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Monday October 02, 2006 6:20 am Lethbridge Sunrise 7:32 Sunset 19:09 Hours of daylight: 11:37
A. Morning Musings
6:20 am It is -1 C at the moment. This is the first negative temperature of the season. The forecast is for a high of + 12 C with a 40% chance of showers this afternoon.
My weight is down 1 to 186. Excellent. This is the first time that I have had a loss of at least a pound for 3 consecutive days. I am genuinely pleased with my progress on this front. The regular walks, often into the coulee which means a good uphill effort on the return, makes as much of a difference as the reduction in eating. I am now well ahead of my goal to get to 180 by the middle of November.
I have my regular coffee meeting with Frank & Lance at 8:30. The intent this morning is to distribute a copy of a 1977 paper by Jack Easley that compares various educational research approaches. We plan to discuss this paper on Thursday.
Learning activities are back on the front burner. I will have a close look at my model train layout today and see what should be done next.
B. Plan
Immediate Health Walk & exercise 1 hr Chores Paint new bathroom vanity cabinet 1 hr Model Trains Lay ground cover over layout tables 1 hr Determine track layout for main classification yard 1 hr Determine mainline track layouts 2 hr Determine track layout for Black Diamond coal mine 1 hr Puzzles The Orange Puzzle Cube: puzzle #9 Technology add keywords to iPhoto records 1 hr Learn how to add recipes to FitDay data base 1 hr Birds Add September birds to North American data base 1 hr History Continue reading "Citizens" 1 hr Literature Continue reading "The Custodian of Paradise" by Wayne Johnston 1 hr Later Chores Investigate water softeners for home Technology Read manual for cell phone Make notes for chap. 4 of "Switching to the Mac" Begin reading "iPhoto" digital photography - learn about using the various manual settings
Literature Read "The Art of Living" by Epictetus Read "The Song of Roland" Mathematics Larson "Calculus" Read "The Computational Beauty of Nature" Chap 3 Gardner "The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles" History Watson "Ideas" Model Trains Build oil refinery diorama: add ground cover Assemble second oil platform kit
C. Actual/Notes
10:20 am The car is in for maintenance. I then went over to the coffee shop only to find that it was closed (permanently). We will have to find a new meeting place.
I am planning to make a recipe from "Jean's Bean's". Originally I was thinking of something that would use either chick peas or black beans. I found an interesting recipe for chick peas: Chicken and Chick-pea soup. Soup it is, for lunch. This will be good as it is noticebly cooler today. A nice hot soup will be a good idea.
Technology: I have just Learned how to add a complete recipe to the data base for the FitDay software. I did not know that this was possible, but when I started to play with the options, I suddenly realized that it will do what I want. For this recipe it turns out that a cup will be about 230 calories.
9:20 PM I have been playing downstairs with my layout for about 5 hours today. I have a clear idea of the track layout for both the main yard and the coal mine.
I have added the sheets of ground cover to most of the layout and have begun placing the track on top of this to see how it works when I actually have to use track sections of pre-determined length and curvature.
In creating these two track layouts I have come to appreciate the significance of having a long lead track at the entrance to each yard. This is necessary for the yard engine to carry out its duties without having to enter the mainline and thus potentially cause difficulties for trains on the mainline. Such a long lead track has never been part of my thinking when considering layouts until now.
My approach to a final layout is a mix of heuristics and careful planning. The diagram below represents my original basic plan. Since then it has been modified by turning the right side into a one-ended large yard. The only other change to the mainline is to continue the track that is second from the top in the diagram to join the right hand side of the oval loop just below it. This creates a mainline run through Queenston.
The heuristics come into play as I begun to view the overall layout and try to place passing sidings and switching turnouts for the various structures and industries. At the moment I have Coaldale pretty well established. It is all track and no structures. I also have Black Diamond (the coal mine) set up with the proper switching track and a long lead so a switching engine, without entering the mainline, can move the empties to the mine and remove the loads to a siding for pickup by a mainline locomotive.
The two remaining large areas are Queenston (a town with a number of industrial buildings and sidings) and Distillery Row (a large refinery complex with storage tanks and a loading platform). The remaining three areas (Pine Ridge [lumber mill], Paradise Valley [farming] and The Channon [small village]) are all relatively small and should be easy to fit in.
I prefer working with a large empty table and then seeing what happens when I place a few structures on it and then try to set the track to service them. Or sometimes I begin by placing the track and then seeing what buildings can fit into the arrangement. I also have a large grain terminal that would look very nice with a couple of long sidings containing about 8 - 10 cylindrical grain cars. Once again, the idea is to set up the track so a train can drop off about 8 cars and pick up a similar number.
At the moment I do not have any sidings on the mainline. This means that only one train can be running on the mainline at a time. I will try to set up a siding on the left side and two more on each side of the oval.
I have yet to make a final decision on whether to use visual barriers or not. I will wait until I have the layout more or less set and then I will set up a temporary barrier and see what I think of it.
The mainline track enters Coaldale from the top right. The train arrives on the rightmost track and the locomotive uncouples from the car and reverses back on the siding track beside the mainline. The eight tracks in the middle are called classification tracks. This is where a switching locomotive will create new trains which will be picked up by a mainline locomotive and taken out from Coaldale along the mainline track in the upper left corner of the image to the rest of the layout. The remaining tracks on the left of the Coaldale yard are holding tracks for spare locomotives, cabooses and cars requiring maintenance. It is possible for the yard locomotive to disassemble an incoming train and create a number of new trains without ever entering the mainline track.
There are 7 siding tracks for the Black Diamond mine. The nearest two are for empty cars, the middle three are loading tracks (the coal drops down into the cars from the mine complex), and the two lines furthest away are for loaded cars ready to be picked up by a mainline locomotive.
D. Reflection