Layout updates

I've been doing some work on the city area. The brewery just added a large wing alongside the tracks for additional loading capacity. Just in time for their Christmas Brew! (And a gold star to whomever can spot the Enterprise-D schematics - Dr. Soran is still plotting his revenge.)
I've also rearranged a few of the taller buildings so they don't hide the buildings I've added to the background. I also bought a couple of passenger coaches to go along with the E6 locomotive I bought a few weeks back...pretty cars, pictures don't do them justice.

Score one for the Bill of Rights

MADISON, Wisconsin (AP) - U.S. prosecutors have withdrawn a subpoena seeking the identities of thousands of people who bought used books through online retailer Amazon.com Inc., newly unsealed court records show. The withdrawal came after a judge ruled the customers have a right to keep their reading habits from the government."The (subpoena's) chilling effect on expressive e-commerce would frost keyboards across America," U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker wrote in a June ruling. "Well-founded or not, rumors of an Orwellian federal criminal investigation into the reading habits of Amazon's customers could frighten countless potential customers into canceling planned online book purchases," the judge wrote in a ruling he unsealed last week.Amazon said in court documents it hopes Crocker's decision will make it more difficult for prosecutors to obtain records involving book purchases.Crocker _ who unsealed documents detailing the showdown against prosecutors' wishes _ said he believed prosecutors were seeking the information for a legitimate purpose. But he said First Amendment concerns about freedom of speech were justified and outweighed the subpoena's law enforcement purpose.

When Youtube pranks go bad

ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) -- A man clad in swim trunks was arrested after riding a bicycle through a motel's hallways and hitting two men. A woman showering after using the swimming pool at Best Western Soldiers Field Tower and Suites told police she heard a door open and saw a naked man at about 3:10 p.m. Sunday.
The man ran out of the room, pulled on swim trunks, hopped on a bike and road through the hallways, police said.
Police Lt. John Edwards said the man, 38, hit another man, 76, and his son, both of whom suffered minor injuries.
The son chased the bicyclist, tackled him and waited for police to arrive, Edwards said.
Charges against the man were pending Monday, police said.

RR Layout Musings

Any design, by definition, is a compromise. The layout was a compromise, limited by the area I had to work with, my lack of experience with building a real layout instead of just an oval of track, and so on. I'm very happy with how it turned out, but there are things I'd like to change:

- More rail sidings, for train operations - picking up/dropping off cars, etc. I have a few sidings, but these were built in as more of an afterthought than as part of the original plan.

- Wider curves, to allow operation of larger and more varied locomotives and rolling stock. Larger equipment than I currently have, especially locomotives, will not stay on the track in tight curves. If you try to make a tight turn in a long vehicle, and you can't make it in one try, you have to stop and back up and try again. For a train, it's the same basic idea - only when it gets to the point that it can't make the turn, it jumps off the track.

- Better integration of scenery with the track design - the scenery got better as I went along, but there are things I'd go back and change, such as the huge mountain taking up half of the layout. Nice to look at, but very limiting in terms of train operations.

Unfortunately, the layout right now is pretty maxed out in terms of what else it can accomodate. Putting in wider curves, or making room for more sidings, would require tearing up and redoing much of the existing track, which I don't have room for given the current design. But now that I've built it, and see what I did right and what I did wrong, I know how to do better the next time around.

So, I'm working on a new layout design. Because I've put in so much time and effort into the current one, I'd like something that allows me to build on what I have, rather than start over from scratch. Right now, I'm not about to start tearing it up, because it's hard to destroy something you've spent so much time building. Maybe in about a year. And then, I can start running beauties like this:

New car for mom

When I was home for Thanksgiving, mom mentioned that it's about time to put the old Sable out to pasture. I asked what she was looking for as an alternative, she said she liked the comfort of a sedan, and wants something green, no suvs.
She's open to the idea of a hybrid, but would want to check them out first. She likes owning a Ford, but they're kinda light on green offerings. The only hybrid they offer is the Escape, which is an suv. I'm not sure how owners like them, but the few reviews I've seen mention decent mileage but complain about a lack of power.
As far as sedan hybrids, the Camry is a good one...GM offers a couple hybrid sedans, but their mileage is only 1 mpg over the same non-hybrid models, so little point in one of them.
There are green alternatives that don't require hybrid tech to deliver on low emissions and decent mileage...not to plug Honda, but the Accord comes to mind, along with other sedans like that. Most cars in the class offer good room, are comfy, and the 4 cylinder models get very good mileage.
So, it's off to the dealers for some brochures...

Adventures in Mathematics

Today I had to stop and get some food for the cat while running some errands...Dr Zoidberg will only eat Science Diet food, so I stopped at Petco, one of the few places that carries it.
The shelf price listed cans for 69 cents each, or a case of 24 for $16.56. No special deal there, but it would keep the cat happy for a few weeks. The cases were split in half, with 12 cans in a box. So I grabbed 2 boxes and went to the cashier.
She scanned each box's bar code. But each box rang up at $16.56, even though it only had 12 cans. I asked her if that was right, she looked at the screen and said 'oh yeah, it says $16.56 for 12 cans'. I decided to see what the receipt showed...sure enough, There were two line items, each listing 24 cans at that price, not 12. I'd been charged about $35 including tax. She had double charged me. I'm not sure where she saw 12 cans listed, but it wasn't in the item description on my receipt.
When I turned to head back to her, she already had another customer...so I went over the the next cashier. I explained that I'd been double charged, and billed the 24-can price twice. She called the manager, he went and checked the shelf price. He called her and confirmed the correct price.

This is where the math fun started. She looked at me and said 'Well, that price is for a case of 24, and you have two cases'. I looked down, pulled one of the cans from the box, so she could see there wasn't another layer hiding underneath it, and reminded her that there were only 12 cans in each box. She said 'no, there's 24, and you have 2 cases'. At this point she was really getting snotty, so I said in a raised voice "How many cans do you see here? There's 12 in each box. I have 24 cans total. Each can is 69 cents. I shouldn't have been billed $35."

At this point the manager arrived, and explained to the little rocket scientist that I had 24 cans, but had been charged for 48. She still looked puzzled, so he told her to just credit me back for one case, and walked away. She pushed some buttons, slammed the credit receipt down for me to sign, slammed down my copy, turned her back and stomped off. Apparently I was an asshole for not just paying double and going home.
As I picked up the boxes, I loudly suggested to her that she try some of the math classes at school. Somehow, I doubt she will.

Bethany and Professor Moriarty

I got an email from the B, she's living with Sir Richard in Guildford now. they live right across the street from the Guild hall, where they're warming up for the lighting of the Xmas lights.

They get a celebrity to do the honors each year...and the guest this year? Stephanie Beacham.

If you watch ST:TNG, you know who she is. She played Countess Bartholomew, who was Professor Moriarty's, um, useless sidekick in the episode Ship in a Bottle.

It probably wasn't the role of her career...she didn't do much besides stand there and offer tea to people (no, really).
You can run, but Star Trek always finds you.

Weekend trip

This morning, I decided I would suprise mom by coming up to Toledo tonight for a post-thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner. So I went home at lunch, packed a bag and a few things, and am all set to leave right from work.

I guess great minds think alike...I just got back to the office a few minutes ago - mom just called me and said she had an idea that i could come up tonight for dinner. So the secret's out, but at any rate we'll be together for the holiday.

Puttering

At what age can you call your daily activities "puttering around"? That's what yesterday amounted to. My main accomplishment was baking 2 loaves of bread.

I used the bread machine to mix the ingredients and to let the dough rise. Getting the stuff in the machine takes about 5 minutes. Then it runs through the kneading and resting cycles, which lasts 90 minutes. At that point, I take the dough out, form it on a baking sheet, and let it rise for another half hour. Then pop it in the oven for an additional 30 minutes. If you're scoring at home - or even if you're alone, we're at 2.5 hours of down time. And I did two loaves, so I had lots of time to kill...

I spent that time working on the railroad - I installed several decal signs on the buildings, and did a little detail work on the train station. If that isn't puttering, I don't know what is.

Thanksgiving

I went to Nala and Giga's for thanksgiving dinner yesterday. The food was incredible. Trust me, it was. Turkey with sausage stuffing, mash, more stuffing, bacon wrapped breadsticks...I don't think I need to eat until December 5.

And I'm one of the lucky souls working today. Think of me when you read this in your bathrobe at 1pm.

Jesus Saves

Want to know what else is made in a Chinese sweatshop? I'm not sure if this is ironic or just totally pathetic.

Scare Tactics

Or, why I hate the local news...we've all heard and seen the stories about being safe and smart while shopping during the Xmas season. Why? We all know, because we've been told for years: roving bands of thieves drive around the mall parking lots waiting to pounce and steal all your purchases left in the back seat. It must be a really serious problem, right? From the way they beat this type of story into you, it must happen - what? several times a day at your typical mall?
I just read this article from one of our local stations, on how awful the problem is. Not suprisingly, it's not nearly as awful as you'd think.

Over the last 3 holiday shopping seasons, the 4 busiest malls in the city have seen anywhere from 15 to 38 cases of theft from vehicles.
Over 3 years...not a weekend, or a month...3 years.
(They don't define 'holiday shopping season' in the story, it could be from July to March for all we know.)
So you probably stand a better chance of being insulted by the mall Santa than having your car broken into.
And yet, every year, we are scared into sneaking out to our cars and hiding everything we bought, because of 'dangerous trends' that border on the statistically insignificant. While securing your items out of sight is a good idea, the parking lots are not the war zones they depict them to be. Happy holidays.

The Pope and Pioneer X

Twelve years ago this month, theologians were thrown into chaos when this lost sketch of the 'greeting' plaque mounted on the Pioneer X spacecraft was unearthed: it revealed the church's tacit admittal that the scientific view of the universe was correct.

Weekend

Well, our thanksgiving went pretty well...all the food was great, and I only burned one batch of rolls. Nala & Giga brought some fantastic sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce. Mr. & Mrs. Pickles again tried to convince our cat to come with them. And I discovered an easter egg on my camera.

(I forgot to get pictures of the goodies, but Naladahc did, you can click over to his site to see 'em.)

I spent today burning off the extra calories working on the railroad. I took some extra parts from a couple of the structure kits to finish a background building I started a couple weeks back:

This area is Conjunction Junction, where 6 separate tracks squeeze thru an area only about 18" deep. Normal scenery wouldn't work here, since there's no space for items with a lot of depth. So a lot of it is visual trickery...both of these buildings are only about 1.5" deep, and have no backsides. I'm going to build a couple more that will straddle the tracks, and hide the thin-ness of these. I'm happy with how these came out.

New car

We're thinking that we want a 2nd vehicle for more cargo-oriented duty. A 4 door sedan is great for commuting and road trips, but not so great when you're buying oddly shaped items at Lowes that will rip up the seats at the first chance they get. I'm not looking for something new, and I'd like to see what I can find for around $5000.
Since this will be for simple utility, I really don't care what it says about me. Pride be damned.

I have little desire for a truck based vehicle - I could live with a pickup, but barely. The rough ride in town and gas mileage that's lucky to see 20 mpg are not strong selling points to me.

So I'm looking at other options. SUVs are out for the reasons listed above. Maybe a smaller 4-cylinder suv, but those are hard to find in my price range. And if they are, they're pretty much used up.

I could have a station wagon, but you can probably count the models available on one hand. A Subaru Legacy would be nice, but they suffer the same availability problem that small suvs do.

The more I think about it, the more one thing gets into my mind - a minivan. They have carlike handling, are better on gas (generally) than an suv, and there are tons of them out there.

I would like to get something that'll deliver gas mileage at least in the low 20s, so a V6 model is probably out. Chrysler did make some 4-banger minis, but they are strictly the bare-bones models with wind up windows and didn't offer the safety features of the pricier versions, like anti-lock brakes.

One thing that has caught my attention is a first-generation Honda Odyssey. I don't really remember them either, the styling was completely invisible. But on my list of desires, it ticks a lot of the boxes...4-cylinders, abs and airbags, and they were all reasonably equipped. Only problem is their age - 1998 model year was the last one for them. But there are quite a few out there, and decent ones are right in my range.

So whaddya think?

Food Prep

Okay, for tomorrow, I've got bird, potatoes, meat and veg stuffings, gravy, rolls, pumpkin pie, um...forgetting something. Giga is bringing cranberry sause and wine. I need to grab a few more things at the store, but I think we're all set.
One thing I hate every year is the turkey brine recipe calls for a gallon of vegetable stock. The only 'stock' I can ever find is sold in 10 ounce cans or boxes. So I look like I'm going on a wierd diet when I plunk down a dozen boxes of the stuff.

With apologies to my vegetarian readers

Around thanksgiving, I always find it difficult to concentrate once the turkey is in the house. If I'm passing thru the kitchen, I have to take a peek and say hello to future dinner, and leftovers, and a week full of food heaven. Yeah, the diet's going well.
We're having dinner this saturday, with the immense mound of mashed potatoes, a gallon of gravy, cranberries, rolls, stuffing, veggies(yes mom, I eat them now) and some wine. Oh yes, and pumpkin pie, unless Shaunn eats it before saturday.
I've got a great stuffing recipe that I've used for a few years. But I take the heretical route and make it without celery. It's a meal in itself. And it just gets better after a couple of days.

Comet Holmes > the Sun

The comet I mentioned a few weeks back...keeps growing/exploding/transforming. The coma surrounding the nucleus now has a larger diameter than the sun, technically making it the largest object in the solar system ( by apparent size, not by mass). It's by no means the brightest thing in the sky, so you need some fancy equipment with a lot of zeroes in the pricetag to appreciate it firsthand. But, still, crikey. Unicron wouldn't stand a chance.

Success!

As I thought, the red wire was the problem. (And luckily, the only problem) Now I'm going to get her programmed and out to the track for the inaugural run.

UPDATE: It runs perfectly...I'm glad I was able to diagnose and correct the problem without screwing it up. I doubt the dealer knew of the problem. It was packaged new, and it had never been assembled, so it was probably just a manufacturing flaw. And I'll take the deal I got on it anytime( $55 for a $125 item).

Train show

We went to the train show in Chicago, which was kind of a bust for most of us. They had a lot of stuff for didn't really have much of anything that we were looking for, and it was several buildings of stuff I didn't want. But at least I know now.
I did pick up a loco I've been wanting to get for a while, an E6 diesel passenger loco. Very streamlined.

Only one small problem. When I put it on the tracks and powered up, only the lights worked. It didn't move, or even make an electric buzz like current was getting thru. This is the only dud I've bought at a show, so I'm willing to chalk it up to random chance.
Because the lights worked, it was (hopefully) a minor wiring problem. I checked the wires running through the chassis, and found one of the motor leads wasn't attached to the motor, apparently due to a bad solder joint. (In the picture where I'm holding the circuit board, the red wire hanging off by itself should be attached to the brass motor lead that looks like a small backwards "L" in the center of the motor close-up photo. Obviously not.)

Apparently a simple problem with a simple fix? Will it work? It should, basic electric motors like this are only a handful of color coded wires taking power to and from the motor. I've never had to attempt a repair like this, but hey, there's a first time for everything. The soldering iron is heating up as I type this. Will I be able to attach the wire without melting the plastic motor mounts? Will the loco run after this, or is the loose wire only a sign of more problems I haven't discovered yet? Hopefully, I'll have good news in a little while.

The trip

We made it back last night a little before 7 our time. About 6 hours for the drive, which was about an hour and a half less than the drive out there (ODOT decided to take I70 west down to one lane for some bridge work. On friday night at 6pm, around the intersection of 70 and 75. We went about 10 miles in an hour. fun.)

We got to see most all the relatives for dinner sat night, over some wonderful Chicago-style pizza and beer...and visited grandma and her roommate Dorothy at the nursing home. Those two need their own tv show - a weekly broadcast where they tell stories of the crazies around them, like the Soup Lady, the Mad Kisser, the others who apparently hum. A lot. Very funny.
We stayed at grandma's house, and all wondered about what it would take to keep it in the family. Lottery winnings sounded like the best option.
Kelmeister and Mr. Pickles kept our cat happy while we were gone,, for which we're very grateful. They apparently spoiled him though, as he is very attention starved today.

We visited the train show, and I got a few things. I'm working right now on the loco I bought, which didn't work right out of the box. More on that in a bit.

Driving to Chicago

I never look forward to the drive. It's thoroughly boring, with your usual generic midwest scenery (barn-field-overpass-field-repeat). 5 hours of feeling your brain turn to mush from nothing to do but keep the hood aimed between the trees. It's such a relief to reach Chicago and get out of the Indiana doldrums. But Chicago is where they invented the phrase 'urban sprawl' - so even after passing all the welcome signs, you're probably still an hour out. Very misleading to your mushy head. At least the drive home seems to pass by far more quickly.

Need to insulate

I need to get insulation added to our attic. When we bought the house, I intended to tackle this in year 2, but the events in my family last year scuttled those plans. And you don't really think about that kind of thing until it gets cold. So, THIS year I need to do it. I remember that the insulation up there is about 6" deep. But they recommend a depth of around 15" to get the place up to spec. So, sometime I'll be off to the store to get many rolls of the pink stuff. It looks like according to the many insulation websites available, it'll take about 17 rolls to do it. And around $500 for the whole thing. Plus, the Man is still offering tax credits for home improvement work designed to improve energy efficency. So, time to get cracking.

Road Trip

We're heading to Chicago this weekend to see the new wedded couple, and see the relatives I haven't seen in some time. The plan is to get on the road by 5pm tomorrow night, but that depends on how sucky rush hour traffic is. That should get us in town by 10:30 our time. I have to get our key to Kelmeister so she can make sure Dr. Zoidberg doesn't have a conniption fit in our absence.

Happiness is a warm soldering tip

I broke down and spent $4 yesterday on 2 new tips for my soldering iron. Wow. Huge difference. The job of adding wiring to the railroad has moved from 'pretty annoying' to 'fairly tolerable'.

The car shed has taken a beating over the last couple of days, with the high winds and all around here. And it's not moved an inch. Yet.

writer's strike

So the writers for everything on the tube are on the picket lines now. While I support the reasons they're doing this, and hope they can get at least some of what they're demanding...

I watched a little news coverage of them walking in front of Paramount Studios, and something funny hit me....this legion of writers could only come up with

"What do we want? Fair contracts. When do we want them? Now."

Which symbolically summed up why I hate 95% of tv today. And everything Paramount has excreted for the past 15 years or so.

Congratulations

Somewhere, in the sprawling neon jungles of Las Vegas, Bethany and Richard are tying the knot today. Congratulations!

UPDATE: They got married last night! The wedding video is online, if you want to view it, email me and I can send you the link.

Mortgages

I know that mortgage lenders are hurting because a decent chunk of their customers are not able to make their payments...
But does it make sense to start harassing your customers on the 5th of the month...especially when the payment isn't considered late until the 16th? I've gotten 2 calls this afternoon from the wide country lenders, wondering where my payment for November is. All of 5 days into the month. Vultures.

Weekend update

The weekend didn't amount to much, my big accomplishment was making chili on Saturday.

Yesterday, I did some additional wiring work on the layout...I ran bus wires to another area of track, and I'm going to solder feeder wires to the track this week. So far, there's over 50 feet of wiring on the layout (!), and another 20-30 feet to be done.

This is tedious work...the purpose is to feed voltage to the track at various places around the layout, to improve the flow of current, but just as importantly, to strengthen the digital signals essential for train control.

Without a good clear digital signal, the trains might not receive new orders (like STOP!) and keep running under their last received ones. As Murphy's Law dictates, the only time a train will not receive a new command is right after you have run it up to top speed, and there is another train stopped further up the same track.

This job involves running the bus wires carrying the main current under the table, and running smaller feeder wires between that and the track. When I built the layout framework, I drilled holes thru the joists to feed wire through for this purpose. It goes like this:

-feed the bus wires thru the table joists, and secure them in place with staples
-strip insulation from sections of that wire, and solder on the feeders
-drill holes through the scenery and table, poke the feeders thru, and solder those to the rails.

Believe me, it's about as much fun as it sounds. But it's all in the interest of better trainage. Training? Shetrainigans?

pics updated

I reloaded the pics below that were unviewable before...and here's an attempt at time lapse photography, and a close up of a fire escape I built for one of the buildings in the downtown area.

I love it when a plan comes together

So, my sister is getting married in Vegas in a few days, and then the family is getting together in Chicago next weekend.
As a bonus for me, there's a monthly model train show in Chicago that happens to fall on that weekend - and it's held about 5 miles from where we're staying. So I have family and trains to look forward to. Which is nice.

Schmucks for Schmuck

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/mel_brooks_starts_nonprofit

The tale of 4876

I have known this story for a while, it's one of the more infamous stories about the GG1, which you've probably guessed is one of my favorites. This takes you to a fairly in-depth account of what happened to GG1 #4876 when the brakes failed as it pulled into the station in Washington, DC back in 1953.