Running Bear's November 2023 Coffee Shop

[santafewillie]

The black bridge is a cheap Bachmann with what was a flashing light. Scrapped the light and that bridge will be spanning the gap over lover railroad.

I did the same with a Bachmann bridge that was gifted to me. Airbrushed it with some rust colored paint. I had to remove the horizontal braces on the ends so Autoracks and double stacks would fit through it.

 

[santafewillie]

This has all gone too far! Trying not to offend one group offends another.

I no longer care who I offend!

 

[Smudge617]

 

[Boris]

Boris: I love seeing different eras of modeling, however most of the folks that model the transition era for example either have what they need and want or sadly are passing away. Many times when a collection is being sold Its steam thru late 70's yet for some reason manufactures keep making product in this time frame that seems to not move.
Pre order has taken over how things are made and where the interests in the hobby is going, yet some seem to turn a blind eye to what modelers are asking and buying.
I still run my Chessie train and a modern CSX train, one nice thing about being in a club you get to run whatever you bring.

Tom: Yeah, I get that. Several items, the manufacturers rely on past sales, tooling availability, and Railroad Historical Society Modeling Committee members for their marketing data.

My Chester & Delaware River RR generally operates in the 1966-1976 era. Well past the transition era, but not quite the Conrail era. I can back date to 1956-1966 with some of the same power, painted differently, and an occasional visit by a 2-8-0. I can advance to the Conrail era with ease, and all I need for the Conrail Shared Assets era is some CSX power plus an NS unit. Or I can freelance with power lettered for the C&DR. (Part of the Reading). While there is plenty of 1966 - 1976 product on the market, I have to be careful not to include the more modern post 1977 prototypes (Hell, that's almost 47 years ago...). My son,models Conrail, CSX, CN and is significantly more contemporary. I find myself with fewer options, when it comes to the 1976 - 1998 era, than where I'm at now or the most contemporary stuff, including Amtrak and Commuter rail options.

I find pre-orders and the 2½ year waiting periods from pre-order to delivery to impede interest.

 

[kbkchooch]

I find pre-orders and the 2½ year waiting periods from pre-order to delivery to impede interest.

I agree. When Bowser 1st announced Alco RS3s updated with DCC and sound lettered for Western Maryland I jumped on them, then waited over 3 years to get them. Then they turned around and offered a "hammerhead" version in a WMRHS society only road number, being a member, I ordered 1 of the special number. I'm hoping I'll see it before I retire in 4 years.

 

[Boris]

I'm hoping I'll see it before I retire in 4 years.

Latest guesstimate is 6 more months...source Trainworld. There are a couple of Reading RS-3s offered in the same group but phase 1 straight freight, that I'm waiting on.
The only thing harder than the wait is keeping track of the status...

Right now, Rapido's Reading (Northeast) cabin cars are arriving at the dealers. I think I have 2 ordered, but I haven't heard from the dealer yet...Do I or Don't I?...it's been what? two years + since the order deadline. Who can remember all of those orders with ambiguous delivery dates?

 

[NYC_George]

My golf friend tells me that my custom kitchen cabinets are done so he'll be installing them this week. I can't wait until that's over. The new plan moves the stove over 18 inches a what a pain it was to move the stove hood vent. I thought it was going to be a 15 minute job but it took all day to get done. To many attic support beams in the way. With the kitchen soon to get done I remove the old basement ceiling getting ready to install a new drop ceiling. I may have some problems with 2 basement windows. I'll have to figure something out. I still have to clean up the 2 X 10's of nails from the old ceiling.
Swal

 

[Bruette]

View attachment 176392

Santa should pluck that turkey and put him in the oven!

 

[NYC_George]

So my next project while getting the basement ceiling done is to relearn how to play the electronic plano that I also played along with the guitar back when I had my band going. It shouldn't take that long. Some guy at the golf course a few weeks ago was playing some boogie woogie on the plano there and it hit a chord in me to learn how to play again so I bought electonic plano. We'll see how that goes. It makes you want to get up a dance just like in the video below. Fascinating rhythm.
Swal
Boogie Woogie Country Girl

 

[santafewillie]

I find pre-orders and the 2½ year waiting periods from pre-order to delivery to impede interest.

When Bowser 1st announced Alco RS3s updated with DCC and sound lettered for Western Maryland I jumped on them, then waited over 3 years to get them.

I have read about these long wait times for years, hence my reluctance to pre-order. My experience with ScaleTrains is different though. I have pre-ordered engines from them on four different occasions, and the wait has always been much shorter. Three of the four orders arived in 4 months or less, and the fourth was held up by the West Coast shipping backlog in 2021; that time it took 5 1/2 months. The other thing that I like about them, is no money down, you don't pay until they are ready to ship from Tennessee. What I don't like is that they don't produce extras, they're only available if someone cancels a pre-order.

 

[NorthBrit]

Pre-orders Pre-orders taking a long time is annoying. What I find even more so is companies doing a run of (say) 500 on an item, yet have more people wanting them. Instead of increasing the number to produce the companies do not.

I am still waiting for a rail crane I pre-ordered in 2019. Still no word of it being produced. Since the pre-order I have made a rail crane myself.

 

[NorthBrit]

Good morning all. A day of sunshine and showers.
I was busy yesterday with household jobs I never saw the train room. Hopefully today.

 

[Smudge617]

 

[KriegslokBR52]

Good morning gentlemen. In Joysey today, clear for the most part and cold:

 

[TLOC]

Good morning from Wisconsin. It is 51f degrees now. The high today will be 64 but at 2pm and then the drop off begins. The 60’s for Tuesday have disappeared and become upper 40’s for the high. The NWS weathering guessing is in full swing.

I am getting outside this morning to blow the leaves away from the house and towards the woods. A visit to the post office this afternoon.

Crazy experience at a restaurant yesterday. Highly recommended and Terry and I have enjoyed it twice for dinner since they opened in August. Not a good brunch though, very over priced and with medicore service. Too many strikes against it. Last night though I decided to do an online review on the website. Seems this past week was not kind to them as there were 10 reviews since Wednesday that made my complaints seem minor. I figured there was no reason to pile it on.

enjoy the day

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Clear and 62°, heading into the lower 80's today. Still have rain in the forecast for Thursday after sunset. Temperature didn't move much yesterday, 62° for the low and 64° for the high. Windows have been open day and night since Friday. Granddog loved it and stayed outside with me all day. She will sleep it off today!

Yesterday was mostly a "tree day", removing known dead branches off a few trees in hopes that the rest of the tree will survive last summer's drought. I also started to attack the huge pile of trees that the neighboring farmer left me for firewood. Today I will remove ashes from the heater and spread them on the garden. Then I will try out my new chimney sweeping device that is designed to be used from indoors from floor level and does not require a trip on to the roof. It is a rotating brush on semi-flexible rods that is powered by a variable-speed drill. It is inserted from the bottom of the stovepipe and is pushed up and down. You add and remove the 3' rods as needed. It came with a plastic cover to put over the open door of the stove to keep the creosote from escaping. The shop-vac removes the debris when done. Last year I paid a professional chimney sweeper $180 to come out and do it, and that's when I first saw that device in use. I then found the identical one on Amazon for $40 - no brainer here! I was expecting him to climb on the roof with the traditional brush like I have done for 40 years and do it from the top down. It doesn't really need it yet, but the fire has been out since Thursday and I should get ahead of it. Generally I only need to do it once a season anyway.

Another slow day out in the train shed yesterday. Matter of fact, I only spent about 45 minutes out there rather than my usual 2-3 hours. I mainly finished up painting a few more figures and I will dull coat them today. I also detailed a pick up truck with a driver and a cargo to add to an existing scene at the C&T Refrigeration Co. shop.

Sorry about the blurriness.

This is just one of many small enhancements that I plan for the next few weeks. I'm almost done with the remaining figures that I got behind on, and many of them are destined for these enhancements.

Terry - Stringlining the train! Can't you use one engine as a mid-train helper to avoid that? Maybe slightly shorter trains to prevent the engine chasing the caboose.
Troy - Interesting about turning back the clocks. Of course I have several battery operated ones to deal with, but the Accura changes itself automatically. Surprisingly the Lexus does not. Maybe it would if I would read the owners manual, which is written so that only Elon Musk can understand it. We're taking it in for the free scheduled maintenance tomorrow, so we'll just get them to do it and show us how to do it. It's free maintenance for a year, but we have to go 75 miles each way so it isn't exactly free.
Karl - Did Iron Belt Ken mention why he doesn't stop in here any more? I miss his layout reports.
Curt - I have a lot of bicycles on the layout, these two will be #'s 9 & 10. This will make six with riders. I have six more to assemble, but for the life of me, I can only find one of the six riders! I have many more motorcycles as they seem to come with every laser-cut kit from JL Innovative Design; they are all white metal castings that need to be assembled.
Tom -

We had a person come into Town Hall complaining about the Christmas tree in the lobby.

Fortunately we don't have that attitude down here in Texas yet. Bigger tree is better tree is the prevailing belief. And mostly with Nativity scenes included.

Musical birthday today, the late Glenn Frey of the Eagles would have been 75 today had he not passed away in 2016.

Everybody have a wonderful day.

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Morning - I think: still very dark out!
Mercy! We were at 91f yesterday, but forecast for only 81f today.
Clear, Sunny, and breezy.

My son stopped by Friday night on his way to Arizona and left yesterday morning with Bandit the horse and a new pup named Jet!
MOH has a better photo, forgot to download it?

 

[Patrick]

Morning all,

54° and Partly cloudy this morning. High today of 73° degrees.

Had some crap left over from last week to do first thing this morning and managed to get it done before everyone got in. It should be a slow day.

BBL

 

[Smudge617]

For the Lionel fans.

 

[ctclibby]

Good Morning All. Clear and 62°, heading into the lower 80's today. Still have rain in the forecast for Thursday after sunset. Temperature didn't move much yesterday, 62° for the low and 64° for the high. Windows have been open day and night since Friday. Granddog loved it and stayed outside with me all day. She will sleep it off today!

Yesterday was mostly a "tree day", removing known dead branches off a few trees in hopes that the rest of the tree will survive last summer's drought. I also started to attack the huge pile of trees that the neighboring farmer left me for firewood. Today I will remove ashes from the heater and spread them on the garden. Then I will try out my new chimney sweeping device that is designed to be used from indoors from floor level and does not require a trip on to the roof. It is a rotating brush on semi-flexible rods that is powered by a variable-speed drill. It is inserted from the bottom of the stovepipe and is pushed up and down. You add and remove the 3' rods as needed. It came with a plastic cover to put over the open door of the stove to keep the creosote from escaping. The shop-vac removes the debris when done. Last year I paid a professional chimney sweeper $180 to come out and do it, and that's when I first saw that device in use. I then found the identical one on Amazon for $40 - no brainer here! I was expecting him to climb on the roof with the traditional brush like I have done for 40 years and do it from the top down. It doesn't really need it yet, but the fire has been out since Thursday and I should get ahead of it. Generally I only need to do it once a season anyway.

Willie: Have what looks like the same problem up here. Heat has caused the Pines ( Scotch, I think ) to turn all the pine needles on the ends of the branches a golden color. Pretty much looks like illustrious Pine Beetle infestation. After talking to a couple of people in the know, I left them alone as everybody thought that the would come back in the spring. We will see.

Later!