New Arrivals and Because I Could

This week I decided to take advantage of the Tom's Sale and shouted myself 2 x 44 Class Locos.  I then decided that I would put 2 Soundtraxx DSD-101LC ALCO decoders in them.  While The 44's Class locos turned up the DSD's have not yet.  So that meant that I would not be installing the decoders this weekend and taking the locos for a blast.  I do have the guys coming over Tuesday week so I need to show them something new.  Hopefully the two decoder will be here during the week and by next weekend we will have some more noise. 

Two new 44's sitting at The Ridge - awaiting decoders

On Friday Afternoon I mentioned to Greg at work that I might make a couple of containers this weekend considering I couldn't do any decodering.  I had planned to scratchbuild some containers for quite sometime but just never got around to it.  So I gave it a go.  I made two 20' containers and one 40' container and gave then a base coat of white.  I then hit them with a grey from long way away just to take the pristine white off them.  Don't ask me what patterns or markings I will put on them or even how I will do it - as I have not figured it out yet.  Does anyone out there make fairly modern container decals?

Two scratchbuilt 20' Footers on an Auscision Container Flat at The Ridge

A Single scratchbuilt 40' Footer on another Auscision Container Flat at The Ridge

Today I fixed up a couple of small things from the last running night. One 48 had a low coupler, so I replaced it with an underset shanked KD.  One 80 Class coupler was too high to I replaced the underset KD with a standard KD - the old swapsy.  One 421 Class was also too high so I packed the coupler down 1mm.  I also fixed up one AR Kits ballast wagon coupler that was too high, and fitted a screw to an AR Kit bogie on an HLX wagon instead of the standard push home plug.  The plug had previously given way and caused a massive derailment.  So this wagon had been sitting around for a couple of months awaiting attention.  This wagon was also sprayed grey.  I had previously picked up a 5 pack of well wagons (US outline - but who would know) at a Brisbane Buy and Sell for $15 - an absolute bargain.  But they had sat unused in Lismore Yard for at least 6 months maybe longer.  At the last running session, PK was allocated a job these wagons to be fetched and returned to Acacia Ridge.  However, when travelling under the wooden overbridge outside Baker's Farm, the wagons hit the concrete piers of the bridge and mayhem broke loose.  Well today the track gang got involved and slewed the track over about 7-8 mm at this point.  To achieve this, a 2cm section of track was inserted into main line to allow a slightly larger radius to be achived.  I test ran those troublesome yankee wells and all is now good.  A number of other wagons had gone close, even by 80' containers, the NR class and the Garratt, but these were the only others that hit.  All ready for the next running session in 2 weeks - maybe.