Taking Things Slowly

Well with the long weekend and the beginning of a couple of weeks off work, I decided to take it pretty easy in model railway activities.  Instead I mowed the lawn and washed the car.  So far I have only been down to the shed for about an hour today before having to undertake more family duties.  I did get out my notes for the presentation that I am preparing for the Modelling the Railway of NSW and made a few additions and changed a few things.  This will switch into top gear on Monday, when I hope to complete my first draft of my power point presentation.

On Tuesday evening this week we visited David’s place for our fortnightly gathering.  His layout wiring is progressing well and very logically.  The rest of the crew (I think) have talked him into adjusting the sharpness of a curve leading to a bridge.  I tried to get him to change this many months ago and he did not pay any attention.  I’m sure it will remove any potential operational issues and make the layout more enjoyable to operate.  I think we also talked him into making some adjustments to the point work around his second major station, so he can introduce more operational flexibility when he eventually runs the layout.

Somehow later in the week, my brain then got to thinking about a level crossing flasher controller.  I had always wanted to implement an automated controller setup across my Bruxner Highway level crossing just south of Cassino and had started thinking about this a couple of years back.  But all that was put onto the back burner, so much so that I forgot what I have already purchased and how it was going to be put together with various electronic components.  After doing some reading this week, I think I can just do all of this operation just with a mini panel and some track detection.  I’m still waiting for a new Mini panel to be delivered to my local hobby shop for another purpose, so I might have to get a second.  Maybe this next week, the wanted delivery will arrive and then I can use the second week of my holidays experimenting with how I will get it all wired up and what the code in the Mini Panel will look like.

So today in my hour in the shed, I extended the ballast in Glenapp Loop another meter and this location is now complete.  Maybe tomorrow, it will be glued down as well.  I also went over all the ballasting I did last week and checked that all the points still worked - which they did, and that the ballast had been glued down and it had.  But for good measure, I did a quick dribble of glue over all the track one more time.  As I was working in Glenapp Loop, I accidentally pulled some wires from the baseboard above and had to get the soldering iron out to fix these.  I also noticed that two wires had come from my line of Ammeters on the Control Panel.  I think this occurred with all the jig sawing I did last week on the baseboard just a couple of feet to the right of this point.  But again, I just re-attached those wires and all is now good.