MRH colleagues:

While this site is a great family for trading ideas and experiences about model railroading, we wouldn't have this great hobby if it were not for the real thing.  So when there is a problem on the prototype, we often take notice.  In that vein, I hope you will all permit me to diverge for just a second to talk about today's crash.

During the Memorial Day weekend, I actually managed to get a few things done on section 1 of the layout.  The biggest accomplishment was completing the DCC standard wiring.  The power bus is 12 ga. stranded copper in red and green insulation.  Feeders are 18 ga. solid copper wire soldered to rail joiners.  The power bus is connected through the section to two terminal strips (one on each end).  Connections are made with suitcase connectors, and all rail joints are soldered to improve connectivity.

Following the "completion" of my latest scratchbuilding project (see Update #9), I have started to get back to work on the layout.  Since I'm running a lot of diapering actions, and mowing the lawn, doing the dishes, etc, I'm trying to keep the work simple and small.

I installed the first two of my Humpyard Purveyance Switch controllers:

While this is primarily a blog about model railroading, each of us particiaptes in our hobby within a wider world.  If we're lucky, that world is one that we can share with friends and family.

It’s not often you get to see a prototype for a mass produced structure or industry kit, but I had that pleasure yesterday. I was driving back to my DC area home from Buffalo, NY, and Mapquest took me down U.S. 219 – the Buffalo-Pittsburg Highway. Immediately after crossing the New York/Pennsylvania state line, I entered Bradford, PA which is the home of American Refining Group. ARG’s operation in Bradford is one of the oldest, if not the oldest crude oil refineries in the United States.

So for the past 2 1/2 weeks I've been fighting . . . . something.  Started out as what I thought was full blown flu; rounded the corner into a bacterial sinus infection (since dispatched with antibiotics) and sliding into home with some minor, but no less anoying chest congestion.  As you might imagine, this has ground my previously predicted benchwork construction to a halt (somthing about running a table saw on Nyquil . . .).

From time to time, all of us need to recharge our modeling batteries.  I'm lucky enough to be able to do it nearly daily - my office is 13 stories above the CSX main somewhere in the D.C. metro area.  So today, preparing to travle this weekend, I had my digital camera in my office, and managed to grab these shots of the CSX train that came through at noon.  The first three are of trash containers - two shots from my office window, and the third from  ground level.  Then, just because I was intirgued by the geometry, a coupler picture.

Happy Tuesday.  It's finally snowing on our nation's capitol today, so what better day to think about model trains?  I've uploaded the latest track plan, as mentioned in my last post.  If you refer back to the one beofre, you'll see the basic concept is intact, but a few tracks have been changed to accommodate suggestions.  So, I'm putting it out in your capable hands for comment.

While we all wait for Joe to finish the site server upgrades (and I think it's great that the launch of the e-zine was so successful as to prompt upgrades), I have been busily working on the layout.  I have a revised trackplan, incorporating the run-around track suggestion, as well as a revised yard ladder arrangement on segment 2.  I've also done some bad order inspections for my locomotives.  The older ones probably need s agood celaing out and re-greasing, and I have about 1/2 of my collection to add MT couplers to.  Good news is I have lots o

In order to meet popular demand, I dug out the digital version of the track plan last night.  I did the original drawing in Right Track 7.0, exported the final as a JPEG, and used Paint to add a bit of color.  The grid squares are 12 inches by 12 inches.