MERG Kit Arrives

Last Saturday while at the RMCQ Model Train Exhibition, Greg handed over his recently received MERG purchase.  I had asked him to order some MERG kits for me.  So on Monday I assembled one of the Servo mounts that I ordered.  I had one spare servo, so I worked out how it gets mounted.  I just then needed to find the servo white actuation lever and connect it to the Servo mount.  I still can't find my actuation level components - I must have put them in a safe place.  I can then try and mount it on a test board so I can play with it.  I now want to see if I can get any feedback from the servo when it reaches it full throw on the points it will be controlling.  I will play around with that.  I have just ordered 10 more servo motors to play with.  They should rock up later this week.

I will also be building a failsafe/emergency control panel that can be swapped into my future exhibition layout if the Signalman’s Panel suffers a cataclysmic event.  That way I will still be able to throw the servo controlled points on the layout, as they will be controlled by servo motors.  With out the control logic commanding the servo motors, the points will all be dead in the water, unable to be changed.

I continue to think about how I will build my emergency control panel for my servos and I recently picked up some components from Jaycar to further its progress.

Saturday was the latest NMRA Gathering.  We had good numbers at Sparkle's place.  We also had a couple of good presentations and we heard from a number of attendees from my last Ops Session talking about their experiences.  We had an aim to introduce operations to a number of interested people and we are helping them get exposure to this AP.  We also got to see the progress on Sparkle's N scale layout.

This coming week I head down to Sydney with Bob, where we meet up with Smithy and Paul for some activities which centre around the Rosehill Great Model Train Show.  It will be good catching up with my Sydney based friends.  I have some purchases lined up to make while down there.

RMCQ 2026 Model Train Exhibition

This week started with 3 days up at Caloundra with the boss visiting one of her girl friends.  What a brilliant view we had. 

After that start to the week, I struggled to do anything hobby related, apart from packing the car with what I was taking to this weekend’s RMCQ Model Train Exhibition at the Brendale Sports Complex.  What a great weekend we had!  Great Venue.  Good Layouts in attendance.  Good assistance and company on the NMRA Stand, really good numbers through the doors and reasonably priced food.

I sat at the modelling table with 3 other modellers on Saturday and Sunday.  I completed 8 industrial bins on Saturday, and about 9 clotheslines on Sunday.  I had two animations on my table.  One was a clothesline that spun around, with the mum hanging off it.  This was all on a 90mm end cap and was from a previous competition at a convention.  My second one was an old 6m x 6m garage, with a tilt-a-door where the door would open and close at the pressing of a button.  This was an Arduino Uno controlling a servo linked to the tilt-a-door.

Both of these drew many comments, laughs, and the beginnings of many conversations with the public, hence not much modelling done.  I also had an entry in the RMCQ modelling comp.  My entry was a flickering station platform light that finally answered how many people does it take to replace a  light bulb?  One station light would flicker for a while, (again controlled via an Arduino Uno) then the light would come good for 20 seconds and then repeat the process.  There were three workers standing around trying to fix the flickering light.

A view of the oil siding on the Amby West layout by Arthur Hayes MMR.

A great industrial complex on this layout just inside the front door to the exhibition.

Darren and I took the equipment from the NMRA stand back to Paul’s place for storage after the exhibition.

Now what to do next week?

Post Op Session Fixups

Monday was 'fix up the layout' day following the Operations Session on the day before, last weekend.  Basically I soldered a wire around a point, but this time it was the other end of the wire I soldered the previous week.  So when I change that point I now have power to the staff machines.  I adjusted the wires to an NCE QSNAP and it was working again.  It was now throwing points.  A point at the southern end of Border Loop had a bad point blade for the mainline.  That was superglued and now seems to work.  While running some trains, I found one point in South Brisbane Interstate Yard was not throwing in one direction.  I started tracing the point wiring and found no issues.  So I manually toggled the point and sure enough it is now throwing back and forth.  You can not make this stuff up.  It just happens.

I adjusted one train that was put into a track in a yard that I advised, but it was the wrong track.  So I fixed this up.  I adjusted the coupling heights on two wagons, by adding some washers under the bogie.  I swapped out one 44 class loco for another 44 class, as the old 44 class loco had wheels that kept going out of gauge and derailing on points.  So the person who drives that train again should get a better experience next time.

 

I also double checked the North Coast Controller’s headset, and I found no issues with it.  It seemed to be working.  As previously said, it probably was operator error.

 

I had a look at the timetable and realised that there was one train that had almost completed its run and was stopped a couple of loops short of its destination, and then by looking ahead at the next few timetable cards it showed that the next 8 cards needed to be run some of the way through their runs to be at the same time.  So I adjusted the fastclock time and I ran all 8 trains to where they should be at the same time.  So it will be 15:10 in the timetable when we next run.  I did quite a bit of shunting to get those trains to that point, so I probably deprived some people of that activity.

 

I have no idea when the next session will be.  But there will be one on the 28^th of December this year after a request from one regular to delay my normal Christmas session by a day.

 

Thursday was a day to finally look at my modelling project for the upcoming RMCQ exhibition.  I butchered some code up for my Arduino and gave it a test run.  It worked first time.  Now I just need to build my model.  That was Friday’s job.  The model will have a subterranean Arduino underneath the above ground detail.  I built up a step ladder.  I found some trees and some workers.  So early next week I will finish off the track and platform and do some terra forming, scenery and ballasting.

Lead Up to Novice's Introduction to Operations

Early on in the week, I cleaned up the pergola so we can all have a sit at the outdoor table following the today's Operations Session.  I washed the table and chairs and swept out the pergola.  I had been using the table in the pergola to work on my Signalman’s Panel.  So the Signalman's Panel was sort of packed away.

The next task was to clean the shed up for the Operations Session.  First I moved some of the items off the floor, and put many things away.  The Dispatcher's desk was then cleared.

On Thursday this week, I continued my cleaning and preparation activities.  I tested the headsets all around the layout at each plug in point.  They all worked.  Our North Coast Controller actually had issues with the headsets during the session.  I'm not sure if that was the battery finally going flat or operator error.  I then did a quick amount of maintenance around the layout.  I soldered a wire to the main bus after an incinerator at Border Loop had lost its power.  Maybe someone knocked the wire off at a previous Ops Session.  I then remembered that the lights over the road overbridge at Cassino were not working.  Again a wire had been ripped off the switch on the control panel.  However, this time I know this was me doing work on the lights for the Cassino Station building.  Yes I must get back to working on the roof sections of the station building and the refreshment rooms at Cassino station.  So that was re-attached and the lights resumed working.

I then got the track cleaning cars out.  They ran from Grafton Yard to Cassino and then all the way to Border Loop.  It was there that I realised that the XPT had been parked in the loop at Border Loop and the track cleaning train could not proceed north.  The main line at Border Loop was blocked by the Paybus and the 620/720 on the Mountain Goat service.  So I moved the track cleaning cars into the main, short of these two trains.  The XPT then ran back to Cassino and ended up the first train to take the use of the Up Siding next to the Coal Stage.  It has only been there for about 15 years.  But I never used it.  Well I have now.

The track cleaning train then continued to Dutton Park.  I tested my troublesome standard gauge points at that location and they worked.  So the track cleaning train made its way to Fisherman Islands, and then back before resuming it path to South Brisbane Interstate Station.  While there I ran up and down tracks 1 through 8.  The next two tracks (9 and 10) had wagons on them so they were not cleaned.  At this stage the track cleaning train made its way back to Cassino, this time taking all the loops, at Acacia Ridge Yard, Glenapp Loop, The Risk, and Fairy Hill Loop to ensure that they were also operational.  I then needed some sustenance.  After lunch the track cleaning train then made its way from Cassino via Old Cassino, Lismore and arrived at Murwillumbah.  Again on the way back it went via the loops at those locations, and then continued onto Grafton, and then into its storage siding. 

It was at this point that I realised that the staff machines for Grafton – Rappville section were not lit.  So I pulled off the fascia panels.  A wire had come off the jumper at the points that housed the track cleaning train, and the jumper no longer jumped.  So I touched that wire with the soldering iron and everything then live again.  However, during the Ops Session, someone through the wrong point at Grafton Yard and the staff machines went out again.  So that wire had come off again.

My order for more Arduino UNOs rocked up on Friday.  So that means that next week will be for building my entry in the RMCQ modelling competition at the RMCQ exhibition in 2 weeks’ time at the Sports Complex at Brendale.  Also on Fridays I added couplers to my two 3D printed SX cars.  These have been added to my RTR 5 car set.  I will see how they go in service.

On Saturday I painted up a few 3D prints of bases for Evans Cars.  These were matt Black.  I also painted two bad (fuzzy) prints of some Evans cars to see what they would look like with the paint colour I was using.  the fuzzy prints turned out like crap!  I then hit two good prints with the same colour and allowed them to dry.  The colour seems passable, after I hit it with some dull coat.

So Sunday was Ops Session day.  I got the tea, coffee, milk and stuff ready.  Everyone rocked up before the appointed time at 1:30pm.  We only ran for 2 and a half hours today.  The reason for the Ops Session was to introduce a few Div 1 members to Operations and get them started towards their Dispatcher AP.  We had some incidents.  Derailments, a couple of track issues, a spilled beer (by me), and a few good laughs.  The novices enjoyed themselves and I think everyone wants to come back. 

The second train of the day was the Rocklea Shunt, dropping of the wagons of Superphosphate, and picking up 3 empties.  The three empties are now attached.  But when operating, a couple of points would not throw.

 

It wasn't until later on, I saw that one of the QSNAPs (one on the left) was not powered.  So I will look at its wiring next week, but that will explain why some points would not throw.

Front and centre here is Greg.  He was ably assisting the novices in helping them find locations, advise them on procedures.  Three novices are in the background.

Another novice is in the headlights, with Greg behind him.

Another couple of novices, close to the camera, and Greg assisting Paul, farther away from the camera.

One thing the newbies need to check, is that the points are correctly set before the train goes over the points.  Otherwise they might derail like this incident.  There were a few others as well.

Servo Research

This week I completed a project that I probably started about 10 years ago.  This was when I made a couple of HO Scale 6.5m x 6.5m garages in styrene, but these models were fitted with a garage door that could open and close.  These were tilt-a-door models.  I included a servo at the back of a garage, hidden by a wall and then ran a cotton connection from the servo to the tilt-a-door mechanism.  So these models just sat on the shelf in the train shed for a very long time.  

So this week, I bit the bullet and started to get into working on servo control from an Arduino.  I first got a servo working directly from an Arduino UNO.  So I then connected the Arduino to my garage Arduino and after adjusting the throw of the hidden Arduino, I could get the tilt-a-door on the garage model going up and down.  Next step was to reconfigure the wiring to/from the Arduino so that I could install a push button inline so that would control the opening and closing of the garage door via a press of the push button.  So some quick changes to the Arduino code and it was working.  The code would wait until a press on a certain pin in the Arduino – in my case pin 8 and the door would open.  It would then wait again for another button press on the same pin and the garage door would close.  I took this working garage door opening model to yesterday's ‘Show and Tell’ at our local NMRA meeting.  I got a couple of nods from the audience.  I was happy.

However, during the week, the main task that I was trying to master was to incorporate servo control from the Arduino via a PCA9685 16 port expansion module.  I tried it about 50 times.  I could not work out why this was not working.  I was bamboozled.  So on Friday I rang up my Arduino mentor - Bob, and asked if he could bring a spare PCA9685 16 port expansion module from his collection to Saturday’s NMRA Meeting.  I thought that the only reason I could not get the servo to work via the expansion port, is that my expansion module must have been bung.  If I proved that by using Bob’s spare module that it worked, then I'd order a few more of the 16-port expansion modules online to replace my bad one and then have a spare nearby.  So on Saturday morning I was sitting in the audience of the NMRA meeting with my PCA9685 port expander sitting on my lap, and I just happened to read the bottom side of the PCA9685 expansion module.  It said that if using servos, then the power had to be supplied via the V+ pin.  Oh firetruck!  I had not powered the V+ pin on the PCA9685 expansion module.  Now I have 7 of these expansion modules working in the internal logic of my Signalman's Panel.  But these are used only to control LEDs.  However, all of these were powered by the Alternate Power plugs on the module.  This powered the V+ pin, but doesn’t use the V+ pin.  My testing with LEDs on the expansion module in question did not need the alternate power plugs used, but the LEDs still worked on the module.

The message above 'Use V+ for servo supply'.  It is quite clear.

So at half time in the Brisbane Lions and Hawthorn AFL game on TV later that evening, I reloaded the code into my Arduino to run the servo via the PCA9685 16 port expansion module, but this time with an extra cable from the 5V pin on the Arduino to the V+ pin on the module.  Guess what?  The bloody thing worked.  Damn Dork!  I did advise all the attendees at the NMRA meeting that I might have worked out why my Arduino testing was having an issue controlling the servo via the expansion port module.  I did get a few laughs.  I also got a few jokes throughout the meeting about powering the V+ pin.  We really need to separate Clinton, Greg and PK at future NMRA meetings.  Note to Div 1 Superintendent – separate those bozos!  When I told them that, they all laughed.  Given that one of them is a teacher you would think he would know better.

So now I just need to get some MERG servo components to fit underneath another test module and I will incorporate a servo that will actually change a point on this new test module, controlled and interlocked from my Signalman's Panel.  Hopefully my mate has placed the order from MERG in the UK.  I’d expect that in 2 or 3 weeks it might arrive.

I have an Operations Session scheduled for this coming Sunday, so this week I will be cleaning up the train shed and cleaning the track and testing everything in preparation.

Interlocked Points Control

So this week I went to Jaycar and picked up some 3 pin bi-colour (actually they are tri-colour if you power both sides at once) LEDs that I intended to replace my 2 pin – bi-colour LED’s that I already have installed on my Signalman’s Panel for the point indicators.  Jaycar had ones that were common cathode, which was what I wanted.  I set up a test rig on an Arduino UNO running through a 16-Port Port Extender (PCA9685).  I had it working as I thought it needed to be and I was happy.  Then I had another think.  So I then rewired it and tested it and I was even happier.  I halved the number of ports used on my PCA9685 by putting two of the 3 pin Bi-Colour LEDs back to back, instead of powering each pin separately.  The issue is that when I put two of these 3 pin LED back to back, the colours of the Red and Green LEDs are at different intensities.  So I did a bit of playing around and I needed about a 47 ohm resistor on the Red output and the intensity of both outputs was then the same.  So on Friday I started to install the new LED’s into the Signalman’s Panel and remove the old LEDs.  I did the first one and I could control the actuation of the LEDs by the panel mounted switch.  I then did the second one and the third switches and they would not change.  Then I realised that I had not uploaded the new version of code to make the points other than Point number 4 toggle correctly.  So I uploaded the new code to the Signalman’s panel.  Then I did a new test version of the LEDs as I had a crossover on the future layout which this time needed three LEDs to work together.  Two were for the parallel lines and the third was for the crossover toute.  The code allowed for the points to not be changed if the signals were not previously set to stop.  So now I have fully interlocked points on the future layout.

I had a small test jig for the 3 x bi-colour LED’s and the operation worked on the test jig.  It was plugged into the Signalman’s Panel and while I was testing other things, I heard a pop.  Oh No!  It seemed that I had blown up my test rig.  I have no idea what caused it.

So I worked out again how I would wire three bi-colour LEDs again and directly put them into the Signalman’s Panel and gave it a test and it worked.  I then did a full test of the Signalman’s control panel.  I set up various routes and now if you change a point and the signals are not already set to Red, then the points on the layout and the Signalman’s panel do not change.  The Signalman gets a message on the display either that the points was successfully changed, or that it was not changed, as he had not set the signals to Stop first.  So this is working really well.  I can set up all the routes and when I reset the signals, I can change the points back and I can get everything to go back to automatic mode.  I am very happy.

On Saturday it was the AGM of my Model Railway Club.  I nominated for a position on the Executive – General COMMITTEE MEMBER, for the first time in about 25 years.  I actually got selected.  There were 4 positions in this category and 6 applicants.  I was amazed that one member missed out for the same position.  The numbers of votes for each candidate was revealed this arvo.  63 people voted either in person or via proxy, and I got 62 votes.  Not bad I suppose.  But I wonder why PK did not for me?  While at the Club I received an order for a few styrene industrial bins.  I will make some at the upcoming RMCQ Exhibition in 4 weeks’ time.  I might as well make a few more – maybe 10 total.

Before lunch today I went down to the shed and started to do a bit of a clean-up.  I have an Ops Session in 2 weeks, so I need to move a lot of things from the floor and from the North Coast Control’s desk.  I also did a bit of work on a fettler’s shed that Paul provided me with last week.   I have another to clean-up and put together.  I had one at the Club yesterday and received a few requests from members for their own copy of the fettler’s shed.  I might have to ask Paul if he can print some more.  I have since found out that these models are Walker Models 3D prints and cost $15 to download.  So we will not be distributing copies to anyone.  They can get their own.  

Today after lunch I spend some time refining my presentation notes for the Armidale Convention.  They are basically complete now.  I might add an extra photo or two to the document, but that is it.  This coming week I will be working on actual servo motor control from my Arduino and my Signalman's Panel.

This Week's Review

This week I went on a bus, train and tram trip to Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast for something to do.  Total trip $1.00 due to our $0.50 fares.  I chose Wednesday to go, as I thought I’d get the most mates available to come share the experience.  But as it turned out, it was just Dean and myself who attended after 16 people were asked.  They had varying excuses.  Some I can actually agree with.  Anyway, it was a great day.  I walked just under 10km that day, including around the hill at Burleigh.  Boy was there people around, on the train, on the tram and on the beach and stacks also walking around the National Park.

Burleigh Heads looking towards the hill.

Burleigh looking up towards North Burleigh and onwards to Surfers Paradise.

Saturday was a working bee day on the FreeMo modules.  We had about 6 of us there working on them.  Bit by bit we are getting them finished.  While taking a break yesterday I was shown how Paul controls his servo point motors on his layout.  I think I will use the same MERG servo mounts and then interface the servos with my Signalman’s Panel for control of the servos.  I’m thinking of also having up to 4 catch-points also controlled with servos.

MERG based Servo controls for point motors.

As today was Father’s Day, I got my combined Birthday and Father’s Day present (which I purchased myself) from the kids.  It was a Model Box BCC bus kit in Lego type blocks.  This is a fantastic model.  My only complaint is that my local bus service number and destination (the most populous Buzz service in Brisbane) or even the City Destination board, were not in the list of destinations available.  I might have to reach out to the guys and see if they can make up those destinations.  But apart from that my present is completed and I’m very happy with it.  Did I say it was a great little model?

The completed bus.

The rear.

During the week, I was confirmed as a presenter at this Year’s Armidale Convention.  My topic is Automated Signals for the Layout.  My presentation is completed, but I need to spend some time on the notes for the convention handout.  I know I started some somewhere, but I cannot find them.  I will keep looking.

More Work on the Signalman's Panel Occurs

This week I quickly ticked off the few tasks on the To Do list.  This included reversing the two wires for the Branch shunt ahead wires.  I also wired up the positive and negative supplies to the new bars inside the panel for the IR (Infra-Red) detectors connected via the rear of the panel.  I also fixed the Green aspect on signal D3, which had a wire come out of the socket inside the panel.  I did discover a new issue in that one of the I2C boards with all the white IR detector LEDs for the Dual Gauge (on a separate Expansion Port on the bus) was no longer connected to the I2C bus.  I traced this back to another plug coming adrift from my distribution bus for the 2 wires on the I2C bus.  Once I identified the cause, and rectified this, the panel all lit up correctly again.

The next job was to pre-install the 2 plugs into the Signalman's Panel distribution plugs, for each of the next 8 signals to be installed.  These are the Up and Down Dual gauge signals.  The 9^th Signal and hence pair of plugs are for the shunt ahead signal on one of the Up Signals DG2.  I then had to wait until my RJ45 CAT6e sockets come in at my local Jaycar store.

On Friday I went to Jaycar to look for a variable power supply, and on the off chance that my order for 10 x RJ45 Cat6e sockets had come in.  The great service from the staff there confirmed that the items had come in and the staff member went looking.  So I quickly connected all of the 7 wires in each of the 8 of the 10 x RJ45 sockets, and 2 wires for the 9th socket for the Shunt ahead signal.  However, this time I successfully installed the wires the correct way around.  I then threaded the wires in through the back of the Signalman's Panel and they are now ready to be connected up and then tested.

Saturday was spent at the Redlands Model Train Show and I worked on the NMRA stand with 3 other clinicians.  I must write myself a note, never leave the stand as those modelling mates (aka b@$tards) left at the stand, just print “for sale” signs with 75% off and leave them on my items that I am building.  During the day, I built one window, installed another, constructed and installed 5 doors, added a couple of roof sections and constructed a concrete slab and a veranda awning on one end of my Old Cassino station building.  This building is coming along, but I think I still have another exhibition left in it to be completed.  Maybe by the RMCQ Show at Brendale in October it might be completed.

So today I wired up the first 4 x RJ45 Plugs for the UP Dual Gauge signals.  They all seem to work.  I have yet to connect up the IR detectors.  So I guess that means that tomorrow is the day for this task and then wiring the DOWN Dual gauge signals will be wired in.  I did notice that the 'Shunt Ahead' signal on my test track is not working. I recently moved this track and maybe I snagged something.  I connected the troublesome shunt ahead signal to the UP shunt, DOWN Shunt, and the Branch Shunt and it does not light for any of these signal aspects.  So I must have snapped a wire somewhere.  So I will investigate that tomorrow.  So the panel will soon be almost complete for signalling.  Focus will turn to how I operate my point motors.

I am starting to think ahead as to how to control the 5 Servo motors that I will use to control the mainline point motors on the layout.  Once this method is worked out, I will look at how I control up to 4 catch points on the layout as well.  I am not sure if I will use more RJ45 cables, or some other method for these items.  I will also have to devise a small emergency panel to control just the points (and maybe the catch points) on the layout if I have a catastrophic failure of the Signalman’s Panel when operating the future layout, and I no longer have control of the points from that item.  All the points in the Sidings on the front of the layout will be manual.

Further Work on Signlman's Panel

This week I had a set list of tasks to complete on my Signalman’s panel.  Last week I punched in the first 6 x RJ45 sockets for the DOWN tracks.  I installed them into my 6 way socket holders at the back of the panel.  Next job was to test these.  As I wired these to the panel, I realised that I had wired all the wires to the rear of the Rj45 sockets back to front.  Whoops.  The wires that should have been on the left-hand side of the patch were on the right-hand side and vice versa.  So I had to remove the 6 x RJ45 Sockets from the rear of the Signalman’s Panel.  I then had to unpunch the wires in the sockets, and then re-punch them in the correct side.  Soon I was back to where I should have been when I started.   I then tested all the plugs with the test track and everything was working.  So today I installed the 4 x Branch Line RJ45 plugs and tested them.  By the way, these were also wired incorrectly last week.  The sockets have all signal aspects working, except for the Shunt Ahead Aspect on signal B1.  I’m now worried that I connected the two wires on this socket back to front.  The Shunt Ahead Aspect on the Signalman’s panel works correctly.  That should be an easy fix next week.  I have also set up a new Positive and Negative line inside the Signalman’s Panel for the 11 x IR detectors on the second slave Arduino Uno.  These positive and negative lines are not yet wired back to the Arduino.  But the first three IR detectors connected via the RJ45 plugs are wired to them.  These base power lines provide power for the 11 x IR detectors connected via the RJ45 plugs.  The temporary IR detectors that I use to test the panel are already wired and still working.  So I have not yet tested the 3 x IR detectors for the Branch Line.

I went to Jaycar this morning and ordered another 10 x RJ45 Sockets.  So when they rock up, I will install the 7 wires into each of these sockets (hopefully into the correct sides this time) and then put them into the rear of the Signalman’s Panel.  The wires then get fed through to the electronics inside the panel and everything gets terminated.  It then gets tested and hopefully it will all work first time, and this will close out the UP Dual Gauge signals and the DOWN Dual Gauge signals.

I did discover a logic bug when I get multiple consecutive IR sensors going off at the same time.  I know exactly where this occurs in the code and why it is occurring and how to fix it.  But I just need to find the time.

So while testing the new Branch Line connections I found that the Green aspect on DOWN Signal D3 is not working.  So I must have knocked something inside the Signalman’s Panel, as this was working last time I tested it.  But quite a lot of wire moves have occurred today.  I will investigate that failure to light that LED tomorrow.  Both the LED on the Signalman’s Panel and the signal on the test track when wired in, do not light.  So that gives me a good idea where to look.

I went to George’s shop during the week and replaced the bung IR reset detector on his level crossing display circuit.

This week I tried to fire up one of my home layout based level crossing detectors and it would not.  I never went back to it to determine where the power was not reaching.  But the Arduino has power but the 5 x IR detectors are not powering.  When I get some time next week I will fix this.  The other level crossing detector is working well.  I was planning on testing running the level crossing unit off track power.  So again next week I will rectified this.

Next weekend is the Redlands Club’s Hobby Show.  I will be there on the Saturday (at least) working on the NMRA stand.

I have now reached 1000 posts on my blog.

 

Working on the Test Track

This week I went to George’s Shop and did some repair work on the level crossing detector he has on his Shop shelf layout.  It is now working again after it was moved and some wires were then too short to reach the previous locations where the hole was in the baseboard for the IR detector to poke through the track.  But one IR detector had gone missing and another no longer worked.  I had replaced the missing detector and that exhausted my spare collection of detectors.  I ordered a few more on Sunday, and they arrived on Tuesday afternoon.  That will allow me to replace the no longer working ‘reset IR’ detector and throw that old bad one away.

On the home front, I got thinking that for two of my level crossing detectors currently run off  a USB power source.  On my recent home based Arduino projects, I have them running off my layout DCC track power, rectified the track power, filtering it and connecting it to my Arduinos.  So today I searched around and found two of my power supplies (rectifiers and filtering set ups), and soldered some wires to them ready to connect to DCC track power and then I found my plugs so I can connect the output power to the Arduino running my level crossings.  I will test this out next week to see if I can get enough power for teh Arduino and not take too much track power. 

I also did a bit of work on my Signalman’s Panel and test track.  I also traced back the non-working shunt ahead aspect of signal U2 on the test track.  It determined that the connections all worked at the signal.  They worked under the signal before the RJ45 patch point.  It all worked on the signalman’s panel.  Then I traced the wire from the rear of the signalman’s panel to the plug in the panel and it had separated.  So I resoldered it back on and the signal was back working again.

I decided to remove a few of the plugs that connected the 10 x IR detectors on the Signalman’s panel for the UP and DOWN signals.  I decided that I would solder these to strips of copper inside the Signalman’s panel and do away with the plugs.  These plugs gave less than satisfactory electrical connections when connected via the Arduino plugs into a distribution board.

On Friday I finally got around to laying track on my test track module.  But I did not check that the IR detectors would fit through the sleeper spacing before I packed it up and put it in the car for showing off at the Saturday NMRA meeting.  I was doing a presentation on weathering and talking about the Frosted Glass can of spray paint, but it appears that it is no longer available.  That stuff was great.  But we have it on good advice that a new product is on its way out of the same factory.  I also took my model of the future layout so attendees at the meeting could see what I was proposing to build.  I also took my test track and Signalman’s Panel and set them up on two blow-mould tables in a garage at the NMRA meeting.  However, even in the garage, the sunlight that came in was causing havoc with the IR detectors at one end of the Signalman’s Panel.  Eventually I got them working, by putting the garage door down.

While at the meeting I had a phone message from Jaycar that an order for some RJ45 sockets had come in.  So today I picked them up and I have also patched in the various wires to all the RJ plugs.  The first 6 plugs for the DOWN signals have been installed in the rear of the Signalman’s Panel and the wires fed through the rear of the Signalman’s Panel but the wires have not yet been terminated.  That is a task for the coming week.  I also punched the wires in the next terminating socket for the Branch line signals.   I will install them next week and terminate the wires inside the panel.

While at the NMRA meeting one signal decided to stop showing a red aspect.  The LED had come adrift from the common bus wire inside the third signal on the test track.  I am quite happy with the progress that is being made with the Signalman’s Panel.  

That was post number 999.

Testing the Test Track and Signalling Connections

Earlier this week I began wiring in the second cable connection from my signal U2, and the siding signal SS2.  I then did a bit of testing and some things worked and some did not.  It basically all came down to bad connections for my jumper cables in the Signalman’s Panel.  So these were adjusted, reseated and resoldered and most things are pretty good.  I then found that the two red signals on my extension U3 and U4 are not lighting.  So I will have to disconnect the signals and check the LEDs inside the signal.  I thought it is just a cold solder joint.  As suspected for U3 I had to resolder the red LED to the common in the test track.  For U4, I had to remove the red wire in my RJ45 socket and re-patch that wire.  All is now good. 

So at the moment everything seems to be working on the UP line testing, except that initially I had not tested the shunt ahead and routing aspects for signal U2.  So on Thursday I tested the shunt ahead aspect on signal U2 and it worked fine.  I then did some more testing and I was having an issue with the route indicators on signal U2 on the test board.  I jiggled a few wires around inside the box and then rebooted and all is now good.  However, I am seeing some strange aspects occurring when a random IR detector goes off out of sequence.  I will look into this and determine if I need to make the logic aware of this.  I am currently testing the Signalman’s panel and the test board out in the pergola and I am currently surrounded by lots of sunlight, so this is playing havoc with my IR detectors.  An example of this for example is if U3 and U4 are green and then U4’s IR detector goes off.  U3 stays green and the driver is then confronted with a red signal without first getting a yellow aspect.  On other signals this is handled as both the U1 and U2 signals have Hold switches on the panel so the signalman can set the signal to a Red Aspect to do something ahead, like set points etc.  However, no such logic appears for U3.  It will be easy to incorporate by I wonder if I really need to do this.  Maybe if someone is cleaning the track and sets off an IR detector?  But all the other signals can work themselves out of any predicament given the logic I have implemented on them.

I measured my test track and wouldn’t you know it, it seems about 1 inch to long to fit behind the back seat in my car.  That was assessed through guesstimation, as I have not physically tried it yet.  But on Friday afternoon when I did try and put it in the car, I could just get it to fit behind the rear seat headrests.  So I took my Signalman’s Panel and the test track to the Club on Saturday and after the monthly meeting I set it up on two blow mold tables.  I fired the system up and discussed how it worked for some interested passersby.  But at the end after all the opening and closing of the panel lid, one of the wires for a point control lost its wire.  So I could no longer route trains to the branch or the Down Main.  So on Sunday morning I fixed the broken wire and everything was working again.  I did notice that I needed to name the Points and the Catch Points on the signalman’s panel so when the messages come up on the panel, the signalman will be able to understand what is happening where.  So I have now printed off the new name tags, and fill affix them next week.  Another task I did today was to verify the resistance of the resistor on the Green aspect in Signal U1.  I removed it and measured it at 1600 Ohms.  It was supposed to be a 1K ohms resistor.  I don't know how I got that wrong.  So I replaced it with a 1K ohm resistor and now that signal is a bit brighter both on the Signalman's panel and on the test track.

I also took my level crossing test track to the Club and showed this off to the Club’s electrical guru following a discussion we had the previous month.  He wants to implement a couple of level crossing flashing lights in various locations on the HO Clubroom layout.  So he wants to borrow my Arduino code.  I sent him a copy this morning.

While at the Club yesterday, my mate Greg presented me with a couple of 3D items that I asked him to design.  That was a tradie's tool box to go into the rear of a 4 Wheel drive tray or the tray of a ute.  The second item was a surfboard.  I will paint them this week and see if I can place them on my layout.  If they come out good on the layout, I will place a bulk order for these and we will sell them at our Club's next Buy and Sell.  Another item that Greg 3D printed were the shunt ahead signal housing and the rabbit's ears (route indicator) for my U2 junction signal.  This afternoon I fed the LED's into their new homes.  But I must have knocked something as the Shunt ahead yellow aspect no longer lights on the signal.  But it does on the Signalman's panel, so it will be easy to trace back and fix the issue tomorrow morning.

I think I will take the Signalman's panel and the test track to the NMRA meeting next Saturday and show the guys there how the progress goes.  I am waiting on a bulk order at my local Jaycar which should turn up this week sometime, so I will be able to wire up the Down Signals and maybe the Branch Signals.

This actually is my post number 998 on the blog.  So in a couple of week's time I will hit the 1000 post mark.

Signalman's Panel is Progressing

This week I was struggling to get motivated to do much work.  I spent a lot of time watching replays from the Commonwealth Games during the day and live stuff at night.  However on Tuesday I started work on wiring in the wires from the first lot of rear RJ45 connections on my Signalman’s panel for CAT5 cables to be plugged into the signalman’s panel internals.  On Tuesday I spliced in Port 1.  On Wednesday I did ports 2, 3 and 4. 

While playing with the Signalman’s panel, it occurred to me that when I tried to set the B1 Signal to Held, no message was displayed on the signalman's screen.  I thought that the wire inside the panel had come adrift so I went looking.  I could not find anything amiss.  Then it dawned on me that when I last changed the Arduino code that I might have rationalised it too much and removed that message being written to the display.  I then checked the code and I was correct.  I just need to spend some time working out what the circumstances should be to display that message again.  I think I have adjusted the code correctly but I have yet to upload the code to the Arduino and test it in anger.  Maybe next week.

On Saturday I spent a small amount if time in the shed and cut up some thin MDF to form lids on two of my recently acquired storage tray frames.  I have now done a bit of a re-arrangement and placed two more storage trays frames into the shed.

Sunday included a trip to Jaycar to buy some more Rj45 CAT6 sockets so I can punch in the various CAT5 wires into the sockets ready to do the DOWN port connections.  However, they had only one.  I placed an order for another 10.  Hopefully I will get these in about a week.  It is now time to strip a few short lengths of CAT5 cable to allow me to punch them into the RJ45 sockets.    

I am yet to plumb the 5^th usable port into the first lot of UP port connections in the Signalman's Panel.  I will get around to it, maybe this coming week.  But I have wired up the next RJ45 socket to enable me to connect up my junction signal for signal U2 on the test track.  This signal has two route signals, a shunt ahead aspect as well as the normal 3 aspects (red, yellow, green).  I managed to feed all the wires for these down the signal post today and basic testing shows it working.  Again next week I will attach the signal to my test track, and wire that in, and then add the RJ45 plug to the rear of my Signalman’s panel and wire it to the internals of the panel.

This is the U2 signal for the UP track on the future layout which has 3 aspects, the shunt ahead (for access to the sidings) and 6 white 0402 LEDs wired in two pairs of 3 LEDs for the two diverging routes towards the DOWN Main and the BRANCH.

Building and Connecting My Signal Test/Demonstration Track

I’ve made a few trip to Jaycar this week he help me get all the items required for my layout signal test section ready.  The plan is to connect it to my Signalman’s Panel via CAT5 cable.  I have completed the woodwork for this test section, but no track has been laid as yet.  The test section folds out and will house 4 signals along with their IR detectors, and the 4 x RJ45 sockets that are wired to the signal and the IR detector.  So far I have installed three signal/Detector pairs on the test module.  The fourth signal/detector wiring will get done next week.  I need to wire up some very fine wire to get all the wires for all the LEDs through the signal post for Signal Number 2.  I also purchased a number of faceplates that either house 4 or 6 x RJ45 sockets.  These faceplates are now installed on the rear of my Signalman’s Panel and will be wired up to my internal signalling circuitry.  I have wired up the RJ45 sockets using a cheap push-down connector that I bought from Jaycar.  I have tested the four RJ45 sockets on the signal test section.  I have also wired up another 4 x RJ45 sockets that have been installed into the first faceplate on the rear of the Signalman’s Panel.   These also test as working correctly.  At this stage I have connected just the wires from the first signal/detector pair connection.  I also had to make a small tester that allows me to plug into rear sockets on the Signalman’s panel, so I can ensure that I wired everything correctly.  Already I have found out that I may have to change some resistors in the panel as the green signals are now a tad dull.  I originally used standard 1000 Ohm resistors as I had a thousand of them on hand.  So I think I might try something a bit lower resistance, like 680 or 560 Ohms.

The 3D printed signal, with 3mm LEDs is on the left, the IR detector is already poking through the baseboard and the connection on the right which powers the signal and IR detector.  A CAT5 cable plugs into the socket and the other end of the cable connects to the rear of the Signalman's Panel.  I will eventually lay some track on the board.

While I was working on the signalman’s panel I changed the track diagram on the front, as what was originally there was wrong.  Previously I mentioned that the online photos from a historical photo/mapping site showed the real track layout at the location, so I made use of that and made the changes to my panel.  This might also make for some more complex shunting moves in the future.

 

Above is the old siding arrangement.  The colours of the tracks indicate gauge.  Blue is QR 3'6", Black is standard gauge, and red is dual gauge.

This is the new siding arrangement with an additional amount of dual gauge trackage.  This photo also shows the 5 faceplates attached to the rear of the Signalman's panel that the various CAT5 cables connect to.

While it had been quite some time since I powered up the Signalman’s Panel, I thought I would have a play with it.  Everything fired up perfectly, but as I was simulating running trains from the Branch line to the Down line and then setting the Branch Home Signal B1 back to stop, to allow the Down line trains to run again, the trailing signal on the branch (B3) did not reset back to a yellow signal when the signal in front of it displayed a red aspect.  So I connected the panel to the PC and ran a couple of traces and I saw where the code may have been going wrong.  So I made a few tweaks and after the second change, I have the signalling solution working what looks like is now perfectly.  So this was one bug that had crept through my initial testing.  I’m sure there are a few more yet to be found.

During the week I also got around to assembling 4 x KD coupler pockets and these will be installed into two 3D printed SX coaches next week.

Hopefully I will have 3 signals connected up and working from the test trackage module to the Signalman's panel by the end of this coming week.  i just need to find a couple more CAT5 cables.

Steptoe and Son

I’m always on the lookout for items to add to The Shed for storage or making Operating Sessions run better.  Last Sunday on our way home from the Mother-in-law’s place, I noticed that one of the houses nearby had what looked like a small magazine storage rack (like the type at news agencies) out the front of their house for council cleanup.  So on Monday morning I organised my morning 5km walk to end at this house and then walk back home.  As I turned the corner of this street at around 7:30am, I noticed no rubbish out the front of this house.  I looked further down the street, and noticed a truck picking up the rubbish – Nooooo!  The first day of rubbish collection and early in the morning!  I could have walked in the reverse direction but I didn’t.  Any chance of verifying that the item was a usable magazine rack for my crew to use in the shed and picking it up and carting it home was gone.

Anyway on Tuesday I went another direction for my walk and the rubbish was still in place in that part of the suburb.  I looked down a street about 1.7km from home and saw what looked like a small 4 level storage frame - just like the 4 I already have.  Upon closer examination, this frame had 4 plastic tubs in the slide in slots.  I took 3 tubs and the frame and walked back home carrying the items.  Woo Hoo!  On Wednesday I walked another way and sure enough outside my kids former primary school there was a wire storage basket that fits into my previously acquired storage shelves.  That also made its way home with me.  Thursday was also a walk in another direction and about 2.2km from home, I found another 6 shelf storage frame - yes, I have two of these already.  This was also assisted back to my place.  As I was making my way home and I was almost there, I passed my wife walking in the opposite direction, she just shook her head, commented something that I cannot print, and then added ‘Stop picking these things up’.  So I now have plenty of storage frames, but I do need about another 6 storage baskets.  But all the local houses have now been cleaned up.  Maybe next year.  I think it was a good outcome from my morning walks this week.

On a modelling note, I soldered up the LEDs to fit into Greg’s 3D printed signal faces and they are ready to place on my test track after I add wires and feed them down the post.  Greg’s initial test post had a brass tube for the signal post.  My next 4 have been made out of styrene tube, as I had some of that, but no brass tube that fitted.  I have also fixed up my test track and started adding the first signal and IR detector.  I have tested the signal and IR detector by applying power via the CAT5 remote cable connections and the first signal and IR detector work.  I have a 6 way gang that initially will be used to put on my control panel to connect back to the signals via CAT5 cable.  The first 4 ports will be used for the 4 UP signals, the fifth connection for the narrow gauge signal in the sidings and the sixth connection used to manually test anything that I plug into that connection port.  Eventually this port will be used for the shunt ahead signal aspect and the two route indicators on the second UP signal.  I had my order of 50 x 0402 White LEDs rock up on Friday as well.

Saturday was NMRA meeting day and I think it was a really good meeting at Glen’s place.  We are planning what the future meetings will look like.  We did a bit of a discussion with the members in attendance and what they were after.  So I think this will come together.   After the meeting two members Alisha and Aaron came back to my place (on their way home) for a viewing of my layout and I think they had a bit of a laugh at some of the scenes on the layout.

Working on Some 3D Prints

I went for my normal walk on Monday and came across one of my neighbours around the corner who have their junk out the front of their place for next Week’s council cleanup.  They had two of the high pull out frames, which cater for up to 6 storage trays each.  I picked up 5 new trays from their discarded pile.  On Tuesday I went back for one of the frames.  These were cleaned and placed in the shed.  I picked up two of these frames last year.

Tuesday was working on the 3D printed SX coaches that my mate David gave to me last Saturday at the AMRA exhibition.  I cleaned up the flash, did a bit of filing here and there, and undercoated the wagon shells.  I also undercoated the 12mm commonwealth bogies that I just had sitting around.  Later on, I gave the underframe a coat of matt black and the coach shells a nice silver.  Once dry these were screwed together with some existing screws that I just happened to have on hand and added the bogies to two wagons.  I have subsequently found 4 x KD’s that I need to assemble and then I will give the coaches a test run on the layout.  Another job for next week.

On Wednesday I soldered up the various LEDs for the colour light test signals.  I started to also wire up a string of white LEDs for the route indicators and did not like what I found.  I then went looking for 6 x 0402 LEDs which I will eventually solder up and try them for the route indicators.

Saturday involved the trip to the northside and while there picked up a packet of styrene at the Club's local Hobby Shop – RCMA.  When at the Club we had a good showing of numbers.  I had a quick view of the HO Clubroom layout and there had been some great little scene created around the top deck.  Greg had printed off 3 more 3D printed signals which I will assemble this coming week.  I might need to buy a length of brass tube though.  We also discussed the feathers for the junction indicator on top of one of the signals, and that will be enhanced in Greg’s next print.  Greg also showed off a 3D printed aluminium foil corrugated iron roller.  It is a little beauty.  I ordered a few more from him for the NMRA guys.  I also realised that I needed to order another batch of 0402 white LEDs for the layout.  I think I have used up my last order.  I picked up 50 LEDs for a great price at less than $0.50 each LED with pre-wired leads.

Some nice scenery work

The Town taking shape

It looks really good

Looking down the streets

The Plumbing business has some great items outside, including a bath and a pedestal.  I want some pedestals for my layout.

2026 Brisbane Model Railway Exhibition Report

I’ve got to Sunday this week and I cannot remember what I did early in the week.  I’m not sure if it was because I was so busy, or I did not do anything.  I do remember that on Thursday I visited Geoff and picked up two bench seats that we sit in front of our Structure Building Stand  at the AMRA Brisbane Model train exhibition.  I know that on Friday Arthur and I drove to the other side of the world (well Brisbane) and set up our stand at the Brisbane Model Train Show.  On Saturday and Sunday I rinsed and repeated, by picking up Arthur and taking him over to the Brisbane Model Railway Exhibition and even brining him home, even though he tried to stir me with an XPT sledge.  Those close to us will know about this.  And here is my, thinking that I put all of these XPT innuendos to bed.  But I guess not.  Next to us at the show, was the RMCQ N scale layout.  I lost count of the number of times that people said, look left that is an XPT running on the layout!  This was usually followed by accusations that my HO XPT does not run.  Well it bloody well does!

There were a few observations from the show.  There were truckloads of people there on Saturday.  Geoff’s bench seats got quite a workout sitting in front my myself and Arthur at our stand.  They were occupied all day.  I did very little modelling all day and talked myself hoarse.  I did make two telegraph poles with 12 insulators on two cross arms, and built 5 clotheslines.  I almost needed a sling for my arm, as I raised it to wave to heaps of people that I knew as they walked by.  I must admit that when people were looking at the various items on my modelling desk, and in particular my small clothesline scene built on a 90mm end cap, I turned on the switch and the clothesline started to rotate along with the mother handing off of the clothesline.  It brought so many smiles to people’s faces, who then showed their partners, their kids and grandkids, or their parents and grandparents.  It was great seeing all the smiles and that started numerous conversations with the public.  I built this model for the NMRA convention last year for the 90mm cap challenge.

Sunday (today) was no different.  Plenty of people through the doors.  I had a few people ask to get copies of a few clotheslines from my stand, that I had already prepared and also asked to get some other detail items that I had previously build for the layout.  Today’s modelling efforts included scratch building just two windows for my Old Casino Station building.  Pretty poor effort, but everyone had fun.  I'm signed up for next year's Exhibition on the 3rd and 4th of July at the same venue.

I do have a vague memory that earlier in the week I put together all the items that I needed to take to the AMRA Exhibition.  I think I have a few tasks for next week to finish off a couple of items that I wanted to do at the Exhibition but ran out of time talking to the public.

I do have a vague memory that earlier in the week I put together all the items that I needed to take to the AMRA Exhibition.  I think I have a few tasks for next week to finish off a couple of items that I wanted to do at the Exhibition but ran out of time talking to the public.

Home and Back Doing Stuff

Well Monday this week was my travel day.  It started with bunking out of our hotel room and storing our baggage.  Then a bus trip to Central, then tram trip to Lillydale.  I had never been there.  We then caught the same tram back to Central.  This was followed by a Metro trip from central to Martin Place for lunch and saying good-bye to our son.  My wife almosy had kittens when she jumped onto the escalator at Central for the metro.  It must be about 40m long.  We then walked back to our hotel, picked up our luggage, and then took a bus back to Central.  The XPT soon arrived and we boarded our sleeper.  You get a welcome package on boarding and a complementary light breakfast in the morning.  The trip was good.  However, we lost about 30 minutes near Wyee and the train manager over the PA system said there was a signal fault.  Our tardiness blew out to about 37 minutes, and hovered around there.  It would come in to less then 30 minutes, and then creep out to 40 minutes and then then we got into Roma Street about 30 minutes late.  I think I woke up for every station that we stopped at throughout the night.  At Roma Street, we decided to catch a train to Altandi and then a bus home from there.  As we were training it through the southside, the XPT was due to be heading outbound at that same time.  However, we did not see it, as it might have been delayed by the cleaning duties and then finding a new path through the southside on the dual gauge.  The first bus outbound of the morning is not until after 7:00am in the morning, which is pretty poor.  Late in the arvo on Monday while travelling north on the XPT, I saw the candy XPT speed past on its way south.  It was most likely the train from Grafton.

On Wednesday I started doing some modelling.  I was adding 5mm of foam to some of my model modules.  I then tried to terra form the foam to incorporate the various levels of track and scenery.  I now have to adjust the locking mechanism on each of the model modules to the previous module for the modules with the foam above the baseboard.  More work needs to be done on this feature.

On Thursday I hit the kitchen and family room floor trying to confirm the track layout that i will use at the rear of the modules, where the dual gauge splits into standard gauge tracks and the narrow gauge tracks.  I have one version of the trackwork, but I think I might investigate other versions of this over the coming weeks.  I will transcribe the trackwork onto my paper copies of the track work that will fit on the Model modules.

Saturday was a trip to Paul’s place to continue the work on the NMRA Div 1 FreeMo modules.  I had created a set of steps with railings for one of the houses on a module.  The kit we used did not have any back stairs.  After placing then and confirming that fitted in pretty well, I asked Clinton to paint it up and we then glued it to the module.  I had also previously assembled and painted up some ladders to be used around some houses on the modules.  I spent some time adding various people, animals, and other detail items, like cars, seats and BBQs.  I had made some lines for the clotheslines out of phosphor bronze wire.  Alisha had made some clothes to be added to the lines on the clotheslines.  There are now plenty of funny little scenes on the FreeMo modules and I dreamt up a number of 3D printed detail items that could be created to add to these scenes in the future.  If my man gets around to 3D printing these detail items, then I think he will sell quite a few of them.  At the end of the day we gave the 8 corner modules a coat of black paint on the fascias and boy, didn’t that bring the focus from the module in general to just the top of the module.  It was like turning on a spotlight on the top of the module.

There are a couple of items that have to be added to my next building list to be added to scenes on the FreeMo modules at the next working be session. 

Today I went to Jaycar and purchased a couple of RJ45 sockets to allow me to break out the wires from the RJ45 plug that gets put into the socket.  I plan to create a sample connection to the first 4 signals on the new exhibition layout as a demo for later in the year.  I just have to check if I wired the signal on my signalman’s control panel as common anode or common cathode, so I can build my signals for the layout the same way.  Maybe I needed to write that done somewhere when I first put the control panel together.

A Side Trip to Sydney

Well this week started off real early with a 3:30am rise in order to get to Roma Street Station for an XPT ride to Sydney.  We went to have a week in Sydney and visit the son whom now lives down there, and to spend our Anniversary date down there.   The XPT was very slow out of Brisbane to Yeerongpilly.  I could have almost walked there faster.  I think the reason was that QR had stopped trains running from Salisbury to Moorooka on the Down line, due to a new bridge being constructed at Moorooka over Stable Swamp Creek.  So QR suburban traffic was running on the dual gauge and we were trying to run in the opposite direction at the same time, so we had to wait for the line to clear.  At about half-way down to Sydney, the train manager approached us and the people on the other side of the aisle and asked if we wanted to move to a sleeper compartment for the rest of the trip.  We said yes, as we could spread out more.

Looking out one side of our compartment.

Looking out the other side

We did not cross any other traffic until about 1:45pm when we passed a northbound steel train near Wauchope.  The next cross was a northbound XPT in a loop at about 1:54pm.

The northbound Casino XPT

At Taree I checked out the new staging area for the new intercity trains.

We were mostly less than 20 minutes late all the way south until we got to Newcastle.  We had whittled the deficit down to about 6 minutes late at Newcastle, where we had to sit behind an interurban down to Sydney and again from Hornsby to Strathfield.  We ended up only about 20 minutes late into Sydney.  As we walked along the platform to collect our luggage, our son met us on the platform.

We’ve had a great time in Sydney.  Lunch with the son in Sydney on Tuesday, and Wednesday over to Manly and Watson’s Bay.  Thursday I trained it out to Blacktown and spent about an hour and a half talking to Maria at MRRC.  I then caught a Blue Mountains service back to Parramatta to visit Bergs Hobbies.  I then caught the train to Liverpool and again spent about an hour and a half talking to Joe at Casula Hobbies.  The modelling items I wanted to pick up in Sydney were obtained and I got a few other items.

The diagram showing trains near Parramatta station

Thursday was a trip to the Blue Mountains.  While waiting for our train to depart Sydney Central, I heard an announcement on the platform that there was a change of platform for our train.  What?  We were already on it.  So we left the train and proceeded to platform 6.  There was no train announcements, just a platform announcement.  So again we left about 12 minutes late and got to our destination about 7 minutes down.  We checked out the tourist walk to the 3 sisters, and plenty of shops at Katoomba.  We then caught a 4 car train to Elura and checked out the shops and caught the next 10 car train back to Sydney.

Saturday started early as I watched the Socceroos on TV, it would have been too cold to walk to Tumberlong Park where lots of people assembled for the broadcast.  We then went to the Glebe markets and later in the day we went to The Rocks Markets to check out the local merchants.  I was able to attend most of the NMRA Div 1 Meeting virtually in the morning/afternoon and also the British Region Brew and Natter in the evening.  We were lucky enough to see a cruise ship leave the Internation Cruise Ship Terminal in Circular Quay just after 4:00pm.  There was a bit of a network shutdown in Sydney on Saturday so we couldn’t catch a train from Circular Quay or a Metro from Martin Place to Central so we had to catch a bus back home.

The moorings being released

The ship disappearing behind the Opera House

A quiet day today at the local shopping centre having a look around before we prepare to come home tomorrow morning.  A very nice week.