares?

Willie- I'm glad you're healing well.

Guy- I tend to lean towards OCD about everything in it's place and clean. Interesting hopper.

Dave- Nice layout photo.

Smudge- The joys of DCC.

I hope everyone has a good night

 

[Smudge617]

LOUIS - - I do not have a clue as to which was the better plane. I would think it had more to do with the training and experience of the aviator? I was looking at all sorts of information after reading your question. I did read that the Hurricane could be turned in 9 minutes whereas the Spitfire took upwards of 20 minutes. AND I believe that I read that the Hurricane was responsible for downing more German A/C than the Spitfire?
The Mosquito was a phenomenal aircraft. Very interesting that a wooden plane carried no defensive armament, but relied on it's speed to escape any entanglement!

Technically the Hurricane brought down more enemy aircraft than the Spitfire, however, whereas the Spitfire went against enemy fighters, the Hurricane was mainly pitted against German bombers, of the total 1200 enemy aircraft brought down, over half were by Hurricane's.

The most successful fighter aircraft in WW2 was the Messerschmitt Bf 109.

As for the Mosquito, because of it's wooden and canvas construction it could take tremendous punishment from enemy AA guns and aircraft, there are numerous reports of AA shells and aircraft cannon fire passing through the airframe and apart from the holes the aircraft would still be able to fly, badly damaged aircraft were often flying the next day as they were easy to repair.

 

[Smudge617]

Finally got time to do some train "stuff", got this Athearn GP9 some time ago as a non runner, I've been trying off and on to get it running, but to no avail. Till today, taken me most of the day but I got it running, and decided to upgrade the lighting, which all went well.
Problem I then had was after I changed the long address CV, it wouldn't run on that address, but would still run on default, messed around with the CV's a bit, (changed CV29 to accept long addresses) but when I wrote to the decoder, the motor just buzzed, now it wont run on either the long or short address, and it wont read or write to the decoder, so although it's fixed, (in the fact I know it runs) it's not. Oh well tomorrow is another day.

Seems I buggered the decoder, removed it and motor works on DC, need to get a decoder tester I think, to double check it. Seems setting short address to 0 and CV29 to 38, plus long address to the loco number, may not have been a good idea, who knew !! At least it was a cheap Laisdcc decoder.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Seems I buggered the decoder, removed it and motor works on DC, need to get a decoder tester I think, to double check it. Seems setting short address to 0 and CV29 to 38, plus long address to the loco number, may not have been a good idea, who knew !! At least it was a cheap Laisdcc decoder.

Prolly if ya took your issue over to the "Electronic, wiring and DCC" section you would get better answers.

 

[Smudge617]

Prolly if ya took your issue over to the "Electronic, wiring and DCC" section you would get better answers.

Not looking for answers, what's done is done, it's always a learning curve in this hobby. . Just saying is all.

 

[Jaz avalley]

Good morning all,

45° and mostly sunny. Pretty stiff west wind, as it has been for the last few days. Glad it is Friday, will be working on the layout tomorrow, I have so many things going on there is sometimes a question of where to work next. Probably should finish connecting all the track and getting last of wiring done, but have a lot more fun putting in scenery and ballast. Maybe a little of both.

Flo - I will take a couple scrambled eggs, toast, and coffee.

Curt - Thank you!

Ken DJ - I think I will skip Maverick. I don't like Tom Cruise much anyways, in fact all actors that wear their politics or religion on their sleeves.

Guy - hope the fence work is done so we can see some more modelling!

Sherrel - downsizing, or rightsizing, I believe, to be very therapeutic.

Hughie - love the layout scene!

Jaz, Smudge - I think the royal family sets a good moral example for the country, or at least appears to attempt to. My opinion is that is a good thing!

more later, Dave LASM

Well the Queen does, her family are a little more sketchy, Prince William stuck with his college girl, and looks happy, Prince Charles was not allowed his love first time around he has her now divorce and all, he is somewhat kookie let’s hope he holds a good course, and that his son does too. I like Anne and Zara, some ‘Royals’ make me cringe, and one or two could go awol without any regrets, but hey who has a perfect family. but I do like the Queen, she and her husband steered a steady image, I loved his humour, very tongue in cheek, and he had the grace to stop driving after the car accident, and no cover ups or twisted lies. I think when we lose her it will be a real loss, and if I am honest I think she is not well and struggles with the loss of her husband. for those of us lucky to have a good marriage, the loss of the other half is a big hit (one member here knowing this all too recently)
Our politicians to my mind are best if not left to mature too long, Blair seemed a bright light at first turned out to be a right pain, and Johnson does himself no favours ducking and diving, when a humble apology would go down a lot better, but that said don’t like any of the other options at all, think his wife has too much power, but am pleased he is supporting the Ukrainians, hope he replenishes the kitty asap in case we are dragged in. ….best stop there before I get a slapped wrist. ;D
I am proud of my country, and I believe Americans can be proud of theirs, America gets a lot of flack, but frankly to my mind their presence has kept a volatile world safer, and they do not get enough respect.

 

[Jaz avalley]

Well howdy there internet peeps,

It's Troy again...

speaking of rail cams.... are we talking about cab-mounted cameras showing where the train is going? I'd watch those! My favorite channel on a Cruise Ship is the Front of the Ship channel. that's a camera mounted in the bridge. Love that channel. View of the ocean most days.

Need to go see mom today, and take her off to a doc appointment.

Thanks for keeping this place a sea of sanity. I'm in tooooo many political discussions over on the book of faces. I like coming here for the coffee, donuts, and photos of Her Royal Majesty.

I withdrew from faceache because I would let myself get drawn in to squabbles, occasionally standing up for people who then proved unworthy, and got fed up with their policies, here with a moderator I like I can step back and keep a sense of proportion, I too like the coffee shop for its humanity. A safe haven with a bit of friendly ribbing…..

 

[MikeInHubCity]

I have the Oscar!

Sherril- Mayer or The Grouch?
Smudge- my experience with being discharged(especially when it’s ER only) is that as soon as I get the word that they’re booting me out, they magically get in multiple meat wagons and/or whirlybirds. Sunday night(another concussion before work Sunday AM), it was a combination of both.

Found out last night that the church shooting in Ames is where a buddy of mine used to attend(before his psychotic ex went off the deep end & he went thru the Big D).
Todd- my train of thought usually leaves the station before I get to the platform.
Tom O- fuel prices up in the Hub City are $4.69/$5.14/$4.39(Reg/diesel/E85). Best wishes & thoughts and prayers for your treatment in HI. The next 3 days up here will struggle to get above the 60’s & rain on Sunday & Monday.

 

[Smudge617]

Well the Queen does, her family are a little more sketchy, Prince William stuck with his college girl, and looks happy, Prince Charles was not allowed his love first time around he has her now divorce and all, he is somewhat kookie let’s hope he holds a good course, and that his son does too. I like Anne and Zara, some ‘Royals’ make me cringe, and one or two could go awol without any regrets, but hey who has a perfect family. but I do like the Queen, she and her husband steered a steady image, I loved his humour, very tongue in cheek, and he had the grace to stop driving after the car accident, and no cover ups or twisted lies. I think when we lose her it will be a real loss, and if I am honest I think she is not well and struggles with the loss of her husband. for those of us lucky to have a good marriage, the loss of the other half is a big hit (one member here knowing this all too recently)
Our politicians to my mind are best if not left to mature too long, Blair seemed a bright light at first turned out to be a right pain, and Johnson does himself no favours ducking and diving, when a humble apology would go down a lot better, but that said don’t like any of the other options at all, think his wife has too much power, but am pleased he is supporting the Ukrainians, hope he replenishes the kitty asap in case we are dragged in. ….best stop there before I get a slapped wrist. ;D
I am proud of my country, and I believe Americans can be proud of theirs, America gets a lot of flack, but frankly to my mind their presence has kept a volatile world safer, and they do not get enough respect.

100% agree with your sentiments.

 

[Jaz avalley]

If you've seen the trailers for the movie Maverick, you've seen most of the in flight activity. The rest of the movie is just the drama between the antagonists of the story..

Fingers in ears….singing….not listening

 

[Smudge617]

Fingers in ears….singing….not listening

It's a Tom Cruise movie, we know the beginning, middle and end, just with planes this time.

 

[Jaz avalley]

It's a Tom Cruise movie, we know the beginning, middle and end, just with planes this time.

I never thought him good looking, but he has an engaging person, I really like. Any characters he has played, and if the worst I can throw at him is Scientology, best look to the sci fi writer who boasted better way to make cash is to start a religion and did, and buying yourself a first lass ticket to religion is no different to the history of many main stream religions, I prefer to hold my childhood innocence in religion and avoid all the nasty who ha that erupts present day. I respect others beliefs if others respect mine, and I do not preach my particular flavour, and have an overall tolerance of others with slightly different opinions or wider opinions as long as they do no harm to others, the Good Samaritan - as long as he is not mugged in the process.
Cocktail, Mission Impossible, his early work especially the feel goods, I do not watch horror horror an ok with the walking dead, but scary horror freaks me out, I like a comedy, a tongue in cheek, a win against the bad guys, historical drama where they play or skew the details annoys the living sxxx out of me, and I am partial to a good cowboy film, thanks to my dad I love John Wayne. I also hate apologists, I am sorry but I cannot be held responsible for stuff done by my country hundreds of years ago, and Brits were one of the first to abolish slaves, and the Americans bought slaves who had been enslaved and were being sold by others who do not get vilified for their actions, and much more importantly the slavery still carrying on around the world is totally ignored whilst we are guilted out of stuff done by our ancestors in a different time.
I see our police have short people wearing glasses, we should not have short woman on the front line because men take stupid risks protecting them, why we are not capable of being proud of ourselves annoys the living bejesus out of me. a woman flying a plane is fine by me, a fighter plane too, driving a tank especially in those with limited cab space, but on the front line carrying a pack and a gun and being expected to keep up with a regular sized bloke be serious few woman are capable, and those that are I have no issue with, but some that are getting in to police, the forces are not fit for purpose, I would say a sub would be ok but I dare say a sub commander would find females a potential issue. I am not saying that women should get a free pass whilst men take all the risks, just that certain jobs are not suitable for smaller women, and glasses wearing front line personnel is just stupid.
Chris Hemsworth prior to the Ghostbusters - cringe factor 10/10 and Chris Evans would make a nice 9 on my drool monitor, the other half is not as good looking but had a bod worthy of an 8 and in my book hits a good 7 or 8 in the looks department, enough that despite marriage the odd woman has tried sniffing about and been sent packing. Luckily other half tends to be oblivious, and 2 au pairs who took a shine freaked him out,and I was asked to replace them, which was done speedily. on a good day I would consider my other half better than Tom. although I am sure millions would disagree. The other half is somewhat follicle challenged nowadays although once sported an excellent flattop,luckily he has a nice shaped head wiggles eyebrows. Still I like Tom and his film parts, and will still watch the film despite some of you micromanaging the details, you won’t spoil it for me lol. I have seen the original several times with now flagging of enjoyment, I can even stomach his singing lol.

 

[TLOC]

I never thought him good looking, but he has an engaging person, I really like. Any characters he has played, and if the worst I can throw at him is Scientology, best look to the sci fi writer who boasted better way to make cash is to start a religion and did, and buying yourself a first lass ticket to religion is no different to the history of many main stream religions, I prefer to hold my childhood innocence in religion and avoid all the nasty who ha that erupts present day. I respect others beliefs if others respect mine, and I do not preach my particular flavour, and have an overall tolerance of others with slightly different opinions or wider opinions as long as they do no harm to others, the Good Samaritan - as long as he is not mugged in the process.
Cocktail, Mission Impossible, his early work especially the feel goods, I do not watch horror horror an ok with the walking dead, but scary horror freaks me out, I like a comedy, a tongue in cheek, a win against the bad guys, historical drama where they play or skew the details annoys the living sxxx out of me, and I am partial to a good cowboy film, thanks to my dad I love John Wayne. I also hate apologists, I am sorry but I cannot be held responsible for stuff done by my country hundreds of years ago, and Brits were one of the first to abolish slaves, and the Americans bought slaves who had been enslaved and were being sold by others who do not get vilified for their actions, and much more importantly the slavery still carrying on around the world is totally ignored whilst we are guilted out of stuff done by our ancestors in a different time.
I see our police have short people wearing glasses, we should not have short woman on the front line because men take stupid risks protecting them, why we are not capable of being proud of ourselves annoys the living bejesus out of me. a woman flying a plane is fine by me, a fighter plane too, driving a tank especially in those with limited cab space, but on the front line carrying a pack and a gun and being expected to keep up with a regular sized bloke be serious few woman are capable, and those that are I have no issue with, but some that are getting in to police, the forces are not fit for purpose, I would say a sub would be ok but I dare say a sub commander would find females a potential issue. I am not saying that women should get a free pass whilst men take all the risks, just that certain jobs are not suitable for smaller women, and glasses wearing front line personnel is just stupid.
Chris Hemsworth prior to the Ghostbusters - cringe factor 10/10 and Chris Evans would make a nice 9 on my drool monitor, the other half is not as good looking but had a bod worthy of an 8 and in my book hits a good 7 or 8 in the looks department, enough that despite marriage the odd woman has tried sniffing about and been sent packing. Luckily other half tends to be oblivious, and 2 au pairs who took a shine freaked him out,and I was asked to replace them, which was done speedily. on a good day I would consider my other half better than Tom. although I am sure millions would disagree. The other half is somewhat follicle challenged nowadays although once sported an excellent flattop,luckily he has a nice shaped head wiggles eyebrows. Still I like Tom and his film parts, and will still watch the film despite some of you micromanaging the details, you won’t spoil it for me lol. I have seen the original several times with now flagging of enjoyment, I can even stomach his singing lol.

JazA, not quite sure if I should be laughing or crying after reading? I am laughing hard enough to be having tears in the eyes. You go girl!

 

[McLeod]

Good Evening!

Just for the record, I like and respect the Queen. Her siblings are crap, but, the Queen is cool. She's a veteran of WWII, just so you know. Probably as far away from flying bullets as you can get, but still a veteran. I believe she was in the motor pool.

Tamiya paints and plastic plane models, do we get any sneak views….

Jaz avalley - I'm making this post especially for you. Here are a few photos from when I was an aircraft modeller.
All of the fighters shown here (1/72 scale), happen to be of British design. I've built them sporting true-to-life RCAF markings, though. The RCAF was flying along side the British with squadrons identified in the 400 series.

A Hawker Typhoon Ib of 440sqn RCAF

An early Hawker Hurricane Mk.I of No.1 Sqn., RCAF. It has a Watts 2-blade prop. The model is depicted at a time that was days before the war started, with the actual real aircraft still stationed in Canada. It was sent later to Britain, to fly in the BoB.:

A Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vb of 401sqn., RCAF.

And, this one is for Hughie. This is a DC-3 in 1/144 scale, which I believe is 'N' scale.

Time to get building an airport on the layout, Hughie!

See ya'll tomorrow!

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Saw the gas prices for no lead was $4.79 with diesel at $5.29. Total greed by the oil companies.

Sorry to see you post this! Like most everything - the price of crude oil is set by demand and/or an International consensus.

 

[IronBeltKen]

Good evening Shop Dwellers!

Thanks for all the "likes" on my Wednesday morning post.

Jury's still out as far as replacing the heat pump in the trainroom; the temp never got above 82*F even during the hottest part of Wednesday (when outside temp was 93*F) and I had it turned off all day. So no rush on getting it fixed, I can handle excessive warmth much better than cold. Outside temps have been significantly cooler since yesterday evening so haven't needed to turn it on anyway. I'm waiting for Amazon to deliver some activated carbon filter material on Saturday so I can cut out the right size to replace the one I've had in there, apparently there's only so many times that material can be washed under a faucet before it loses its effectiveness.

At least I know my central AC still has plenty of life left in it. The guy from the maintenance company did the annual inspection on Thursday, and said the "vitals" on the inside and outside units were all good, only needed to replace a kick-start capacitor. As long as no coolant leaks out, I can continue to use what I have. But if I ever lose the coolant, I'll need a new system because the coolant that is in there now (since 1997) is no longer legal to manufacture, and the newer stuff can't be used in it. Fingers crossed...

Finally got time to do some train "stuff", got this Athearn GP9 some time ago as a non runner, I've been trying off and on to get it running, but to no avail. Till today, taken me most of the day but I got it running, and decided to upgrade the lighting, which all went well.
Problem I then had was after I changed the long address CV, it wouldn't run on that address, but would still run on default, messed around with the CV's a bit, (changed CV29 to accept long addresses) but when I wrote to the decoder, the motor just buzzed, now it wont run on either the long or short address, and it wont read or write to the decoder, so although it's fixed, (in the fact I know it runs) it's not. Oh well tomorrow is another day.
View attachment 146807

Smudge - that Athearn Blue Box GP"9" (actually a GP7) looks like a later version of the very first HO scale geep I ever had, bought with saved-up allowance money when I was 13 and just starting out in the hobby. It was painted for Great Northern just like that one, but I wound up spray painting it dark blue and putting on C&O decals.

Willie - glad you got thru your procedure ok. I'm totally familiar with those delayed discharge processes; 2 days after I had my prostatectomy I was cleared for discharge at 9am, but the hospitalist didn't sign the papers until 4:00pm.

Good Night - and have a Pleasant Tomorrow!

 

[D&J RailRoad]

My modular club is setting up at an outdoor pavilion tomorrow in Manassas, VA. The railfest is all things rail at the city center. We will set up a few modules for a small operating oval by 9am, run trains throughout the afternoon then tear down by 4pm. I'll pack up a loco and a few cuts of spine cars with vans and a throttle then carry it on the motorcycle out there. Will have to be on the road about 5:45 to be there for the start of setup at 7am.

 

[PNKFLOYD]

Well, my modeling activities have finally paid off!
My SIL was off this week and we were able work on his storage shed enough to close it up.
We installed three aluminum double hung windows and built three large doors this week in three hot days.
I did 85% of the construction by myself due to family covid cases and his knee surgery and recovery.

All that remains to do is add wood trim around the windows and the battens on the front. I started the painting, but he said to leave it to him as he could paint an hour or two after work some days. If the rain holds off next week, I will help install the trim. It is much faster for one person to measure the batten length, let another person cut the batten and the first person can install the batten without having go up and down the ladder.

Here it is, all screwed and nailed together, no glue smears!

 

[Texas Hobo]

Time to get building an airport on the layout, Hughie!

Oddly enough, at one time the idea of a rural airfield was on the drawing board. By the time I added a turntable and 6 bay roundhouse, the airport just wasn't going to fit. N scale is 1/160., but that DC3 would have worked.