Good Morning All. 41° and cloudy with rain nearby but not here at this time. Wind has abated somewhat with gusts at only 15 mph. Not expected to get above 45° today, but a return to the 60's for at least the next eight days starting tomorrow. All of the "sky is falling" predictions of the weather gurus fell through yesterday, at least here as I recorded only .25" of rain in the gauge. There's a lot of rain/snow about 30 miles west, but it is moving in a counter-clockwise direction with me at the center!
Prior to the wind and occasional rain yesterday, I was able to do a little more garden prep for spring planting. Ugggh! Since my wife is out of town, I had to pick up the slack in household duties also. As far as the bathroom remodel, she did paint the walls allowing me to complete the "shiplap" portion, now I am on hold until she does the heavy painting before I can move the vanity in place and purchase/install the new toilet.
Out in the train shed, I had hoped to get back into the scenery mode, but only partly. Spread a little more ground foam and glued some lichen in place. Yes, I still use lichen in places for variety in vines. I have had a little frustration over the last few weeks while running trains, with drooping couplers at grade crossings and switches. All of the freight cars were fine when I inspected them prior to being placed on the layout? Ooops! that was 5-6 years ago. Rather than wait for an issue, I re-inspected about 25 cars yesterday, finding 8 that had drooped due to various reasons. Some might have given me trouble real soon. Most were Walther's car kits that had the old "press-fit" coupler box cover. The rest were Athearn clips that had worked loose. During the process, I also found cars that were missing components (usually brake related), or broken grabs/ladders, as well as one of the wayward cars with plastic wheels. All were duly repaired, most of the Walther's covers were shaved, drilled and replaced with a screw. Looks like it's time to reinspect the entire fleet. Let's see, 25/day and 800 cars makes over a month of this, with holidays thrown in, maybe by the end of January?
David -
The weather earlier at 3:18 this morning was very chilly as it was heavy frost on the car! Of course that implies that's the temperature was 32 or below even though the computer app only said it was down 37 degrees so something isn't quite right?
The metal in the car and the ground both give up heat more rapidly than the air, hence the frost when the air temperature is above freezing. Air temperature is also taken between 4' and 5' above the ground level and can be warmer than that lower down, or around metal objects. Along the same lines, it can snow when the air temperature is as high as 42°.
Is that Central Valley car one that you had assembled? It looks really good.
Louis - Nice Lionel pictures, especially the GG-1.
Curt - Take care of yourself.
You all need to quit posting about E-Bay's 15% off. I might have to go to their website!
Today is National Monkey Day. Isn't that every day in DC?
Everyone have a wonderful day.