I started working on my To-Do list on Monday. First was replacing the power supply for ‘Shelton the Photographer’. It works now from track power. I went over to check out a troublesome point in Cassino Yard, which caused stalls. I move the throw rod, and it does not throw. So the steel actuator wire has come out from the point. I hate that job to replace the wire into the point. It involves getting the layout at that location. Maybe next week.
I needed to run 4 trains on the layout to do some checking and right some wrongs by the previous crew. The first was No. 9 the Down Banana Express. It started at Grafton Yard, and went to Old Cassino and picked up the 4 missing banana wagons here. It returned to Grafton Yard and the wagons were ordered to be correct according to the shunt list. It left Grafton Yard again, dropped two wagons in Old Cassino, dropped 5 wagons in Lismore and then ran around its train in Murwillumbah and then stowed the train in the Banana Siding. It then took its return working No. 10 back to Lismore, picked up the 5 banana wagons there, went to Old Cassino and followed the instructions on the timetable card. This was ‘take two wagons with you to the siding and pick up the 2 wagons from the Goods Shed Siding’. Then place the two pickups on the rear of the train. Then take the two wagons you were carrying around for a free ride, back on the front of the train. The reason for this, is that the Loop in Old Cassino is not long enough to allow all the banana wagons to stay in the loop, when you add the two from the Goods Shed Siding. The train then overhangs the loop and the Loco cannot run around the train. So some ingenious manoeuvring is required. The train then went back to Grafton Yard and terminated. I added a small amount of weight to three banana wagons and added two KD washers under one bogie of one wagon.
The next train to run was the cement train, which is train number 3. But where were the milk wagons that needed to run from Grafton Yard to Lismore Norco Siding? I searched the layout a couple of times. Under my walkover bridge over Grafton Yard, were three milk wagons on the Pickup Goods. I should have known that, as there are wagons not picked up by the pickup goods still sitting in Lismore Yard. So the driver of that train stole the wrong wagons from Lismore. I do remember hearing that the operator of the Cement train complained that the milk wagons were not there. I had no idea what he was rambling about during the last Operations Session. Now it is clear as mud. So I ran the cement train from Grafton Yard to Old Cassino. At this location I re-marshalled the train according to the shunt list. This train has had a few extra wagons added to it lately. Some of the new cement wagons are slightly longer that the originals. So I need to strategically place these wagons in a siding that does cause issues with excess length. So I can just fit 4 old cement wagons in the Timber Siding at Old Cassino. I can just fit 2 longer wagons and an original wagon in the siding at Lismore. That allows me to put 7 standard cement wagons and a longer one, and it fits in the Murwillumbah Cement Siding. I 0-5-0’ed the three milk wagons to Old Cassino and these were amalgamated onto the train. The train was run out to Murwillumbah and did all its drop offs. It then ran its return working No. 4. Doing some interesting moves at Lismore to ensure that the milk wagons are at the front of the train and then went to Old Cassino, picked up another 4 wagons and then onto Grafton Yard. This train is getting long. It must be the longest train at 18 wagons. Not that long in length though.
Tuesday I could not get motivated. The women’s Cricket was on TV. So it was Wednesday when the next trains was attacked. It was the Pickup Goods for the Branch No. 11, and I had to ensure I identified the driver from Friday night so he could get a solid bollicking for picking up the wrong wagons. I searched the cards used by North Coast Control and found out that the driver was Jeff. Jeff was a QR train controller. No wonder he is not a driver. He cannot read instructions. I reviewed his instructions and they appeared clear as day. He collected 3 wagons from Lismore, and left another 4 there. I have no idea how Jeff left those four there. I would assume that he never picked up his Shunt List and was just winging it as we went along.
Anyway, I ran the train from Grafton Yard to Old Cassino and worked out that the train no longer fits in the available tracks. That is because 4 other cement wagons are in the Timber Siding. So the train needs to use what is left of the Yard. To allow this to occur, the driver needs to take 5 wagons with him, as he runs around his train. He then pushes the last 4 wagons back into the Norco Siding. He then backs out of the siding, runs around and adds the 5 wagons he took for a joyride, back onto the train in the Yard. The train continued to Lismore, drops off his wagons in the two sidings and continues to Murwillumbah. On the way home, he takes the Loop at Lismore, and adds the wagons from the Norco Siding, to the rear of those in the No.1 Storage Siding. This combines load gets added to the train in the Loop. The driver then runs around and resumes towards Old Cassino. Here to takes the Loop. He cuts off the first 5 wagons and then travels forward and then pushed back into the Butter Siding and collects the 4 wagons there. The train is them joined back up with those already in the Loop. The trains travels towards Cassino. However, the train stops short of Cassino, leaving the train on the branchline track, while he travels over to the Yard and picks up the 5 wagons returned from the meatworks shunt. These get added to front of the train on the branchline and then he resumes travelling to Grafton Yard. I ran this whole train twice to ensure that it all worked. It seemed to do this nicely. I did do a bit of enhancements to one of the long AOOX wagons. There was limited bogie swing, so this was enhanced. I also added a small amount of weight to 4 of the cattle wagons that were on the #39 and #40 meatworks shunt.
After the cricket was finished on Friday I went to the shed to do a couple of things. There were reports of issues with the stock train at the last Operatrions Session. I was watching as it was travelling over the bridge. One rail was swinging on the bridge. I superglued the rail, that had come loose, to the sleepers on Fawcett’s Creek Bridge at the northern end. I used a track gauge to ensure that the rails were as close enough to correct. This is so much better than floating like they were previously. I then ran the Brisbane Limited from Grafton to Glenapp and return. The train could not go any farther as all the tracks were in use in Acacia Ridge Yard. This train was giving poor Geoff B. some issues last Friday. On the trip, I added weight to three RUB cars. Thanks Geoff C. for the weights. I adjusted the bogie heights on three carriages on one end and they are now more accurately coupling to the next carriage in the train. Over time this train has had wagons swapped out, new Auscision wagons added and bogie heights have been adjusted. I also added a spring to one coupler on another wagon. So I am now very happy with the performance of this train.
On Saturday morning I turned my attention to the stock train that I saw running from Kyogle Stock Siding towards Cassino Yard on the previous Friday during the Ops Session. This train could not get 1 inch across Fawcett’s Creek bridge without derailing due to the flexing gauge issue of the track. So this was an interesting test given that I super glued the track the day before. So the train was run from Cassino Yard, back up to the Kyogle Stock Siding. It ran well across the bridge and into the siding. I ran the loco around and then back out of the siding across the bridge, and then again it ran perfectly. Job done! While I was in the Cassino Yard, I gave the loco 4803 a run back and forth. During the last Ops Session it could not lift 5 stock wagons from the yard to the Cassino Meatworks Siding without wheel slip. Maybe there weas a bit too much oil on the track, but these items do not weigh much. The loco seemed to run well. I will put it down to something to monitor next time.
So that was this weeks summary of enhancements on the layout. I still have quite a lot of items in the To-Do list for this week and lots more projects to start.
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