While some of my mates ventured down to Sydney by plane for the Epping Model Railway Exhibition this weekend, I spent my time in Brisbane doing other model railway things. It started on Friday about lunch time when the postie delivered my application for the Armidale Model Railway Convention in October. I'm all in for that. So this application is ready to be returned. On Friday I also returned my application to the Redlands Exhibition in August, which has been accepted. I then ventured over to HobbyOne to pick up a can of paint for PK. Which I gave to him on Saturday at the Club.
On Saturday morning I visited Aurora Model Trains on my way to the Club. I picked up a HO car in their bargain bin. I can use this in a future flood scene. At the Club, I had a good catch up with some mates. We spoke about the May Show, and a few other item. We then started to prepare for the Sunday Buy and Sell. After the monthly meeting we got the trailers out of the shed and moved them down the back as the shed was being used to house some sellers the next day. When I got home on Saturday afternoon I packed the car to enable an early get away today.
So this morning I hit the road and got to the Club and setup early. I paid my seller’s fee to Norm, and was ready to go. Norm reserves a good table for me. Anyway there was some really fantastic items for sale today. I picked up a dozen 12mm wagons. I could have bought more, but I thought I 'd leave some for other buyers. One wagon had bogies and no wheels and one was wheelless. But absolute bargains. I picked up some AR kits bogies for cheap as well. I will use these for some future track cleaning wagons. I found a replacement motor for my damaged Austrains 442 loco. I also picked up some large petrol tanks for my oil depots. These will require some work, but that is job for the future. I also picked up many other great items.
When I got home, I unpacked the car and then got to work. I put the 12mm wagons on the track and gave them a bit of a test. Some wagons will need some work on their bogies, but they are mostly pretty good. Some wagons will need to be painted, but that is also an easy task to do in the future. My collection of 12mm wagons is growing. I must have close to 70 wagons now. I think I spent about 3 times more at the Buy and Sell than I gained from sales of my items. Oh well!
Next task was to immediately got down to work on the 442 Class motor. I removed the brass flywheel weights from the old motor. I removed the flywheel weights from the new motor. Both motors were the same size and type. However, the new motor had a thicker shaft. So I had to drill out the old weights to allow them to fit on the new shafts. I superglued these on and fitted the new motor to the old loco. Brilliant! All for an extra $10 on the price of my cheap second hand jumbo. I just need to reattach the decoder, and add some LED lights to it. Once this has been tested, the loco will be reassemble. It will then be programmed and added to the fleet along with another 442 class, which is a dummy loco. I think these guys will replace some of my 44 class locos in my roster.
Next weekend is the local NMRA meeting. I must have an understanding wife doing all this model railway stuff. I’m giving a presentation at the meeting next week and then I have to scoot over to a 1st birthday party for one of my niece’s kids. All these activities should then settle down.
Then I can prepare for the Armidale Convention.
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