There's a few tasks I'm not very good which include wiring and plumbing. Today I did both. To power the train we are using the controls and motor of a couple of old electric golf carts. I got them in pieces, sans any instructions or schematics but a search online got me what I needed. Then it was time to cobble together all of the pieces. Inevitably, that meant a number of trips to the auto supply. Describing what I needed and what it was being used for drew blank stares for the most part. These guys really like part numbers and I had no such thing. By the end of afternoon it was starting to come together with a few parts still on order and a few more to source next week.

I really needed to get a handle on something for the train before I quit for the day and so I turned my attention to the whistle. The whistle itself is a genuine brass antique but the valve mechanism was long lost. Amazingly, the specialty valves are still made and I sourced one online a few months ago. The rest we could get locally. It took two trips to town to get all of the necessary fittings and pipes along with the cable and clamps which would serve as the pull to activate the whistle. It took more than an hour to plumb it all and hook up the pieces. I hooked up the shop air for the test and set it to a hundred pounds - far too much pressure it seems for the whistle shrieked like a dog whistle. My ears are still ringing. Janis heard it too in the house, 300 feet distant with all the windows shut tight. Other than the rather disturbing noise all was well and it was an easy fix. I dug out a spare regulator I had stashed in the toolbox and turned the air down and down and down... it turned out forty pounds of air sounded pretty about right. Being a little past 9:30 in the evening by this time I decided to leave it alone after a couple of toots in the interest of the neighbours. I think Phoebe and Mason going to love this thing! The neighbours - probably not quite so much.