Monday August 7, 2006 6:20 am Lethbridge Alberta Sunrise 6:10 Sunset 9:04 Hours of daylight: 14:54

From rear window	South patio
Both images taken at 12:30 PM

A. Morning Musings

6:20 am It is + 8 C at the moment, with a forecast high of + 32 C.

I am having a second morning of rising with my feet still in the sand. The weather remains spectacular and the forecast for the next few days remains sunny and warm.

I will focus on my model train layout today. The wooden trestle kit is now at the stage where the various sub-assemblies are ready to be glued together. I now have the base for the oil refinery diorama cut to the right size and am ready to begin gluing down the refinery and two oil tanks. Then I will glue the berms for the tanks and that will lead to the placing of the piping to join the tanks to the refinery and the oil platform. I need to purchase a couple of terminal track pieces before thumb tacking down the Lower Mainline Reversing loop. I also need to attach a small corner insert on the lower table layout for a section of curved track that is currently unsupported. Finally, I need to attach the Lower Mainline Control Panel which will contain the switches for the 13 turnouts on the Lower Mainline. This will also need a new diagram of the Lower Mainline showing the location of the turnouts and power connections.

Now to sit back with my cup of coffee and review what I have just written.

B. Plan

Immediate
Health	Walk & exercise	1 hr
Mathematics	Read "The Computational Beauty of Nature" Chap 3	1 hr
Model Trains	Wire Lower Mainline Reversing loop track
	Assemble wooden trestle kit	2 hr
	Build oil refinery diorama: buy materials for scenery	1 hr
Literature	Continue reading "Ada Blackjack"	2 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
	Buy some terminal track sections (2 - 6 pieces)	1 hr
	Redraw diagram for Lower Mainline control panel
	Build Lower Mainline control panel	2 hr
	Wire Lower Mainline turnouts

C. Actual/Notes

5:40 PM It is still very hot, + 34 C at the moment. It was a good day for working on the model train layout as it is cooler in the basement.

	Model Trains 24 August 7
Model Trains Chronology
5:40 PM I am making progress on a number of fronts. I mounted the small piece of plywood to provide a grounding for the Lower Mainline Reversing loop track where it cut across an open corner between two sheets of plywood. Done. Then I decided to build the supports for the Lower Mainline Control Panel. I made this from some scrap material left when we had our hardwood floors installed a few years ago. I then cut a rectangular piece of plywood from some scrap 1/2" plywood. Then I mounted 13 Atlas switches for the 13 turnouts on the Lower Mainline loops. I have now painted the board black. Tomorrow I hope to give it a second coat, and then it will be reading for placing on the layout. Wiring the switches to the turnouts may take a few days, but I don't anticipate any difficulties. I have also been working on the wooden trestle kit. The main remaining task is to assemble the various sub-assemblies. Here is a photo taken that shows that I am almost 1/3 of the way complete (it is upside down - the track is at the bottom in the photo). I took a break in the early afternoon and visited the Model Baron hobby shop where I bought 2 pieces of terminal track, which I will need when I work on the Lower Mainline Reversing loop. I also bought some scenery materials for the oil refinery diorama. Although I am working on both the diorama and the trestle kit, these are not critical to the actual operation of the layout. Thus my first priority is to work on the wiring for the power and then to get all of the 13 turnouts on the Lower Mainline working. Then I need thumb tack down the track in the Happy Valley yard. This is where the majority of my switching will occur. Once I have the refinery diorama finished it will only take a couple of hours to thumb tack down the track in this switching yard. That will complete the Lower Mainline. I then need to relay the Lower Mainline track on a foam roadbed and add ballast to make it look realistic. At that point I will have a completely operational Lower level and will be ready to convert the layout to DCC. Once that is working, I will then begin to repeat the entire process for the Upper Level. I read that the scale speed for HO layouts should be: Time to Travel 3' 5 mph 36 sec switching moves 15 mph 12 sec yard movement 25 mph 7 sec mainline 60 mph 3 sec mainline 90 mph 2 sec modern mainline I need to create a table that correlates these values with those on the power source. 9:00 PM It took less than an hour to thumb tack down the Lower Mainline Reversing loop. Thus I now have the complete lower level mainline track in place. The next step will be wire the reversing loop for DC (Direct Current) operation. This will allow me to run trains on it. When I purchase a DCC (Digital Command Control) system I will have to make a few changes to the wiring, but this should be relatively minor.

D. Reflection