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Sunday November 5, 2006 5:40 am Lethbridge Sunrise 7:26 Sunset 17:03 Hours of daylight: 9:37
A. Morning Musings
5:40 am It is +7 C at the moment with a high of +11 C forecast.
The snow is gone.
B. Plan
Immediate Health Walk & exercise 1 hr Model Trains Paint 6 quad hopper cars, hay bales 1 hr Nail down track for Inner Mainline 1 hr Mathematics Read "Fearless Symmetry" chap 7: quadratic reciprocity 1 hr Continue reading "The Equation that Couldn't be Solved" 1 hr History Complete reading "Marie Antoinette" 1 hr Literature Begin reading "The Breakfast of Champions" by Kurt Vonnegut 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
Philosophy Read "The Art of Living" by Epictetus 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 Assembly of CN 5930, an SD40-2 with a NAFTA logo Puzzles The Orange Puzzle Cube: puzzle #9
C. Actual/Notes
6:30 PM This was a good day for the trains. Today was a continuation of two activities from yesterday.
- Painting. The 6 quad hoppers are now painted (the Union Pacific logo is obliterated) and drying.
- Track. the Inner Mainline track is now fully nailed down. All remaining work on the layout is of a minor nature (i.e. nailing down a few sidings, adding a new building or two, improving the scenery a little bit).
I am delighted to have the mainline track all nailed down. In an important sense my layout is now operational, although I still have work to do at four of the destinations: Coaldale, Queenston, The Channon and Pine Ridge. I have all of my rolling stock now on the layout but I still need to review my locomotives and determine which ones I will keep (i.e. are capable of being used with DCC)
The emphasis will now begin to shift to maintenance of the locomotives, setting up DCC, wiring my turnouts, and learning how to run prototypical operations. I still have a few structures to build (I have the kits from years ago):
- UGG grain elevator
- grain storage bin
- coaling tower
- water tower
- fuel loading platform
- oil pump (recently purchased)
I also have a few kits remaining of rolling stock that need to be assembled:
- 6 100 ton quad hoppers (currently being painted)
- 4 cylindrical grain cars
- CN 5930 an SD40-2 diesel (waiting for couplers)
- CN 9004 an F3A diesel
- CN 55069 gondola car
- Pte St Charles caboose
Overall, this is not a long list. On the other hand, each item will take a fair amount of time. But none of these items is necessary for me to begin running trains on the layout. I would like to complete nailing down the track, particularly in Coaldale. I will need to buy a few more under the track uncoupling magnets while I do this.
D. Reflection