Running Bear's May 2022 Coffee Shop

[Smudge617]

Can someone explain why you use alcohol when ballasting, coz makes no sense to me why that helps.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Alcohol is supposed make the glue soak into the ballast easier. It's a more expensive way of doing what can be done just the same with a couple drops of dish soap in a spray bottle of water.

 

[troyphoto]

alcohol and washing up liquid help break the surface tension of the water, so it mixes easier and clings to whatever you're applying the glue to

 

[Boris]

Part of it is his impatience whereas Terry is ridiculously over patient which has worked out well for us and the last few years for him.

Yup, southern fried with mashed taters and corn on the cob, and an RC cola!

Tom: You're right, patience is the key to investing. I've been waiting to 1. Unload my mistakes at a better price, and 2 Picking up now undervalued quality at deep discount. With the algorithms used by the "big boys", this market can turn on a dime.

Karl: Now that's the way I like chickens.

Curt: I hope your AC is fixed today.

Spent the weekend doing fun stuff, while the wife was celebrating Mothers Day. The kids are too far away to get together more than once or twice a year. Saturday evening, I watched the replay stream of the Caps - Florida game. Great game, of course the Caps won. Sunday, I got to watch the Yankees first time this season. They were on "Prime TV". Then I watched the Nationals - Angels game on MLBTV. Nationals had the lead through 8.1 innings before before blowing it in the 9th. Manny Machado, whom they were too cheap to keep, paid them back with a walk off kit/RBI. That's Charma! Switched over to the second O's - Royals game. Thought I was in for a repeat, but the O's hung on to split the doubleheader. The sparse crowd for a Mothers Day Doubleheader spoke volumes. Having the lowest pay roll in Baseball is not a source of pride, and reflects badly on the skinflint owners. After dinner, I watched the stream of the St. Louis - Minnesota Game. The Blues played well and enjoyed seeing them win.

I spent some quality time on the model railroad. Started working on scenery and structures. I hope my ideas fit.

 

[TLOC]

Tom: You're right, patience is the key to investing. I've been waiting to 1. Unload my mistakes at a better price, and 2 Picking up now undervalued quality at deep discount. With the algorithms used by the "big boys", this market can turn on a dime.

Karl: Now that's the way I like chickens.

Curt: I hope your AC is fixed today.

Spent the weekend doing fun stuff, while the wife was celebrating Mothers Day. The kids are too far away to get together more than once or twice a year. Saturday evening, I watched the replay stream of the Caps - Florida game. Great game, of course the Caps won. Sunday, I got to watch the Yankees first time this season. They were on "Prime TV". Then I watched the Nationals - Angels game on MLBTV. Nationals had the lead through 8.1 innings before before blowing it in the 9th. Manny Machado, whom they were too cheap to keep, paid them back with a walk off kit/RBI. That's Charma! Switched over to the second O's - Royals game. Thought I was in for a repeat, but the O's hung on to split the doubleheader. The sparse crowd for a Mothers Day Doubleheader spoke volumes. Having the lowest pay roll in Baseball is not a source of pride, and reflects badly on the skinflint owners. After dinner, I watched the stream of the St. Louis - Minnesota Game. The Blues played well and enjoyed seeing them win.

I spent some quality time on the model railroad. Started working on scenery and structures. I hope my ideas fit.

What stream are you watching the NHL playoffs on? I still am using

Streameast.xyz

and love it. It takes getting used to entering it but once you do IMO it’s great

TomO

 

[Boris]

What stream are you watching the NHL playoffs on? I still am using

I was using ESPN+ for the Hockey...Anything that is exclusive and live on ESPN, becomes on demand on ESPN+ after the game. The St. Louis game was exclusive to TNT nationally. I was able to follow the local broadcast, and had the option of the St. Louis feed or the Minnesota feed. Local rights end after the first round, and second - third round games will be exclusive to TNT. Finals live on ABC and ESPN+. Not sure if any of this will be available later. I think you gave me the link to Streameast, last Fall. It didn't work out, possibly because I don't use a VPN. (I should do this). FWIW, I was able to access this through the Roku device on my TV. My lap top was off most of the weekend.

Side bar: WPIX - 11 in New York has been carrying Yankees games since 1946 or so. More recently, they had a deal for X# of Yankees and X# of Mets games carried over the air, ever since both teams developed their own cable/satellite outlets. (YES and SNY). This year, the rights to games normally allocated to WPIX 11, have been sold to streaming outlets...Apple TV has the Mets one day / week, and Prime TV has the Yankees generally on Friday. Since we use Prime, we get the Yankees, but since we don't subscribe to Apple TV, we don't get the Mets. MLBTV still has blackout rules inside markets to protect cable providers . It appears that for the first time, no New York Baseball will be carried on over the air TV, unless it is a National Fox or NBC game.

 

[MilwRoader_Steve]

Curses and Befoil! My first NHL game watched this year and the Wild forgot to show. Oh well, Congrats to the Blues who played a helluva home game. Three game series, now. My dau put her Sling account on my TV so she and hubby can watch Premiere league footy (and me too!). Looks like SLing is a real deal, I may have to try it once she leaves for Wash DC in two weeks. They are moving out o their apartment and getting rid of stuff, so will prob be here on Thursday until they fly to DC on Sat 22 May. Will be sad to see them go.

Petros and she came over Saturday for a seafood grill to honor Mom. Saturday was gorgeous here and Sunday forecast pretty gray and chilly, so Saturday was the day. He brought over all his Scotch Single Malt bottles ad well, no one needs THREE bottles of Talisker, so we killed one. We got more than a little toasted! But dinner was great and the girls had fun watching us. But I ended up doing way too much with the knee and was not in great shape yesterday or today. Another quiet day in for me. Tomorrow the professional life ramps back up so taking advantage of the quiet day. First PT appt on Wednesday afternoon. I have been very diligent doing the exercises they sent me home with, so hopefully that won't be too bad.

I want to run trains some today and maybe clear off the workbench so to start a plastic model building project: Walthers small CBQ coaling tower. I do not think I am up to crawling under the table yet, or doing the serious track laying to finish the interior and give destinations for the train cars.

Crazy weather here. We had a freeze last week and Thursday supposed to hit 87.

 

[Jaz avalley]

Acetone will melt the model away too.

Try nail varnish remover with a cotton bud, the acetone is massively thinned then, try one only on a metal (stainless steel bowl you do not care about if ruined -old dog bowl)

FYI SUPER GLUE DEBOnDER is for sale on eBay etc, which sounds safer, and specific.

Follow instructions carefully, ensure you are in a well ventilated room, just in case, try one only, go away, come back, limiting your exposure to ny effects from the chemicals.

As some one who has a love hate relationship with glue, you have all my sympathies, the pylon hanging from my finger with super glue was removed with nail varnish remover.

 

[Jaz avalley]

Good morning. It is overcast and heading to 77f degrees in So. Central Wisconsin. I could not fall back to sleep. Very nervous as I have a CT chest scan and then a Ultra Sound this morning. 2 procedures I have easily done countless times but this time has kicked up my anxiety. The doctor has given me a sedative I have only used for the long MRI procedures. Needless to say Terry will be the chauffeur this morning.

Have a great day
TomO

Let Terry take over, drive and organise, avoid coffee consider a tea for calming the nerves. Plan to do something to reward yourself for getting through this, if your not picking you nails, chewing them, or doing anything else, consider putting some small bits and bobs in your pocket to DO NOT use metal, plastic eg buttons with different textures, and yes sweets would count For instance correctly identifying, of course you cannot eat in the. machines, but something you can play with in your hand (no jokes pls ) whilst stuck there, having recently had my ankle done and my head out side thankfully you have my sympathies. Hope it gives you a chuckle if nothing else.

edit= ooh ooh a dice with dots try to find the 1,2,3,4,5,6. Not metal!

 

[chadbag]

First of all I wish to say Thank You to everyone who gave me advice on my Mantua 4-6-2. You made the best decision with the information you had. I hope and pray that this will give you more information.
I am 88 years old, have lazy eye syndrome, I Goggled and found no information on how to remove that specific decoder. I have never installed or removed a decoder and before I do that I would I would set it on a track somewhere on my layout just to look at. I really like the way it looks is one of the reasons why I bought it in the first place. Of course if it could head up a consist I would have more happiness. Mantua engines with a die cast boilers and diesels with 8 wheel drive/pick up really pull good!!

Can you post a picture of what it looks like with the decoder in? Some are just pulled out and a "blank" inserted to restore circuit continuity.

Others, of course, are much more complicated.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Partly cloudy and a muggy 74°, with a relative humidity of 85%. It's breezy this morning with south winds of 12-15 mph which offers a bit of a relief. The weather geeks at the NWS continued their spotless record of being quite far off with the forecast, in this case thankfully. The high for yesterday was predicted to be 97°, but it never got above 91°. Today we're shooting for 93°.

Had a nice gathering with the two daughters and families yesterday, but it shot most of the day. I don't like brunches. The heavy dew kept the early morning from being productive and when they left, it was time for a nap. It was a longer than usual one since I didn't sleep well Saturday night. Last night I slept for 7.5 hours which lately is good for me. And only two potty breaks!
I did mow for about 30 minutes with the new 21" electric mower. My 54" garden tractor is still at the shop. Still getting used to the electric gizmo. One thing that I haven't gotten used to, is removing the battery and recharging it after every use! Eventually that will become second nature. It will run for longer than I run it right now...it is supposed to be good for 3/4 acre! But no way could I do that in one outing. Especially with a 21" cutting width!

Thanks once again for the likes and comments regarding the stuff that I posted yesterday; Guy, Karl, Gary, Smudge, Jaz, Rick, Louis, Tom O, Sherrel, Hughie, Mike, Curt, IB Ken, Mikey, Steve J, James, Patrick, Joe.

Onward to the train shed. I did spend the late afternoon in the air conditioned train shed and started my next little project on my lengthy list. This involves a structure that I picked up from the consignment table at my LHS while he was still in business. It's one of those "Houses of Yesteryear" structures that was manufactured by various manufacturers in the 80's and 90's.

Several things need to be fixed on it. First, there is several bad glue leakage points on the roof.

One of the front railings is missing. Note that my tiny spider friends are squatting here.

And an always present sore point with me is the sewer vent stack abruptly stops at the eave.

The roof wasn't any problem. While I didn't have an exact paint match, I was going to paint the whole thing anyway. I used a craft paint, Apple Barrel Forest Green for that.

The front railing was made from a piece of .040" Evergreen styrene rod, that I notched slightly. I then used Testor's Liquid Glue to soften the styrene and bent it into shape. Prior to that, I drilled a couple of holes to accept the ends since there were none there to begin with.

That's where I left off.

Guy - I didn't see you on either of the rides! Nice retro engineering on the Sylvan vehicle.
Gary - I raised chickens years ago, Rhode Island Reds. 60 hens and 15 roosters, most of whom quickly ended up in the freezer. It does tie one down if you don't have someone who can step in for any absence over two days. At the time, I gave eggs to the two neighbors who now give some to me. Most were sold at work though. Biggest problem was getting the cartons back! No heater was needed in our climate other than an overhead flood light.
There are no fruits or veggies that chickens will not eat. There are no insects that chickens will not eat. There are no weeds that chickens will not eat.
Grocery eggs here are now $1.49/dozen for extra large; up from $0.89 eighteen months ago.
Tom O - Stock market is a real mess, but a bigger mess for me is dealing with T Rowe Price regarding my late brothers retirement investments that I inherited. Their rules and waiting periods to set up accounts and for moving from ETF's to money market before I move them to my own accounts, cost me $10K Thursday! Another $2.5K Friday. I am not complaining because it's "free money" to me to begin with, but still. They also grossly miscalculated the beneficiary shares for my two sisters and have to do theirs all over. And each investment person (four so far for me) has the balls to recommend keeping my money with them!
Regarding the number of Covid deaths in China - a real telling statistic is the number of cell phones that have been deactivated in the last 2.5 years. I recall the number 40 million that I read, but many of those were foreign guest workers that had to leave. Still the numbers are high???
Best wishes on the procedures this morning.
Curt - Good luck today with the A/C and washer.
IB Ken - That is indeed a dog carcass. I took that picture on some unfenced land nearby that had been used as an animal dumping ground for years until the owner fenced it a few years ago.
Nice use of the unused workbench.

Everyone have a great day. Today is Billy Joel's birthday so be prepared for lots of his stuff on satellite radio today.

 

[Jaz avalley]

as for chickens?... well, I don't eat eggs.

Not allergic. Just don't care for the smell, taste, nor texture

Whenever someone asks how I like my eggs, I say "In a cake mix"

Liar liar pants on fire, you state you do not eat eggs, then you admit you do…..chuckles…..only saying…..grins pokes out tongue ……then runs

…pedantic, moi?

 

[Jaz avalley]

Good Morning All. Partly cloudy and a muggy 74°, with a relative humidity of 85%. It's breezy this morning with south winds of 12-15 mph which offers a bit of a relief. The weather geeks at the NWS continued their spotless record of being quite far off with the forecast, in this case thankfully. The high for yesterday was predicted to be 97°, but it never got above 91°. Today we're shooting for 93°.

Had a nice gathering with the two daughters and families yesterday, but it shot most of the day. I don't like brunches. The heavy dew kept the early morning from being productive and when they left, it was time for a nap. It was a longer than usual one since I didn't sleep well Saturday night. Last night I slept for 7.5 hours which lately is good for me. And only two potty breaks!
I did mow for about 30 minutes with the new 21" electric mower. My 54" garden tractor is still at the shop. Still getting used to the electric gizmo. One thing that I haven't gotten used to, is removing the battery and recharging it after every use! Eventually that will become second nature. It will run for longer than I run it right now...it is supposed to be good for 3/4 acre! But no way could I do that in one outing. Especially with a 21" cutting width!

Thanks once again for the likes and comments regarding the stuff that I posted yesterday; Guy, Karl, Gary, Smudge, Jaz, Rick, Louis, Tom O, Sherrel, Hughie, Mike, Curt, IB Ken, Mikey, Steve J, James, Patrick, Joe.

Onward to the train shed. I did spend the late afternoon in the air conditioned train shed and started my next little project on my lengthy list. This involves a structure that I picked up from the consignment table at my LHS while he was still in business. It's one of those "Houses of Yesteryear" structures that was manufactured by various manufacturers in the 80's and 90's.
View attachment 145673
View attachment 145674
View attachment 145675
Several things need to be fixed on it. First, there is several bad glue leakage points on the roof.
View attachment 145676
One of the front railings is missing. Note that my tiny spider friends are squatting here.
View attachment 145677
And an always present sore point with me is the sewer vent stack abruptly stops at the eave.
View attachment 145678
The roof wasn't any problem. While I didn't have an exact paint match, I was going to paint the whole thing anyway. I used a craft paint, Apple Barrel Forest Green for that.
View attachment 145679
The front railing was made from a piece of .040" Evergreen styrene rod, that I notched slightly. I then used Testor's Liquid Glue to soften the styrene and bent it into shape. Prior to that, I drilled a couple of holes to accept the ends since there were none there to begin with.
View attachment 145680
View attachment 145683
View attachment 145682
That's where I left off.

Guy - I didn't see you on either of the rides! Nice retro engineering on the Sylvan vehicle.
Gary - I raised chickens years ago, Rhode Island Reds. 60 hens and 15 roosters, most of whom quickly ended up in the freezer. It does tie one down if you don't have someone who can step in for any absence over two days. At the time, I gave eggs to the two neighbors who now give some to me. Most were sold at work though. Biggest problem was getting the cartons back! No heater was needed in our climate other than an overhead flood light.
There are no fruits or veggies that chickens will not eat. There are no insects that chickens will not eat. There are no weeds that chickens will not eat.
Grocery eggs here are now $1.49/dozen for extra large; up from $0.89 eighteen months ago.
Tom O - Stock market is a real mess, but a bigger mess for me is dealing with T Rowe Price regarding my late brothers retirement investments that I inherited. Their rules and waiting periods to set up accounts and for moving from ETF's to money market before I move them to my own accounts, cost me $10K Thursday! Another $2.5K Friday. I am not complaining because it's "free money" to me to begin with, but still. They also grossly miscalculated the beneficiary shares for my two sisters and have to do theirs all over. And each investment person (four so far for me) has the balls to recommend keeping my money with them!
Regarding the number of Covid deaths in China - a real telling statistic is the number of cell phones that have been deactivated in the last 2.5 years. I recall the number 40 million that I read, but many of those were foreign guest workers that had to leave. Still the numbers are high???
Best wishes on the procedures this morning.
Curt - Good luck today with the A/C and washer.
IB Ken - That is indeed a dog carcass. I took that picture on some unfenced land nearby that had been used as an animal dumping ground for years until the owner fenced it a few years ago.
Nice use of the unused workbench.

Everyone have a great day. Today is Billy Joel's birthday so be prepared for lots of his stuff on satellite radio today.

Nice building love all the detail

 

[moermusic]

last thurs I got to take my parka & shirt off, so therefore no longer had an excuse to not tidy the yard. was 25C The 40 volt blower & mower were the tools of choice also spaded the garden bed [4x8 ft] & threw in some carrot seed. rehung the pretend wasp nest. took all day due to lungs pretty much shot & being so warm ,needing *refreshment* breaks.
I am going to guess that Guy is getting or got overnight snow. too darn cold everywhere for me. !

 

[logandsawman]

Good afternoon all,

Nice to see the familiar gang, if you missed it we spent 8 nights out of town, to and back from
Arkansas.

First, some updates - Steve, too bad about the knee. Sounds like a bit too much partying?

Wilie - your new two story house is really getting dressed up, looking forward to the completed project!

Next, this is where we stayed in Arkansas:

These are CCC cabins built in 1933. Lots of this rock everywhere, esp. on the hiking trails. We hiked about 4 miles each day. Only rained on our day of departure, otherwise upper 70's to 82°.

Nice place to take an afternoon snooze, too:

Place had hot/cold running water and Direct TV. More channels than our antenna TV we enjoy at home.

Lastly, I totally cleaned the train workbench before we left, so had this wonderful clean space to work in when we got back:

For me, I love the clean work space.

I will be catching up all week, I am sure

more later, Dave

 

[troyphoto]

Liar liar pants on fire, you state you do not eat eggs, then you admit you do…..chuckles…..only saying…..grins pokes out tongue ……then runs

…pedantic, moi?

I do not eat eggs prepared as "eggs" - which is true if one gets the semantics correct:

How you want your eggs, Sunny side up?
Nope
Scrambled?
Nope
Over Easy?
Nope
Omelet
Nope
Boiled?
Nope
Devilled?
Nope
Eggnog?
Oh, heck the Firetruck-in NO! Blech!
(I know I'm forgetting some types, but I don't eat them)

Now, if the eggs are the "binder" in the recipe involving some sort of flour etc, I'm interested. Cakes, cookies, ice cream, etc.

 

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

The AC is up and running. When the thermostat was turned on it was 86 F in the house. I just checked and it's 81 F currently and noticeably cooler. I have turned off all the portable fans. The washing machine is toast, so we went out and bought one that will be delivered tomorrow. I'm ready for the appliance drama to be done. I should be able to finish the track cleaning tomorrow, also tomorrow, I have a retirement party to go to for a friend I worked closely with at RCFD.

Jaz- Very nice drawings and excellent job on the tower.

Louis- Phil is doing OK, not great, but OK.

Ken D&J- Ouch! Sorry to hear about that.

IB Ken- And women wonder why guys don't read instructions!

Gary- I hope you feel better.

TomO- I hope it went well today.

Patrick- My glue blend is 1 part Elmers, 1 part water, and 1 part RA. Before applying I spray the area with RA, then apply the glue with an eyedropper. I also brush straight Elmers on the cork shoulders and sprinkle with ballast before I do the track.

Joe- I hope your knee feels better soon.

Dave- Sounds like you had a great time. Neat looking rental.

I hope everyone has a good night.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Scale Trains had a few tenders at the back of the bottom shelf, so I was able to order one. I'll do some surgery on this one to see if I can fix it but I have the new one on its way in case this turns into an abortion non-recoverable mess. Didn't want to trigger anyone.

 

[Smudge617]

alcohol and washing up liquid help break the surface tension of the water, so it mixes easier and clings to whatever you're applying the glue to

I think one or the other would work, both seems a little bit of a overkill.

 

[Smudge617]

Try nail varnish remover with a cotton bud, the acetone is massively thinned then, try one only on a metal (stainless steel bowl you do not care about if ruined -old dog bowl)

FYI SUPER GLUE DEBOnDER is for sale on eBay etc, which sounds safer, and specific.

Follow instructions carefully, ensure you are in a well ventilated room, just in case, try one only, go away, come back, limiting your exposure to ny effects from the chemicals.

As some one who has a love hate relationship with glue, you have all my sympathies, the pylon hanging from my finger with super glue was removed with nail varnish remover.

That's shocking Jazz