More LED Layout Lighting Frames Installed

We were plunged into lockdown on Tuesday afternoon and that forced the abandonment of our Tuesday Nighter’s Meeting at Peter D’s place.  We then had to work from home from Wednesday to Friday and the benefit of that is that there is no travel time home from work on Wednesday  to Friday.  I could head to the shed directly after work finished, and saved at least an hour each day.  On Friday I received my two wanted deliveries.  That was 4 x 6 Amp power supplies for 4 x 5M strings of LED lights that had arrived on Monday this week.  Also on Friday I received a package from Chilli-Laser Engraving of some laser cut wood that I use for various fencing around the various houses on the layout.  On Friday this week I had my usual shortish day.  I went down to the shed and did a bit of work.  I installed some fencing.  I had previously laid out the various lengths of fencing on two blocks of land on the Western side of Cassino on the southern end of the Simpson Parade overbridge.  These will eventually feature some nice houses.  On the other side of the railway line, I was adding fencing around the railway property where the 40’ x 20’ corrugated steel shed is.  I then added fences around the houses either side of Barker Street.

I installed the power supply to illuminate the Fisherman Islands yard.  I then tested the LED strings that arrived earlier in the week.  Next job was to cut up some wood to support the next string of lights over the section of track from Kyogle Butter Factory and heading around the ‘blob’ which is the Running Creek area.  This should take up another string of LEDs.  On Friday evening I also commenced attaching a small fascia just underneath Runnings Creek – well actually it is on the Lismore to Murwillumbah Spiral.  That was painted on Saturday. 

On Saturday afternoon I finally got up the courage to install the road markings around the Bruxner Highway Level Crossing.  These are made from pieces of styrene and welded to the roadway with styrene glue.  They had only been sitting in place unglued for about half a dozen years.  So all the road markings went in very easily and also look good.  The plan was to also install all the road signs and fencing around the crossing.  However, I realised that I was missing some of the required fences.  So that night I made up a few fences, a couple of speed signs and some other road way signs.  They will be installed one night this week hopefully.

On Sunday it was more of the same.  I installed the Pelmet made of Plasterer’s angle around the section of track from The Kyogle Butter Factory all the way around the blob past Runnings Creek and almost to Border Loop.  I then attached the LED string to the frame.  It was turned on and the illumination provided was quite good.  

Next task was looking at how I would mount the frame to support the LED lights above the northern end of Fairy Hill Loop.  The next section of frame to plan for installation was above Park Road Sidings.  This was the easiest frame to install so it got done first with the wood being cut to size.  Two lengths of plasterer’s angle was painted in preparation for installation later in the day, as was a small offcut that I had laying around.  After lunch the frame above Park Road Siding and the plasterer’s angle was installed.  The next task was to attach the frame above the northern end of Fairy Hill Loop to the just installed Frame above Park Road at one end and then work out how to brace it at the other end.  That had me stumped for a while.  I had some assistance from my apprentice in holding the frame at one end, but he would have got bored holding it up after 5 minutes, so I needed to come up with a permanent solution.  So I decided to use a piece of pine rising up from the track baseboard between Dutton Park and Fisherman Islands.  Once that was in, the pelmet was installed on this section of frame as well. 

Next task is to temporarily hang the LED string over these two sections of frame and test the power supply and the lights.  That is another task for during the week or next weekend.  I mowed the grass this arvo in preparation of the NMRA meeting in 2 weeks.  At this stage we are limited to 30 guests at a private residence, so hopefully the current restrictions will be eased before then, as we will most likely have just over that number.