Tuesday, October 30, 2007

5.6 quake on the Calaveras Fault

After last year's micro earthquake, we just had a real one.



No damage, but it was quite loud as the house rattled and ached. You could see the walls of our house rock and sway a little bit. The quake felt more like a 4.0 in our house and the shake map seems to confirm that, too. We had no damage, or moved items in cupboards or drawers, nor any cracks as far as I can tell.

Update (Oct. 31 2007, 16:04):

Aftershocks in the 1.5-2 range happened pretty much continously since yesterday. We just had another 3.7 jolt. Lasted only a few seconds this time, though, contrary to the almost 30 seconds yesterday.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

The day the routers died ...

The send off from the RIPE 55 conference in Amsterdam ...

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Emsingen & Talheim updated

It's been a month since the last status update on Emsingen & Talheim. Here is the current state of things.



PDFs: upper levels - lower levels

As you can see quite a bit has changed. In Emsingen, the station building moved to the north-side of the tracks. I added a 4th track that services the new engine maintenance facility. I managed to squeeze in a 3 loco roundhouse, as well as minimal facilities for steam engines. The main station tracks extend into the curve on the west side to provide longer track for passing or crossing trains. The facility is build partially over the lower end of the ramp coming down the mountain.

Passenger service in Talheim got scaled back substantially. It now is a really small stop with a couple industries, next to a small lake.

I added more landscaping features, including more structure of the mountain in the south, tunnels, a creek (with waterfall near the west end), bridges and the lake.

I changed the exit from staging so that trains can access either ramp towards Emsingen straight from staging. Either by going straight south through the tunnel, or via part of the tunnel loop on the main level then on around the mountain. Since staging is much more useful now, I scrapped the tunnel siding.


Im letzten Monat hat sich einiges getan wie man leicht sehen kann. Das Bahnhofsgebaeude von Emsingen ist auf die Nordseite der Gleise umgezogen und Emsingen Dorf habe ich durch ein Betriebswerk ersetzt. Ein kleiner dreistaendiger Lokschuppen, sowie Betriebsanlagen fuer Dampfloks habe ich in den vefuegbaren Platz quetschen koennen. Die Durchgangsgleise sind nun nochmal etwas laenger fuer Ueberholungen und Zugkreuzungen.

Passagierbetrieb im Bahnhof Talheim ist nun um einiges zurueckgestutzt. Die oertliche Industrie hat ein paar Gleisanschluesse mehr.

Ich habe die Landschaft weiter ausgestaltet. Berge, Tunnel, ein Bach mit See und Wasserfall, sowie die zugehorigen Bruecken.

Von der Ausfahrt des Schattenbahnhofs koennen Zuege nun in beide Richtungen nach Emsingen fahren. Entweder geradeaus nach Sueden durch den langen Tunnel, oder den kurzen Tunnel um den Berg herum. Da der Schattenbahnhof nun sinnvoller zu benutzen ist, habe ich das zweite Tunnelgleis unter Emsingen eliminiert.