Friday January 5, 2007 6:20 am Lethbridge Sunrise 8:28 Sunset 16:45 Hours of daylight: 8:17

A. Morning Musings

6:20 am It is -5 C at the moment with a high of 0 C forecast.

First, a sip of coffee. Mmm, good. Now to think about the day. I have a few little things I can do with my model train layout: attach the last 3 strips of underbed foam in the Coaldale yard. I will make another trip to the hobby store to buy a few more strips so I can finish nailing down the track for the entire layout. I will then be set to begin converting the wiring to DCC. The additional building structures can be finished at a leisurely pace.

From rear window	South patio
Both images taken at 11:25 am

B. Plan

Immediate
Health	Walk & exercise	1 hr
Technology	Begin reading "iPhoto"	1 hr
Literature	Continue reading "Virginia Woolf: The Inner Life" by Julia Briggs	1 hr
Model Trains	Add foam underbed to track in Coaldale; attach wiring to track in Queenston	3 hr
Later
Chores	Investigate water softeners for home
Technology	Read manual for cell phone
	Make notes for chap. 4 of "Switching to the Mac"
	digital photography - learn about using the various manual settings
Mathematics	Read "Fearless Symmetry" chap 9: Elliptic Curves
Model Trains	Add ground cover to oil refinery diorama
	Continue assembly of coaling tower
	Purchase DCC system
History	Read Watson "Ideas"
Philosophy	Read & make notes for "Breaking the Spell"
GO	Complete reading "Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go"
Puzzles	The Orange Puzzle Cube: puzzle #10

C. Actual/Notes

	Model Trains 04 January 5
Model Trains Notes
12:10 PM I put in another 3 hours today laying foam roadbed and nailing down track in The Channon (difficult) and Queenston (easy). This time the problem was with the line in The Channon that was parallel to the inner mainline loop. The problem was that it wasn't parallel. Once again, I had to remove a number of nails and then relay and modify the track placement to get it right. I also added my last two turnouts to provide an end-around capability in The Channon near the grain elevator. I am impressed with the flexibility that I have by adopting this method of nailing down the track - it is relatively easy to pull up a few nails, reposition the track, adding and removing sections of track, and then renailing the newly placed track. It is also a good argument for not ballasting the track, at least until one is absolutely sure that everything is where you want it. Much to my surprise, I was able to use a lot of my scrap pieces of roadbed on the Coaldale classification yard. The final result was that I was able to complete laying and nailing down all of the track. A major job completed. I still need about a dozen under the rail magnets to finalize the layout but it is essentially complete now. The next task will be to alter the wiring for DCC but that will have to wait until I am able to purchase a DCC system. Realigned siding track in The Channon End-around at far end in The Channon Coaldale classification yard Coaldale classification yard I now can focus on the operational characteristics of my trains. I need to verify, once again, the coupler heights as well as the performance of the rolling stock on the track. There are bound to be a few problems: some with the track and some with the cars. We shall see. SUMMARY of the session: I have now finished the track laying and am ready to focus on operational running of the trains.

D. Reflection