Long Weekend

On Thursday I went down to the Shed after the ANZAC Day March on TV had completed and tried to replace some wheels in my Trainorama 44 Class Locos.  I worked out how to pull apart the first two 44 Class locos and replaced 6 wheels across both of these locos.  In the end this was quite a quick process using a small set of plyers and a flat bladed screw driver.  These two upgraded 44 class locos now sound like a normal loco without the thump-thump-thump as they make their way around the track.  Before I tested them, I turned on the track power, and you guessed it, another short but this time in Power district number 5.  That is Clapham Yard until South Brisbane Interstate.  A quick inspection of the three yards in that section, Clapham, South Brisbane Interstate and then Park Road Siding, revealed that the locos on the paper train were on the set of points in the siding and the layout start up point threw the points to track 2 and this caused a short.  A manual change of that point, and everything is back to normal.  These track shorts are just doing my head in.  I also moved the locos of the paper train back off the sets of points to prevent further issues on the next start up.

I also found a bad power connector in track 10 in Grafton Yard and fixed that pretty quick as well.

On Friday I started getting my items together for next weekend’s Brisbane Model Railway Exhibition – Saturday and Sunday only.  I did a bit more of this yesterday afternoon.  Today I went down to the shed and did even more scratching around.  My tools are basically packed and I will have a few of my excess wagons for sale behind my stand.  I will also have a few samples of wagon loads for sale as well as a few small detail items.  Over next weekend I will be putting together a few small detail items to be made out of styrene.  These will also be available to exhibition attendees if they ask.

While in the shed today, I thought I would try and test my theory about extending the length of three narrow gauge sidings in Acacia Ridge Yard.  Well upon first thoughts, it may well be possible.  I will just need about three lengths of flex track and three sets of 12mm points, a Left Hand set and two Right Hand sets.  First of all I need to do some baseboard changes.  That will require a visit to Bunnings but that could be Monday week on the long weekend up here.   I finally got around to running the last train in last weekend’s timetable.  It was here that I figured one of my Jumbos headlights were not operating properly.  I put it on the programming track and read back the settings of CV21 and CV22.  They were correct, but the loco was definitely not responding to the commands I had configured by these CV’s.  So I re-wrote them and tested again and the loco was not setting these correctly.  Very interesting.  

I have made up my shopping list for next weekend and I am also considering ordering a DEB set from Auscision.  I am not aware of one being in service on the North Coast, but I believe there was at least on that ran an ARHS tour at one time.  So maybe.  I could then alternate my ARHS CPH Tour with a DEB set.  I could also run the DEB set on my mountain goat service.  Just when I think I am nearing the end of my track purchases, I find reasons to buy more.  However, I do need more locations to store more wagons – particularly narrow gauge ones.  These extra points will also allow me to run around some of the trains in the narrow gauge yards.

If you are attending the Brisbane Model Railway Exhibition next weekend, stop by the Structure Building Stand and say hello.  This year my partner in crime is Arthur Hayes MMR and he will have some absolutely brilliant narrow gauge wagons on display with scratch built loads – much, much better than my unique loads.  You will be in absolute awe.