Fencing Contractors get Some Repeat Work

Saturday following soccer in the morning and after dropping over to Shelton’s just after lunch time for a quick 2 and a half hours to make a delivery and have a natter, I went down to the shed.  I added the rest of the restraining posts for my stockyard platform.  I then added the platform capping from 0.040” x 0.080” styrene.  Following that I mixed up two loads of plaster and completed the earthen loading back behind the platform.  I then painted the ground a base cover.  No grass or actual dirt has been added as yet.

 

I also painted the pseudo rail cattle fencing a nice brown colour.  Now people can see it against the white backdrop.  I just need the photo backdrops that I will pickup at the Brisbane May Exhibition.

A view of the cattle unloading platform.

A view from a slightly different angle.

While on my fence addiction, I walked past the local cemetery near Fairy Hill and decided that I needed to make up the missing pieces of fencing around this sacred site.  I had a few offcuts of fencing that I brought up into the house and worked out that 0.060” x 0.060” was a post, 0.040” x 0.040” was a rail and close to 0.030” x 0.040” were the palings.  So I then built the missing pieces of fencing and fitted them on Sunday morning.

The Cemetery before the fencing was completed.

The fencing over the uneven ground was the issue but relatively easy to complete.

It looks just like commercial fencing all the way around the plot.

My next activity was to install some fence posts that were laying next to the trackside near Baker's Farm. So I installed then all the way to the Rocla Sleeper Siding.  I then started installing the posts for a 12' barbed wire fence that will enclose the Sleeper Siding.  I made then out of 0.080" styrene rod painted grey.  I made up 35 posts from 5 lengths of rod.

Baker's Farm in the distance and now there is fence next to the track.

Looking in the other direction we can see the fence around the Rocla Sleeper Siding being installed by the contractors.

I was then looking at the level crossing near Lismore station and the roadway heading towards the Lismore Shell Oil Siding.  So I installed about 20 fence posts in this location and then set about installing the holes for about 28 of the yet to be produced 12' barbed wire fence posts. 

It looks like that next Saturday I will heading over to the local hobby shop for a top up of my styrene supply as I need another two packets of 0.080" rod and a further packet of 0.060" 'I' beam among other sizes.  My supply of fence posts made from 0.060" 'I' beam is running out.  I have 4 lengths of 'I' beam ready to be cut up into individual posts but that is tomorrow's job along with trying to fix an issue with my Raspberry Pi which does not want to work when I log onto it.  In "faceless" mode it works well and I can run trains.  But as soon as I connect up a Keyboard, Monitor and Mouse to my powered USB hub, and try to manually fire up JMRI - I have issues.  It is as if something has not started correctly.  So I will try and look into that tomorrow.  Did I ever mention that I hate Unix/Linux?

Still Doing Fencing

Early on Saturday I went to my son's soccer game in the morning for the season's first trial game and watched my son’s team dismantle the opposition 6-0 with Kyle scoring 3 and setting up another with a great cross.  Depending upon how they go against the team next week will determine how they go this year.  They only lost one game last season, to the team they will be playing in next week's trial.   There were players firing all across the park.  I'm looking forward to a great season. 

So once I got home, I lounged around for a bit, watched some catch up TV, and was just going down to the shed to do some work on Nammoona Ballast Siding, when my phone beeped.  Basically it said “Where are you?”  Whooooopppppssss.  I forgot about yesterday’s Ops Session at Anthony’s place.  All week at work, I was looking at my diary and I could have sworn that I had something scheduled for the weekend but could not remember what it was and it was not marked in my diary.  Well I finally worked out what I was missing, just 3 minutes before it was due to start, thanks to an SMS.  So up stairs and spoke to the boss, and I was away in 7 minutes.  Another almost 25 minutes later and I arrived.  The session was already underway.  My train was already almost half way through its 1st run and all of the shunting work was already done.  So I took control of the train and drove it to its destination.  At least I had 7 more scheduled trains to run and a share of a run of an extra movement due to the timetable being completed so efficiently.  As usual it was a great session. 

I was distracted for one moment when someone moved my beer (who wouldn't be distracted when someone touches another man's beer) while I was pushing 6 wheat wagons to the silo at Tatiara Downs and I sort of, maybe, almost, could have put the trailing wheel of the last bogie over the end of the siding into the dirt.  At least my “almost an incident” (and justifiable if it did occur because someone touched my beer) was relatively minor compared to the owner putting 7 wheels of my first train in the dirt with a too eager points change under train as it was taking the branch at Border Junction.  At least no passengers were injured or goods damaged with the running of the session.  For those that care - my beer wasn't damaged either.  This session at Anthony's is a great few hours of hard yakka.  Using your brains on how to put your wagons into where they need to go and how to get the wagons out of where they are onto my train with the available tracks.  The effort to set everything up between sessions must be massive.  It includes removing wagons from the layout, adding others to the layout and moving things around in some sidings.

 

Anyway I went back down to the shed today to continue with work on Nammoona Ballast Siding.  The plan is to build an embankment and cattle fencing in low relief at this location.  So to start I made some concrete platform facing with a rail front to retain it.  To simulate two concrete blocks on top of each other for the platform facing, I used styrene strip.  For the rail to retain the facing I used 0.060" styrene "I" beam which I paint mission brown from a spray can.  I made up about 50 posts before lunch today.  After lunch I installed some of these to retain the concrete blocks.  I then mixed up a rather thick batch of plaster to pour behind the platform to raise the ground level.  While I was installing the rail posts, I was running a few stock wagons back and forth through the siding to ensure clearance.

Now behind this small platform will be a low relief cattle yard.  After seeing the great scene created on the soon to be displayed layout Giligulgul at the Brisbane Model Train Show in a three weeks.  I wanted to emulate the same scene.  However, instead of the cattle fences being made from 0.040" rail as on Giligulgil, mine were made from 0.040" x 0.030" styrene strip to simulate the lengths of rails used for the fence rails with fence posts made from 0.040" x 0.040" styrene.  I find this cheaper and easier to use.  My fence will need to have a few gates installed and be painted, but it is starting to look the part - not that you can see it too well in the photos with the white on white background.

The platform bracing, the platform facing, the platform itself and the hard to see white styrene fencing in front of the white backboard.  Hopefully I will be installing a back scene onto the backboard in 3 weeks which I will purchase at the May Exhibition in Brisbane.

A few cattle and sheep wagons trying out the clearances in the Nammoona Ballast Siding.

This shot shows how far I got with the platform bracing.  Another about 40cm to go, and then some more plaster will be added behind. 

I still have to fit a styrene top onto the platform facing next weekend before hopefully completing this scene with a base coat of paint for the ground and even some ground cover on the platform, followed by some paint on the cattle fence and a few washes on the platform facing.  I might even be able to add the ballast piles in low relief at the other end of the siding as well.

This shot shows the 96cm length of fencing that I completed last week.  It is currently just sitting in the location where it will be installed.  Quite a few holes will be drilled into the baseboard for the fence posts.

I must update my diary for next month for Anthony's Operating session, however, I have the Brisbane Model Railway Exhibition on the first Saturday of May, followed by the Modelling the Railway of NW Convention in Sydney on the second Saturday.  I'm not sure if the boss will grant a leave pass for the third Saturday at Anthony's. 

So this will be the first time in about 14 years since I have attended a Modelling the Railways of NSW Convention.  I last attended just a few weeks after my daughter was just born in 2002.  I am looking forward to this event, as part of the Queensland contingent making their way down south to attend.

A Bit of Planning

Well I have nothing much to report this week in terms of modelling progress on the layout.  I basically spent a total of about 20 minutes in the shed on Sunday this week and that was it.  On Tuesday I had to drive my daughter to a concert of Youtubers at Dreamworld (Amplify - her friend had won some free tickets and my daughter was her plus one) in the afternoon/evening and then I had to stay there for about 3 and a half hours while the convert progressed.  There had to be over 1000 of so young girls in attendance and about 20 boys.  The car park was packed by a large number of parents waiting for the concert to complete to drive their kids back home to Brisbane or the Gold Coast and other regional areas.  So I made good use of the time studying a number of photos taken some time ago of some buildings on the southern end of the road overbridge at Cassino.  From the photos that I had printed out, I was able to estimate the size of the various sheds.  I was measuring and scaling various measurements and came up with some vary reasonable guestimates of the size of the buildings.  So I have created some rough plans, and will soon make some more detailed scale plans and this will translate into a couple of buildings that I plan to build either before this year’s Brisbane Model Railway Exhibition or at the exhibition.

 

I had also been looking at the great photo of the kit in the current AMRM showing the 20 foot container with a milk tank enclosed produced by Road and Rail Resin.  At this point in time $70 for two tanks is not money well spent in my modelling budget although they do look a very nice kit.  So I am thinking of building four of my own from styrene from the various photos I have assembled of these wagons.  I think I have been able to create a near enough rough scale diagram of what all the component sizes will be.  I will create a more detailed scale diagram soon.  Again I plan to complete these once I can get my hands on some 20mm conduit which I think I need for the tank.  I did have my eye on an old mop handle that the boss was throwing out, but it turned out that it was a metal handle and not made from wood – Bugger!  On Friday night I was able to complete the construction of 4 off 20’ container bases that I will use to house these milk tankers/containers. 

 

I also came across a photo of a waiting shed located at Glenapp Loop.  So that is also being put into the future production line once a scale diagram is made up.  Again a likely task for this year's May Exhibition.

Today with my 20 minutes available for Shed time before our BBQ guests turned up, I spent installing the last 15 or so fence posts to my 93cm length of fencing.  This is now ready to install into Lismore Yard.  I will then try to find a gate or two somewhere in my box of fencing materials that I can then install between the various fence sections for people access.

 

My next major plan is to complete the installation of a whole series of different types of fencing to a number of areas on the layout before September this year.  So that means making meters and meters of fencing of different types.

Building Some Fences

Last Tuesday we ventured over to Shelton’s place for our fortnightly meeting and were pleasantly surprised by what he has now achieved in his available space.  Shelton has had many starts and changed his mind many times.  Now what he has done is creative and looks good.  This iteration is probably 85% there and I think we all suggested he needed at least one crossing loop to be installed, to allow two trains to run at the same time when he has visitors over and if he wanted to, he could also add a return loop.  So we await out next visit with enthusiasm to see how this layout now develops.

On Friday arvo I came home from work early and ventured over to Austral Modelcraft to pick up a selection of seven styrene strip packets.  On Saturday I created some road armco railings from a kit obtained from Austral.  I also contemplated how I was to add some fencing around Cassino. 

The armco railings on Summerland Way

An armco railing near Lismore

This morning I went over to a Buy and Sell at the All Gauge Club at Carina and ran into two club members there.  I did not buy anything but brought home a couple of kits that had been donated to the Club.  Later this arvo I super-glued some wire legs to some wooden fencing.  This will allow me to locate it into the scenery.  Later I drilled some holes in the plaster baseboard and fitted these wire legs into the holes and the various lengths of wooden fencing were installed at the southern end of Cassino. 

Fencing near Cassino Station, protecting the railway right of way.

Further south, near the track crossing.

I also decided to make up a 60cm length of post and rail fencing for the fencing near the Dairy Siding at Lismore.  This has not been installed into the plaster base as yet, but will be next weekend.  I then decided to try and make another 93cm length of post and rail fencing to be located parallel to the storage sidings at Lismore.  So far I have about 40cm finished, but I ran out of fence posts.  So I cut up another length and a half of 0.060” I beam.  I use this as a modelling substitute for old lengths of rail, from which lots of fence posts around the country have been made from.  I paint this up a brown/weathered colour and then glue it to 0.040” x 0.020” styrene that I use for the fence rails.

The length of fencing just standing in place near the Diary Siding housing an 80 class loco

Another length of post and rail fencing being created but I had run out of fence posts.

The next batch of fence posts made from 0.060" Styrene I beam.