Another goal missed....

I keep running into folks who ask when I'm going to update my blog. Well here goes...

I had hoped to have an update on the Los Angeles Division for this blog update, but that fell short. And, I missed the goal. 

In the mean time, I have been busy over the summer. Jennifer and I are trying to attend a game at all the major league baseball parks. In June we went to Texas to catch an Astros game and a Rangers game. We visited family and friends as well. 

In July, we went to the Bay Area and caught A's and Giants games. Ironically both games were versus the Indians. 

In addition I finished the long remodeling project of the laundry room. It's all done except for the countertops which should be done in the next two weeks. 

So what work have I done on the railroad? Well, the Exeter Branch back dating has consumed most of my railroad time. Not only running a lot of equipment through my quality control process, but assembling rolling stock, printing, cutting, folding and taping Car Cards and printing and cutting all new Waybills. 

I have most of the equipment on the railroad. Here are some pix of the progress: 

I'm using the 'other room' where Oil Junction, Saco, and Bakersfield are for setting out the equipment while the main room is under construction. 

I decided to replace the fluorescent lights due to the fact that I was experiencing a lot of fading. That was especially noticeable on my buildings where the construction paper roofs were fading. I wasn't as concerned about the rolling stock and motive power as it's just "weathering". I decided to switch over to LED lights. Not just replacing the fluorescent bulbs, but installing LED based fixtures. 

The first problem is that the fixtures don't have knockouts to connect conduit. Second is that the design of the fixtures doesn't easily enable the use of knock outs. I was in a quandary as the ceiling joists run perpendicular to the lights and I really don't want to put holes in the ceiling just to run wires. This issue had me stumped. 

In the mean time I pulled down all the old fluorescent lighting which left the room in relative darkness. I have some window lighting, but that's not adequate. 

In order to put the lights up without putting holes in the ceiling, I came up with a solution that will work. I'm using 1x8s to provide a mounting plate for all the lights. I route a channel in the top surface to run the wires which will connect the lights. The 1x8s are then mounted to the ceiling. The lights are then mounted to the 1x8. And all is connected electrically without any wires being visible.

As the length of the surface needs to be 13', I used biscuit joints to connect the material to make a single 13' 1x8. Everything was pre-installed prior to attaching the 1x8s to the ceiling. I didn't mount the lights, but did install the mounting screws for the lights trying to make the installation easier. 

You'll notice that boxes make very good spacers for raising the board up. And Athearn Blue Boxes and MDC boxes are great fine spacers!

When I originally installed the lights, there wasn't a railroad in place. This time around I have to try to install lights down the middle of each peninsula. It's a good thing I'm tall and have long arms! By doing all the pre-installation work, I was able to make my job easier above the railroad. 

Below is the lighting being installed over the other peninsula.

I pre-installed the screws to hang the lights. Used string to suspend each light while I connected the wires. Then used screws to attach to the boards.

As you can see, light is good. Up next is the vacuum the railroad and start moving equipment into place for the first ops session. 


Finally, last weekend I went to San Diego to operate TT&TO on the La Mesa Model Railroad Club layout. I introduced a local Phoenix guy to the railroad as well. I didn't run as many trains a I had hoped. Here is my final run. I was the second section of a west bound passenger. The RDC is nice, but not much of a challenge to operate. Especially as a second section.