Movies with a twist

I like movies that keep you on the edge of your seat guessing what's going to happen next. Some examples...

• The Usual Suspects (1995)
  
  
• The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
  
• Slow Burn (2005)
  

All bacon burger anyone?

Found this while browsing mailing lists...
The Deepfried All Bacon Burger

Dining Furniture

The last couple of days we were furniture hunting in the Bay Area. We visited Viking Trader, a locally-owned store in Berkeley and also stumbled upon a branch of Scandinavian Designs.

Viking Trader has gorgeous furniture. Modern, clean lines, but not totally ridiculous and kid unfriendly. Lots of Danish pieces. We loved an extendable oval table from Skovby in cherry wood, with a matching set of chairs.

Skovby has a bunch of inventive tables that can grow or extend without having to add pieces that need to be stored somewhere. Turns out we really liked their cherry finish, much to my surprise. Whenever we saw cherry wood before in kitchens, etc., it was stained very dark and looked just horrible imho. Their tables are finished in light cherry, which gives the table a very warm and friendly look. [Did I really just write that tables can be friendly? Sheesh...]

Scandinavian Designs is a chain store, but actually looks more like an european furniture store than any other furniture place I visited in the US. We found another Skovby table there that we liked, also in cherry, which was substantially cheaper than the one at Viking Trader.

We ended up buying a floor model of that table from the SD store in San Jose (this one), along with matching chairs in cherry (those). They will deliver early next week. I'm really looking forward to it.

I might finally start this weekend putting in the laminate we bought for the family/dining room back in September. Since our regular dining set is still used for staging in the old house, we had the patio furniture in the family room for the last few months, and I didn't feel like ruining the brand-new laminate with those chairs...


As for the couch table in the living room... We resolved that there is nothing on the market that fits our needs perfectly and I'm going to build one myself.

What's up with banks these days?

TechCU messed up the rate on my new home equity line of credit. The statement I received has a much higher rate than the paperwork I signed. I'm seriously annoyed and need to yell at someone.

Smith Barney's web site for my stock options is a piece of poo. Still. ... It's slow, clunky, ugly, and just hard to get anything done.

KeypointCU's Web site is very old-school and disorganized, but gets the job done. Maybe I'm just used to it.

Chase's credit card site is utter crap. Thank God I don't use it all that often. The best thing about that card are the regular $25 Amazon gift certificates. I have no good use for airline miles, but I do for Amazon coupons.

On the positive side...

Vanguard is great. Good returns, low management fees, no fuss. Easy to navigate and do what I want to do. Both for 401k and brokerage accounts.

Fidelity is ok. I had a 401k with them through the first US company I worked for. I don't use them as much anymore as I used to, but they've always been helpful and easy to deal with, both on the Web and by telephone.

For a no-fees german checking account paying interest on deposits, NetBank best serves my needs.

A good place to park some money in the short term (like when preparing to buy a house) is an ING Savings Account. Decent interest rate, and very easy to get money in and out.

mythtv and 720p HD screen

This morning a nice Sharp 32" Aquos 720p screen was found near the fireplace. What a surprise. I hooked it up with analog VGA, since I don't have a DVI-HDMI cable here. The TV doesn't come up in wide screen format automatically (somewhat to my surprise).

Things I did to make mythtv work with this setup:

• enable "de-interlace video" in mythfrontend setup (otherwise videos recorded from broadcast TV are unwatchable due to interlacing artifacts).
  
• in xorg.conf turn off the special settings I added for analog TV out (don't need that anymore)
  
• in xorg.conf add the 720p metamodes settings as described in the mythtv wiki
  

Well, the latter seems to have no effect, I guess my Nvidia driver is too old. I set the modes to 1280x720, and still the TV would only use 1024x768. After some headscratching and navigating the TV menus I found an option to adjust the input signal. It offered me to force the input to 1360x768. Done. Looks pretty darn good now.

Update:
After reading the manual (who reads manuals anyways?) I found out that apparently, the analog signal for 1360x768 and 1024x768 can't be differentiated automatically. Go figure...

Also, in order for mythtv to use the available screen real estate when playing SD videos, one needs to change the aspect ratio using the W key (or set it permanently in the player settings). I found that 'Fill' gives me the best picture with the least amount of distortion. Of course this will chop off some at the top and bottom of the picture, and heads/faces are slightly cropped. Particularly visible with shows like '24' which include lots of head shots.

Frohe Weihnachten und ein gutes Neues Jahr!

mdadm: /dev/hdb1 is too small: 0K

I finally added a second disk to grumpy so that I can complete the raid1 setup for my mythtv media archive.

I partitioned the disk to match exactly the first disk. On the first pass, the big media partition ended up a few blocks short, even though the disks have exactly the same number of blocks. I specified everything in cylinders, so that should have come up with exactly the same result. When I wiped the partition table and tried again, I adjusted the partition types only after creating all the partitions and verifying that they all line up. Then I changed the partition types for the raid partitions to fd and it all was correct. I have screwed up something the first time around, or changing the partition type to fd does something to the amount of available blocks on the disk. Anyways...

Next, I added the new media partition to the existing half of the array and let it rip.


mdadm --add /dev/md0 /dev/sdb6


Took three hours and completed just fine.

Next I want to make the root partition a raid1, too. The process should be rather simple:

• create one half of the mirror on the new disk
  
• create file system
  
• cpio root partition data over to new root partition
  
• reboot, manually set root to new partition
  
• change partition id on old root partition
  
• set up that partition as second half of root md
  

I ran into problems with the first step already. First, I interpreted the parameters to the --create option of mdadm wrong, and got an error message that there are not enough devices specified, even though I listed "/dev/hdb1" and "missing". The trick is --auto=yes still needs a md device name pattern (you need --auto to create the md device node in udev), like so:

grumpy:~# mdadm --create --auto=yes /dev/md1 -l 1 --raid-devices 2 -v /dev/hdb1 missing
mdadm: /dev/hdb1 is too small: 0K
mdadm: create aborted

Now, what is that?

I'm following the man page, it matches various examples what people do I found on the Internet. But no dice. Finally, this blog set me on the right track. I wrote the partition table, but the kernel didn't properly update it in memory, so I'm in this strange halfway state. It works for using hdb6 as mirror, but not for creating a new mirror on hdb1. fdisk confirms the problem:

grumpy:~# fdisk /dev/hdb

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 60801.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/hdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 1 851 6835626 fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/hdb2 852 60801 481548375 5 Extended
/dev/hdb5 852 1032 1453851 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hdb6 1033 60801 480094461 fd Linux raid autodetect

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.

WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or resource busy.
The kernel still uses the old table.
The new table will be used at the next reboot.
Syncing disks.

Alright. Reboot coming up right when the kids are done watching "Der rosarote Panther".

After the reboot I get:

grumpy:~# mdadm --create --auto=yes /dev/md1 -l 1 --raid-devices 2 -v /dev/hdb1 missing
mdadm: size set to 6835520K
mdadm: array /dev/md1 started.
grumpy:~# cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1]
md1 : active raid1 hdb1[0]
6835520 blocks [2/1] [U_]

md0 : active raid1 hda6[0] hdb6[1]
480094336 blocks [2/2] [UU]

unused devices:

Sweet! Works like a charm.

Furniture Frustrations

I'm visiting my parents in Germany at the moment and stopped by one of the larger local furniture retailers. We are looking for a replacement dining table and chairs, as well as a couch table for the living room and have much trouble finding anything in California.

US furniture is either poorly made, ridiculously expensive, or doesn't have even hints of modern design. Many times all three apply.

As I was walking through Moebel Hofmeister I grew more and more frustrated. Where in most US furniture stores I have a choice of 3 or 4 couch tables, they had dozens to choose from in all kinds of styles and price ranges.
Where in the US I have a choice of 10 - 15 dining tables (on a good day), they had a whole floor full of dining arrangements, tables and chairs.

I left the store after an hours or so utterly frustrated. Anyone know any halfway decent furniture stores in the SF Bay Area or at least California?

Layout Stats for Emsingen & Talheim - not so useful

I might have mentioned this elsewhere before, I really like Joe Fugate's Siskiyou Railfan Web site. He gave a talk a while ago about layout design analysis.

I wonder how this works for Emsingen & Talheim...

Room Size:
I'm working with 2.20 x 2.40 m, which is 7.2 x 7.8 ft = 56 square feet

Layout Area:
I have roughly 1.05 x 1.10 m of space in the lower left corner (12 sq ft), so the layout covers 44 sq ft.

In other words, the layout will fill 78% of the available space, which is quite a bit. However, since I'm planing an access hatch in the area of the lake, I think I should be fine.

Number of Turnouts:
I have 24 regular turnouts, 3 three-way switches, and 2 double-slips, that makes a total of 31 turnout equivalents.

Track Length:
~82 ft (24m) of visible track, ~75 ft (22m) of hidden track. It's that much hidden track mostly because of the long ramp to hidden staging and hidden staging itself. A total track length of 157 ft roughly equates enough space for 314 HO box cars (2 cars/foot).

Mainline Track:
22 cars in staging yard, 112 cars in main level tunnel and visible track. Total: 134 cars

Passing track:
4 cars in Talheim, 5 cars + 16 cars in Emsingen. Total: 25 cars

Storage Track:
3 cars in Talheim, 9 cars in Emsingen. Total: 12 cars

Service Track:
14 cars in Emsingen. Total: 14 cars

Staging Track:
120 cars to/from staging yard, including loop + staging tracks. Total: 120 cars

Connecting Track:
314 - 134 - 25 - 12 - 14 - 120 = 9

Passing Sidings: 3

Passing Train Length: 16/8/4 (longest/average/shortest)

Staging Tracks: 3

Staging Train Length: 24/21/16 (longest/average/shortest)

All those numbers now may yield some interesting stats:

Maximum Number of Cars: 112 = (storage + passing/2 + staging) * 0.8

Using the regular formula I get 112 cars on this layout. That's clearly too much, and comes from the fact that I counted the hidden main line track into staging as staging track. A more accurate number on my layout would be to only count the loop and the actual staging tracks, and don't include the ramp:
((24 + 24 + 16 + 8) + 12 + 12 ) * 0.8 = 76 cars

Number of Cars Moved in an operating cycle: 71 (staging * 2 + passing + connecting) * 0.4

Trains: 9

What can I learn from this? Nothing really. This was an interesting exercise, but I think that due to the nature of this layout, the formulas don't fit well, and the final outcome is not nearly as useful as I thought it might be when I started this.

A Timesaver

I've been reading for a while about micro- and mini-layouts in Carl Carendt's Micro Layout Scrapbook. Micro-layouts are not larger than 4 square feet. It's amazing what some people manage to squeeze in this little space.

A theme that comes up fairly regularly is how to have operational fun with such small layouts. Obviously, there is not nearly enough space to let trains run in a circle (unless you choose to build a "pizza style" layout). Furthermore, a layout that largely consists of a circle is really boring and one quickly looses interest. A solution is the world of railroad puzzles, often reproducing switching/shunting problems. The two classic examples are Inglenook sidings and the Timesaver. In both cases the trick is to solve a switching puzzle with very limited space.

I used my old "Bauspielbahn" to build this version of the Timesaver.



The track is HO Fleischmann Modellgleis. All switches are operated manually. Due to the size of the Bauspielbahn trains, the effect is as if the track is actually narrow gauge.



This is obviously a work in progress and so far I spent only a few hours on building this. Tatjana is having a lot of fun with operating the locomotive and shunting cars, while Pascal is not quite convinced.

---

Ich lese seit einiger Zeit in Carl Carendts Micro Layout Scrapbook ueber Mikro- und Minianlagen. Mikroanlagen haben eine Flaeche von nur 4 Fuss im Quadrat. Es ist erstaunlich was manche Leute in so wenig Platz quetschen.

Ein Thema dass immer wieder aufkommt, ist wie man auf so kleinen Raum richtig Betrieb haben kann. Offensichtlich ist das zu wenig Platz um Zuege im Kreis fahren zu lassen (ausser man waehlt eine Anlage im "Pizzastil"). Darueberhinaus, ist es auf Dauer sehr langweilig einem Zug zuzuschauen, der nur im Kreis faehrt. Eine Loesung fuer dieses Problem sind Eisenbahnpuzzles, bei denen oft Rangierprobleme geloest werden muessen. Klassische Beispiele sind Inglenook sidings und der Timesaver. In beiden Beispielen liegt der Spass darin, eine Rangieraufgabe in sehr beschraenktem Platz zu loesen.

Ich habe meine alte Bauspielbahn genommen um diese Version des Timesaver zu bauen.
Gleismaterial ist HO Fleischmann Modellgleis. Alle Weichen werden von Hand gestellt. Durch die Groesse der Bauspielbahnzuege, wirkt das Gleis wie Schmalspur.

Offensichtlich, bin ich mit dieser Anlage noch nicht fertig. Bisher habe ich nur ein paar Stunden daran gearbeitet (und gespielt). Tatjana hat einen Riesenspass mit der Lokomitve zu fahren und Wagen zu rangieren, Pascal ist noch nicht so ganz ueberzeugt.

Installing a dryer circuit

I spent parts of the last couple weekends installing a new 120/240 dryer circuit in my garage. When we bought the house there was only a very old gas dryer. Here are my notes and lessons learned.

Dryers need a 30amp circuit, which translates to an AWG #10 wire. The national electric code requires 4-wire installations for new circuits. The proper socket is 14-30. I used Schedule 40 PVC piping to run the circuit from the corner of the garage to the back of the panel. I used separate THHN wires (black and red for phase, white for neutral, green for ground) inside the pipe, and a 4-wire Romex cable from the junction box through the wall to the panel.

Pulling the wires through the piping is tricky and requires two people. In order to make it through and around the bends, remove an inch or two from the wire insulation and hook a cable through the hole at the end of the fishing tape, all nicely tied up with plenty of electrical tape. One person pulls the fishing tape, one person feeds the cables at the other end of the pipe. For Schedule 40 PVC the NEC requires at most 4 bends between pull locations.

It's a very good idea to get an electrician for the actual hookup in the panel, and installation of the breaker. Well worth the money.

Taco Town!

I just can't stop laughing every time I watch this...

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.

The day the routers died ...

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

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.

Model railroads as a hobby?

I usually get odd looks when I say I'm planning to build a train room. Here's a typical conversation:

- "uh, a train room?"
me: yes, a train room. you know, model trains and such
- "Ah! I see for the kids!"
me: no. for me

From there it usually degenerates into frowns, odd looks, or this sad expression on faces that tell you people think whether I'm right in my mind. I don't mind.

I admit I've been bit by the train bug as a kid, a long, long time ago. I like the sheer massive power of a freight train passing through a station at full speed, as I'm waiting for my train to arrive. The shaking of the ground. The air pressure changes as the train passes through. The noise. The rumbling and clickering of wheels on track joints.

Having a father who built a train layout as I was really small helped, too. I think, the first layout was on our dining room table for a few weeks around Christmas. Or maybe my father moved the table, so we can still eat, while the train is set up. I don't remember much from what the layout looked like, all I know is it was magic.

Not long after that my father started work on a real layout. The arrangement was similar to the plan in this previous post, but instead of a double track mainline is was single track only. I don't remember much of this layout anymore, with the exception of the water manor in one of the corners, but I know he added that only later.

He built the bigger layout when I was maybe 12 years old. I did a lot of cabling and added details like a railroad crossing with functional warning lights, triggered by photo sensors.

So, there are lots of memories, but also much more.

Building a model railroad involves a lot wood working. Most notably the benchwork and supports for tracks and landscaping features. Then there is the electrical work. Making sure everything runs flawlessy.
All of this already requires a lot coordination, especially if you space is tight and you have certain ideas how the railroad should operate.

But wait there is more. In order to keep operating the railroad interesting the tracks on the layout need to make sense, without overloading the layout. There needs to be a purpose to each track. Most of the knowledge for this comes from railroad history and how services were run, factories received and generated freight, or operations in stations worked.

But wait there is more. It needs to be pretty to look at. Landscaping, grade separation, villages, cities, industrial areas, all need to be modeled. Bridges, retaining walls. Signals in stations. One can go into any level of detailing. People in yards, on station platforms, luggage carts, freight facilities, detailing of factories, warehouses, station interiors, ...

But wait there is more. Many locomotive or car models as they come from the manufacturer look fairly bland and freshly washed. Trains are often dirty. There is plenty opportunity to weather or "super" model.

But wait there is more. You can go for really realistic landscaping, proper looking trees, bushes, or grass. How does grass grow along a train track? What about the color of ballast? Once you start looking into this, it more and more becomes an art form, similar to painting. Color becomes important, as well as lighting, to make a model look realistic.

But wait there is more. I mentioned electrical before. You can build all kinds of automation and effects into a layout. Block control to automatically control trains. Monitoring of whether a track is in use or not. Speed modules to properly slow down a train when it looses power (i.e. is supposed to stop in front of a signal), or slowly gain speed. Digital systems often do that, but you can do that with analog, too.

But wait there is more. Since you built a railroad for operation, you should also run it. Invite friends over and have an "operating session". You can go as detailed as putting together an actual schedule with waybills, train consists, etc. and then run your model like a real railroad. Larger layouts can require 5 people to operate, plus a dispatcher who organizes the sequence of trains. A small one like the one I'm planning can probably keep two people busy for a couple hours.

So, in the end what you really are doing here is a create a world, and control everything that is going on in that world. It needs to make sense. It needs to look good, and function well. That's the challenge. Running the trains is the icing on the cake.


Ich werde oft schief angeschaut, wenn ich sage, dass ich ein Zimmer fuer die Eisenbahn baue. Hier ist eine typische Unterhaltung:

- "Ein Eisenbahnzimmer?"
ich: Ja, Modelleisenbahn und so
- "Ach so, fuer die Kinder..."
ich: Nein, fuer mich.

Ich sehe dann regelmaessig Schulterzucken, komische Seitenblicke, oder diesen traurigen Gesichtsausdruck, wenn Leute meinen ich waere nicht mehr ganz dicht im Kopf. Ist ok, stoert micht nicht.

Ich gebe zu, ich entdeckte meine Liebe zu Eisenbahnen als Kind, vor langer, langer Zeit. Ich mag die rohe Energie eines Gueterzugs, der mit voller Geschwindigkeit durch den Bahnhof faehrt, waehrend ich auf meinen Zug warte. Wie die Erde wackelt. Wie der Luftdruck sich veraendert. Der Krach. Das Rumpeln und Klackern der Raeder an den Schienenstoessen.

Es hilft, dass mein Vater eine Anlage aufgebaut hat als ich klein war. Ich glaube, die erste Anlage war auf unserem Esszimmertisch fuer ein paar Wochen um Weihnachten. Oder vielleicht hat er den Tisch auch verschoben, so dass wir trotz Zuegen noch essen konnten. Ich kann nicht mehr erinnern wie die Anlage aussah. Es war wir Magie.

Bald darauf begann mein Vater eine richtige Anlage zu bauen. Der Gleisplan war aehnlich zu dem in einem frueheren Posting, aber anstatt der zweigleisigen Hauptstrecke war der aeussere Kreis nur eingleisig. Ich kann mich nicht an viel erinnern, mit Ausnahme des Wasserschlosses, aber ich weiss, er fuegte das erst spaeter hinzu.

Er baute die groessere Anlage als ich vielleicht 12 Jahre alt war. Ich verlegte viele Kabel und baute viele Details wie zum Beispiel einen Bahnuebergang mit funktionierenden Warnlichtern die von Lichtschranken ausloest wurden.

Es gibt also viele Erinnerungen, aber das Hobby bietet noch viel mehr.

Flashback

When I was a child my father built a quite elaborate Maerklin layout. I do remember the many, many hours running cables under layout (yes, I must have gotten the bug from there somewhere). Here it is:



Deutschland Layout (PDF)

It's a two layer layout mounted on a plywood board (actually 3, it can be taken apart). The double-track main line starts at the station, wraps around the layout, through a tunnel, to the upper level, where it runs above itself, splits on the right hand side of the layout to go around a small mountain, meets again, and comes back down into the station. Xtrkcad calculates the longer grade is 1:30, and the shorter grade is 1:48, assuming a layer separation of 12cm.

There is a smaller loop on the lower layer, as well as freight and car storage in the middle. A bridge runs over the freight area forming a reversing loop opposite to the one in the freight area. I created the layout plan from memory, so it might slightly be off, but most of the track arrangements and station track lengths should be correct.

Happy Birthday!

The nice thing about this layout is that you can have a lot going on at the same time. There are 4 independent circuits (3 loops, plus switching), and another 4 circuits in the same arrangement via catenary. The layout is all analog operation and easily supports independent operation of 5 trains. One on the inner loop, two in each direction on the main line, plus switching operations. It's great to just sit back and watch trains. Also, operationally, the two reversing loops allow fluent change of direction of whole trains. Station tracks are secured with working signalling, so you can stop traffic on the main line to get a train from the inner loop to the outer track of the main line.

Given that there is so much track on this layout, there is not much space left for landscaping or prototypical operation. I did add a small engine terminal (near the storage tracks), as well as a passing track on the main line (not included in the plan linked above).

It was a lot of fun to create this track plan. Not only because it brought up fond memories of my childhood, but also to put into perspective what I'm going to be doing on my layout. I now know that a grade of 1:48 will be very steep, and even 1:30 presents quite some work to the locomotives. On a 1:48 grade trains will speed up substantially when going downhill, especially when giving them enough juice to make it up the long grade without problems (remember this is all analog operation). I remember how a train shoots into the station as it comes off the downhill grade, and will most likely derail if you try to send it onto other station tracks without slowing it down.

I know also have a better idea about track lengths for the stations in my layout, and what it will look like with the train lengths I have mind. This is especially helpful as I won't have any of the rolling stock or track here in the US for a while.

Als ich ein Kind war, baute mein Vater eine recht grosse Modellbahnanlange. Ich erinnere mich noch an die vielen, vielen Stunden, die ich unter der Anlage mit Kabelziehen verbracht habe.

Die Anlage hat zwei Ebenen und ist auf einer Sperrholzplatte aufgebaut (eigentlich 3 Platten, sie ist auseinandernehmbar). Die Hauptstrecke beginnt a Bahnhof, fuehrt entlang der Anlagenkante durch einen Tunnel zur oberen Ebene, wo sie oberhalb des Bahnhofs liegt, teilt sich zur Umfahrung des Bergs, und kommt wieder zum Bahnhof zurueck. Xtrkcad berechnet fuer die lange Rampe eine Steigung von 1:30, und die kurze Rampe 1:48, unter der Annahme eines Hoehenunterschieds von 12cm.

Auf der unteren Ebene ist ein kleinerer Kreis, sowie Fracht und Abstellgleise in der Mitte. Eine Bruecke fuehrt ueber die Frachtanlagen und bildet die Gegenschleife zu der Schleife im Bahnhof unten. Ich habe den Gleisplan aus dem Gedaechtnis konstruiert. Die Anordung der Gleise und Gleislaengen sollte korrekt sein, kleinere Abweichungen zum Original sind moeglich.

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag.

Das Gute an dieser Anlage ist dass hier richtig was los ist. Sie hat 4 unabhaengige Stromkreise (3 Kreise, und Rangierbetrieb), und 4 weitere Stromkreise ueber Oberleitung. Die Anlage ist komplett analog gesteuert und erlaubt problemlos den gleichzeitigen Betrieb mit 5 Zuegen. Einer auf dem inneren Kreis, je zwei in jede Richtung auf der Hauptstrecke, zusatzlich noch Rangierfahrten. Man kann sich zuruecklehnen und den Zuegen zuschauen. Betrieblich machen es die zwei Kehrschleifen leicht ganze Zuege ohne Stop umzudrehen. Alle Bahnhofsgleise und Kreuzungen sind mit Signalen gesichert. Um einen Zug vom inneren Kreis auf die Hauptstrecke zu schicken, braucht man einfach nur den Verkehr auf der Hauptstrecke zu stoppen.

Dadurch dass so viele Gleise auf der Anlage sind, ist natuerlich nicht mehr viel Platz fuer Landschaft oder vorbildgerechten Betrieb uebrig. Ich habe ein kleines Betriebswerk (in der Naehe vom Gueterbahnhof) gebaut, sowie eine Ueberholgleis auf der Hauptstrecke (im Plan oben nicht eingezeichnet).

Es hat viel Spass gemacht den Gleisplan zu zeichnen. Er weckte nicht nur Erinnerungen aus meiner Kindheit, sondern dient auch als Referenz fuer meine eigene Anlage. Ich weiss jetzt dass eine Steigung mit 1:48 sehr steil sein wird. Selbst 1:30 fordert die Lokomotiven. Mit 1:48 Gefaelle werden Zuege deutlich schneller, vor allem wenn sie genug Strom kriegen um die Steigung problemlos zu bewaeltigen (der Betrieb ist analog!). Ich kann mich gut daran erinnern wie ein Zug nach dem Gefaelle in den Bahnhof schiesst und mit Sicherheit entgleist, wenn er auf eine anderes Bahnhofsgleis fahren soll.

Ich habe jetzt auch ein besseres Gefuehl fuer Gleislaengen, und wie der optische Eindruck auf meiner Anlage sein wird. Das ist besonders hilfreich weil ich fuer einige Zeit weder Fahrmaterial noch Schienen hier in Kalifornien haben werde.

We're selling our town house!

Take a look at our place at 170 Oak Brook Circle, San Jose, CA.

Emsingen & Talheim, take 2

Over the last couple week I made some edits to Emsingen & Talheim.



Downloads: Visible track (PDF) Hidden track (PDF)
--> Deutsche Uebersetzung

Obviously I added station and industry buildings, as well as a prototype for Emsingen village, along with streets. I'm not quite sure how to model the area between Emsingen village and Talheim station. Emsingen village will be mounted on a movable platform with vertical drawer rails, so that I can move it up if I need to access the far corner of the layout.

The basic layout stayed the same compared to take 1, but there are various edits in details. Talheim along the west edge of the layout is on the main level, while Emsingen station on the north half of the layout is on the upper level. Hidden staging runs under Talheim on the lower level.

The Emsingen freight area got a new track arrangement that allows for more interesting operation of spotting cars, as well as longer track and more realistic road alignment. Also, the station passing tracks became longer by using a curved switch on the West side of the station. Drawback of that arrangement is that I can no longer add an uncoupler near the west end of the station.

I made use of some extra space by adding a curved switch in the hidden trackage on the main level and extended the ramp to hidden staging all the way to the West side of the layout. That way I can keep the grade below 3% and even make the staging tracks longer since I can now loop down all the way to the south end of the layout before. Note how the ramp to staging is almost directly under the ramp from Emsingen station East to Talheim station South. This allows me to share supports, save space, but also makes construction harder since those tracks need to align fairly closely and I won't be able to build Emsingen station until the lower and the main levels are completed.

Operations-wise there will be one powerpack for the main line track, as well as one power pack each for the stations and hidden staging. That's 4 power packs. The main line track in each station can be switched between the station and the main line power packs to allow for proper switching operation within each station.

Im planning to install catenary everywhere with exception of the industry tracks (another 4 power packs). While we still have plenty of the old Maerklin catenary wire that needs to be bent around the curves, I'm most likely going to use the more realistic newer Maerklin catenary (or maybe even Sommerfeld, if I'm crazy enough) in visible areas of the layout, while the old catenary will be used in the tunnel sections and staging to make as much use of existing material as possible. The tunnel tracks will have catenary installed from the beginning.

Oh, and yes, any of the above is at least 6-9 months out, since the room I'm going to put this all in doesn't even exist yet...

Deutsche Uebersetzung:

In den letzten paar Wochen habe ich den Anlagenplan noch etwas verfeinert.

Offensichtlich habe ich die Bahnhoefe und Industrieanlagen hinzugefuegt, sowie einen ersten Entwurf des Dorfes Emsingen mit groben Strassenverlauf. Ich bin mir nicht so ganz sicher wie ich den Bereich zwischen Emsingen und dem Bahnhof Talheim modellieren werde. Emsingen Dorf wird auf einer Platte gebaut sein, die auf Teleskopstangen (Schubladenschienen!) nach oben fahren kann, so dass ich wenn noetig in die hintere Ecke der Anlage reichen kann.

Der Gleisplan ist im Groben gleich geblieben (siehe Versuch 1), diverse Details haben sich geaendert. Talheim ist an der Westkante der Anlage auf der mittleren Ebene, waehrend Emsingen die noerdliche Haelfte der Anlage einnimmt. Der Schattenbahnhof ist auf der unteren Ebene unter Talheim angeordnet.

Die Gueterverladung in Emsingen bekam ein neues Gleislayout mit dem man interessanter rangieren kann, sowie mehr Gleislaenge hat und einen realistischeren Strassenverlauf erlaubt. Durch Einbau einer Bogenweiche auf der Westseite des Bahnhofs wurde das Ueberholgleis laenger. Nachteil dieser Anordnung ist dass ich nun keinen Entkuppler mehr dort unterbringen kann.

Auf der mittleren Ebene habe ich verfuegbaren Platz verweden und unter Verwendung einer Bogenweiche im Tunnel die Rampe zum Schattenbahnhof deutlich verlaengert. Dadurch ist die Steiungen unter 3% und die Gleise im Schattenbahnhof wurden auch laenger weil ich nun die Kurve bis ans Suedende der Anlage ausholen kann. Die Rampe von Emsingen West nach Talheim Sued ist fast genau ueber der Rampe zum Schattenbahnhof. Dadurch spare ich Platz, kann Traeger teilen, und mach mir den Bau schwerer weil die Gleise richtig zum Liegen kommen muessen, ich aber den Bahnhof in Emsingen erst nach Bau der unteren und mittleren Ebenen einbauen kann.

Betrieblich werde ich einen Trafo fuer die durchgehende Strecke verwenden, sowie jewils einen Trafo fuer jeden Bahnhof und den Schattebahnhof. 4 Trafos. Das Durchgangsgleis in den Bahnhoefen kann fuer Rangierfahrten von Streckentrafo auf Bahnhofstrafo umgeschaltet werden.

Ich habe vor ueberall Oberleitung zu installieren, mit Ausnahme der Industriegleise (nochmal 4 Trafos). Obwohl wir einiges an alter Maerklinoberleitung haben, die ueber Kurven gebogen werden mus, werde ich fuer die sichtbaren Bereiche der Anlage wohl eher die realistischer neue Maerklinoberleitung verwenden (oder Sommerfeld, wenn ich dafuer verrueckt genug bin), und die alte Oberleitung nur im Tunnel und Schattenbahnhof um soviel existierendes Material wie moeglich weiter zu verwenden. Tunnelgleise werden von Anfang an Oberleitung montiert haben.

Ach ja, all dies wird fruehstens in 6-9 Monaten was werden, da das Zimmer wo das alles reimkommt noch gar nicht existiert...

A different way on beautifying your home...

Forget family photos, or classic paintings over your fireplace. We were discussing for a while how to add a bit more umph to the family room, especially how liven up the area around the fireplace. Christoph had this idea, and I think it worked out very nicely. Ths kids had plenty of fun making it, too.