Meeting Day

Well, the long awaiting meeting date came and went. I thought I'd given an overview on what occurred.

I had taken the last few days off work as I needed a break and I also needed to tidy up before the meeting. The Shed and the pergola both needed a clean. I got the track running on Thursday. There had been lots of glue from landscaping in a few area and trains were now runable from Grafton Yard to Acacia Ridge Yard and return. I was not going to use the Murwillumbah Branch. Off to school on Friday morning with the family and while there the wife got called up for tuckshop duty as they were short. So Kyle and myself swept and washed the pergold out and cleaned all the shairs, stoold and tables on Friday morning while thr boss was helping to feed the hungry hoards at school. On Saturday morning I vacuumed the shed to pick up all the Styrofoam and sawdust left over from terra forming and installing point actuators. I had an early lunch and just had to await for the arrivals.

At 1:00pm to thought noone is coming! But little by little the troops turned up. Everyone made their way down to the shed. Some had been here before, albeit 3 years and 9 months ago. Quite a lot has occurred in that time. Everyone made their way around the layout loooking at the various scenes and trying to follow the track to put things into perspective. The meeting started about 30 minutes late as most were happy to stay in the air-conditioned shed and just look around.

Eventually the reason for the gathering, our Club's formal monthly meeting got underway and the relevant business attended to. Well all except the financial business as the Treasurer was gallivanting around the Tasman on Holidays. It's easy to do this when you own a travel agency - I suppose. Once the meeting was over, we tucked into some afternoon tea put on by the better half, and we drew two raffle prizes in the Club raffle. One was a NSWGR GLV waqgon from OnTrack Models which was won by Greg. Matthew won the detail set of a couplr of scout tents etc. After the food started to dwindle, a few members started to leave to get back home - most had a 45min to 1 hour travel time back home. The rest adjourned back to the shed and a few then started to run trains, and take more photos. At least one member was having trouble with his American Steamer (with sound). It did not fit through one of the tunnels. His box cars had clearance of about 4mm under the bridge at Baker's Farm, and about 1mm under the road overbridge at Cassino's Barker Street. The loco also hit its head (funnel) inside one of the other concealed sections of track. The loco had a nice sound, but was just too big for the NSW loading gauge. Why would you model anything but NSW? While a number of people were running on the main, I decided to run the 620/720 from the dock at Cassino to Murwillumbah. My kids then wanted to help so they took turns running it in sections back to Lismore and then onto Cassino. It then did a shuttle back to Old Cassino and return to Cassino. I think everyone was impressed by the progress and had a laugh at some of the scenes.

For a few photos (I did not take any) go to Greg's Blog below:-
http://gregsshed.blogspot.com/2009/11/club-meeting-at-craigs-place.html

Today I went down to the shed and ran about a dozen trains from here to there and back again, staging a few crosses at various loops. I took the opportunity to fix up about 6 sets of low couplings and about 20 low KD trip pins. I also planted another tree and installed about 40 sets of toothbrush bristles (2 toothbrushes worth) in the relevant sidings that wagons could be left on, so they do not run away. Did I ever mention that not one bit of the layout is on the level. Everywhere has a gradient either up or down. I also found a few sets of bogies on a shelf and pressed a new 80' container wagon into service, as well as one extra scratchbuilt ballast wagon (built by Mike Boyde). I have another (MB) ballast wagon but I just need a pair of 2BP bogies first.

I also started by Christmas Modelling Competition entry. It is a small 6" x 6" diorama with by Fairy Hill Loop Signal Cabin temporarily mounted on it. The cabin just needs painting over the next 4 weeks when I decide to break out the compressor and spray gun. I won't be at the Modelling Competition but I will have an entry. On this date I will be at my daughter's Dance Concert and getting ready to to go down the coast that night or the next day. This year I might finish the 10 NOCY's that I started last year while on holidays. I just need to find the storage tray with all the half built bits on it.