Wednesday October 04, 2006 6:30 am Lethbridge Sunrise 7:35 Sunset 19:05 Hours of daylight: 11:30

A. Morning Musings

6:30 am It is 0 C at the moment with a forecast of + 13 C.

My weight is up 1 at 187. I am a little disappointed but not too surprised. Yesterday was a restaurant meal, no walk and two deserts (apple crisp and apple pie). Today will be the reverse - no restaurants, two walks and no deserts.

My model train layout continues to be my first priority.

From rear window	South patio
Both images taken at 1:30 PM

B. Plan

Immediate
Health	Walk & exercise	2 hr
Chores	Paint new bathroom vanity cabinet	1 hr
Model Trains	Begin wiring outer mainline	2 hr
Puzzles	The Orange Puzzle Cube: puzzle #9
Technology	add keywords to iPhoto records	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

	Model Trains 38 October 4
Model Trains Chronology
7:05 am I now have a roughed-out plan for the entire layout. It is time to begin laying track with a foam roadbed and thumb tacks. This will provide an operational test of the entire layout. At the same time I will install the necessary wiring and thus begin to run trains again. My goal is to have a DCC system operational before Christmas. I envisage two power districts: the outer mainline and the inner mainline. The outer mainline will consist of Coaldale, Distillery Row and Black Diamond. Essentially this is the layout along the outer walls of the room. The inner mainline will consist of Queenston, The Channon and Pine Ridge. This is the layout in the center of the room. The control panel will be placed at the end of the Coaldale yard and will control all the turnouts on the mainlines. There are 9 turnouts on the outer mainline and 12 on the inner mainline. I will also have separate control panels for handling the turnouts for each of the local switching areas: Coaldale, Distillery Row, Black Diamond, Queenston, The Channon and Pine Ridge. As with my previous layout, I will begin with a smaller section of the outer mainline, lay the track on a roadbed, wire it, and then running a small train on it to see how it works operationally. One of the advantages this time is that I have a good understanding of what is involved in doing the wiring. 12:30 PM The layout is operational. I have foam underbed for the mainline arrival track in the Coaldale yard. I have power on the arrival track in the Coaldale yard. I have one locomotive, CN 7847 (an Alco RS-3 diesel), and one boxcar, CN 501417, currently on the layout. I was able to run a test of automatic coupling and uncoupling using the under the track magnet that will be used to uncouple the train from the mainline locomotive and then have the locomotive do a run around to leave the yard. This was the first time that I have tried coupling and uncoupling since I began working with my trains a few months ago. There is a genuine feeling of satisfaction to be able to do this without touching the train. CN 7847 arrives from the north (top left) and uncouples boxcar CN 501417 CN 7847 continues on, clearing the turnout The turnout is switched and CN 7847 reverses direction CN 7847 continues to the end of the yard, leaving the car to be picked up by a yard locomotive However the idea of using thumb tacks to fasten down the track does not work with the foam underbed. The tack fails to reach the plywood. I will leave the foam underbed that I have put down this morning but will not add any more as I want to use the thumb tacks to verify that the overall mainline layout is electrically sound and that I like the operational feel of trains on this setup. Then I will convert to DCC and verify that I have that working properly. Finally, I will reinstall the track using the foam road bed. There is still lots of work ahead. I will now begin tacking down the track and adding additional wiring for power every 4 - 6 feet.

 

D. Reflection