Happy Father’s Day

Tuesday this week was our scheduled Tuesday Night get together and we went over to Peter’s place and had a great time.  We had a very big turn out as well.  I spent quite some time mesmerised by Peter’s detail in quite a few areas on his layout.  His latest area of scenicing had some sheep and sheep dogs with a shearer plying his trade in the shed, along with a recently shorn fleece spread over the sorting table.  It was just fantastic.  So that is the inspiration for the week, so now to my layout.

 

On Saturday morning I went over to the local hobby shop to pick up some more NCE DCC decoders for the Club and ran into Lefty and Son there.  They were stocking up on new NCE DCC Switch-8 point controllers and NCE button boards (also new) and various scenery items for rock walls.  I think next weekend we might get another blog update from Lefty about his recent scenery work.

 

On Saturday afternoon, I went to the shed and completed all the wiring of track jumpers around my points in Acacia Ridge Yard. 

The latest point added were in the left most two tracks.

 

Once I had completed Acacia Ridge Yard, I then installed 4 track jumpers around points in the four newly relaid tracks in Grafton Yard from last weekend.

 

Today before lunch I went to the shed and finished installing track jumpers to the last 4 tracks in Grafton Yard.  Upon running a test of the new wiring in Acacia Ridge Yard, I realised that I did not insulate the track joint boundary between Power District No. 4 and Power District No. 5 when I relaid the track the other weekend.  It was not picked up until I ran a train around Acacia Ridge Yard’s return loops and tried to exit the yard.  This caused a short.  This situation was quickly analysed and the insulated joiners installed.  All works well now.

The current occupants of Grafton Yard.  Track 1 is the outer return loop and there are seven return loops.  Track 12 is where the Bicentennial 80 class is located.  The new XPT track is the right most dead end track on the left hand side of the yard.

What is in Grafton Yard I hear you ask, well I'll tell you:-
Track 1 - 42104 Mainline Container Train
Track 2 - 8047 + 4848 Steel Train
Track 4 - 4468 Branchline Container Train
Track 7 - 4416 + 44240 Paper Train
Track 8 - 48165 Sleeper Train
Track 9 - 8005 Ballast Train
Track 10 - 4483 Oil Train
Track 12 - Stock Train

I also ran a train of wagons from South Brisbane Interstate Yard back to Acacia Ridge Yard for something to do.  These wagons have now been placed permanently in the yard in Exit Track No. 4.  This has freed up some space at South Brisbane, so I can actually shunt some trains there now  I then ran the loco back to South Brisbane.

After lunch I contemplated how I would install the first of a few tracks into the turntable at Cassino Loco.  I had a set of points just off the branch and that provided two tracks onto the turntable and these would have inspection pits installed in the roads.  I decided that I would replace that set of points with a three way point (which I stole from Grafton Loco – this point continually gets stolen for use somewhere else).

A photo of the entry to Grafton Yard.  On the left in Grafton Loco you can see the location missing a three-way point.  The extended headshunt laid the other week is in the foreground. 

 

I have now created three input tracks onto the turntable from the Branch Line.  There is also a track onto the turntable off the Mainline, so really the turntable has four entry/exit tracks.  After these tracks were laid, and the baseboard finally screwed to the supports underneath, some foam was then cut to shape to allow the scenery to basically form the contours required for around the loco area.  I still have to some work between the Mainline and the sidings near the Coal Stage.

 

A overall shot of the Cassino Loco.  Work is progressing on the turntable roads and the basic scenery contours.

 

Next weekend I will be gluing this foam down and I should be hitting this with the first coats of plaster.  Who knows, I might even be able to install the output tracks up to the back of the loco towards the Hotham Street level crossing, followed by the numerous tracks to the right of the turntable opposite the loco shed.

 

Today was Father's Day.  I had a great time and received some nice presents from the kids, obtained from their school's Father's Day stall.  I hope all the Dad's out there also had a great time and squeezed in some modelling time.