Sunday, December 27, 2020

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.

Thursday, December 24, 2020

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.

Sunday, December 20, 2020

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.

Sunday, December 13, 2020

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.

Sunday, December 6, 2020

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.