Tales from The Room of Doom. Dipping a toe in various bucolic backwaters.
paulc
Western Thunderer
Or indeed a Lack of surplus shelving .
NHY 581
Western Thunderer
Morning Chris,
Er.....no, not yet.....but
Track has been cut and assembled onto the board. There's still some trimming to do but that can wait until the track is actually laid.
The first test train has been run and aside from a couple of extra power feeds needed, all is well and operation looks to be promising.
Rob
NHY 581
Western Thunderer
Morning all,
Pretty much all the wiring is done and tested. Seems okay.
A minor issue was however found when the left hand point leading into the kick back siding was found to be faulty so there'll be a short delay to completion until I can collect a new one from the shop on Saturday. C'est la vie.
Another larger drama was entirely of my own making. I'm very clumsy at times, never used to be but I find now with my wonky hooves, I am. It's the way it is at present. I frequently knock something over when I'm simply trying to pick it up. Such was the case with one of the B4s which I was using for track testing. Guernsey, one of the cut away cab jobs, stalled ( later found to be due to a missed sliver of plastic on the track). As I went to poke it, I knocked it clean off the layout. Fortunately, it fell into an open drawer but managed to damage the lip on the chimney and sever a guard iron on the way South. It could have been worse but certainly was not welcome.
One thing I wanted to see was what impact the current state of my hands would have on building this little quicky and it's clear certain things are proving a bit trickier that is the norm, when compared to building Ewe. Trimming chairs on the ends of lengths of flexi track, holding small objects in general ( screwdrivers, craft knives ) and soldering were all more difficult. Not insurmountable, just difficult. Picking up tiny stuff like track pins now need tweezers as I don't really feel them.
Soldering in particular was fun. Sitting, looking down at the wires as I soldered them caused pins and needles in my right hand so I had to either be quick or pause to restore some life to the digits as I had trouble holding the soldering iron, let alone the wire/fishplate I was soldering ! A combination of looking down and using my hands at desk height brought on p&n in my hands and right arm throughout the evening. Well, thought it would but now we know and now I can work on making things easier.
So, far from doom and gloom ( I do after all now have the basis of a working layout after two evenings work ! ) with lots of good learning coming out of last nights rather eventful modelling activity and all very timely as I'm meeting with Dr. a week today to catch up, post-op.
Updates will follow..
Rob
Pretty much all the wiring is done and tested. Seems okay.
A minor issue was however found when the left hand point leading into the kick back siding was found to be faulty so there'll be a short delay to completion until I can collect a new one from the shop on Saturday. C'est la vie.
Another larger drama was entirely of my own making. I'm very clumsy at times, never used to be but I find now with my wonky hooves, I am. It's the way it is at present. I frequently knock something over when I'm simply trying to pick it up. Such was the case with one of the B4s which I was using for track testing. Guernsey, one of the cut away cab jobs, stalled ( later found to be due to a missed sliver of plastic on the track). As I went to poke it, I knocked it clean off the layout. Fortunately, it fell into an open drawer but managed to damage the lip on the chimney and sever a guard iron on the way South. It could have been worse but certainly was not welcome.
One thing I wanted to see was what impact the current state of my hands would have on building this little quicky and it's clear certain things are proving a bit trickier that is the norm, when compared to building Ewe. Trimming chairs on the ends of lengths of flexi track, holding small objects in general ( screwdrivers, craft knives ) and soldering were all more difficult. Not insurmountable, just difficult. Picking up tiny stuff like track pins now need tweezers as I don't really feel them.
Soldering in particular was fun. Sitting, looking down at the wires as I soldered them caused pins and needles in my right hand so I had to either be quick or pause to restore some life to the digits as I had trouble holding the soldering iron, let alone the wire/fishplate I was soldering ! A combination of looking down and using my hands at desk height brought on p&n in my hands and right arm throughout the evening. Well, thought it would but now we know and now I can work on making things easier.
So, far from doom and gloom ( I do after all now have the basis of a working layout after two evenings work ! ) with lots of good learning coming out of last nights rather eventful modelling activity and all very timely as I'm meeting with Dr. a week today to catch up, post-op.
Updates will follow..
Rob
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NHY 581
Western Thunderer
Hi Tony,
Yes, pretty grim but I'm well under state retirement age and having retired from the day job a couple of years ago I now find that a few injuries from earlier in my working life seem to be catching up with me.
There are those who are a lot worse off than I am . They manage. So should I. It's a simple case of adapting. Either that or look to fill my time with something else, not something I'm inclined to do.
Rob
Kane Clements
Member
Hi Rob. I have a personal trainer. No it isn't cos I'm posh. Over a 4 1/2 year period I have gone from having soft tissue injuries in both knees that made walking v painful to doing the Old Man of Coniston last Spring.
Other bits complain from time to time however.
My PT said that the term for what we do is 'Managing Decrepitude'.
James Spooner
Western Thunderer
Rob, fingers crossed, with time it should all come back. I had a very similar op about fourteen months ago and have got all my fine motor skills back, to the extent that last year I made a 52F models G5 and a couple of D&S carriage kits, so keep plugging away and don’t give up!
Nigel
NHY 581
Western Thunderer
Morning Terry,
That works but it's the actual holding of such small items that can prove tricky.......but, I have a good selection of tweezers that help over come that.
That's impressive, Kane. An excellent effort. I think part of what I'm struggling with is the realisation that one is no longer immortal. I've only been retired for two years but I've had more go wrong in the last four years than in the preceding 54 !
Morning Nigel. It's simply frustrating. The op on my hand is actually mending quite well, pretty much on a par with the first time. Overall, my sausage hooves are, I'm pretty certain, an accumulation of issues, acquired over time. I have a degree of numbness from my diabetes, mainly in my index fingers and that isn't helping. Add in damage to my neck as a result of a couple of historic incidents in my day job, which is accounting for the pins and needles in my right arm and the more recent damage to both my shoulder joints ( right is properly grumpy at present) and we have a cumulative disaster !
But...I'm upright and breathing. Result !
We'll throw it all at the Doc next week and see what she thinks.
In the meantime, I have a layout to build. I hope to pick up the replacement point today, then finish the track laying this evening. I can then top and tail the electrics.
I still need to finalise the fiddly yard and have bits 'in stock' to produce either a small, minimalist job or a slightly more expansive alternative. I can see me doing both to be honest, just because I can !
Before that, I can add the ground cover, using DAS as per usual.
So plenty to be going on with.
Rob.
NHY 581
Western Thunderer
Kane Clements
Member
Hi Rob. Ta muchly. I know that feeling about things going wrong. Gone are the days when one has a bit of a knock and just power on!
We went to see the comedian John Bishop a few years ago. He said that there comes a point in your 50s when one morning you get out of bed and groan. And that is the noise you'll always make from then on. ☹️
NHY 581
Western Thunderer
Morning all.
New point obtained so hopefully, the trackwork will be completed this afternoon. My new block of DAS also arrived yesterday so I've got all I needto start on the next stage which is adding the ground levels under the buildings etc.
The electrics, such as they are, can also be finished off.
Rob.
New point obtained so hopefully, the trackwork will be completed this afternoon. My new block of DAS also arrived yesterday so I've got all I needto start on the next stage which is adding the ground levels under the buildings etc.
The electrics, such as they are, can also be finished off.
Rob.
NHY 581
Western Thunderer
Well, track laid and wiring in.
Playing........cough....ahem....extensive testing has thus far not found any dramas to behold and it does rather appear to be quite the engaging little layout. Just right for a bit of impromptu shunting of an evening.
Adding the ground cover next.
Rob
Playing........cough....ahem....extensive testing has thus far not found any dramas to behold and it does rather appear to be quite the engaging little layout. Just right for a bit of impromptu shunting of an evening.
Adding the ground cover next.
Rob
NHY 581
Western Thunderer
I can see what you're doing and it's not attractive.