Closed Down and an Operations Session

On Saturday on my way with my chauffuer Shelton to an Operations Session at Darren’s we went past an old dear landmark that I first visited many years ago.  This landmark was a park on the left hand side of the road outbound on the Mount Lindesay Highway at North Maclean.  Many years ago, I visited this park, with a dear old mate - Mike, to take some measurements of the toilet block and the picnic tables.  Both these items were the basis of two articles that I had published in the AMRM many years back.  The picnic tables article appeared in the April 2006 issue, and the Toilet Block article appeared in the June 2007 issue.

The park had a locked gate across the front driveway and looked slightly overgrown.  The picnic tables looked like they had been removed.  It was a sad day.  I’m sure if Mike was still alive, he would also shed a tear both in sadness at that park shutting down, and then in laughter as we reminisced at what we did that day – two men with a tape measure and pen and paper walking around a toilet block measuring things.  But we had to do it only when no one else was using the park, in case they looked at us strangely and called the local constabulary.  We might have been strange, but we were not weird.  That would be PK.

Anyway, at Darren’s we were met by of course Darren, Jeffrey, Malcolm, Brendan, Iain and a local observer Jack.  I paired up with Jeff as the Bearded Warriors for the first train.  

This is the overall view of Darren's Layout.  Photo by Darren.

The job board.  I wrote our crew names on the wrong line for the first lot of jobs.  Photo by Darren.

This was train #109 a perway special coming off the hidden siding representing Binnaway and into North Gulgong Yard.  Here the guard's van was swapped end, and the train made its way to Mebul Road Ballast Siding.  There we dropped off 6 empty ballast wagons.  As there was no intermediate staff instrument at that location, so we had the staff and the train crew of Shelton and Malcolm, were hurrying up and waiting at Goolma for the staff, so they should pull forward of the loop and shunt back into the sidings and swap three loaded wheat wagons for 3 full ones in the siding.  But as we still had the staff, they just had to wait.  We soon arrived and started removing two sleeper wagons and MLE or rail from the perway siding.  At this location we dropped off the guard’s van and then completed our duties.  We then played a game of 'you scratch our back and we’ll scratch yours'.  We had the other crew pull our train forward so we could pull their grain wagons out from under the bin and replace them with three others they left on a run around track.  We let them head back to North Gulgong first and then we followed when the section was clear.  Again we had to end for end the guard’s van and then drive the train back down the hidden siding to Binnaway.  It was then time for crib.  This process took about 59 minutes of operating time.

This was where it was all happening at Goolma.  The brains trust swapping wagons around.  Photo by Darren.

Back at Nth Gulgong, the train has run around, and the train is about to head back into the hidden siding.  Photo by Darren.

I think my drink is empty and I am about to get a refill.  I could not wait for the train to hit the siding.  Photo by Darren.

Following crib, the Creek Street Crew took the second train.  This was a freight train that came from Dubbo on the cross country line and was supposed to travel to North Gulgong Yard to do some work.  However, there was a train coming the other way.  It was a mixed freight crewed by Iain and Brendan.  As soon as they arrived and sunk their staff, there was a bit of bickering between the signalman at Goolma and the signalman at North Gulgong as to who was to get the next staff.  This was resolved by the Train Control as he advised with the freight in the back platform road at Goolma and the freight just arrived on the main, there was no room for a third train.  Until the cross country freight has left the location, the other freight cannot gain access to the various tracks at the back of the location.  Once we were given the staff, our train left Goolma and ran to North Gulgong and then had to do a truck load of work picking up 9 wagons from 6 locations in the yard.  

This is the X2010 form used by Darren for Train Number 160.  Forget what the form says it is a typo.  Photo by Darren.

Fiddlesticks.  I'm starting to pull what was left of my hair, until I realised that Jeff as the second person and the holder of the above X2010, for Train number #159 and its return train #160, he had to work out the moves.  I just had to do them and not push anything into the dirt.  Photo by Darren.

We spent the entire time working on perhaps the first third of the layout.  We did not extend farther out to Gollan and Wattle Flat, after which the layout is named.  Perhaps next time?  Plenty of chatter and laughs, great company, cold drinks and good nibblies, and I did not have to drive.  What more could a person want?  

Today I went down the shed for a couple of hours and started assembling another 6 incinerators.  I completed 5, but I did not have the components available to make the power supply for the last.  I will visit Jaycar next weekend and pick up enough components to make another 5 power supplies and put them away for later use.  These incinerators take in input power, DCC or DC or even AC and rectify it and then supply it to my flickering yellow LED.  I had request a couple of weeks ago for a few, and I only had one sitting around.  So I thought I might make a few more.