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Friday October 20, 2006 7:40 am Lethbridge Sunrise 8:00 Sunset 18:32 Hours of daylight: 10:32
A. Morning Musings
7:40 am It is +5 C at the moment. The forecast is for a high of + 8 C with a 60% chance of showers.
My weight is down 1 to 182. Great. It may be a few days before I reach my original goal of 180 but it is in sight.
I thoroughly enjoy this part of the day. I have a cuppa beside me and I can think about the coming day with some rigor. The days do not simply happen, there are definite goals for most of them. One weakness is that I have more goals and activities than I can possibly meet. I vaguely recall a quote that goes something like "A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a ...". I just googled this. It is by Robert Browning and it ends " or what's a heaven for?".
My day is now well structured to include all of my "big three" Learning activities (model trains, mathematics, literature). This adds up to about 5 hours which is a fair chunk of the day.
Model Trains: I hope to get the reversing loop working so I can run trains from Coaldale to Black Diamond and back. Yesterday I changed the location of a few buildings in The Channon and was able to come up with a system that allows me to add the coal yard which includes an above ground ramp. I am delighted as I thought that particular feature was impossible in the available space. It also gives me two destinations for coal from Black Diamond. I continue to surprise myself by seeing how I might improve the layout by simply looking at it and imagining various operating situations. I also made a small change to the track layout at Black Diamond that should improve the switching activities in that area. I now have a longer receiving track and a better layout for holding the empty cars. I might thumb tack down the yard track at Black Diamond so I can begin some serious realistic running scenarios between Black Diamond and Coaldale. This would add incentive to build the coaling tower kit for Coaldale so I have a realistic destination for the coal. Assuming the present layout I have determined that I need an additional 13 turnouts. However I only need 2 more turnouts to complete the Black Diamond yard. I will visit the local hobby store this morning and see if they have any.
Mathematics: I want to read chapter 5 Complex Numbers from "Fearless Symmetry" today.
Literature: I did spend a good hour reading yesterday but failed to up the time to two hours.
B. Plan
Immediate Health Walk & exercise 1 hr Model Trains Wire outer mainline reversing loop; review DCC web sites 5 hr Mathematics Read "Fearless Symmetry" chap 5 1 hr Literature Continue reading "Standing Stones" by John Metcalf 2 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 Continue reading "Citizens" Watson "Ideas" Model Trains Build oil refinery diorama: add ground cover Assemble second oil platform kit Puzzles The Orange Puzzle Cube: puzzle #9
C. Actual/Notes
7:40 am I hope to get the reversing loop working so I can run trains from Coaldale to Black Diamond and back. Yesterday I changed the location of a few buildings in The Channon and was able to come up with a system that allows me to add the coal yard which includes an above ground ramp. I am delighted as I thought that particular feature was impossible in the available space. It also gives me two destinations for coal from Black Diamond. I continue to surprise myself by seeing how I might improve the layout by simply looking at it and imagining various operating situations. I also made a small change to the track layout at Black Diamond that should improve the switching activities in that area. I now have a longer receiving track and a better layout for holding the empty cars. I might thumb tack down the yard track at Black Diamond so I can begin some serious realistic running scenarios between Black Diamond and Coaldale. This would add incentive to build the coaling tower kit for Coaldale so I have a realistic destination for the coal. Assuming the present layout I have determined that I need an additional 13 turnouts. However I only need 2 more turnouts to complete the Black Diamond yard. I will visit the local hobby store this morning and see if they have any.
11:30 am This has been a very satisfying morning.
I added an Atlas Twin controller to the layout which allowed me to control the outer mainline reversing loop. I had to lay some temporary wire along the floor to connect the controller to the transformer but that will be removed when I upgrade to DCC. I also had to disconnect a few connections, but these will be reconnected when the DCC is installed.
CN 7847 then took to the road to test the track and the polarity of the wiring. I am pleased to report that the run was successful. The unit left Coaldale at 10:45 hours, arrived at Black Diamond at 13:45 hours, and then continued around the loop arriving back at Coaldale at 16:45.
CN7847 then carried out some local yard duties in Coaldale, creating a train consisting of 7 cars: BATX 635 (tanker), GATX 22691 (tanker), CN 210048 (reefer), CN 539027 (box car), CN522360 (stock car), CN 473966 (boxcar), & CN 78213 (caboose). It left Coaldale at 18:30, passing by Black Diamond at 21:30 and arriving back in Coaldale at 0:30 hours. This was the inaugural continuous run on the outer mainline. There was much celebrating in the nearby town of Queenston when word was received of the arrival of the train in the Coaldale yard.
However there is still much work to be done before the railway may be said to have truly arrived in this corner of the world. Much track still needs to be surveyed, the road bed needs to be brought up to grade, and the entire line tested. There are supply problems at the moment as current plans suggest that a total of 13 more turnouts need to be purchased.
The next step will be to lay the roadbed for Black Diamond so that one will be able to add appropriate uncoupling facilities (i.e. under the track magnets). This will all be done without fastening anything down in order to test the overall system for operational characteristics. Once it is clear that the system's design is satisfactory, the road bed will be permanently set (i.e. glued to the ground cover) and the ballast added. Thus the schedule is for Black Diamond to be the first complete section in the area.
I am also going to have to do some web research on installing decoders in locomotives!
2:30 PM The web has been a real eye-opener. I now have the MRC manual for their system and have identified the NCE decoder for my RS-3 diesel locomotive as DASR. Digitrax's decoder for that locomotive is DH150K. MRC's decoder is simply called a Diesel decoder. Since my locomotive was made before DCC was common, I will have to learn to solder the module into the chassis and connect the various wires to the appropriate locations. This looks like it will be a real challenge.
4:30 PM I have now identified a number of useful web sites:
- Model Rectifier Corporation (source of DCC systems): http://www.modelrectifier.com/index.asp
- Table showing available decoders for different locomotives: http://www.gatewaynmra.org/dcc/dccdecoders.htm
- Intermountain Railway Company (source of kits and rolling stock): http://www.imrcmodels.com/index.html
- Canadian Model Trains Inc. (online clearinghouse): http://www.modeltrains.com/Default.htm
- Sylvan Models (maker of rolling stock kits): http://www.isp.ca/Sylvan/ho-scaleproducts.htm
D. Reflection