Running Bear's October 2025 Coffee Shop

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Marlin39 said:
Nicki and I just returned from 9 days traveling down the Rhine River, Amsterdam to Basel, Switzerland. A new city to explore every day. We had a good time and great weather.

Air travel was a little rough....9.5 hours PDX to Heathrow, 3 hour layover, 1.5 hour flight to Amsterdam after another 1 hour delay, almost 1.5 hours to get through customs, Viking called & sent a private cab for us (but didn't tell us where to meet it), and we finally made it on board about 9:30pm.

Heathrow is a frickin nightmare to get around in your first time there. Half a dozen escalators to get to subway, then a half dozen more to get through security, then you need to watch the departure board because they don't announce the gate number until 20 minutes before departure.....then you have to rush & take another subway and more escalators to get to your gate. It was also kind of odd to see such a large middle eastern population....retail workers, airport staff, and travelers.

We flew "upgraded economy" on British Airways for all our flights. It was pretty close to the equivalent of domestic first class. BA puts our domestic carriers service to shame. Departing from Basel was a little rough because there wasn't a lot of English spoken, but we found our way. We left the ship at 9:00am Swiss time Saturday and finally made it to our home at 8:30pst Saturday......yes it was a long day.

The ship only had 182 passengers and we met a lot of really nice and very wealthy retirees. Our stateroom was one of the nicest we have been in.
Hanging out on our patio or the upper deck while cruising to the next port was very relaxing. The weather stayed about 60. No rain. Our favorite city was Speyer (close 2nd was the Black Forest via Breisach). This was the old Bavaria we had hoped to visit. The food in the Biergarten we ate at put the ships food to shame. Nicki hated sauerkraut until she some there. Local made bratwurst, on house made sauerkraut, with house made dark rye (pumpernickel) bread, and local Pilsner. We were happy. Passing all the castles, on the hilltops, while cruising was enjoyable

The cathedral in Cologne and the non stop rail action across the bridge & station was pretty cool. Cologne was shoulder to shoulder people and little too cosmopolitan for us.

Germany was very clean, but for the graffiti and 1 or 2 homeless.

Trains, trains, and more trains. Silent electric and good ole noisy diesels. I also saw a couple of little diesels that looked like a 44 tonner, with an offset cab, but couldn't get a photo. I have no idea what any of these are. I thought TomO would enjoy the graffiti.

Cologne

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Along the Rhine while passing the castles

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The BASF petro-chemical facility must have been 3 miles long and 1 mile deep. Watched the diesel switch some tank cars while traveling by. The trucks dumped their sand or silica loads and the clam shell deposited it into the bin above.

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Thank you for all the pictures and the story behind them. Yep, always interested in graffiti samples from anywhere. But great pictures over all. Glad you guys enjoyed the trip
 
Bruette said:
Thank you, sir, good things are worth waiting for!

As for my choice of soda, my favorite is Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi, but any no sugar soda is good. I wish I could find an affordable source of sugar free cream soda. The regular price of soda these days is insane!
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Agree on the sugar free Cream soda and the prices. I never would have paid what is now the Sale Price before February. Really gone crazy since
 
chadbag said:
pedantic
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There is another word I had to look up. This place can be like the NY Times for me, in that I need to keep a dictionary handy!

Like it has been for most of my life, I learn the hard way, but I enjoy it! The internet has made learning easier.

I do have a digital subscription to the Times. Even though I avoid the news. They have cool puzzles, and the sports page is usually interesting. Along with lots of other stuff.
 


Can you believe the NY Times doesn't have home delivery to my zip code? What is Dundalk to ghetto for them? 🤪

Screw ’em! I have my Baltimore Sun in my hand now! 😁

When I tried to cancel my digital subscription to the Times, they offered me another year for $0.99/week I took it!
 
Good evening Diners. A glass of Oban please, Flo.
Spent the day with three generations of girls today. Dawn, daughter and granddaughter. Such a delight. Rather lighter on the wallet now as birthday and Christmas presents were purchased.

Now to make dinner. Cumberland Sausages with Roasted Vegetables
 
migalyto said:
An interesting article, thanks.

I do remember now that you mention it, the Taco Bell Cantinas. Never went to one, but I do remember them.

I suppose serving alcohol at fast food joints would add layers of complexity. They wouldn't be able to let minors serve it, and
some of the managers aren't much older than the staff. Plus how would you handle the drive-thru. Plus the family image they
want to keep. Though there are, or were a couple of drive thru liquor stores around here, so I guess its not much different.
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They're trying to protect that 'wholesome family image', but you can bet your last beer that if they thought they could make money from it without costing them much, they would do it. In a second. Anything for the bottom line, wholesome family image be damned.

The decision makers aren't the ones that would have to do the actual work. They just have to make sure it makes money for the company. The underlings can figure out how to make it work.
 
Marlin39 said:
Nicki and I just returned from 9 days traveling down the Rhine River, Amsterdam to Basel, Switzerland. A new city to explore every day. We had a good time and great weather.

Air travel was a little rough....9.5 hours PDX to Heathrow, 3 hour layover, 1.5 hour flight to Amsterdam after another 1 hour delay, almost 1.5 hours to get through customs, Viking called & sent a private cab for us (but didn't tell us where to meet it), and we finally made it on board about 9:30pm.

Heathrow is a frickin nightmare to get around in your first time there. Half a dozen escalators to get to subway, then a half dozen more to get through security, then you need to watch the departure board because they don't announce the gate number until 20 minutes before departure.....then you have to rush & take another subway and more escalators to get to your gate. It was also kind of odd to see such a large middle eastern population....retail workers, airport staff, and travelers.

We flew "upgraded economy" on British Airways for all our flights. It was pretty close to the equivalent of domestic first class. BA puts our domestic carriers service to shame. Departing from Basel was a little rough because there wasn't a lot of English spoken, but we found our way. We left the ship at 9:00am Swiss time Saturday and finally made it to our home at 8:30pst Saturday......yes it was a long day.

The ship only had 182 passengers and we met a lot of really nice and very wealthy retirees. Our stateroom was one of the nicest we have been in.
Hanging out on our patio or the upper deck while cruising to the next port was very relaxing. The weather stayed about 60. No rain. Our favorite city was Speyer (close 2nd was the Black Forest via Breisach). This was the old Bavaria we had hoped to visit. The food in the Biergarten we ate at put the ships food to shame. Nicki hated sauerkraut until she some there. Local made bratwurst, on house made sauerkraut, with house made dark rye (pumpernickel) bread, and local Pilsner. We were happy. Passing all the castles, on the hilltops, while cruising was enjoyable

The cathedral in Cologne and the non stop rail action across the bridge & station was pretty cool. Cologne was shoulder to shoulder people and little too cosmopolitan for us.

Germany was very clean, but for the graffiti and 1 or 2 homeless.

Trains, trains, and more trains. Silent electric and good ole noisy diesels. I also saw a couple of little diesels that looked like a 44 tonner, with an offset cab, but couldn't get a photo. I have no idea what any of these are. I thought TomO would enjoy the graffiti.

Cologne

View attachment 244813View attachment 244814
View attachment 244815


Along the Rhine while passing the castles

View attachment 244816View attachment 244817View attachment 244818View attachment 244824View attachment 244825

The BASF petro-chemical facility must have been 3 miles long and 1 mile deep. Watched the diesel switch some tank cars while traveling by. The trucks dumped their sand or silica loads and the clam shell deposited it into the bin above.

View attachment 244826View attachment 244827
Click to expand...
That castle built into a railroad tunnel portal is just beautiful.
 
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Tom,
I just found another graffiti photo from our trip.

Michael and Louis,
I forgot to also mention that beer and wine were included with all meals. The included beer was Bitburger Pilsner.:)

I did sample some of the local Bavarian Pilsners when I had the time. I don't remember the names, but there is a big difference in fresh beer.
image000000 (8).jpg
 
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Good afternoon. It's clear and 86. Yes, we're back to "those" temps again.
After some diagnosing, I've determined the cause of the turnout not functioning correctly is the turnout controller. It looks like it has some corrosion inside the controller, on the contacts. The bad news is, it is not user-serviceable, and I would destroy it by opening it. The good news is, it's a Kato turnout controller, and they are readily available and relatively inexpensive.
I had another issue that was driving me buggy. The DT602 handheld controller became unresponsive, and began making sounds like a Geiger counter. After I finished my diag of the turnout, I turned my attention to the DT602. I disassembled it, and discovered the battery holder and contacts had corrosion on them. That's obviously not good, so since I don't use batteries in this, I disconnected the leads to that. That didn't help. So, I completely stripped it down to its core components, everything that wasn't soldered or glued in place came off.
And under the membrane for the keypad, on the circuit board, I found a tiny insect nest bridging two contacts. It was closing the circuit electrically between the two, and was making the controller think I was holding two buttons down simultaneously. I removed the insect nest, cleaned all the contact points, and reassembled the controller. I left the battery connectors unplugged to help prevent future issues.
I plugged it in, and--it worked like it never had a problem.

Next problem, I have mounted the layout on wheels so I can move it out and work on the back side of it, since it's a 360 degree access layout. Where it normally sits is almost touching a wall, and when I pull the layout away from the wall, it rotates into the wall with a corner of the layout. I need to figure out something to keep it from damaging the wall, especially since it's leaving marks on the wall after only a day. The corner of the layout that's touching is painted plywood. While I have a couple of ideas for a solution, they are less than "clean", and since the layout is in a corner of the living room, I'm trying to minimize the "Kludge Factor".
Any suggestions?
 
bnsf971 said:
The corner of the layout that's touching is painted plywood. While I have a couple of ideas for a solution, they are less than "clean", and since the layout is in a corner of the living room, I'm trying to minimize the "Kludge Factor".
Any suggestions?
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Two thoughts for non-marring additions to the layout:

Cheap and easy: Pipe insulation foam, or a pool noodle tacked onto strategic spots of the fascia. Or, some of those dome shaped stick on bumper guards you can get to mount behind doors on the walls where the knobs will hit.

yes, they'll stick out, but beats banging up the walls.
 
Marlin39 said:
Tom,
I just found another graffiti photo from our trip.

Michael and Louis,
I forgot to also mention that beer and wine were included with all meals. The included beer was Bitburger Pilsner.:)

I did sample some of the local Bavarian Pilsners when I had the time. I don't remember the names, but there is a big difference in fresh beer.View attachment 244859
Click to expand...


Thank you for sharing your trip with us. Germany is a wonderfully scenic country both natural and man made.

Your first freight locomotive with the blue band is a Br.189, and your red locomotive is a Br.193 Siemens Vectron. The orange shunting locomotives are Vossloh 1000s.

I'm having a Bitburger as I type this. I'm glad you and your wife enjoyed yourselves.

Bier and Wein in Deutschland is not just a beverage, it is part of everyday life there.
 
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chadbag said:
Not to be pedantic but it’s not Bavaria at all. Bavaria is on the east side of S Germany. Black Forests is part of Swabia (Schwaben) though on the maps that doesn’t quite go to the Rhine. The greater area is Alemania and the various dialects (including a lot of Swiss) are Alemanic dialects.
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Yes, if you were in die Schwarzwald, you were in Baden-Würtemburg. Bayern is the next Staat to the east.
 
RhB Michael said:
Thank you for sharing your trip with us. Germany is a wonderfully scenic country both natural and man made.

Your first freight locomotive with the blue band is a Br.189, and your red locomotive is a Br.193 Siemens Vectron. The orange shunting locomotives are Vossloh 1000s.

I'm having a Bitburger as I type this. I'm glad you and your wife enjoyed yourselves.

Bier and Wein in Deutschland is not just a beverage, it is part of everyday life there.
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Michael,
This is kinda/sort of what the little switching engines looked like.


1760904584358.png
 


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