Kyogle Norco Dairy Building

I took advantage of Australia Day this week and made it into a looong weekend by having a holiday on Monday.  I visited the local hobby store to install a level crossing detector on his shelf layout.  However, someone forgot to take heat shrink with him didn't he.  I went back on Friday afternoon after work, and added heat shrink and discovered that the setup was not working 100%.  Mind you there is no flashing lights installed as yet, but the Arduino located under the layout also shows the flashing of the lights.  So I'm not certain what was wrong.  So I went home checked the code out and realised that there was one line of code that needed to be changed, however, I had installed the jumper for dual track activation, instead of single track.  So on Saturday I removed the jumper and he seemed to be working perfectly.  I updated the code on the flashed three more Arduinos with the latest code.

Late on Saturday afternoon I spent some time adding a three inch baseboard infill in a dogleg on the top level of the layout located in narrow gauge – Acacia Ridge Yard.  This infill will allow one extra siding to be installed and join up two sections of the narrow gauge yard.  So that was done in late afternoon.  I plan to use this track to store my narrow gauge container wagons.  I think I have 4 or maybe 5, and soon to have a sixth.

I then adjourned to the kitchen table and started doing a bit of modelling.  The first activity was working out ways to create my own concrete plinths for the various NSWGR 20,000 and 40,000 gallon water tanks with steel bases that I have scattered around my layout.  I had some 3mm styrene, which I cut up into (near enough) squares which will be painted grey to represent aged concrete.  

My next job was working on my Kyogle Norco Dairy building.  I was putting together the front and back sections of a Walther’s kit to be both on the front of the building, thus doubling the building's length.  Thus my kit was twice as long and I can just have a generic 1mm styrene rear which no one will be able to see.  I glued these two pieces together and then added one shed end to the construction, and I worked out how I was going to make an extended inside deck for the shed.  I cut up some styrene and spliced that with the existing components in the kit.  I also studied some photos of the Kyogle Norco Dairy building, and determined that in order to make my model look like the Kyogle building, I needed to add a piece of plain walling before the first shed sliding door.  This plain walling has a standard personal access doorway.  So I cut out a section of plain siding (i.e. no sliding shed doors) from the other end of the building and spliced that bit back together at the right hand end.  It was starting to look pretty good.

Today I cut out a section of plain styrene for the rear wall and added the other end section.  I also added a window to this end wall, as the Kyogle building had one at that end.  I found some styrene roofing material to represent corrugated iron and spliced two lengths together and then glued the two original roof section together so that are long enough for the rear of the roof.  I added some internal bracing to support the long roof and it is starting to look pretty even better.  I also started on a loading platform deck and underneath detail built out of timber and this has been cut up and stained.  So assembly and fixing to the model will be next weekend’s job.  I now need to make a secondary roof over the platform deck as this was what the Kyogle building looked like.

This is the Kyogle Norco Dairy building.  This shot was taken by PK in 2018, but I have a similar one.

This photo by PK, shows the personal access door and the end window.  The downpipe will be installed to the left of its true location to hide the join between panels of styrene.

Looking back at the far end of the building.  Again taken by PK.  

Next week, I will also add some guttering to the building.  The last task will be to paint the shed basically white, with some splashes of blue and then affix the deck and lots of downpipes.  These downpipes will thankfully hide the joins in the various section along the front of the shed.

I went to Jaycar today and bit the bullet and bought one of those Nibbling tools.  I tried it on the shed I am building when I needed to cut out the door and the window holes.  This tool is just great.  Pretty Good for $14.95.

Quiet Week

This last 7 days has been extremely quiet in term of modelling activity.  I did some early planning for installing an Arduino on a level crossing for a demo layout.  So today I packed up everything I need and hopefully I will be able to install this tomorrow.

Yesterday I went to an NMRA luncheon and had a good natter to quite a few members.  Afterwards Darren came back to my place to pick up some modelling items which I forgot to take to the meeting – Doh!  While just walking around my layout and pointing out a few things to Darren, I got some ideas.  These included moving a couple of throttle holders from my bottom deck fascia.  So last night they were relocated to the top deck fascia.  This should provide a couple of extra inches of aisleway space during an operations session.  I will also do a bit of a trim to a couple of locations of the baseboard.  All this is in the aisleway leading to Cassino station.

Another activity I did get around to during the week was to cut up about 60% of my pallets into individual ones from the strips that they are made in.  The rest are cut into 12 lots of 4 pallets mini strips.

I have Tuesday Nighters this week at my place.  I have at least 8 visitors attending, so tomorrow afternoon, I will be washing out the pergola and cleaning the outdoor furniture.

So hopefully I will be motivated to actually do some modelling work on Tuesday, including painting up the first 60 odd pallets in various colours. 

Kyogle Dairy Building

On Friday I went to Aurora Trains in the hope that they had a Walther Cornerstone building I was after.  There is a God!  I found one on the shelf that i was planning to utilise to kitbash the Kyogle Dairy Building.  With some other stuff in my hands (bogies and decals items), I left very happy.  So while watching the cricket on TV on Saturday, I knocked out 4 strips of pallets.  So that was 104.  I also added the 4” boards to another half strip of 13 pallets that I had hanging around.  I still have enough styrene to finish another 26 pallets.  It is amazing, that after buying 4 packets of 0.010" x 0.040" styrene, I had two packets with extra lengths of strip in them.  So that has enabled me to complete the half strip, and still have enough styrene for another strip of 26 pallets available.  Of the strips that I have completed, the plan is to do maybe 20 in red, 20 in blue, and 40 in various shades of brown.  I will leave the rest unpainted to meet any future demand.

Also on Saturday afternoon I cracked open the Walthers Cornerstone building that I bought at Aurora Trains on Saturday.  I gave it a thorough check over and prepared the various components of the building.  I find it bizarre that these kits have lots of other parts in them, because they make the various sprews do multiple kits.  My plan of attack is to only build one side of this kit, by adding virgin styrene to the rear of the kit and thus I can make my implementation of this kit twice as long as what the kits is supposed to be built as.  So that means I need to make my own roof for half of the building (the back side), as well as adjust the inside of the kit for a base that runs the full length of the new kit size.  So the extra bits in this kit, have provided me with some goods shed platform deck, that I will probably halve in width to run the full length of the new building size.  there are a couple of extra items, and also some detail items, that I might see if some of my mates can use.  I don't think it will fit in with my implementation.

Today I could not get motivated to do anything.  There has been some dabbling with new Arduino for an upcoming level crossing implementation, and testing some motors for my animated whirly0birds.

I can feel a long weekend coming next weekend, so hopefully I will progress some projects.

Lockdown!

Well our plans for this weekend were certainly scrapped at short notice on Friday morning.  We had planned to visit a fellow modeller’s place and have an Operations Session on Saturday.  However, that outing was cancelled when Brisbane was placed into Lockdown for 3 days from 6:00pm Friday evening.  So not to be 100% beaten, we retired to our online forum on Saturday morning and into the afternoon, with us all online talking and doing some modelling activities.  Well I was watching cricket in the background as well. 

While this online activity was occurring, I was getting phone calls and texts from someone, exchanging emails from someone else and having Facebook Messenger messages from someone else.  So lots occurring on Saturday while sitting on the PC all locked up.  In the arvo I mowed the grass and assembled a new stand for the printer in the kid’s playroom, as the old location for the printer has now been replaced with a second monitor by the main user of the PC in that room - the young gamer in the house.

While I was at work on Thursday, PK visited to drop off 7 packets of styrene that he purchased from me so I could do some more pallet construction – among other things.  During this week on Thursday and Friday evening, I completed adding the bracing on my 20,000 gallon water tank.  On Saturday after talking to someone online and showing off some photos I took back in 1988 of the real tank from The Risk crossing loop, I realised that the tank was painted grey/silver before it rusted away.  So on Saturday I painted it grey primer, before I weathered it with Rusty Brown paints.  Also on Friday evening I cut up about 230 strips of styrene to make another run of 78 pallets.

Back on the topic of the water tank stand, I still need to build the front stand attachment to the water tank stand, and add some water pipes.  I was given some information on the pipe sizes required on Saturday on the phone by Cliff. 

The water tank stand made out of styrene 'I' Beam, tube and rod.

The tank painted grey primer

A bit of a close up photo of the painted tank

Another task that I am also working on is trying to add some roof mounted whirly-birds to two 12m x 6m steel sheds on the layout.  Now there is no use just having these ventilators on a building if they are not going to rotate in the wind.  So I am designing a motor assembly and drive train so the two whirly-birds in each shed rotate.  PK has given me this challenge, and he has made it even more difficult, as he also wanted a squeaking sound to come from the shed when the whirly-birds rotate.  First things first.  Now also wanting detail items of some things very different and the first one of everything, I am thinking of having these whirly-birds rotate at two different speeds.  A slow speed and a slightly faster speed.  We will see how this develops.  Brad has done a fantastic job in designing and printing these whirly-birds.  I’m sure they will be available online very soon.

The other activity from last week, was adjusting the sidings in Kyogle, and moving the Veneer factory.  here is shot of that area.

The veneer factory has moved back from the front of this baseboard.  The foreground will now be used for a model of the Norco Factory.

The Holiday is Over

That heading sounds like a song title.  Well almost as this is not a carnival.  My place regularly looks like a circus though.  Well this last week of holidays has now ended and I must front up to work tomorrow, while the rest of the house stays home.  School and Uni holidays seem to never end.  I have completely lost track of time this last week.  Isn’t that what holidays are for?  I went down to the shed everyday and did something.  I went through the timetable cards that the guys notated and I think I have fixed up everything they identified.  There are still jobs to do, like investigate the headsets, but there is plenty of time for that.  I'm still trying to win that illusive Lotto jackpot so I can go on a permanent holiday but no luck at that as yet.

This week, following the Running Session last Sunday, I have adjusted some sections of track on the layout.  Starting with the section through the last Running Creek tunnel on the way to The Risk.  I ripped up that section of track.  It was very difficult to access.  Once I did rip it up, I was immediately regretting that I did do that.  This section was giving a few wagons some issues with derailments occurring intermittently.  One in particular was by the NSWGR Paybus.  Once the section was relayed, the paybus was working through the section quite well.  I also had some complaints about some other sections of tracks and I was also getting issues when trains ran through a set of points near Glenapp Loop.  Upon closer inspection it was revealed that there was some ballast in the point blade and wagons were derailing.  The point could not be set for the mainline correctly.  I fixed that and then everything went back to normal at that location.  I then fixed up two power jumpers.  For the next major job I didn’t venture far from the Running Creek Tunnels, actually, I went to the deck directly above, and moved the building that I had located there for Kyogle Veneers – my made up name for the industry located at the timber siding at that location.  I have no idea what that industry at that location used to be called back in the 1980s to 1990s.  I also moved the building from the front siding to the rear siding.  I added a backdrop board (still to be painted) to that location.  I adjusted the track in the rear siding (re-directed it slightly), and extended it a bit.  I then took the Dremel to the building and basically cut it in half and it now it sits up against the backboard and looks quite good.  The front track is now the Norco Siding.  I printed out some photos that PK took on one of our Railmotor trips to Casino and I am now looking at building that industry.  I also slewed the siding further forward towards the mainline to make some space for the building.  I ran all the identified troublesome trains except NL1 – The Brisbane Limited, as that will be a future job. 

I have also been doing some modelling while watching TV at the kitchen table.  I knocked off another 26 pallets, and have started another string of 13 pallets.  I will pick up some more styrene this coming Saturday and that will allow me to complete that last string of 13 and then make another 52 pallets.  I will also hopefully have enough styrene for another 52 pallets if I need to make some more.  I also painted up some 3D printed items that Brad dropped off at my place last weekend.  The whirly-bird roof vents look great.  Some were painted silver and places on a shed in a backyard behind the Cassino station.  A review of the photos I took of this shed from the Cassino platform, show it indeed had a whirly-bird on its roof.  I also added two green whirly-birds to a railways shed on the other side of the railway overbridge at Cassino.  Thanks to Brad, I was able to add a mailbox to outside the overhead booking office at Cassino.  I also started pushing out some more steel loads.  During the week, I purchased and assembled another 4 more Wuiske cement bins.  These were painted yellow and added to another one of my scratchbuilt FJC wagons.

I actually got around to constructing the steel base for the water tank at The Risk crossing loop.  Geoff provided me with a single level 20,000 urethane water tank some weeks ago, to replace the 40,000 gallon tank I had at this location.  The Risk had a 20,000 gallon tank, so I must get my scenery details correct.  The water tank had the base added today with the cross bracing also added.  The next task is to add the wire bracing.  Another mate of mine and a member of our Tuesday night modelling group – Cliff, had put together a 20,000 gallon brass, etched nickel silver and polyurethane version of this same water tank and published the review in the AMRM, in December 2018.  This kit was from the Mechanical Branch Models.  My version of the base is an all styrene base.  It will be interesting if I give up as a bad joke, adding all the rigging on the legs of the water tank.  Time will tell.  I will go back to that task after I finish the blog.