Operations Session Clean Up

Following last Sunday's Operations Session on Cassino, I took the opportunity to look at enhancing some things around the layout and then looked at a couple of locos that might have had issues.

My Tillig dual gauge point at the northern end of Acacia Ridge Yard always causes locos to stutter heading through it.  When running a consist this did not cause any issues, but when there is only a single loco this can cause a complete stall.  I cleaned the point blades with methylated spirits and a cotton bud and soldered a joiner at the toe end of the point to assist with electrical flow.  The other end is made up of all insulated joiners as this is the start of the next power district.  I have since run a couple of standard gauge locos through it in all directions and they all now performed well.  I also ran a couple of narrow gauge locos through the straight track and they also ran well.  Maybe I have fixed the issue.

Next stop was a point at the other end of Acacia Ridge Yard in track 1.  That particular point had bad electrical connectivity from the point blades so I added a permanent jumper from the diverging rail to the straight rail and now that works so much better after my tests.

Late on last Sunday I was testing the SX set hauled by the Golden Holden and it just stopped short of the section where the mainline from Acacia Ridge, the branch from Sunnybank and the lead into Rocklea Sidings all diverge.  A length of track that I installed for Sunnybank was second hand and was as dirty as sin.  So on Monday it was given a cleaning and then I ran my SX set forward and back through this junction in all directions and performance was satisfactory.  That train has not travelled too much farther as the set is sitting in Clapham Yard.

I then tried to check out an Auscision loco - number 44236.  It stopped dead while Arthur was running No 19A on last Sunday.  I could not get it to move.  But I did not try checking CV19 so see if it magically joined a consist.  I checked that later and that was not the cause.  So it left me with the only thing to do was to pull it apart and check the wires to the motor.  It looks like the motor is stuffed.  I removed the motor and applied DC direct to the motor and it does not spin.  I will have to try and get a replacement motor from Auscision.

A scan of South Brisbane Interstate (SBI) Station on Monday showed that it was in a complete mess.  OMG!  It was a complete cluster …  I had no idea where to start fixing up what was wrong.  Well the Sugar wagons should have been in Acacia Ridge Yard road 3, but were in SBI road 10.  So I ran them back.  The three wagons that should have been in SBI road 10 were in SBI road 3.  So I moved them into road 10.  Next step was to move the rest of the wagons in SBI road 3 into Park Road Siding road 2.  I noticed on Sunday that something was wrong with Park Road station, as I was supposed to do a shunt there and there was nothing in the yard.  I was supposed to add my train’s container wagons with those wagons in road 2 at Park Road Yard, but they were not there.  I think this was a left over from the last iteration of the timetable and I did not pick this up earlier.  But because of this train being at South Brisbane, the driver of the Brisbane Limited could not put that train in road 3 at SBI.  So they put it in road 2.  That was going to cause all sorts of issues as SBI road 2 is used to run around all incoming trains in SBI and that wasn’t going to occur with a train sitting in it.

So this took me about 3 hours to do, but I had fun.  I have since added quite a lot of detail to a number of Shunt Lists, to assist crews in the future.  I will spend some timeethis coming week working out where we are in the timetable for the next session.  I might back track some trains.

One item that I forgot about from the Ops Session and it probably caused us one of the most troublesome issues from the Ops Session was that the point from the Main to the Yard in Cassino near the signal box had failed.  I forgot to look at this until late on Tuesday night when I remembered about the issue.  On Wednesday morning, I used my PROCAB-R handheld to throw the points in that region individually.  They all belong to a single DS64 point controller.  I started at address 421, 422 and 423 and they all worked.  Address 424 did not.  Additionally, when I tried to enter this address the DS64 did not respond.  So it looked like that the DS64 had lost its address in output 4.  So I had to re-enter the addresses from 421 to 424 into the DS64.  Once done, I entered 424 as the accessory number on the PROCAB-R and sure enough it worked.  This is one of the very, very few times that I had lost an address in a DS64 point controller.

I have circled back to the Cassino Station Building.  I had previously found two SPDT switch to use in the controlling of the lights in Cassino Station Building and the Refreshment Rooms.  A third switch found lying around will allow me to separately control the station master office lights.  This was wired up and tested and looks good.

The other week I put my 3D printed DH, that I got from Barnacle, next to the Far North Model DH.  The 3D printed version with a motor chassis that I put together had the DH shell sitting very high.  I set about working on the chassis and removing some styrene.  After a short work period, the 3D version has come down by close to 5mm in height.  It is just a bit high, but so much better.  I really need to get around in making my other Far North Hobbies DH that I purchased a few years back now, as I have a real working DH template to work from.

Saturday involved a trip to Anthony’s place to act as the Station Master at Tatiara Downs for his Operations Session.  I worked with Alan as my shunter and Iain as West End.  I have not been the so called ‘Sheriff’ since the first few sessions I worked at Tatiara Downs.  That is about 25 sessions ago.  This is a stressful position.  I think I struggled by and everything got done.  I forgot to swap a Guards van wagon card on one train, and 'The Real Sheriff' (Brendan – who was out on the mainline running trains for a change) chastised me as his train cards were in the wrong order.  I just had it arranged back to front instead of front to back.  We had a great time in a operating session lasting about 3 hr 10 minutes.  I needed a rest after that session.

More Layout Progress and Ops Session

So I went to the shed on Monday afternoon and continued wiring the track power bus on the Sunnybank branch.  At one point I thought I would turn the power to the layout on, and you guessed it, I had a short somewhere in the power district I was wiring up.  Surely I could not have wired a dropper to the wrong side of the track power bus.  I surveyed the whole power district and found a loco sitting on a set of points, that got thrown in the layout start up sequence.  So I changed the points back and tested the power district again.  Still a short.  I was pulling a full 1.5 Amps in that power district.  I had another glance at the work I had just done, and there it was, right in front of me, I had wired one jumper to the wrong rail.  Bugger!

So on Tuesday morning I unsoldered the wrongly connected power jumper, and reconnected it to the correct rail.  I could not resist the temptation to give the power district a test and sure enough it no longer had a short.  I then continued on with the laying of the bus wire for the track power to the end of the Sunnybank branch.  After lunch I then added the jumper wires from the bus to the track in about 7 places.  I then ran my scratch built 2050 QR railmotor up and down the siding at Sunnybank.  I also tested another 2000 class railmotor on the siding and it ran well.  My other 2000 class railmotor would not run.  Maybe I forgot its number, but I thought I numbered them after the birth years of my kids.  I did get around to checking the address later in the week and it was one year from the number I thought as this railmotor had a van, so it was an odd number.  I then put a sound equipped 1460 on the track and backed it onto my SX set in Sunnybank platform.  It sounds good.  My plan was for running that from Sunnybank to South Brisbane later this week but when I did, it stopped just short of the crossovers near Rocklea Siding.  I will check that out next week.

Tuesday evening we went to Glen’s place for our fortnightly meeting.  Numbers were good.  I think we had 14 in attendance and after all piling into Glen’s Shed to watch a couple of trains circulate around the layout, we sat in his outdoor deck in the cool air and had a very nice supper.  Plenty of conversations were occurring.  PK picked up a QR DH from Barnacle.  This transaction caught my eye.

With my house being vacated by the boss, I put a roll of paper on the kitchen floor again and corrected last week’s issue with the point layout in the sidings on the future exhibition layout.  I did two iterations to get the correct flow on the standard gauge crossover.

This is the correct layout of the sidings.

I have worked out my next job on the layout.  I am revisiting the Cassino Station building.  I am installing the internal lighting.  So on Thursday arvo, I drilled two holes through the baseboard and wired these to a power supply via an on/off switch on the fascia.  This power supply runs all the lighting effects in the Cassino region, platform lights, street lights and car lights.  The other end was connected up through the holes and into the two wire runs I have in my station building.  I tested with a single LED and it worked from the power supply.  So I went ahead and wired up 10 LEDs which will appear under the platform awning in the station building.  I have also installed wires which will go to the refreshment rooms next to the station building and have these controlled from a separate on/off switch on the fascia.  I moved the roof of the station building to the platform, and turned the lights on, and you can see them through the roof.  I need to paint it next week.

Saturday was a trip with a car full of north side people to the NMRA meeting west of Ipswich.  There were three good presentations and a viewing of Greg’s layout.  The engine shed had operating doors.  I received a phone call from Barnacle a couple of days earlier and he asked if I wanted to buy a QR DH.  I said yes and Saturday was the day when the transaction took place.  When I got home from the meeting, I took it to the shed and tested it on DC.  It ran very well.  I placed it next to my 3D printed DH and Bob's version sits a lot lower on the track.  So it looks like I will spend time next week lowering my 3D printed DH to the same height as the one I picked up from Barnacle.  I also found one of my spare decoders, so after I pulled the new DH apart, I realised that the decoder will not fit inside.  I will need a very small N scale decoder, or a Z scale decoder.  

Saturday night I joined the people on the British Region 'Brew and Natter' for a couple hours of interesting discussion.

Today I had an Ops Session on the layout and we had Shelton join us.  He had not been there running trains for 5 years and 4 months.  He did a good job and provided us with some photos below.  We had a new operator as well.  Paul on Div 1 Super was here.  He found an error in the timetable, which has gone unnoticed for quite some time, so I have fixed that already.  I fixed a couple of other things and I have a task list for next week to fix up.  Everyone enjoyed themselves and they all performed very well.  Pity for one of my trains in particular - the Brisbane Limited which must have driven Bob mad, and we had issues with a couple of locos as well - which Arthur copped.

The CPH was running ready to depart South Brisbane Interstate Station on an ARHS tour to Kyogle

The Pay bus doing what it does at Border Loop.

The ARHS Tour has made it to Kyogle.

The Brisbane Limited heading north through The Risk.

These four photos by Shelton D'Cruz.

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...

Building Track for the New Layout

I got online a couple of Tuesday nights back with some of the Tuesday Nighters and Tyler from Taswegia.  Tyler was showing me detail photos from the QLD QImagery site from the 90’s.  We got online again on the Wednesday evening and a very detailed photo that Tyler provided me, blew we away and caused me to revisit my future exhibition layout track design.  My previous design of my future layout was from published photos and articles on the topic.   I had wrongfully designed the narrow gauge trackage in my layout siding area to have a large narrow gauge loop.  I guess these diagrams were correct at a point in time and not when I was setting my layout date.  The QImagery shots are more timely and thus more accurate.  A closer look at the photo shows that there was another section of dual gauge trackage in the yard.  I was planning on making the sidings through a large building on the layout - narrow gauge.  They were in fact both standard gauge tracks with one of those being dual gauge.  Out the back of the building, there was a crossover and two dead end tracks not both tracks coming into a single track section as I had planned it.  So I now needed to borrow PK’s dual gauge jigs again and build at least 3 more dual gauge points.  While that will be fun, it complicates the trackwork immensely, but it will also look very interesting.  I went down to the shed on Thursday of the previous week lunch time and went through my collection of previously made dual gauge trackage.  At that time I thought it turned out that two of the three pieces of track have already been made.  I have gone through a number of iterations of trackage on Cassino in a number of areas (well actually around Acacia Ridge Yard, Clapham Yard and Fisherman Islands).  So, these old points get taken out and replaced from time to time as I make changes to the trackwork, etc.  So I joined two of these pieces of track up to some narrow, standard and dual gauge flex track and ran some wagons through the track.  I’m quite happy that the already existing pieces of track all seem to run quite well.  So I only now have to build one set of dual gate points.

But I need to get my paper track layout diagrams out and re-design things to ensure that everything still fits.  I could not be bothered last week to do that.  So it looks like this Wednesday is when I will do this.

On Tuesday evening this week, I picked up the FastTrack Jigs from PK at our fortnightly Tuesday Nighter's in person meeting.  This jig will allow me to build my first point in the sequence from the siding.  I easily built that on Wednesday morning. This point was not actually a point.  It could have been built just as a splitter piece of track with the narrow gauge going straight and standard gauge coming in from the right.  However, the shared rail is on the right.  I did not need a moving point blade, as I could have just guided the wheels on the standard gauge around that angle.  But I put the moving point rail in this version of the track.  That might change in the future.  In the afternoon, I went down to the shed to put this new piece of track next to the point that goes next to it.  Then I went DOH!  The piece that I had reserved for this location, was in fact only a splitter track, and not a left hand narrow gauge track with dual gauge and a common right hand rail.  Bugger.  I had two of these pieces of track.  So I could have half demolished this piece of track and add in the narrow gauge point component, but I’m thinking that it will be far easier just building the new piece of track.  Luckily, this piece of track that I now have to make, is the other piece of track in the current Jig that I borrowed off PK on Tuesday night.  Sometimes you can get lucky.

The first point I built on Wednesday this week was the one on the left above.  But when it came time to check it with the one I already had previously built, (the one on the right above) my original one was just a splitter, instead of a point.  So I needed to make the one on the right.

This was an existing point that will go on the layout and form a standard gauge crossover outside a shed (which will be on the left of the point) to enable a run around movement on the standard gauge locos.

So this new point was built on Wednesday afternoon and finished off on Thursday morning.  While not perfect, I can successfully run narrow gauge and standard gauge wagons through the trackage.  I have also joined everything up in a test arrangement and can run trains the combination of all their pieces of track now.  PK may get his jig back next Saturday.  But it depends on how many photos he published of me over the coming week.

On Saturday I participated in a planning day for our NMRA Division to help identify some of the things we need to accomplish over the next 12 months.

Ops Session Follow-up, Another Ops Session and Helping Poor Marty

On Monday I was cleaning all the point blades on entry to Acacia Ridge Yard from the south with a cotton bud dipped in Metho.  I then tested all the points with the front four all working, but the 4 rear points were not.  On Tuesday when I started tracing the wires to find their DS64 point controller, I had summised that the whole DS64 had lost power.  When I found it, sure enough, a wire had been pulled out of the DCC input to the DS64.  So that wire was restored and the DS64 checked and all four rear points were confirmed as working again.  In my testing, I noticed that I had no power to Acacia Ridge Track 4.  So that was put onto the list to be fixed later.

Feedback from the Ops Session last weekend from my North Coast Control Dispatcher, was my phone system needed a piezo buzzer to attract the attention of the North Coast Control when Grafton or Acacia Ridge is calling.  So I found that I had one sitting in my Arduino Starter kit, so I tested it on Tuesday.  It was installed into the phone circuit and eventually I got it working well.  I had to change the value of a resistor within my phone system, so I could provide at least 3V DC to the Peizo buzzer to make it work.  I went to my local Jaycar to pick up another Peizo buzzer on Tuesday arvo, but they did not have any – the shelves were bare.  They advised that the next closest Jaycar had one.  On Wednesday morning I went there and picked it up and tried to install it in the arvo.  This version of the Peizo forces you to use the third terminal on it.  It has some other electronics on the board and is different to the first one I used.  But I just wired the V and S pins to my positive power supply and the Base pin to the negative/ground terminal.  It only took about 15 minutes and I had the call switch working from North Coast Control to Grafton Yard and Acacia Ridge Yard.

Tuesday arvo I did some testing of the Rocklea Siding area.  I made up a list of things to attack.   I needed to re-solder some cold solder joins and also cleaned the point blades.  I got around to this on Thursday afternoon.  I had a set of points that was not supplying power properly through the point blades, so I attached a jumper between the rails of the point.  That solved the problem.  But running a loco through the blades caused issues on one route.  I could not work out the cause.  So I packed the rails on one side and that solved the problem.  I found out the reason why I had no power on track 4 of Acacia Ridge Yard.  It was the perennial problem where I installed a set of points and never jumpered around the points.  So I added jumpers and now trains run there as well.  I have ticked off most of my to do list items, except that I had not run trains through the 12mm trackage at Rocklea Sidings.  Maybe this coming week.

Also earlier in the week, I noticed that three above track point motors in Rocklea Siding had their actuator come adrift from the point.  So I added a dab of super glue to the actuator and the side knob of the point.  When I went back on the next day, the points had stuck hard with the super glue.  Within a few minutes on using a knife on the point, I had freed up the actuators.  All three point are now working from the various control panels.

On Friday I went to Jaycar again to pick up some wire so I was laying a track bus for the Sunnybank branch.  I have started laying the bus, but as yet I have not soldered any jumpers to the track.  Plenty of time this coming week for that.

Darren and I car pooled to Anthony’s place on Saturday for Operations Session number 69 on his layout.  It was a blast with 9 people in attendance.

My first train was a hightop T.  It ran well and I enjoyed the train.

I love the detail of the diesel fuel tanks

I ran this steamer running this passenger as one of my 6 trains during the session.

A blunder by the west end not setting the points correctly, and the Fast Freight came almost to a catastrophe, instead of going through road 2. 

This is a great scene where the grain is being loaded into grain wagons via the Aagur.

On Sunday Darren and I, but this time joined by Glen, car pooled down to the Gold Coast to help Marty work on his layout.  Again we had a ball.  Marty put on some snags on bread with onions for lunch.  Although I'm not sure how much work Marty did.  He spent most of the morning looking for his cutoff blade knife.  We joked about Harper having it.  Sure enough she did.

Harper with the missing tool.

Marty was at it again, splitting the points with his VR coach on some of the newly laid trackage.  Glen was looking on.

Darren advising Marty what he needs to do over the next few weeks, so we can continue work on his Plywood Central layout.

Ops Session Update

On Monday I was going through my list of tests for the layout prior to the Ops Session.  After adding a power jumper in Grafton Yard between two tracks, I tested two locos which ran well on the test track, but had some issues on the layout.  I am thinking that I need a snubber added to my return loops at Grafton Yard to clean up the signal and this might help these two locos on the layout.  I did some checking on three trains to ensure that their wagons were in the correct order so the operators had a smooth run on the weekend.  They basically were all OK.  However, I could not find the timetable cards for one of the trains, No. 11 and its return No. 12.  The North Coast Control list had those timetable cards in it, but the main layout timetable card box was missing both these trains.  I remember that this train may not have run in the last iteration of the timetable.  The shunt lists for both trains was also missing from the shunt list box on the layout fascia, but again a copy was in the North Coast Control Box.  Maybe the cards were missing at the last session.  So it appears that I must have removed the cards in the distant past to do something, and I did not return the cards back to their rightful place.  Whoops!  So I printed a new copy.  I also did a small run of NL1 (the Brisbane Limited) out of Grafton Yard and I found out that the express goods wagon and the railmotor wagon were at the wrong end of the train.  That was my fault, as I can remember that I supervised the return of this train in the past session, I must have told the driver to do something wrong.  So I shunted these two wagons back to the front of the train, and parked that train back up in Grafton Yard. 

So I printed up the two missing Timetable cards, and the two missing shunt lists.  I inserted them into the correct position in the timetable sequence and noticed that another card seemed to be missing.  As I was going back upstairs and sitting down in the office to print the missing timetable card, I noticed buried under my multimeter, some timetable cards.  Wouldn’t you know it.  Cards for No. 11 and 12 were found along with the shunt lists.  Underneath them were 4 more timetable cards.  One was the missing one I was about to print.  So an audit was undertaken so see if there are anymore missing. All four of these cards were missing from the shed.  I found another 6 cards on my desk.  But these existed in the shed, as I reprinted new cards for the last session.

On Tuesday about 9 of us met at Cliff’s place for our fortnightly gathering.  It was another good night of great discussion.

On Wednesday after the boss left, I got my track plans out along with paper and track and continued on the design process.  I had read during the week in the AMRM magazine that a NSW Railway Club had 900mm wide modules and I think 2400mm long.  So I took a step back to see if that was possible on my potential layout.

I went down to the shed and tested the headsets and the phone system on Friday morning.  Headsets were all OK, but the phone between the main layout yards and North Coast Control did not work at the Grafton Yard/Acacia Ridge Yard end.  I pulled the control box apart and found a couple of broken solder joints.  So these were fixed and all was good again.  I then added some lettering to the control boxes and the phones, advising how to use them.  I then decided to give my Signal Panel a test before I released it for the Saturday crew and I found out that a few panel switches were not working.  I traced it back to two wires that had come loose from opening and closing the panel.  So they were also fixed.  I then noticed that two signals on the Branch B1 and B3 were playing up.  It took me a while but I dabbled with the Arduino code and got everything working again.  It has me perplexed, as I thought that I had tested the Branch logic and had everything working properly.  Anyway, it is all good now.

When Saturday dawned, I took the signal panel outside into the pergola for the guys to view later in the arvo, and with all the ambient infrared light from the sun, every IR detector lit up.  That was a real bummer.  So it could not be used.  Anyway at a few minutes before the appointed kick off time of the Operations Session, I turned on track power and I had a short on Power District 4.  That means I had an issue somewhere between Cougal Spiral and the far end of Acacia Ridge Yard.  Acacia Ridge Yard includes the auto reversing section of 4 tracks for trains that terminate there and return south to Grafton Yard.  I was stumped.  I could hear the auto reverser in that section chattering away, but it did not click.  I could not find a loco sitting over a set of points – which is the usual cause of a short.  It took me about 30 minutes, but the steel train that sits on one of the reversing tracks had a wheel of its last wagon sitting directly over the joint that is the boundary of the reversing section.  It bridged the isolated section with the wheel across both sections.  I moved the wagon 1cm and the short was removed.  What a waste of 30 minutes!  I had moved that train only on Monday when I tested each loco.  I guess I did that and then shut the layout down.

Photo by Darren Lee.  This is me trying to work out where the short was.  I was pulling out what hair I have left.

Anyway the Ops Session brought back some memories.  I was going to increase the output voltage from my NCE 5 Amp DCC system after the previous Ops Session, but I never got around to it.  Trains run very slowly in the Grafton Yard district.  It had the lowest track voltage output of any of the power districts.  During the session 8047 and 4848 on the steel train ended up being a total failure.  It turned up that 4848 while originally running, was eventually failed for being dragged around by 8047.  Then 8047 developed a straight short within power district 4, but it took us a minute to work out that this loco was causing the short.  So we removed those two locos and replaced them with a 44 class and that train got going again.  Apart from that we had a few trains separate, but once we got started most things worked.  Loco 44236 had working lights and sound but could not or would not move in Grafton Yard.  So we replaced that loco as its train prepared to get under way, i.e. the operator talking to Control and awaiting line clear to take the staff for the section Grafton Yard to Rappville Loop.  I took 44236 to the programming track, ran it on DC and it sprung into life.  I have no idea what caused it.  So we quickly swapped 44236 back onto the train, as the train was still within Grafton Yard just about to leave.  We had problems with the tracks into Acacia Ridge Yard not consistently providing power to the frogs of the points.  I will clean all the points this week.  Anyway we ran 16 trains with our reduced crew complement.  The main reason for today’s session was to give Darren 2 hours as Dispatcher on the layout, to complete his 10 hour requirement to help finalise his Dispatcher AP.  We ran for 2 and a half hours.  It would have been 3 if not for the initial short.  Also with most of the guys having fun in Bundaberg at their train show, those left back in Brisbane wanted to have fun as well.  So we scheduled this rival session.

The Rail Train traversing Cougal Spiral heading towards Kyogle

Jeff and his son Cooper were a 2 person crew today.  Cooper was talking to North Coast Control for permission and advising where they were.  They are running the Oil Train with only the gas tanker to be placed into the unloading track.

Two first timers in this shot.  Dean and Kevin handled the situation admirably.

Darren Lee took this selfie of himself at North Coast Control.

Darren Lee captures the crew after the session finished.

Today I went down to the shed and bit the bullet and wound the power output from the NCE 5 Amp dcc system to 16V.  Because I provide two levels of current measuring on the layout , the actual voltage at the rail is much less.  The first stage is the complete layout current draw and the second is current draw by Power District.  These two processes reduce the layout power.  I’ am now getting between 14 and 14.5V to the track in each power district.  Now that this change has occurred, I went to the point motor that was controlling the standard gauge point at Dutton Park that directs trains to either South Brisbane Interstate, or Fisherman Islands Yard.  This point was only operating in one direction, so had to be manually reset back the other way by a signal crew after a train goes to Fisherman Islands.  It had been on my ‘To Do’ list for many months to adjust this point.  I was planning on increasing the capacitance on one output of the NCE point motor controller, but never got around to it.  Alternatively I could adjust the alignment of the point motor to the point.  However, after testing today after increasing the layout track voltage, that point now works.  I give up!

While on my Mr Fix-It run today, I re-soldered a wire in the Glenapp to The Risk staff machine power supply as this went out late in the session.  I noticed while shunting some trains in Grafton Yard that a KD spring had caused a Steel Slab Tilt wagon to uncouple from its brother.  I added the KD spring and that was now working.  I looked at 4848 which had stopped running.  I opened it up and the wire had come off the Powerline 48’s motor.  That was quickly fixed and 4848 was working again.  8047 was another issue.  I put it on the track and got a direct short.  I took off the shell.  Nothing obvious.  I put it on my DC test track and it sprang into life.  It then ran on DCC again.  I put it back on the layout and it was running.  I give up Again!  So I moved these back onto the steel train that was sitting on Grafton Yard.  I checked the timetable card box and worked out that two timetable cards were in the wrong timetable sequence order.  I had their sequence numbers wrong.  So I fixed them up in the EXCEL Spreadsheet that is my timetable.  So I am now ready for the next Ops Session.  Maybe I will have the next session on the Sunday of the Sydney RPM weekend for those staying in Brisbane.  Oh to be a disrupter!

Layout Testing on Two Fronts

Early on during the week I cut up some styrene 'I' beam that I use to simulate lengths of rail.  I use this for fence posts made from rail.  I painted a few lengths and also cut up some fence rails from styrene strip.  This is ready for the next working bee on the Div 1 modules.  I also found a sheet of some laser scribed wood planks.  This was stained and is also ready to be taken to the next working bee.

Wednesday this week I again unrolled paper onto the floor in the kitchen/family room and threw down some track to continue the planning of the future exhibition layout.  I am trying to confirm the size of each layout module and the exact location of various items (particularly track) within the module.  This layout is then transcribed onto some small paper templates for each module.  These templates are 10 times smaller than the real modules.  It is pretty easy when you have a floor with 30cm tiles, as it is very easy to draw where everything is located on these small diagrams with a 3cm square grid drawn on them representing the 30cm x 30cm floor tile. 

Bit by bit some modules are shortened in length and width and the module edges are initially adjusted to allow for the position for a set of points that does not get positioned over a module join.  After next week I might have a completed 'version 1' of the complete front of the layout before I implement selective compression.  The layout is too long at the moment.  I am also using Google Maps to help with the location of road over rail bridges, level crossings and creeks, as well as some buildings.

On my way to the Club on Saturday I stopped off and bought some styrene as I had basically run out of 0.060" 'I' beam.  While at the Club on Saturday I took some measurements of the Club trailers that the Club layouts get carted around in.  I will use these to help design my future trailer for carting my future exhibition layout around in.  I think once I finalise the layout size, i will build a 1:10 scale copy of it in styrene and also look at how they will fit into a scale 1:10 trailer.  If only I had the funds allocated and approved to start building it.  I might win the lotto soon.

I spent a couple of hours down the shed after lunch today preparing for the Operations Session on my layout next weekend.  Next weekend is also the date of the Bundaberg Model Railway Exhibition.  A lot of people are heading up there, but quite a few are not.  So I thought I would give those not attending Bundy something to do back in Bris Vegas.  I’m still awaiting a few RSVPs to the session, but we have about 5 days before the Ops Session is run yet, so it is not really an issue.  I went through all the timetable cards and then gave each loco a simple test.  I found two locos that are not working for some reason.  They have been replaced in the timetable and I will spend some time next week pulling them apart and investigating them.  It has me perplexed what causes them to have issues.  I am also going through my loco fleet and updating a Loco card for each powered vehicle on the layout with a decoder in it with what each function does for that loco.  These cards will be located in a card holder on the fascia next to the timetable cards.  These cards will be in numerical order.  Layout operators can pick up a timetable card, and then find a loco card for their loco so they know what functions are available on that loco.  That is the plan.