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No serious work on the layout this morning. I'm going out to lunch with my sister later and I don't want to get committed to a project or problem that can't wait. There will be plenty of time for it after lunch. Still have lots of cables and individual wires to clear. After that I'll have to go through and use my multimeter to see what wire goes to what rail. Wouldn't want the hot rail to be on the left in one block and on the right in the next block. The DCC system wouldn't like that! What complicates it is that the feeder wires in each block aren't standard. One block may have a black wire and a green wire and the next block could have a red wire and a blue wire. I pretty much used whatever scrap wire I had laying around at the time. There was a time that I had very little or no income after my disabilities got so bad I could no longer work as my hands and legs don't always do what they're told (been disabled for many years but worked as best I could). Until I got my SS started my family had been paying my bills and any stuff for the railroad was whatever I could find free somewhere or had something to trade for it. So I had plenty of wire but in a whole bunch of different colors. This time I'm trying to standardize the wiring. I'm using green and white for the buss wires. Nor will the buss wires be the length of the entire track but only the length of the block they're under. So block 1 will have it's own set of buss wires that will get their power from the control panel. At the end of block 1 the block wires will stop. There will be a short gap of 1 to 2 inches then the buss wires for block 2 will start. The feeder wires for each block will connect to the buss wires every 4 to 6 feet. I'll have to take this slowly as my damaged nerves will start my hands to shaking after a while. I wouldn't want to accidentally cut the wrong wire or drop the cutters altogether because the muscles in my fingers spasmed. So the #1 rule of the project is going to be to take it slow and easy. I may get the track rewired in a couple of days or it may take a few weeks. It depends on how much my problems let me do. Hopefully I can knock most of it out in a week or two.
 
11/08/2010

Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.
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;)
 
Good Morning!!!!:D:D:D

Now that I woke everyone up---how be ya!?:D

I am now having a few days off--so I can recover from all that dang extra w**k I had to do over the last couple of weeks--doing 72 hours of on-call---THEN conducting 4 w**kshops in a couple of weeks, ON TOP of some evening classes AS WELL-----sheeesh:rolleyes::eek:

I am now, also, looking around for another camera as the Canon Powershot I'm using seems to have had the biscuit------any suggestions?:confused:;)
 
Good morning folks

It was 42 F this bright morning. Our high will be 51 F.

It has been a frustrating week. Our main home computer got a virus that wiped out the operating system. It is in the shop waiting to be repaired. Apparently our data is fine. We were able to get a copy of the My Document directory. Luckily my daughter has a laptop and we can copy the files that my wife needs for work and the ones I need for work and scouts. If all goes well we should have it back by the weekend. This was the first time in 15 years I was not able to fix the problem. We have no idea where the virus came from. As a result I limited to using my daughter’s laptop which does not have any of my favorite websites making it difficult to get on the forums or using the computer at work during break or lunch.

We spent most of the weekend getting the Thanksgiving decorations up. I also took care of few little things around the house that needed fixing. I still have to put up a replacement smoke detector.

My daughter has club volleyball try-outs coming up next weekend so she is getting ready for them. My son’s last football game of the season is tomorrow.

Tonight we have my son’s Boy Scout Troop’s Court of Honor. He is in line to receive Merit Badges for Pathfinding, Tracking, Citizen in the Community, Family Life, Personal Fitness, and Pets. Also they owe him three badges from the Spring Court of Honor; Swimming, Mammal Study, and Reptile and Amphibian Study.

I will check in when I can. Maybe I can get some train time in now.

I hope everybody has a good day.
 
jeffery, i know how how it goes. for me though, it's concentration. I lose track of what i am doing. It drives me nuts at times. I have auditory hallucinations so I always hear stuff the isn't there. It's really hard sometimes. I just keep taking my meds and slog thru it. Just hang in there jeffrey it will get easier as you go. You may not be able to do the things you used to, but you can do other things.
 
Oddtodd: I can identify with the auditory hallucinations. One of my problems is that everything I hear is scrambled. With general sound it's more or less the third sound comes between the first and second sounds. With speech it's a little more interesting. The third syllable or word comes between the first and second and the syllable or word immediately following is reversed. It's a condition known as aphasia and in my case it's global aphasia (effects speech and hearing). It can make my world very confusing to say the least. It's been a problem for me since my very early childhood and was brought on by damage caused by meningitis. I learned to cope with it through 9 years of special ed schools. That was interesting as well as my father was in the army and we moved frequently. They are not too difficult to find these days but back in the 60's and 70's finding good schools for kids with special needs wasn't all that easy. But enough about that.

Good morning. It's 38 and sunny. The high will be 73.

Got a little work done on the layout yesterday. I put in 2 pieces of 2x4 under the edges of the park section to give it some support so it doesn't fall into the waiting jaws of the langoliers. I also pulled down more of the old wiring. Now that the wires are loose of their mooring points they now hang beneath the layout like a multi-colored spiderweb waiting to snare - what. The job now is to remove them and isolate the track wires. The wires that go to the outside rail have to be marked so I can connect them to the proper buss wires when I put them in. The buss wires will be green (outside) and white (inside) with the track feeder wires connected accordingly. I'm hoping to reduce the number of blocks to 7, so that means 14 lengths of buss wire. 16 gauge should be big enough for what I need. I still need to run down feeder wires for the new track that is in place now. I put the rest of the track for the new run in place last night. After I attach the feeders and solder the rail joints I can start securing the track in place.
 
I survived..... the first weekend of the 2010 Magic of Model Trains at McWane Sceince Center in Birmingham.

Saturday was chaos!

I went to Sam's to buy a ping pong table to use as a base for a new "Thomas the Tank Engine" layout of pint size operators. A stop at Home Depot for more building materials, then on to McWane.

We had to set up a display case in the hallway with a variety of engines and cars for the visitors. I contibuted a tank engine pulling the old ConCor "LIMA" passenger and box cars in the red and black color scheme. We tried to make it a colorful display of engines and different types of cars.

It only took us two hours to put the folding ping pong table together. It went faster after we found the instructions! We decided to delat the rest of the construction until next week and put the figure-8 track together.

The maiden run was made by a 3 year old cutie who could barely wait until the power pack was hooked up. Yes, she taught us that THOMAS will roll after one round of the track at wide-open speed. We will have to install a governer on the throttle.

Sunday afternoon, I was back for a stint in overalls and work shirt answering all kinds of train questions. We had to deal with the 7 year-old, self-proclaimed NUMBER 1 THOMAS fan. He was pretty good about sharing the throttle with others.
We had several mothers help their child run the train, blow the horn and stop the train at the station so passengers could get off. One son had to show his mother 3 times where to stop the engine to let the passengers off at the platform. She finally got it right and said she wanted to practice again Christmas morning with her son. He agreed she could help him again with his own set!

BTW, Rex, my condolences to your local college football team. I would have preferred they lose their second game, at home to AUBURN.:(
 
I survived..... the first weekend of the 2010 Magic of Model Trains at McWane Science Center in Birmingham.

Saturday was chaos!

I went to Sam's to buy a ping pong table to use as a base for a new "Thomas the Tank Engine" layout of pint size operators. A stop at Home Depot for more building materials, then on to McWane.

We had to set up a display case in the hallway with a variety of engines and cars for the visitors. I contibuted a tank engine pulling the old ConCor "LIMA" passenger and box cars in the red and black color scheme. We tried to make it a colorful display of engines and different types of cars.

It only took us two hours to put the folding ping pong table together. It went faster after we found the instructions! We decided to delat the rest of the construction until next week and put the figure-8 track together.

The maiden run was made by a 3 year old cutie who could barely wait until the power pack was hooked up. Yes, she taught us that THOMAS will roll after one round of the track at wide-open speed. We will have to install a governer on the throttle.

Sunday afternoon, I was back for a stint in overalls and work shirt answering all kinds of train questions. We had to deal with the 7 year-old, self-proclaimed NUMBER 1 THOMAS fan. He was pretty good about sharing the throttle with others.
We had several mothers help their child run the train, blow the horn and stop the train at the station so passengers could get off. One son had to show his mother 3 times where to stop the engine to let the passengers off at the platform. She finally got it right and said she wanted to practice again Christmas morning with her son. He agreed she could help him again with his own set!

BTW, Rex, my condolences to your local college football team. I would have preferred they lose their second game, at home to AUBURN.:(
 
Jeff & Todd,
Auditory hallucinations ? Scrambled words? That sounds like its more than I would ever want to deal with myself. Your plates are full enough already!

But then again, the wife swears I have the opposite problem. :eek: Instead of hearing stuff that isn't there, she says she tells me things, but I never hear a word! :rolleyes: I tell her its a pinched nerve. It runs from the ears, to my ring finger on my left hand, then to my brain. ;)
I can almost tell you what day the condition started!!:cool:
 
Hi gang! Just a quick note before I go over to my Mom's assisted living. She is 95 today and we are giving her a Birthday party.

No Karl, he just wants to rub it in about Bama's loss and tries to conceal it with the other stuff.:D

Mikey: it would have been good if Auburn and Bama made it to their game with the best records, but you know that all records and standings go out the window for that one. Unlike most Bama fans, I have seen problems since the beginning of the year. One thing: they need to change the plays for Ingram. Even I know where he is going before the ball is snapped. Oh well, at least Auburn is looking solid;).
 
I've got the green (outside rail) buss wire strung and hung and some of the outer rail feed wires are already connected to it. Now I'll get some rest and get my nerves back together. After that I'll get the white (inside rail) buss wire strung.
 
Happy Birthday Mrs. Rex's Mom!!!!!!:D:D:D

But I'm confused.......:confused:

Rex, how is it that you are older than your Mom???:confused::rolleyes:
 
Happy Birthday Mrs. Rex's Mom!!!!!!:D:D:D

But I'm confused.......:confused:

Rex, how is it that you are older than your Mom???:confused::rolleyes:

I would like to know the same thing---how is this possible?:eek::confused::p

I'm, hopefully going out of town this morning--I've a few things to pick up--now if'n I get told otherwise it'll be being a busy fellow in the trainroom getting some things done in there--

Anyhooooo---have a good one people!!:D:D
 
It's 32 here, with a high of 59. Too cold to stand at the bus stop! I'll be taking the van to the bus stop to keep my mini-me's warm today. On a positive note, I am getting the wall up in my basement, and I've successfully negotiated a new right of way with my wife. lol
 
Good morning folks

It was 42 F this morning. High will be 55 F.

The Court of Honor went well except for they forgot three of my son’s badges. The same three they missed at the last Court of Honor. When I told the Assistant Scoutmaster that set off a search for the badges which were not found. Apparently whoever was inputting information into the Troop’s tracking software did not enter them correctly and when the “shopping list” was printed they were left off.

This weekend his troop is going to the Scout Day at the Naval Academy. We leave on Friday night for Annapolis. Saturday we get a tour of the Academy and the Navy vs. Central Michigan football game. Sunday we come home.

Tonight is his last football game of the season. His team is 3-4. Hopefully they can pull off a win for a .500 record.

Still waiting on the computer and still struggling with my daughter’s laptop.

I hope everybody has a good day.
 
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