Where Did That Week Go?

Another week has come and gone, but I feel that it just flew past and I did absolutely nothing.  But on reflection, I did quite a bit of modelling.  I think I started the week off by painting 7 of the 20’ container flats that I constructed at the Brisbane Model Railway Exhibition 2 weeks ago.  I then on Friday afternoon/evening constructed 5 generator sets for the 20’ container flats.  

Early on Saturday morning I was able to visit a local hobby shop and pick up a length of 12mm flex for Acacia Ridge Yard and two lengths of Tillig Dual gauge flex track, also for Acacia Ridge Yard.   I ran into Grover and his daughter at the Hobby Shop.  The rest of the day was spent watching many soccer games and rugby games including the First XI and First XV games of my son's school.  I had a great time.  However, before I left in the morning, I spray painted the generator sets.  Later on in the evening I glued the now dry generator sets to the container flats.  I think later this week I will continue constructing the last few container flats, and then I’ll jump into building another 5 generator sets.

This morning was an early start as I ventured over to our Club for the semi annual Buy and Sell.  There were about 30 tables of sellers and quite a consistent stream of buyers.  I actually sold some stuff and made enough money to pay for a few items that tickled my fancy.  I even had some cash left over.  That generally does not happen that often.  At least I know that there are two people that read my blog.  One was my mate Shelton.  He was the smart aleck who posted about me building a fourth level.  Ho, Ho, Ho that was so funny - Not!  It must have been funny for a VR modeller, so we will excuse him for that.  So at the Buy and Sell, another comedian came up (Hey Mark) and mentioned am I going home to build the fourth level?  Well I suppose, he did not know much better, as he was an American N scale modeller – mind you a good one at that.  So that must be both of the people that read the blog.

When I finally got home and unpacked, I ventured down to the shed and the first thing was to distribute my newly purchased loot around the layout. Next was to get motivated to lay some new narrow gauge and dual gauge track in Acacia Ridge Yard.  So this is actually the third level not the fourth.  The fourth level already exists as it is the track at Rocklea Sidings and around to Clapham Yard.  As always happens there was a change of plans.  I realised that if I redeployed a couple of 12mm points, I could add another 12mm siding in Acacia Ridge Yard and also make another 2 narrow gauge run around sidings within the Yard.  So I robbed these points from Fisherman Islands.  So that means that I need to buy some more points to allow completion of Fisherman Islands Yard, but I will delay that until our model railway exhibition in August, when I save up some more money for track.  This new plan will allow me to store a couple more 12mm wagons around the layout.  I must also get back onto the task of scratchbuilding my 12mm grain wagons.

So I have some tasks scheduled for this week, and some more track laying for Acacia Ridge Yard next Saturday.  Then I will have to spend some time, probably all of Sunday and the following weekend completing the wiring of this new track.

Another brainwave I had at the Buy and Sell, was to potentially keep about 4 old style NSW grain wagons that I was trying to sell today.  I may consider keeping them to be part of a local shunt train from Grafton to South Brisbane Interstate, or maybe even Clapham Yard.  There was, and still is, a rather large Grain Silo facility on the western side of Clapham Yard.  I assume that many years ago, train loads of grain were delivered by new railways to this facility.  I guess someone will confirm this to me.  I could use one of the dual gauge sidings in Clapham Yard for the grain wagon spotting location.  

This Tuesday is also Tuesday Nighters, and the crew are visiting my place.  So early Tuesday afternoon, I need to come home early and just do a quick tidy up of the shed, and get the tea and coffee gear out.  We should then get an update from Darren about the Modelling the Railways of NSW Convention held yesterday in Sydney.  I’m looking forward to Tuesday.