Thursday, May 22, 2008

Project for the kids (really!)

IMG_2219
Percy, pulling a tar wagon and S.C. Ruffy (all Bachmann gear).

IMG_2218
Thomas, pulling four trucks, two of which happen to be troublesome (all Bachmann gear).

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Darter

IMG_2162

Photograph of a remarkably tame Darter at Ascot Waters in Perth, Western Australia. The feather pattern is incredible.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Dingo

I saw my first Dingo yesterday - it was feeding on a kangaroo carcass on the side of the road between Tom Price and Paraburdoo.  I didn't get any photographs, we were keen to make sure we didn't miss the plane home.

I also saw a fair few cows near the junction of the Rail Access Road and the road to the Brockman mine site (where I went for work).  A lot of the mines in the Pilbara are on/near functional cattle stations.  There has been plenty of rain recently so the cows looked in very good condition.

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Review: Belkin Flip

I just purchased a Belkin Flip (a two computer KVM setup). It works as advertised and currently shares my monitor, keyboard and mouse between my Mac Mini and my Power Mac G4 500MHz DP. I am impressed with the quality of most of the cables. My only gripe is the paddle that allows you to switch between inputs is a little flimsy (and the cable is very thin). For the price, however, it is excellent value.

Monday, May 05, 2008

Train Set

I spent some of the weekend wiring up a switch for the train set. I now have two separate sections of track (joined so trains can travel between them but not joined electrically). I can control the sections from separate power supplies (allowing two trains to run at the same time) or control the whole board from the one supply. This is achieved using a switch and some fairly fancy (for me anyway) wiring.

On the list of things to do are:
  • House the wiring and switch properly;
  • Child-proof the two power supplies (so they don't get pulled off);
  • Fix a few sections of the track that seem to cause intermittent derailment;
  • Take some photos (and videos) of the train set in action;
  • Wire up the two "experimental" electrically controlled points (these will allow access to two sidings I have added);
  • Fix some things that have been broken;
  • Design and construct the tunnel, station and quarry.