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Saturday October 21, 2006 5:30 am Lethbridge Sunrise 8:02 Sunset 18:30 Hours of daylight: 10:28
A. Morning Musings
5:30 am It is +1 C at the moment. The forecast is for a high of + 4 C with rain forecast for later this morning.
My weight is steady at 182.
Yesterday unfolded a little differently than expected. I became totally absorbed in working on my model train layout and failed to attend to any Learning activities for either mathematics or literature. This happens occasionally.
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: A friend phoned a couple of days ago and alerted me to a model train show in Lethbridge this afternoon. We will both attend and I will see if I can pick up a few ideas about using DCC. I will try to visit the hobby store this morning and see if they have any turnouts. I will also try to place the foam underbed under the track and locate a few uncoupling magnets under the track so I can couple and uncouple coal cars. This will all be very temporary while I determine if it works according to my mind's eye.
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.
I will begin by sitting in my living room chair and reading chapter 5 of "Fearless Symmetry. I will have my second cup at the same time.
B. Plan
Immediate Health Walk & exercise 1 hr Model Trains Add foam and uncoupling magnets to Black Diamond layout; buy 2 turnouts 4 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
7:20 am So far this morning I have stayed on the screen and updated the project page for my Model Trains activities. It now has much more detail for the steps involved in creating a final "permanent" track layout that is thoroughly tested at each stage.
9:00 am More progress. I have added the foam underbed for the track at Black Diamond. CN 7847 then left Coaldale with car 45686, a 100 ton quad hopper which is representative of the coal unit trains common in western Canada today. It arrived at Black Diamond on time, uncoupled the car on the arrival track, and then ran an end-around, leaving Black Diamond and continuing on the reversing loop to return to Coaldale. A very satisfying trip for the entire crew as it demonstated the basic feasibility of the track layout. There is still some work to be done at Black Diamond as one performs a number of prototypical switching maneuvers moving empty cars to the loading bays and moving loaded cars to the siding for pickup by a local run diesel.
Following that, I will have some major construction work as I glue the foam to the ground cover and then glue the track to the foam. I want to take this very slowly and very carefully, making sure that each section of foam is exactly where I want it and that the track is then centered on the foam. I also want to check that each joint connecting two sections of track is perfect with no kinks or uneven track. This will be the first attempt at providing a permanent section of track. Once that is done, I will add ballast to the track bed thus completing the laying of track for this section of the layout.
A quick check of my stuff indicates that I have a Walthers kit of 6 100 ton quad hoppers that need to be assembled. They currently have Union Pacific on the side of the cars but it will be an easy matter to cover this over with black paint and then it will be suitable for my first modern unit train. I also have an Athearn kit, an SD40-2 diesel with a CN NAFTA paint scheme that has never been out of the box. It will provide an appropriate motive power for this unit train. Clearly, I have a substantial amount of work in front of me.
I still need to buy a couple of turnouts to complete the Black Diamond track system.
12:10 PM I ended up buying 4 turnouts, 2 left and 2 right. The Black diamond track system is now complete. CN 7847 picked up #45683, a 100 ton quad hopper, and took it to Black Diamond where it carried out an end-around maneuver, leaving the car on a siding. It then picked up the car and pushed it to a track for empties. Later it will be moved to the mine to receive its load.
Here are 2 photos of my layout:
And here are 4 photos of the Southern Alberta Model Railway Club:
It is an impressive layout.
D. Reflection