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.
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