Friday August 11, 2006 7:30 am Lethbridge Alberta Sunrise 6:15 Sunset 8:57 Hours of daylight: 14:42

From rear window	South patio
Both images taken at 11:40 am

A. Morning Musings

7:30 am It is + 12 C at the moment, with a forecast high of + 22 C. The sky is cloudy with showers forecast for this afternoon. We had a very light shower overrnight, the first rain in almost a month.

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 track; rewire previous barrier strips using spade connectors	2 hr
	Wire Happy Valley yard	1 hr
	Inaugural run between Distillery Row and Paradise Valley	1 hr
	Assemble wooden trestle kit	2 hr
	Build oil refinery diorama: add piping to connect oil tanks to refinery and to loading platform	2 hr
	Add future items Adepttracker project management file	2 hr
Literature	Continue 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
	Assemble second oil platform kit
	Redraw diagram for Lower Mainline control panel
	Wire Lower Mainline turnouts

C. Actual/Notes

	Model Trains 28 August 11
Model Trains Chronology
8:00 am Now that I have the spade connectors I want to redo all of the wiring that I have done so far to incorporate these wherever they are applicable. I also want to add a barrier strip and connect it to a terminal track on the Lower Mainline Reversing loop. Ideally I might thumb tack down the Happy Valley track and add a couple of terminal tracks and barrier strips to this part of the layout as well. The general goal is to have everything on the lower level operational with the exception of Distillery Row. 2:30 PM Considerable progress today. All of the wiring had been converted over to spade connectors. Here is a photo of one of the barrier strips: The track for Happy Valley has been thumb tacked down and wiring for power has been attached. I now have an operational lower level layout consisting of a Lower Mainline loop, a Lower Mainline Reversing loop, and a Happy Valley switching yard. Both I, and the citizens of Happy Valley, are delighted as we now have a working train system that can be used to operate trains (using DC) while I continue to work on Distillery Row. Then I can turn my attention to the upper level where there is considerable work to be done. Now for a little fun. Here are images of my first four cars to be operational on the layout: CN 665489 40' flat car CN 501417 40' steel box car G.A.T.X. 22691 36' tank car CN 78213 steel caboose Here is my first operational load. CN diesel locomotive 7847 picked up the containers where the Lower Mainline Reversing loop passes by Distillery Row. They were taken to Happy Valley and unloaded at the 36th St Warehouse & Storage facility. Efforts were made to unload at the nearby flour mill but the containers were a touch oversize. CN 7847 picking up load at Distillery Row CN 7847 arriving at Happy Valley Containers too large for flour mill The locals celebrate their first arrival. The inaugural trip is over and it is time for the engineer to file his report and then celebrate. Filing the report Life is good Very good Yes! Overall this has been a great day. I think I will enjoy retirement. My dominant philosophy is, and always has been, one of feedback and successive approximation. Thus I am looking forward to operating trains on the layout and making (hopefully minor) adjustments based on experience. The first change is a name change. Happy Valley will now be known as Paradise Valley. I wanted something like "Valley" to describe the fact that the town was on the lower level of the train layout. Happy did capture the fact that this entire activity is indeed a lot of fun, but Paradise is even better as it encompasses that idea plus it is a play on an extensive hiking trail in Banff that I took in 1966 which began at Lake Louise and then went to the summit of Mt. Fairview, then down to Paradise Valley and over Sentinal Pass to Larch Valley and finally down to Moraine Lake. Distillery Row is perfect, and will not change. I like the allusion to Cannery Row.

D. Reflection