Running Bear's October 2023 Coffee Shop

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santafewillie said:
Good Morning All. Happy Columbus Day if that's what it's still called in your state. Clear, still and 56°, heading for a high of 90°, or so the forecast shows. Warmer weather all week until the weekend, possibly having to pull out the blue jeans early this season. They haven't seen the light of day since February.
Skunk odor in the yard this morning from overnight, someone got sprayed but it wasn't the granddog. Skunk odor travels over 1.5 miles, so it could have happened in the woods down the road.

Best laid plans - I didn't get the pool cover on yesterday, but I still have two more wind-free days to deal with it.

Plans changed out in the train shed yesterday. I had only intended to include the liquor store and fuel distributor in my upgrade/completion project, but I decided to continue south and include Joe's Radio since it will be an easy inclusion. Joe's Radio is just a few DPM wall sections put together; he mainly installs custom sound systems in recreational vans. So yesterday I added a sidewalk, building foundation and the first coat of paint to the asphalt parking lot.
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I'll finish the grassy area out front next.
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My main reason for not including it originally is that I haven't yet painted the backdrop in this section of the layout. Now, there is an impetus to getting that completed. Everything in front of it is removable.
The fuel distributor is not quite complete. I am getting the materials ready to install a chain link fence, this week hopefully. The fence posts are ready and now I have to accurately cut the fence mesh, not exactly easy despite having done it for many fences over the years.

Tom O - I don't own any Intermountain engines, so I don't know. What are your issues with them? I have many of their freight cars and their QA isn't very good in my opinion. Many times, things are loose on the package and I have to reattach them.
I have not pre-ordered from any company except Scaletrains. i am also very leery of doing it and prefer to have the product in my hands. I took a chance with ST a few years back, and I was totally sold on their products. I have purchased 13 engines and the only issue was a broken horn on one, that was promptly replaced after a phone call.
Terry - A 1 liter soda bottle half filled with water makes a good block in the toilet drain. My dishwasher empties in above the S-trap so it isn't an issue.
Patrick - Even on a normal day, I still wash about 25% of our dishes by hand.
Troy - Congratulations.

Notable birthdays today include Jackson Browne, the late John Lennon and John's son Sean Lennon.

Everybody have a great Columbus Day, especially if you have the day off.
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Most of the intermountain cars I have came like you indicated! Loose parts I had to glue back. Trucks riding very high. For the money not a good value. The wheels though are awesome and when the cars are tuned they roll nicely. I have never owned an Intermountain diesel but have weathered a couple and heard the stories from an operator who had many of them for his layout a few years ago and none now. Mainly motor and tracking issues

When ST started up I pre-ordered a couple Museum Big Blows and they were worth every penny. Unfortunately they really were too big for my switching layout. I did pre-order the first of the kit Classics, a couple SD45’s, and the first RC tank cars. I stopped pre-orders when they had some quality issues in 2021 with plows scraping the rails on the WC SDL39’s. They have had some QC issues earlier this year on some more Rivet Counter tank cars. The biggest difference to me with the ST versus others like ClassOne and Rapido is they really stood behind their product and made it right. In the case of the latest Rivet Counter Tank cars they inspected them and offered them to the modeling public at a good discount. I am fortunate that within 125 miles there are 3 brick and mortar shops that carry ST.

I will give myself until the New Year to find a ST WC heritage unit. Then I will buy an Intermountain unit and a ST CN Veterans unit gut the WC unit and run it as a battery holder for the consist! Power on Board on my layout again…
 




Morning all,

48° and clear, high later of 82°.

Can't sleep so I figured I'd see what Mel and the ladies are up to. Got an early morning flu shot as I was supposed to be at work when it was scheduled.

Already have the taller toilets. With our bad knees taller is usually better. I've got to get the one installed today as I had to order the one for the basement bathroom. I did get the refrigerator and stove put back last night. I still have the dishwasher. Funny to have the flooring put under the dishwasher and stove as it wasn't before, but it did help in getting the stove releveled. I had to raise the back legs as the old floor 3/8" lower than the front due to the raised flooring that stopped at the front legs. Wife texted me that there was a bad seam she could see in the kitchen when I went to get the granddaughter. when she asked about it the installer said it was an optical illusion. He was right, but her chair it looked like it, but the stuff is tight. Dust mopped and then damp mopped the new floors. Quite a difference as the new stuff doesn't shine like the old stuff. Difference between a gloss finish and a semi-gloss one.

BBL when all you guys get up.
 
Good morning from So. Central Wisconsin where overnight we only hit 39 and again I see no frost. The advisory continues until 10AM tomorrow. It’s 42 and my weather app is telling me the high today should be 59. Slightly different than the 10 day forecast on Saturday showing nothing above 55. All the hanging upside down cherry and grape tomato baskets have been taken down with the dirt and debris added to the compost pIke. There are over 200 pots, containers and plots of annual flowers that are still thriving. Terry dead headed them yesterday and since we will be home the rest of the month she will wait for the killer frost before adding them to the compost piles.

No model weathering to report about.

I did work on the power system for the layout. The Power Cab I have is for my program track which is actually 3 modules from the old layout set up above my work benches in the shop. I disconnected it from the layout where were were using it to test the wiring. It is working great on the programming tracks

The plan was to temporarily add a NCE pro Wireless system today and see how it acts with the WifiTrax WIFi module for adding various throttles. Instead that was done last night and 3 of us tested it. It took more than the predicted 30-40 minutes to set up but it’s done. Adding it last night saved good time today. We will now have 16 throttles available and at least 24 locomotives running at the same time as we test the capacity of the system. We will be running 4 various types of NCE units, 3 of the TCS throttles, 4 Apple based cell phones, 2 Android phones and 3 ProtoThrottles. I have a check list of the throttles and I will be the recording secretary today. The 3 electronics guys are coming at 9 and them another 10 are scheduled for 10AM. I am excited!

enjoy your day
 
ctclibby said:
We did the trucking school thing
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Glad I didn’t have to I was Grandfathered in had to turn in my chauffeurs license for a CDL just had to take the written CDL test Truck driving schools lack the common sence beginning truckers need that I got as a 4th Generation trucker. I once tried to get a job around 20 years ago at or local truck driving school said I was way over qualify because I was an old-school trucker and they did not teach that way like not using the clutch to shift and other old-school techniques. Well now days you don’t have to worry about the clutch or anything else just have all the electronic devices do it for you and the common sense of The American trucker is out the door for good.
 


Good Morning All. Clear and 61° on the SFW estate, after a high of 89° yesterday. Upper 80's for the rest of the week until mid-70's beginning Saturday. Maybe fall will finally stick around. The rain last week is going to have to suffice for a while, as there is no chance in the next 10 day forecast.

Well yes, I did finally get the cover on the pool yesterday. It's ready for it's long winter nap. Today I think that we're taking the Accura in to have the suspension rebuilt, shouldn't take long. That is if they got all of the parts yesterday.

Not a lot of action out in the train shed yesterday, since I decided to run trains mostly. Moved a few from one staging yard to the other end and others back. Did one short out and back switch job in between.
I did get the grass planted in front of Joe's Radio and another coat of asphalt paint down in the parking area.
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Over on the workbench I started adding the white glue windows to that car with the dis-colored styrene.
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It's not perfect, but this is a background vehicle anyway. I also painted the bumpers between the first and second pictures.

Tom O - My experience with Intermountain wheels is limited to metal wheelsets for freight cars. They are #1 in my shop.
You're right about Scaletrains being elusive about future products until they actually start taking pre-orders. But that may be a good thing. I know modelers who have waited years for promised products that still never showed up from other manufacturers. Other than the fact that they are made in China, the only issue that I ever had was a 2 month delay when the boat was held up on the West Coast a couple of years ago. But even with pre-orders, no cash changes hands until they actually have the product in their warehouse. The only negative that I have about their business model is that they only make what they have pre-orders for, extra stock is only available if someone cancels.

10/10 - National Metric Day. Just didn't really fully catch on here in the US. Big bottles of soda are liters, but small cans are 12 oz. Car parts are metric, but they fill up in gallons and travel by miles per hour!

Everybody have a great day today.
 
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