Home
Journals 2008
Year to Date
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Time Tables 2008
Year to Date
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Year to Date
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Year to Date
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
It is +4 C with a high forecast of +28 C. Sunrise 7:10 Sunset 19:40 Hours of daylight: 12:30.
See current Lethbridge forecast here. See current Lethbridge news here.This page last updated on: Thursday, September 18, 2008 6:45 AM
Another glorious day in the forecast.
My planned activities are much like they have been for the last few days: a little trains, a little geocaching, and a little reading. But the last few days have seen a lot of trains, no geocaching, and very little reading.
I have decided to join the Southern Alberta Model Railway Club (SAMRC). I am also leaning strongly toward buying a software package called Ship It! which will, after some initial effort, produce "realistic" shipping orders for my layout. I understand the basic requirements of providing detailed information about the layout such as the characteristics of each piece of rolling stock, as well as each industry that is either on the layout or contains a drop off point for that industry. But I will need to do a little more reading to appreciate the implications of Divisions and how Interchanges work. I also need to do more reading on the different types of trains. But I am definitely at the stage where this is the next big thing. I have downloaded the manual for the software and am beginning to study it. This is one of the pleasures of this hobby - what I learn about real railroads.
| Learning Category | Planned Activities for Today | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Model Trains | Create a schematic diagram of my layout | 4 hr |
| Geocaching | Henderson Lake area, possibly the east side of the coulee. | 1 hr |
| Literature | Continue reading "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie | 1 hr |
Today was not a good day for getting much done. We had people in the house for much of the day as they were cleaning the duct work for our house heating system and inspecting the furnace.
Model Trains: I took down the "portable" bridge system that links the Jasper District to the Coaldale District so the men could reach the air vents without having to crawl around on their knees. That put a stop to any running of the trains. But we pretty had to stay in the house until late in the afternoon due to one of the companies being late and thus interfering with the schedule of the other group. Anyway, by the end of the day the house was ready for the coming winter months.
As a result of reading parts of the manual for Ship It! I have learned about AAR Types (Association of American Railroads) which give a 2 or 3 letter designation to each type of rolling car. For example, H stands for a hopper, and HD is a hopper capable of dumping. I will need to be familiar with these designations if I plan to use Ship It! software as each car must have this information provided as part of the data base.
Another type of learning is that of drawing schematic diagrams of layouts. So far I have a rough diagram that corresponds to the actual layout but I am new to the more abstract representations. This turned out to be much more difficult than I imagined. I am still not pleased with what I have produced so far.
Books on the Go Today |
|
 |
 |