More Places to Water Engines on the Layout

Last Monday while still on holidays, I completed the detailing of the dual control water columns that I received from Jim Hutchinson on the Saturday.  I touches up the paint on them and then set about installing them in one of the crossing loops.  These two went into The Risk Loop.  One at each end.  I had to scrape away some of the ballast back to the cork underneath and then drilled a hole for the mounting sprue and glued them in.  They do not look half bad.  I also got my bicentennial 38 out and ran it up and down either side of the water column to ensure it fitted. 

I think I will need to find quite a few more water columns to put them in other crossing loops around the layout.  I might be able to try and create some near enough looking copies out of styrene, who knowns.  This will be a project for a few weeks time on my modelling desk at the Brisbane May Model Railway Exhibition.

Yesterday I ventured down to the shed after lunch and I gave my NR class loco a run.  It probably hasn’t run for a couple of years.  I did find a length of track that I had just ballasted which I had not cleaned the rails.  You guessed it, the loco came to a sudden stop with all the glue still on the top of the rails.  The NR loco ran to all points of the layout.  Its load was my dynamometer wagon.  It started outside Grafton Loops and ran to Cassino.  That is a distance of 21.9 metres.  From this point it is a further 38.8 meters to Murwillumbah stop blocks.

From Cassino to Acacia Ridge, it is approximately another 79.5 metres.  Thus the distance to Grafton to Acacia Ridge (at the dual gauge take off point to points further north) is a total of about 101.4 metres.  From here it is just over 20 metres to Dutton Park and approximately another 9.5 metres to Fisherman Islands stop blocks.  From Dutton Park to South Brisbane Interstate stop blocks it is 13.7 metres.  That makes South Brisbane Interstate over 135 metres from Grafton.

Today a few of us went for a trip on the Railmotor Society’s 620/720 set from Roma Street Supposedly to Nammoona Crossing Loop, but it was extended right the way into Casino.  What Luck!  But I will post about this trip later during the week along with some photos.