More Layout Planning and Runnings a Couple of Trains

There was a working bee on the FreeMo modules of the Division on Monday.  We had a few attendees and work progressed well.  I think all the planned changes that I had listed on one module were implemented, and that modules look good.  We just need to connect up the track bus on the module, and then do the ballasting.  Did I say that the module looks good?  The second module was also tarted up quite well, although from my point of view, I feel it was let down with some very poor scenicing around a house.  The scenic material that was applied is too green and too thick.  But that is just me.  I will check this out again next time we work on it.  This module also needs the track bus wired up and then ballast added.  But before the ballasting, we first need to paint the rails.  I need to put the hard word on PK to do that as he is the resident expert in this technique.

I had solo access to the house on Wednesday as the boss went out.  So I unrolled a few of my track planning sheets on the floor of the kitchen/family room.  I then started laying pieces of track on the already laid out track lines on those sheets.  I then went and looked at how the new pieces of dual gauge track that I built last week were going to fit into the current plan.  So it turned out quite easily.  Although later on in the afternoon, I pulled up my aerial photos of the location I am modelling.  When rechecking my track plan it turned out that I had a couple of sidings feeding into the wrong tracks,  I just needed to move a set of points from the first siding track to the second siding track and then move the location of one of the new dual gauge points back about 450mm and all should be good.   

This is the northern end of the sidings, looking south.  The track at the bottom left is the standard gauge lead in.  The next two tracks to the right are the narrow gauge main lines, UP on the left and DOWN on the right.  Not shown here is the dual gauge mainline further to the right.

The next shot shows the end of the sidings.  I did not layout all the track in the sidings.  The right most track is the branch line.

On Thursday night I got an order for 3 of my Incinerators.  So I made up another 4 on Friday.  They tested OK.  I will deliver these next Tuesday evening.  Next job was to visit the local hobby shop for a browse.  Later in the arvo, I went to the Shed and ran two trains to progress thew timetable by about 45 minutes.  These two trains were not completed last Ops Session, as there were not enough crew to keep up with the clock.  The first train was the steel shunt from Acacia Ridge Yard to Clapham Yard followed by a propel back into Salisbury Siding.  Part of running this train is to do the various end of train activities associated with it.  This involves unloading the wire coils from the coil carrier wagon and placing them into the coil container.  I also had to unload the 5 steel coils from the cradles on the train.  Because this train did not start last session and thus did not complete, the coils of wire were not in the Steel container under the layout when the empty steel train travelled back from Acacia Ridge Yard to Grafton Yard.  So when this train gets to Grafton yard, the operator needs to re-stock this empty train and make a loaded steel train.  But with no wire coils in the steel container, this could not be done.  So I also did this task.  The second train was a light engine movement from Loco Pilly to Park Road Siding.  This is a positioning movement to have the locos on the train for the following shunt movement from Park Road Siding to Clapham Yard.  So this shunt movement is the first train to run following the resumption of the Ops Session next Sunday.  I was most impressed by the smooth running of both these trains around the layout.

I went to the Club on Saturday and caught up with the great unwashed and PK and Greg.  I had some good discussions with various people through the day.

Today I went down the shed after lunch and continued work installing the track bus on the Sunnybank Branch.  I’ve only got about 10 feet so far today.  I hope to continue this on Monday afternoon with the next 10 feet or so to be done.  I did a test and I do now have track power in Sunnybank as I ran my QR railmotor up and down the siding at this location. Who knows, if this bus install is complete by the weekend, I might have to inject a railmotor or passenger train into the timetable on next Sunday.  I also did a bit of work securing the coil steel cradles to the flat cars they are installed on.  These cradles float about on the wagons a bit.  So it is about time to make them permanent.  I used white glue for this purpose...