Running Bear's March 2025 Coffee Shop

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kbkchooch said:
I cannot abide with the plastic couplers after having more than 1 knuckle fail on trains that were not even that long. (30 cars) When I was doing the modular club thing years ago 60-100 car trains were the norm, and plastic couplers and wheels were strictly verboten.
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That is a consideration I do not have to contend with, as my largest train is maybe 20 cars, and the 148s I'm standardizing with are Metal Kadee. Over all, I like the way Accumates operate, but I'm not going to back pedal here, I have some Athearns with their stock junk to replace first. I have entirely too many cars. Intermountain wheels are my standard FWIW.
 
kbkchooch said:
I cannot abide with the plastic couplers after having more than 1 knuckle fail on trains that were not even that long.
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I have never had an operating Accumate fail. I've probably got 40+. McHenry's on the other hand, ugggh! I think that my newest Atlas cars have Accumates also. Mostly I have Kadee #5's followed by #148's The Kadee # 158's just don't seem to work with any other non-scale coupler.
 


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Good morning! It's 41°F in Tipton.
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bnsf971 said:
And as I was backing out of a parking space at the store, a woman threw her truck door open into the rear fender of the car, making a long scratch. She immediately shut the door and took off.
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Here in the U.K. report the incident to the Police as a 'hit and run'. The police have to find the driver as the said driver does not know if anyone was injured or worse, killed.
Taking that scenario and you were injured and died within a year (no matter the cause) the driver is guilty of manslaughter (or murder even). That is why the police have to find the driver.
 


NorthBrit said:
Taking that scenario and you were injured and died within a year (no matter the cause) the driver is guilty of manslaughter (or murder even). That is why the police have to find the driver.
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It works that way here too. My coworkers husband was involved in an accident that left him paralyzed last September. He recently passed away due to complications from his injuries. The woman that ran the red light that caused the accident is now being charged with vehicular manslaughter.
 
NorthBrit said:
Here in the U.K. report the incident to the Police as a 'hit and run'. The police have to find the driver as the said driver does not know if anyone was injured or worse, killed.
Taking that scenario and you were injured and died within a year (no matter the cause) the driver is guilty of manslaughter (or murder even). That is why the police have to find the driver.
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In this case, the damage occurred on private property, and the damage was less than $1000, so, no police. And since my deductible is $1000, no insurance, either.
 
Good morning. It’s 39f actual degrees and it feels the same. High later is mid 60’s. North Central Wisconsin (about 75 miles north of me) though is expecting snow this afternoon.

I passed on an operating session today to stick around with Terry. Her cataract surgery last week Monday went well. The next surgery is the 24th next Monday. There are a few unrelated issues to the eyes that are keeping me home. I feel better being here and she won’t admit it but I know she does too. Big event today is a trip to a grocery store I detest going into. It’s a now Kroger owned store and since Kroger purchased it a few years ago it’s really gone down hill IMO. I really hate self check out and that’s what they mainly have here. If a manned checkout is open it’s a rare event there.

After this grocery run I will venture down to the bench.

Enjoy the day
 
Good Morning All. Clear and 59°, still dark. Headed back into the mid-80's again today, then a cool front tomorrow before noon or so.

Yesterday went well, corned beef was excellent. Some new activity in the garden as the green peas that I planted on 3/7 have begun emerging. All but one of the 30 Tomato seeds that I started indoors look good. They have spent a little time outside lately, not too much because of the strong winds though. First set of "real" leaves are beginning to grow. When I do set them in the garden, they'll be about 3 weeks behind the nursery reared ones that I will buy. Currently looking at a March 30 to April 5 window for putting them in the garden. A look at the long-range weather forecast shows that they (Tomatoes) could be planted now, but they won't grow any because they don't like the soil as cold as it currently is; even if it doesn't freeze until next fall. Forty five years of experience bears me out.
Mowing and general yardwork is the agenda for today. I'll probably rinse last week's dust storm dirt off the second car, primary one was done Saturday.

I started another small project out in the train shed yesterday. If you remember, I bought this billboard kit a couple of weeks ago when I visited the LHS.
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I'm getting ready to install one on the layout as a free-standing unit, so I got things together for one of them.
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I'm using the older style wooden walkway and lights (non-working) on the right. It's assembled and painted but I shouldn't be surprised here since it is a Walther's kit, but the signs provided with the kit don't fit the billboard itself.
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Certainly contrary to the picture on the packaging. Eight different signs are provided and they are all the same size. I'll call Walther's today to see if they have the correct size. If not, I will have to figure the % to copy and resize and print new ones with the computer. I'm not mathematically inclined enough to do this readily, so it will take time to figure it out.
I'll set it aside and do something else in the meantime.

Todd - Yes, cataract surgery was easy but there are a lot of follow-up visits to the ophthalmologist.
John - As you probably already know, mobile homes are quite popular in the rural areas around here. Since I model generic "flatlands USA", I needed plenty of them. Surprised that you could still find a NuComp kit; just be aware that it has it's quirks regarding building it.
Chad - Rueben sandwiches are top-notch. I see a few in my lunches coming up this week.

Y'all have a great Tuesday.
 
Good morning to all.................

My Walthers Heritage Furniture back ground kit arrived yesterday. As usual, I have learned to go to YouTube to see how others approached building a kit, Walthers or otherwise. And I learned there was a mistake in the instructions in the Heritage Furniture kit. It has to do with cementing the building corners together. Glad I did my search and I was looking on how others had painted their models. Hey, this old man needs all the help I can get.

Got some more track laid yesterday. My problem is I can't find enough weights to hold down the track while the silicone adhesive sets up. I really don't want to empty my pantry and carry all my canned goods to the train room. I can only get about nine feet of track down at a time. Lots of time spend drilling holes for track feeders, switch throw rods and holes for wire to my powered frogs. Plus I'm a bit of a perfectionists, check, check again and recheck.

Back to the train room later today. A quick trip to town for cat food and some human food.

For what ever its worth, I use Kadee couplers on all my stuff that has a coupler. I use the standard head size not the scale head. It works for me so I stick with things that work. I like to use the short shank couplers on most of my rolling stock. Some may wonder, if I'm still building a layout why would I be talking about my rolling stock ? I was a member of a couple of RR clubs back when I lived in Dallas and still build/buy cars in anticipation of completing my layout.

Willie..........I found the NuComp trailer kit from a guy in Canada. That is the package that took 11 days to travel from FT worth Texas to Seymour (160 miles). The package made it from Canada to Los Angeles to Dallas in 4 days. Thanks for the construction "heads-up".

So much to do and so little time.
Take care...........John
 
Uncoupling devices. I generally use bamboo skewers from the grocery store. But in darker layout areas the depth perception was kind of iffy and I’d occasionally have to touch one of the cars and use the skewer. Touching cars is frowned upon on our operating groups. I did some structure design work for a group member and he recommended “the lighted uncoupling tool”. About a week later a friend gifted me with one.
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The plastic cylinder attaches to the LED lit end of the tool and shines down above the couplers

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The dental cleaning brush slips between the couplers and with an easy twist the units are uncoupled


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It works very nicely and the light allows you to see what you are doing. Available I’m told from EBay, 2 for $20
 


That crazy spring weather. Yesterday it hit 60. It snowed over night a little and we woke up to this. This may be partly melted from what it was when the family got up. I had trouble sleeping so ended up getting out of bed a bit later.

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In other train news, as I've explained before, my main DCC command station is a Digikeijs DR5000. Digikeijs was a Dutch company and had this really nifty multi-protocol command station. They were sold in the US by Iron Planet Hobbies and probably some others, but I got mine directly from Germany from Modellbahn Shop Lippe. Digikeijs also had a bunch of other things like boosters, various switch decoders, occupancy detectors etc.

Anyway, the guy who designed it and wrote the software for it and the Digikeijs company had a falling out of some sort (I think they fired him or something but I don't really know -- I am sure its documented somewhere on the net). Digikeijs kept making the stuff and probably hired someone to fix bugs etc but eventually they went bankrupt.

The guy who had designed it and wrote the software has started his own company, YaMoRC (Yet another model railroad company) http://yamorc.de/ . They've designed a new command station YD7010 and also have an upgraded DR5000-level station that they sell called YD7001, And they have various other modules as well. The YD7001 is basically a DR5000 with new firmware and an upgraded network (WiFi/LAN) module called YD9401. They also sell this module separately so you can upgrade your own DR5000.

While I plan on some day buying the YD7010 command station, their new super station, with my current situation of no job etc it's not in the cards. However, I did order, and yesterday it arrived, this updated LAN/Wifi module YD9401 for my DR5000. As I am writing an iOS/Mac based throttle (eventually a lot more), and am currently active in converting what I had already done over to some new technology I am trying to add to my resume, I got the upgrade because it expands the protocols and capabilities of my existing command station and lets me test multiple protocols etc at the moment. And it's also supported, while the stock DR5000 really isn't supported as the company went bust. (The guy who runs YaMoRC and who did the original DR5000 helps answer questions and stuff as he can -- provides as much support as he can).

Anyway, this upgrade module came yesterday and now I have to figure out how to get it installed. There weren't any instructions though the YaMoRC website does link to some YouTube videos, which I have not seen yet, and which I assume show how to do it.

For those interested in this companies products, in the US they are sold at Iron Planet Hobbies. In the UK at DCC Train Automation and a few other places. This is their "where to buy" list from their website:

Where to Buy – Yet Another MOdel Railroad Company

yamorc.de yamorc.de

They have a bunch of different occupancy/feedback modules for various technologies/uses, a booster that can be used with any command station, and a bunch of different service/switch decoder/controllers, and other stuff.

Also, if you have a working DR5000 and are looking to part with it at a reasonable price in the US, I might be interested. I kind of want a stock one to test my software against and as a backup.
 
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