Scattered Thoughts . . .

I managed to "pave" the new girder bridge on our little garden railroad and it is looking pretty good! I did one small section at a time.  First, I applied a rather thin coat (but not too thin) of waterproof exterior construction adhesive on a small section of the roadway.  I applied the adhesive thick enough to completely obscure the wood base.  Then I sprinkled fine sand over the adhesive.  Then I carefully pat the sand down with my hand...  then carefully and lightly brushed the sand until it was even...  then again carefully pat it down with my hand.  Then I would move on to the next section.   The idea of using the waterproof exterior construction adhesive was two-fold...  First, I wanted to make sure the sand would stay in place in widely varying weather conditions.  Next, I wanted the adhesive to act as a sort of sealing coat protecting the wood underneath.   Here is a photo looking straight down the roadway and acr...

I decided to test the newly wired grade crossing signals for our small garden railroad here on our living room coffee table.  This way, if I happened to encounter a problem, I could figure out what is wrong without all the variables of installing it outdoors.  Doing this test in a controlled environment is the best option. I have a few circuit boards in this configuration that I should explain... First, the power is sourced from four AA rechargeable batteries in the black case pictured at right.   From there, the power goes to a voltage regulator.  I need the voltage to be a steady 3.0 volts for the new LED bulbs in the grade crossing signals.  This voltage regulator can be set to a wide range of output voltages but I need 3.0 volts so that is what I set it to.  The output terminals on the regulator circuit board run to a large momentary push button switch.  The kids can easily access this big button and hold it down to keep the grade crossing si...

I haven't written anything here in a week or two so I know I'm behind a bit when it comes to staying up to date about my health. I had last written about designing and building a new bridge for our garden railroad.  I still need to add a second coat of paint and then build the roadway surface but the weather has not been cooperating.  It has been too cold for painting and we've had rain, on and off, every day.  I really need a couple of completely dry days to finish this project. While I'm waiting for the weather to improve, I've mostly been indoors working on a few other little scenic things for the garden railroad.  I've also had to step up my daily physical therapy for my spinal injuries.  I was having a painful time walking around after those couple of days bending and crouching while working on the bridge!   So, I've been indoors working on rewiring a couple of grade crossing signals that I plan to add to the garden railroad.  These signals ...

I made some significant progress on our newly designed and now fully built girder bridge for our garden railroad yesterday.  Hmmm...  well, I guess it is not fully built just yet because I still need to pave it with fine sand and I need to add lights.  The bridge, itself, is fully built though.   Consequently, my spinal pain last night was unbearable.  My spine was on fire with sharp pain radiating to my hips, pelvic region and kidneys.  The pain truly was brutal, take-your-breath away type of pain.  I'm feeling significantly better this morning so that is good! Yesterday's primary job was to assemble all the balusters, the top rail and the parapet bearings at each corner.   This promised to be a tedious job but it went more smoothly and more quickly than I expected.   Each baluster needed to be glued and nailed in place, one-by-one, using a nail gun so it was definitely a tedious process.   My air compressor and nail gun...

A s summer was coming to a close and the leaves turning last year, Lukey (one of our grandchildren) and I were walking around the garden railroad talking about what improvements we could make by adding various features to this relatively tiny garden railroad.   One idea was to add an automobile bridge from near the passenger station to the other side of the garden railroad near the truss bridge.  This bridge would "bridge" one side of our imaginary land to the other through the garden sort of like a worm-hole in space.  I liked the idea of adding more road-bound vehicles to this model railroad so I felt this bridge would be a good idea.   I started working on the bridge over this past weekend and, as seen in the photos below, I made some good progress. I have a long list of things that need to be done on our house too but I started with this little garden railroad project to refresh my memory on the intricacies of woodworking.  I'd rather make the inev...