Redlands Model Railway Show Weekend

I had Monday off due to me becoming slightly older on that day.  I went to coffee with the boss and then came home.  During the day I researched some fences that I need to install in Glenapp Crossing Loop and then made a huge number of dowel based fences.  I then cut these up into 3 or four by splitting them with a modelling knife.  I later stained them all.  I have quite a few available now to complete some fencing on that section of the layout.

I also received a parcel delivery today and it was a Far North Models DH kit.  What I didn’t know was that it was etched brass and white metal.  I thought it was an injection moulded shell.  Now this is going to challenge the skill level trying to work out how to put this together.  Particularly when there are no instructions in it.  The mechanism had already been put together.  It consists of two small motors, one in each bogie, with a helical gear at each end of the motor driving each 12mm axle on each bogie.  I tested the first bogie and I got it running quite smoothly.  I then looked at the second motor, and it appeared that one of the helical gears was floating on the motor axle.  So I fixed that and then both 12mm axles were then turning.  This also had some oil added and is now running reasonably well.  Both motors will need to be run in.  So I’m pretty happy with the work done so far.  I have yet to tackle the pickup problems, as I have no idea how to proceed.

I think I will need to call in the help of some of the Tuesday Nighters when I need to start putting the shell together.  on Tuesday night, a few of the guys were crawling over the DH kit.  One advised that he was just checking out what he was missing in his kit so he could right that wrong.  What are friends for?  A couple of guys have put together quite a few of these kits between them.  Another  member has 3 of them himself - but I think they were purchased assembled.  The next day, copies of the instructions were emailed to me.  So I should be right to start work on that model when I can find the time and motivation.

Friday I packed the car ready for the weekend at the Redlands Model Railway Show.  Saturday I was making a few clotheslines and I started a string of pallets.  I also sold a few pallets and a couple of track cleaning wagons.  The numbers through the door seems very good indeed.  I was located up on the stage along with a few other mates on various stands.  At times, it was very crowded in that area.  I caught up with a few mates and many a laugh was had.

On Sunday, I completed some N scale clotheslines.  I also completed my first string of pallets.  I also went on a buying splurge and picked up some bargains.  A South Australian O/OX open wagon and West Australian Covered Wagon - WBAX.  I also picked up a 'seconds' TGV QR guards van.  Again the numbers were very good through the door. 

I have some great conversations with the public over the two days and it was great to see the smiles on some people’s faces when you showed them something in miniature moving.  I just need to now find the time to work on those wagons kits and my diorama for Armidale.  Time is running out for the last one.

NMRA Meeting Weekend

This week each afternoon when I came home from work, I scooted down to the shed and was testing a scale photo of West Street at Old Cassino that I acquired via snipping from Google Maps.  My plan was to paste onto the backboard at Old Casino on my layout.  On Wednesday I had a good enough photo that matched my road at that location.  It was a snip of the google street view from the same location where the road goes over the level crossing and you can see into the distance.  I then used MS-Paint to copy and paste over various parts of the photo where the various text portions on that photo that appear on the google view so they could be scrubbed out.

I had Friday off work to prepare for the NMRA meeting on Saturday.  I cleaned up the layout around Lismore, which is my dumping ground for lots of things.  I also did a bit of a clean up of the dispatchers desk – which is my modelling desk.  It still had lots of stuff on it – e.g. the two locos that need some TLC, but it was cleaner than before I started.  There was a small area of layout fascia (about 12” by 8”) that I did not paint last weekend, that got a coat of black paint on Friday afternoon.

I also further reduced some 3mm stained wooden skewers that I had sitting in a container.  These pieces of skewer were already cut to fence post length and stained.  They were to be used as fence posts on the layout.  However, I took the modellers knife and tried to split them into four posts – like split post fencing.  I then stained the internal faces of the posts with some more of my standard stain – made from metho and ink pad ink.  The split posts turned out pretty good.  I then went and installed these along the railway right of way from Hotham Street level crossing to the Cassino Meatworks.  I think they turned out pretty good.

On Saturday morning the guys turned up.  There was apparently only 20 RSVPs, but closer to 30 members were in attendance.  This was the first visit to my place for about half of the attendees.  I tried to give them a basic tour of the layout, pointing out some of the scenes and features.  We had some very good presentations from Malcolm Jenkins, Al Wright and two from Arthur Hayes.  It was great having Paul Rollason bring along his 6m x 3m marquee.  That helped provide shade for the members in attendance.  Unfortunately, soon after Paul connected his PC’s to the home wifi, our whole system went down.  All my own devices in the house all went down as well, so it must have been something back at the exchange.  Later on the system came back when it was rebooted.  So that meant that we could not stream the presentations to those members wanting to watch them online on the day.  Sorry about that.

Today I thought about doing some things in the shed but decided against it.  I did however cut a few pieces of new fascia and gave them a coat of black paint.  Two of these short lengths of fascia will go into the area near Dutton Park, high up on the single track section heading towards Fisherman Islands.  It will help to hide some of the wiring (track bus) located under the track in that area.  The next two pieces of fascia will go on the inner side of Cassino Meatworks between Hotham Street and the Helix.

The other thing that I decided to do was to make up some very small name plates for the layout so people can identify some of the local landmarks, like roads, creeks and tunnels.  So I made them this arvo.  I also packed most of my stuff up that I require for next weekend as I will be attending the Redlands Model Railway Show.

These are the Platform Printing track workers that I painted myself.  I am quite proud of my efforts.  My first large scale miniature painting task.  From 2-3 foot they look pretty good.

The is The Risk.  I complete the backdrop in this area, and added a few cattle behind the fence.

The southern end of The Risk, and the backdrop at this location stops.  I also added ballast to the last 2 feet of track here last weekend.

This is Hotham Street level crossing at Cassino.  I added the fencing down the side of roadway and wooden fencing on the right.  A few trees were added on both sides of the roadway.

A closer photo showing the fencing and the large tree to the right. 

This wider view, shows that ballasting that I redid the other week on the mainline through the meatworks site.

This is Anzac Drive.  I recently added some witches hats to the scene that my mate Greg 3D printed.

This is another of the Platform Printing track workers.  This one is hiding behind the speed sign.

This view shows the photo from Google street view of West Street.  I also added the road markings last weekend made from styrene strip.

The backdrop behind The Risk again.  I picked up a scale Vesper a few weeks back.  I placed it behind the signal box.  While scanning some photos from The Risk, I saw a shot where there was a Vesper parked between the signal box and the station building.

New back scenes added to the area between The Risk and Glenapp.

The overall shot of the scene at The Risk - but it is a bit out of focus.

I also did the Google Street view trick with Simpson Parade over the railway bridge at Cassino station.  I just need to add in more back scene on either side of the road.

I also added some commercial back scene to the area near the Bonalbo Ballast Siding.

Finishing Off Layout Work

Well the week started with me going back to work from holidays a day early, because I was going to take Thursday off instead to attend a funeral.  On Tuesday night we had about 8 Tuesday Nighter’s came over for the meeting at my place.  Some others were unfortunately prevented due to Covid isolation, or recovering from medical procedures.  Hopefully we will have them all back on deck in the near future.

Someone in attendance picked out the layout backboard changes around The Risk and I received some good suggestions to go even further to improve that area.  We had a good discussions when sitting in the pergola eating supper. 

While Wednesday in Brisbane was a public holiday for the Ekka, I was required to attend my son’s school sports day.  In lieu of that day, he gets the next two days off school.  Fair deal I think.  It was my son’s last sports day and I had a natter to a couple of other parents, while watching all the events.  In the afternoon, I got down to the shed and did some further work on tidying up a few things.  I decided to spend quite a bit of time ballasting around the Cassino Meatworks.  Almost a couple of years ago I had pulled up the mainline track there and relayed it, but never re-ballasted it.  The area around the Hotham Street level crossing, and some back sidings in Lismore Yard were also ballasted. 

On Thursday morning I spent a couple of hours in the shed and got out the old diluted PVA Glue and the pipette and gave the new ballast a soaking. Later in the afternoon I did a few more jobs in the shed.

I was at it again on Friday afternoon.  I made a new fence to go beside Hotham Street in Cassino.  I then painted this a galvanised silver colour and allowed it to dry.  I also cut up some old round wooden fence posts into split post for another fencing activity on the layout.  I might have to cut up a few more of these.

I am about to launch into trying to paint some 3D printed track workers.  My initial foray was not looking good.  So on Saturday I detoured to one of the local hobby shops – Aurora Trains and picked up some tins of paint.  Saturday was of course Club meeting day, so I met up with the crew over there and also picked up some styrene from PK and paid him off.  I also purchased a few 3D printed detail items of Greg.  I picked up some small witch’s hats, some car tyres and some water tanks.

On the way home I stopped off at Bunnings and picked up two more sample pots.  A black for the layout fascia and a light blue for the skyboards.  When I got home, I went down to the shed and bit the bullet.  I sprayed the 5 water tanks silver and got the tyres ready for paint.  I got out the paint I just purchased from George that morning and started trying to hand paint the 11 track workers that I had.  The bright orange vests were done first.  The paint coverage was OK.  I then decided to find some white paint and painted their hard hats next.  Next I decided to try and paint some trousers.  I used two shades of brown, and two shades of blue.  They turned out OK.  I set them aside to dry.

I had invited Lefty and Son over on Sunday to have a beer and talk model railways.  ‘And Son’ was on call, but Left rocked up at 10:00am.  He only had coffee and had a very nice chat.  I have Lefty a tour of the layout highlighting some things that had changed since he last visited.  After Lefty left, I started to tick some things off on the ‘To DO’ list.  I mixed up a small batch of plaster and added some thick plaster between the fascia and layout near Hotham Street.  I then painted this a dark colour.  I was going to then add some dirts and scatters, but I just left it painted.  I then painted up 16 car tyres and allowed them to dry.  Later on, I added these to various open wagon loads to prevent damage caused by shifting loads.  I cut up the 10 small witch’s hats and placed them at a couple of locations around the layout.  I then decided to look at the West St level crossing at Old Cassino.  I installed the two level crossing flashing lights and then added a few road markings.  I also added some road barriers and a buffer stop to the perway siding at Old Cassino.  I also added some check rails to the level crossing and installed some balsa wood which was stained between the check rails to look like bitumen roadway.  I then added the fencing at Hotham Street.  The chain wire fence went on the Station side and some wooden fence on the Brisbane side.  I think it is starting to look quite nice in that area.  I also got the track rubber out and cleaned the track around the areas that I ballasted during the week.  I’m sure I had some glue spray on the rails from my ballasting efforts.  So trains should be able to run through those areas without any issues next weekend.

I then had a bit of a clean up at Lismore.  A few items got packed away.  The dispatchers desk will be cleaned up on Friday afternoon.  This week, I have Friday off work to get ready for the NMRA meeting at my place on the Saturday.  I’m expecting about 40 people in attendance for the meeting.  I will provide some photos next weekend of all the things I have updated.

Back Scene Work

This week things did not turn out as expected, although I did tick off a number of tasks from my to do list.  I did go to the shed and did some work.  I did some work on some home made photo back scenes in a couple of areas, and then relocated a Wuiske photo back scene to another area of the layout.  We will see if the Tuesday Nighters this week notice anything different.  I also planted quite a few trees around the layout given that I purchased a decent lot of them over the last few weeks from Modellers Warehouse.  I was also digginto my collection of small saplings and plenty of these also got installed.  While working on the backboards, I found one wire had become detached from the DCC bus line around Loco Pilly and the line up to Dutton Park areas.  Which DCC line it came off is anyone’s guess?  I will look into this during the week.

I also spent some time on the PC.  I was working on the programming updates to my level crossing code for my Arduino, to allow for manual activation of a crossing in both single line and dual track modes.  So far the code compiles, but I have not yet tested it on my test rig.  This manual activation will allow me to activate a level crossing if a train needs to shunt across the crossing to access a siding instead of hitting the outer detector first.  This will be used at the level crossing at Old Cassino on my layout, as we have the Old Cassino Yard on one side of the level crossing and on the other we have the Shell Oil Siding.  We also have various locos that need to shunt across the level crossing during the timetable operating sessions, so this will allow me to hit the activate and cancel buttons during an Operations Session.

I ordered some more Arduinos last week and they turned up this week.  I also have some IR detectors on order, which should turn up this week. 

On the weekend I also started some design work for my 12” square diorama for the Armidale Convention.  I was contemplating hand laying some track on the diorama but at this stage it will be commercial track that will be used.  More on that as it is built.  I also built a small section of fencing this morning and installed it near a level crossing on the layout.  This small scene enhancement also included some trees being planted in this location as well.  Next task was to get my USB powered vacuum cleaner out and I used it in a few areas of the layout for around half an hour as I tried to clean up some wood swarf or shavings from various hole drilling activities made on the baseboards from feeder wire installation attempts and I also picked up lots of foam specs and gecko droppings from the scenery.

Also during the week, I did some wagon rearranging on the narrow gauge.  I really need to allocate some sidings to some of my rollingstock.  Today I did some upgrade work on a NSW NVJA guards van that I picked up cheaply at the Pine River’s Model train show a few weeks back.  I fixed the bogies, and I also added three missing posts on the end verandahs of the wagon.  I think I need to do some more work on the bogies, as the wagon has a bit of a wobble.

Tuesday this week we have the guys coming over.  It will be good to catch up again with the crew.