Running Bear's June 2026 Coffee Shop

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Took a chance today and called ScaleTrains regarding the three extra freight cars that they sent me, see post #927. Spoke with a nice lady named Laurie and explained that I hadn't ordered them and wasn't expecting them. She looked up something on her computer and then said, "It looks like somebody here made a mistake". I asked what I should do and her response was "Well, since you already have them, just keep them". So an early Happy Father's Day for me courtesy of ScaleTrains. Maybe it's because I have always posted nice things about them...Karma!
 
Took a chance today and called ScaleTrains regarding the three extra freight cars that they sent me, see post #927. Spoke with a nice lady named Laurie and explained that I hadn't ordered them and wasn't expecting them. She looked up something on her computer and then said, "It looks like somebody here made a mistake". I asked what I should do and her response was "Well, since you already have them, just keep them". So an early Happy Father's Day for me courtesy of ScaleTrains. Maybe it's because I have always posted nice things about them...Karma!
They have top notch customer service.

They sent out replacement trucks for the BNSF icicle reefers that had rolling issues on the first 2 runs. I have 8 of them so I requested 16
non powered trucks since mine aren't sound. and they sent me 16 powered trucks. I called them and they said a shipping label probably got stuck on the wrong padded envelope and they would send me out the right ones. They also told me to keep the wrong ones.
 
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Good morning Coffee Shop! It's Saturday, 64°F (18°C) and partly cloudy.:cool:


Weather:
Mostly cloudy then becoming partly cloudy through early afternoon then becoming mostly sunny. Isolated showers toward daybreak. Highs in the upper 70s. West winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.

Have a great day! ;)
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Well, howdy there internet peeps, and those with cars, extra ones, wet ones, or broken ones.

It's Troy again.

Wife has a couple of ball zucchini mature already in her container garden.

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She puts on her bee costume, and goes out every morning with cotton swab in hand to pollinate the flowers... the white specks in the dirt are crushed eggshells. the containers are the lower-tray self-watering type, where the roots can grow below the top pot, down into the water.

And she's still getting stem rot on some. So, more eggshells, and bonemeal applied to the soil to increase the calcium.

We're going to try letting the tanks go dry, and only watering from above. Just in case it's an overwatering problem.

But, she did get two of the ball zucchini harvested, and through the dehydrator.

We're off on a trek today to see a great-niece at her graduation open house. Definitely one that we worried wasn't going to make it through high school. And she did. So celebration is in order.

This girl had a rough situation. Her mother (my niece) was a delinquent, drugs, theft, theft from grandma. Spent time in jail. Broke grandma's heart to send her to jail, but grandma knew it had to happen.

Niece had three babies, all premies, when she had no job, married a drug dealer, basically gave the kids no chance of a normal life.

My sister, a single mom with her own 2nd teenage daughter still at home, took in the first two babies. The third went to the father's parents. All three kids ended up with emotional trauma from their own parents basically deserting them.

All three are struggling, but making it. So we're off to celebrate the wins!
 
73°F/65°F this morning under a flood watch. Hasn't rained yet, and may not this far south. Severe possible, but unlikely tomorrow.

Train session went well yesterday. It was the first time Willow had been in the train room. She laid under the table and was quiet.

Nothing going on today. I cut a small patch (20'x50') of grass yesterday that is a different variety of grass than the majority of the yard. It's a broadleaf grass that I think is Fescue. It grows faster than the rest of the yard so I knocked that down. I might cut the front today. That's a mixed bag up there for grass, but it's not overly tall at the moment.

Have a great Saturday! Servus!
 
Good morning all!

Should be a fairly nice day weather wise. Currently not a cloud in the sky with temps at 62F. High for today is supposed to reach 78F.

Today is the usual Saturday grocery run. We are also attending our nephews sons soccer game today at 11:30. We made it to a couple
this year but this is the last one for their summer league. Other than that, not much else planned.

Have a safe day everyone!
 
Good Morning All. Partly cloudy and 70°, might reach 90° today. Only reached 82° yesterday with a rainfall total of 3.15", most of which fell from 0530 until 0630.

Yesterday was quite mundane here on the SFW estate. Watched it rain until almost noon. Got all of my computer/software updates done and watched a few cab-ride videos; my favorite kinds. Even though I don't do them, many do remind me why I model all sides of my model railroad structures. I'll bite the bullet some day.
Once the dew evaporates today, I'll tackle come yard stuff including getting the pool chemical balance back in line. 3" of rain in an already full pool caused a lot of overflow out through the skimmer. Plus, I tend to have alkaline rain which throws things off even further.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I unboxed and test ran all of the newest rolling stock from ScaleTrains. As I posted yesterday, these are the first freight cars that I have gotten from them, so this is a new experience to me. The engines ran as expected; I already have 25 of them from the past few years. Some comments regarding their freight cars. First off, DELICATE. There's a lot of underbody details that I feel are not necessary since they can't be seen unless you model overturned cars. Secondly, Quality Control on their freight cars isn't up to par with their engines. I spent a lot of time reattaching loose parts and parts that were just floating around in the boxes when I opened them. I still have one unidentified part. There is one part of the brake rigging that I had to fix on 4 of the 5 cars, some on both ends. That was done after I changed all of the ST couplers for KD #148's. They include "long shank" couplers for anyone operating these cars on 22" radius curves. Unnecessary for me since my minimum on all main lines and passing sidings is 28" or greater. Another fix that I had to do on a couple of cars was to reattach the rotating bearing end-caps on a couple of axles. I found them loose in the boxes. It must be a common issue since they include 4 extra caps with each car.
Overall I am quite impressed and satisfied, not just because I got three extra cars. The level of detailing differences between the different road names was unbelievable. Subtle differences in the brake line routing, different placement of placards and brake wheels, meant that a lot of research went into these things. The only downside to me is the fact that two of the extra cars have roofwalks, which were 95% gone by the earliest part of my modeling era. However only I will notice. All wheels were in gauge and the weight was right according to NMRA guidelines. Couplers after I replaced them were correct height and they all ran smoothly. Will I buy more? Probably not since I already have over 800 freight cars. But the buy one engine get a freight car free sale (in my case 2.5 freight cars); was too good to pass up, especially since I had intended to get the engines anyway.
I'll get some pictures today. Maybe the website won't be as flaky tomorrow and I can post them.

Shortwrench - That's the first thing that I noticed when I got cataract surgery, was the brightness of colors. Nobody had told me about that beforehand.
Troy - Stem rot or Blossom End rot??? Blossom end rot is more common but both are caused by the same things, over-watering and Calcium deficiency. While the eggshells will work if ground finely, they are mainly for more long-term use in soil, as it takes several months for them to actually break down. The bone meal could help, but those plants look to be too mature to get any benefit now. But I wouldn't want to be the one to tell any woman that she's wrong!
Sad to read about the grand-niece and family. Heart-warming to read that she has made it to where she is today. Hope that the next stage in life is more positive.

While not really my type of music, the multi-talented musician Lionel Richie is 77 today.

Everybody have a wonderful Saturday.
 
Getting ready for another round of thunder storms today. The town about 25 miles south of me has gotten over 5 inches of rain in the last 48 hours, while I only have about 1.6. inches of rain. Today and tomorrow may drop another 3 inches. Flash flood warnings are out for our area.

Gotta go check on the club room where oour layout is stored this morning as the museum basement leaks when there is heavy rain storms
 
Is it just me, or has this entire forum become totally unusable to others as well??? Slow loading, database errors, pictures that don't show up (just the names), or complete nothingness. Can't even post a "like" any more. It's getting to be quite frustrating and a real pain in the ass to use. And let's quit blaming the damn bots. That's not the issue!
 
Is it just me, or has this entire forum become totally unusable to others as well??? Slow loading, database errors, pictures that don't show up (just the names), or complete nothingness. Can't even post a "like" any more. It's getting to be quite frustrating and a real pain in the ass to use. And let's quit blaming the damn bots. That's not the issue!
No, its not just you!
 


Morning All! 64 in the Brew City this morning, with a high of 73 under sunny skies. Pretty much perfect spring weather. I see the forum has the shakes again today. Pulled the trigger on a BLI GS-4 yesterday. I need another GS like I need another neck, but none of this is about need, is it? I got a very good recommendation on the model from a guy I know. Durable, good puller, and great detail that doesn't fall off if you give it a mean look. Plus, it's a de-skirted version that still has the Daylight cab and tender, which is what pulled that Overland mail I just assembled. All in all, irresistible. 🤷‍♀️ That's my story and I'm stuck with it. 🤣 Hope Y'all have a nice Saturday!
 
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