February 2019 Update

Well, it's that time again, another month in the books. Not a lot going on this month, but I did get a little work done. I'm just having a hard time wanting to work on trains these days. Some of my health issues are getting better while others may be getting worse.

The toe is so much better that the doctor has me going two months before my next visit, instead of the usual week or two since last May. That's great, because it's a long drive out to his office, and that'll free up a lot of Tuesdays to work on the layout. Let's see if I can start to take advantage of this.

The knee is also better, but the improvement is slowing down. I'll wait it out a little longer, but it may be necessary to get a cortisone shot or some more serious imaging than an X-ray. I'm getting around pretty well, but I'm still worried about sitting on the floor to work, and then getting up.

After last month's report, I was explaining to Mark about the neuropathy in my hands. I think that may be getting worse. I can still do things, but it seems like it's getting more difficult.

Then there's my vision. I have an eye doctor appointment coming up in March. I was once told I was developing a cataract a number of years ago. I'll ask about that when I go in. The left eye is always fuzzy now.

All these health issues have a direct effect on my working on the layout. I just feel like I'm getting slower and slower.

So, what did get done? I finished the with my electrical problem, by changing out the master layout power switches, and swapping the worn out breaker at the panel.

That breaker took twice the time it should have, because when Comcast installed their alarm system, the needed to use the existing sensor wires, but they were a little short. I have a plywood panel just to the right of the electrical panel. So what did those idiots do? They hung their box over the edge of the plywood, and covered over two of the panel cover screws. So I had to move their box before I could do the breaker. It's done, and everything works great.

My wife and I took an afternoon to work on car cards. She wrote out the engine cards for all the new ones I put on the layout last month, then put the fold into a couple hundred car cards. I know I'm going to need to buy more, but this finishes off what I have on hand.

Then I taped the sides of the pockets, until I ran out of tape. We got more, but I haven't gone back and fin ished the last few.

Each engine has a "token" with its channel number on it, so I made those up for the new ones.

The purpose of these tokens is to tell me which engine is in which position in the hidden yards. This rack has all the engines that aren't in a hidden yard, otherwise known as, scattered around the layout.

This rack represents the big hidden yard, where each of the five tracks, holds five trains. Right now, I'm keeping track two as my run through track for display. Eventually, there will be 25 trains stored down there.

I did do some more work on my BN baggage / dorm kitbash. The first thing was to repair the pieces that got knocked out during my first attempt at drilling out the windows. I'm learning that epoxy isn't very good for this application. No grip on smooth surfaces. It just occurred to me as I was typing this, that maybe contact cement would work better.

The backing piece is reglued.

Time to put the filler slug back in the old window.

I took a 2x4 and cut it down to the inside width of the car, in order to support the future drilling operations.

The slug is back in place, and I've started to file out the first window.

With the support block in place, I spent about 20 minutes out in the below zero workshop drilling out the rest of the windows. Here's one side...

and here's the other. I still have to do the doors.

Two steps forward, one step back. As I was removing the wood block, more backing plates came loose. Hmmmm contact cement... thoughts?

I almost forgot, I shot a new video of the newly combined Williams Empire Builder.