Fried laptop

Yesterday, I unintentionally served a partial glass of water to my laptop. It is now acting fussier than Liam. Oh well. Glad I have complete care. No picture uploads till Dell fixes it (for free!).

I tore out some track work I've been happy with, including a 3-way switch. I soldered together a replacement on PC Board...but will probably create another replacement since the mainline curve is now slightly too sharp.

I've decided to start my passenger train. I have 1 baggage car side assembled, a huge pile of window frame parts and car side parts cut and awaiting assembly on my desk. These will be the Barney & Smith built coaches #3 and #5 of 1878. IIRC, #3 was named the Geneva. Additionally, B&S (of Dayton, OH) also built #4...but she was a slightly different design while #3 & #5 were sisters and kin to 6 Nevada narrow gauge cars...2 of which survive...one thanks to one of Walt Disney's main henchmen, Ward Kimball. Additionally, there is a floor plan from these in Scott Trostel's B&S book. That gives me ample resources to start these two cars. For the record, #4 was the Halls Valley and became C&S #77...serving the citizens of Colorado as a 1st class passenger car for more than 60 years.

So, my passenger train will consist of a baggage-express car and a pair of coaches. After those are completed, I'll want to knock out a pair of Pullmans, a DSP&P built coach (quite different), a B-M-X (Baggage-Mail-Express), and combine #1. I will try to avoid the constant temptation to start on the East Broad Top's Orbisonia which would be a very easy car to build. But this third batch of cars (the paycar was the first batch) are in the distant future. I have a variety of good reasons to have stalled on the Paycar (which isn't a passenger car despite its appearance, it is a rolling bank), and one of them is to have it along with the three passenger cars in the same painting, wiring, and brake work sessions.

A typical South Park passenger train of around 1884 would be pulled by a Cooke mogul and have a baggage car (likely a B-M-X), coach or two, and a Pullman from Denver to Gunnison. Such a train would have quite probably overwhelmed a Mason Bogie at Kenosha and Alpine Passes...but a big Cooke moguls (which could out pull some of the 2-8-0s) would have been fine.