Sunday September 21, 2008 5:30 am Lethbridge

It is +8 C with a high forecast of +14 C. Sunrise 7:16 Sunset 19:32 Hours of daylight: 12:16.
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This page last updated on: Monday, September 22, 2008 5:16 AM

A. Morning Musings

I want to continue reading and thinking about my model train layout. I was surprised yesterday to realize that I could improve the operating characteristics by adding a small holding track near the junction between the mainline and what I could call the secondary mainline.

I received some words of encouragement from an experienced geocacher about DNFs. It is a new hobby, but one that I am enjoying because of my original motivation - a reason to get outside. It has also got me back into birding.

Learning Category	Planned Activities for Today	Time
Model Trains	Continue reading about realistic operations	2 hr
Model Trains	Remove loop from around Black Diamond	1 hr
Model Trains	Add holding spur near mainline interchange	2 hr
Geocaching	GC1CJKH, GC1CJKT & GC1CJK3	1 hr
Literature	Continue reading "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie	1 hr

B. Actual Learning Activities

9:00 am

I have spent about 2 hours reading and making notes for chapters 3 and 4 of "How to Operate Your Model Railroad". This has been time well spent. I now have a much better idea about many fundamental aspects of both real railways as well as principles to follow when building and operating a model railway.

The weather is overcast and light rain comes and goes. Not a great day for geocaching but I am eager to rectify at least one of my DNFs from yesterday. I should have checked the geocache website before going out and I would have realized that one site used a magnetic cache holder. That pretty well determines the type of location where it could be found. Now to find it.

1:00 PM

The model train activities were very productive this morning. I have now removed the reversing loop around Black Diamond, added a spur holding line near the junction of the mainline and the secondary main line. This rippled into the removal of a DCC reversing loop module as well as the relocation of a station and a warehouse from Queenston to Jasper. I have yet to test the road worthiness of the new track but am please with how these changes both simplify the mainline track and provide additional interest with the addition of a holding spur track.

4:00 PM

We are back from a geocache adventure to Henderson Lake. Yesterday I went 0 for 5. Today was better: 3 for 4.

GC1CJKH Henderson Park #2

I missed this yesterday by relying on my eyes. Phyllis found it using her hands.

GC1CJKT Henderson park #3

What can I say? Yesterday I focused on an empty container and forgot to turn around.

GC1CJK3 Henderson Park #1

This was a very special find: our first bison tube! Little green things in trees are a challenge.

We also tried to find GC139M4 Off Course (for the second time) but it still goes down in the books as a DNF. There were a number of geomuggles in the area so it was difficult to focus on the tree.

Here are a couple of photos of a family of Common Merganzers and two more reflections:

The lighting was no where near as good as yesterday, but the merganzers were still a delight.

merganzers

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