July 2012 Status
09 August 2012 22:03 Filed in: Administrivia,Monthly Status
You may have noticed things are a bit quiet here. The Olympics are partly to blame for that, as I’ve been watching a lot of tv the last couple of weeks rather than working on the layout. The hot, muggy weather has also contributed, making the basement an unpleasant place to work this past month (the reach of the AC doesn’t extend down there). Which hasn’t precluded all work, just most of it. AndI had a vacation back in July largely consumed by helping my dad settle in to a new place.
In what time I could spare to the layout, I’ve mostly been working on the lighting, first trying to decide if I wanted to change it, then working out the details, and finally assembling the first of the lighting units and testing it as detailed last time.
I also spent a bit of time fixing the commenting system when my ISP broke things at the end of July by changing the access method for their database system (you may have noticed error messages in place of the comment form for a week or so). That turned out to be easier to fix than expected, but it still took one of my few railroad evenings away.
Things should be picking up over the next few weeks. I’m expecting a new train model in later this month (my first in over half a year) and that’s got me motivated to finish the bus wiring changes that have been dragging on so I can get at least the outer loop working to break it in (that’s code for “play with it”).
I still have a to-do list as long as my arm, which will easily keep me occupied all fall. I need to finish up the buildings I started detailing back in the spring, and get the next batch started before the weather turns too cold for spray painting outside. And I need to build the “village” scenery that they’ll fit into (roads, sidewalks, lighting, telephone poles, maybe a park or something). And I really should get back to work on the expressway and finish it off; that one finished segment really looks lonely.
And, of course, I want to finish up all the DCC electronics so I can start running trains on all six tracks. That project’s coming up on its 18-month anniversary, and there’s very little excuse for that (other than “I hate soldering”).
In what time I could spare to the layout, I’ve mostly been working on the lighting, first trying to decide if I wanted to change it, then working out the details, and finally assembling the first of the lighting units and testing it as detailed last time.
I also spent a bit of time fixing the commenting system when my ISP broke things at the end of July by changing the access method for their database system (you may have noticed error messages in place of the comment form for a week or so). That turned out to be easier to fix than expected, but it still took one of my few railroad evenings away.
Things should be picking up over the next few weeks. I’m expecting a new train model in later this month (my first in over half a year) and that’s got me motivated to finish the bus wiring changes that have been dragging on so I can get at least the outer loop working to break it in (that’s code for “play with it”).
I still have a to-do list as long as my arm, which will easily keep me occupied all fall. I need to finish up the buildings I started detailing back in the spring, and get the next batch started before the weather turns too cold for spray painting outside. And I need to build the “village” scenery that they’ll fit into (roads, sidewalks, lighting, telephone poles, maybe a park or something). And I really should get back to work on the expressway and finish it off; that one finished segment really looks lonely.
And, of course, I want to finish up all the DCC electronics so I can start running trains on all six tracks. That project’s coming up on its 18-month anniversary, and there’s very little excuse for that (other than “I hate soldering”).