The week
didn’t start off too well for me, as I was home crook on Monday. What
better medicine than to sit at the kitchen table and build another 11 gates for
my 40’ container flats. Later that afternoon, I was cutting up the old
flyscreen that I removed from my front screen door and making 99 sheets of
HO scale reinforcing. These sheets of reinforcing are about 20’ x 8’ in size. These will be
destined for various loads on some of my 40’ container flats.
On Tuesday
this week I ventured up the road to Lefty’s place. We had a good rollup
and we all spent quite some time trying to get Lefty motivated to lay some more
track on his bottom deck and then venture into building his helix up to the top deck which does have track on it.
On Friday
night, four of us ventured over to Brendan’s place for a Friday Travelling
Modelling Group get together. Brendan put on some very nice BBQ snags on bread with cheese, onions and a selection of sauces, and with
us all bringing our own flavour of liquid poison, it was a good night. We then hit his
modelling table and we were all working on many different projects. I was
the first to go for the night, and I think Darren ended up staying the night, with the theory
being that Geoff was to give Grover a lift home.
My main modelling
project for the night was the raised platform on which the signalman stood to
perform the staff exchange. My platform is destined for my Glenapp Loop.
I was also discussing a project with Darren that I am keen to implement on my
layout. Along the back of Cassino station, I plan to model and install all the
houses that back onto the railway line. In one of those houses, I plan to
put a couple of the 20’ x 8’ sheets of steel reo to use. I intent to have a mini
scene in one of the houses, where a new driveway is in the process of being
built, with the driveway all boxed up with wooden boxing in place, and the reo
being installed. There would of course be a pile of dirt where the dirt from the driveway
had been dug out to, and also a pile of gravel and sand and of course a model cement
mixer. I’ll also need a couple of wheel
barrows and some helpful scale HO mates about to assist. I’m just trying to work
out what house will be getting this upgrade.
Yesterday
was supposed to be our Operating Session at Anthony’s place. I believe there
was a good representation there, but alas I could not go. While I thought
my son had an afternoon cricket game from about 2-5, we were surprised that he
had a very early game from 7:30 – 9:55am. We ran slightly overtime, but they
recorded a very big win – 4/161 to about 7/83. Kyle was 6n .o. at the
end of the innings and took 1-8 from his two overs. He could have had more wickets if two LBWs were given and if the guy at fine leg caught a sitter which ended up going through him for 4 runs. His team played very well.
What made this early start a shock to the system, it was at the farthest ground
from home. So we left at about 6:20am on a Saturday - my sleep in day. While the day
was sort of developing for a surprise appearance at Anthony’s, my daughter had
a party at attend in the afternoon, so I would have been leaving Anthony's early to get home to
stay with Kyle as the boss took my daughter to her party. The day was
also the local NMRA meeting at Eddie’s place, and I would have liked to attend
that as well. Sometimes things just don't go your way.
Today after
doing the mowing, some tree trimming and the gutters on one side of the shed, I
went down to the shed to do some running. Yes, I decided to give my
Brisbane Limited consist a run from Grafton Yard until South Brisbane
Interstate. The train has only made it to Clapham Yard and few things
have caused this. When the train was approaching Clapham Yard, one of the
Auscision sleeper wagons derailed on my dual gauge diverging track. I think one bogie has
under gauge wheels. I will check this out in the future. When the train
was leaving Clapham Yard, the locos jumped a bit as they went over the point allowing for locos to diverge into
Loco Pilly. Upon inspection, I discovered that the point motor actuator,
was sticking though the point too far and hitting the bottom of the bogies on
my 80 class locos. So out with the dremel tool and the actuator was
shortened by about 1mm. The locos now seem to run through this now.
When I
parked the train in Clapham Yard, it brought back memories of a few things that
I have not completed in this yard. I need to install two sets of points at
the northern end of the yard. So I must buy one more point to complete this. So
I will be trying to get around to this over the next few weeks at a local Buy
and Sell or I might see what a local hobby shop has on sale. Now this
observing, also reminded me that I also needed to buy a couple of 12mm points to finish
off the narrow gauge yard. This is a longer term plan. This will allow a couple of narrow gauge dead end sidings to be installed. But while
thinking, I discovered that if I could put a HO set of standard gauge points at the southern end
of the yard, and by slewing the narrow gauge track slightly, I could obtain a small loco
storage road for my standard gauge locos. Upon further contemplation, If I used one of my existing
dual gauge diverter tracks, and used another 12 mm set of points, this locos storage track could be
dual gauge. But I will need to move my existing southern yard entry back by
about 12 inches at least. Now this thinking thing, is pretty
dangerous! I was now contemplating moving the southern yard entry down a
few more inches and then I could reroute the narrow gauge entry a bit earlier and make a
couple of narrow gauge dead end sidings at the same time. To accomplish all this i will have to do a bit of cut and bash on the baseboard. I am looking at
adding a new baseboard piece to the existing baseboard, supported somehow and thus allowing all these changes to occur.
The creative juices are really starting to flow at the moment. They are all costing me more money as I need to purchase about 6 sets of points now.
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