Model Trains 62 December 31
Model Trains Chronology
5:40 am I have just reviewed the description in The Scenery Manual (published by Woodland Scenics) for applying ballast and was almost ready to try this on a small section of track when I suddenly realized that by applying the ballast I will be gluing this stuff to the track forever. This seems to me to be a poor idea until I am absolutely sure that I will not want to make any further adjustments to the layout. Like the proverbial pendulum I am now swinging to the opposite extreme and beginning to think that I will not apply the ballast at all. Certainly not until after I have the DCC wiring finalized and have determined that I have an operational running layout that does not need any further adjustment. Since this is my goal, and I have always been clear about this, the scenery has always been secondary. Also, it may well unfold that at some time in the future I may no longer want to have the layout and so long as I don't apply the ballast it will be easy to take it all apart and give it away. I am glad that I didn't rush into this step. Now I can step back from the ballasting and focus on setting up the DCC and on working on my remaining structures. Before doing that, I will spend the next hour looking at the messages on The Gauge model train forum ( http://www.the-gauge.com/ ). Fairly quickly I learned about this site: http://www.modelrailroadtips.com/ . I continue to Learn. One thing that I have learned is that it pays to go slow and see what happens when you browse. Incredible. The latter web site had an article on how to make coal loads for coal cars. Exactly what I need. The steps are very easy (a classic example of "why didn't I think of that?"). 8:10 am The Gauge can be as big a time sink as eBay. The last couple of hours has been very enjoyable as I see what others are doing. 8:50 am Did some maintenance on CN 665489 40' 50 ton flat car. I put a new brake wheel on one end and adjusted the coupler hose height on the coupler on the same end. Just a little job, but one that restored a car to operational status. I remembered to update the database to reflect this maintenance. 11:30 am I made a quick trip to the hobby shop to buy some plastic cement. They were out! But I did end up buying some coal loads for my hopper cars so the trip was not a complete waste.

 

	Model Trains 61 December 30
Model Trains Chronology
9:15 am While searching the web this morning I discovered an excellent discussion board called The Gauge, http://www.the-gauge.com/ . I am now registered. Even better, I have posted my first message. It was a question about the difference between F3A, F7A and C-liner diesel units. Looking at the heading for his note, it is hard to realize that this is my 61st session this year. Overall I have made good progress but I now want to press on and get my layout DCC operational. At the same time I want to begin serious work on the scenery (beginning with ballasting the track). As always, the first step is to do some reading on how to do this (ballasting). I think I have the basic idea for ballasting the track but until I try it out, I will not know what problems can occur. I bought the last two issues of Canadian Railway Modeller magazine. There are full page adds for the diesel locomotive that I bought yesterday, after I spent much of the morning on the web trying to find information on the model. Timing is everything, not location.

 

	Model Trains 60 December 29
Model Trains Chronology
10:10 am While in Edmonton for Christmas I was able to visit a hobby shop where I bought the following materials: Pack of 20 pair of Kadee #5 couplers 2 packs of 2 pair of Kadee #38 couplers (I need these for the diesel locomotives) 1 coupler plyer (for bending the Kadee coupler hoses to the correct height) 2 Caboose Industries manual throw switch stands (#204S) I am now in a position to work on the following activities: complete laying of track on foam roadbed adding ballast to track replacing couplers on SD40-2 diesel unit CN5930 rechecking all rolling stock for proper coupler height adding groundcover to oil refinery ballast assemble coaling tower structure. While at the hobby shop I noticed a diesel unit in the black, green and gold color scheme for CN. The box said it was DCC ready and had DCC sound. The box said it was a TrueLine Gold model. I have not been able to find this on the web. I will give this one more try, right now. Total success! And I now have a new web site to monitor: http://www.modeltrains.com/ . This looks like an excellent source of information on Canadian National modeling. Here are a couple of other valuable web sites: http://cnlines.ca/ http://www.nmracanada.ca/index2_en.htm http://www.caorm.org/Pages/frameset.html I have decided to purchase the diesel unit from the shop in Edmonton. For some reason which I hope to understand soon, they are referred to as 5-axle C-liners. The 5-axle is easy enough, but the C-liner in not yet in my vocabulary. The main reason for the purchase is that I feel I need (not want) one locomotive that is DCC ready. Then when I purchase and install my DCC system on the layout and begin to test it with a locomotive, and if it doesn't seem to work properly, then I will assume the difficulty is with the layout installation rather than the decoder in the locomotive. I am beginning to get antzy about finally getting my layout DCC operational.