Track Laying Continues

On Monday we travelled back from Armidale towards Brisbane.  First stop was the bakery at Glen Innes and then to Rohan’s place to check out on progress on his layout.  We actually picked up Rohan from his business just out of town and took him home.  A few of our group had not seen this magic layout and were gobsmacked.  This layout continues to get better.  A great way to lose lots of time, is watching trains on Rohan’s layout and checking out his fantastic scenery.

Tuesday was a trip to my local Bob Jane T-Mart to book in the car.  I picked up a screw in my travels the week before our Armidale Trip and it played havoc with us.  I had to fill the tyre up each day.  Wednesday it was fixed.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I completed all the track work at Rocklea Siding and have been running narrow gauge and standard gauge trains through the area for a shake down.

On Thursday I started work on the relaying of the Fisherman Islands branch and adding benchwork from Park Road to Dutton Park.  I made a trip to Bunnings for another sheet of 12mm ply on Friday.  Before lunch I cut in the north fork of the Wye from Fisherman Islands Branch to Park Road.  On Thursday it dawned on me that I needed to add an auto reverser to the section from Dutton Park north to South Brisbane.  I think I will wire all the trackwork north of the wye points onto the auto-reverser (when I buy one).  That way I only have one train entering the reversing section and it is long enough for my longest narrow gauge train.  I was thinking on putting the auto-reverser in the small leg from the points between Fisherman Islands and the points at Park Road.  But I could have a train longer than that section.  Alternatively I could have made the whole Fisherman Islands Power district an autoreverser, but I could have many locos sitting in that section.  I thought electrically, it would be simpler making the Park Road to South Brisbane narrow gauge section the auto reversing section.

It was very wet in the afternoon of Friday so I did not go to the shed.  I just watched the cricket on TV.  Saturday I went to Jaycar and bought some wire for the bus for Dutton Park to South Brisbane narrow gauge section.  I then installed that bus for the auto reversing section.  At the moment, the power is controlled via a DPDT switch set to either Dutton Park, or Fisherman Island on the panel.  I also relayed the track from Fisherman Islands back out to Dutton Park.  I also laid the track from Fisherman Islands to Park Road and installed the northern leg of the wye.  So in theory I can now run a narrow gauge train from South Brisbane to Fisherman Islands. 

So on Sunday afternoon, I ran that test train.  However, when I turned on the track power I had a short in the newly laid section.  I traced back some wires, and sure enough, I had attached the track feeders to the wrong bus wire on the last wires I connected.  So these were swapped and I then ran a train from South Brisbane to Fisherman Islands.  I realised that I need to attach a few more feeders around the Fisherman Islands branch as I had removed some of the old dual gauge track which had power feeders attached.  But I have trains running.

I then added some extra benchwork through Dutton Park to take the extra narrow gauge tracks.  At this stage the relaying of the track through Dutton Park is next on the to-do list.  That is maybe Monday or Tuesday’s job.

This is the new narrow gauge trackwork at the northern end of the wye from Park Road to Fisherman Islands.

This is the other end of that wye connection at the Fisherman Islands branch.  The narrow gauge crosses over the standard gauge at this point.

Turning to the left, we see the two tracks that now go into Fisherman Islands Yard.  Originally these two tracks joined up just outside the yard and were dual gauge towards Dutton Park and all teh way to Clapham Yard.

The remaining section.  This is the old Dutton Park junction, which will not be two tracks in each direction.  This will be relayed next week.

I am also working on the wiring diagram if I ever get around to removing the staff sections from Grafton Yard to Rappville and Rappville to Cassino.  These sections would be replaced with a CTC panel monitored from a laptop used by North Coast Control.  I would also remove the head set plug in points at those locations.  To do this I need to build about 14 or so track detectors.  I would also have to ensure that the first, last and middle wagons on every train are fitted with wheels sets with resistors, so that they will cause the track circuiting to pick up the locations of any trains in this area.  This will be a mammoth task, but that is a job for the whole of 2025.  I would also have to buy a stack of signals to be installed at all the crossing loops at this location. 

New England Model Railway Convention Week

On Monday a crew of us went on an outing.  The southsiders caught a train from either Kuraby, Altandi or Sunnybank and ended up at Roma Street Station.  We then went and picked up PK and Clinton and we ventured out to Kippa Ring by train.  We then caught a bus from there, along the water front at Redcliffe and across the bridge and into Sandgate.  From there we had coffee and then caught the next train out to Shorncliffe, before catching that same train back to the city and out to Cleveland.  There we went for a walk and found a nice cake shop and had some lunch.  Then back to the City (or near enough for 3 of us at Park Road Station).  I caught the Gold Coast train to Altandi, while the two others caught the Beenleigh train.  

Tuesday night 10 of us met up at Glen’s place for a run in his shed followed by adjourning to his dining room table for coffee and supper.  We were solving all the world’s (and NMRA’s) problems on that night.

So shed activities were slow to start this week.  On Thursday I adjusted the already laid 12mm track to Rocklea by about half an inch, and added in all the new standard gauge track.  I still have to splice in one more piece of track, the splitter for narrow gauge and standard gauge on the south side of Rocklea Sidings.  That is just a Dremel cut next Tuesday.  Then the trackage will all be tested and the point motors will also be tested again following the changes I made on last Thursday.

Friday was driving day to Armidale for the New England Convention.  PK and Glen rocked up at my place early, and we hit the road.  At Warwick, we caught up with the other 2 cars in the convoy.  More food was consumed at Glen Innes, and as we were leaving the hail hit us.  It poured most of the way to Armidale.  We had dinner in the Bowls club and caught up with many faces we had not seen since 2 years ago.  Saturday was presentation day.  I was second up straight after morning tea and before lunch.  The room was packed.  I also attended some good sessions.  It was interesting that there was some tie in between the sessions that I attended.  The Dinner on Saturday night was very nice.  Good company and great food, and average speaker.  Sorry I couldn’t resist Marty. Hehehehe!  At the Trivia contest our table did rubbish.  Glen called himself a NSW driver.  His knowledge of NSWGR history was crap. 

On Sunday I presented again, this time first up in the morning.  Again, the room was pretty much full.  The other sessions I attended on that day were enlightening.  So a great convention over all.  Thanks NEMRC for a great Convention.  We want to be back in 2 years time.  We then had a few beers at the Bowls Club, followed by the usual dinner at the White Bull.  We booked a table for 16, but 29 turned up in our side of the bar, and there were a few others, maybe 6 on the other side of the bar.  We did a bit of table rearranging to cater for the 29 that we had for dinner.

Tomorrow is visiting visiting Rohan day followed by our convoy’s drive home.  Let’s hope that the New England Model Railway Club will arrange the next convention in 2 more years.

Rocklea Siding Possession

This week started off slow.  I did not do anything in the shed.  I was advised that a delivery of track was being shipped on Monday, so it raised my anticipation juices.  I was also still waiting for some electrical switches early in the week.  I tossed up if I was to go to Jaycar and buy some alarm cable, but I decided to wait a few days.  I eventually picked some up on Wednesday using my NMRA discount.  I saved about $3.

So early in the week I did scan through a presentation that I was preparing, adding a few extra words here and there.  I had promised our Div Super I would have four new presentations completed by February next year.  One is complete and the second only needs pictures added.  That is probably a week's work to do it properly.  A third is also almost complete and the last one is nowhere near being started.

I finally got a delivery of some track on Thursday so I went straight to the shed to install some trackwork.  I decided to change my strategy and prioritised the Rocklea Siding area.  So I took a track possession.  My God it was hot and humid in the shed and I just dripped sweat as I pulled out the trackage at Rocklea and re-laid it.  The narrow gauge track work was all completed on Friday.  Again very hot and humid.  I reinstalled the point motors and gave them a test and they all worked, except one standard gauge one.  This one will no longer throw.  So I will look at the point and point motor at a later time.  I then decided to try and run a narrow gauge train through the area that has been relaid.  I had to jerry-rig the power to the narrow gauge section, as it gets its power from the standard gauge bit of track, and that was removed.  Slight overlook there!  But one was connected up, the loco ran well through the new trackwork to the old Rocklea Sidings.  I still need to install an auto-reverser for the standard gauge/narrow gauge diamond crossing.  Until this is done, I cannot run back out onto the mainline towards Acacia Ridge.  So that will be Tuesday's job after I mow in the morning - I think.  

Saturday was NMRA meeting day where we got to view Jim Costello's New Haven layout.  Very nice indeed.  When I got home in the afternoon, one of my deliveries of switches was in the letter box.  

I was waiting until the Sunday Buy and Sell so I had planned to I pick up some more lengths of second hand 16.5mm flex track - to complete the standard gauge trackage through Rocklea.  So while at the Buy and Sell I picked up a couple of extra points and some more point motors and I will swap out the sticky one in Rocklea on Tuesday.   I sold some bits and pieces, but ended up spending more on my purchases.  There were some absolute bargains to be had.  I plan to have the whole Rocklea area re-done as of Tuesday afternoon, or Wednesday at the latest.  

With my point work being delivered on Thursday I had also joined the other bits of track for two of the three ends of the angle going into Dutton Park.  I will spend some time this coming week working out what extra baseboards need to be installed before this gets installed.  Some of the baseboards may be just too narrow to support two tracks.  I will see.

We all know that good things come to those that wait.  While at the NMRA meeting on Saturday, a presenter showed a photo of a location where I was planning to base my future exhibition layout.  He used to live next to the track there.  So a USB is coming with a few hundred photos.  This will help me with the planning over the next year or so.

Further Work on the 12mm Empire

A new week means more building projects.  Monday started off with me laying a lot more wires for Yeerongpilly station.  In particular the control panel for the points here.  I ran out of wires.  I was also installing the baseboard for Park Road Station and ran out of screws.   On Monday I also reinstalled the fascia for the nolix between Clapham Yard and Dutton Park, or at least the section in front of Yeerongpilly station.  I also made room for the new control panel in the fascia.  I also ordered a stack of push buttons for 5 new control panels and some toggle switches that allow me to isolate each of the panels.

Tuesday was replenishment day.  More wire and more screws were purchased.  When I got home I added the baseboard for Park Road.  This was three separate boards that take the layout an extra 2.7m and will allow for the station to be installed at Park Road.  I then reinstalled the staff machine for Dutton Park-South Brisbane Interstate and the headset plug in points to the layout.  I'm thinking that I will need to add some more headset plug in points at Yeerongpilly and Park Road and maybe another one at South Brisbane.  These jobs can be the last ones done, as the track will not be in use at the next Operations Session in December

On Wednesday the plan was to lay a bit more track through Park Road Station.  That was easy.  I have identified the two points and point motors for this location.  In doing do, I realised that I need two more point motors for the Dutton Park.  Luckily there is a Buy and Sell next weekend, so I'll hopefully pick them up there.  As a background task on Tuesday, I cut up my last string of pallets into 27 individual ones.  On Wednesday afternoon, I painted 20 in Blue and 20 in Red.  

Yeerongpilly Platform laid.  A future headshunt will potentially be installed here at the end of the platform

Park Road Platform laid in front of Park Road Siding

My delivery from Australian Modeller rocked up early on Thursday.  So I quickly installed my QSnap up to 3 sets of points.  Two work perfectly.  The third set which was an existing set at Dutton Park for the dual gauge, is now not throwing in one direction.  I will get around to looking at that later on.  Given that I have laid all the track I am going to lay now, until my points and crossing turn up from QSM, I will switch modes to jump back onto my railmotor and motor drive setups.

The new Mini Panel installed

Dutton Park about to be upgraded with a separate narrow gauge trackage and a narrow gauge triangle included.

On Friday afternoon I plugged my Procab into one of my NCE Mini Panels (Loco Pilly) to check out that the locations in the Mini Panel that appeared to be free were actually free.  Bugger!  They were not.  I had previously used them and I had not updated my hard copy of the code in the Mini Panel.  Now I need to run some wires a huge distance from where the panel is to Fisherman Islands.  That particular Mini Panel is basically three quarters empty.

Loco Pilly Mini Panel exposed after removing the fascia here.

South Brisbane Mini Panel is also full up.

Fisherman Islands Mini Panel, has lots of space free.

I also investigated how I would get some track to a future Sunnybank station, a passenger terminus of my future passenger empire.  I investigated the trackage through Rocklea Siding.  By slewing the tracks over by up to about 3cm.  I think I have enough room to run a narrow gauge line (Rocklea Siding to Sunnybank) next to the current dual gauge line (Clapham Yard to Acacia Ridge Yard).  Also in doing this work, I will consider also changing the standard gauge entry into Rocklea Siding.  This is slightly problematic with the standard gauge point operation.  I can just move things around and have the standard gauge entry just a little bit closer to Clapham Yard.  What this means is that the narrow gauge entry onto the dual gauge will be after the standard gauge entry to Rocklea Siding, and not before it.  A much simpler point arrangement in this area.  But a future project for implementation.  I want to get Dutton Park completed and operational first.

The top of this picture shows Rocklea Siding's point work.  The layer below Rocklea Siding is Acacia Ridge Yard.  I have laid some new track over the top of Rocklea to get a bit of a view of what it will look like once it is redesigned.

A standard Peco 12mm crossing, was split down the middle with a dremel tool and made into a standard gauge - 12 mm crossing.  It seems to work.  It will go into the new Rocklea Siding point work.

On Saturday morning I tried to lay out the actual point work needed to rebuild the Rocklea Siding entry and make allowance for the new Sunnybank narrow gauge main line.  So I made a wish list for purchasing.  At the same time, I thought about running wires from the new panel at Yeerongpilly Station to the Mini Panel at Fisherman Islands.  I think just purchasing a roll of 4 core alarm cable is the way to go.  I still need to run a single cable as well as I will need 5 cables for the 2 point motor controls with 2 positions each and the common wire running from the control panel to the Mini Panel.  At this stage I am not thinking about the South Brisbane Mini Panel required for new narrow gauge crossing at Park Road.

While I was in the shed, I plugged my Procab into the other 4 Mini Panels and verified what locations were spare.  I found some more locations that had not been kept up to date.  So everything has now been updated.  But the Fisherman Islands Mini Panel is half empty, so I will run my cables from there to Yeerongpilly for my new crossing Loop at that location.

Hopefully this week I will get a delivery of some push buttons for 3 control panels and some point work, that I will then start installing into Dutton Park.  NMRA meeting next Saturday and a Buy and Sell on Sunday and then Armidale the week after.  Hopefully I will pick up a three lengths of standard gauge flex track and three point motors at the Buy and Sell.  I wonder if I can get this all completed before I head off to Armidale on Friday week?