A Few Jobs

On Thursday this week I set about doing a few small jobs that arose out of the Running Session on Tuesday. These jobs started with fixing the point on the entry to Cassino – the Main to Back Platform Road Point. I then fixed the bogie on the RUB coach and put the wagon back in the Brisbane Limited set. I then checked the plug in point for headsets at Old Cassino. This panel is a junction of lots of wires and one wire was just hanging on. This was fixed and it now seems to be working a lot better. One of the guys who was using a plug-in handset (a Procab-R is so much better) on Tuesday said that he could not find a plug in point at Cassino. Mind you, I couldn’t find the plug in point as it was hidden by my wagon card holder. So I moved the wagon card holder and voila, I can now see another plug in point.

Work on Friday then turned to some simple scenery improvements. I have at a couple of places where roads either cross the railway or back onto the railway. All these roads are made out of thin balsa that I stain to get the grey/black colour. So at Barker Street on the north of Cassino there is a walkway across the railway. I painted the road with my stain. 

The photo is one I took of Barker Street crossing may years ago.  I will install this walkway eventually - as well as some scenery on the other side of the tracks.

This was followed by a very small section of road near the Loco depot at Cassino – called Kyogle Street.

I did say Kyogle Street is pretty small.  The relocated wagon card holder is also in this photo.

Then round to the branch line to Old Cassino, at West Street, the main road into Cassino from the north via the Summerland Way. This road actually got camber as well.

West Street Level crossing.  To the left is a private road into the Old Cassino Shell Oil Terminal.

I then went further out along the branch to Lismore just south of the station.  I can't remember the street name.

This street is between the point to the Lismore loco siding on the left and point to the Loop at Cassino on the right.  On the left of the photo are the two level crossing signs that will also be installed at this location.

After this I then reset all the trains on the layout back again to their starting points. I then attended to 4519 that was reported as having a low coupler at the #2 end. The coupler just dropped when it was under load. That was easy to fix. That night I was doing some desk checking of the timetable again. I then realised that two trains in one of the tracks were in the wrong order. So I swapped them over. I also ran through the train timetable cards for a few shunt trains as I had a feeling that they were due to return back to Grafton Yard  during the session to the wrong track number. I was correct and fixed these up for next time.

My attention then turned to one of my consists that had 4416 + 4816 + 44240 (I use the last 4 digits in this case). The consist had been dropped. No matter what I did when I tried to recreate the consist 44240 would not join the consist. So I took 44240 to the programming track and it could not be reset. I then tried Option #7 the NCE Recovery Programming and that would not work either. I then tried to see if the decoder had been locked, by choosing Option #8 from the NCE menu, and this seemed to do that trick. I could then reset the decoder, and then put it back into a consist. This was a tricky situation.

Saturday afternoon I went down to the shed and successfully installed four new sidings in Grafton Loco. These will be used to store up to 9 locos.

The four tracks on the left were the new loco storage sidings

After this I decided to see if I could run through the timetable myself over the next few weeks, providing another level of checking.  So far I have gone through 2 hours and 15 minutes and this is where it gets complicated.  As there are three trains in progress and another 3 or 4 getting ready to start moving in the next 30 minutes and this is where the first crosses will occur.

I still have to fix the point at the Northern end of Rappville Loop.  I was going to replace the Peco point motor actuator, but I may be able to super glue the original back together.  I plan to get back to this job maybe tomorrow.

Today I went to the shed and started by taking the photos above.  I decided that I would do a small amount of scenery around the Old Cassino Shell Oil Siding.  In the two photos of Kyogle Street and West Street above, you will see that there is a small amount of base scenery put down.  This was done this morning.  It is Tile Grout that I sprinkle on to a wet baseboard and it sets hard.  I use a tea strainer to sprinkle the grout on and ensure that only small particles come through.  I then spray water on top as well.

I decided to also stick a few pieces of paper together to form a template of the actual Oil Siding and the terminal buildings. I could then work out what structures will be needed at this location and where they will actually go.  So after lunch today I decided to cut out some paper shapes and see how they went together for the vertical tanks, the horizontal tanks, and the case store.  Happy with that I decided to knock up the base for my Oil Case Store, and a platform that I will also install next to the siding.  I may in the end bring in open wagons (besides just oil tankers) for loads to and from this location so I will need to build a platform as well.

The mock up.  I still need to add some more legs to the platform.

I will then have to assemble my Oil Terminal from the Gwydir Valley Kit that I have.  I will then install a barbed wire fence around the facility.  The hardest part will be to add all the piping required.  I think I also need to add some sort of staff emenities building.  I'm not sure, but I'd bet that the staff had somewhere to have lunch, sign on and stow their kit, etc., and allow management to do whatever they do from.

I may do a bit more on this job tomorrow.  Then I'm back to work - Yuk!