Stew's Garden Scale Expansion

Expanding Our Model Railroad Empire

Still having fun with this?

Most of what I've described previously took place between June of 2016 and November of 2017, since we began to remodel our kitchen around Thanksgiving time of 2017, and only recently completed it in early June of this year, 2018. I say completed, but really there are a few odds and ends that need done, like the door to the side porch. That's one of those things that's waiting on something else that needs done first. In this case, getting the garage back into some semblence of order after all of this remodelling. We're in the rains every day season now, and I can't leave the door out in the weather, so I need space it the garage for it... But that's not what I want to talk about.

I'm still trying to find the plans for the proper architecture. I'll probably build a template to help assemble the roof trusses and use some of the simulated corrigated roofing panels I've been making from annealed aluminum cans and a heavy duty "crimper". I guess I need to start some sidebars of the various tools, templates, and materials I use to make these models. All of the wood I've used to model structures, like ties and trestle bents and such, are old fence panels repurposed into scale lumber. Since I'm using the Bachmann "Big Haulers", which are large and meant to represent narrow gauge equipment rather than standard gauge, you could say what I'm modelling is closer to F scale than G scale - Meaning 1:20.3 rather than 1:29 or 1:32 proportions.

I tend to use 1:24, or "half inch" or half doll house scale, since it makes the math a little easier. More like it makes the scale lumber a standard fractional size. For example, a scale 6x12 is ¼"x½", the size of a testle sill member. Cross bracing for trestles is generally 3x10 or 3x12, making it 1⁄8"x3⁄16" or 1⁄8"x¼". And 1⁄8" is about as small as I feel comfortable ripping on the table saw. I make a push shoe from ¾" plywood and keep it just for doing 1⁄8" - ¼" sized material. Another is dedicated to the ¼" - ½" range. Much bigger than that and I can just use the standard push stick that came with the table saw.

Much smaller than 1⁄8" and I'll need one of those Northwest Shortline "chopper thingies" to slice the pieces using razor blades and such. I think they may actually make a mini table saw of sorts for ripping stock in those smaller sizes, like scale 2z4s and the like. The alternative is to buy the expensive precut scale lumber. For now I'm just sticking with the sizes I can cut on the table saw. Thankfully most everything about the railroad is massive already. And since I build to a scale slightly smaller than the equipment I'm running, it will look more rickety. On the flip side, if I ever decide to run standard gauge equipment, it's going to look MASSIVE compared to the trains.

The other thing that I really need to build is larger scale interlocking tower to house all the controls. Just the electronics at first, and at this point, it would just be a set of 70VA powerpacks. The entire layout is just one big block at the moment, so eventually I'll need to divide it into smaller blocks, insulating them from one another and running the power feeds to each of them. This is where converting to DCC would help reduce the wiring complexity. For some reason, DCC is still quite expensive for large scale, perhaps because the numbers aren't there for greater economies of scale. Dunno. Wire and switches are still much checper than even the least expensive DCC contoller, not to mention all the trouble you have to go to with installing decoders and all, so it's little wonder many folks still prefer low cost DC cabs to expensive DCC setups.

What I'd like to do eventually is control each block with its own motor controller electronics and an "intelligent" control system to track each train and its progress, switching control of each block to the cab controlling that train, be it DC or DCC. This would require occupancy detection as well as some sort of ID and feedback. That's where I need a new idea... DCC has expanded to transpond, and could probably identify itself when queried by the controller. The block that received the response would provide the whereabouts of at least one engine of the train. But where is the rest of the train? To the east or to the west of that engine?

Proper occupancy detection for the entire train would require "leakage" resistors to draw a small amount of current to allow the motor controller or other circuitry to detect it. I see this as a work in progress type of project, where features are added as they become available. The "smarts" for the intelligent controller could come from an embedded controller, like a PIC or similar, all the way up to a raspberry pi connected to a flat panel display. The possibilites are endless. For now I would be happy with a tower that had a flip open top and a power pack dedicated and connected to the railroad where I could run trains at the flip of a switch. What would be killer is interlocking lever frames with operational mechanical interlocking and actuation of remote devices, like turnouts and semaphores. Someday...

So now I'm thinking about how the guys in the smaller scales epoxy those "chip" resistors across the metal wheelsets to provide a current path for sensing and detection. I've also seen some modellers actually add RFID to their rolling stock to track their wherabouts. Maybe the two could be coupled together somehow, like a transponder the size of one of those chip resistors. The problem would be how to program them to be different "addresses", to have a different id in other words. Many embedded devices these days have a sort of serial computer interface, such as "I2C" or the like. It would probably require a socket of sorts to place it in just to program it, and I'm not sure how you would reprogram it once epoxied in place, but I certainly like the idea of each car have its own id and the ability to transpond its location. Again, someday...

(Saturday, 6 July 2019)

Brigel has us up way too early this morning... Before 5:30 AM. Ann gets up and turns the coffee on and I'm close behind, but having trouble waking up. I'm taking my time because I can. It's a good thing too, because even after my shower, I'm still having problems waking up. Ann says I should probably check in with Nick about twenty minutes 'til eight, but I tell her if I don't hear from hm by eight o'clock, then I'll check in. If he's not up and moving already, I don't want him to feel he has to rush around just to get going. She wanted to wake him up early yesterday too. I told her to just let him sleep in, and don't take this the wrong way, but... "If I was Nick and my mom kept bugging the piss out of me every morning, I'd be sick of it by now!" She says she's not bugging him and I tell her just what I would think if it were me and someone kept waking me up early when I was out working on something in the garage until the wee hours...

In any case, Nick pulls in the drive right at eight o'clock. I ask him if he loaded any water bottles in the cooler by any chance. He tells us not only are the water bottles still sitting in the back of the car, warm, but he also forgot to get gas in the Flex. That's okay I tell him, and put together a bit of a makeshift cooler with my lunch bag and the single bottle of water we have in the fridge. I fill my travel mug with ice and water and slide it in the side "pocket" and we're off to Tampa. We're taking the "back roads", there and back, and our reward this morning is stopping at the Yalaha Bakery for breakfast. Alright, pastries and a cup of coffee for me, but they do serve a hot breakfast in the deli as well. We sit and enjoy the peace of not having to be anywhere soon. I tell Nick it's nice to not be cursing the wait in line at the "fast food" place, where it would have taken us as long to get our food as it did to already have eaten our food while sitting here and enjoying it. Last time we came here was on the motorcycles and we enjoyed it just as much even though it was the destination.

We're soon back on the road and heading toward Tampa. It's a pleasant cruise along the two lane roads, doing the speed limit of between 55MPH and 60MPH for most of the way to I-75. Once on the interstate we're able to cruise much faster, and the traffic isn't that bad. There are spots where there are "lollygaggers" in the left lane, but it's easy enough to get around them for the most part. We hit I-275 to St. Petersburg after about half an hour or so and Nick is marvelling at the fact the bridge over Tampa Bay is the longest bridge he's ever been on. It's not long after we've crossed the bay that we head towards are destination a short distance away on 49^th. We pass by it and have to make a U-turn, but we had to since there's no left turn allowed to just pull in. It looks to be an old school gas station, with three service bays and a smaller office area up front. We walk in and find every nook and cranny filled with trains and toys.

I can tell this place is much smaller than the old one, and at first I'm kind of disappointed, but I'm soon enthralled by all the model railroading in front of me and forget all about that. I have a quick look down the N and HO scale aisles, but Nick is already scoping out the Lionel and O scale aisle. I'm amazed by all of the older items they have that are shrink wrapped, as well as the newer, still in the Lionel box items. They also have quite a bit of Williams and K-Line stuff from before they were bought out. One of which is a large, two track truss bridge from Williams that Nick is showing me... I ask him if he wants it, but I know it's a stupid question, and I tell him to put it with the rest of things I'm getting. I found a trolley I'm getting, a Bachmann trolley, like the one I thought I bought online from RLD Hobbies only to be told they were sold out and discontinued. I'll have one now thank you very much.

We chew the fat with Dennis, the store manager, and I tell him I'd like to get the Bridgewerks plate girder bridge. He asks if I'm the guy he's been talking to about taking over the Bridgewerks stuff. I tell him no, but I'd love to have the tooling to do that kind of beautiful detail. He tells me he'll have to ask about the plate girder bridge. Then he asks if my last name is Stewart. That's me. He knows I'm here to pick up another 100' of the stainless steel flex track. I tell him I'm spending my "overtime money" since I don't get a chance to do much with it since I'm working overtime. He chuckles and asks me where I work. I tell him about the weapon training systems and how I get to play Army for real... Sort of. I show him pictures of the pond and the waterfall features Ann and I have added, joking about how the "puppy" loves his new swimming pool.

He says it's beautiful and loves the bridge, telling me he can't sell the plate girder bridge just yet because they need it as a prototype. Turns out his father-in-law is the owner of Bridegwerks, but has Alzheimers, and isn't actively doing it anymore. Unfortunately, that's why they need the bridge as a prototype... They won't know how it goes together without the last one to guide them. Then he shows me giant LGB truss bridge kit he has. Add it to the pile! It's plastic, but if anything, I can use it as a prototype of my own to construct it out of metal, but I sure would like to have that Bridgewerks tooling to add all the rivet detail and such. Guess we'll see how all that goes. I grab a gazebo for the town center and a fountain that will certainly look like it belongs there too.

He turns his attention to trying to sell Nick some Lionel steam engines, the Legacy class, their top of the line style. They are super detailed and have smoke and sound and aren't as expensive as I thought they'd be, although at $450 a piece, they're still expensive enough. I'll pass, and so does Nick. As he puts it, he doesn't really need more engines, and it's a different control system from the LionChief units I've been buying him. They're still remote controlled with smoke and sound and all that, just not as highly detailed and to scale. I tell Nick I do not mean to offend, but I've always thought of Lioenl three rail trains as toy trains, not scale models, and just because they make them highly detailed and to scale doesn't make them any less toy-like to me. I caveat that with because we can't really see the three rails up on the bookshelf layout we built him for Christmas, all we see is the beautiful scale models.

After Dennis stuggles with how the remote control works for those engines, we're talking about the structures and how I don't see many. In fact, this is the most I've seen. Last time we were over was right before they moved to this new location, and I told him they didn't really have anything then. He says he has more in the storage room around back that need some TLC if I want to have a look. Sure! He tells us he has approval from the landlord to start building the new layout around back here. I don't say anything, but I'm actually surprised they haven't even started it yet. I thought I saw something on their website asking for volunteers to help build it, but maybe it was to take apart the old one? Can't remember now.

Once inside the storage room, the first thing he shows me is an outdoor pub style building labelled "Lowenbrau". I'll take it. Then he picks up another box, saying it's still missing some pieces, but he hopes to find them as he's going through other... And drops the box, further destroying what just needed some TLC and some missing parts replaced. I feel bad for him, and almost tell him I'll take that one too, but now I'm not sure what other parts will be missing. I do spy a horse drawn keg wagon with two horses and the hitch and harness and all, also labelled Lowenbrau, and snag it to go with the pub. His original thought was he had some pieces that would have worked well as my station platform, more detailed than just the 2x8x16 concrete blocks I'm using, but turns out these are shorter than the long ones he thought he had. Oh well.

He shows me some european style crossing gates that are gravity activated, but remind him that I have those big "puppies" to deal with, saying I may put up some crossbucks and hope they don't get pummelled. He says he'll have to work up a price as we head back around front. Turns out I've chosen an item they've listed on eBay as well and they have to remove the listing. We agree on the price for the Lowenbrau stuff and I realize we need some barrels for the keg wagon. I head back to grab the three packs of barrels I'd seen earlier. I almost grabbed the set of 55 allons drums, but decided better of it. Looks like that bridge was listed on eBay as well. Guess I'll need to check eBay to see what else they have listed and follow them to see what may pop up in the future.

We have to order Nick's GarGraves track first, then finish up the layaway for my track, and now we can add up all the treasure we found. We decide to order some more switches for Nick too since he'll be able to expand into the dining room now and will need a way of divertinig traffic that direction. All told, I spent more than I planned. A lot more than I planned, but I'd rather spend it now that I'm here, while they're still here. I don't mind paying a little more to try to keep them in business seeing how many brick and mortar hobby shops have closed around me and across the country, two of the largest in the last year. That leaves this place, supposedly the largest in Florida, to vie for largest in the country. Seeing how small this little gas station sized place is, that's debatable.

Colonial Hobby and Photo is much larger size-wise than this place, but this place definitely has more garden scale than Colonial. At least as of last time I was there, looking to buy around Christmas time when they had not much more than bare shelves. One would think... But I'll stop there. That's another place and another time. We're talking about here and now, and now that we're all checked out, it's time to load up the rails in the Flex, along with all the other treasures we've found. We say our farewells and head over to the Largo Central Railroad, where Dennis' son-in-law runs the ride on scale railroad in Largo Central Park. We arrive a short time later, spending more time driving past it... More than once even. We eventually spy an actual train running through the park and finally know we are here.

We head in the general direction of the train and find the station. We sign up and get in line to get our punch card and hand stamp. A short time later and we're riding the next train leaving the station! This is awesome! I haven't ridden on one of these since I was a kid. Nick's never ridden one ever and is surprised how smooth the ride is. This thing runs all through the park and lasts quite a while... Five minutes perhaps? I have a smile on my face the whole time. I have to capture a video of a train passing the waterfalls before we leave to post on Facebook, then we're on our way home, over the longest bridge Nick has ever crossed. We're relying on my phone and Waze to take us home the back way, but for whatever reason, it's sucking the juice right out of it.

Before it's entirely dead, we ask Ann if we should should stop for lunch or come home first then go somewhere. She tells us to go ahead and stop on the way, so we're stopping at the Cracker Barrel at the exit where we get off the interstate. It takes another half hour or so to get there, but we head in just as it's starting to rain. Where we're sitting, there is a framed ad for Wren Shoe Polish, with a picture of a black lab that looks a lot like ours named Wren did. So I snap a picture and send it to Ann, right before my phone finally dies, going from 12% to 3% almost instantly then lingering around 1% and blinking the imminent failure red LED.

We're both stuffed and walk back to the Flex in the rain. Nothing but two lanes the rest of the way home, and the rain's getting heavier and heavier the closer we get. Eventually it slows down, dwindling to just a sprinkle as we're pulling in the driveway. I told Ann we had presents for her, so I tell Nick I'm going to give her the outhouse, just to see her reaction. He laughs and says yes. When she sees it, she is delighted with it! Nick is surprised by her reaction, but I tell him I half expected it since she's been after me to get more buildings for the Barkyard. The Lowenbrau Pub and horse cart are a bigger hit, as we both say it needs to change to Miller at the same time, laughing. Her sister had posted a picture on Facebook with a german shepherd sitting in a chair holding a bottle of beer, a Corona, saying "It was storming and I thought I was going to die". We both said the same thing about that Corona, it needs to be a Miller Lite.

We finish unloading and showing off all the stuff and Nick heads home. Ann and I talk a little more about some ideas for the Barkyard, like how and where to fit the pub scene and maybe setting some rails in the streets of downtown to run the trolley through and around. I decide I need to run the trolley to see just how small a radius curve it can negotiate. I have some small brass curves left from the USA Trains set I boght a while back, so it's time to put together another ten footer from the track I just bought and make a loop around the living room... Same drill as before, two ten foot long rails draped from Nick's chair over to me sitting in my chair, sliding ten tie strips over the rails, one foot at a time. I finish that up and set it on the floor in front of my chair to go get the small box of brass track out of the big box the train set came in. Back sitting in my chair open the box of track and untie the wrap around all twelve curves, I believe four foot in diameter once assembled. Or somehwere thereabouts...

I notice it already has rail joiners attached, and upon closer inspection, I realize they are exactly like the Aristocraft joiners! Right down to those irritating little socket head screws "waxed" into the back of the ties. There's even one of those little hex screwdriver thingies at the bottom of the box. I start to assemble a quarter circle from three of the curves, thinking I'll need to remove one of those joiners, but quickly realize I can just slide the one over the long flex track and use one of the SlpitJaw clamps for the other rail... Until I discover the rail is only code 250, not 332 like the flex track. Bummer. So much for running track around the living room for the trolley. Ann's just as happy as I am bummed that we're not running track around the living room. My fallback is to just assemble the small oval of brass track from the set and run the trolley enough to see how it handles those tight curves.

I grab a power pack and some jumpers from the office and "wire" it up. I place the trolley on the track and crack the throttle. The lights come on and it starts to run around the oval... In reverse. I stop it, switch direction, and open the throttle again. By now Brigel is very curious, looking at it with that distinctive sideways glance of his. Next he starts barking at it, as if he's going to pounce on it. Instead, he just pounces in front of it, barking at it, as if to command it to stop. This goes on for a few minutes until we're finally bored with it and have seen enough to know it handles those tight curves just fine and could probably go even tighter. For now I have enough information, but it's getting late, and I put it away... After running it one more time to get Brigel barking again. We both have another chuckle and Ann tells me I should be sure to put the trolley away but I can leave the track there until tomorrow. I take her up on that, put the coffee on, and head in just after she does.

In researching block occupancy and transponding, I have found a number of techniques that measure the current draw, all the "same old same old" techniques - Twin-T, reversed diodes, inductive sensing, optical - all "tried and true", all with many sources of manufacture. What I did find intriguing was a new addition to DCC transponding, a means of identifying what block a train is located in when it transponds its response to a DCC command. It still needs block detection, but a new "receiver" is added to the mix that decodes the transponded response and identifies the block that response came from. Clever. But how does it know where the end of the train is? A light decoder with transponding built into the caboose? What if your pike doesn't run a caboose anymore, like the modern prototype? A block is a rather large chunk of "rail estate" too.

(Sunday, 21 July 2019)

I've decided that even though I didn't shower yesterday and then got in the hot tub last night, I'm not going to shower first thing this morning, but rather go rip the 2x4s into the slats I'll need to make those stringers for the new lower loop... I also need to think about the quad box Nick brought over and wiring it into the circuit to the office, but I'm reluctant to have to shut everything in the office down just to do it.

Half an hour in and I'm already taking a break. Forgot I wanted to make some of those "rainaway arches" for the sunsetter. Have to clean up the garage before I can get anything else accomplished, but I think I may have come up with a way to rip those eight foot long 2x4s without having to open the carriage doors. If I can set up a run out "table" that incorporates part of the bench along the back of the garage, then I should have just enough room to run eight foot in and eight foot out. Right now I'm at roughly seven and a half feet on either side of the table saw blade. I have a little over a foot left over on the bench, and it's ever so slightly shorter from the floor than the table saw top, so I should be able to set a chunk of plywood on it leaning down at an angle to "catch" the outfeed pieces and guide them up and over the bench. Hard to believe just that little bit of reorganization had me sweating already, and in a air conditioned 72° garage no less! I did need a refill on my coffee anyway though...

(Saturday, 27 July 2019)

Last weekend I had to call it quits on account of lightning striking way too close just as I ran out of separator blocks for making any more of the curved stringers for the new lower loop. Just before that, the table saw starting throwing a "rooster tail" of sawdust off the blade, so I knew the shop vac bag was full and needed emptied. Thankfully I emptied that before the weather set in, but the first thing I need to do todya is put a new bag in it and get everything set back up to rip the remaing 2x4s... Including setting up my makeshift sawhorse bench and moving the template and chop saw, and everything else in the way of ripping, back out of the garage and onto the patio workbench. I got that far and vacuumed up the sawdust on and around the table saw. Now I'm sitting here updating this for the moment while I cool off and let the 2x4s dry out in the sun. Every single one of them is soaking wet from the rain.

I suppose the smart thing to do is select the driest one and make the separator blocks first, giving the rest of them time to dry. Even if cutting them isn't long enough, I still need to finish the stringer I ran out of blocks on and finish the last two rainaway arches as well. That should give at least a good hour in the sun for the rest of those 2x4s. But I can't get it done sitting here. Back in a bit...

Alright. One 2x4 ripped into a bunch of 1 5⁄8" blocks. Too many to fit in my latching flip lid container. Guess I need to use the ones that don't fit first?

Brigel says it's time to go back outside, so back in a bit...

Much longer than a bit... All day actually. Managed to get six more twenty foot diameter curved stringers built and an eight foot straight one! Had to borrow a few left over slats from over the rafters, stored there with the straight template. Added together with the two curved ones from last weekend, I have the new lower loop positioned on the ground all the around the upper loop, with the straight extension heading back toward the old lower loop. I am really amazed at how much I got done. I had to wait for Ann and Nick to get me a new box of screws when they were at Lowe's, and even that one only has six left in it! I had asked for two boxes, but rather than argue, told them one was good enough for now. And I was right! And now I have the system down pat, cutting the slats to size before assembling them with the template, and it's going much faster. I have the lengths written down for each slat, and for each diameter, on the template.

As for those blocks I cut earlier, the ones that wouldn't fit in the container? There are maybe a dozen left in the bottom! Eight 2x4s converted into eight curved stringers, with almost enough left over to make an eight foot straight stringer as well. I probably could have gotten that last one, and another, had I not converted them into "rainaway arches". They aren't as substantial as the railroad stringers, but ended up using enough slats for the five of them to put together nearly two whole stringers. The blocks are a different story, using perhaps enough for one stringer, but it sure has been nice to not have to worry about retracting the awning every time it rains! My only complaint would be in the afternoon, when I want to extend it the full ten feet to shade me from the sun... Like when I'm standing out here on the patio, assembing stringers. So I numbered them, and their corresponding placement on the frame, to make it easy to remove and reinsert them.

As I'm soaking in the hot tub after putting everything away, I ask Ann about the placement and whether it takes too much room. She asks if I could make it curve closer to the upper loop on the side by the path. I tell her I could probably get it a foot closer using the flex track, but I can't get it too much closer because of the "natural" barrier that would exist in the prototype unless it were a rock cut, a rock cut that would hide all of those pretty hibiscus flowers behind it, those hibiscus flowers I told her we should put in a planter to staircase them up from behind the upper loop before we planted them... Most of which I'm only thinking to myself, not saying to her. I tell her I may be able to do it and make it look realistic with a trestle running around to the bridge as it comes out of a rock cut where we are building up the terraced planters for the waterfalls and water feature.

For now, all of that will have to wait. As she puts it, as long as the dog still has room to run and play in, we're good. Looking at the way the curves of the new lower loop sweep, following around the upper loop then turning away from it to follow what will eventually be a bend in the river part of the water feature while the upper loop continues straight over it on the bridge makes me wonder if I shouldn't modify the approach to the upper loop so that it doesn't just turn straight and parallel the fence. Pictures would be nice.

(Friday, 16 August 2019)

This morning Nick had to take Klaus to get his sutures out from surgery last week. It's already overcast and the radar looks like it will be raining within an hour. I'm back and forth with whether I should go get those new stringers anchored on the new posts I need to install or just wait. The more I think about, the more undecided I am... I finally make up my mind and tell myself to just DO II! If it starts to rain, then at least I'll have done what I get done. Besides, it should be a bit cooler with the sun behind all these clouds, right? I take the boy out with me, and half of the time I'm throwing the ball for him to chase, the other half planting the stringers. I start by shoveling around the old post I couldn't get out of the ground when I had to pull up the track the first time around. Once I have it levelled, I place that stringer over it and work my way around to the next one. Then the next one one. Then the next one.

Of course by now the sun has come out and I'm drenched with sweat. I'm also realizing that Ann's request to move the track closer in the area where the boy likes to run and play is now more than a request. There's no way that the twenty foot diameter track is going to work there. At least, not unless I want it to sit smack dab in the middle of that run. I go back and look at moving it closer to the upper loop, about a foot and a half closer. It's definitely more compact, and I slowly work from there back out to the original plan, six inches at a time. I move each stringer back out toward the twenty foot diameter by the time I'm back to the tree and the post that wouldn't come out. I don't bother to connect the stringer that goes beyond that back toward the waterfall since I still need to do more planning around extending and joining the planters.

(Saturday, 17 August 2019)

Poor little tyke has ripped both his vestigial dew claw incisions open and has to go back to see the vet and have staples put in. Ann says they should have left those sutures in for 14 days before removal, not the ten days like they did. Looks like the boys won't be playing together again this weekend. That gives me some time to plan out the new wye track arrangement... Provided the tape lines I put down don't float away with the next rain storm. I took pictures with the the tape measure showing measurements relative to the station planter though, just in case anything disturbs them. And about the time I'm heading back out to see if one of the twenty foot diameter stringers will work for the other leg of the wye, it's pouring down rain!

I'm hoping that even if it doesn't work without modification, I can rework it to fit since the truck is out of commission for a while. When I saw that Nick had parked it along his garage, under the edge of the roof, I was a bit concerned that every time it rained in would make a pond in the bed. Turns out I should have worried more about it making a pond in the cab... Courtney called him the other day when we were sitting here chatting to ask him if they could borrow my truck, first asking himm if he was home, I'm guessing so I wouldn't find out? Not sure why, but I get it, they don't want me to know. Nick agrees to have a look Es' car to see why it's overheating. Long story short, he goes to get in the truck to drive it over to them and wonders why the seat is so slick... Yeah. Mold. Great.

I don't find this out until yesterday, and he's already pretty sure he knows what it will take to fix the car, so the truck can sit and bake in the sun. Well, if the sun were shining that is... After taking Klaus to the vet to have the sutures taken out, he drives over, only to find out it's a bit more than he thought. Fortunately, he's able to locate the replacement part he needs at the local stealership and finish the repair. He had texted me to say we wouldn't be able to do our usual Chili's for Friday lunch, but that's all I knew until we chatted later when he stopped by. He wanted to let me know about the truck and what he planned to do to mitigate the water intrusion and mold growth. Today he's showing me pictures of all the seats out of the cab and the water still sitting in channels in the floor. He still needs to take out the carpet and find the leak, but for now at least the seats are cleaned and sitting in his climate controlled garage to finish drying out.

While it's raining, I decide to do some more on the block controller... Or do I? Instead I order those damned pins I had forgotten about along with a couple of three packs of the five amp current sensors. After looking up the specs of the thirty amp version and calculating the sensitivity, I decide to go with the smaller rated ones. I really doubt I'll be drawing anywhere near five amps, even with smoke units and battery chargers and LEDs in every car, but we shall see...

So now that the rain has let up and I'm outside with the boy, I move that last twenty foot diameter stringer by the waterfall over to my "taped" area to test the fit... Yeah. Going to need to modify that stringer to fit the fourteen foot diameter more than the twenty.

(Wednesday, 28 August 2019)

I've been chatting with Nick back and forth from work and he's trying to get us prepared for this hurricane Dorian that's heading our way. First it's a generator. Then a power inverter. I ask about how full the propane tank is. Unknown is the answer. And now we have beer, coke, and water.

(Thursday, 29 August 2019)

I head out to the barkyard to play ball with the boy and get that twenty foot diameter stringer reworked into a fourteen footer. It takes a couple of trips back and forth, inside and back outside, but I finally get it done and put everything away. By now, the boy's ready to come in as well. After I start nodding, I decide to turn my attention to other barkyard related items, like the downtown buildings and the drafting up new meters I got at Skycraft last weekend.

And as I'm getting ready to go do more research, our internet connection craps out. Windoze diagnostics tells me I need to reboot my cable modem. I do and... Nothing. I turn off WiFi on my phone and Slack Nick that we lost internet. He tells me his is working fine. I tell him the cable modem's more than a bit warm, and he asks if I need to turn it off to let it cool. Whether it's that or a temporary outage, it can't hurt to leave it off for a while I tell him. I got as far as grabbing the bag of meters and the calipers when Courtney texts me saying if we haven't got gas yet, we may have trouble finding any. Great! The primary reason for me working remotely is vindicated. Anyway, we chat a few minutes and I'm back to updating this account, about to plug the cable modem back in and see what I get... And we're back!

I've been capturing the dimensions and drawing the meters so I'll have a record of their size and the holes patterns I'll need to cut to install them in a control panel. Granted, I probably won't get that far today, let alone have anything else done on the block controllers. But it's a start and it needs done. I think about capturing the concrete block dimensions I sketched on a print out, going on a month ago now, but I never get that far. At least I have a plan for tomorrow.

(Friday, 30 August 2019)

Ann has already left for work. I slept in past when she got up and didn't even hear her. I don't know if it was Brigel barking or what finally woke me up, but I tried to go back to sleep only to have him continuously barking. Looks like it's time to get up. She asks what I plan on doing today since I'm taking PTO. I tell her I already have my forty and don't need to take any PTO, but I'll probably help Nick with whatever he needs to do to finish his hurricane prep, then maybe some more in the Barkyard, maybe even a trip to Lowe's and redoing the drier vent. But we'll see. And yes, the garbage needs to go out. It's really starting to stink. Normally we wouldn't put the animals' food they didn't eat in the garbage can, preferring to dump it in a plastic grocery bag and taking it out immediately, but Ann recycled ALL of the plastic grocery bags when she went to the grocery store last time...

In any case, I'd really like to get that wye switch cut in to the existing lower loop and try to get more track laid toward the new lower loop. We'll see how far I get with it, because I really don't know what to expect today. Something tells me it will be filled with more excitement than necessary. But again, I'm probably just overly paranoid. I'd also like to make more progress on the block controllers and the control tower if possible. Basically all the things I've put off to make the demo successful. When I look around at all the things I've had to put on hold just to make this proposal and demo successful, I realize ... True colors and all that.

I do more on cutting in the new wye switch. I had already removed the two twenty foot diameter curves and the fourteen footer and SplitJaw™ clamped down the switch . I had to cut out a chunk of the edging to make room for the stringer I reworked yesterday morning. It's still sitting a bit high and I'll need to cut the turf and remove some dirt before setting it in its final position. Next I get out the rail bender and start forming a ten foot piece flex track to fit the curves I just removed. At first I'm doing it on the new turf by the back porch and I keep getting tufts of it stuck in the rail bender. I move it to the paver path and it's working much better. But then I overshoot the curvature and it's too tight a radius. It takes me a minute to figure out how to set it to "unbend" the rails. With it just about dead on, I clamp it in place and mark where I'll need to cut it to fit. It's a little offset from the stringer, but it will have to do. I'm not digging that all back up and reworking it again!

The clamps will need replaced with insulators eventually, but for now, I'll just leave them in place. I still need to figure out how to reconnect the power feeds to that section. Hopefully it will be as simple as just clamping them back in place. I will also need to run some new feeds for the reversing section(s) I'll need because of the wye and the new lower loop. Again, that can wait until I get a little bit more done. I still need to design and build two new switches that replace a section of fourteen foot diameter curved track. So with the existing lower loop leg replaced by flex track, I turn my attention to the new leg of the wye to the new lower loop. I bend another length of flex track sitting on the patio this time. It doesn't take long and it's ready to go. Next is cutting some short posts to length and pounding them in place. I put the first one in to give me a pivot point and swing the other end in place. But it's still sitting too high. I'll have to cut the turf...

Using the section of edging I moved from the new lower loop stringers to the new wye stringer, I use it as a template to slice the turf with my razor knife. I'm surprised by how cleanly it cuts, but now I'm confronted with all those damned long metal staples still holding the turf in place. Once I have all of those out of the way, I'm finally able to move the turf out of the way enough and cut a couple more posts and pound them in to hold the stringer in place. About the time I'm pounding in the last post, it starts to rain. Time to put away the tools and pack it in. It's not until I'm sitting down in my chair that I remember I left the screwdriver and the hex driver for the clamps sitting on the blocks out in the rain. Oh well, hopefully I can just wipe them off and not have to worry about them rusting.

Since I'm stuck inside because of the weather, I decide to continue capturing the dimensions and drawing the meters until I'm satisfied that I've captured everything. At first I thought all of them were of different sizes. I have two 0-30V voltmeters, two 0-3A ammeters, and two 0-20A ammeters. Upon closer inspection, it appears they are all of identicial dimensions! Cool! Now I can be done, with the exception of actually adding in the dimensions so I can make a print out when needed. Next I get out the plastic contour sheets for casting the concrete patch to see whether the brick patterns will work from the reverse side. Of all the sheets, the reverse sides of the brick patterns are the worst. They may still work, but it doesn't look like there's as much detail as there is on the front side. Maybe I can make a reverse mold of the good side and use that to capture more detail, but I need to try casting the reverse side first.

(Saturday, 31 August 2019)

I'm hoping I can worry about more pressing matters, like installing the generator feed in the garage. Looks like hurricane Dorian is moving off the east coast more and more, so hopefully it won't be as pressing as it was for the last few days. Ann still has to go in to the office today to secure the medications they collected from all the offices and get them on refrigeration backed by generator, although at this point, it seems like a lot of work for just a little reward. But it looks good and at least she is appreciated.

With Ann and Nick off to her office, and me sitting here updating this account, I'm not getting much accomplished on the Barkyard. Time to get back to work on it! And work on it I did! I started by unwrapping the new small rectangular brick trowel I bought for doing the casting with and excavating a depression the entire length of the new fourteen foot diameter stringer. I put the dirt I removed in the hollow that Brigel has formed where he lands after he jumps over the track into the lower loop. Then I placed a small piece of the turf over it to help protect it until I can get more done on the company houses that will eventually populate that part of the loop. If I had the proper high density foam I could cast the roofs and at least get started on something that looked like company houses. I need to plan out the clapboard sides and window openings, but could simply paint them and tack on some convincing window and door frames for now. Something to pass the five foot rule at least and look like more than a bunch of concrete blocks strewn about.

With the stringer in place, I clamp the new wye track to the other diverging route of the wye switch. That much is done, but the other end will need trimmed to length. It can wait until I'm ready to add more on to that end. I place the edging along the edge of the fresh cut in the turf and move on to trimming the side of the wye I put in place yesterday. I need to change the blade on the dremel saw from masonry to metal cutting. With that done, I grab the cord reel and unwind it out to the job site. I head back into the garage to grab my safety glasses and grab a cushion to sit on as I make my way back to the end of the track. A couple of quick slices and it's done. All that remains is to clamp the track together. It's giving me a fight, but I probably should have filed the burrs off first. I figure when it causes problems with the trains staying on the rails, then I'll worry about it.

The last thing to do, for now anyway, is spike the edging in place. I was looking for where the spikes had gotten off to earlier, looking in both the garage and the shed, but with no luck. Fortunately I found them as I was cleaning up, placing the now broken pieces of ¼" backer board strips on the plastic stoarge tub. I did a double take as I tossed the pieces on top, the bag of three remaining spikes catching my eye. Had I decided to wait until later to clean up, I wouldn't have been able to spike it in place. I left the cord reel where I used it last, just in case I get back out there and do some more layout work on the route to the new lower loop.