Running Bear's September 2023 Coffee Shop

[Boris]

Good evening. 66° cloudy with increasing fog. Radar indicates that most of the rain is North of here, although the forecast calls for periodic showers until Tuesday. To date, the storm,dropped 3.37" of rain here. BTW, according to the NWS, the storm doesn't exist any longer. The extended forecast calls for a mostly cloudy week, with more rain by Thursday.

I spent several hours in the train room, working on scenery and other details. I figure a couple hours each day, and the mountain of work will fade away.

I find the discussion on using Clear Alex to fasten track interesting. Since I still have some track work to do, it's worth a try. Same goes with the comments on Uni-track, since I plan on using that once I get into a new domicile. I never fastened it down the last time I used it, either. But Alex is not permanent, I understand.

Kriegslok: That's one beautiful job on that L1 (OK, Leaky New England G-1).

 

[chadbag]

I never bothered to fasten down my Kato (HO) Unitrack (MR "Black River Jct." plan).

There are enough "under track" wires for Unijoiner track power feeds and leads to the powered switch machines, that the track pretty much just "stays put" as it is. The wiring "anchors it down".

I also like the fact that if I want to change the track layout a little (have made adjustments and modifications over time), NOT having it fastened down is a real "plus"...

I use N scale unitrack but a little dab of silicone at strategic places keeps it in place but makes it easily removable.

 

[chadbag]

3 - 0 Miami, over the Denver Broncos, 70 - 0.

My notes show 70 - 20

 

[JimKrol]

My notes show 70 - 20

Does it matter, if the other team has 70, you will probably lose. Just like the Callous Doughboys. Cardinals go on the Nice list.

 

[kbkchooch]

Good morning gang!

53 as the storm leaves the coast, heading to 80 later..

BBL

 

[NorthBrit]

Good morning all. A sunny day with a breeze blowing.
The media here is whipping up a fear factor again. In days gone we used to say "It is windy outside."
Not now according to those putting fear into us. It is "Storm Agnes is approaching and will cause severe damage across the country."

Back later.

 

[Patrick]

Morning all,

56° and clear this morning with an expected high of 90°. 80% chance of it not raining tomorrow, and the supposed to be dry the remainder of the week. Highs around 90° all week.

Going to be a busy week, both at home and in the office. I will be starting to pull the base shoe off the when I get the schedule from the flooring store. While I wish I could have had them do everything, I'm saving quite a bit by doing it myself. We'll be dropping the floor in the kitchen by almost 1/2". That's to do it correctly.

On to the trains...it looks like I'll have little time for those for the near term. I'm thinking of putting up some building model kits I've purchased as I don't know when I'll get to them. Some are probably 50+ years old. Still working on the rebuild of the 44 tonner from AHM I started 6 months ago.

BBL

 

[TLOC]

Good morning scoreboard watchers, flooring fixer uppers, steam builders and other modelers. It’s 61f degrees in So. Central Wisconsin and the WeatherChannel app says the wind is at 3mph. But because a few of the trees seem to be wanting to touch the ground I checked my app connected to the weather stations around the property. 8 mph, 10 mph and 13 mph depending on which one I look at. This afternoon we are expecting some ️ and thunderstorms We need the rain! High temperature for the day, maybe 71.

The daughter is coming over around 9AM. I don’t like turn back loops and realize I really dislike the one at the end of permanent staging yard. The original plan was another no-lix up to the main level, I want to re-visit that.

Depending on what “we” decide I may have some weathering time available. The no-lix that leads into the staging, the by-pass, the staging tracks and the turn back loop have all been thoroughly tested and work fine. I was testing with 10, 20 and finally 30 car trains. The 10 car was an issue until I found the cause. One of the brake lines on a covered hopper would occasionally drop and catch on the ties derailing the train. Fixed!

Enjoy the day

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Cloudy and 70°. There's evidence that it might have rained overnight, but I cannot detect anything in the rain gauge. Nearby Weather Underground station reports 0.01", which is too little for my gauge. Broke a 116 year old record with 100° yesterday, after breaking a record on Saturday as well with 99°. A Norther hit yesterday about sunset and the high today is forecast to be only 90°. Low to mid-90's for the rest of the week. That's our fall around here. When I was growing up, the first really cool night was always Halloween when everyone was out in their flimsy costumes.

I did mostly easy tasks yesterday, two rounds with the burn barrel, pool chemical maintenance, laundering the bed linens, gathering stuff up and making two trips over to the dumpster, (house and train shed). Dumpster is about 30 yards from the house and 70 yards from the train shed but I didn't count that as part of my daily walk. Later in the day, I prepared and marinated chicken breasts for grilling to make fajitas for supper. Reminds me that I still have almost half of last spring's onion harvest still to use. I need to move them into the shed where they will stay warmer at night which will delay sprouting. I generally have onions picked in May last all of the way through Thanksgiving, at which time I have to dice and freeze them if there are any still left.

Today was going to be a mowing day, but I'll have to wait a few hours for the vegetation to dry a bit. Might be a while since there is absolutely no wind this morning. But at 90°, it will still be cool all day. I know that 90° is considered hot to some, but not around here.
Pool temperature was up to 86° yesterday, but should cool down a bit this week. Wife who two weeks ago stated that she was done for the year, has been in for the past four days! Her water temperature tolerance range is not as great as mine.

I did spend some time out in the train shed yesterday. I worked on the remaining "window walls" for the motor inn.

I am also reminded of something that I already knew, that Atlas structure kits from the 60's were not always in scale; even if they were identified as HO scale.
This is the first floor mezzanine window, at a scale 5.75'.

Tough to add figures behind it.

Technically they fit but the illusion is still that their heads are through the ceiling. I'll look through my figures to see if I have some people of a smaller stature before using the backgrounds provided by Atlas (Faller) that don't really make sense. Another thought was to purchase some 1:100 figures that would be more proportional. The lack of scale size of the structure is still not going to be an issue because of where I intend to use it in the background. I actually have some 1:100 vehicles that will work in the building's driveway.
Nothing else was done yesterday besides all of those windows.

Curt - Many more windows as seen in the above pictures.
Spleen - I am no help regarding gluing of Kato Unitrack. I use track nails and Atlas switches and flex track. But it seems that you are getting some good advice that you now have to sort through. In model railroading, there is no one right answer for anything except that you need good trackwork to have fun.
Side note: Do you have a real name or are you happy with just being called Spleen?

Everyone have a great day.

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Always late to the party - at least I have been sleeping better!
54 F degrees going to 81 with clear and cloudless skies.

I watched the Chargers game yesterday and part of the KC game, but became board after the first quarter.

MAC - Very nice work on the Steamer. Glad to see someone else who likes "rods and pistons"!

The Spousal Unit delayed too long on the dryer repair - not being able to make up her mind? She kept saying to me that she was afraid that if i took it apart that it would sit for a week awaiting on parts - so now wee get to wait on delivery of a "new one" because yesterday it still noisy tumbled but quit heating. Are the two connected? So .... she ordered a new one yesterday ... and now we have a clothes line draped across the patio - sometimes I just cannot win. Dad always said that husbands are a sorry lot - LOL!

On the personal health front - I finished up the meds and, so far, have been feeling better. Now, if I can just find where I placed the "energy bucket"?
Have a great day!
Later

 

[migalyto]

Hello gentlemen. This weekend I've dedicated to some handiwork...rail model handiwork that is. Pennsylvania L1 Mikado has officially became Lehigh and New England G-1
Still a few details left on the locomotive itself, but all the tender needs are marker light lenses and a heap of coal, and some weathering.

That is Gorgeous!

Fantastic job!

 

[santafewillie]

and now we have a clothes line draped across the patio

Believe it or not, I still mostly use a clothesline instead of the dryer. You might remember ducking under it when you came to visit the train shed. Why??? Many reasons. Clothes smell and feel fresher when used. 2) It uses solar and wind power, thus putting me in the politically correct camp. 3) No moving parts to break. And mostly; in 1985, the power company estimated that every time I use the electric dryer, I spend $2.00. Probably a lot more today even though the newer one is more energy efficient. Back then with three kids, that meant a savings of over $800.00/year, even though there were times that it couldn't be used. They do work in cold weather if the sun is out and there is some wind. It is a little work and I have to replace the rope every 15 years, but it works for me. Wife used it and the kids had to use it during summer vacation from school. Hell, it was mostly their damn clothes anyway!

 

[KriegslokBR52]

Believe it or not, I still mostly use a clothesline instead of the dryer. You might remember ducking under it when you came to visit the train shed. Why??? Many reasons. Clothes smell and feel fresher when used. 2) It uses solar and wind power, thus putting me in the politically correct camp. 3) No moving parts to break. And mostly; in 1985, the power company estimated that every time I use the electric dryer, I spend $2.00. Probably a lot more today even though the newer one is more energy efficient. Back then with three kids, that meant a savings of over $800.00/year, even though there were times that it couldn't be used. They do work in cold weather if the sun is out and there is some wind. It is a little work and I have to replace the rope every 15 years, but it works for me. Wife used it and the kids had to use it during summer vacation from school. Hell, it was mostly their damn clothes anyway!

Best way to dry clothes.

 

[KriegslokBR52]

MAC - Very nice work on the Steamer. Glad to see someone else who likes "rods and pistons"!

Hard to believe nowadays but i was actually growing up with it. Back in my home country steam pretty much ruled secondary line through my hometown until mid 80s. Once in a while diesel switcher would show up on short freight. Then things changed fast in mid decade and it was a treat to see steam come in to town. One snowy winter day while in school (shows you what a great student I was), heard steam come in on local freight. Might have been 1985, or 86. During long break I hauled a.s to the station which was only about two blocks away. They were about to pull out of town and the engineer must have seen me, he opened that throttle wide, all five wheel sets and rods spinning right next to me as the locomotive was trying to gain traction-unforgetable. Last I remember seeing steam in my town was probably 1987, one of those Kriegsloks BR52, designated on polish railroad as Ty2.

 

[KriegslokBR52]

Use caulk, so if you do make a mistake, its easily taken up and repositioned. It holds very well too, and easily cleaned up, Don't go nuts with it.

I use Dap Alex. Make sure to use clear.

Funny you should mention it, I started to use caulk recently myself with nails to hold initial alignment

 

[NorthBrit]

Locomotive on the Molli Train, East Germany.

 

[Boris]

My notes show 70 - 20

Your right. ESPN initially showed 70-0 on the scores across the top of the web page. Either way, the Fish are back!

 

[troyphoto]

Well, howdy there internet peeps and those with people too big for their britches.

I'm home safe and mostly sound. Other than doing a lot of laundry yesterday, and napping, then sleeping all night, it's back to normal.

Went in to get my ears lowered earlier today, then swung by Meijer (big box grocery and home goods store)

Went out for Pizza Hut on the way home from the airport yesterday. Then popcorn and a whiskey chaser (Makers Mark) for dinner.

While out at the conference, I was doing research into a new genre of books to write. It's one I read about a decade ago, but it moved into being heavy romance. The TV show True Blood was closer to soft-core porn but was based on books in that genre.

Well, it's grown to spin off a Paranormal/Vampire Suspense/Mystery sub-genre. I've got a super-spy duo in the current set of books that are yelling for their own series, so this is green-lit to write next.

Now I have to find a suitable cover designer because I'm exceeding my skill set to build the covers this will need.

I was looking at two, recommended by other authors in those genres. I mentioned that I was down to only two on the shortlist, and was soliciting feedback from my reviewers/beta readers – and one just opted out. Made that decision easy. I was leaning towards the one I just hired, so double easy.

Back to writing.

 

[Boris]

Good morning gang!

53 as the storm leaves the coast, heading to 80 later..

BBL

Ha! Maybe that's why I like Maryland..here, the temperatures will remain in the 60s all week,.(50s at night). Of course it will continue raining through Tuesday also....followed by more rain, Thursday night through Friday.

Funny thing concerning the NWS. Nationally, the NWS is saying the storm has dissipated, but locally, the NWS is still blaming "The Storm" for all the remaining rain...NWS speaketh with forked tongue?

Either way, it's going to remain wet here most of the week, and the leaves are beginning to turn.

 

[Boris]

Good morning all. A sunny day with a breeze blowing.
The media here is whipping up a fear factor again. In days gone we used to say "It is windy outside."
Not now according to those putting fear into us. It is "Storm Agnes is approaching and will cause severe damage across the country."

Back later.

I guess Nigil was re-branded for the Brit market. I guess a storm ain't a storm unless it has a name...after it ain't a tank engine unless it's Thomas...