I cleaned up around the yard on Monday before heading to the shed in the afternoon. It was overrun by ants. I think I then committed ant-genocide with some fly spray. When I went back down to the shed on Tuesday morning, I saw that I left the layout switched on overnight. Whoops! When I got over to Old Cassino, I saw a loco and its carriages on its side. I have no idea how that occurred. I tested the phone systems between North Coast Control and Grafton Yard/Acacia Ridge Yard. They were working. I must have fixed that loose wire a while back. I did not remember fixing the wire, but I did remember that there was a loose wire to be fixed.
Every time I sit down and relax, I think that today is Saturday. I don’t know how many times I thought that over the last week. Every day I think. After lunch on Tuesday I vacuumed up all the dead ants and most of the stuff on the floor. I continued running my track cleaning train from Hothan Street at Cassino through to Acacia Ridge Yard. It ran through both tracks - the main and loop in each crossing loop. I decided to splice in a new siding in Acacia Ridge Yard and that is where the Track Cleaning train can stable at this end of the layout. The track and the point have been sitting in this location for about 6 weeks. So it is finally installed. I wired around the point and gave it a test. All working.
On Christmas Morning I went to the shed while the cook was busy preparing lunch. I continued the track cleaning activities. I continued to run the track cleaning train from Acacia Ridge Yard all the way to South Brisbane Interstate. I then ran the track cleaning train back to Cassino, where it then went on a trip to Murwillumbah. It then ran back to Grafton Yard and was stabled. I need to put new Chux rolls on my knurled steel track cleaners. These ones are absolutely disintegrated. I then tested a few locos. One 44 class loco was replaced as the wheels need regauging. I went through the timetable cards for the next 40 trains and everything is where it needed to be. I got a new hot water urn for Christmas. So that was positioned in the shed and tested. Late in the arvo, after a great lunch, I started cleaning up the shed a bit. Now North Coast Control has somewhere to sit. I found out that the ‘shunt list’ cards were missing. That sent me in a spin.
Boxing Day was clean the table, chairs and pergola day. This was because Friday was Operations Session Day. Well didn’t that start up well? Not! The headsets did not work after I previously tested them. The one headset I picked up to test the system on Friday was not working, that was why I could not get any sound out of it. I picked up another set and they were working. Then North Coast Control’s headset was not working. We just yelled out to NCC. Marty could not get his ubeaut TCS wifi throttle to work on my wifi. Operator error I think. Eventually he got it going. But it would not work in the back aisle (Cassino) of the shed. I have since relocated my Wifi-trax WFD30 wifi plug in to above the backdrops so the layout decks do not affect transmission.
In the Ops Session, eventually two manually controlled points broke, when the wire through the central hole, from the actuator came out. Following the initial layout hiccups, things ran much better. Not perfectly, but better. 26 trains were run and 24 cans a couple of tea/coffees were drunk. So today I fixed one of those points. I identified where I need more lighting over Acacia Ridge Yard and eventually Rocklea Siding I think as well. I have created an attack plan for all the minor improvements. I will chip away at these over the next week. One item that was mentioned a few times at the Ops Session, is that as we all get older, we can no longer read the original timetable cards. So today I rewrote them to be A5 in size for each train timetable card. They were previously A6, 4 to an A4 sheet. Now they are only 2 to a sheet. I’ve also fixed up some more text on the timetable cards, trying to be more descriptive. I’m also thinking that I need to make changes to my shunt lists. Currently I print them one to an A4 page. I will look into printing them two to a sheet of paper. During the Ops Session, there were the same questions asked. That is the address of the 5 digit loco numbers. The answer is the last 4 digits. That was why I sent out the Operations manual to everyone one a few days before the session to re-acquaint themselves with the layout and provide a list of changes made since the last Ops Session. Everyone has been given remedial homework post session. Marty has responded that he read his homework.
On Saturday I checked out a Digitrax DS64 that Marty was looking at. Many years ago I used to buy these to control four point motor outputs. I have quite a lot of these, maybe 15 (maybe more) on the layout. A mate also has many more than I do. A number of years back, we sent two DS64’s back to the US for fixing (one each). My mate’s DS64 came back and worked, mine was still stuffed when it returned. At that stage I could have snotted the person that did not fix my DS64, but returned it anyway. It was not cheap to send these DS64s twice across the Pacific. Anyway, a couple of years on, I now use NCE QSnaps instead of DS64’s. Anyway, a couple of weeks back, I gave my DS64 to Marty to have a look at it. He did and could not fix it. He returned it on Friday at the Ops Session, but he said if I remove two transistors from the output 1 circuit, the other three outputs should work. Components were getting very hot in the Output one circuit, so no doubt something was cactus. Thanks for trying Marty. So on Saturday I removed the two transistors and then tested the outputs on address 2. It worked. Brilliant I had a place for this point controller.
Today I had a list of work tasks to be done that was quite long. I did none of those tasks, and did a whole different list of items when in the shed. I have started installing posts on Acacia Ridge Yard to support the future layout lighting structures at this location. Now sitting back thinking about it, I might actually change were I have installed them and have them come out from the centre of the blobs, and hang over to the front of the layout, instead of being at the front of the layout. More thought on this topic tomorrow.
I installed the modified DS64 today at Grafton Yard, where the main point that directs traffic around my Reversing Loops to the In or Out direction was automated. I also motorised the next point on the Out side, that directs traffic from all the dead ended tracks (where trains reverse into here), or from all the return loops Out tracks. I have about 7 of these single ended (dead end) tracks. These two points are running on DS64 outputs 3 and 4 and are working well. So I can automate these in the future when I add my CTC to Grafton Yard to Cassino. One more point at Cassino will also be motorised, maybe tomorrow. I have an NCE Snap-it for this task.
Happy New Year everyone.
Craig, thanks for a fun afternoon. I’m always challenged by a running session and do always enjoy yours. The few incidents I had were of my own actions, and mostly inexperience on my part. The constant jokes and jibes in your direction are always met with a smile, great that the ‘boys’ don’t set you off. Looking forward to the next session!
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