Riding The Rails . . .
I was on the phone awhile this morning, first with the Moen faucet people to order a new 1222 cartridge. Our Moen single handle shower faucet has started leaking, i.e. it doesn’t turn completely off. This is the 2nd time I’ve had to replace the cartridge to fix this problem. Luckily we have an on-off switch on the shower head so we can still turn it off there.
Then I put in a call Fleetwood-American Coach to get copies of the electrical schematics for the dashboard area. Our taillights and turn signals don’t work, and with both not working it’s almost certainly something with the main power feed to the systems. I need to get this fixed before I put the rig in the shop for the oil leak.
Later, after a nice morning, Jan and I headed out about 1pm, and on the way to drop off some trash at the dumpster, we found we had visitor to our site.
Our first stop was the Snooze up in Webster for breakfast, with each of us getting our usual, Jan’s Bravocado Toast,
and my 3 Egg Classic.
Our favorite meal is breakfast, and we have it a lot when we’re eating. In fact, we also had breakfast a couple of days ago at our local Denny’s, with Jan getting an Mushroom Omelet with a side of Avocado,
while I got the All American Slam with Fruit.
Then it was on to Sam’s Club, WalMart, and the Post Office before finally getting home about 3:30pm
Nice day.
And in case you think you might have the WuFlu, you can use this chart to check your symptoms.
Another in our Where We Were 5 Years Ago Today series.
June 30, 2015
Sedona and Wyoming . . .
About 1:30 Jan and I headed for a train day in Cornville, AZ. We were going to visit the Wyoming Division Historical Society HO Model Railroad in the small town of Cornville.
Located in a fairly non-descript warehouse type building, there’s no sign of what’s inside.
The only giveaway is the mailbox.
Located in a 50’ x 75’ building built just for this purpose, it is geo-thermal heated and cooled via ten 180’ deep wells under the building. Right next door is a 30’ x 36’ shop where all the woodworking and metal working is done, keeping all the dust and fumes away from the trains.
We were warmly greeted by Verryl Fosnight, the owner and head engineer of the Wyoming Division Railroad, who spent over an hour showing us around and explaining the layout.
The layout depicts the 485 mile Union Pacific route between Cheyenne, WY and Ogden, UT in the year 1957, and is built on 3 different levels, with the top two levels for operating and bottom hidden level for staging the trains and simulating other destinations, like Chicago, California, and Oregon. Using 1957 as the year of operating allows them to authentically run both steam and diesel locomotives on the railroad.
As you can see from the above diagram, the layout folds back and forth on itself several times, allowing the depiction of the many towns and industries along the route. It also isolates the operators from each other’s view, allowing for more prototypical operation.
And overhead catwalk lets you look down on the layout, giving a better view of the overall operation.
This is one of two helices on the layout. A helix is basically a spiral staircase for trains, enabling them to move up or down between the 3 levels.
And this is one of 3 turntables used to move engines into the roundhouse for either maintenance or storage. In addition, it can also be used to turn an engine completely around.
These control boards allow the operators to remotely control the many switches in the train yard.
The towns and industries on the layout mirror the actual ones found along the real route.
As of 4/15 the benchwork, track, and the DCC control system are all up and working, and they have regular operating sessions once a month. About 1/2 half the buildings are done, and then the actual scenery comes next.
Verryl just recently got his website up, and much more info can be found here:
Wyoming Division Historical Society HO Model Railroad
Sheldon would be so jealous.
Finally leaving the Wyoming Division, we drove toward Sedona on AZ179, a route we’ve never taken before, and in our opinion, much more scenic than the usual route coming in from Cottonwood on 89A.
Our main reason going to Sedona was to have dinner at the Szechuan Restaurant. We had been jonsing for Chinese since we left Prescott and our favorite Beijing Garden, so we thought we’d give this place a try.
The Yelp review gave this place only 3 1/2 stars, but looking at the reviews, it showed a lot of 4 and 5 star reviews, and some 1 and 2 star reviews, complaining about how they thought the martini’s were too expensive, or they didn’t like the sushi.
Our review would give it 5 stars. Everything was delicious.
We both got the Dinner Special, which gave us Hot and Sour Soup as well as an appetizer plate.
Jan got the Sesame Chicken, with white rice,
and I got the Orange Sauce Chicken with fried rice.
Note all the peppers on mine. I finally found a place that doesn’t wimp out when I tell them I want it extra, extra, extra, extra spicy. Mine also had pieces of grilled orange peel in it. Probably the best Orange Chicken I’ve ever had.
And because we had soup and appetizers, and the entrée portion was so large, we both had plenty to take home.
It would be nice to go back, but I don’t know if we’ll have time before we leave here next Monday.
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Thought for the Day:
It’s so much easier to suggest solutions when you don’t know too much about the problem. — Malcolm Forbes
