Wednesday May 31, 2006 5:50 am Lethbridge Alberta

A. Morning Musings

5:50 am The sky appears to be clearing. The temperature is + 7 at the moment with a forecast high of + 23.

We have yet to visit the Superstore for groceries. It might also be a good place to look for an electric wok.

I want to visit the Radio Shack store in Park Place mall to see about wire and plastic connectors for attaching the track feeder wires to the power bus.

At the moment my model train activities are taking center stage. I sense that I am very close to having a working and aesthetically pleasing layout, ready to be used for DCC.

B. Plan

Chores	Mortar cement blocks	2 hr
	Review Executor's material	2 hr
	Groceries	1 hr
Health	Walk	1 hr
	Exercise	.5 hr
Model Trains	Shop for wiring & solder	1.5 hr
Literature	Continue reading "Mrs. Dalloway Reader"	1 hr
History	Continue reading "Citizens"	1 hr
Technology	Read manual for cell phone	1 hr
		11 hrs

C. Actual/Notes

5:50 am The above table identifies activities totalling 11 hours. Yesterday's table had 9 hours, of which I completed 3.5, although the model train activities took closer to 4 hours than 1.5..

Previous	Model Trains 4	Next
Model Trains Chronology
6:00 am I am determined to fiddle around with my track and see if I can get a preliminary run on the lower level for the mainline loop. It was only last night that I realized that I had an electrical short in the track plan and began making relatively small scale adjustments. My intuition is still somewhat sound. Last night I had a cumbersome solution to the join of the upper level and lower level tracks that involved raising much of the track bed by 1/2". I got rid of all that this morning and once again have a level layout on the lower level. I decided to try out the mainline loop with CN locomotive 7847. It ran perfectly! Here is a short list of some next steps: locate my computer data base of train maintenance. I would like to keep accurate records of all time spent on my rolling stock. At the moment I am not even sure what type of unit is CN7847! This is very embarrassing. review all of my materials and tools and get them organized lay down scenery roll of "summer grass" on the lower level. This should be done before I put down the road bed. Then once the mainline track is glued in place I can add the ballast. review lower level mainline turnouts to see if I should modify them to be operated under the table. buy wire for power bus rewire mainline on lower level to incorporate track feeder connections to a power bus. begin work on building the loading platform for the oil refinery. buy 2 sheets of blue poster cardboard for a backdrop 9:20 am I have located my old computer files for this hobby. Great. The CN locomotive 7847 is a Alco RS-3 Diesel. 9:05 PM I have spent about 2 hours going through some of my miscellaneous train stuff trying to get it organized. This is also giving me a much better sense of what I have and what needs to be done next. I have assembled a couple of small models (a cattle stockyard and the sign and stairs for a warehouse) but much more needs to be done on a repair program.

D. Reflection

The three major tasks still on my list are:

• complete mortaring cement blocks on back fence
• stain rear side fence
• review executors statement

I am hoping to complete the first and last items tomorrow.