A Few Dead Ends, and a Run-around

Last Sunday night I unpacked the car and all the things I took to the Brisbane Model Railway Exhibition over the previous 2 days.

On Monday at about lunchtime I got to work.  I first pulled the top off the recently purchased dummy 442 (Jumbo) loco.  Boy is it empty inside and no weight either.  I should be able to install a 4 function ‘function only’ decoder inside and install my standard LED lighting set up.  I happen to have 2 of these decoders laying around.  The functions are for the front and back headlights and No.1 and No. 2 end cab lights.  So in theory I can then run this loco as a double header with any of my other locos.  That will add a bit of interest.

The second 442  loco that I purchased on the weekend also had its shell removed.  This Jumbo loco seems to be complete inside, except a wire was off one bogie and there were again no lights.  So that will also be adjusted to have the 4 LEDs added.  I resoldered the detached pickup wire.  However, upon testing it would not run.  So I did not know if this was motor or decoder delated.  I went looking for my spare motor that I have somewhere in the shed, and I could not find them, nor could I think where they could be hiding.  So I might have to consider replacing the decoder altogether.  I will get back to this loco.

So eventually I did find my spare motors, but it was different.  So it might have been from a 44 class loco not an Austrains Jumbo.  So I decided to just add power direct to the motor and by a process of elimination, decide if the motor or the decoder was to blame for the non-running.  Well when power was added direct to the motor, it was the motor.  So I am now after a replacement 442 class motor.  Anyone got one?

So back to last Monday.  Later in the afternoon, I then went to Clapham Yard and installed two RH 12mm points to form a crossover from track 7 to track 6.  This allows me to stable a longer train in track 7 from the main line heading north and also allows track 7 to act as a headshunt for three narrow gauge sidings at the southern end of Clapham Yard, so I can have a bit of a play with some shunting in that location preparing various trains.  I can also now run around trains in track 7 without impacting either end of tracks 4 (dual gauge) and track 5 when operating the layout.  I still have a couple of jumper wires to add around the insulated sections on the points to ensure that I have power on all parts of track 6 and 7.

I also looked at where I was going to add another 12mm point into Acacia Ridge Yard to allow another run around track to be created.  This will be a future project.

I then started looking at the various 3D printed items from Platform Printing that I picked up on the previous weekend.  I still have lots of items that I purchased from these guys last year.  Who knows when I will get around to painting these items.  Boy they are top quality.

So Friday afternoon this week I had to pick my son up from school after he was finished watching some interschool sport late in the arvo.  So he took the opportunity to get a few minutes of night time driving up, as he drove home.  Saturday was spent driving him around some more.  It was Football and Rugby just up the road at the School home fields.  Again he drove there but I drove home as we were under a strict timeline, with other activities later in the day.  So two weeks of school sport and the school has won all three ‘firsts’ games - very convincingly I might add.

So today I was able to do some modelling.  It was limited to cutting the various gussets under the QR HO wagon and affixing them.  I am now just trying to find some suitable shunter’s steps.  I was also working on my power point presentation for 2 weeks time, at an upcoming meeting.