July 27th, 2010
I received a couple of packages yesterday. They contained some videos of trains, and another WD Elements portable hard drive. I decided to get another drive, because I liked the first one so much. This time I went with the 640GB version, since I got a good deal on it.
I’ve been working on my model train layout quite a lot again. This time, I’ve been hunting down and eliminating all the problems.
One of those problems was that some sections of track had some dead spots. I would have solved that easily, but the hobby shop didn’t have any terminal joiners in stock for a while now. Terminal joiners are like a regular rail joiner, but they have a wire attached to them to send power to the rails. So I decided that it was time for me to learn to solder and make my own terminal joiners. It actually went pretty well, except I was a bit sloppy with the solder. My hands are just not good for working with very small things, but I still managed to get it done. Now the soldering iron’s tip is all black. I’ll need to clean it up somehow. 
Another problem I had was that the couplers on the locomotives were not at the right height. Some couplers even got so low that they would catch on turnout points and cause derailments. So I bought some more couplers, some special tools, and a gauge to make sure they’re set to the proper height.
There was also a section of track that caused derailments because of the radius of the curve. Apparently, I tried fitting a larger radius curve than I should have in the limited space, and it caused some parts of it to be a bit too sharp. Flex-track doesn’t always want to keep the desired shape, even when it’s nailed down, either. Replacing that track with a slightly smaller radius curve made from sectional track actually solved that problem. That’s fine, since I had a bunch of old sectional track that I wasn’t using anyway, and I got to put it to use. I also used some of those sections around the turntable, since they make it easier to line up with it than flex-track.
Posted in Hobbies, Life, Loot
July 17th, 2010
I’ve been working on my model train layout a lot lately. One of the things I added to it is a turntable. I got an Atlas HO scale turntable.
Now, the turntable is not bad for the price, but I have a few complaints. First of all, the turntable is a bit too small at only 9″ in diameter. Most locomotives, whether they be steam or diesel, are a bit too long to fit on it, although the smaller locomotives do fit okay, as I demonstrated in the photo. That switcher is the smallest locomotive I have, and it still takes up a good portion of the turntable. I don’t know why they don’t make a 12″ version, it surely would sell better if more people could use it. But anyway, it will do for what I need it for, I guess.
Another problem is that the base of the turntable is higher than the roadbed that is used by pretty much everyone. It’s not very much, but it still can cause some problems aligning the tracks to it. My tracks end up arriving at and angle slightly higher than the turntable rails because of it. Also the screws to mount the turntable are slotted flat head screws, a real pain to use in wood — even if you pre-drill the holes!
It would cost more to make a longer turntable, but solving the other problems would probably add no cost to it. I don’t know, but it seems to me like whomever designed this turntable never actually built a layout or even tested it on one before production. 
Posted in Hobbies
July 17th, 2010
It’s hard to believe that I’ve actually had the domain Railwolf.com for 10 years now, but it’s a fact. A lot has happened since then, but the site itself is still up. I admit that there were times when I just wanted to give up and pull the plug on the server and never power it up again. While it can be a lot of work at times, it does allow people to see what I’m up to and share ideas with me. But one thing had always bothered me…
Girls usually don’t seem impressed by guys’ websites. Maybe they think that their blog will become full of inappropriate posts about them, that it’s simply not interesting, or they just think that it’s a big waste of time. Who knows? I never got a straight answer about that. Since my main method of communicating with girls has always been the internet, this became a problem for me, because they would always find their way here eventually. When you’re as lonely as I was, losing a contact because they didn’t like or understand your website, for whatever reason — became painful. The reality is that if a girl doesn’t like what I do, she obviously won’t like me so much either. And trains… well, let’s face it, it’s not cool to like trains. The same can be said for video games, although to a lesser extent.
But that doesn’t matter now. I’m glad that I stuck with my hobbies in the end. I didn’t need to change, I just needed to meet a girl who would like me as I am. One birthday wish really can change everything.
The question for now would be how long will the site be around for now? 1 year? Another 10 years? We’ll see.
Posted in Life, Railwolf.com
June 26th, 2010
Yesterday, I decided to pull out my old scanner — that I had not used for 10 years or so probably – to scan a few pages that I had printed out log ago. I found those pages inside my desk drawer when I cleaned it out recently. The goal was to get rid of as much paper as possible and have only digital documents instead, especially if they were originally text files to begin with that I had printed.
But it didn’t go so smoothly. When I plugged in the scanner, I noticed that it wasn’t working. The scanning head would light up, but it wasn’t moving at all. Thinking that it was locked, I checked the bottom lock, but it was open, so I figured that it must have been jammed on the inside. I thought opening it would be simple enough, maybe I could unscrew a few screws at the bottom, but there were none at all. This is an old Canon LIDE scanner, that uses LEDs instead of a regular light bulb to make its scans, and it wasn’t made to be easily opened… I ended up having to pry off the frame that covers the glass, then slide the glass out, and that wasn’t easy because it was glued onto the glass. I checked the lock, and it was fine. So I found my way to the motor, after hearing the “boing!” sounds of the springs that press the scanning head up to the glass and unexpectedly popped out, causing the head to fall off the tray that holds it. I removed the gears that turn the drive belt and found that the motor was completely seized up. I managed to open it, and with some work, it started to turn again. Then I had to reassemble it all, and I wasn’t sure it would even work, but it did. It seems to work pretty well now, so I better not let it sit for 10 years again.
Posted in Lair, Technology
June 23rd, 2010
There was an Earthquake here in Ottawa this afternoon. It happened just before 2 PM, and it was stronger than the last one from a few years ago for sure. I sat here and watched my monitors dance on my desk, while my chair gave me a little ride.
Here’s the report from the USGS site. They say it was a magnitude 5 earthquake, but they had it listed as 5.5 at first, while I heard some sources said it was 5.7. I don’t know, but it seemed a bit stronger than just 5 to me, maybe even as much as 6 at one point. There was no damage in my lair, though. Some of the picture frames in the house are a bit crooked now, but that’s about all it did that I can see.
CBC article.
CNN article.
I would post a link to the Earthquake Report from the government of Canada as well, but their website can’t handle the load. It was down since the earthquake hit, which is strange because I don’t think that many people would know about it. They need more server capacity. Cellular phone service is also down, according to reports. Not enough capacity there either. This makes me wonder. What if this had been a more serious earthquake?
Posted in Life
June 22nd, 2010
I bought some more wall hangers for my guitars the other day, to add two more guitars to my “Wall of Guitars”. It seems that 6 guitars is all I’ll be able to fit on this wall, so I put one up next to my amplifiers on the opposite wall. I still have one guitar that has nowhere to go, maybe I can hang it in the other room…
I have enough guitars.
Posted in Guitar, Lair
June 17th, 2010
I just upgraded the site to WordPress to 3.0. This normally would have gone smoothly, but the automatic updater had an error which rendered WordPress completely unusable. So I had to upload all the files manually to get it working again. It seems that I’m not the only one who had this problem, so keep this in mind if you’re going to upgrade.
Posted in Railwolf.com, Technology
June 14th, 2010
I worked in the yard again. One of the bigger projects was that I cut down an old Juniper which was half-dead. It wasn’t as easy as it should have been because the wood was really difficult to cut, especially when getting the stump out. I used a few different hand saws, an axe (actually 2, I broke the first on it!), and even a drill, but it took a couple of weeks in all to get rid of it. That’s documented in my Flickr gallery. I had cut down the other Juniper we had about 10 years ago, and it wasn’t so difficult, maybe because it was still alive.
After that was done, I worked on my model train layout. I had never really wired it properly, so I decided to finally do that and give the trains adequate power. I used 14 gauge stranded copper for that. It seems like overkill, but the run gets pretty long and I calculated that 14 gauge wire would be needed to prevent power sag. These then connect to smaller feeders to the rails with terminal blocks. Lots of cutting, stripping, and crimping had to be done, but this also allows me to separate the tables if necessary. After I got rid of many empty boxes that I kept there, it made accessing the underside of the tables much easier.
I replaced some of the lights in the kitchen. The old under-cabinet halogen lights were not working too well. When I removed them, it became pretty obvious as to why that was, they were not wired very well by the installer, which probably ended up damaging them in the end. It was almost surprising that they even worked at all. I replaced them with new LED lights, which were more expensive, but they are almost as bright as the halogen lights were, just not as warm in color… and they don’t get hot while lit, unlike the halogens.
I’ve also been thinking about replacing the fluorescent light fixtures in the basement with some new ones. The new ones have a built-in door that opens up to change the tubes, as opposed to the old style — a sheet of clear plastic crammed between the ceiling tile rails — which always seemed to crack the plastic before it was in place. Also, with a digital ballast, they save more energy than the old ones… about 40% from what I read. So I could have more light for the same cost; 4 tubes instead of 2 for example.
Posted in Lair
May 29th, 2010
I went out to the model train shop yesterday. I bought some stuff for my model train layout, and then went to see the real thing. It was a bit cloudy, but the weather was perfect otherwise. Things were not quite as busy as they have been in the past, but you never know how it will be. I saw a couple of trains, plus a little switching in the yard.
It takes about an hour to get there, and then an hour to return, so my muscles didn’t feel so good. I also had a bit of a sore throat, which turns out to be caused by a cold. I’m not feeling so well today, unfortunately, so my model trains will have to wait. But I’m still happy that I managed to go watch trains. I didn’t go at all last year. The weather was so bad, and I was not well enough to go on the only day when the weather was good enough. So I’ll try to make up for it this year by going another couple of times maybe.
Posted in Life, Photography
May 27th, 2010
It was pretty hot here this week. The temperature got up to 35.8°C / 96.4°F yesterday, which was probably a record. And to make it even worse, it was extremely humid. There were no thunderstorms, though, which was a bit surprising, as this kind of weather would usually be perfect for them. Now the temperature is back to normal.
As part of my plans to improve the yard this year, I worked outside this week. One of my projects was to install a new cover for the electrical outlet in the back wall of the house. It didn’t go quite as smoothly as I had planned, since the builders just crammed an outlet in a hole in the siding and then covered it up. I wanted to install a cover that allows you to keep some cords plugged in, while shielding them from rain, but it wouldn’t fit. Not without cutting up the wall and putting a new outlet box in the wall, which I could have done, but it wasn’t worth it. An electrical outlet costs about a dollar, so it’s not such a big deal to replace it occasionally. So, in the end, I installed a new cover that is similar to the old one after I replaced the old rusted outlet. And then my father finished it with a lot of caulking around it to keep moisture out. He hates doing that, so it was fun…
Posted in Life
