Running Bear's May 2026 Coffee Shop

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Well, howdy there internet peeps.

It's Troy again

After sleeping on it, and having my morning plate of bacon...

I ordered a box of Atlas code 83 HO track from Trainworld. I've also emailed the local N-scale club asking if it's all right to post sales to their email group. I'll post my for sale stuff here and there first before I venture into the Fleabay world.

Track is a pain to ship so I hope it's local sales.

I spent some time chatting with ClaudeAI last night, working through some scenarios for the layout. The worst thing about the switch in scale will be losing a couple of scenes that I didn't have formed yet.

I'll put the Mill here... where will the river be??? or...
I'll have to condense the army base down to this four foot section...

That's the joy of planning according to the Steve Brown "regular guy" way.

The good news is that if I include the Civil War re-enactors on the layout, I've already got a bunch painted in the correct scale!

I've got some Zombie STLs for 3D printing (from the Walking Dead line up) I should probably start working on dowscaling those to 1:87 from 1:56 and see if I can get the printing dialed in.

That's all for now.
 
Good morning Coffee Shop! It's Monday, 70°F (21°C) and mostly clear. :cool:
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Weather:
Sunny toward daybreak then partly cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms through early afternoon. Mostly cloudy with showers and numerous thunderstorms late this afternoon. Highs in the mid 80s. South winds 15 to 20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph. Chance of rain 80 percent.
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Have a great day!;)
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troyphoto said:
The good news is that if I include the Civil War re-enactors on the layout, I've already got a bunch painted in the correct scale!

I've got some Zombie STLs for 3D printing (from the Walking Dead line up) I should probably start working on dowscaling those to 1:87 from 1:56 and see if I can get the printing dialed in.
Click to expand...
Civil War soldiers fighting the Walking Dead. That is an interesting concept!
Steam engines hauling artillery and troops to blow up zombies?
 


Good morning all!

Monday Monday.........

Currently its 72F with an expected high of around 75. Loos like they have taken most of the rain out of the forecast. There is a chance
between 11am-2pm. Looks like the severe weather is all going to be north of me.

Nothing really going on at the moment. Will be doing a few things around the house later after I get my daughter to school.

Have a safe day everyone!
 
Good Morning All!
44F @ 78% dark, although porch is wet from rain during the night.

The Price we pay: Y'all are not thinking back far enough. Sure, buy a brand new widget then try to sell it in a year or so. Probably won't get what you spent on it. For material goods, that is probably true for just about anything: cars, trucks, stereo equipment .etc. Wait 10 years or more. Case in point. I have unopened Campbell kits that are at least 4 times the original price. E.Suydam also. Ya and they are kits: which nobody builds now days. Wishers, probably. I even have NiB Athearn engines that are more than 3 times the original price. Roundhouse and others ... meh. The Bigboy's and Challengers I acquired less than 10 years ago have doubled in price. Some things age well, others - not. Maria asked me what she should do with the 1000's of RR items I have in case I go before she does. Sell them, Donate them. Selling takes some ( alot of ) time. You are gonna get low ball offers for the whole nine yards of which you can decide. Cherry pick which takes more time finding out which/what could be a better price sold single. In @troyphoto's case and because it looks like he doesn't have that much stuff find a kid old enough to understand what s/he is getting and donate it - or - post it here or other places, either the works, or singularly. In any event, you either get a few $$$ out of it, or just knowing it went to a good place.

Keyboard: I have always liked wired keyboards ( PS2 or Din ) but those are tough to find nowadays. My BT fav's are Logitec KB/Mouse combo's. Got a new one for the Dau's computer - no more removable batteries - all USB charging. Not sure if I like that or not. If in the middle of something and one, the other or both die, ya can't just put batteries in and continue; ya have to wait for USB to charge the things. In my case, I have trouble remembering what I was doing when I walk into another room - given 2 or 3 hours of waiting for charging - thought/memory is out the window. Oh, and with almost all of my keyboards, ya can't see what is on top of most of the keys. Of course, backspace key goes first....

Lil is now 10 days old and quite the sh.t. Weighed in at 5.25Lbs yesterday. Looks to be a rock solid goat. Jake has taken her 'under his wing' and is involved with everything she does.

L8r
 
PNKFLOYD said:
Civil War soldiers fighting the Walking Dead. That is an interesting concept!
Steam engines hauling artillery and troops to blow up zombies?
Click to expand...
Conrail era... but why not have all hands and rifles on deck?
ctclibby said:
In @troyphoto's case and because it looks like he doesn't have that much stuff find a kid old enough to understand what s/he is getting and donate it - or - post it here or other places, either the works, or singularly. In any event, you either get a few $$$ out of it, or just knowing it went to a good place.
Click to expand...
I've got four NIB Atlas engines: Conrail and BN, and two Kato that look lightly used, still in box, engines (GN F units A and B). Those I want good money for. I don't mind dropping a $20 or two on each engine,

Same with Track. It's mostly NIB. A few sticks that were caulked down, but very few. It's just a matter of finding the right price to move it.

The used rolling stock, and still in box building kits, those I expect to take a loss on. Or, I'll donate some to raffle prizes at the next train show.
 
PNKFLOYD said:
A friend sold his layout and supplies a couple years ago and I bought several metal vehicle kits. There were two water tank kits and I recently started to assemble them. I found one kit was missing the tank and frame, so i was going to have to fabricate part of the second lit to make a model.
I built one truck as a water sprinkler truck. (These were used to settle the dust on gravel and dirt roads years ago. My grandfather worked for the county in Kansa and drove a horse drawn water sprinkler wagon in the 1920's.)
The other kit, I made into a flatbed truck. Last night,. I finally found a load for the flatbed and can now consider the project done.
View attachment 265742
Click to expand...
Mikey, have you ever checked out Sierra West's 3D printed vehicle kits? He has a Mack AC Bulldog series, some tractors, and a bulldozer. I don't know if anyone will ever fill the void left by the loss of Jordan, but this guy has a shot. Unfortunately the kits aren't cheap, but being the vehicle guy you are, you might want to take a look. I got the bulldozer kit for Christmas, and it's very nice. Here's a link to his site:

https://www.sierrawestscalemodels.com/
 
Good Morning All. Mostly cloudy and an overly warmish 79°. That's supposedly higher than the predicted high temperature for the next three days. Maybe some rain after midnight tonight. Thunderstorms are now predicted every day except Wednesday in the upcoming 10-day forecast, with the heaviest days being tomorrow and Thursday. Of course those are the two days this week that we are going somewhere.

Grandson came up yesterday to earn some money for his car insurance. Unexpectedly brought his Mom (daughter #2) with him. I put him to work outside clearing brush and limbs in remote areas, leftover from the tornado of '24. Mom, who is unemployed for the first time since high school, ~1996 or so, helped my wife do some spring cleaning in the unused bedrooms. He got paid $20/hr for 5 hours and she worked for free...reliving times past at home! Chores with no allowance. Took them both to dinner at the local Italian place that we all like so much. I spent my time mowing the east side of the yard again.
Taking it a bit easy today. I have a few last minute tasks to attend to prior to the rain this week. I hope to start mulching the Tomato rows if time permits.

I didn't make it out to the train shed yesterday, since I had visitors all afternoon. I'll be able to make up for it if it really rains this week as forecast.

Troy - "Old People Grabber" - We just use the longest kitchen tongs that we have. Normally used for grilling. Seems to work out well.
Karl - Hope that you get some pain relief quickly.
David (Marlin) - Just curious as to whether that ML-8 Plymouth has sideframes for the trucks?

While not my music genre, country singer and fellow Texan George Strait is 74 today.
Everyone have a great Monday.
 
Morning All! Finally getting some more characteristic weather for the time of year. Maybe Wisconsin is back on her meds. 72 this morning going to 88! had some rain, hopefully it'll keep the dust and pollen down. An uneventful weekend. Hung some curtain rods for the wife and had to replace a couple of light sockets in the basement. Those cheap Chinese pull chain sockets you get (builder's grade). After a few years, the chain comes off in your hand. I replaced them with...more cheap Chinese crap. Seems that's all we have now. 🤬 Still trying to find stuff that got moved around during the remodel. I'm missing a couple of kits, and some tools, and some other things. Irritating! I think I'll call the junk man to come out and clean out the basement after I get my modeling stuff located and segregated!
 


77°F at 0800 and it was sunny until about 10 minutes ago. Big wall of water headed this way, but unless it keeps developing farther south as it moves east, we may not get much. High of 85°F today.

Last night had to run the A/C in the bedroom just to knock out the humidity. Temp wasn't bad though at 82°F. Just wet.

Have a wonderful Monday for you worker bees. I think I'll enjoy another Saturday today.

Servus!
 
Good morning to the world of modelers. It’s cool out with .75” of rain in the collection beaker and if we hit 75 I’ll be happy. 2 tornado watches set off the local sirens yesterday, one about 11:30am and the other at 8:40pm. The “safe space” is actually we feel near my heavily over made work benches. Built by a friends dad after WW2 he offered them to me when he moved from North Central Wisconsin to Flagstaff. It took 4 mover gorilla sized guys to handle them out of truck to my shop. True 4x4’s framing on 12” centers and 2 sheets of 1/2” ply laminated and stands 48” tall. 30” x 10’ long form a really nice L shaped work area. Since it’s also surround by concrete walls we head there when the sirens go off.

I’m feeling better with less pain and weariness in the bones. Another doctor visit this afternoon. So far no Ibuprofen today needed!

The friend up 45 minutes away has finally put the push on his layout. Working every day this week but due to my health inconvenience I am doubtful I can join in

I have plenty to do here. Weathering, painting and design work all need time at them

Enjoy the day
 
Espeefan said:
Mikey, have you ever checked out Sierra West's 3D printed vehicle kits? He has a Mack AC Bulldog series, some tractors, and a bulldozer. I don't know if anyone will ever fill the void left by the loss of Jordan, but this guy has a shot. Unfortunately the kits aren't cheap, but being the vehicle guy you are, you might want to take a look. I got the bulldozer kit for Christmas, and it's very nice. Here's a link to his site:
Click to expand...
Alan- thank you for the link. I am going to spend some serious time on that website.
 
I have an interesting day next Wednesday. My mom had a hernia fixed about a month ago (lifting too heavy) and the anesthesiologist wanted an echocardiogram done because of her age (93). They found a murmur and that she has a severe aortic valve stenosis. She has no symptoms, no pain, normal blood pressure, no shortness of breath, etc., but it needs to be fixed so she can continue her active life. It's just one of those things that wear out if you live long enough.

She's scheduled for a TAVR (transcatheter aortic valve replacement) next Wednesday. It's a real quick hour or less procedure going in through an artery in her groin. Overnight stay in the hospital and back to normal life. We met everyone on the surgical team last week. The surgeon stated that he's done over 1,000 TAVRs and did one on a 100yo woman who was as active as my mom. She's stressing, but I'm not worried.
 


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