Murwillumbah Turntable Completed

Saturday I decided to remove 5 of the eco-lids off of my 12mm grains wagons, turning them back into coal wagons.  I grabbed 5 and completed that task easily while watching the cricket.  Once I had the lids off, I realised that the assembler of these kits had cut holes in the floor near the bogies, to allow the bogies to turn and rock and roll.  So that called for a new base layer of styrene in the hopper to cover those holes.  One of the wagons when I removed the lid, had the inside of the wagon was painted black.  Hmmmm!  That got the brain going.  I was going to paint the new styrene base in the hopper silver.  But now, black seemed to be so much more appropriate given that they would have been used in coal traffic for many years.  So I made up a paint mask, that would allow me to just spray inside the coal hopper and the white styrene floor of the hopper.  The mask prevented any over spray from going on the wagon sides, that had been nicely graffitied.

Simple task, quickly done, and now 5 wagons have moved into Fisherman Islands Yard, and all I need now is a 12mm loco to have then configured as the number two coal train.  Who knows I might do the same work to the other 5 wagons later this week.  I can then split the wagons over the two coal trains.  I do have to still make some coal loads for these wagons.  But that is a task for the Christmas hollidays.

Today I went down to the shed and turned the TV to the cricket.  I connected the track to the turntable at Murwillumbah, and connected the track bus to the turntable.  I cleaned the track on the turntable bridge, and the lead into the turntable, and the loco (X207 – close enough to X217) ran well onto and off the turntable.  I should try and 48 and maybe a 44 or Jumbo during the week just for fun.

I then connected my power supply which produces a rectified 12V DC from the track bus, to the turntable direction switch, replacing the 9V battery which was now only putting out about 6V, and was almost dead.  The power supply drove the turntable well.  Just like a bought one.

I still have plenty to do before next Tuesday but I have plenty of time to do it in.