6 Years of Bloggety Blah Blah Blog

 "6 years! The prototype San Diego Electric Railway was built in less time for crying out loud! Yes sir! The prototype was built in less time!"

 Dan D. Sparks' annual rant.

 Dan D. Sparks

President. Yes sir! President!

And thus brings to a close a dismal "fiscal" year (Sept. 2011 to Sept. 2012) of modeling for this blog. But today marks the beginning of a very bright year ahead. So lets see where we stand so we can accurately gauge how far we go in this coming year. And now, without further ado:

The Dan D. Sparks Plywood Development and Transportation Co.

Annual State of the Company, Board of Directors Meeting 

22nd September 2012

8:00 AM San Dollar, California.

 Board Members:

 Present:

President:                         A very unhappy Dan D. Sparks

Chairman:                        A very nervous Lettuceleaf M. Malone

Traffic Manager:              A smug Robin DeRail
Finance Manager:            A jubilant Count DeMonet

Director of Development: A crafty Arnie Clever
General Manager:            David Lyman

Quorum present?              More or less.

Others Present:

Man of Mystery:                Fred Gurzeler

Company Band leader:     Bill Bolton & Orchestra

Absent:                              No Show Joe

 Proceedings:
· Meeting called to order at 8:09 a.m. by Chair, Lettuceleaf M. Malone
· Last year's meeting minutes were read and regarded with nostalgia.

Lettuceleaf M. Malone

Chairman

Opening Message from the Chairman:

Life is a balance between Family, Occupation, and Hobby. Most of the time, these are out of balance. One usually requires presidence over the others. This past year was no exception. "Occupation" was the focus this past year. Without it, the other two suffer. And with it, the other two can benefit greatly.

"Hobby" is about to benefit greatly from this years employment. So hang on... because here we go!

Robin DeRail

Traffic Manager

 · Traffic Managers Report Provided by Chair, Robin DeRail:

 ~ Last year we were enjoying a nice upswing in viewership. This year, despite half the blog entries being posted (19 posts, down from a record 28 posts last year), we managed to hang on, with a some gain, to that viewership.

~ This blog hosted 3,064 visitors this last year (Sept. 2011 to Sept. 2012) visiting 5,484 times. That's up from 1,939 visitors visiting 3,379 times the previous year, for a grand total of 16,668 visitors.

~  This blog is now averaging 15 visitors per day viewing for almost a whole 2 minutes (1:52)! That's a gain of 50% from the revised figure of 10 visitors per day viewing for a minute and a half (1:34) last year.

~ The top 3 posts visited this last year were:
     1. My Old San Diego Trolley Layout
     2. Birney #301
     3. Painting Brass Models

Count DeMonet

Minister of Finance

· Finance Committee report provided by Chair, Count DeMonet:

~ The Count happily reported that revenue from this blog (from ads) has more than doubled and is now averaging over $0.04 per day, up from a $0.02 daily average last year. 

~ DeMonet went on to report that the annual earnings for this last fiscal year are estimated at $16.07. That's an increase of over 100% from last years earnings of $7.34! Bringing the grand total to $39.48.

~ The finance chair went on to suggest that product placement may help the bottom line. When pressed further, he offered an example; "The finer photos in this blog were photographed with the affordable Canon EOS Rebel T3 Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm IS II Lens. Should anyone buy that camera by clicking on our link, we receive a referral fee!".

  

This was met with great skepticism by the board.

  Arnie Clever

Director of Development

 

· Board Development Committee's report provided by Chair, Arnie Clever:

~ Mr. Clever reported that though things have cooled off modeling wise, planning has continued in earnest. "Oh the projects that are planned!" he went on. "This company has plans coming out of the wazoo! Why, this company has more plans than could possibly be implemented in a single lifetime! Oh-boy do we have plans!" he explained. "Plans, plans, plans! You want it? I've planed it!".

~ The development chair, on the verge of collapse from the lengthy revelation of all his plans, explained that during these robust times the company has managed to stockpile a sizable amount of modeling materials and may actually see some of these plans through to fruition!  The board blinked at each other in silent amazement.

And on that note, Mr. Sparks offered: "Well then... lets get to it. Yes sir! Lets get to it!

Mr. Bolton stuck up the band with a rousing rendition of "Happy Days Are Here Again".

 

· Meeting adjourned at 11:59 p.m.
· Minutes submitted by Secretary, Mrs. Roundbottom.

Now let's get to it! Yes sir! Let's get to it!

Dandy

Niles Project ~ Illuminatification

Installing interior lighting, LED's this time, and in their prototypically correct locations of all places.

The September 1908 edition of the Electric Traction Weeklys article on the new Niles Cars for San Diego (graciously forwarded to me by Bill Bolton) included an interior shot of these cars. Looking at this photo, I was able to ascertain the locations of the lights in the car (despite the fact that all of the lights weren't shown). Which got me to thinkin' (which could be dangerous) what would it take to light the car prototypically? Would the car look any different/better if it was lit prototypically? Would it be worth the time and effort to light the car prototypically? And why doesn't my spell check like the word "prototypically"? Well, there is only one way to find out. And that is to light the car prototypically (spellcheck be damned!).

This photo was shot in the enclosed section of the California style Niles Cars, probably standing in the doorway of one of the two bulkheads looking towards the second bulkhead. Visible are three lights (or 6 if were counting bulbs). The car is symmetrical so its safe to assume the forth light is just out of frame above.

 

The lights are evenly spaced so, if I continue the spacing into the open end sections of the car, we have a total of 8 interior lights. Seems reasonable enough. As long as the decoder can handle lighting that many lights. Since the lights would be lit more on the dim side, it should.

I've seen traction models with their lights mounted on a strip of circuit board. That seems like a really good idea to me, so that's the route I'm going to take. But because the Niles cars have those bulkheads inside, I'm going to have to split the circuit board into two sections. The bulkheads don't reach all the way into the deck (or clerestory) section, so the circuit boards are able to slip over the top of the bulkheads. But the bulkheads definitely limit the length of the circuit boards.

 

LED's are the way to go. They require less voltage, they don't burn as hot, and last a lot longer, than incandescent bulbs do. But as you can imagine, jamming 8 Christmas LED's into these cars would be ridiculous. So instead, I'm opting for the tiny SMD (Surface Mount Diodes)LEDs (warm white). John McWhirter recommended purchasing the SMD LED's from TrainAidsA. They specialize in electronics for model railroading. I have found them to be very helpful.

 

The circuit board is cut to size. Then holes are drilled for the LED lights and also where the base of the trolley poles pass through the roof. The holes for the lights are filed square to match the size of the LED's. Then the copper clad is notched with a saw to separate the positive and negative sides of each LED. The opposite side the circuit board is notched length wise to act as a bus for the headlights (see photo below).

 

Here are the circuit boards with the LEDs installed. This is actually my second attempt, I had the polarity of the LEDs reversed last time! The round holes are for the trolley pole base to pass through, so these boards have a front end and a back end. The pole holes denote the front end of the circuit board. The white wires are soldered towards the front end, the black wires towards the back end. The back ends of the circuits boards will butt against each other in the center of the car:

 

This test fit revealed the circuit boards fit quite snug between the ceiling and the bulkheads. I don't think any adhesive will be needed to keep them in place.

Next, I have to determine how bright the lights should be. This will determine the size of resistors required. Then we'll have this car illuminating quite nicely. Yes sir! Illuminating quite nicely!

Dandy

Niles Project ~ Cathedral Glass Windows

Simulating the Yellow Stained Glass Windows

Bill Bolton was very kind enough to think of me when he came across the September 1908 issue of Electric Traction Weekly that featured an article on the new Niles cars for San Diego, and sent me a copy. What a timely treasure trove of information that article is with lavish descriptions of the cars inside and out! I knew that the "deck sashes" (clerestory windows) and "upper side sashes" (the arched portion of the center windows) were of stained glass, but I has not a clue to its color. This article reveals them as "Yellow Cathedral Glass". Wonderful! Thanks a million Bill!
After some discussion around the Southern California Traction Club clubhouse, we concluded that colored index tabs would make suitable material. And handy too, we had some extra in the clubs files.

After digging out a yellow tab, I cut it to size and glued it into place with my new glue of choice for this sort of thing: Micro Kristal Klear.

I was going to do the same for the clerestory windows (or "Deck Sashes" as the article describes them as) but it occured to me that Micro Kristal Klear might be perfect for this since the windows are tiny and the material goes in the window rather than behind the window frames like the yellow plastic would.

I "blobbed" on the Micro Kristal Klear over the windows from the inside with a small screwdriver.

The goop filled in the window nicely.

To "stain" the glass yellow, I purchased a bottle of Mr Hobby Clear Yellow Acrylic paint. It comes in a tiny bottle in a variety of colors to tint the taillights and turn signals etc, on auto models.

After the Micro Kristal Klear windows dried, I filled in the window with the clear yellow paint. If the index tabs fade over time, I'll tint them with the clear yellow paint as well.

Oh I wish you could see this in person, the windows glow yellow really nicely. The photograph just doesn't do it justice.
Thanks to good friends around the world, these are turning out to be some very handsome cars. Yes Sir! Very handsome cars!

Dandy

Niles Project ~ Corner Windows ~ Micro Kristal Klear

Well you folks really came through for me, thank you! A lot of ideas were presented, a few of which I'm going to give a try.

To recap, I'm trying to find a suitable solution for creating the "glass" for the rounded corner windows:

Australian traction modeler Bill Bolton comes through once again with the suggestion of trying Micro Kristal Klear. I've been using this stuff for gluing on clear styrene windows because it won't craze the plastic and it dries clear. But it also claims it can be used to make small windows itself. So since my bottle of Micro Kristal Klear is right here, why not give it a try?

Micro Kristal Klear is very similar to white glue, with some characteristics of rubber cement. I took a blob onto a toothpick and stretched it across the window opening. That was easier to do than I anticipated. Then I took a small screwdriver and scraped up the over slop. As you can see in the photo above, the "glass" is within the window frame. Not behind it as clear styrene would. Also, the "glass" the took on the almost 90 degree curve! But unfortunately that wouldn't last. Apparently it shrunk a bit as it dried and kind of straightened out:

And here is the result. Its not exactly "crystal clear" (which is probably why its named "Kristal Klear"), it is a bit cloudy, but not that much more than clear styrene. Also, since it is a liquid, the thickness is not consistent. So there is a bit of a "ripple glass" effect to the window. So Micro Kristal Klear is still a strong contender for use in the final model. But before I make a final decision, I'm going to try some of your other suggestions. Yes sir! Lets try some of those other suggestions!

Thanks Bill!

Dandy

4th Dandiversary ~ 101 Posts!

The Dan D. Sparks Land Development and Transportation Co.

Board of Directors Meeting 22nd September 2010

8:00 AM San Dollar, California.

 Board Members:

 Present:

President: Dan D. Sparks

Chairman: Lettuceleaf M. Malone

Traffic Manager: Robin DeRail
Finance Manager: Pastor Buck

Director of Development: Arnie Clever
General Manager: David Lyman

Quorum present? Probably not.

Others Present:

Various Company Minions

Absent:

Slacker Sam

Proceedings:
· Meeting called to order at 8:01 a.m. by Chair, Lettuceleaf M. Malone
· Last year's meeting minutes were marveled at and approved.

· Traffic Managers Report:
- Last weeks post "Niles Project ~ I Cal, You Cal, We All Cal For Decals" brings this blogs total posts to 100! The board broke out the champagne and proceeded to congratulate themselves.
- An Australian reader of this blog, Bill Bolton, forwarded a rare document to the company containing invaluable information about the San Diego Niles cars not seen before by this committee. The committee broke out in a chorus of "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow!" and drank a toast honoring Mr. Bolton.
- Average daily readership of this blog is 5.57 readers. Up from 4.12 daily readers last year. The board commenced to congratulate themselves again and drank more champagne.
- Most hits received in one day was during the U.S. Senate hearings with Daniel Sparks of Goldman Sachs. The board once again congratulated themselves, this time because there was no relation to Dan D. Sparks, so this company isn't being investigated. I'll drink to that!
- Blog post most read: Birney Project~Fresh Homemade Decals with 305 pageviews. No congratulations since the post is over a year old but the sipping of champagne continued.
- In fact, no posts from this year even made the top ten posts read according to Google Analytics. Board members giggled over the offhand joke "well, you wouldn't have analytics without there being anal".

· Finance Committee report provided by Chair, Pastor Buck:
- Revenue from this blog is now averaging $0.01 a day, up from $0.005 last year. That means a whopping $3.65 a year earnings! At this rate we should make our first million in 273972.6 years! The committee proceeded to hide the expensive champagne.
- That brings this blogs all time estimated total earning from the last 4 years to: $19.11. Committee members sent out for coffee.

· Board Development Committee's report provided by Chair, Arnie Clever:
-Despite this blog being rather insignificant and having a tiny readership, Clever recommended continuing the blog for another year since the numbers are continuously improving. MOTION to continue this blog for another year; seconded and passed with a "...ah, what the hell, why not."
- Clever suggested to the Board that actions can be taken to improve this blog such as adding some how-to videos. MOTION to add how-to videos; seconded and passed.

-And Clever strongly suggested we finish building these damn Niles cars soon and get to building the layout and run some trolleys! MOTION seconded and passed with a resounding "Huzzah!".

· Assessment of the Meeting:
- General Manager David Lyman noted that this meeting was pretty much a huge waste of time, time that could have better been spent actually building models. He reminded members that the focus of this blog is to chronicle the construction of the layout and was never intended to make anyone rich. Unfortunately, the board was too hung over to pay any attention and the meeting was adjourned.

· Meeting adjourned at 10:30 p.m.
· Minutes submitted by Secretary, Mrs. Roundbottom.