Week 363

 Sun, Jul 11, 2021 thru Sat, Jul 16, 2021

Count	Priority	Key
2	A	Top - This Week
3	B	Top - Next Week
6	C	Mid - This Month
10	D	Mid - Next Month
4	E	Low - This Year
3	F	Low - Next Year
15	G	Completed/Done!
43

Project Priority List
Priority	Origination Date	Latest Update	Project Name	Project Description	Done! Date
A	6/5/2021	6/5/2021	Working on Locomotives	CNW SD40-2 #6928, UP SD50 #53, RTA F40PH #138	Finishing one by one
A	7/10/2021	7/10/2021	Finish installing PRB street lights	Include wiring before completion date is set
B	5/11/2021	5/11/2021	West Chicago Station	Platform/lighting
B	5/11/2021	5/11/2021	Finish Bridge/Underpass	Melrose Park downtown curbs, sidewalks, gutters, buildings
B	5/13/2021	5/13/2021	RIP Shop track floor inside building	do this before ballasting
C	7/1/2021	7/1/2021	Finish wiring Crossover 2.5	Will need to figure this out.
C	5/11/2021	5/11/2021	Winfield/Berkeley Station	Platform/lighting
C	5/11/2021	5/11/2021	Oak Park Marion Street Station	Lighting/kitbashing
C	5/13/2021	5/13/2021	ballast RIP Shop	finishing touches
C	5/18/2021	5/18/2021	Mainline ballasting	Between Crossover #2 and WeGo Diamonds - back tracks in front of WeGo downtown
C	6/4/2021		Finish decoder installation	UP SD50 #53

Sun, Jul 11, 2021

I ran into some trouble with the wiring of the street lights...

I wired the first street light and the cover started to melt.
So I tested a similar light fixture and it too started to smoke.
So now I'm testing all my lights to try to figure out how to get them the proper juice to work.

These are some other light fixtures I'll be testing.

Then I'll label the light boxes as 3V and 12V fixtures.

That should help keep things straight.

I'll need to move things around a bit, but here are the boxes with their respective labels.

Mon, Jul 12, 2021

No train activity today.

1st Day of VBS.

Tue, Jul 13, 2021

Got a little work done on the RR this morning before heading to work for the 2nd day of VBS.

Sometimes to get things done, I need to get organized so I can be more efficient in the future.
Today is one of those days I need to get more organized.
Here I'm dumping out all the contents in the four light drawers and reorganizing to have easier access to the equipment I will need for various future projects.

The light fixture on the right is the one I tested and as I did it started smoking. You can see by the darkness of the glass that it was getting too much voltage/amps.

The light cover on the left is the one that melted the other day.
It should look like the cover on the right.

Here's another view of my light box reorg project.

Wed, Jul 14, 2021

I took some tedious time this morning to work on the lighting reorg...

Making progress...testing is tedious.

I installed these non-working crossing signals.
I would prefer not to install non-working signals, but I really like the way these look even if they don't work. Someday I can upgrade and install working signals, but that's for another day, month, or year :)

Thu, Jul 15, 2021

More work done on the layout.

Check this out for today...

I'm getting there...down to one table.
Doing this reorg will really help keep things moving.

I had to move the bridge to keep the road perpendicular to the bridge.
I had to re-drill the holes for the two other cars I'm going to add to this scene.
I also went ahead and figured out how to insert the straw "conduit" so it's easier to pull the wire when the time comes to pull the wire.

Here's what it looks like under the table.
You can see the two straw "conduits" coming from the top to the bottom of the framework.

I also wanted to add some crossing signals and gates so I went through this box and sorted out what I had - more REORG; I guess I'm in that mood right now.

Here's the contents of half the box.

And here's the contents of the other half of the box.
I would think I'd be able to find something from here that will work, don't you think?

Fri, Jul 16, 2021

Working on the RR before heading to our final day of VBS later today...

It's always an interesting day when I work on the train.

Many times, one thing leads to another which I hadn't planned on doing in the first place.

Today was one of those days...

Since I opened that box of RR signals, I wanted to use some of the contents before putting it all back in the box. So here's what I did.

These are non-working crossing signals, but it does give a nice affect.
Someday I may install working signals.
We'll have to wait and see if that ever happens.

Another view...

A red jeep has come and will wait for the train to pass.

I also installed the crossing gates at Melrose Park.

And 3rd Street Geneva.

Drone view of 3rd Street.

Lighting LED reorg complete.
Drawer #1 parts & projects

Drawer #2 - parts & projects.

Drawer #3 3V projects.

Drawer #4 12V projects.

Sat, Jul 17, 2021

Just a little work done on the RR before heading to Chicago to visit James & Natalie

I meant to get one more picture in, but it was so blurry (even worse than this one) that I had to send it to Trash. I'm getting ready to solder the feeder wires on the light poles for the Coal Plant at PRB.

Preparing the parking lot for the new poles.

Count	Priority	Key
1	A	Top - This Week
3	B	Top - Next Week
6	C	Mid - This Month
12	D	Mid - Next Month
4	E	Low - This Year
3	F	Low - Next Year
19	G	Completed/Done!
48

I added quite a few last minute projects to the list. 

You can tell these by looking at the start date and completed date all within the same week.

Also reprioritized some projects - I really want to concentrate on the PRB road and get that finished soon. I moved the Locomotive decoder project down the list and will add another project to the list based on an Amazon purchase this week. Items arrived, but I forgot to take the pictures.

Project Priority List
Priority	Origination Date	Latest Update	Project Name	Project Description	Done! Date
D	6/5/2021	6/5/2021	Working on Locomotives	CNW SD40-2 #6928, UP SD50 #53, RTA F40PH #138	Finishing one by one
D	7/15/2021	7/15/2021	Adding cars with lights on PRB overpass	Need to redrill holes and purchase cars to complete project
G	7/16/2021	7/16/2021	Add crossing gates to 3rd street Geneva and Melrose Park downtown	After the RR signal reorg was finished I can finish this project - all in 1 day	7/16/2021
G	7/15/2021	7/16/2021	Reorg RR Signage storage box	Need to figure out what I have in the box to use on other projects	7/16/2021
G	7/14/2021	7/14/2021	Working on PRB road and RR crossing	Adding crossing signals & gates	7/16/2021
G	7/11/2021	7/11/2021	Reorg the light drawers at the electronics station	Divide drawers into four purposes. 1. 12V 2. 3V 3. Projects 4. Parts	7/17/2021
A	7/10/2021	7/17/2021	Finish installing PRB street lights	Wiring up feeders before re-installing