Running Bear's September 2022 Coffee Shop

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Afternoon All,

Spent all morning on honey do's and errands with her. That's OK though, I'm happy she's home. One of the errands was for me to go to Lowes for a piece of Luan plywood for the last of the fascia. After lunch I cut the last piece and mounted it. Next up is to paint the 3 boards. Tomorrow I'll be at Dillard Elementary (named for the street it's on) doing book fair set up. That will probably take a good part of the day. After that MOH will tell me when I need to be there to help. Let's just say I have to take large groups of children together in moderation. If that reflects badly on me so be it.

Mikey- Nice pipe loads.

TomO- You have some very nice scratchbuilt buildings.

Todd- I'm not sure why the VA said that. I use the VA and have Medicare. In fact when I go to VA they ask for my Medicare Card for other insurance.

Troy- Nice job on the player pieces.

Ken D&J- Isn't dealing with government employees fun? Great news on the taxes.

Dave- Great layout shot. I don't envy you doing the concrete work.

Guy- At least you're running motive power on your layout.👍

Willie- Great scenery. For some reason I only remember the house.

Sherrel- That is a gorgeous steamer and I like the background brick engine house coloring also.

Joe- I hope the rail workers get what they deserve. It's unbelievable in this day and age what their working conditions are like.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Boris said:
FWIW, At the same time, My grandfather's relatives that chose to remain in Lithuania, were relocated to Siberia. This was all done under Stalin. At least he didn't have them shot by his notorious firing squads. Putin is reportedly following the same strategy, by forcibly relocating Ukranians in occupied portions, to interior Russia.
I remember, my mother sending "care" packages there, through a specialty "travel" agency. First time I ever saw Cyrillic Alphabet and Chinese Character Typewriters.
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The idea of relocating Ukrainians to Russia especially if forced is unlikely to bode well for both the Russians and Ukrainians.
I can see those forcibly removed returning to Ukraine by any means possible.
I've had to deal with a few Ukrainians in my time, the most stubborn, intransigent and determined people you could imagine.
 
Jaz avalley said:
I cynically think that supporting someone else to fight the Russians is a whole lot easier than fighting them your self, so throwing kit at the Ukrainians could be a no brainier for many,yes I know cynical.
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No not cynical, there getting more assistance than we know, certainly more than weapons, but to put boots on the ground would only give Russia an excuse to escalate their offensive, plus we could end up with Putin pushing that big red button he has, and we definately don't want that.
 


Sirfoldalot said:
OAN. I feel that "The Queen" should have been transported back to London on a TRAIN! That was thousands of folks could have lined the tracks in tribute?
AND, the 'Flying Scotsman' could
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I totally agree, my understanding is that was the original plan, to travel by Royal Train, but for some reason it was decided for the coffin to go by air. Considering from Balmoral to Edinburgh via Dundee is 175 miles and took 5hrs so the Scots could pay their respects, the train should have been used for the reasons you've already said.

Unfortunately Scotsman is not certified, so it would have been the Royal Diesel, but I love the way you think.
 
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Magyar
 
Some jurisdictions and kingdoms retain the option to do as they desire with their subjects.
A power company isn't about to willingly give up a revenue stream regardless if they aren't providing the power needed by the peons out there. It's the subject's job to stay where they are and provide cash as needed.
 


PRR Modeler said:
Joe- I hope the rail workers get what they deserve. It's unbelievable in this day and age what their working conditions are like.
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Curt: If they strike and it gets dumped on Congress, based on past practice, they will impose the PEB as the award is written. I spent 42 years in the industry, starting with the PRR, then PC, Conrail and Amtrak. 17 of those years were on the Management side, the balance on the Labor side, so I see it from both ends.

Funny thing about the Attendance policy issue, again, dating back to the 1970s, Many people worked two jobs, a Railroad job and an outside job. On one Conrail assignment in 1977, a 3pm - 11pm yard assignment, I worked with A Conductor who worked a day job at the Post office, one of the two brakemen, was a Police Officer, the other brakeman owned an auto body shop. (At the time, I was working as a career firefighter). Balancing work schedules were tricky, but when push came to shove, the job one marked off of was the railroad job, because the railroads employed extra
lists to cover such vacancies....

Ironically, I was prominently involved in the first attendance policy case that made it to a Public Law Board, (PLB). I was a Penn Central manager and progressed a dismissal of a relatively new employee, who had a bad habit of accepting job assignments off the extra board, but not showing up.
The policy applies progressive discipline, Counseling, a verbal warning then a written warning, then called in and given increasingly longer suspensions, culminating in a dismissal. The process was tedious, and took about a year until he was finally fired. The Union appealed to the highest level of the company, then requested a PLB. I wrote the Carrier rebuttal to the Union's case, and uniquely, all three members of the board concurred and upheld the discipline.

Over time, as pressures to cut labor costs increased, along with labor's influence fading, the policies became so stringent, that any absence over a given level, incurred discipline. Lets face it, I do not think I could spend 42 months, let alone 42 years in the contemporary railroad industry.

While with Amtrak, toward the end of my career, I was called upon to write positions, in support of Railroad Yardmasters, who were fighting the abolition of their positions at Race Street. (Penn Coach Yard). The issue was under the scope rule, in effect at the time, The neutral complemented my "eloquent" rebuttal of the carrier's position, but sided with the Carrier, because of precedents on other properties that permitted a remote yardmaster to direct operations from a distant location. The argument was flawed, because there was no remote yardmaster involved, the duties were divided between Management, the Mechanical Foreman at the Enginehouse, and the two remaining yard crews, themselves. But the neutral, a professional arbitrator saw it differently. Clearly by the 2000s Labor's positions were no longer taken seriously...
 
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Boris said:
The argument was flawed, because there was no remote yardmaster involved, the duties were divided between Management, the Mechanical Foreman at the Enginehouse, and the two remaining yard crews, themselves. But the neutral, a professional arbitrator saw it differently
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Likely his position was that although no remote yardmaster was directly involved the company could use remote yardmaster if they wanted to instead of using employees that had other duties.
 
Smudge617 said:
Solar panels don't work at night, they need sunlight, the solar inverter will automatically switch off at night, hence no power.
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I would think there is some setting for 'always on'? Full moon clear sky should create enough incident light that *something* could flow; not much but something. Might be that the PV itself needs a certain amount of light to excite itself. Easy test with bright flashlight and not connected to inverter. I do know that you *should* cover PV up when working on any of the circuits even at night.
 


troyphoto said:
good to know.

We need a bigger moon to reflect more light.

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Ok, there's a "we need a bigger moon" aka "rear end" aka "back end of the caboose" joke in there somewhere, but I'm not gonna touch it with a ten foot pole. Not without coffee anyway, and not even th-en[d].

==========================

Meanwhile...if I DO plant this "What are you listening to right now?" thread (as far as I can tell, no admins have yet contacted me to warn me off)...
...should I start it off with a "train song?" "Last Train to Clarksville"...or "Love on a Real Train"...or...something else?

This is actually a pretty small forum, as far as numbers go (we have 1,000 or so members over in my sim-racing forum, and probably a hundred or so who look in or contribute to that thread)....

It might be cause more trouble than it's worth here. I'm likely to throw in anything from Percy Faith and his Orchestra; to Bert Kaempfert and HIS Orchestra; to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass; to Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66; to Three Dog Night; to Yes; to Chicago; to Elton John;...to John Denver;...to the Beach Boys; to The Police; to Earth Wind and Fire; to Stevie Wonder; to......................Disco....................; to Rick James; to The The.

It could be Techno; maudlin...chicks (our ladies sing some good stuff, IMO)...

...pretty much anything, anywhere, and any time. And, IMO, videos (typically off Youtube) might even be the motivators (I'm thinking of one right now, in fact).

I probably wouldn't throw in any [C]rap*, which,IMO, isn't worth even the digital tape it's recorded on...but you never know. I also favor instrumental jazz...and the Charlie Brown Christmas Album (of course); so I might throw up all sorts of stuff.

[* the only rap I can even remember anyway is Vincent Price on Michael Jackson's "Thriller."]

If this seems acceptable, then maybe I--or someone else--should do it.

===============

If not, then holler. Loudly. Now.

[I'll pass the Donuts. On Me]

Any last thoughts? Yay or Nay?
 
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