Sunday, June 24, 2012

More Timetable Tampering

Following last week's sojourn on the Railmotor Society's 621/721 set down the rails to Kyogle, back to Fisherman Islands and finally back to Roma Street, I was back to thinking about my timetable and what if any changes I could make.

I was wondering if it was possible to include my own heritage train from Acacia Ridge down to Kyogle and return.  Given my era, and that I have a 620 running a normal passenger run from Cassino to Border Loop and return twice during the day,  I thought I could give my Eureka CPH a run in the timetable.  I was then thinking if it was possible to also include the train that I have sitting in the Siding at Kyogle into the timetable.  This is my 8 car rail train set with a sound equipped 44 on the lead, that doesn't get much of a run.  So I thought, that while the beginning and the end of the timetable day are light on compared with the middle of teh timetable day, I thought I might run the rail train out of Acacia Ridge to Kyogle in the early morning, where it can sit all day, and then travel back to Acacia Ridge at night.

I then thought about the Bachmann tamper wagon I have sitting in the Construction Siding at Old Cassino.  This could leave Old Cassino in the morning and travel to Cassino, reverse and then travel to Acacia Ridge for storing during the day and then at night, it could do the return trip back to Cassino and then up the branch to Old Cassino.

I also thought about the Container train (#14) that I have sitting in the loop at Murwillumbah for quite a few hours.  I thought that maybe the loco from this train (also a sound equipped 44 Class) could be a light engine movement from Cassino Loco in the morning with a light engine return to Cassino Loco in the arvo.

So with that in mind, I decided to put pen to paper and see if I could slot these movements into the timetable.  Well on first look, it seems pretty easy.  With just a few small bits of juggling, and a few trains leaving a few minutes earlier and a few more a few minutes later, it looks like that it is quite easy to put the CPH rail tour, the rail train and the tamper movement into the timetable.  It took me a few iterations, as some trains crossed mid section instead at the loops - which is pretty hard to accomplish.  So these were fixed up and I now think it looks pretty good.

Below is the end result of my updated timetable graph.  Not sure it will turn out when viewed online though.

The latest iteration of the Cassino timetable for the next running session at a date and time to be determined.

Friday night this week, I went to the local hobby shop where I met Darren, Geoff and Old Mike.  They had been let of their combined leashes for the night by their better halves.  They (and myself) were buying out Ray's Shop.  We had intended to go to the local Buy and Sell, but word from 4 guys who came into the shop before we left to attend the Buy & Sell said it was not worth it.  So taking that into consideration, the guys came back to my place for a coffee.  Also it has been a while since Mike has been over so he had a tour of the layout to see the changes that have occured over the last few months.

I showed off my Powerline 48 that I had decodered with an NCE DA-SR decoder.  I showed off the F2 function which now turns on the rather high speed cooling fan and the F1 that controls the cablight, instead of it being always lit.

On Saturday afternoon, I ran my CPH from Acacia Ridge Yard to Kyogle and return.  I was testing out the shunting manoevre at Kyogle that will be required to clear the platform road before the Brisbane Limited northbound comes through during the timetable session.  I then also test ran the Rail Train from Kyogle to Acacia Ridge and now have it in place for the start of a future timetable operating session.

I then set about looking at my Trainorama 4425, which has a Tsunami Alco decoder installed, which has stopped making noise.  I had previously reset the decoder to see if that would make any difference, but it had not.  The next test was to replace the speaker.  I did this and placed the loco back on the track and low and behold - there was sound.  It must have been a speaker that has gone to its maker.

I am currently waiting for an ebay delivery (probably over the next month) for six 0-5 Amp panel meters for about $5 each.  These will be installed in the circuits following my newly purchased NCE EB1's that I bought on Friday night.  I purchased four, as my layout was always designed to be split into 4 power districts, but had been wired with jumpers between each district, so in effect it is currently just one big district at the moment.  I will be designing the wiring where the EB1's and the bridge rectifiers, and their bypass swicthes will be installed under the layout facia.  I will keep my master Voltmeter and master Ammeter in place on the panel, and then install the various section ammeters below them in the facia panel.  I am planning on setting each power district to 2.5 Amps.  During normal operation, the whole layout only puts out just over 1 Amp during a running session.  So that is one of the jobs that I have to undertake ove rteh next few weeks.

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