Layout Update 8A: Shortages and a Return to Incrementalism

As Bryan's birthday and the holiday season loom ever larger, there is understandably even less time to spend in the train room, and as a result, and as pointed out in a comment to the most recent update, progress is approaching sub-prototypical speed. (Although I should note that contra the commenter, where I grew up - western New York - the Irish dug the Erie Canal and the Italians built the New York Central.)

However, I have once more adopted the incremental approach I adopted when building the benchwork (as described here), applying it mostly to the transcribing of the trackplan onto the foam by pricking holes through the paper overlay. I also managed to glue down the final section of ascending gradient on the rural section, and have been marking locations for mainline gradient supports on and near the engine terminal section.

In this I have made a virtue of necessity, as I need to get some spackle to level some minor height differences between foam sections to ensure smooth track, and more importantly I need to get a new soldering iron for the actual laying of track. Accordingly I have asked Santa for gift certificates from here and here. Hopefully the arrival of needed supplies and equipment will coincide with at least a small uptick in available time, as I am itching to get some track down - any track, frankly - and get things literally moving.

Happy Holidays, and in the meantime go here for the complete set of updates.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, Except for This

Continuing a holiday tradition, please assume crash positions and enjoy.

Justice is Blind and Also Hungry

Even the most casual reader of this blog noticed this piece about a Virginia jurisdiction suing Krispy Kreme Donuts over the fouling of sewage pipes by grease from a donut factory. I would be remiss if I did not bring you up to speed on the lates developments in the case.

The parties have, like a breakfast of Krispy Kreme donuts in your stomach, settled.

You just know the writer of that article could barely contain his glee by being able to write this as the opening sentence:

Krispy Kreme and Fairfax County have settled a years-long dispute over whether grease flowing from the doughnut maker's Lorton factory clogged the county's artery-like sewage system.

That one goes right to the top of his resume's clip file.

The Mile High Club Is Too Low

Now Richard Branson can be annoying but I think that the advent of a commercial space ship is the coolest thing I've heard of since the stealth fighter. How long before people complain "I was tied up for two hours going into space and they only served peanuts and charged extra for beer."

Infamy!

December 7, 1941-a fleet of Imperial Japan, undetected by the American Navy, approached Hawaii, then a territory, not yet a state, and destroyed the better part of America's battleships in the Pacific. By a miracle no American aircraft carriers were present. America having avoided the World War for two years was now in it. The attack came without declaration of war. Our possessions in the Phillipines were soon attacked and taken over in the greatest defeat of American arms since the Civil War. The British fortress of Singapore was destroyed in the worst surrender of a British garrison since maybe ever. Australia itself would be threatened. The entire AngloSphere tetered on the brink of ultimate defeat in every theatre of the globe. Yet, it is Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany that are no more.

There are now no men living who remember Belleau Wood. But Pearl is still within living memory. Incredibly, Pearl Harbor is now temporally more distant to us than the Battle of Little Big Horn, was from American's of that day. But surprise in war never goes away.

When we look at the American economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan it is comforting to recall the aftermath of December 7, 1941.

Why I Attend Only the Dinner Parties of Close Friends

What does a devoted anti-consumerist do on the average weekend when the G8 countries aren't getting together or there isn't an Olympic bid to thwart? Why, she goes food shopping just like everyone else, of course. For the record, my Thanksgiving preparation bore no relation to this practice, and I trust that all the guests who brought a dish can boast the same. Please, Lord, can I trust?

Mashed (by) Potatoes

We are looking forward to EMM's yummy mashed potatoes at tomorrow's Orphans' Thanksgiving. Here is an audiovisual masterpiece, hopefully not giving away any culinary secrets, for your digesting pleasure:

It's Root, Root, Root for the Root Vegetables

Behold the 2009 rutabagas!



This blog has a tradition dating back to its earliest days of rutablogging, with a very slight bump last year, when Laura was sick and I ended up making the rutabagas. Fortunately, and for many more reasons than rutabagas, Laura is back in action this year and she will be peeling, cubing, boiling, Cuisinarting and buttering the 'bagas once more. In fact, she has already done one batch for our friends' Thanksgiving dry run last weekend and they were as yummy as always.

On behalf of all of us here at Potpourri for $500, we wish you a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

Four, Plus a Bit More

Happy Birthday to us! We actually started up on November 17, 2005, so as is often the case we are slightly late in the self-congratulations.

Many thanks to the masthead for their contributions* over the years! Please stay tuned for, well, more of the same. What, you wanted something different? I didn't think so.

I also look forward to spending Thanksgiving with nearly the entire masthead. By tradition, we have set JCF adrift in the North Sea with a three-day supply of Nutella to ensure blog continuity in the event of a mass tryptophan event.

*Everyone has posted at least twice so we were just barely able to use the plural.

Layout Update #8: There Will Be Foam

In real life, railroads surmounted geographical challenges like mountains, rivers etc. by often-spectacular feats of engineering, such as the Starucca Viaduct or the Tehachapi Loop. The modeler usually wants to represent at least some sort of modest conquest of nature to provide some visual interest. Unlike the real world, however, the modeler is responsible not only for the feats of engineering, but for the actual geographical challenges. Further, the challenges themselves must usually be subjected to what is known as "selective compression," the trade-off of "actual-size" rivers/mountains/etc. for something that can a) suggest the actual-size challenge and b) fit the allotted space. (As an example, a full-size model of the Starucca Viaduct in N scale, in which one inch represents 13.3 feet, would be 6.5 feet long and 7.5 inches tall.)

Despite these various challenges, most model railroaders, including myself, want to have their trains pass through different kinds of scenery, and in fact, when I was planning the layout, I specifically included a tunnel, a bridge, and a change in track elevation in the requirements for a layout.

Over the past weekend I was able to put in a pretty good chunk of relatively uninterrupted time in the basement, and am close to completing one of the major engineering challenges: the transitions from the lower track elevation to the higher elevation, then back down. These transitions take place on the "rural" section, primarily within the curving tunnel, and in the loop around the engine terminal. I judged the rural transition to be the easier of the two, and so decided to get some experience by tackling that first.

First, here is the layout in two dimensions:


And now, for the first time, in glorious 3-D!


You can see that I used the "blunt instrument" approach within the tunnel by raising the entire outside section of the foam from left to right; this happens inside a mountain so technically no one can "see" it. (The side of the mountain nearest the camera will be open for maintenance, however.)

The next picture shows how I supported the foam on a riser of 1x2 and 1/4" plywood scraps, with the plywood extending to support the next section of foam:


Here we see the next section of foam in position:


Since this section of the gradient will be visible, I needed to be a lot more careful in designing and building it. I decided to cut two parallel lines about 2" apart, resulting in a strip of foam on which the roadbed and track will be placed. The foam on each side of the strip will be shaped to represent a cut through a hillside. Since tunnels are expensive to build and maintain, real railroads relied as much as possible on cuts, tunneling only when necessary.

Here is a shot of the yard and industrial section. The yard will be set on a second layer of foam, providing a contrast between it and the industrial trackage.


Finally, here is a shot of the engine terminal area, which will also be mounted on a second level of foam. The mainline curves around the terminal, with a downgrade from the right of the roundhouse to the end of the far left-hand curve.


It's very encouraging to get some idea of how the plan is translating from paper to wood and foam. So far, so good!

I Do Not Drink... Syrup

Yahoo Finance lives up to its name by combining a story about the all-too-real Eggo shortage with a clumsy Twilight cross-promotion.

Also, "King Sooper" runs a close second to "Piggly Wiggly" in terms of dumb grovery store names. This should bring any stealth Southern readers out into the open.

Dead or Canadian?

Sadly, the former. Ken Ober has passed away.

Back when we really wanted our MTV, you know, when we had plentiful and awesome music videos, we also had a silly little game show called Remote Control .

RIP Ken Ober .

Toys, Games and a Garbage Plate?

Rochester, New York, my hometown is the home to the National Toy Hall of Fame . Who knew? Not me.

Jon Stewart was outraged on Monday after the latest inductions to the THoF were announced the video was funny enough...however, what made me laugh out loud was his mention of the "Garbage Plate".

After a night out, nothing beat a Garbage Plate. The hours at Nick Tahous have changed, so I'm not sure how one of these would go over before midnight (or without having had a few beers). Part of the fun at Nick's was the people watching. Half of the restaurant was full of college kids, the other cops and a very interesting array of street people. Fun and games, indeed!

Ra-cha-cha!

Sorry, 2nd try on the video !

I Am Already a Winner

Earlier this month I paid a visit to my friend and fellow blogger J's site and saw that she was fluffing up her blog hits by flacking for a pillow manufacturer. But not just any pillow! Here's just some of what the pillow has to offer:

# Cream Velour covering
# Designed for side and back sleepers
# 100% renewable environmentally and eco-friendly material
# Naturally grown soybeans/corn are converted into a soft fluffy ultra thin fibrous fill containing 18 amino acids beneficial to the human body
# Properties in soybean fiber activate growth of collagen protein in one’s skin, while corn properties provide high resilience
# Naturally hypo-allergenic and resistant to mildew, bacteria and dust mites
# Moisture and heat resistant with superior ventilation
# Using Azlon*/Soybean “bio-based” polyols provides important benefits to farmers and the environment
# Designed with two covers for longevity and protection against microbes / dust mites; Inner Cover is hand sewn 100% natural cotton, 300 TC and Outer Cover is hand sewn luxurious Azlon* fiber (65% soybeans/35% cotton) with a cashmere-like feel that is “naturally allergenresistant” — removable and washable for easy care
# Firm comfort level

*[This asterisk does not go anywhere - perhaps its note got so comfy it drifted off the page.]

In return for linking to the vendor, said vendor would award a free pillow to the commenter submitting the best self-justification for needing a new pillow. Drawing on extremely recent and actual experience, my entry, in its entirety, was:

Our daughter threw up on hers last night. How about it?

To my more or less shock and surprise, I won, and just today, this turned up:


But where's the pillow, is my question. (Ba-dump. Ow! Blogging from the bedroom has its own unique challenges.)

If I could somehow convert this kind of thing into an actual career my annual base salary would be somewhere north of $7.5 million.

On the other hand, how I am going to explain the amino acid stains is beyond me.

Ukelele Explosion

After seeing this post Laura investigated further and found the MySpace page for the ukelele/finger piano duo.

Come for the a-ha, stay for the Johnny Cash:

Figuratively Eleventh Hour Post

Via Lawyers, Guns and Money I learned that there were only three surviving veterans of World War I, which ended (on the Western Front at least) at 11:00 AM on this date in 1918.

Many thanks to those among us who served and those who continue to serve, on land, at sea and in the air, and to those who have given the last full measure of their devotion in the service of the United States of America.

a-ha oh no

Norway is in mourning this evening in response to news that a-ha has broken up. Yeah, me too: I didn't know they were still together either.

Fortunately, the Internet's ukelele players are ready:

November 9, 1989-The Atheism That Failed

Ross Douthot encapsulates many of my views on the end of the Cold War. It seems like yesterday, but college freshman were not alive when the Soviet Union existed. The President of the United States thought begging for the Olympics and picking up a Nobel Prize worth a trip to Europe, but not the celebrations over the peaceful fall of the Berlin Wall.

I don't think Douthot is right about permanence. Europe, in particular, does not seem permanently in the camp of liberal democracy to me but overall he is correct. Islamicism threatens us with nuclear strikes that will destroy cities but not the West. Russia can immiserate many on its borders but cannot export its pathologies anymore.

November 11 now commemorates the end of the war to end wars. November 9 truly is the day the credible threat of Armageddon ended. Those of us who thought the day would never come are now amazed it was so long ago.

Interest'n Fact Thea Nahmmie...

My last vote (other than strategic voting in primaries) for a Democrat was for Joe Lieberman against Lowell Weiker in 1988. I then switched parties and have never pulled the Democratic lever again in earnest.

Mr. Ratzenberger, a staple of Pixar voice overs and seen wherever Cheers still runs, is contemplating challenging Senator Lieberman. Under no circumstances will he win in the state wher I went to high school. Joe Lieberman is considered right-wing there. I only wish he had challenged Chris Dodd, because then he could have been a Senator.

Nawmi, a Republican will beat Lieberman right after you don't order the all you can eat buffet at the hungry heifer.

Manna vs. Machine

Earth got yet another reprieve from the Large Hadron Collider after it apparently choked on a baguette. You would think the mad scientists would make their doomsday device impervious to baked goods, but no.

A further complication is the difficulty of procuring enough dental floss for a 17-mile-circumference ring.

Please, For God's Sake, Visit Cleveland

I have been to Cleveland three times so I cannot be swayed by this (NSFW sound) promotional video:



This is equally, uh, compelling and makes a good point at the end:



Now this makes me want to visit Cleveland just a bit more:



In terms of openings, though, nothing tops this:



I remember seeing that and thinking it weas the most amazing opening credits sequence I had seen on TV, but what followed was kind of disappointing, although it picked up in later seasons and I really liked "Whose Line Is It, Anyway?"

The Anzac Cove* of Marketing?

The Australian makers of Vegemite came up with a blend of Vegemite and cream cheese and, as part of the product launch, ran a contest to name the new spread, with generally predictable consequences.

Money quote: "We asked people to vote on a name, and then we left the room and picked a name that wasn't the most popular, and that's where we lost the online consumer in particular." Gee, ya think?

The article mentions the mid-80s New Coke "debacle" repeating the myth of the latter as a failed experiment. I, and others, remain convinced that it was a carefully planned intentional failure to mask Coke's switch from sugar to high-fructose corn syrup in the original recipe.

H/t to J, a fine blogging Sheila.

*Refers to this

Pointless, Yet Cool

In case you haven't seen it, today's XKCD comic is major geek accomplishment, apparently leading to a punchline about a movie I never saw.

Once you're at XKCD, it's worth clicking on the picture for the larger version.