Updates and too much time on my paws?
Mar. 21st, 2002 09:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lionkingcmslOk, so it's been about a month or so since my last update.
I got my license and car's status straightened out. both the car and I are totally legal. :=3
I also found something very interesting. It takes at least 2 men to crank the Canal Movable Bridge into position.
Last Thursday, 3/14/02, I had to lube the bridge. Being I was going to be alone, I had Tony, the owner of the RR, open the bridge after I got on. I had thought that it would be "easy" to "crank" the bridge closed. Mistake number one! I had never hand cranked the bridge itself.
Now, I didn't have a phone with me, but I didn't feel that it was needed. Mistake number two! I would find out later that it would've been a big help.
After I got done greasing the bridge, I started to crank the bridge closed so I could get off. Mistake number three! I quickly found that hand cranking the bridge is not something you take on lightly. I started to crank the bridge close at about 4p. I finally was able to get off the bridge at 7:30p! In the course of that three and half hour period I had the bridge halfway closed, but a trawler came up and wanted to get through. So I had to crank the bridge back open. This took all of my energy reserves. When cranking the bridge back closed I thought I was literally going to die one way or the other out there on the bridge with no way to contact anyone. I had to lay down about four times to regain any amount of strength. My heart was pounding in my chest. If I need a stress test, I can think of an easy way to take one. :=/
That will not happen again. There will always be two people there when the bridge has to be maintained.
Now for "Too much time on my paws?"
Most of you know that I'm writing a space sci-fi story with a few other authors. I have the plans for the Lion's Den drawn to scale. One thing keeps nagging me, the nose shape. I know how it should look, but I can't get it to look right on paper. After updating the print out of a cross section I got to thinking about how big the nose, or bow, would be in different scales. Some quick math gave the answers. Well, the railroading lion has now gotten started on a N scale (1:160) version of the nose to finally to see if the nose does actually look the way it should. Right now I just plan to do the top part of the hull, but in the back of my mind I'm already planning to detail each individual deck, the top 11.
I had planned to do it in H-O scale (1:87.1), but it would be over 3 feet long and I would have no place to put it. :=3
Of course once I get the top bow done, it'll probably lead to a full model. In N scale it would be about 5'-7 1/2" long x 2'-7 7/8" wide. ;=3
I got my license and car's status straightened out. both the car and I are totally legal. :=3
I also found something very interesting. It takes at least 2 men to crank the Canal Movable Bridge into position.
Last Thursday, 3/14/02, I had to lube the bridge. Being I was going to be alone, I had Tony, the owner of the RR, open the bridge after I got on. I had thought that it would be "easy" to "crank" the bridge closed. Mistake number one! I had never hand cranked the bridge itself.
Now, I didn't have a phone with me, but I didn't feel that it was needed. Mistake number two! I would find out later that it would've been a big help.
After I got done greasing the bridge, I started to crank the bridge closed so I could get off. Mistake number three! I quickly found that hand cranking the bridge is not something you take on lightly. I started to crank the bridge close at about 4p. I finally was able to get off the bridge at 7:30p! In the course of that three and half hour period I had the bridge halfway closed, but a trawler came up and wanted to get through. So I had to crank the bridge back open. This took all of my energy reserves. When cranking the bridge back closed I thought I was literally going to die one way or the other out there on the bridge with no way to contact anyone. I had to lay down about four times to regain any amount of strength. My heart was pounding in my chest. If I need a stress test, I can think of an easy way to take one. :=/
That will not happen again. There will always be two people there when the bridge has to be maintained.
Now for "Too much time on my paws?"
Most of you know that I'm writing a space sci-fi story with a few other authors. I have the plans for the Lion's Den drawn to scale. One thing keeps nagging me, the nose shape. I know how it should look, but I can't get it to look right on paper. After updating the print out of a cross section I got to thinking about how big the nose, or bow, would be in different scales. Some quick math gave the answers. Well, the railroading lion has now gotten started on a N scale (1:160) version of the nose to finally to see if the nose does actually look the way it should. Right now I just plan to do the top part of the hull, but in the back of my mind I'm already planning to detail each individual deck, the top 11.
I had planned to do it in H-O scale (1:87.1), but it would be over 3 feet long and I would have no place to put it. :=3
Of course once I get the top bow done, it'll probably lead to a full model. In N scale it would be about 5'-7 1/2" long x 2'-7 7/8" wide. ;=3
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no subject
Date: 2002-03-21 08:04 am (UTC)no subject
no subject
Date: 2002-03-21 03:26 pm (UTC)^_^
Dude
Date: 2002-03-21 08:55 pm (UTC)Hope your not too sore the next day.
no subject
Date: 2002-03-21 10:48 pm (UTC)Glad to hear you're legal again. :)
no subject
The bridge episode sounds like something that could be fleshed into a good story. I would understand your being more than a little cranky after such a turn -- at least for a span of time.
It reminds me -- did you happen to see the recent pictures of the barge tugboat approaching a similar bridge, and unable to stop because of the current? That was an amazing set of pictures.
An acquaintence of mine builds excellent scale models of famous spacecraft. His eleven-foot model of the Discovery from "2001" is impressive indeed, as is his Aries lander at about 3' diameter (different scales, of course). Hopefully, you can put something together that will accomplish your visualization purposes.
I note that Howard Tayler, author of Schock Mercenary, has done something like this with the star battleship that his crew commands, the "Post-Dated Check Loan". It is very large, and unusually shaped, and hard to draw from different angles. He is using a 3-D model (constructed in SpeedRazor or something similar, by a fan) and he actively uses this to get angles and relative dimensions to be consistent.
Perhaps something like this could accomplish your purpose, and allow more room for experimentation than does a physical model.
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