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    Sundy dawned rather a nice fall day in the Big Sandy Valley.   Mid 50's, light breeze, sunny, just right for some track work.  Quickly found out that I don;t have enough switch ties, so in order to get on of the runarounds finished I had to raid ties from two other switches.  But once this last one is down, a small amount of operations will be possible.  I need to get a cedar board in order to cut more ties, but that'll have to wait til Thursday when I get paid.  I'm taking a coffee break right now, then back to the track laying.  I know i've said it before, but 2007 will be the year the WV&K Narrow Gauge goes OPERATIONAL!

    The reason I ran short on switch ties is causeI have added an extra switch to the trackplan.  I've finally decided not to have a big involved layout at this time, just the yard with a staging track and a simple loop around the Garden Plot.  There will be a passing siding and storage spur on the far side of the loop, since I've got salvaged track to do that with.  the loop will be twofold, not only will it provide for constant running, sometimes I just like watching them go, and it will be much more interesting cycling batteries, but I can treat each end of the loop  as a seperate branch, one leading to a mine, the other an industrial area.  Since I won't have to model actual industries, I won't have to rationalize the rolling stock fleet, just build what I feel like building and have it run through the yard.  I found that I have sttel wheels for a dozen cars yet, and plenty of knuckle couplers to convert the rolling stock.  Reminds me, I need to get a head count of what I got already, fer the life of me I can't remeber!s

    Seems the voltage problem I had been having wiht No9 is linked to the use of NiMH AA cells.  They don't like to provide more than .5 mah at a time, and three motors and a sound system is just apparently too much for them.  Still work fine in the Half Spot though.  I swapped the battery packs in No9 over to a NiCad pack of the same voltage and I see 100% improvement in performance.

15:41

    CRAPOLA!!!   Its always on a Sunday afternoon when ya run out of critical materials.  In this case it t'was the 1" Eustucheon Pins that I use as track spikes.  Got planty of the 1/2" variety , but they just don't hold as well.  Save them for detailing bits.  SIGH!!

    That done picked through my rolling stock, I got one wood boxcar , three wooden hoppers, a steel flatcar, a combine, and a caboose with knuckles fitted already.  I need to fit knuckles to the three outside braced flatcar/boxcar conversions, and mebbe add some aditional detail to 'em.  I've decided that I'm gonna reuse the 40 series hoppers as coke cars, therefore they will be getting knuckles and racks for side extentions over the winter.  Still need to finish up the tank car I got on the bench.  I think I got the parts cut for a 2nd boxcar under the bench too.  Plenty of fun stuff to do, just need to get myself back in gear, I feel myself building up to it though.

    Few more mild fall days, mebbe getting  the track into shape enough to run an operational train a bit will help.  I think I' will make a push to get a single 12' staging track done along the wall of The Shop before winter hits hard might get me a little more inspired.  A little mixed train action could be just the ticket I need.  I will put a switch in so that it will be possible to expand the staging yard in the future.  The budget is gonna be a little tight this winter, but I'm going to try to purchase at least one critical piece of lumber each payday, so that I will have a bit of a stockpile to work from come spring.