February 15, 2026
Oh, good grief. I’d swear I did a January post but perhaps got mixed up after a month in Hawaii.
I’ve had some health issues that have slowed progress but am almost ready for my first op session. Before vacation, A lot of track testing and cleaning were done. Some switches were adjusted at the points or frog as needed as different steam locos were tested. I took some time to get everything from a 0-6-0 to a 2-10-2 to be happy forward and reverse in both directions.
I found that my 79-year-old brain didn’t seem to catch on to programming as fast as it did almost 20 years ago. Now using the latest version and have enough programming done to start operations. New data was entered or modified for each track location. Most of the locations existed on the previous layout, just needed to remove 9 locations.
John Garfield came over and we unpacked over 200 cars and placed them on the layout except in staging. The staging yard still needs work on the script that controls switch directions. John read car location as I wrote them down on paper. Later I entered information into the computer. It was made easier in that these are the same cars from the previous layout. There were a few inconsistences that meant going back out to the layout to recheck info. I discovered that there are still a large number of cars not on the layout and hiding in one of the many boxes that I have. I won’t worry about it until staging yard is operational.
On the last layout manifests were printed out using Manifest Creator. It was modified to allow me to print on 1/2 sheets but was a pain to cut standard paper in half prior to printing and required Excel in an intermediate step. Decided to try Model Railroad Switch List and Manifest Formatter this time and just about have it doing what I need. It prints out two columns on a full sheet that can be folded over. I plan on cutting the printed ones in half. My clipboards are 1/2 size.
Locos going on the layout were lubricated having not be run for 8 years. (WOW! Took that long to tear down previous layout, move, and construct a new one. Sure not as far along as I hoped but had not planned on starting over again.) I decided I did not have time to paint and install decoders myself so sent 14 locos to Dennis Bartholow (dennis@elstrainservice.com). This is the same company that built the components for my swing gate. A lot of time was spent researching Southern Pacific tenders for the correct information. I made decals for the last set of 8 locos I sent him by printing the white on a laser with a Ghost White cartridge. I designed the font myself by copying SP lettering diagrams in one of Bruce Petty’s books. Lettering done in Microsoft Word and kerned as necessary.
