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Thursday September 21, 2006 5:40 am Lethbridge Sunrise 7:16 Sunset 19:33 Hours of daylight: 12:17
A. Morning Musings
6:00 am It is + 8 C at the moment. The forecast is for showers in the afternoon with a high of + 10 C.
B. Plan
I have a coffee get together at 8 am.
I began reading "In Search of Folly" yesterday. The 16th century grammar takes a bit of getting used to, but the wit is spectacular. I hope to make time to continue this today. In general, my Literature activities have slipped during the last month and I need to get back to a more substantial commitment to this. I was thoroughly enjoying the short stories of D. R. MacDonald in "All the Men Are Sleeping" and want to return to this as well.
A puzzle a day is turning out to be a time challenge. Many of the puzzles are taking me more than 2 hours to complete. Once I establish a representation to describe the strategy, the rest is simply meticulous record keeping plus the occassional insight as to what to look for next. Puzzle #9 is a good example of being meticulous and systematic. It is not a puzzle that requires imagination. Overall I am enjoying the variety of puzzles. Puzzle #3 gave me difficulty and I see that Puzzle #10 is another of the same kind. I do not have a clear sense of how to proceed with it yet.
I have brewed myself a pot of tea for my early morning screen activities. This is another habit I would like to ressurrect. I really enjoyed this a few years ago, but then I slipped back into a "coffee only" pattern. My cup this morning is Lipton's Orange Pekoe black tea, a Canadian stand-by.
I want to continue working on updating my North American Birds database. This involves reviewing my photos from our trip to Virginia, editing some of them (deleting poor images, enlarging ones of the birds, and adding keywords and descriptions to them). This will then be saved as an XML file (I am curious to see how Dreamweaver handles the images) and then I will have to do some serious study on XSLT (stylesheets) so I can view the database on the Web.
Finally, I want to do some thinking about my model train layout. I recall reading a few months ago that one of the principles underlying a good layout is to avoid "duck-unders". This has been bothering me since I read it. My present layout is fine for what I originally intended, but I can imagine the duck-unders will be annoying when I begin operating the trains using DCC. The idea is to be able to easily walk around and stay close to the train. Another principle that I have been following is to maximize the table area in the room. I need to review my magazines again and see what they provide. Also another Web search for "model train track layout".
Immediate Health Walk & exercise 1 hr Model Trains Review design of track layout 4 hr Puzzles The Orange Puzzle Cube: puzzle #9 Technology add keywords to iPhoto records 2 hr Birds Add August birds to North American data base 2 hr History Continue reading "Citizens" 1 hr Mathematics Read "The Computational Beauty of Nature" Chap 3 1 hr Literature Continue reading "All the Men Are Sleeping" 1 hr Read "In Praise of Folly" by Erasmus 1 hr Read "The Art of Living" by Epictetus 1 hr Read "The Song of Roland" 1 hr Later Chores Investigate water softeners for home 1 hr Technology Read manual for cell phone 1 hr 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 Watson "Ideas" Model Trains Build oil refinery diorama: add ground cover Add blue backdrop to layout Assemble second oil platform kit Redraw diagram for Lower Mainline control panel Wire Lower Mainline turnouts
C. Actual/Notes
6:40 am I have been sketching a couple of diagrams for potential model train layouts that avoid duck-unders and still maximize table area. This will involve taking off all of my buildings and track and starting over (again) but it is better to face this now than later.
My first impression is that I have a layout that will be much easier to run trains on and that will only involve a modest amount of rearranging. Now to see what I can find on the Web.
3:50 PM I have resolved to make a major adjustment to my model train layout. I know what I want to remove - the duck unders that will make it difficult to follow a train while it is operational, but I am not yet confident that I know what I want to replace it with. I have looked at a number of designs on the Web but do not yet have a clear image of the best approach for placing the underlying tables.
8:50 PM The train layout is finally taking shape. I now have a rough sketch of the table configuration with the mainlines drawn in. The layout conforms to the following design principles:
- All track is on a single level
- There are no duck-unders (this was the main reason I changed the layout)
- There are 2' aisles for the operator
- The mainline permits continuous running in a loop
- The basic design is a dogbone with additions
- There is a visual barrier separating the two towns
- There is only 1 entrance to Town 1
- There is ample time for the operator to meet the train after it passes through the visual barrier (this is an important consideration)
- The switching and yard layouts are still to be determined.
- The basic location of the coal mine, distillery, lumber mill and farms has been identified.
- The location of the buildings has yet to be determined.
There is much more work to be done. I will have to remove all of the existing buildings, most of the track, all of the wiring (!) and then re-arrange the tables and underlying structure. Then I have to put it all back together again: lay the track, redo the wiring and place the buildings.
On a totally different topic, the new bird feeder is a spectacular success. We have seen Black-capped Chickadees feeding from it all day. There have been a number of House Finches as well as a few sparrows.
D. Reflection