Loco Testing Can Be Very Testing

Last Sunday night I ballasted the track for my last piece of trackwork for my AP- CIVIL.  On Monday evening, I cleaned the track and then ran a standard gauge and a narrow gauge train through the 3rd rail diverter track.  All ran well.  I then decided to also run through the first piece of track my dual gauge point.  The standard  gauge loco ran well in both direction through both routes.  The narrow gauge loco and its train ran well for about 8 trips and then it derailed in one direction twice.  So I swapped locos and it was OK again.  I think there might be something hanging down from the loco, like sanding pipes, that are catching somewhere.  I will look at it later on.

On Friday during the day I spent that time in front of the TV watching the cricket and redoing some diagrams for my Ap – Electrical.  On Friday evening after the cricket, I continued going through my blog looking for details of Operating Sessions I either gave or attended to justify my various hours of work for the various activities for AP – Dispatcher, which I am now working on.  I feel that my AP – CIVIL and AP – Electrical are both now complete.  They just need to be submitted and evaluated by the local boss before being sent to the national guy.

On Friday I also started to prepare for the upcoming Operating Session next week.  I identified the time to set the fast clock to at the start of the session, and I have been writing up a notice for the crew to set the scene of the day.  A mate who used to be very regular with his own operating sessions, used to be the absolute best with his paperwork to set the scene of the session.  But we have not had a session at his place for a couple of years now.  Hint, Hint Anthony!

On Saturday morning I went to the shed to do some loco testing.  It has been 12 months since some locos had turned a wheel.  So I tested the first four of them and then I got distracted.  I realised that Old Cassino did not have any fascias installed.  So guess what?  I cut up some white board and some strips of MDF and installed them.  Almost three metres of fascia.  I then painted the fascia black and now they fit in just nice, and it lifted the area slightly.  I also realised that there could be two holiday projects around Old Cassino.  One will be to do the pipe work around the old Oil Siding and paint the various tanks, and the other is to complete the last of the scenery around Old Cassino yard.  There are plenty of other projects on the list as well.

While testing some locos on Saturday morning I did find out that I had one wire come off a control panel in Murwillumbah, as one point would not throw.  So that was Sunday afternoon’s job, along with another two dozen locos getting tested.  A few locos were DOA.  I had to give them a decoder reset.  I got most of them back to life.  One loco in a three loco consist would not talk at all, even after about 6 resets.  I could control headlights, other lights, it would acknowledge every time I read or wrote a CV via the motor pulse.  But it would not move at all.  Any one got any ideas?  It has an NCE D13SRJ decoder in it.  But two other locos that were giving me some issues, did come back to life after a decoder reset.  I cannot for the life of me find the two boxes that two locos came in.  I must have put them away for safe keeping.  I think their manuals might be in that their boxes.  I will keep looking.

I also moved a few narrow gauge trains around to make some room in Acacia Ridge Yard.  Still some more work to do here as well.

On Saturday night I joined an online meeting with a few Aussies, a couple of yanks and about two dozen Poms for their fortnightly meeting.  This morning I watched most of the last NMRA-X for the year.  

There are just a few more locos (maybe 5) that really need to be tested before next Monday week.  Maybe a job for this Friday.  I am on holidays again from that day.

Let's hope that the big fellow in red delivers a very nice model railway gift to end the year on a high note.