Are you superstitious? I am. Frankly, every Friday the 13th has been a good day for me in the past, so lets start the weekend! For the next few weeks, I have a normal schedule of working Monday through Friday so I get to do the same activities I did before working retail. Over the past week, I was able to get the third module legs and fascia ends done. I added my main bus wiring and pig tail ends then got the roadbed installed. There is only one turnout on module three, a industry spur that can extend to my friends module. I hope to get the track down this weekend and transition into electrical. The only finicky part will be the transition of the two tracks from module two to three as they are both curves. Two pieces of sectional curved track are used here, but alignment will be critical. I'm investigating into rare earth magnets and a solution for proper alignment without the use of rail joiners. I'm hoping to also add the two Tam Valley servo turnout controls I purchased recently this weekend. I'm excited about using them. A quick trip to my not so local hobby shop will be in order too as I need to pick up a few Tam Valley Frog Juicers as I have planned on making all my turnout frogs live, something critical in N scale switching operations. All in all, the layout is progressing nicely. If time allows and its quiet, I also hope to get some more writing done for more projects in the pipe line. So how about you? What projects do you have in mind for the weekend? Let us know! We'll come back here on Monday, the 16th and see how we all did. Don't forget your Sweethearts this weekend, for those who have a significant other in our lives who put up with our railroad insanity! Until then... High Greens!
My Friday the Thirteenth came a day early. The house developed an ice dam, and I had water leaking in at the top of a window opening on the top floor of the house. So, there I was at 1 AM rigging a piece of rain gutter to catch all the water and channel it down to a plastic tube to drain it away. That seems to have held up well last night. Then, I went downstairs to check the weather on my computer and the computer seemed to wake up dead. I removed and re-seated boards and cleaned out the dust, but still nothing. I have an old Dell machine that got put in a closet when the girls got laptops, and after some searching I found all the stuff like cables, a keyboard and a mouse. When I started it up, I discovered that I could still see files on the other machine over the home network. So, I ordered a graphics card, as that's about the only thing that would give me a completely black screen even if the rest of the computer is still running. Probably for the best. Instead of spending so much time online, I can do some modeling. I've ordered some electronics for grade crossing signals. These will use infrared LEDs and detectors, so I can run at night when the flashing signal lights are most impressive. I've got to build up some Oregon Rail Supply crossbucks with flashers so I'll have something to connect the electronics to. I've got to finish up that station, now that the power supply is here and that lighting bus is activated, too, and then I'll start looking at building up the American Model Builders pickle car kit that I bought last fall as a retirement project. Oh, and I think we're getting another foot of snow here in Boston.
No modeling plans at all for the next week and a half or so. Headed south to Daytona Beach for speed weeks and the Daytona 500.
A local club in Ottawa is holding a flea market and I'll be there, as usual, skulking around for deals and odd stuff. Hopefully there won't be more than the half inch of snow (that four-letter word again) they predicted. But global warming will be in full force - today it was -22C and tomorrow not much better. Brrr...
