On Tuesday morning, I spent some time working on two troublesome points in Rocklea Siding that were not throwing. The first point a standard gauge one, had its point motor replaced and all was now good. Attention turned to a narrow gauge point that also would not throw. I replaced the complete point. Re-attached the point motor and everything was now working. Damn Stiction. I hate it. In the arvo on Tuesday I did some track installation at South Brisbane. I finally installed the first set of points in the run around for platforms 1 and 2.
On Wednesday morning I ventured down to the shed and soldered a few wires to the bus around South Brisbane. So I can run train further in that area now, but not down to teh run aaround area yet. In the afternoon, I started recoding the Mini Panel located at Loco Pilly. I realised that I needed to run a single wire all the way from there to the Panel for Rocklea Siding. I also needed to add an extra push button to that panel to set the points for the narrow gauge Sunnybank branch when it gets installed next year. I tested the new updates to the Mini Panel and the push button and all are working well.
The plan was to install the new trackwork at Dutton Park, but I have lacked motivation to install it. Access is a royal pain... I was planning on doing it Tuesday, then Wednesday, and then it was going to be Thursday but the wife and I went into town to see my daughter in court doing her thing. Friday I did not get motivated to do anything either.
Saturday was NMRA Christmas Party at the Monier Hotel. There were about 30 people there. A great meal and some good conversation. When I got home, I bit the bullet. I went down and started installing the pointwork at Dutton Park. Just because of where it is located, and the reach needed from the various aisles, it was a tough job. After about 3 and half hours, I had all but the last piece of track installed.
Sunday morning I installed that last piece of track. Attention then turned to see if I had created any shorts. First the standard gauge was tested. Second the marrow gauge was tested. While I had no shorts, I had some dead track sections. I worked out what sections had to be jumpered around the insulated joiners on points. I tried to run trains through the dual gauge crossovers and the trains just stalled. I thought that they might coast across before I could afford an auto-reverser for the crossovers. So I had to wire up a DPDT switch that I set to either narrow gauge or standard gauge for trains to travel across. I have only tested the narrow gauge sections so far.
Now I need to start testing all the point motors. Initially the two at the southern end of Dutton Park, and the ones for Fisherman Islands branch to Park Road for my ‘Y’ and the two at Park Road station can be tested but I do not have a DCC Controller to permanently connect them to. I do have a spare Snap-it that the point motors can connected up to, one point motor at a time to see if they work. That will be next week's job.
During all this track work, I accidentally pulled off some track bus wires and some wires to some control panels. This will be Monday’s job to re-attach. I also have an issue with two of my staff machines sections. They are not powering up. I am thinking that it is related to a wire I bumped in my building process. Again a job to investigate next week. Also track power will be tested in South Brisbane next week.
