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| Links to Notebook Pages: | Model Trains |
Saturday August 5, 2006 6:30 am Lethbridge Alberta Sunrise 6:07 Sunset 9:07 Hours of daylight: 15:00
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From rear window |
South patio |
Both images taken at 11:40 am |
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A. Morning Musings
6:30 am It is + 4 C at the moment, with a forecast high of + 22 C.
B. Plan
Immediate Health Walk & exercise 1 hr Mathematics Read "The Computational Beauty of Nature" Chap 3 3 hr Model Trains Wire lower mainline track for a power block 3 hr Assemble wooden trestle kit 1 hr Build oil refinery diorama Literature Begin reading "Ada Blackjack" 1 hr Later Chores Investigate water softeners for home 1 hr Technology Read manual for cell phone 1 hr add keywords to iPhoto records Make notes for chap. 4 of "Switching to the Mac" 2 hr Begin reading "iPhoto" 1 hr digital photography - learn about using the various manual settings Mathematics Larson "Calculus" Gardner "The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles" History Continue reading "Citizens" Watson "Ideas" Model Trains Add blue backdrop to layout 2 hr Assemble second oil platform kit
C. Actual/Notes
6:50 PM I have modified my layout diagram (with a pencil) to indicate the location of each turnout, the location of the terminal strips, the control panels, and I have given names to the two switching yards. The refinery complex will be called Distillery Row and the town will be called Happy Valley.
I have added the remaining two barrier strips and have now completed wiring the Lower Mainline loop. It consists of 4 terminal tracks which connect to the power source. I have run my test train on this track and it works fine. This represents the complete wiring of the first Power District. There will be four such power districts on the lower level, two for the mainline and one each for the two switching areas.
The next step is to wire the Lower Mainline Reversing loop. This will require 3 barrier strips to provide power to 3 terminal tracks equally spaced around this section of track. Reviewing my layout diagram, I see that it may make sense to replace 2 of the mounted 4-position barrier strips with 6-position barrier strips and to then have one connection to the Lower Mainline loop and another to the Lower Mainline Reversing loop. If I had been thinking this through at the outset I could have set this up initially and saved myself a lot of work. However my goal at the time was to make sure I had the initial wiring under control, which I now have. Once I have this reversing loop wired, I will make a preliminary check that my switching yards will all fit as I planned and then I will redo the mainline track, mounting it permanently on a road bed and even adding the rock ballast to make it look realistic.
I then redid wooden berms for the two oil tanks by reducing their size by about half. They now look much better and I will be able to begin working on the refinery diorama.
10:00 PM I have spent the last hour making minor adjustments to the track layout for the Lower Mainline Reversing loop. My earlier idea of having 3 terminal tracks fell apart when I noticed that there was no area near the control panel that would allow a section of teminal track. All of the track pieces were either turnouts, curved sections or short straight sections. By the time I had found an area that would accommodate a regular length straight section (i.e. a terminal track piece) I was too far away from the control panel to run a short wire (i.e. less than 3') to the barrier strip.
I now have changed my plan to only using 2 terminal tracks and have made the necessary changes to the track layout to be able to exchange two regular length straight sections with 2 terminal track sections. Now I need to buy the 2 terminal track sections.
D. Reflection