Running Bear's October 2022 Coffee Shop

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NYC_George said:
Last night I made a list of what I need to start working on my railroad again. I was thinking about ordering some items but then someone told me about the train show in Poughkeepsie NY Oct 30. The last time I attended this annual show was about 15 years ago. It's only 25 miles from where we live, I'll be going. I'll order 10 pieces of track in the meantime to get me started.
George

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Have fun!
 
Afternoon All,

Spent hours this morning running errands with the wife. After getting home I had no energy to do anything else but sit on my backside. It looks like I will order the crossing pro electronics from LRT either tonight or tomorrow after discussing it with the BOK (bank of Kathy). Wednesday son and I will be outside working for several hours.

Thank you for the photo likes yesterday.

Thought of the day. The original name for a # was Octothorp. I decided to incorporate the word into all my conversations today...because I can :rolleyes:. The downside is that I'm starting to get the wife death stare...maybe I should stop...nah!😂

TomO- Great photography.

James- Prayers for your older sister and your family.

Willie- Nice scenes.

Joe- Nice photo. I like the 1-4 car passenger trains.

Louis- Prayers for your Mom and your family.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 


Bruette said:
I need your prayers and positive thoughts.

Last night my Mom called us after midnight, not good.
She was having pain in her back and tightness in her chest but did not want to call 911. By design we live less than 5 minutes from my Mom.

I took her to the emergency room; she was admitted immediately. Minutes later she was on her way to having a heart catheterization because the EKG showed she was having a heart attack. They did not expect her to survive the procedure or last the night if she did. I was sent home because she would be admitted to the ICU to recover if she survived.

During the early morning hours, I got two calls from the heart doctors. First call informed me, she has two blockages, 95% on the left side and 100% on the right side. They were unable to put a stent in as her arteries had hardened too much. My Mom's heart muscle was dying. She is too frail for more aggressive treatment.
The second call told me she was in the ICU and resting comfortably. I was told not to expect her to wake up in the morning. We went over our choices and options for what procedures we did and did not want to have done. I do not want anything done that would cause her to suffer more. I was told CPR would likely break all of her ribs.

My wife and I were told we would be permitted to see her before visiting hours at 8AM because it was, as they said, an end-of-life event.

When I got to her room the nurse told me she had woken up a few minutes ago and she was asking for a cup of black coffee. That sounds like my Mom! Each of the four doctors that came in were surprised to find her conscious, alert and communicating. Although she was a little groggy from all the medication.

She had me searching the Direct TV in her room for the MLB network and the channels that will carry the playoffs tomorrow. She knew what day it was, and she knew the games would be on tomorrow.

Her blood pressure is dangerously low and is being treated. One of the doctors has hope that the medication can be a bridge to allow her heart to recover enough that she may yet leave the hospital. It may be a hospice or a full care nursing home. If she is not suffering, I would love to visit her every day wherever she is.
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Wow that’s a lot to take in. Having gone through Hospice with my mom it truly was a wonderful way for her to be taken care of and she had it at my sister’s house. So she was home the whole time, the Hospice crew came out every day for the last 3 weeks.

Twice that last week Mom woke up asking for a coffee, and it was given to her

Yes, the Hospice group were my mom’s angels too. Hope her team wins while she is watching!
 
Good Afternoon All!
69F in Libby

Louis - Prayers and well wishes for Mom. We went through this with our Mom although it was not cardiac related. We were able to take care of her in our house those last weeks as she did not have any demanding medical stuff that was needed. Hospice came in every few days and checked on all of us. What wonderful and caring people they are! A funny if I may; Mom would get up when she thought nobody noticed and grab a beer from the fridge. When Maria questioned her about it, she would say 'Todd left that there last night'. We still giggle on that.

Saw Chet a little earlier. He is pretty much doing OK, but the shoulder is giving him some pain. Of course, he is still trying to use that arm and is finding that it tells him about it when over doing. Starts PT in 3ish weeks ( think that was what he said). He is in good spirits but getting tired of the pain. Has Oxy's and hates the idea of taking them. I think I got him into believing that he has to get ahead of the pain and to also use them to sleep. He is gonna try 1/2 and see if that works.

We moved some boxes around finding RR stuff and I put them in the 2nd bedroom for him so he can sort stuff when he feels like it. He has a ton of buildings, trees and freight cars that will probably be sold.

On the even brighter side, his Logan Valley Railroad will live on my CoastalOverland. I have aquired some of the LVRR rolling stock and what we think is most of the power. Will post pix in Mail Call to give you an idea.

Later
 
uh oh here we go......

So far, only four of the 12 unions have ratified the agreement.

Rail parties had agreed to a cooling-off period, a standard part of ratification process in case vote fails in order to avert any shutdown, Reuters had reported earlier last month.



MSN

www.msn.com




🚂
 


Good afternoon, all. We are having some pretty pleasant weather, though still a little on the warm side.

Yesterday the grandson and his wife dropped by, we had some gifts for they son, our great grandson. Great grandson and I got to do a little switching. The question came up, "how fast can they go"? I tried to explain scale and ratio, but he is 9 years old.

Louis - Prayers and best wishes to you and family.
Toot - when are you going to start your backyard railroad?
Boris - Maybe you can answer a question for me. In the photo there are 2 engines pulling 5 cars. Wouldn't one loco be capable of pulling that train, saving operating costs for the second engine? I see quite often 2 locos pulling a small number of cars and wondered if the second engine was in neutral.

Well, I made my first attempt at weathering a freight car. It looks ok, at least it's not the shiny looking car it was,
1665435776544.jpeg


STAY SAFE

LATER
 
I started the process of rebuilding the lower deck today. There use be a helix where the two below photos are today. I took down the helix last year. I thought it took up too much space and I'm trying to eliminate as many layout support legs as possible (The 3rd photo). It's much easier to keep the place clean with almost all of them gone. I'm going to put a pond on both sides of the track where the tracks take a turn. The new lower deck tracks will continue on in the weeks to come.
George

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Louis All the best to you and family.

Good day Gents.
Took a short trip yesterday with the missus to Truckee for lunch and made a stop at Donner Lake. After lunch next to the UP tracks, she went through all the shops and I stood at the UP property line watchin/waiting for this westbound freight to get rolling. 10 power units!! but only 3 were running. 2 EB freights went by and the crew climbed in the cab and.............waited some more. We headed home and saw still another EB descending the hill near Donner lake... Couple pics.
IMG_1592.jpg
IMG_1585.jpg

Picture quality is poor, but the UP tracks can be seen near the top of the left peak. This is looking west across the lake.
 
Alcomotive said:
uh oh here we go......

So far, only four of the 12 unions have ratified the agreement.

Rail parties had agreed to a cooling-off period, a standard part of ratification process in case vote fails in order to avert any shutdown, Reuters had reported earlier last month.



MSN

www.msn.com




🚂
Click to expand...
I have never been a union worker but have worked as management in both Union and non-union shops. I saw the benefits of the union and of the employer in the nonunion shop.

Rail workers for some reason allowed the representation of the union to fall over to the wishes of corporate managers. For the life of me I don’t see how the workers could let a poor contract roll over for 3 years before they got upset. They have almost gone through the process to have earned the right to strike when the “cooling off” period expires. This should be interesting.

As a holder of Berkshire Hathaway stock and CN stock for my financials I don’t want a strike. But, since management has been inflexible the last few years, I think they should.

If you think the mess at the California ports of entry messed up the supply chain, wait till you see what happens in the 3 day strike the workers will call. 3 days because the President will have to step in to end it. This is the only time in my life I have ever agreed with Senator Sanders
 
Bruette said:
I need your prayers and positive thoughts.

Last night my Mom called us after midnight, not good.
She was having pain in her back and tightness in her chest but did not want to call 911. By design we live less than 5 minutes from my Mom.

I took her to the emergency room; she was admitted immediately. Minutes later she was on her way to having a heart catheterization because the EKG showed she was having a heart attack. They did not expect her to survive the procedure or last the night if she did. I was sent home because she would be admitted to the ICU to recover if she survived.

During the early morning hours, I got two calls from the heart doctors. First call informed me, she has two blockages, 95% on the left side and 100% on the right side. They were unable to put a stent in as her arteries had hardened too much. My Mom's heart muscle was dying. She is too frail for more aggressive treatment.
The second call told me she was in the ICU and resting comfortably. I was told not to expect her to wake up in the morning. We went over our choices and options for what procedures we did and did not want to have done. I do not want anything done that would cause her to suffer more. I was told CPR would likely break all of her ribs.

My wife and I were told we would be permitted to see her before visiting hours at 8AM because it was, as they said, an end-of-life event.

When I got to her room the nurse told me she had woken up a few minutes ago and she was asking for a cup of black coffee. That sounds like my Mom! Each of the four doctors that came in were surprised to find her conscious, alert and communicating. Although she was a little groggy from all the medication.

She had me searching the Direct TV in her room for the MLB network and the channels that will carry the playoffs tomorrow. She knew what day it was, and she knew the games would be on tomorrow.

Her blood pressure is dangerously low and is being treated. One of the doctors has hope that the medication can be a bridge to allow her heart to recover enough that she may yet leave the hospital. It may be a hospice or a full care nursing home. If she is not suffering, I would love to visit her every day wherever she is.
Click to expand...
She's a fighter Louis, My thoughts and best wishes are with you and her.
 
santafewillie said:
Good Morning All. Clear and 60° this morning, going for a high of 85° today. More of the same for another week. Happy Columbus Day, I'm sure some have the day off.

Yesterday ended up being household task day, with laundry and dishwasher chores. Outside I hauled firewood to the pile but did not stack it up yet. I also irrigated the tomatoes and peppers in the garden. Not a lot of work there, but it looks like a nice bumper crop of both coming up. When I returned from vacation a week ago, I noted that there were some dead tomato plants. Upon investigating, I found about a dozen plants out of nearly a hundred, were severed off about 6" above the base. I never had this happen before so it was time for some research. Several agricultural sites on the Internet suggested that it was either voles, rabbits of rats. No recent damage so maybe the problem resolved itself. Tomato plants are actually poisonous except for the tomatoes themselves.I know that it isn't rabbits as the garden fence keeps them away, and they nibble at ground level. I know that there are field rats occasionally on my property, but they tend to hang out up where the hay bales are stored, 500' away. From what I read, it definitely could be voles, although I can't tell by the pictures how to differentiate them from rats. Supposedly a spray made from hot peppers will repel them, so that is what I will try. Their natural predators are the usual, hawks, eagles, felines, canines or snakes. I have not sighted any predators this season except a few hawks, so that may be the issue. I'm surprised that I haven't seen any snakes. Rat snakes or chicken snakes are usually common here. It is however, that time of year when they head for their winter quarters, which in my case is under the floor of the barn; so I may spot a few in the upcoming month.

Headed out this morning for the quarterly doctor visit at 9:45. We both go. I don't have a clue where we'll stop on the way home, but we're fasting for blood draws, so I am sure wife will want coffee and a doughnut. Trouble is that she wants them from two separate places!:(

Thanks for the comments and likes regarding yesterday's update; Troy, Joe, Louis, Tom O, Smudge, Rick, Hughie, Steve J, Alan, Patrick, IB Ken, Curt, James, Tom, George, Mikey, Guy.

Out in the train shed, I spent a little time adding parking lot stripes and vehicles to the Gemini Building, aka Sparky's and Newman's Appliances. I also put a pair of people on the street corner.
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Another problem that I sometimes have on the layout is using the re-positionable glue to attach figures. Occasionally they lean over.
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I re-did these two with Gorilla Superglue and added three additional figures to the right.
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Here is another example of the "lean" that I will fix today.
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Finally a better picture of the pregnant woman from yesterday. It also exhibits the "leaning" effect!
View attachment 153311

Ken (D&J) - Congratulations on your membership acceptance. Nothing like a good operational session on a well built layout to show them that you are a serious modeler. Hope that their politics are not too onerous.
Steve J -

I have to keep reminding my wife that I will never catch up to her!
Alan - I don't do any passenger stuff, but I am really impressed with your detailing of the interiors of your passenger cars.
Ray - Good to see you again.
Louis - Randy Rhodes - What another name from the past. I had completely forgotten about him. Such a shame about the plane crash.

Lots more birthday's today; from music, David Lee Roth and Tanya Tucker; from sports, Brett Favre and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Everybody have a great day.
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Your problem here had nothing to do with glue. In photo number three "their" problem is that she's....topheavy....and when she stumbled against him the two of them fell right over. Thank God ( ! ! ) the door to the Pizzeria was closed.
tootnkumin said:
She's a fighter Louis, My thoughts and best wishes are with you and her.
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Whatever thoughts and prayers I can give you I will, and I'm sure we all will too. I've asked for them myself for ladies I love. More than once.

I've been in nearly this same situation--in 2019 mom suddenly had trouble breathing and it turned out she had a blood clot the size of my fist between her heart and lung. She is not a big person, and had already lost half a lung to TB years ago.

I live just a mile from her, and for pretty much the same reason, so I really do get it. Fingers crossed....
 
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Texas Hobo said:
In the photo there are 2 engines pulling 5 cars. Wouldn't one loco be capable of pulling that train, saving operating costs for the second engine?
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In this case, the reason for two engines is so that they could run around the train in Jersey City, then recouple to the other end for the return trip.
When the train was built - introduced in 1937 - it was designed to be bi-directional. The five cars included two observation - lounge - coaches, two full coaches, and a mid train dining car with cocktail lounge. This way, there was always an observation car on the rear. During steam operation, the power was turned in Jersey City. The Crusader, was essentially a long haul commuter train, bringing bankers, brokers and back office workers from the Greater Philadelphia Area to Wall Street. The Companion train, a heavyweight streamliner, rebuilt in 1948, was called the "Wall Street". It consisted of three coaches, a dining car with cocktail lounge and a club car.

Most times a "short" passenger train, appears overpowered, it's for a reason other than horsepower need to move the train on schedule. It could be for power distribution, or like above, or as a push pull train with an engine at either end. There are occasions, where additional cars will be added enroute. Example, a seashore express from Cape May NJ, to Philadelphia. 2 units, 3 coaches, add two additional coaches at Wildwood JC, and 3 more at Tuckahoe, NJ. for a total of 8 for the last leg of the trip.
 


TLOC said:
I have never been a union worker but have worked as management in both Union and non-union shops. I saw the benefits of the union and of the employer in the nonunion shop.

Rail workers for some reason allowed the representation of the union to fall over to the wishes of corporate managers. For the life of me I don’t see how the workers could let a poor contract roll over for 3 years before they got upset. They have almost gone through the process to have earned the right to strike when the “cooling off” period expires. This should be interesting.

As a holder of Berkshire Hathaway stock and CN stock for my financials I don’t want a strike. But, since management has been inflexible the last few years, I think they should.

If you think the mess at the California ports of entry messed up the supply chain, wait till you see what happens in the 3 day strike the workers will call. 3 days because the President will have to step in to end it. This is the only time in my life I have ever agreed with Senator Sanders
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Tom O: Very well stated. Railroad labor is governed by the Railway Labor Act, which requires both sides to begin the negotiation process six months before the previous agreement expires. Negotiations can stretch out an additional three years, before an impasse can be declared. Then a Presidential Board is appointed to make recommendations, (Which can form the basis for a settlement). Railroads traditionally hold a tough line through the end of the process, in the hopes that congress will impose a favorable to management settlement. ( Congress usually implements the rejected contract, which is actually much more than the carriers are willing to concede, but not enough to satisfy the union labor, that hasn't seen a raise in three or four years.
 
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