Sunday August 13, 2006 5:55 am Lethbridge Alberta Sunrise 6:18 Sunset 8:54 Hours of daylight: 14:36

From rear window	South patio
Both images taken at 3:10 PM

A. Morning Musings

7:30 am It is + 4 C at the moment, with a forecast high of + 25 C. The sky is clear with a lovely orange glow in the east. The sun will arrive in exactly 20 minutes.

I have few plans for the day. I expect to finish assembling the wooden trestle kit (made of plastic) this morning. I will still have to make a base for it so it can appear on the layout as part of the Upper Mainline loop. But first a fresh cuppa.

B. Plan

Immediate
Health	Walk & exercise	1 hr
Mathematics	Read "The Computational Beauty of Nature" Chap 3	1 hr
Model Trains	Assemble wooden trestle kit	1 hr
	Build oil refinery diorama: add piping to connect oil tanks to refinery and to loading platform	2 hr
	Add future items to Adepttracker project management file	1 hr
Literature	Begin reading "All the Men Are Sleeping"
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
	Build base for wooden trestle	3 hr

C. Actual/Notes

	Model Trains 30 August 13
Model Trains Chronology
7:45 PM Another good day. I began the morning with the idea of completing the Wooden Trestle kit but this quickly expanded to include the idea of building the necessary table structure to incorporate it into the layout. Here are a couple of images of the result: The completed kit on the work table wooden trestle on the layout All tthat remains is to paint the three water barrels red. The barrels are intended to provide some form of fire suppression but I have some difficulty believing that a barrel of water would be of much help. I also have some difficulty believing that the structure could catch fire as the beams are all some distance apart. (This would make a great computer simulation!). The trestle has been given a coat of Dullcoat and it now looks much more realistic. The Upper mainline loop is now ready for the final adjustments to make it operational. I am surprised at how quickly this has happened. I need to slow down a bit and focus on the lower level until it is closer to completion. I want to operationalize the Upper Mainline loop before I commit to buying the DCC controls. The actual scenery can be created later. Note in the last photo that the track has been laid for the first half of the trestle (it begins on the curve in the upper right hand corner of the photo). The lower level is in the upper left corner of the image, and the track on the white supports is the link joining the lower and upper levels. I spent about an hour finalizing the actual assembly and another 3 hours working on the underlying table. I actually have two solutions: the immediate solution that allows me to work on the Upper Mainline loop and another table structure that I will incorporate in a few months time when I make a final decision to commit to building the extension to the upper level. The remaining major project is to work on the oil refinery diorama.

D. Reflection