Last Operations Session for 2020 – Might Also Have Been the First One as Well!

This week, I have been working towards getting about 24 HO scale clothes lines completed.  I also painted the last two of my scratch built 12mm wagons.  A quick stocktake reveals that I think I have about 26 scratch built QR 12mm wagons on the layout.  More are planned for next year.

I also had to do some maintenance work on the layout including fixing the headsets system.  I had one plug in point for my head set setup that was broken when I did some fascia work during the year, and I also found two other points that were also playing up, as two wires came off the headset plug in point and knocked that plug in point down stream out of action.  So a test on the layout on Thursday was quick to identify what was wrong with the plug in point when I damaged it when I did the fascia work.  The other two were also easy to fix. 

I did a bit of a tidy up inside the shed by removing many half-finished projects and then got the tea/coffee making facilities ready.  I also washed down the outdoor furniture ready for the crew to come along.

So some of my other down time during the week, has been spent making another 52 pallets.  These will be painted on Tuesday this week.  The next tasks will be to build two more QR wagons.  I also have to add some nice 3D printed detail that a mate gave me to the layout.  More on that next week - or maybe during the week.

Today I had the pleasure of having 9 mates come over (1 other so called mate decided to go drinking somewhere else, two other mates were away with their families) to run a train or two for the last time in 2020.  I had most of my usual crew and Brad along for the first time.  Brad and Marty were there to film some footage for a session to be broadcast on NMRA-X on Monday 28/12/2020 at about 11:00am Queensland time.  We ran 27 trains in the three hour Operations Session.  Some of these trains are very short in terms of time to complete, while others take a long time to run and have to cross sometimes three other trains in the opposite direction on my single track layout.  They can take close to an hour to run.  Some have some rather difficult to follow shunting movements to complete.  Sure we had some issues, but other bits ran very well.  We had some issues with our headsets.  I different one that didn't touch during the week, decided to go down.  I can see a wire off the back of this one.  I think I will have to disconnect the whole headset system and then re-connect it bit by bit and see if I have some sort of crossed wire somewhere, as there is a huge scream in the headsets.  I don’t think the scream is caused by the headset bus line, being parallel to the DCC track bus.

So I recently replaced some of my old NSW RUB cars with new ones from Auscision and wouldn’t you know it, this train caused all sorts of issues when it was run.  So the old train ran well.  The complete new RUB set ran well, but when intermixed, they did not go too well together.  Of course because they ran well separately in their original trains consists, I did not test the new hybrid train prior to the Operations Session.  Guess what I will be doing next week?  A couple of other trains stalled at various locations, a few wagons derailed, my steel train ran abysmally, one loco went belly up and stopped working.  So I will re-run these trains during the next week and try and sort out their issues.  I have a couple of track sections to fix up where some power feeds were displaced.  While the camera crew got photos, I did not get any. 

Thanks to my crew for coming over, participating in the Operations Sessions, and having overall good time.

Merry Christmas

I just wanted to wish all the readers of this blog a very Merry Christmas.

I do hope that you are able to spend some time with the people that mean the most to you.  If you can't be close to your family, try and contact them via online methods (facetime, skype, zoom, MS-teams, etc.) so you can at least see them and have a chat to them.  If that fails, just pick up the phone.

Now tomorrow (the 25th) is well known as the date that the big fat fella that dresses in red (that is not PK by the way) always drops off some presents under the Christmas tree.  So if there is nothing model railway related under the tree, just dip into your piggy bank and buy that new piece of rolling stock that you always wanted.  I give you permission.

Merry Christmas everyone.

More Wagons hit the Layout

This week started with Monday being a day off work.  The whole family went to coffee and and other nice things and when we got home, then I was able to get to the Shed.  I completed the track installation in Grafton Yard and tested all the electrical work.  I also fixed the three track power issues I had identified the previous weekend.  I did a round of the hobby shops on the south side on Saturday.  First stop was Austral Modelcraft, then over to Aurora Trains and finally to Modeller’s Warehouse.

I picked up a universal joint to help fix a Trainorama 44 class, a packet of 5 x 12mm wheels for some scratch built 12mm wagons, and some other details items.

On Friday afternoon, I started building four of my own QR 12mm FJS wagons without the sides fitted.  This has been a plan for many months.  But Wuiske Models released out some very nice models of FJC wagons this week and that inspired me.  My four wagons were competed on Saturday and I turned two into FJC’s so I will have to add the Cement bins.  I was quite impressed with how they came out.  The two FJCs were painted this afternoon.  I have some plans for building two QR container flat B wagons over the Christmas – New Year break.  One of these will carry 2 x 25’ QR refrigerated containers that I have sitting in Rocklea Sidings. 

During the week I made my last updates to the timetables for the Operations Session.  So the timetable cards have been printed and the cards sorted into timetable order.  The master diagram that says were everything is on the layout (i.e. what track each train starts from) when the timetable kicks off.  It also tries to track where trains lay over during the Operations Session.  What it does not have is any narrow gauge trains in it yet, as it currently predates all but a very simple 12mm trains included in the QR timetable.  So that will be remedied over the Christmas – New Year break when I get some downtime.

Other activities I started yesterday was building 24 clothes lines that someone asked me for.  These will be completed by Thursday – including painting.  I also have plans to build another 52 pallets, again an order for someone.  I also wish to building about 6 steel loads from various flat or open wagons also over the Christmas – New Year break.  I must remember that I also need about a dozen box trailers to be built.  All these activities will only take a few hours on any day to complete.

Another activity that I have been doing this afternoon is trying to make a replacement universal drive shaft out of some brass strip.  I created three universals and they seem to work, but just don't have the same flexibility in the drive train.  Maybe some fine tuning will produce a better end result.

Still Doing Preparations

This week I returned to work after a week of holidays.  I hate work!  I finished early on Friday and got everything read to take to the Club for our Modelling Competition and Christmas BBQ.  There was quite a few members in attendance at the Club yesterday - maybe over 40.  There were a few invited guests from the Local council and ex-councillors.  It was good to say thanks to our leaser. 

There was some good models in the competition, but unfortunately I didn’t get a trophy.  There is always next year.  The competition has basically reverted to a popularity competition and we no longer judge modelling ability.  I think we need to re-introduce some different categories next year so we can have different types of models correctly judged against items of similar construction.  This is what we used to do, but the number of entries had declined until this year, when we got well over 20 entries.  There was some very nice entries, including some scenes on our Club layouts that were entered.  To me printing a model in 3D and presenting that is not in the same category as scratch building the same item in wood or styrene.  The voting yesterday was just a popularity contest and of course none of the voters judged those entries against a list of skills and techniques which would be taken into account for a modelling competition.  Oh I like that in green – tick – that is my vote. 

Anyway, it was a good day.  I had some good discussions and plenty of laughs.  I also missed out on the 7 or 8 Christmas hampers that we assembled for the day. 

Before I went to the Club, I stopped off at a couple of hobby shops.  I needed some rail joiners which I got at Austral Modelcraft and some styrene which I got from the shop near the club - RC Models.

Today I went down to the Shed just before lunch and ran the remaining 13 trains.  I adjusted some bogies, couplers and some track.  I also re-read the timetable cards to ensure that the instructions make sense and are able to be followed.  The timetable cards have been re-ordered.  The timetable has now been reset ready for the upcoming Operating Session in a couple of weeks time.  Everything in the standard gauge setup is in its correct place.  I need to print off a couple of timetable cards, as these were written on during the last time they were used.  That is what the crew is supposed to do – to report issues to me.

Late this afternoon, I started installing the series of crossover points in Grafton Yard.  That will allow trains to slip between track 1 to track 2, track 2 to track 3 and track 3 to track 4 in the various return loops that is Grafton Yard.  I will complete this activity tomorrow afternoon and then I will need to add some electrical jumpers around the various sets of points.  I still have three other sections of track that has track connectivity issues so that will be investigated at the same time tomorrow afternoon.

Tomorrow I hope to also do some adjusting of the wagons in consists of the Brisbane Limited and the North Coast Motorail.  I will add some of my Auscision RUB coaches and FAM Sleepers to each train and remove some of my Calipari coaches – some are even unpainted.  The new consists will then get a run on the layout end to end to test them before the Operating Session.  Now where did I place my train consist information?

The only major task left to do before the Operating Session is test the headsets – next week’s job.  I know that some of these plug in points need some work, as I damaged at least one plug in point when I added some fascia.

I will then start planning for the next lot of narrow gauge wagons that I will be building over the Christmas Holiday break.  After the next four wagons are complete, I will be building some more removable steel loads, some clothes lines, and some box trailers.

Preparations for Operations Session in December

Well I spent a huge amount of time on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday running trains on the layout.  I had not run trains for quite some time, especially running a timetabled train.  Wednesday started off fixing a number of things on the To-Do list.  First off there was a staff section from Cassino to Old Cassino was not working.  It turned out to be a wire coming off a switch.  The second issue was the staff section Old Casino – North Fork.  The staff machine at the north fork end – near Hotham Street level crossing was compromised when I did the work installing the level crossing detectors at Hotham Street a few months back.  Again that was a loose wire.  So that was fixed and it is also working.  I had been planning adding small section of fascia near the Cassino to Old Cassino junction, and that was also installed, and the various staff instruments, the cab holder, and the headset plug in points were all disconnected and re-connected to allow the fascia to be upgraded.  It looks good.  That meant that I needed to fix the interface between the layout and the fascia.  So some Styrofoam and plaster was added to improve the area.  I still need to give it a paint and add some scatter.

While running about 60 trains in those three days, I found some issues with some locos.  One 8019 would not display any lights.  So it went to the programming track and had its CV29 rebuilt.  When re-tested, it now has its cab lights in number 1 and 2 ends working, and the headlight in number two end working.  The front headlight works when I apply voltage directly to the LED, so it must be the driver circuit in the decoder.  I did try and read CV120 to determine what it is set to, I need it set to 161, and also CV33 to ensure it is set to 1, and they were  But I could not get the front LED headlight to work.  Might be the time for a new decoder in that loco.  Maybe I will issue a decoder reset and see if that fixes anything up.

Another loco 4894 ran its stock train, but at a very slow speed.  I could have walked from Grafton to Kyogle quicker that the loco took to get there.  Again, I reprogrammed the main CV29 and then when I put it back on the track it ran normally.  I cannot explain that.

I had another 80 class 8028 that I think I purchased second hand, and it was a bad runner.  So it sat in a siding for a couple of years.  So I pulled it apart and determined that it had no LED’s installed.  I then applied power directly to the motor and it started to run.  Eventually it ran better.  I then decided to add the cab lights at each end, and the front and rear headlights.  These all work well and the loco can now rejoin the roster again.

A number of wagons had some slight tinkering done to them.  That included adding some lead weight to three meat wagons.  I still need to work on 44240 that keeps having issues when it runs over a certain set of points and it loses its identity.  I found out that a set of points was not throwing correctly, as the wire from the point motor to the point had come out of the point.  So that was replaced and the point nailed back down.  I also have about 4 x 44 class locos that also need to have their wheels checked as they are all thumpers.  I’ve tried doing this previously and I get the same thumping back even after replacing the gears.  It makes me think that it is one of the other gears in the various drive towers that may have split.

Today I got around to checking one 44 class loco that was on fix up list and it is now working well.  Next were the wagons on my oil train.  One by one, I checked the coupler heights and they were all fractionally low.  So I added KD washers underneath the wagon, above the bogie and all now look better against the KD height gauge.  This train was giving me trouble as it ran around the layout over the previous 3 days.  I also cleaned the loco’s wheels.

I had some issues with some wagons going over Upper Richmond River Bridge at Kyogle.  It was then that I realised that I had knocked one of the piers underneath the bridge out.  So that caused the track to sag and caused some derailments and uncouplings.  Once I removed some junk in front of the track at that location, I could see that I had caused this and it was easily fixed.  No issues once I replaced the bridge pier.

The next locomotive I wanted to investigate was 4498.  Well I was getting a bind in the drive train.  I thought it was the motor so I swapped that out.  That didn’t fix it.  I then realised that one gear in one bogie had lost the piece of plastic which runs through the middle of the gear which it rotates on.  I tried to use a piece of wire, but I could not get it to work too well.  I also broke a universal drive joint at the other end of the loco.  It must have some bad vibes coming from it.  I was hoping to get it repaired before my upcoming operations session.

I checked two other 44 class locos and they run smooth enough to be put back on the layout.  They might be slightly noisy, but they can make the next Operations session.  I have another 44 class that is also a pretty rough runner.  So I might change out some 44 class gears in this one.  I will keep you informed in a future blog update.

I still have about 20 trains left to run on the layout to complete the timetable and thus re-stage everything before the next Operations Session.  So that is next Sunday’s task.  Saturday is a Club Christmas BBQ and modelling competition day.  So I will spend all the day there and will not get any time to do anything Shed related.

Yesterday Darren, Geoff, Brendan and myself ventured to Toowoomba for a check out of Bill's Layout followed by a BBQ lunch at Steve's place and then a small operations session on Steve's layout.  It was a long day, and I enjoyed it.  Thanks everyone, including those other modellers involved during the day - Brent, Bazz and Ben.

Modelling Comp Entry Completed – Other Fun Models Almost

This week started off with NMRA-X last Sunday.  I was giving my presentation at 11:00am my time.  I started watching from around 8:00am and went through until the end at about 2:00pm.  On Tuesday night and Wednesday night I also got online and was talking to a few people.  On Friday I went to a local cheap shop and purchased two LED candles.  These were the basis of two pot belly stoves that now have a flickering LED in them. 

On Saturday morning I met up with Darren, Geoff and Brendan at the Modeller’s Warehouse open day with sales tables and a BBQ.   I was dumbfounded when we were all out the front and a bus pulled up.  It had RailBus on its destination board – OMG.  Someone has hijacked a rail-replacement-bus and driven it to the model shop!  It turned out being the guys from AMRA had hired a bus from their clubrooms over to the shop.  

The Railbus outside Modeller's Warehouse

I may have bought a few trees at the sale day.  I did see a few NMRA members there, a couple of RMCQ members and a few Logan guys.  It was a great day.  I showed off my Flickering Pot belly stove and I think the guys enjoyed it.

A pot belly stove with its flickering LED inside

A closer up photo

When I got home, I decided to work on my diorama for the RMCQ Christmas Party Modelling Competition in 2 weeks time.  Well It is now complete.  It is a small 6 inch x 6 inch diorama.  I am quite happy with it.  It comprised a couple of trees I purchased today and some other items that I had purchased previously and other items I scratch built.  I will post a photo in 2 weeks time after the Competition judging.  I am thinking that I might have to add a tree house to the tree, but this may not get completed and added.  I’m still undecided.

So today I sat at the kitchen table and built up another 6 pot belly stoves.  These have been assembled, have working opening front doors, and have been painted up.  I’m just missing the flickering LEDs.  I will try and get 6 flicking LEDs tomorrow.  I know where they are supposed to be stocked.

Bob's Visit and NMRA-X

On Tuesday this week the Tuesday Nighters gathered at Barnacle Bob’s place for our fortnightly meeting.  We got another look at this fantastic layout.  I have quite a few photos to add to this blog entry at the end to show off the layout.  I took some of my new HO and HOE wagons to Bob’s place and loaded three onto a siding.  Bob soon dispatched a loco over to where they were and took them for spin.  Well, they needed some additional weight.  The coupler on some had locked up so that needed some work and the bogie screw was too tight on some and all these things together made them run quite poorly.  But they get round and back again even if they had to be re-railed a few times.  So on Friday afternoon, I added some sheet lead weights to the bottom of the five 12 mm wagons.  I moved the couplers back and forth to break the glue hold and did a quick job to free up the coupler swing< when the couplers were installed, a touch of glue must have got inside my coupler pockets.  Nothing that cannot be quickly overcome.  I also adjusted a couple of bogie screws.  Next job was to dull coat the insides of the wagons.  So I have given then a basic run at home in Acacia Ridge Yard and they might still be too light,  I will look at installing some more lead weight next weekend.

While we were at Bob’s I glimpsed an old pot belly stove.  I asked Bob is it was one that I made and he advised yes.  It scrubbed up quite well.  So the conversation turned to making it have a fire inside it, just like my incinerators.  Challenge accepted!  So I rummaged around at home on Saturday and found some styrene to make up some new pot belly stoves or three.  The plan is to buy some more LEDs (I didn’t get around to doing anything this weekend) and maybe also have a door that can open on the front of the pot belly.  So I have made up three new stoves, and cut the door out.  One night this week I will try and make a hinge on the door so it will open and close.  I will then install the LED, connect it to a power source and see if it can boil some water.  Watch this space!

Today was the latest NMRA-X convention online on Facebook and YouTube.  I was rostered on at 11:00am to talk about Building Pallets.  My presentation was a very simple demonstration of how to build some HO scale pallets and features some prototype photos and model photos of using pallets around the layout.  Now that this activity has been completed, I need to prepare my next NMRA-X presentation next year on creating a timetable graph for an operations session.  However, before this task, I need to do a few more things on the layout.  One job is to install some more crossovers in Grafton Yard on my concentric return loops.  I also have to do some more testing of the narrow gauge timetable, given that the numbers of wagons keeps growing.  I also need to potentially add one if not two more 12 mm sidings to store these additional 12mm wagons.  Another task I need to do before the next Operations Session is to build maybe another 5 flat wagons for various loads like sugar bins and cement bins and a few more items coming soon.

I believe I have about 5 weeks to set all this up and get read for an operations day.

So here are some photos from Barnacle Bob’s layout visit on Tuesday night this week.

Some beasts in a yard fattening up.

Close up of the beasts.

This wind mill turns and it looks like water is pumping into the open trough.

A baby osprey is nesting up the mobile tower.

The local school sees some action.

Inspector Bob is supervising the car being removed from the creek.

Crickey!  Vegemite sandwiches.

This shot shes the detail of a ditch next to the road overrun by weeds.

An incinerator roaring away.

Work site.

Shopping trolley lost in the mangroves.

Fire extinguisher at the work place.

Two tree fellers with a chain saw.

Seconds later, the tree comes down.

Concrete being laid.  The cement truck has its bowl turning.

A boat with rods in the back along with life vests.  Bob thinks of everything.

My pot belly stove.

Rural fire station will bell out the front.  Next door is the local toilet block, with light posts guiding the way around the outside.

Rubbish in the mangroves.

Someones boat with a tree growing up through it.  A crab is walking through the shallows in front of the boat.

Security access point in the business to open the automatic gate.

A tyre in the mud on the banks of the creek.

Someone fishing off the jetty.  He has pulled into two mud crabs.

Silver Bullet crossing the automated level crossing.  Detection circuitry and logic by me.

is that PK in the trailer?

Some ducks swimming in a very dirty creek.

Bee hives in the bush.

An old derelict church.

A gantry crane to load/unload logs at the saw mill.

A very nice log wagon.

Jack chopping some firewood.

A rubbish bin on the wharf.

The garage has a working hoist and some spare tyres for sale.

Some of the crew inspecting the layout.

Looks like some business has just been transacted.

A HO and 2 x HOE wagons.

Some more junk on the banks of the creek.

A skeleton of a cow in Mosquito creek.

Another shot of the lights outside the toilet block.

Washing going up and when completed, I'm Mary will sit in one of her chairs under the shade tree.

5 New Wagons Almost Ready For Use

So this week I was diligently sitting at the Kitchen table on some evenings adding more details to the next lot of 5 QR wagons for the layout, until I ran out of the particular sizes of styrene strip.  So in the morning on Saturday I stopped off at two hobby shops - the third was closed, and picked up some packets of styrene at one, and another packet of 5 pairs of 12mm bogies at the other.  The bogies are for my next lot of scratch built QR wagons.  I then went to the Club for our monthly meeting, sausage sizzle and a natter.  Yesterday afternoon after returning from the Club, I cut up the remaining pieces of styrene to make the centre sills on the wagons.  Today I made up my own coupler pockets and added the top lip of the wagon sides.  I then got the wagons ready for painting.

I then bit the bullet and masked up the two HOE steel carrying wagons.  I then painted the insides of the wagons a mission brown colour.  After that dried, I masked up the wagons again and then painted the outside of the two wagons a nice white.  After another couple of hours, I sprayed some blue paint into a small cup and then used a paint brush to paint the bottom lip of wagon a blue colour.  The blue paint I had is just slightly lighter that the pictures I had of the wagons.

I then painted the three HO wagons a QR grey colour.  These were allowed to dry a bit, before being hit with some mission brown weathering inside the wagon.  I think these turned out quite good, if I do say so myself.

So I was lucky to receive these two photos of some HOE wagons at Acacia Ridge Yard from Arthur Hayes - no doubt taken during his time working there.

Photo by Arthur Hayes of QR HOE wagon

Photo by Arthur Hayes of QR HOE wagons

So tonight, I think I will be fitting couplers to those newly painted wagons that are without couplers and then re-fitting the bogies.  A couple of the wagons still need some lead sheet added to inside the wagon centre sill.  That will occur next weekend.  I will not be fitting the BHP decalling to these wagons.

Tuesday this week we are heading over to Captain Barnacle Bob’s Mosquito Creek Layout.  I can’t wait as this layout just gets better each time I see it.  I will take my camera this time to get some detail shots.

NMRA-X is on this coming weekend – Saturday evening to Sunday morning, and I will be giving a presentation on Sunday morning.

Back to Business

On Tuesday night this week ten of us met at Dr Peter’s place for a great night of discussion and solving lots of modelling problems.  There were a few items changing hands between attendees.  People getting rid of excess items and others sharing in a mail delivery by one of the group and splitting postage costs.  This can be a great source of savings in your modelling budget.

This weekend started with a trip to some local train shops on Saturday morning.  I was looking for some evergreen styrene strip, but they didn’t have any so I only ended up buying a single length of code 40 rail.  I use small lengths of the rail as sign posts to which I add give way and stop signs.  That could be a job for next weekend.

Today I decided to revisit my styrene modelling desk and see what was buried on the cutting board.  Lots of paper, a magazine and then I found some QR HO and HOE wagons in various states of completion.  Also on my cutting board, was what appeared to be parts of a buildings I had cut out.  Now that had me stumped.  I could not work out what I was building.  After about 30 minutes of racking my brain, I worked out that that was the station building for Kyogle Station.  How could I forget that?  Well I did for a while.  This will be put back on the 'To do' list for an early December task when I’m on Holidays.

My main aim at the moment is complete the unfinished QR HO and HOE wagons and then scratch build maybe another 5 QR flat wagons.  I will then add all these new wagons to the narrow gauge timetable and work out where I can store these wagons on the layout and modify the timetable cards accordingly.  I then intend to run through the narrow gauge timetable at least twice before the end of December. 

Now back to the task of completing the HO and HOE wagons.  On the layout I had one painted QR HO wagon which does look quite good, as well as an unpainted but substantially completed HO wagon.  The cutting board had two HO wagons and 2 HOE wagons.  So I looked closely at some photos of QR HO wagons and realised that my substantially completed HO wagon did not have a lip on the wagon underframe.  So this was easily added with some 0.030” x 0.060” styrene strip added to the underframe and I feel that this wagon is now completed.  I then added the same underframe lips to the other 2 HO and 2 HOE wagons.  The two HO wagons have had some ribs added to the sides and ends of the wagons, as well as data boards, bogie bolsters, a wagon underframe and a wagon gunwale.

I also added KD’s to one of the two HO wagons. I ran out of time to do that to the second HO wagon.  I need a length of styrene that I will pick up this coming weekend on my way to the Club.  This styrene strip is to complete the underframe detail – on the wagon centre sill.  Next Saturday afternoon, I intend to paint the three completed QR HO wagons.  After that I will add some lead weight to the space between the wagon sill sides and these wagons will be ready to place and operate on the layout.

Next Sunday I will then start and hopefully complete the two HOE wagons, and maybe even get around to painting them as well.  Over the next few weeks, I think I will have to buy another packet of 5 pairs of 12mm bogies from one of the local hobby shops.  Then I can start the building of the next lot of 12mm flat wagons.  The earlier I complete this task, the earlier I can start the 12mm layout testing, before my next Operations session after Christmas this year.

Back to Work

I had big plans for this weekend.  I had Friday off but spent the morning removing a palm tree, and some trunks off a pony tail palm and I ended up stuffing my back.  I am walking around like Quasimodo.  However, later in the afternoon, I did paint up 25 pallets a wood colour.  I also painted my two staff machines which Greg 3D printed for me.  They were looking a very nice red colour.  However, I dropped one of them in the shed and the top of one of the staff machines went ping!  It went somewhere and I had no idea where.  So now I'm reduced to one and a half staff machines for the layout.  later that evening I did sit at the Kitchen table and work on putting together a few slatted doors on some wooden sheds.  I think they turned out quite good.

On Saturday morning I met up with a few (or 7) guys I used to work with from work (and a few of their wives) at the Breakfast Creek Hotel purely for medicinal purposes and we all had a very nice lunch.  I caught the train to Bowen Hills station and walked the 1.5km there with PK and did the same in reverse.  My back is still stuffed today, so I might need a second dose of medicine!

Today I went to our Club as they hosted their first Buy and Sell for the year.  There was plenty of hand sanitiser everywhere.  Almost all tables were sold, and plenty of buyers turned up with plenty of money.  Besides the main clubrooms, the trailer shed and our front and back verandas, a number of small gazebos were positioned around the club lease and a few tables were put in each.  The gazebos were placed a few metres apart mostly down the side of the shed.  The Club also sold plenty of left over democracy sausages and cold drinks (as it was quite warm today) and I think everyone enjoyed themselves immensely.  We had a few guys visit from Toowoomba, and Bill came down from the Sunshine Coast and had the table next to me.  A few others from the Sunshine Coast were also spotted.  We also had a few Tuesday Nighter's turn up.  It was great to catch up with quite a few guys at this Buy and Sell.  It was the first time some of them have visited the Clubrooms and they were all quite impressed after having a quick tour. 

I even sold some stuff, as well as buying plenty of much needed items and still ended up with excess folding denominations of plastic in my wallet.  It looks like some of the things that I thought would go gang-busters didn’t generate any interest and if I had some more of other items, I probably would have sold them all.  So that just means that I have to build some more of those successful items for the next Buy and Sell next year.

We have Tuesday Nighter’s this week at Dr Peter’s place.  It will be good to see what Dr Peter has done on his layout since we last visited.  My Back might be back to normal by then.

Life Long Friends

I think that many of the people in this hobby of ours are the most friendly people you will ever meet.  This week we had a real get together of the Tuesday Nighters.  Twelve (12) of us turned up at Arthur’s and saw firsthand the latest modelling projects he has been working on.  Just brilliant.  We also had a couple of wives there having their very own meeting upstairs.  I wish I could spend as much time as Arthur does on creating new pieces of rollingstock.  We had a great time talking to everyone ‘in person’ instead of online for a change.

PK picked up a packet of styrene for me on Wednesday and dropped it into me on Thursday at work.    On Friday after work this week, I went over to Aurora Trains.  While there I saw Anatol and Paul from the NMRA.  The reason for the visit to George’s shop was to purchased two packets of SDS 25’ refrigerated containers and some corrugated card.  Lucky I went there when I did, as Peter and his lovely wife from our Tuesday Nighter’s group came about 30 minutes after me and purchased the last two packets of the same containers.  We should stop talking about things at Tuesday Nighter’s as I’m sure it inspires those attending our get-togethers and drives the local hobby shop economy.  I was also planning on going to the Modeller’s Warehouse scenery shop on Friday afternoon, but when I got there he had already shut up and gone home early.  I can’t really blame him, as that is what I do every Friday myself.  There is always next week.  One of my future plans is to scratch build maybe 4 QR container wagons in 12mm in the coming months for these SDS containers to sit on.

So when I got my styrene from PK, that night I finished off the last 26 styrene pallet build.  I needed to add just a couple lengths of 0.030” x 0.040” before I added the outer pieces of styrene 0.010” x 0.060” and then all the other pieces of 0.010” x 0.040”.   On Friday afternoon, I cut off 10 pallets from this string of 26 and I painted up 20 in Chep blue, 12 in light brown, 12 in mid brown and 12 in mission brown.  Later that night I cut up some corrugated card to be used as the walls and roof of three pine block 10’ x 10’ fettler sheds.  I painted the corrugated card this afternoon and while watching the Bronco’s women win the NRLW, I was adding the corrugated card to the blocks to complete the sheds.

Yesterday, I went with about 35 other guys to Darren’s place.  We were attending the monthly NMRA Div 1 meeting.  At the meeting, we had a car load of people attend from the Club in Warwick which included the proprietor of AR Kits, and two guys from Lismore, in the neighbouring NMRA Division.  One was my mate Brad from the NMRA-X meetings and he is always online talking to us during our Tuesday Nighter’s online meetings and QR Wednesdays with the Wuiskes meetings.  Darren had Geoff, Brendan and myself there to help run his layout while the NMRA members were looking over the layout.  That allowed Darren to talk to all his guests.  Because our little modelling group had run Darren’s layout so many times and know how it works and what everything was and how the items have been built we could answer any questions that members needed to ask.  I understand that Brad live-streamed a few minutes out to the Internet of the layout tour.  We are currently limited to 40 in attendances at the moment in Queensland, so we were just under that limit.  We had a couple of great presentations by Brad and Duncan on Static grass and hot wire cutting for polystyrene.  We also had some good show and tells.  I must admit I was blown away by one member’s process of making his own corrugated iron.  I must try it some time.  Then the rain came bucketing down.  I also sold a few items from my detail collection, including some clotheslines, pallets, tarps, reo-sheets and an incinerator that works from track power.  It seems that I have been confirmed by Brad for one of the presenters for the next NMRA-X presentations on the 21/22 of November.

Today I had (Chris) a brother of one of the Tuesday Nighter’s (David) come over with his son (Adam) and grandson.  I normally catch up with these guys at the Brisbane AMRA Exhibition each year.  They lived near me (about 1/2 mile down the road) where we all grew up, and their father (Vince) and their neighbour (Kevin) all had layouts.  I played cricket with Chris and David for 10 years after I finished school.  I was in the same grade as their sister.  Another of their brothers (Denis) was my best man – he also played cricket with us as well.  We had a great time back then, almost 30 years ago.  The young 3½ year old was the most polite and best behaved young child I have ever had in my shed.  He is a credit to his parents.  So while we were in the shed, I gave them a tour of the layout and pointed out some of its interesting features.  I ran a couple of sound equipped steam locos (a Garratt and a 35 class) from Grafton to Rappville, as well as the Brisbane XPT and sound equipped Jumbo on a Brisbane Limited set.  I also ran a very small QR Coal train on the 12mm.

Another thing that I will do later tonight when the NRL football grand final is on, is to attempt to put together two of my workmate Greg’s 3D printed staff machines.  He dropped off two of these at work on Wednesday morning, when he was walking from the train past my building to his current building.  He used to work in my building on a different floor, which made it easy to catch up.

Next week on Sunday, RMCQ will be having its Buy and Sell at the Club in Brendale, the first for the year, as the previous was cancelled.  The sellers are distributed around the Club lease under various gazebos, so we can separate the people in a social distancing way.  We just hope the weather is fine.  It will be good to catch up with people in the hobby that we have not seen for quite some time.

Level Crossing Work and Clothes Lines

This weekend I didn’t do much model railway related activity.  However, on Saturday I went to a Buy and Sell event at the AMRA clubrooms on the northside of Brisbane at Zillmere.  I parked at PK’s and then we walked around the corner.  We queued up at the entrance to the site and recorded our details to be Covid safe.  There were quite a few sellers and lots of items but there was nothing there that floated my boat, but I saw quite a few people purchasing items, particularly some of our Club members.  I caught up with quite a few people to say G’day to.  But I ended up spending no money at all.  That had to be a first.

When I got home, I did some modelling during the afternoon.  I sat at the kitchen table and watched some Bathurst activity and started building a string of another 26 pallets.  I ran out of 0.030” x 0.040” styrene strip.  Actually I needed about 7 lengths of 13.5mm 0.030” x 0.040” styrene to complete the 26 pallets.  I thought I had more of that in my collection.  Damn.  I should have checked that out before I came home from the other side of the city, and I should have popped into the hobby shops on the way home and picked up another packet of it.  If I had, I could have made another 50 pallets today.  That is what stopped me.

Later in the afternoon on Saturday, I did some work on installing the various fencing I had made for the Lismore level crossing.  I am quite happy with the outcome.

The level crossing outside Lismore

Close up of one corner

Close up of the second corner

Close up of the third corner

Close up of the last corner

Today struggling to get any modelling motivation due to the Brisbane Lions losing last night in the AFL and also watching Bathurst today along with the Bledisloe Cup on split screen on my TV, I decided to just make 10 clothes lines to do something.  When at the Buy and Sell yesterday, I saw someone selling one of my clothes lines in HO scale for $10.  It had one of the bracings missing on one of the clothes line arms.  I sell complete ones for less than that.

So the plan is to paint the 10 clothes lines next weekend so I can sell some at the RMCQ Buy and Sell on the Sunday  1^st of November.  I will have a lot of detail items available for sale.

The Risk Signal Box with gas bottles out the back.  It still needs some shrubbery added.

More Fettlers

The barrier above the tunnel from North Street below.  This is in Cassino Yard.

The worksite now has witch's hats protecting the work area and the two cars now have P and L plates attached.  One car also has a CB aerial.

Border Loop Signal Box (unpainted) with two signalman and a baby bird in the nest

Border Loop Signal Box close up.

A mate of mine, Greg, has 3D printed a NSW Staff machine.  I can't wait to get a few to paint  up and put them inside my signal boxes.  They will look so much better when Greg 3D prints the staffs and then has the section name stencilled on the staff body!  Hehehe

3D printed staff machine - by Greg