April 24
Well, it's been a strange month here on the B&CC - I've made a fair amount of progress, but not on the things I thought I would. When I haven't been helping other folks around here get ready for a couple of days of operation sessions in the first week of May, I've been working on needed improvements for the open house I'll be having the first Friday of May. The major change is that I replaced all of the original lighting with track spots, so the lighting on the road is MUCH better. However, I'm realizing that I now need to take the time to put up valences as well as move the fluorescent bar lights to other parts of the basement, so I'll probably do that over the next two weeks.
The place where the DCC command center will live is now framed in with 2x4s and plywood and I started working on the drop panel for the circuit breakers. Other wiring work has been put on hold while I argue with this and probably will continue on hold until I have the valences in. However, my goal is to have at least one zone wired and working by mid June - May is going to be fun.
The trestle over the NY Mill is finished and I got it judged at our division NMRA show last week. It scored well enough for a Merit Award (I just need to send the paperwork in) and is now on the layout with roadbed and track. I did make it out and bought a new camera - an Olympus SP-800UZ with up to 10x optical zoom, so photographs no longer need cropping (much simpler for me).
This week looks like maybe finishing putting the tracks and ties into place (with the exception of the Central City trestle which still needs to be finished), finishing and installing the circuit breaker drop panel, and working on putting up valences.
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