As expected, today was a great day of working on the layout. This is a photo of Drew and Wayne working on the benchwork at Summit. Actually, Wayne's elbow is resting on Keenbrook. We started at 9:30 and went to 4:30, so that is about 20 man-hours of work if I deduct the few minutes we spent wolfing down Sherry's turkey taquitos!

We have all of the subroadbed installed for Devore, Colton, Lugo and Summit. We have the subroadbed cut and laid out for Keenbrook, Blue Cut, Devore, Cajon Station, Sullivan's Curve, and Silverwood.

Last night I installed new fluorescent lights over the layout. There is now eight, four-foot, plus one eight-foot fixture illuminating the layout.

Things are moving along quickly. I've signed up my layout for the January layout tour with the Corona Model Railroad Society. We might even get to see a train run!

PS: I'm working on the problem with the archives. They should be back soon.
Kato has just about cleared their inventory of decorated Dash 9 shells. At a price of $15, I'm not surprised. I picked up an SP shell for airbrush practice and maybe an occaisonal run on the layout. It came in the mail yesterday, and like everything from Kato, it looks terrific.
The train club meets on Tuesday night and I'm presenting a clinic on railroad grades. This all started when I was looking at a cheap 12" aluminum level I picked up at the dollar store. It has three bubble levels: horizontal, vertical, and forty-five degrees.

Since each of the bubbles is held in place with two screws, I got to thinking that I could adjust them to show one, two and three percent grades.

That began the quest to complete all the computations and find an easy way to do all the calibrations. So here it goes:

- 1% grade is 1" of raise over 100 inches distance.
- One inch divided by 100 inches is 0.01 inches.
- 100 inches is 8.33 feet.
- 0.01 times 8.33 is .083 inches of elevation per foot for a 1% grade.
- A Kennedy Half Dollar is 0.084 inches thick, which is pretty damn close to 0.083".

So, with a foot long level, you set one end on top of one coin and adjust the bubble so it says level. Do it over two coins and adjust one of the other bubbles to level. Lay it on three coins and adjust the last bubble to level. Finally, label the bubbles for one, two and three percent grades.

Now, as I'm doing the subroadbeds, I can refer to the level to make sure I don't exceede my layout standards.
Okay, I got the SD40 shell, and there is no way it is going to fit on an SD40-2 frame. Sounds like a perfect excuse for buying another locomotive! I just ordered the cheapest Kato SD40 I could find, a CP Rail with the right color sideframes for the Conrail shell. When it gets here, I'll swap the shells and eBay the CP Rail shell, hopefully for the price I paid for the Conrail shell. Ah, the best laid plans...
At least once a week I log into RailPictures.net and check out the new Cajon photos. One of the most prolific Cajon photographers on the site is Santiago Homsi Jr. He has a photo taken last week that is Cajon Pass. Check it out!
Yesterday, Wayne and I were talking about foreign power on the BNSF. It got me thinking, and checking my locomotive roster. It turns out that I have two BNSF SD40-2 locos with the same road number. I did a search on eBay and found a Conrail SD40 shell with eight minutes left on the auction. I don't know if it it'll fit on the Dash 2's frame, but it was worth a shot. I also have a GP20 with a banged up ATSF shell. I just bid on a UP shell for the same loco. Curse you Wayne!

 
Been a rough week with the fires here in Southern California. I've been on standby with the County's Emergency Operations Center, so I've stuck close to home. An old friend lost her home in Julian, with the only saving grace being that the fire crews were able to use her water tank to save her neighbor's home. I have a coworker that has(?) a cabin up in Arrowhead, and I haven't found out yet if it's still standing. There is a lot of finger pointing going on, but Southern California ecosystems are based upon fire ecology. Back to trains, I printed out several dozen photos of the prototype backgrounds so I could use them for inspiration for painting the backdrops on the layout. I've taped them to the top of the backdrops and in so doing, stuck my head into the ceiling fan again. I'm really having to rethink that whole ceiling fan thing. With the layout being armpit height, every time I climb onto a stool I'm getting a haircut. I'll probably take the fans out and go with oscillating fans in the corners.