More Work Around Canterbury Street

Friday was a public holiday in Brisbane.  It was our Ekka show holiday moved from its traditional Wednesday to a Friday to give a long weekend to the locals, in the hope that they will go out and spend some money.  Well Aurora Trains was open from 9-midday on the Friday, so I went there and did some spending.  I picked up some more styrene glue and a set of windows that Wuiske Models has produced.  Before I left home, I liked a post by George with a shot of one of my pallets with two 44 gallon drums on it.  So I threw my container of pallets and my container of pallets with drums into my tool box before I left home and went to George's.  I had already received a text from George earlier in the week, wanting some of my tarps.  So they were already in the tool box.  My main reason to visit George’s shop was actually to adjust the sensors on the automatic level crossing test module that is in his shop.  Well the trick was to ensure that the infra-red detector LEDs on the modules have the slightest taper towards each other when they are installed into the track.  So once that was done, Voila – just like a bought one.  Oh, did I mention, that George is selling these little kits, with an Arduino with code that will control a single track bi-directional level crossing, or a section of dual track with directional up and down trains.  He even sells the LED flashing light modules.  What more could a modeller want?

So George is now selling a few tarpaulins in a pack.  Just as I was about to go, he received a text about his post of the pallet photo with 44 gallon drums.  He was about to advise that they come all stuck together, when I said hold on!  Out came about a hundred pallets that I have already made.  George took quite a few dozen off me.  So if anyone wants some, go see George at Aurora Trains.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a list of tasks to accomplish on the layout – a bit of a ‘To Do’ list.  Well on Friday afternoon, I finally blew the dust off that list and went down to the shed and started ticking a few items off that were on the 'To Do' list.

First task was to adjust a wire from the positive terminal on my Hotham Road level crossing to the negative terminal.  This wire was attached to a push button, which allowed the shunters to activate the level crossing manually from the Cassino Down Yard, for a train to depart towards Brisbane.  That was done and tested and it worked.  Next task (which wasn’t on the list) was to adjust an LED on one of the flashing lights at Hotham Street, as one LED was not flashing.  It was a dry solder joint.  So after a bit of mucking around, the LED sprang back into flashing life and then it didn’t, then it did, then it didn’t.  Well I did say it was a flashing light – that was an attempt at humour!

Next task was to affix the fence barrier either side of Railway Parade (the overbridge at Cassino station). I started on the near side some weeks back, and never did the far side.  Well that task was completed and then the road guttering was installed from 0.060” styrene angle.  I also installed some speed signs, some ‘No Parking’ signs, some ‘Angle Parking’ signs and some other ones.  I also fitted some balsa to the front of the road, to cover up the polystyrene to tidy things up a bit.  I also deployed a few road signs to the road near Lismore station.

The bridge after a couple of signs were added.  A speed limit on the bridge and a no stopping sign.

The far side of the bridge with the fence barriers installed.  Also a speed sign and no stopping signs.  There is also the beginnings of a light post.  The bridge had angle parking on the lead up to it.  The car will eventually have its headlights and stop lights wired up to an Arduino controlling a number of lights at this location.

The far side of the road over the bridge, with fencing and guttering.  A few bits of grass and other things will be installed in the future.

The front of the layout now has a bit of a fascia.

This shot shows the sign at the far side of the intersection.

By changing the focus, this shot shows the traffic lights ahead sign.

Over at the top of Fairy Lane, just outside the old Community Hall, where a lot more work will eventually occur at in the next few weeks, I had to install a very simple pelmet made from two strips of balsa.  This just stops the operators from looking straight into the strings of LED lights.  The layout deck above this location here is South Brisbane Interstate and that is quite high.  While at this task, I added three more strips of balsa to make a pelmet at the other end of Fairy Hill Crossing Loop (again under South Brisbane Interstate station) on the North Coast Controller side of the layout.

This photo shows the community hall and the dunnies out the back.  I have added a light here for the benefit of the people using the hall and the outdoor conveniences.  Also visible above the hall is the balsa pelmet painted black.

This shot shows the outdoor light working.

The black pelmet is also installed down the far end on that peninsular and also painted black.

On Friday night I decided to replace some boxing I made up out of styrene with some made from strips of stripwood.  The wooden version looks a lot better than the styrene version.  There will be more work on this over the weekend.  I have some sheets of reo that will be added to a cement pour.  This will be the start of a car port and driveway for one of the locals in Canterbury Street.  A few more items need to be added here.  One sand, some aggregate and some more boxing.  I will eventually also get a cement mixer to place here, as the poor old householder, is doing it all by hand.

Saturday afternoon after a very nice game of soccer, I was able to get down the shed and paint my balsa pelmets.  I also installed a few power poles.  I then mixed up a batch of concrete from plaster and some black and white paint to make it a cement colour, and then poured some of it into the boxing I made up the day before.

I then cut out some foam and coated it with ballast to make a truck load of aggregate and another for a track load of sand.  These were created on a piece of wood.  They were cut off the wood and transplanted onto the front footpath of the house today.  I also made a small bucket that will be filled with water and modelled the hose coming out from beside the house, over the fence and to the bucket.  I still need a mixer and two wheel barrows, but a power cord has been supplied for the mixer when it turns up.  Of course I also need some shovels and a few other detail items to be added.  These exist, but were sitting on the platform and not in the piles of sand and aggregate.

The last house in Canterbury Street is getting a new concrete carport.  Out the front are the piles of sand and aggregate.  In the distance is a pallet of 20kg cement bags.  No quite visible is the tin which the person who will be doing the hand mixing of the concrete will have their water supply.  A green hose from green decoder wire is coming out from beside the house and under the fence.  There is also an extension lead coming out from the electricity box for the electric cement mixer (not in the scene as yet).  Also missing are two wheel barrows.  A couple of shovels also did not make the photo.

A shot showing the boxing around the slab and the first few mixer loads in the boxing.  It is about to be leveled off.  The backyard also contains someone doing some mowing with a push mower and the outdoor table for a BBQ lunch later in the day.

Another shot of the backyard.  This shows a couple of fruit trees and the hen house.

The whole backyard, complete with an outhouse, a small home office made from brick and a 12m x 6m titan shed for the owner's model railway.

There is still plenty to do around this house.  I plan to add a topiary tree in a pot to the front porch.  I added a fancy cast iron bench seat for the owner to watch the comings and going at the station from.