Boom! There Goes the Budget Again.

Yesterday I was at a local hobby shop and in a moment of weakness, I purchased two pieces of Tillig dual gauge diverging track to replace two pieces that I had built using the fast tracks jigs.  When my trains run through the scratch built pieces, they hop and jump and slightly stutter.  They were also located on the layout that were just out of reach.  I’d had had enough.  So in the interests of operability and having less issues, I purchased the Tillig track pieces and it set me back over $92.  I also purchased a set of LH 12mm points and ordered two more sets of right hand 12mm points.  More money!  So that will potentially close out my track purchases on the layout. 

Today I installed the Tillig dual gauge divergent tracks and also installed the new set of 12mm points in Clapham Yard.  I also resoldered back all the power jumpers and test ran some 12mm and 16.5mm rollingstock through the points.  Everything was fine.  While installing the second divergent track, I found a wire jumper that had come away from one rail.  This was preventing power getting to the track from Acacia Ridge on the dual gauge track through to Clapham Yard.  I had previously laid a new power bus here, but not connected up the end to the existing bus.  That is still on the to do list.  However, by resoldering this broken jumper, mysteriously, I can now run tracks between these two yards again.

I then did some work on the narrow gauge sidings at Acacia Ridge, including nailing down the track and putting a buffer on one of the three tracks.  I also extended two of them by about 75mm each, because I had some 12mm track offcuts I could use.  I then ran a 12mm train all the way from Clapham to Acacia Ridge and identified where some of my 12mm track was slightly over and under gauge.  So I re-soldered the track at the northern end which was under gauge and it now appears to be all good for operations.  The track at the southern end was over gauge, so I spiked this and I can now run 12mm trains satisfactorily until I get to the main curve before the track ascends up towards Clapham Yard.  This next section still needs more work.  I’m thinking that I might buy two lengths of dual gauge flex track and install that around this curve to prevent any future problems with my scratch built dual gauge track.  This stuff comes in small lengths - 600mm I think and it is not cheap.  Another hit to the budget.

I was coming down with a cold last weekend, and felt like I was going to die on Monday morning, so I had Monday off sick to help prevent the spread of disease at work.  After taking some cold and flu tablets I decided to do some modelling.  I had drawn up some plans for the modern goods shed that exists at Old Cassino.  I made a paper version to see how big it would be on the layout.  So I went down to the shed to place the paper version on the layout and made a few adjustments to the size of the building and then realised that I needed to move the location of the construction siding at Old Cassino to allo wthe building to fit better.  I also lengthened this siding in the hope that the ballast train will fit in it, allowing me to use the yard track at Old Cassino to have some more wagons to be loaded/unloaded in this new shed I was building.  However, the construction siding is still about 150mm too short, and I have not room left to expand it.  Maybe I’ll have to send the loco back to Cassino Loco, so I can fit the wagons in the siding, to free up another track for more shunting activities on some other trains.

The view of the modern goods shed at Old Cassino that I am building.

The western end of the shed looks like it had an extension added.

The rear of the shed is just corrugated steel.  You would have thought that I would have taken photos of the other side from the road wouldn't you?  Doh!

Anyway, the shed is coming along nicely, but I have not done any more work on it since Monday.  Maybe next weekend.  On Tuesday Night I went to Bob’s place for our Tuesday Nighters gathering.  We had a good turn out and I dropped off some goodies to Geoff and Darren, which I brought back by road from Sydney.  This was stuff that they could not take as carryon luggage on the plane.  I also received a new 1720 class loco from Geoff.  He swapped it for me up in Toowoomba the previous weekend.  Mine had an issue with one set of wheels not turning, but it is all good now.

On one afternoon during the week, I went to the shed and test ran the 1720 on DC.  Once I concluded that it worked, pulled it apart and installed a decoder and then test ran it DCC.  It went very nicely.  So it then went for a few runs up and down Clapham Yard.  I then took the fuel tank off and stuffed it full of lead.  I intend to put a lot of lead around the rest of the loco, as it is very light.  I have some very long and steep grades on the dual gauge on the layout, so every ounce is needed, if I am to get this loco hauling more than a couple of wagons up the grades.

On the subject of budget, or should I say not currently on the budget, I need to give Auscision some money by the end of June to add sound to my 48 class locos that I have on order.  I also need to budget for the just announced Railbus.  While I already have a Far North Hobbies Railbus, it does not run well.  There is binding in the nickel silver gearbox.  I should try and remedy that, and then I can get onto painting the kit and then I can run it on the layout.  If I can fix its issues, I may be able to not buy an Auscision one.  Well maybe I will still buy one.

I just hope the boss does not look at the Mastercard bill that will be turning up very soon in the mail.  I am so far in debt it is not funny.  I don’t seem to be getting on top of it.  I need to win lotto on Thursday, so hope some rich person will adopt me.