Catching Up on Things

After lunch time today I went down to the Shed for a few hours.  I started by splicing in the Dual Gauge point that I wrote about last week.  I then tested it with a narrow gauge loco running through on the Main and then a standard gauge loco running over both routes.  I had to add a jumper for the standard gauge siding to make it work.  But all is good.  So now I can store a standard gauge loco or two in Acacia Ridge Yard for when I need to do some shunting or just replace a loco or two.

This is the dual gauge point in the lead into Acacia Ridge Yard coming from Clapham Yard.  The siding to the left can house two standard gauge locos.  The diverging track to the right, heads towards Clapham Yard.  The piece of track on the right is my coupler test track.  It has a fixed magnet in the middle to test the uncoupling of my KDs.

While in the mood I took a photo of the work I did previously in the Acacia Ridge narrow gauge Yard.  This section is still missing a set of point to make it fully usable.

The shot above shows the enlarged Acacia Ridge narrow gauge yard.  The track on the right is track 5.  It is dual gauge for testing locos.  The next track is track 4 and I need some track and a set of Peco points to put it in and make it usable.  The next two are tracks 2 and 3 and they are operational.  The track to the left of those is the Dual gauge track.  A train can come off the lead in the distance from Glenapp, and take the dual gauge and head up to the standard gauge loco storage in the first picture.  

A few weeks back I extended the dual gauge lead at the southern end of Acacia Ridge Yard.  I can hold a reasonably long train in this track.

I then turned my attending to looking at the master voltmeter on the layout facia.  I started tracing the wires and found that one wire went to the voltmeter.  So I then started tracing the second wire and wouldn't you know it the wire to the bridge rectifier had some adrift.  A quick solder and voila the voltmeter is working again.  It doesn't do much, but it does provide peace of mind that the output from the NCE base station is working within its specified limits.

I then decided to carry out some extra detail work in Border Loop.  I added two wooded walkways across the two tracks.  This will allow the track maintenance crews to move their trikes from the shed to correct track.  This also brings back memories of more buildings that I need to construct for this location.  I need to make the signalman’s house at Border Loop, as well as a few other buildings that are just evident in some of the shots that I have been able to find of Border Loop.  Unfortunately, none of the photos show enough detail as to what these buildings look like and what size they are.  Then we get onto colour, and when the buildings were used for.  Many questions and probably never any answers.

This is Border Loop.  The new crossing for perway crew and their vehicles can be seen.  

The other end of Border Loop also houses a track crossing made up of sleepers.

I suppose that I should start to spend some time doing my presentation for this year’s Modelling the Railways of NSW Convention at Loftus, Sydney in May.  I have seen a post on the relevant website that seems to list some of the presentations available this year.  Some look quite interesting.