Monday I continued laying some track around the new Sunnybank Station on the expanded 12mm section of the layout. I have temporary also taken the track to a point at the northernmost end of Acacia Ridge, as the trackage at Sunnybank where all the tracks start to spread out into Sunnybank will be above this same point, on the next level. This sits on a baseboard about 9 inches above Acacia Ridge Yard.
Tuesday was our scheduled Tuesday Nighters gathering. The guys were most enthusiastic in urging me to continuing the layout further south to Kuraby. But they were just taking the piss. In the shed, they looked at the Sunnybank extension, and then after a while, they all grabbed a brew and we all went to the pergola for ongoing discussions and some biscuits, cake and chips. We seem to have agreed on a get together for a run to Doomben for morning tea and then Lunch out at Ferny Grove in early November. We have about 6 yeses so far for our trip on an upcoming Friday.
On Wednesday I decided to do some testing of the ESU Switch Pilot. I thought there could be a problem with it if there are a number of commands that get sent to it in quick succession. So I had developed a plan where if I am using pushbuttons connected to an NCE Mini-Panel, and the output includes multiple commands to a switch pilot, I will intersperse a delay command into the stream. I was going to start off with a quarter of a second, and then work up to 1 second. However I did a test and it worked out that it didn’t matter if I only sent a single command to a point, the lights all went out on the display board. But I can change the lights on the display board (also controlled via the ESU Switch Pilot) and they just change correctly. So I then thought that it could be my power supply when it gets asked to supply power, it fades out. Given that it has a digital display of the output voltage on it, I watched it when I threw a point and the output voltage did not change. So I now think the issue is with the ESU Switch Pilot itself. But I had another idea. While the Switch Pilot has the ability to set an output up as a PECO point output, there is also an impulse output for other similar point motor outputs. I changed one of my Peco outputs to the 'impulse type' and tested it and it still dimmed the output lights. By the way - the point also changed. I also saw a comment on a bulletin board, that asked had anyone got their switch pilot to work with Peco points! So that was very deflating, as there was not a conclusive yes answer in that thread.
Friday evening I got online and downloaded the Zello app for my phone. This was so I could use it on Saturday at a remote Operations Session on Aaron’s layout. On Saturday I went to a Buy and Sell on the north side of the city and ran into a few Tuesday Nighters, a few Club members, and a few NMRA guys. The Buy and Sell was very well services by sellers, and also quite a lot of buyers. I did not buy anything, but there wer plenty of bargains. i was saving my money for next weekend at teh Rosehill Exhibition in Sydney.
Saturday Night was a great Ops Session. We had three drivers working from their studies in Brisbane driving trains, a dispatcher from Tasmania, and 4 people in the train room near Newcastle. The remote drivers were shuttling electric trains around the local area for the local layout inhabitants. these trains run very well. The session went for about 3 and a half hours. Boy, was I knackered by the end. The remote people were all talking via Discord, if we needed to, as well as over the common train radio channel for the layout provided by Zello. We also had our access to the mimic diagram that showed were all the trains were. It also shows live stream video of the various station platforms so we know where to stop and let the local layout inhabitants off and new ones on.
Today I went back down to the shed and hade an executive decision, and decided that I was not going to buy a 2400 x 1200 sheet of 7mm ply for the rest of the layout shelf from Sunnybank to Rocklea Sidings. I was going to use some 3ply that I already had that was very old, and is rather sturdy. I think it might have been bracing ply. I have quite a bit of it left and it will save my about $45 in ply. This will help me tidy up the shed a little reducing clutter. So I installed the next section of baseboard, temporarily installed a couple of braces to hold the baseboard up. I also finished installing the track through platform 2, and the relief line at Sunnybank. I have also installed the points that diverges the relief line from the mainline before we get to Sunnybank. I think I will spend some time early this upcoming week and install some more baseboard. I might even get to Rocklea Sidings by Wednesday. But I will need to buy some more steel rod from Bunnings to hold up these baseboards.
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