Continuing Scenic Work on Ballast and Stock Siding

This week I had Monday and Tuesday off as well as being able to spend some time in the shed on Friday afternoon and Saturday.  On Monday I had to make a trip to the local hobby shop to see if Raymond had some 0.060" Styrene 'I' beam.  As usual he did so I borrowed a packet and purchased a replacement pack on Tuesday from Austral Modelcraft.  I used the 'I' beam to represent the rail posts that are used at many cattle yards.  On Tuesday afternoon I hit the fences with some base colour paint.  On Friday afternoon I painted the 'I' beam rails a rusty colour.  Saturday I installed the fences and then looked at putting some cattle within the various pens to give them a lived in look.  The colour of the cattle looks a bit anaemic, but I can fix that up later.

The southern end of the stock yards with a few cattle in two of the pens.

Slightly north of the first picture, it shows two cattle loading ramps and two sheep ramps.  There still needs to be some internal fencing for this area to direct the cattle to the ramps.

 

An overview of the Kyogle Stock Sidings.  I still need some fencing at the northern end.

 Yesterday I also spent some time laying some ballast in the Bonalbo Ballast siding.  I think it came up quite well.  Basically this area is now complete except I might need some sort of a building for the workmen to rest out of the sun in.  I may also need some sort of shed for the heavy equipment, but I am undecided about that.  I will ask the Tuesday Nighters their opinion about that.

The Bonalbo Ballast Siding has been ballasted.  A bit of dirt was thrown around between the two sidings and behind the siding farthest from view.

Another picture this time showing the front gate.  Eventually I hope to install working gates at this location.

Today I got down to the shed and decided I might run a train or two.  I have not run a train for weeks.  I first had to clean the track where I had been ballasting and scenicing (Bonalbo Ballast Siding, the Bruxner Highway level crossing and the Kyogle Stock Siding), but that was the only locations I did that to.  I ran a ballast train into the newly ballasted Bonalbo Ballast Sidings and that worked OK.  I also ran a stock train into the Kyogle Stock Siding and that also worked well.  I then ran a few trains around the layout and positioned them as if the time in the timetable was 11:00am.  Three trains that were supposed to be running at that time had been accelerated through to their destination as they were only minutes from home if the next timetable session was to start with the clock set at 11:00am.

I ran one of my 421 class locos and it train across the Richmond River Bridge and some issues occurred.  I remembered that from the last running session.  I had to remove a millimetre or two from the top of the bridge pier as there was a slight ski-jump on the bridge between the through truss girder section and the Pratt Truss section, at the point where they joined.  After a small amount of filing of the plaster bridge pier, the 421 now seems to travel across there with much more ease and does not ground its fuel tank on the point where the two bridges join.

Once the trains were in position, I then sorted out the timetable cards so the North Coast Controller will know what is running midway through their run and the next few trains are ready at their source.  I then positioned the magnets on the train controller magnetic board to match the timetable.

Following that I then sat down and started to plan what I needed to buy at the Brisbane Miniature Train Show this weekend at Doomben Racecourse.  This will be the first Brisbane show that I will not attend more than one day at for many a year.  I and my fellow exhibitor Jim will not have a stand there this year.  Jim has other plans for this weekend and besides that we were not selected to exhibit this year.  We might be back again next year.

It will be good catching up with a number of fellow modellers this Saturday at the show.  I will be with the RMCQ HO layout Brendale.  Hopefully I will get a chance to run a train or two on DCC.