Running Bear's November 2022 Coffee Shop

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santafewillie said:
Good Morning All. Clear and 33°, might hit 60° today. It did hit 55° yesterday. Still rain in the forecast for Thanksgiving Day, but at least the temperature should be in the upper 50's.

Yesterday was very nice outside, no wind and mid-50's. I moved a wagonload of tomato plants over to the compost pile and sprinkled blood meal and wood ashes on them to aid in their breakdown. Continued with the garden cleanup, there's at least two more loads for composting, but there's no room yet.

Once again, the larder is bare and we will be making the weekly grocery trek this morning. Doubling up on some stuff since next Thursday is Turkey day. I expect to go again early next week to get something that we will forget this week. The free turkey promotion is still on at Kroger, and prime ribs are on sale as well.

Thanks for the likes and comments for the small scenes from yesterday's post.

I spent some time out in the train shed yesterday, looking at and starting my next project. As I have posted before, there's a few blank areas on the layout that I need to fill in. Here's one of them on the lower level.
View attachment 156122
I started by filling in the ground cover between that industrial spur and the backdrop, and psrt of the ROW on the near side. Then I decided to forgo Rosa's Cafe and added an Antiques Barn and a General Store.
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Both the General Store and Antiques Barn are recent builds that have been on the storage shelf. Both will be weathered soon, now that I have finalized their locations.
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Yes, those are old Model Power switches along the wall, but they work and I don't throw anything away, ever!
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The antique tractor came to me with a bunch of vehicles that I purchased in bulk from a fellow forum member named Larry (the old fart) when he left the model railroading hobby. I need to add a steering wheel to it, which I think that I have in my detail parts box.
I believe that these tractors had no seats. Mine seems to be missing the fuel tank as well.
View attachment 156126


Ken (D&J) -

I have read posts of yours before that stated the same beliefs, which while I agree that it will happen; I don't share the paranoia that it will happen in my lifetime. Maybe in VA, but not here in Texas. I know that Biden & Co think that they can just snap their fingers and it will happen overnight, but it won't. America's electrical infrastructure just isn't ready for at home charging, and it will take years before it is. Building the infrastructure where most vehicles can be charged at home will run into the NIMBY's when it comes to power lines. Installing solar grids on homes, while working out for you is not within most American's budgets. Right now EV's cost too much for average Americans as well and mileage/charge while equivalent in some cases to mileage/fill up; the time required to charge is not satisfying to most Americans. At my age, spending $200K for the solar grid and vehicle is just not worth it. Then I see other issues. Obtaining the materials needed to make all of those batteries comes from China, which could present a significant roadblock. Efforts to mine them in North America have run into the same NIMBY's and greenies as the power line issues. Ultimate disposal of said materials hasn't been solved, just like the obsolete solar panels that are becoming an environmental disaster in CA. A whole lot more thought needs to be put into it before mandating a pipe dream.
Swal - That lead time on the shower hasn't changed much since we did ours six or seven years ago. We finally went with a small time contractor who did all of the tiling and plumbing with a little help from me. The fancy door that my wife wanted took three months to get and we just put up the old shower curtain and rod in the interim. He did the complete demolition and rebuild in just under three weeks and it only cost me $7000, plus some materials that I didn't already have. Plus the fancy shower door and $150 for him to come back out and help me install it.

Everybody have a great day.
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The driver sat on the metal thing thing seen on the right. I remeber these tractors being a child. neat it is!
 
Good cold morning from So. Central Wisconsin. We will get to the low 30’s today but right now the wind chill is at -2f/-16.6c.

More grandson hockey this morning and again we head to campus for the Badgers and Minnesota that did end poorly in a shoot out. I will go to only one game of the grandson’s.

My sniffles continue. My second nosebleed is happening now of the last 3 days but not as bad as Friday’s. The blood pressure both times has been good 120over75 on Friday and 128/80 this morning. The house humidity is in it’s range of low 30’s and the Covid tests on Friday and Saturday nights were negative. I will do another this morning after I know the bleed has stopped.

Yesterday, I got some layout work in and last night I broke out the pan pastels on 4 roll on/off recycling bins. I will get pictures later. I dented the the bins a couple years ago in a MRH forum piece I did. But, IMO they were never grimy enough, now they are!

If interested, here is the mill being used as a guide for the 30” x 88” module. Significant modelers license is happening. The elements are there including the river crossing a mile south in this Google Earth picture to the big mill in Wisconsin Rapids. His mill across the river (aisle) dwarfs mine. It’s on a shelf 30”wide x 31’ long and it will act as a background to this module. Type in Biron, Wi and look around. The New Page Mill south and across the river is one I pulled a lot of my mills elements from. Closed now.
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Enjoy your day
 
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Good morning all, 12F and 5 mph wind this morning, looks super cold with a few inches of snow on the ground

This red-bellied woodpecker has been hanging around the feeder this morning, plus the usual chickadees, Blue jays, Nuthatches, downy and hairy woodpeckers

IMG_2877r.JPG

Hughie - that is just one of the towns people sleeping it off

Mara - I paid about $15 for each one. I have two of those plus several other Jordan models

Tom - Cambria - a foot of snow is not too bad


Getting ready for church, drinking coffee, will be in the train room some this afternoon

Dave LASM
 
Patrick said:
Ok, while glue dries I'm doing a project.

View attachment 156253

An AHM GE 35 I got on an auction a year or 2 ago and does not run. My goal is to get it to work just to see if I can...

I'll start another thread if I need to...I figure based on it saying it's made in Yugoslavia, it's really a Rivarossi model made in the 70's.
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You'll have to let me know what was wrong and how you fixed it, I like getting non runners running.
 
TLOC said:
Good cold morning from So. Central Wisconsin. We will get to the low 30’s today but right now the wind chill is at -2f/-16.6c.

More grandson hockey this morning and again we head to campus for the Badgers and Minnesota that did end poorly in a shoot out. I will go to only one game of the grandson’s.

My sniffles continue. My second nosebleed is happening now of the last 3 days but not as bad as Friday’s. The blood pressure both times has been good 120over75 on Friday and 128/80 this morning. The house humidity is in it’s range of low 30’s and the Covid tests on Friday and Saturday nights were negative. I will do another this morning after I know the bleed has stopped.

Yesterday, I got some layout work in and last night I broke out the pan pastels on 4 roll on/off recycling bins. I will get pictures later. I dented the the bins a couple years ago in a MRH forum piece I did. But, IMO they were never grimy enough, now they are!

If interested, here is the mill being used as a guide for the 30” x 88” module. Significant modelers license is happening. The elements are there including the river crossing a mile south in this Google Earth picture to the big mill in Wisconsin Rapids. His mill across the river (aisle) dwarfs mine. It’s on a shelf 30”wide x 31’ long and it will act as a background to this module. Type in Biron, Wi and look around. The New Page Mill south and across the river is one I pulled a lot of my mills elements from. Closed now.
View attachment 156265Enjoy your day
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Love those paper mills! Here is the one Ima gonna pattern after. Tad smaller than what you are doing ...
IEP.jpg


Spokane Valley, mostly newsprint and some specialty items - see iepco.com for more on that. UP serves this one. BNSF main is further South about 2 miles which UP goes under. No chips via rail as far as I remember or can see above. There are tank cars in and out of stuff and sometimes box/flat cars for supplies. Paper goes out by trucks only but that can be modified. There are two lift dumps, one below those two holding tanks upper right, the other next to the bigger parking car area; kinda left center. The one on the upper right has railroad tracks at least to the dumper so I am not sure exactly what that is for. Could be sawdust as there is a conveyor from there to the pile. Guess that another tour is in order? Last one was when I was 12.

Later
 
TLOC said:
Good cold morning from So. Central Wisconsin. We will get to the low 30’s today but right now the wind chill is at -2f/-16.6c.

More grandson hockey this morning and again we head to campus for the Badgers and Minnesota that did end poorly in a shoot out. I will go to only one game of the grandson’s.

My sniffles continue. My second nosebleed is happening now of the last 3 days but not as bad as Friday’s. The blood pressure both times has been good 120over75 on Friday and 128/80 this morning. The house humidity is in it’s range of low 30’s and the Covid tests on Friday and Saturday nights were negative. I will do another this morning after I know the bleed has stopped.

Yesterday, I got some layout work in and last night I broke out the pan pastels on 4 roll on/off recycling bins. I will get pictures later. I dented the the bins a couple years ago in a MRH forum piece I did. But, IMO they were never grimy enough, now they are!

If interested, here is the mill being used as a guide for the 30” x 88” module. Significant modelers license is happening. The elements are there including the river crossing a mile south in this Google Earth picture to the big mill in Wisconsin Rapids. His mill across the river (aisle) dwarfs mine. It’s on a shelf 30”wide x 31’ long and it will act as a background to this module. Type in Biron, Wi and look around. The New Page Mill south and across the river is one I pulled a lot of my mills elements from. Closed now.
View attachment 156265Enjoy your day
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And I forgot - get a humidifier for those nose bleeds! When the inside of the nose drys out, the capillaries burst, hence - you leak blood. I used to have just this problem years ago until we figured it out.

Later
 


Good Morning All. Clear and 30° this morning. Heading into a nice day with sunshine and very light winds from the south. Better day than yesterday when the temperature never got out of the 40's.

"The hobby is dying". Yes I have heard that for at least 30 years, but that's not what I see. When I go to the local train shows here in the Dallas/Ft Worth area, at least 60% of the attendees appear to be under 65 years. What I don't see any more is female modelers. Yes, there are some moms bringing their kids, but I don't see them participating at the display layouts as much as I used to. The percentage is probably greater than 60%, but many parents are involved with their kids sports activities on the weekends when the shows are going on. They may be coming by later while I am doing home layout tours.

Thanks as always for the comments and reactions to my humble posts.

Yesterday out in the train shed, I made some more progress with the ground cover and completed the shared parking lot between the hamburger joint and the general store.
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Then I turned my attention to the containment berm around the tank at the ink company.
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This scene is coming together nicely.

Smudge - For my earth, I use latex paint that was matched to a swath of Model Master Light Earth paint by my local Home Depot. I am sure that you guys across the pond have similar home improvement stores over there. The "car park" ground cover is my own mix of two Woodland Scenics fine ballast colors, Gray and Light Gray. I use fine for roads and parking lots, while I use medium for track ballast. The grassy areas are Woodland Scenics fine ground foam, in this case Green Blend. In back along the railroad track I use some coarse ground foam for rougher areas.
Todd - Sorry that I can't make it up for Venison Stew this week. You're just too far away, and it's too damn cold there.
Dave B - The sign does indeed say ink, Drywell Inks is the name of the industry. There is now a containment berm around the tank as of yesterday. See above.
Mara - I have since seen additional pictures of that tractor and I will fabricate a seat for it, along with a steering wheel.

A lot of birthdays today. Today would have been the late Duane Allman's 76th, it is Joe Walsh's 75th, and an old heartthrob, Bo Derek is 66. On the political side, it would have been Robert Kennedy's 97th and it is Joe Biden's 80th.

Everyone have a great day.
EDIT: I needed to remember to hit "Post Reply" this morning.
 
mara plutoni said:
In holland we have a thing that's called Sinterklaas (Saint Niklaas). Its a fest that half of the Dutch ppl hate and the other half loves. Yesterday I went to town to do some shopping. Our main road was packed with children and parents. A guess, that street is about 500 metres and sweets (unpacked) covering at a volume of about 1 kilogram/1 metre/full width. That makes at least 500 kilo's of waisted sweets.
Apart of the discussion whether this fest is appropriate at modern times (coloured ppl are knights!, called zwarte Piet), you might say its not 2022-like to organize it like this. Some dutch are very stupid!!!
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Stupidity is not limited to any one nationality.

Sounds like a fun event.
 
Smudge617 said:
You'll have to let me know what was wrong and how you fixed it, I like getting non runners running.
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I set up a new thread:

modelrailroadforums.com

AHM GE 35 Locomotive

As I said in the Nov. 22 Coffee Shop, I needed a project to do while the glue was drying on some ballasting I was doing. So I pulled this out of a drawer: It was in a box of stuff I got in an auction lot. While I have the plastic fill and an AHM box, it isn't the locos box. Unit was non...
modelrailroadforums.com modelrailroadforums.com

Not finished but for those interested, it is running.
 
The Hobby is dying.
Geee, I think they said that about the old balsa wood airplane kits of decades ago. I haven't heard a single lament about it being gone now.
If people aren't interested in model trains, I can't see how tryin to force people to take an interest in things that I like long after I'm gone is gonna help anything. Either ya have a natural interest in it or ya don't.
Heck, who wants to help the tree stem wood flute hobbyist get back to world acclaim, complete with multiple monthly magazines?
 
logandsawman said:
Good morning,

Crazy weather here, in 60 miles it was on/off white out, ice, and clear roads with no snowfall or anything. All mixed up in the commute. Never seen anything like it.

Almost didn't make a stop sign, and wouldn't you know it was right where another car happened to be on the cross road. One of the few other cars on the road.

Troy - Have a safe trip home! Whereas my news feed gets bent out of shape over lots of stuff, I have to remember the following
Twitter - optional
Facebook - optional
Tic Toc - optional
Crypto - optional
Food - a necessity

TomO - sounds like you have a great project in the pipeline! Congrads!

Willie - gas at 2.84 - Nice! We are still at 3.59. The narrative is it is the China covid lockdown. I think it is people have to put food and housing above travel.

Terry - end of what?

back later, Dave LASM
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Dave be careful and come home safe.
 


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