September 1st, 2010
Today, I received some stuff for my model train layout. The most important part of that to me were the HO scale trucks, which I will try to do something very interesting with in the future. I also got some street lights, grade crossing, crossing signals, a gazebo, and a locomotive engine block. I was very surprised that the engine block actually was not a one piece casting as I had expected, but a 40 piece kit. Well, I won’t use it for a while, then. 
As for my PHP scripts, I continued working on them a little more these past few days, when my nose was not so runny as to flood my keyboard. My immune system takes bribes from viruses to let them attack me.
I made a graph to keep track of the UPS line voltage, and I noticed an interesting trend; the voltage drops a bit during the day and then increases above 120V late at night, as you can see in my pretty graph. 
I will maybe set up a section of the site for these and other graphs and stuff that would be similar to the old “Railwolf Labs” site I had before.
I also set up a PHP script to monitor my router’s status and represent it graphically, like the router’s front panel, using the actual front panel icons, plus the addition of the current IP address. The script actually logs into the router’s page and grabs the information from it. It wasn’t easy to do, but I figured out how. This is how it looks:
Posted in Hobbies, Life, Railwolf.com, Technology
August 1st, 2010
I got a new power supply on sale a few days ago, and coincidentally, the power supply in Electrocuter2 failed last night. It was very convenient timing for sure. I replaced the power supply quickly enough despite being tired, and it works fine. I’m glad I got it. I also got an Apevia power supply tester, which is pretty good. It has a nice blue backlit LCD screen with all the voltage readings as well as every type of connector. Surely enough, it detected that the old power supply had a bad 12V rail.
I finished all the track on my model train layout tonight. Now I just need to do some wiring to power those tracks, which shouldn’t take very long. I did the soldering of terminal rail joiners tonight. I even repaired a pair that I had broken some years ago by soldering it.
As for scenery, I have one building assembled now, an auto dealership, but that will probably be the only one I’ll do. I added some lights to it, using a cheap LED light my mother gave me because it kept falling apart. It turned out to look quite good inside the building after I gutted the unit and taped the circuit board with the LEDs to the ceiling of the building with electrical tape. I run the lights using the original battery compartment. I placed it away from the building by connecting new wires to it with alligator clips. I also added a SPST switch to turn it off when I’m not using it, because the original switch is mounted on the circuit board, and it’s not convenient to reach inside the building to press it.
I will need to hide the wires that can be seen along the back wall inside the building, but it’s fine for now.
This car dealership will be just outside the town I plan to build. I have a great vision of what I would like the town to be like, but it will take a lot of time to make it come to life. It won’t be very big, but it will have a street with some shops on it, and a bank, which will be in the process of being robbed.
Posted in Hobbies, Life, Technology
July 31st, 2010
I went to the model train shop yesterday, and I also went to see the real thing afterward. It went pretty well. The weather was good, although it was just 21C / 71F.
I saw a train on the river bridge after I got out of the shop, and luckily, I arrived at the station before it did.
I saw more trains than last time, and actually, this one showed up just as I got into the car to head home, so I jumped out of the car to catch it.
Not only that, but the locomotives I saw are all pretty rare. StL&H is pretty much nonexistent now, for example. I doubt there are more than a couple of those locomotives around anymore, so I was lucky for sure.
After I got home, I unboxed my new freight car models, and then worked on finishing up the rail yard. I only have one track left to install, and then all the track on my layout will be finished. I will need to do some more soldering, though, since I only found one pair of terminal joiners at the shop.
Posted in Hobbies, Life, Photography, Trains
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
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 Hobbies, Life, Photography, Trains
