Post Convention Blues

This week started with continued Convention activities.  I had a few visitors scheduled to arrive for a layout viewing on Monday morning.  They had a tour around and hopefully they had a laugh at some of my layout scenes and they were able to take a learning or two away from their visit.  Tuesday was my day off from home related activities, as I had scheduled to visit other layouts around Brisbane.  I booked into visit two layouts, one on the northside and one on the southside.  The first address was an N scale Australian layout which was running a timetable operations session.  I enjoyed my working in N scale.  This owner also has a 12mm QR layout still being developed.  Second stop was the O scale NSW and QR layouts at Peter Krause’s place.  Both locations were excellent choices to see some trains in scales I do not model in.

Once I got back home on Tuesday afternoon, that was the point that the convention was finally over for me.  We got online on Tuesday night and had a few discussions, and some were about the Convention.  Following that I was all ‘model railwayed’ out and I could not bring myself to do any modelling for the rest of the week.  I still entered the shed on a couple of occasions, as that was where the beer fridge was.

On Saturday I ventured over to the Redland Model Railway Exhibition, which was held at a new location.  I spent many hours there on Saturday morning and I caught up with many friends and viewed a number of layouts.  I actually picked up a rolling road from Model Box at the Exhibition and this was at a very reasonable price.  Mine has been unpacked from its packaging and is ready to be installed next to my mobile NCE test track.  I think I will wire it up so that it can be switched over between my PowerCab setup and a 9V battery to allow me to test all my locomotives.

On the previous weekend at the NMRA Convention I picked up an ESU Switch Pilot from Marty’s Train Shed.  Yesterday I started the install process by screwing the Switch Pilot to the layout fascia.  This afternoon I also made it to the shed and programmed the addresses of 4 point motors and 2 indicator lights.  At this stage I have two unused outputs.  I have completed laying wires to two point motors at Park Road narrow gauge crossing loop, but I have run out of wire.  So it looks like I am off to Jaycar tomorrow to buy two more spools of wire to allow me to complete the wiring of the next two point motors at Park Road and Fisherman Islands so I can activate my narrow gauge ‘Y’.  I can  then wire the indicator lights that will show the position of the points at Dutton Park.  The points at this location are above head height, so the lights allow the locomotive drivers to ensure they are travelling on the correct route.

We head to Barnacles on Tuesday evening, so maybe after viewing his layout, my modelling juices may start to flow again.

2025 NMRA Australasian Convention Done and Dusted - Now Sleep For 3 Days

OMG!  I am stuffed.  Wednesday we had an Operations Session on Cassino where 7 guys turned up.  Thanks for Geoff for assisting with North Coast Control, while the guests ran trains and I assisted.  Friday was layouts viewing sessions from 10:00 until 2:00pm.  That was followed by the Convention Welcome Social at the Calamvale Hotel.  I had a good amount of fun with the included food and drinks.  Friday it got real serious. Early on I registered my 4 model entries and the 90mm cap challenge.  I gave 1 presentation and 3 hands on clinics in a row.  Then I was able to listen to three presenters.  Then we had to scurry home, to then head back out to Anthony Palmer’s place for pizza and an Operations Session along with Darren and Marty and a few others and special guests Dave, Teddy and Pete Abeles.    That went to a reasonable time.  That day was the day that I actually Retired and it was also my birthday on that day.  They sang Happy Birthday at the Convention.  It was great to meet Dave Abeles.

Saturday was the conference on steroids.  I was down for 2 presentations and 3 more hands on clinics and was able to attend two sessions by others.  I had a good talk to Dave Abeles and I was able to share my Layout Rules of Operation with him, from which he obtained immense pleasure.  At the end of the day's sessions it was home, shower and back out to the Conference Dinner at the Calamvale Hotel Rooftop Room.  What a great view!  Nice food and a gain a reasonable long night.  I think I picked up three first prizes, and a second prize from my four models.  I didn’t finish in the top 3 popular in the 90mm cap challenge.  It is easy to come first when you are the only person in that category.

After 5 hours sleep, I was back at the Convention, Picked up one attendee at a bus stop down the road and gave him a lift.  I then gave 2 more presentations, attended two other sessions, picked up a prize of a T-Shirt in the rolling raffle and then listened to the Plenary Session, and then had a select few learned gentlemen (3 x MMRs) back at my place (7 actually) for a tour of the layout.  Then after they left and then with the fridge completely empty, around to the BWS with my son to replenish the fridge.  That has now taken care of my medicinal requirements up to about Christmas.

I might get a few extra hours sleep tonight, before I have some more layout tours guests on Monday morning before I get to be able to go out and visit a couple of other layouts that are open for viewing on Tuesday. 

What a long weekend of activities.  As I said, I’m completely shagged.  I was able to talk to many overseas modellers – New Zealand, Tasmania, Bribie Island, Canada and America.  People there were also from New South Wales, ACT, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.  We had people from Cairns and Townsville and many other places in northern and western Queensland.  The overwhelming response from people was, that it was a fantastic Convention and they learned things from it.  I enjoy being able to teach some MMRs new tricks when I tell them how I do certain modelling tasks. 

Convention Countdown - 3 More Sleeps

I cannot remember what I did this week, it just flew through.  I did some printing off of some handouts for one of my presentations at next weekend’s NMRA Convention.  I also added the floor to my QR HO wagon.  I added the various pieces of text to the 'road over rail' bridge.  I started packing my travel boxes for all the stuff I need for my clinics for the convention.  On Friday I cut up the various pieces of styrene for the various Styrene Building Clinics, so the attendees can get a head start of their Clothesline builds.  The pallet build classes are easier as they require full lengths of various sizes of styrene strip.

I do remember that I spent some time doing scatter on my 90mm end cap for the NMRA Conventions 90mm end cap challenge.  I added some detail to it.  You will get a laugh when you see it and turn it on at the convention in the display room.  For those not attending I will add a photo of this entry next Sunday night.  On Saturday I pulled my 90mm end cap project apart and re-installed a length of pipe in which I positioned my controlling motor.  This was again re-positioned in the middle of the pipe.  My previous method of installation made the motor not totally upright and in the centre of the model.  It seems to be working much better now with this new installation.  The motor controls what I have on top of the cap.

On Saturday afternoon, I went over to Paul’s place along with Glenn and Kim and we packed the bags of loot for the NMRA Convention attendees.  I must admit that the contents are pretty good.  I was able to bring my bag home with me, and today I removed all the support infrastructure on an HO scale "QR Lamp Shed with WC".  It is a damn fine model!

Today I also put some finishing touches on my QR 2050 Class railmotor.  Sitting down to dinner tonight, I realised that I forgotten to put the driver inside the railmotor and install the handbrake wheel.  So I will conclude that work tomorrow.  I have packed up most items to take to the clinic they will be put into the car on Wednesday.

I have an Ops Session on Wednesday afternoon which should be great, I also have an open day on the Thursday with a dozen or so visitors coming and then we have 3 days of Convention.  It will be a Blast!

No Time Left

On Monday I was looking at the kitchen table which I had taken over with a couple of my models sitting on it.  One model is a scratch build Road over Rail bridge.  I decided to enter it into the structure category in the upcoming NMRA Convention modelling competition.  So I created a word document, with some text in it, that will be installed on the bridge.  Last painted dates, bent numbers and distance from Sydney Central, etc..  These will be added to the model in the near future.

I found it hard to get motivated into completing the underfloor brake detail on my Australian National AKFX rail carrying wagon.  However, after attending a funeral of a model railway personality on Wednesday morning, in the afternoon I was must have been channelling Eddie, as I installed the air pipes, air cylinders and the various brake actuators on this wagon.  I then gave them a paint.  So I think that wagon is now completed.  I still need to add the floor to the QR HO wagon.  I better do that this coming week.  The last thing I need to do, is add screws to my railmotor up through the floor to retain the roof.  I can them add the relevant wagon numbers and that will also be complete.

Wednesday job was to print out the various forms for my model entries.  I was able to arrange printing of some handouts for my presentations at the Convention on Friday before a work happy hour.  

The weekend was a write-off as I was attending a wedding.  Just a few tidy up tasks to go.

Some Layout Scenery Work Continues

I spent time earlier this week going through all the DCC functions enabled on all of my locos.  I plan to create a loco card for each loco that has all the functions enabled listed for each loco.  I have realised that I have quite a few locos.  I went back each day and did a few more locos and put them into a document that can be printed out on a loco card.  I think I have done all of my locos now except the steam ones.

On Tuesday I did some track alignment activities on the sidings in Lismore Yard.  I use this location to store a number of partially built pieces of rollingstock.  The rollingstock was moved, the track was tacked down and on Wednesday I decided to spread some ballast and glue it all down.  Later on that day, the rail heads were cleaned and the rollingstock moved back into the various sidings.

A rather dark photo of Lismore Yard

The same location taken from the other end.

For quite some time, the area between Burringbah Tunnel and Murwillumbah has laying there dormant.  The scenery was plastered with only an initial layer of plaster on it.  I had wanted to install a traditional farm dam in that area.  I was less than satisfied with how I started out making a water dam.  So it has sat there unfinished for maybe 10 years.  So on Thursday morning I mixed up about 10-12 buckets of plaster and covered the area with more coats of plaster and fixed up the water dam that I had tried to make in that area.  In the afternoon, I painted the plaster and it looks so much better already.  I need to scratch build a small shed to house the pump house for the dam.  I actually found a shed when going through a few boxes today.  When painted the area, I realised that I really needed to do some more maintenance on one end of the original end of the plaster work near Murwillumbah, so on Friday morning I mixed up another batch of plaster and used tissues to be covered in thin plaster to add an extra layer to the baseboard covering.  I then did another round of painting of the plaster in the afternoon.

The newly updated earth dam is in the centre.

I have been very slack lately in completing my models for the NMRA Convention.  I have to add brake piping and underfloor detail to my Australian National Rail carrying wagon to make Laurie happy.  I also need to complete the work to affix the roof to my QR 2050 class railmotor and then add the numbers.  I printed them out last night.  On Saturday I got around to adding the bogie sideframes to this model, which were design by Guy and printed by Luke.

I am also doing small bits of work around the layout.  I added some fencing to a block of land near the Leycester River outside Lismore. 

North of Lismore is this block of land with is being fenced.

I also have been doing some work on various old models I have of CPH railmotors.  I’m not sure if I will just sell this stuff or store it on a siding around the layout, or even put a chip in it and make it run.

South of Cassino is a new dilapidated and abandoned shop has sprung up.

The fettlers at Old Cassino are growing in number

I have also been going through my presentations for the upcoming NMRA convention in Brisbane later this month.  All of them got a few tweaks over the weekend.