Tidying Up

Today I was pottering around in the shed for a few hours this afternoon.  I started running a few trains back to their start positions for the next running session.  At the same time, I made a few tweaks to the timetable.  One trains was split into two seperate runs.  One will run from Grafton to Cassino and over an hour later will continue from Cassino to Acacia Ridge as a different train number.  This stops a driver sitting in a siding for an extended time.  He can go back onto the active roster waiting for his next train.  I also programmed my Mini Panel with its commands.  I then gave it a test and when I pushed some of the buttons on the Murwillumbah panel, the wrong points threw.  So I just swapped two push buttons on the control panel and this fixed the issue.  All the routes in Murwillumbah from the panel involve the first point at the entry of Murwillumbah.  However, this was setup to throw the wrong direction for each route I set - Doh!  That is easy to fix.  Either reprogram all the normal throw to reverses and reservers to normals - or swap the two wires on the DS64 output.  I chose to swap the two wires on the DS64.  It just seemed simpler to do.

A couple of trains had a wagon or two added, or swapped for a better runner.  Some trains also had an extra loco added.  One train - the cement train on the branch - had its timetable changed to drop off two wagons at Lismore on its way to Murwillumbah and to pick up those two wagons in a run around move on the way back.  While running this train today - it reminded me that I had yet to install three magnets on the trains at Murwillumbah - Main and Loop at the Murwillumbah end of the platform and in the motorrail siding.

Yesterday I went to Jaycar and purchased all the push buttons (23) I need to make my communications panels or drivers to talk to North Coast Control.  I still have a few more stereo plugs to buy.  I just need our resident eletronics wiz (Brendan) to provide me with the schematics that someone like me can follow and what other parts I need to purchase and I will start building the system before the next running day. 

Yesterday I also revisited the 81 Class loco I was decodering for Geoff from the Club.  None of the lights were working.  I unsoldered the Blue, White and Yellow wires and attached a 9V battery and they worked.  Damn don't you hate that?  I then removed the green and brown wires and also attached the battery and Double Damn! - They worked too.  So I soldered everything back up and today I took it down to the shed.  The b@$&@*# worked.  Oh well there must have been a dry solder joint on the blue wire.  So now it has front and rear lights, and the front white markers and rear red marker lights light up on F1 and the opposite combination - rear white markers and front red markers light up on F2.  Not bad for $10 I think.

Tuesday this week we went to Bob's place.  The first time for over 12 months.  Peter from the North Coast (Caloundra) came down for a visit.  It was also the first visit for Shelton at Bob place to see his layout. 

On Friday night I won an ebay auction for a phone - $0.99. That should see me being able to complete my yard communication phone system next weekend.  This is the one between North Coast Control and the Grafton/Acacia Ridge Yards.  I will now be on the lookout for a spare phone or two in case these ones have accidents.

Next week I will be completing the moving of all trains to their starting locations.  I still have a few more things to tidy up before the next running session.