Train Running, Ballasting and Benchwork

Well I went down to the shed on Saturday afternoon and I decided to try and motivate myself into doing something constructive on the layout.  The first thing was turn on the layout power and grab a throttle and then I started to move a number of trains around the layout.  The fastclock time was set to about 9:00am.  So I grabbed a few timetable cards and started moving those trains to where they were supposed to be at 9:10am. Once they were all there, I moved all the trains to 9:20am, and then again to where they were supposed to be at 9:30am.  By that time a few had completed their runs, and then I pushed forward moving trains between crossing loops to where they were supposed to be at 9:45am, and then again until 10:00am.  During this timetable run – all by myself – I must have run at least 6 or 7 different trains.  My plan is to gradually get the time progressed to 11:00am for when the next Operating Session can take over and get everything back home again when the next operating session begins again.

The Mountain Goat that runs from Cassino to Border Loop has made it to Border Loop.

Two trains are crossing at Cassino.  On the main is the daily southbound container train from Murwillumbah, and in the back platform road is the Gold Coast Motorail heading to Murwillumbah.

One of the other slight changes to the timetable cards has been the requirement to ensure that the walkway across the yard is kept clear when wagons are dropped off in the yard at Lismore.

Once I had moved those trains, I did a bit of a walk around the layout looking for things to do.  I decided to get the ballast out and attack a few locations.  I decided to start with the section of track between Lismore and Old Cassino.  I did about three feet of track on the mainline outside the Oil Siding at Lismore.  I then started on the track that comes out of the tunnel under Lismore and heads back into Old Cassino - maybe another 6 or 7 feet.  I ballasted all the tracks at that end of the yard.  I then started at the other end of Old Cassino from the point into the Cassino Loco around into the southern end of Old Cassino.  I also did the Oil Siding at Old Cassino.  Maybe another 6 feet of track.

Lismore Shell Oil Siding.  The mainline track has now been ballasted up to the road overbridge in the distance.

The other side of the road overbridge.  The bottom track leads into Old Cassino.  This track up until the platform at Old Cassino has been ballasted.

Looking north, the track north of the platform has been ballasted at Old Cassino.

The start of the Construction siding at Old Cassino has been ballasted also.

At the southern end of Old Cassino, ballasting has also been started.

On the other side of the level crossing at West Street, the track towards the Old Cassino Shell Oil Siding and the mainline to Cassino has also been ballasted.

The Old Cassino Shell Oil Siding shown in this shot.

It was not until this afternoon, that I sprayed the ballast with water to wet it, and then applied white glue.  I then laid some more ballast from the road bridge just north of Grafton until it enters the tunnel around the Spiral heading towards Rocla Sleeper Siding, on the way to the Rappville crossing loop.  That ballast was also glued down.  I then started looking at Glenapp Loop.  I laid about 5 feet of ballast over the two tracks here in the crossing loop from the southern end where ballasting currently stops.  I still have about 4 feet of track to the other end of the crossing loop as the track heads towards Beaudesert Road level crossing.  This ballast still needs to be glued down.  But that will be a job for next Friday.

The track around the bottom leg of the spiral between Grafton Yard and Rappville Loop has been ballasted from the road overbridge towards the tunnel mouth.

The track in Glenapp Loop starts to get ballasted.

At this time, I started to clean up the layout top at the northern end of Lismore.  This section of baseboard was a bit of a dumping ground for a number of things.  For quite some time, there has been a line drawn on the baseboard here which is where I was going to cut the baseboard edge back by up to 6 inches.  Well I bit the bullet today, and cleaned the baseboard, got out the saw and moved the edge of the layout back.  I then re-attached the facia.  

The facia at Lismore before narrowing work was carried out.

The Lismore facia looking in the other direction, again before the baseboard was narrowed.

That will make the main walkway back into the main operating well at Cassino more accessible and slightly wider.  Maybe we can pass some of the slimmer operators at this location now.  I then started to look at the road underpass at the northern end of Lismore.  I added a bit of foam that I had layout around and that will be the start of a small amount of landscaping in this area over the next week. 

The baseboard at the northern end of Lismore after the facia was re-attached.

The start of the road underbridge at Lismore.

From next Friday, I’m on two weeks holiday with the family.  I intend to sit at home, (or down in the shed) and watch the Commonwealth Games on TV, while ticking off a few jobs around the layout.  The other thing I will do is complete the presentation I need to do for the Modelling the Railways of NSW Convention.  That date is fast approaching.