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.

XPT Fun and the Layout Model is Shown Off

Late on Monday I went to the shed and ran my XPT from Grafton to Fairy Hill and return.  Then I ran it to Kyogle and return just for kicks.  I think I noticed an issue inside my helix.  So I investigated.  A section of track had lifted, so I glued it back down on Tuesday morning and put a weight on it as the glue dried.  The next time I powered the layout on, I forgot that I had a weight on the track.  I got a short – Doh!  I realised so I then removed the weight and that section no longer had a short.  The XPT then ran smoothly through the helix section.  I also identified two sets of points at Kyogle where the XPT was jumping when it was travelling through that location.  So I shimmed the check rails with two slivers of 0.010” styrene and that seemed to help wonderfully.

On Tuesday evening amid all the expectations of the Tuesday Nighters, I successfully ran the XPT from Kyogle station back to Grafton Staging.  I was then asked to run it back the other way.  So I ran it from Grafton Staging to Border Loop.  I identified an issue with a set of points on the southern end of Border Loop.  The rail had come adrift from the throw bar.  So I attempted to push it back in.  That seems to have done the trick.  I also identified that two particular coaches on the XPT, the centre one and the last one seem to be causing random derails.  I had a suspicion that the bogies had wheels out of gauge.  On Wednesday morning I got the NMRA track gauge out and sure enough some wheels were out of gauge ever so slightly.  So I did a bit of adjustment and put the coaches back on the train.  Later in the arvo I had some time and ran the train from Border Loop back to Fairy Hill crossing loop before reversing it again and sending it back to Border Loop.  I still seem to think that I had a couple of other bogies that are out of gauge ever so slightly.  I will eventually check them all out.

Earlier in the day I cut up some pieces of styrene, including ‘I’ Beam, ‘H’ Beam and various slabs ready for painting.  These will help make up various steel loads for numerous open wagons.  It will also help provide some loads that someone wants me to make for them.

Saturday was Club Meeting day.  I decided to take the scale model of my future layout to the Club for comments.  It sat on the back seat of the car.  I fielded many questions throughout the day about what it was.  

The model of the Modules for the future exhibition layout.

While at the Club, Greg showed me some 3D printed signals that he put together with some brass tube used for the post.  I purchased a tube cutter from Bunnings today and then went to Jaycar and picked up a stack of LEDs for the signals that Greg will eventually print for me.  I have assembled the first trial signal that Greg printed and gave to me yesterday.  It looks pretty good.  I will eventually get around to making the RJ45 connection from my control panel to the signal as another piece of my layout puzzle gets materialised.

The Week That Wasn't

This week I have done relatively little modelling except from building a couple of small detail items for the Div 1 FreeMo modules.  I have built a set of back steps from styrene, and then added a railing to the steps from styrene rod.  This will go out the back of a house on one of the modules.  Next modelling activity was with some fine phosphor bronze wire lines that can be added to a number of the clothes lines sitting in the back yards of various houses on the modules.  I also put together various types of ladders from kits that I had sitting around in my spares bucket.  One of these ladders will allow the guy currently sitting on the roof of a house to get up and down to/from the roof.  This guy is installing the TV antenna on the roof and he is connecting the co-axe cable

However, today as I started to clean up the shed in preparation for the meeting this coming Tuesday night at my place, I realised that I had promised to create a few detail items for one guy to pick up at the upcoming Brisbane Exhibition.  I spoke to him at the last Buy and Sell for our Club, and I did not have any of the items that he wanted on my table.  But I am now working towards fixing that issue.  I created 5 long and 5 short steel wire loads for various HO wagons.  I think I had sold the last of my long loads at the Buy and Sell.  I then made a large batch of 4” x 4” pieces of wood (to be used as dunnage), and painted these to install in a large number of steel wagons or open wagons, so various steel loads can sit on them on.  This allows the forklifts to get under the loads to help with unloading.  These have been made to go inside my steel wagons for NSW and QR.  I have currently made up 4 large pipe loads of various sizes and painted these.  I have also made up 3 x 6m loads of small steel rod bundles.  These were also painted today.  I need to make up some steel plate loads and then add some “I” and “H” beam loads.  That is this week's job. 

I had plans of adding the various windows to my Old Cassino station building this week, but I did not get motivated to do any work on that project. 

On Tuesday this week I will also add an extra NCE Throttle to my layout, as Darren recently picked up two NCE throttles online, and I went halves with him - so one each.  This throttle will not be radio.  However, after I take the throttle apart to check that it has a JST plug inside, I might eventually treat myself with a Wifi-Trax wifi module for this new throttle.  These modules work pretty well and are relatively cheap compared to installing NCE radio into a throttle.

Working on the Modules

This week I have been working on my mini modules.  All are complete and tried to fit them all together.  I added some guides to one end of each module, so it slips inside the next.  I also purchased some packets of small pegs from a local $2 shop.  These allow me to ‘clamp’ or should I say peg the modules together as they are assembled.  I added foam to the modules along the front of the layout – the equivalent of a 2” sheet of foam.  Then I needed to added transitions back down to just baseboard level.  The 2” foam was so that I could model a creek running underneath the track in one of my modules.  After adding foam to my mini modules, I then realised that I can remove this foam from all but the module with the creek, and just add it to the module with the creek to it.  I will make this module have legs that 2” shorter than the rest, to make up for the 2” of foam on top.

All the left hand end front scale modules

This shows where the Branch line comes off the main module.  In the background is the Old Casino Station building before the left end extension was correctly sized and built.

This is where the branch line joins back up to the side module to then go around to the rear staging.

On Tuesday we went to Bob’s place for our fortnightly meeting.  We had a very nice civilised view of the Brisbane River and all the city cats going for a run up and down the river.

I also got around to scaling out the measurements for the extension to the Old Casino Station building.  I then got around to cutting out the doors and windows.  This week I will have to go looking for my box of windows and see if I have enough to fit in the current window openings of the building.

Saturday was a working bee on the Division’s FreeMo modules again.  We did some nice work.  As usual we had plenty of laughs and a good deal of work did get done.  Never as much as you expect.  I think some of the items that we added will create some interesting scenes that people will talk about.  I came away from the day with a list of items to build, or acquire before the next working bee so I can install these onto the modules on that day.

Styrene Building and Planning for Some More Styrene Building

After borrowing a packet of Styrene from PK on last Sunday afternoon, I got started cutting it up on Monday.  Initially I put together 4 frames and the packet was gone.  These frames were for my 1:10 scale models of the modules for my future layout.  On Tuesday afternoon I received a text that my styrene order had come in.  That meant that Wednesday morning was a drive to Corinda station followed by a train trip to Ipswich. 

Previously at Ipswich station there was this strange signal on platform 2 that I had talked about before. 

The signal on the left has a weird route indicator on it.

When I was coming home from Ipswich, I saw a "Special" come into platform 2 at Ipswich and sit there.  Platforms 1 and 2 were closed as they were painting the platform, so we were on platforms 3 and 4 for our trains.  I saw the signal in question on platform 2 light up, with the route indicator first, then it went from red to yellow to green.

The 'Special' train was going from platform 2 to the Down Main.

While I was at Ipswich I picked up 5 packets of styrene and when I got home, I made up another 6 scale model modules.  Attention now must turn for my non-standard modules.  So at this point in time, I have assembled everything except the last module for the branch line around to the stabling/staging.

Today was the day that I added legs to all my scale model modules for my new exhibition layout.  They look quite good.  I still need to build the last module.

I received an email from Brad in Lismore on Monday afternoon helping me with the size of the extension on the Old Casino station building.  He said that there were 18 sheets of iron on the roof on that section of the building.  That was a great start.  With each sheet being 760mm when overlapped, that made the station building extension about 12.16m long.  In HO scale that is 139.6mm.  With 2 doors and three windows to include in the front of the building extension, I can now try and guess the actual size of each item and the spaces between them all to fit into my 139.6mm.  My initial calculations with a few tweaks, has the building coming out to 140mm in size.  I will draw that up this coming week and see how it looks compared to the photos I have and see if I need to adjust anything, before I commit to cutting up a piece of styrene.

Thursday I had to ring Anthony and pull out of his Saturday Afternoon Ops session due to my persistent cough.  I suggested that Darren could fill my place, if he was so inclined.  After some new medication on Thursday night and Friday and Saturday, I still ventured over to the Bayside Exhibition on Saturday morning where I ran into Darren and Brendon on their way to the Ops Session.  I also had a nice chat to numerous people at the Exhibition, some Bayside club members, Logan Club people, Action Club people, some mates I ran into people walking around and a number of various shop owners at the Exhibition.

There is a Point!

I took the easy way out this week by trying to adjust the trackwork on my dodgy dual gauge point.  I ran wagons through it and they all worked.  I waited a couple of days and brought out the power pack on Wednesday and successfully ran 12mm and 16.5mm locos through the straight track.  I tried to run a couple of 12mm locos through the point through the diverging path and they all derailed.  They could travel from the diverging end to the toe, but not the other way.  Bugger!  So I did need to get PK’s point jig out and build a new one.  I cut up the sleepers and gapped them on Wednesday afternoon.  I then cut off the various lengths of rail and just placed them in the jig.  Later in the day I went down to the shed and used my grinding stone to chamfer the two point V’s and then cut out the stock rails where the point blades meshed with them.  I then reduced the point rails to fit into the stock rails.  At this point I lost interest and went onto other activities.

On Thursday after picking up my Railway Digest from the local newsagency I soldered up the various V’s and attached them and the stock rails to the sleepers in my dual gauge point.  Bit by bit I soldered everything else together.  Everything seemed good with the point.  I could not run locos as the insulation gaps were not cut.  But wagons went via all routes.

On Friday I spent some time rummaging through the shed for items to sell at the Buy and Sell and put all this aside. 

Saturday was NMRA AGM day for both the Australasian Region and our Division.  We knew the outcomes before we started, as all positions had either one, or no nominations.  I got there early as I had to help get the Div 1 FreeMo modules out of the container and put them up in the garage for viewing.  I then transformed into a parking controller, ensuring everything attending got a good park.  The meeting was a good civil, organised event, with a Div 1 Show and Tell, then the Special General Meeting for the AR up first, followed by the AGM for the AR.  Then the Div 1 AGM.  At the Show and Tell, PK cut the insulated gaps in my dual gauge point.  The day’s activities were all streamed to the region and our division.  That was followed by some presentations, with one presentation, done so remotely by Aaron from Newcastle, on the topic of remote operations.  We had Tyler in Tasmania, as Controller and Anthony and Geoff at the meeting running trains on Aaron’s layout, on the large screen at the meeting.  The day ended it all with a tour of the inside of Paul’s FAM coach in his back yard.  When I got home I had to resolder a couple of rails to sleepers, and in doing so, I bridged one of these micro cuts that PK did – Bugger!

Sunday was another early start with our Buy and Sell on.  I sold a couple of items, but that bad man Barnacle Bob was selling some unbelievably good books for cheap prices, and I had to assist with rehoming some of these.  That was fine until I found someone selling a stack of code 83 points for fantastic prices and I had to also rehome them for my future exhibition layout.  I also received some order for some styrene steel loads.  I have not built these for a while, but I will build a few of these to be ready for the upcoming AMRA Exhibition in July, where one guy will pick them up from me.  On the way home, I detoured by PK’s and had a beer, and he recut an insulating gap in one of the rails of my dual gauge point.  PK also loaned me a packet of styrene to tide me over before I pick up my delivery this week.  When home I started on the task of reading all the new books I picked up today from Barnacle.

This coming week I will pick up the styrene that I need for a building project, and put one packet aside to give back to PK.

Not Doing Much This Last Week

Not much was happening this week.  However, I decided to create a model of my future model railway.  I was using a 10:1 scale, and cut up a number of 3mm styrene sheets to represent the top of a number of modules for my future layout.  The sheets of styrene were 6cm wide and 24cm long.  This will represent the 2.4m x 600mm modules.  I also propose to cut up some 2.5mm x 2.5mm styrene strip to simulate the 25.4mm aluminium square tube that the modules will be made out of.  A check of my styrene supply reveals that there is only one strip left in a packet that I have.  I was thinking that I needed to buy at least 3 packets, maybe 4 packets to provide enough styrene.  I then may have to get some more in the future if I model the legs and other components on the modules, like back boards etc.

The other activity was rounding up all my dual gauge pieces of track and connection flex track to each end and then connecting them to a DC power supply.  I then ran narrow gauge and standard gauge locos through the various routes.  Some of the points had a short.  But a quick look at the sleepers, or using an Ohmmeter on the sleepers I quickly found all the issues and remedied them.  So the locos went all the pieces of track quite well, except for one.  On that piece of track the diverging route kept derailing the narrow gauge locos.  So I thought I would have to build a replacement piece of track.  That would entail a trip to PK’s and borrowing his dual gauge jig again.

I made a trip to the Club on Saturday for the early morning meeting about the Clubroom HO layout.  Who books meetings at 9:00am on a Saturday?  I took my two DH’s to the Club.  I ran one back and forth on the 12mm upper deck while the layout meeting was on for a bit of a laugh.  It ran reasonably well.  The second DH was waiting for a chip.  PK provided that to me on Saturday morning.  I quickly removed the two wires from the motor to the bogie pickups, and wired in the decoder.  I placed it on the DC test track and it ran back and forth.  I switched the track to DCC and fired up the programming track.  I set its address to long address 40.  I then fired up the loco and after a few second, a few puffs of smoke came out of the decoder.  I ran it again on DC and it worked.  A couple more times it ran on DCC and then large puffs of smoke and sparks came from the decoder.  The motor still turns on DC.  It has got me stumped.

I know that the mech in the DH loco is a K&M and will draw quite some amps.  That is why we got a 1 Amp continuous and 2 Amp peak N scale decoder.  So I think this week I will pull the loco apart again and rewire it for DC and install an ammeter between the DC controller and the motor to determine how much amperage the loco is pulling.  Then I will try and work out if anything on the loco frame is live, and if so I will have to insulate it and give the DCC conversion a second go.

While I was working on my loco in the Club workshop area, Warren was showing off a 3D printed Corrugated iron roller.  He demonstrated it and the output was pretty damn good.  I put an order in for one.  Hopefully I will see him either next Saturday or Sunday at the Club Buy and Sell and procure one.  I can keep one very well employed creating corrugated iron sheets for my scratch build buildings.

On the way home on Saturday I diverted to PK’s place and he gave me a beer.  I borrowed the required jig and acquire a couple of lengths of code 83 rail.  This arvo I got out the soldering iron out and started to adjust the rail gauge on the diverging route.  So I have re-tested hand pushing bogies and various wagons through the point and it is a lot better then before I started.  Later this week I will get the DC power supply back out and test it with a loco.  Hopefully I do not have to rebuild a new point, but I might just do it for practice.

More Layout Work

Between the rain showers on Monday this week I went to the shed and pottered around.  I found out that the Timetable card for the Gold Coast Motor Rail in the next Ops Session was already sitting in the pile of trains already run, when it was still sitting in track 3 at Grafton Yard, yet to carry a passenger.  So the timetable card was repositioned in the yet to be run pile.  A review of the next 7 timetable cards show that there are large number of trains starting at either 10:00 am, 10:10 am or 10:20 am, so I guess we know that the fast clock will kick off at 9:50am next Ops Session.  I ran the Gold Coast Motor Rail from Grafton to Cassino back platform road where it also departs at 10:10am.  So I will need at least a crew of 8 to all be running trains soon after kick off during the next session.  Boy is North Coast Control going to have his hands full.

I also took the opportunity to run my QR SX set from the southern end of Clapham Yard through the yard and stopped it in Yeerongpilly station.  On Tuesday it ran all the way through to South Brisbane Station.  It had some issues in some spots but it made it.  So Wednesday was fixing day.  I needed to adjust the track at a couple of track joins which were under and over gauge.  I also had to pack the track in a couple of spots.  The packing was used to reduce the steepness of gradient change.  Before I did this, the cowcatcher on my 1460 class loco bottomed out in a couple of spots.  That is not good when it occurs and it gets stuck behind a piece of track at a join.  Now it runs very smoothly.  On Wednesday I also took the opportunity to lengthen the platforms at Park Road Station so a 7 car SX set will fit in the platforms.  These platforms are on a bit of a curve, so I used a jig saw to help curve the platform around the track.

I couple of years back I added more cement wagons to my Grafton to Murwillumbah Cement train with these four wagons being offloaded at Old Cassino.  They were placed in the Timber Siding, which I didn’t really have.  I placed them in the lead to the Loop line at Old Cassino.  This caused considerable discomfort to many train operators when trying to push wagons into the Dairy Siding at the opposite end of the yard at Old Cassino, or just trying to cross trains when both trains were considerable long.  So on Monday I bit the bullet and investigated the installation of a true Timber Siding at Old Cassino.  There was space between the Construction siding and the Loop track.  So I replaced a RH point with a 3 way point from the Loop.  I sprayed the track area with water on Monday to loosen up the ballast and used a putty knife to get under the ballast under the point.  On Tuesday I dremelled the track joiners at the northern end and slid out the point.  After a bit of clean up of the area, I then added the 3-way point and everything was good.  I then laid the Timber Siding and then added ballast and secured it with white glue from a dropper.  This was left to dry.  The wagons in the Lead for the Loop were moved to the Timber Siding.  I also put another Cement wagon into service on the train, so now the Timber Siding at Old Cassino has 5 wagons.  The shunt list documents were updated as was the timetable card’s instructions for the two Cement Trains – the Up and Down ones which run through Old Cassino.

I have also started work on scratch building the station building at Old Cassino.  I should also complete the station platform as well when I finish the station building.  I found an old photo of the Old Casino Station Building, and it looks just like a standard A5 building.  However, after looking at the photos I had on hand from the various trips down there, the station building looks like a mirror image to the A5 station building plan.  Subsequently a rather large extension room was built onto the western end of the station building, maybe a signal cabin?  At this stage I have no confirmation of any dimensions of this building, but that does not stop me starting to scratch building that building. 

The reversed A5 building.  The waiting room with seats on the left has been boarded up, so that is how I modelled it.

The starting of the additional room on the western end of the building.

Saturday was another working bee on the Div 1 FreeMo modules.  We had a guest appearance from PK and his magic spray gun, and he sprayed all the track a very nice rust colour.  Once dry I then got into teaching the troops how to ballast.  We just ran out of ballast after finishing the last module we were working on.  They are starting to look pretty good.