“The Risk”y Business of Ballasting

Yesterday I spent two hours down the shed and all I did was spread ballast around the The Risk crossing loop.  I started at the point at the Glenapp Loop end and spread ballast down until after the platform at the Risk.  This is about 3m of ballast on each of the two tracks and a small perway siding.  I still have about 300mm of track to go to get to the point at the other end of The Risk crossing loop and a further 1m before the track disappears into the first of the Running Creek tunnels before the track ends up at Border Loop.  The track is already ballasted through the Running Creek Tunnel sections.

An overview of the whole crossing loop - at The Risk.

A close up shot of the northern end of the The Risk Crossing Loop.

The middle section of the crossing loop, showing the small perway siding.

The business end of the crossing loop.  The signal box and the platform building.

Today I had the pleasure of being picked up by Shelton (Mexican modeller) and heading down to Darren’s Wattle Flat layout for an operating session.  We also had two other Mexican modellers Anthony and Jeff and special guest Ian Millard of Liverpool Range fame turn up.  We had a very good ops session.  All the trains ran well, we had great company and we could stir Shelton.  What more could a block want.  And yes we did have some coldies put on by Darren.  Us NSW Modellers were almost outnumbered by the Victorian/South Australian guys.  I was paired with Jeff at first and we ran train number 109 from staging near Gollan to North Gulgong. Here it did a huge shunt and we then took train number 110 back to staging via Gollan.

After this we had BBQ snags on bread – traditional Operating Session food in this corner of the world.  After lunch I ran the XPT from Wattle Flat to North Gulgong and return.  After that I had a passenger from North Gulgong to Wattle Flat and return.  The passage of the passenger was delayed a few times, with a ballast train shunting at Gollan and a wheatie at Wattle Flat blocking the Loop, so I needed another loco to help me run around the train after the passengers had disembarked, before the train could return to North Gulgong.

After than we had a very civilised break with some cake and then we all headed off home.  It was a great little day.

Upon return home, I went down to the shed and was able to apply glue to about half the track in The Risk.  I will hopefully get down there later this week and complete the gluing of the ballast.  I will then turn my attention to ballasting the Kyogle Stock Siding, and Glenapp Loop.  I am toying with an Operating Session in late August.  We will see how much more work I get done before then.

Just before I came up from the shed, I cut in a few small pieces of balsa roadway around Old Cassino.  This was completing something started a few week back.  I did test run a guards van through the track and everything seems to work well.

The roadway to access the rear of Old Cassino platform.

A while back, I advised that I re-routed the construction siding at Old Cassino.  Well here is a phot of how it now runs.

The Construction Siding at Old Cassino is long enough to store my complete ballast train.  However, the loco does not fit.

I have plenty of small tasks to complete, with wiring checking still to do at Clapham Yard and also if my 12mm points have arrived, these also need to be installed in Clapham.  My goods shed at Old Cassino is also stagnant.  This might be my modelling competition entry for my Club’s Christmas competition.