More Preparation

My plans for the week took a bit of a detour when I was asked to make some clotheslines.  On Thursday night I knocked out 12 x N scale clotheslines.  I also had a request for some tarps, so these were also cut up to size and rolled and tied up.  I did about 50 of these.  On Friday the clotheslines were painted and on Saturday everything was delivered.  I then received an order for some more clotheslines.  So Saturday evening while watching the Lions get creamed, I knocked out another dozen N scale clotheslines.  These were painted up today and are ready to delivery later this week, if my timetable allows.

On Saturday I went over to the Club for our monthly meeting day.  I picked up PK and Greg at the Clubrooms and we scooted over to the local hobby shop.  I was after some bottles of Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color.  I picked up 4 colours, I had one other colour at home already but I was also after a Black and the Orange/Brown colours as well.  That particular shop did not have them in stock.  So on the way home, I visited two other hobby shops and both those did not stock these great little commodities.  While at the Club I had a bit of a natter with a few people and there were quite a few in attendance even though we had to wear masks.

So back to the shed report.  Apart from these activities, most of the other work was related to the shed and doing some jobs in preparation for the NMRA meeting next weekend.  This included masking up the do not stand areas and painting some yellow danger stripes in four locations in the shed.  I still need to do one in front of the fridge.  We all know how important it is to not block access to the fridge during a running session.  On Saturday afternoon I ran a cleaning train from Grafton Yard to Acacia Ridge Yard.  I did not run it any further north to Fisherman Island Yard or South Brisbane Interstate.  I will do that later during the week.  There was no issues with the track at all.  I had also stained up about 50 balsa wood sleepers on Friday afternoon.  I installed these for a track walkway at the northern end of Kyogle platform.  These went across the main and the loop.  I also added some sleepers to the southern side of the platform as this was where the local trike or quad was kept.  My photo does not reveal what it was, as it was under a tarp.  So how easy if that to make.  Just make a lump and cover it with a tarp.

So on Saturday night I also put my Panel Liner colours to the test.  OMG!  What a result!  I had previously purchased some wooden fencing from Chilli Laser Engraving.  This is great stuff.  I applied the panel liner to various wooden palings on the laser cut strip of fencing.  A bit of dark brown here,  I bit of brown there.  A bit more dark grey over here.  A small amount of light grey and grey and I let these various strips of Victorian wood fencing to dry overnight.  In reality they were dry in minutes.  The end result was perfection.  The visitors to my layout next weekend will be able to make their own mind up about how the fencing turned out.  These sections of fencing were all white glued to the fence frame today.  Now I look back on some of the other areas of the same and similar fencing on the layout that was not panel lined, and the difference if chalk and cheese.  I will be addressing this imbalance at the first opportunity.  Unfortunately there is no time before the NMRA meeting to rectify this.

One night during the week I painted the recently erected LED light frame blue to try and obscure it from view.  It looks so much better blue as compared to unpainted.  I am expecting some more strings of LED lights either Monday or Tuesday, so these might be installed one night this week.

Another job I did this morning was to clean the steps into the shed.  No gurney for this bloke.  It was a long handled scrubbing brush and putting my back into it.  The results were fabulous.  I thought the steps were starting to get a bit mouldy, so if there was any rain around, they were a little bit slippery if not careful.  Other tasks undertaken this afternoon were trimming some trees, moving the wheel barrow (I had to pump up its tyre as it would not move without it being inflated), and putting some junk out on the footpath for council rubbish collection which starts tomorrow in our suburb.

The last task for tonight is to connect up the set of track lights for a traffic control light in the back of a 6' x 4' box trailer, over the 'road over rail' bridge opposite Baker’s Farm on Bakers Road.  This light is powered by an Arduino.  So this will all be assembled at the kitchen table tonight and tested ready for deployment during the week. 

There is still some work to do before next Saturday’s NMRA meeting as I still have lots of items laying on the track around Acacia Ridge Yard.  I will clean these up during the week.  I might also add some more trackside fencing in a couple of areas as well.