The Friday Mini Running Session or the Birth of a 12mm Layout

The main event of the week occurred on Friday with 4 guys coming over for a run.  We had Darryl, Chris, and John from the other side of town and Barry from up the road in attendance.  Unfortunately a couple of other guys could not attend - but there is always a next time.  Darryl was intent on putting some 12mm locos and wagons on the track.  Almost immediately my three 12mm wagons were out numbered.  We had 8 grain wagons on the track and two locos.  The grain wagons got swapped with a variety of louvres and we even had some 4 wheelers make an appearance.  We certainly ran into quite a few difficulties with the 12mm locos.  While my bogie wagons could make their way around the track, a QR diesel with its Co-Co bogies could not on some curves.  Bugger!  We had issues that will probably be resolved with some instances of gauge widening on my homebuilt dual gauge track.  Also while the bogie wagons could go through my dual gauge points the locos could not.  More issues to be resolved.  For most of the session, Darryl diligently worked on identifying quite a few locations where some track work needs to occur.  Thanks for that Darryl.  He also cleaned all the 12mm track. He also used a file to remove any large blobs of solder on the third rail of my home made dual gauge track.  Darryl’s track cleaning removed a couple of track feeders that were just recently soldered on, but they were soldered back on during the session.  

I knew that the standard gauge track all worked, but the third rail used by the narrow gauge trains was extremely dirty.  However, while Darryl cleaned the track, the rest of us started running trains on the standard gauge part of the layout.  The layout ran reasonably well.  There were two wagons on the same train that lost couplers.  One while wagons were being set out into the Norco siding at Old Cassino and the other while the train was coming back home and shunting in Lismore Yard.  These couplers have since been fixed.  We had at least a couple of derailments.  I lost a passenger car on the Brisbane Limited heading towards South Brisbane at one of the Running Creek Tunnels.  I know Barry lost some banana wagons in the hidden spiral between Old Cassino and Lismore.  

We also had two incidents where Barry had a head on with the banana train (which should have been going to Murwillumbah) when he hit a train on the helix heading towards Nammoona Ballast Siding.  He also had a head on in the other hidden spiral between Murwillumbah and Lismore.  I think he forgot to take or even look to see if a staff had been taken before starting out on his run.  The bridge over the Richmond River at Cassino gave us some issues with track power failing for a few trains.  A quick touch of the bridge pier returns power to the track.  I might have to look at this as the joiners slide on to enable the removal of the bridge should the need arise.  

We had a couple of breaks for drinks and nibblies and in total we ran 24 trains to completion and one was still en-route (the train that lost its couplers at Lismore) when we pulled up stumps.  We spent just under 6 hours running trains and talking.  I was quite exhausted by the end of it.

 

So there are a few tasks that came out of this running session.  I need to double check the spiral between Old Cassino and Lismore for a kink in the track.  I also have a list of things to do next weekend.

The first narrow gauge train at Fisherman Islands.

The train was joining the dual gauge for the run to Dutton Park.

Whoops!  At Dutton Park the third rail was out of gauge and it went into the dirt.

The train arrived at Clapham Yard.  It can't go any further as a section of rail (4") had been removed at a point at the southern end of the yard.

Darryl inspecting where the grain train had issues through the points in Clapham Yard.  Now where is that track cleaner?

Move over big boy, some real trains are coming through with the CPH in Glenapp Loop with a run of histerical society guys from South Brisbane Interstate while the 620/720 is in Cougal Spiral running the Up Mountain Goat from Border Loop Back to Cassino.

Chris controlling the 48 class loco.  It is about to couple up with the shunt to the meatworks siding.

The Up Mountain Goat has made its way into the Cassino Dock.

QR Loco in the dual gauge lead into Acacia Ridge Yard.

Then there was two narrow gauge trains in Acacia Ridge Yard.

Who is that Photographic Guy?  He's my ready made track cleaner.

Darryl making a video of his narrow gauge pride and joy.

Well two became three.  We were almost overrun by those damn QR things.  They even had sound!  I want to win the Lotto!