Time for an Update

My time flies when you're having fun!!! Its been 10 months since the last update and a fair bit has happened in that time. While building and detailing the points for the bottom deck, I noticed how the much better they looked than the ones on the top deck. I'd gone to the trouble of fixing rail brace chairs and the difference was quite apparent. Next thing I knew, I'd pulled up the points on the top deck followed by the rest of the track. Pure insanity I know. But the thing was that this meant I could add the extra detail and also paint the track easily. Anyway, It's all done now and it won't be going anywhere again. Trust me! I've ordered the power bus wire, connectors  and circuit breakers for each division (there are 4) on the top deck from DCC Concepts. I didn't realise how expensive the bus wire was. I did some price comparisons and DCC Concepts were on par with all the others so an order was placed and hopefully, it will be delivered this week and then the wiring can commence. Exciting times indeed!!

Hill Top, Sydney End

Hill Top, Albury End

Thirlmere, Sydney End

Thirlmere, Albury End

I've done a lot of thinking about the track. I wondered if it was worth the effort given the amount of time I've spent on it. Model Railways is one of those hobbies where you are constantly learning new skills and techniques and that's certainly been true with the track laying so from that angle its been worth it. But the time its taken, compared to what it would of taken with commercial track, is the big question. In the end, I'll never know if I've wasted too much time on it or not but I believe if I'm putting so much effort in to detailing my engines and carriages, then the same amount of effort should be spent on the track. Anyway, it's too late now!!

All the points bar 2 have been completed and these will be done when I lay the track through Picton station itself.

Single Slip

Single Slip Junction

Point Detail

Hand Laid vs Commercial

I've include a photo above of a kit built set of points from Proto87 and one of my points. There's about 30 of these and they will be used in the staging yards. These points kits are basically plastic sleeper base to which you add a soldered frog from an etched fret with machined point blades as well as the track. They look better than commercial offerings but I think there's no comparison with the hand laid version.

Anyway, I'll be doing the wiring soon for the top deck and will be moving onto the bottom deck straight after that. Not long now I hope!!

Up the Junction Part 2

The point work for Picton yard had been progressing fairly quickly with 11 points and the single slip crossover soldered up and ready to be detailed. These points are all Code 70.....here's how they look.

I've got a bit of a production line going and I've found I can punch out about 1.5 points per 1.5 hour session. The single slip, however, took somewhat longer as you would imagine due to the complexity but I think the effort has been worth it. My test bogie and test 4 wheel wagon both traverse all of the points smoothly with no stalls or wheel drops so I'm feeling confident they'll work ok once they're installed. I've got 4 Code 70 curve points to go as well as 9 Code 55 Points before I detail them all and paint them prior to installation. In retrospect, I should have painted all the points on the top deck before I installed them but then 20 / 20 hindsight is a wonderful thing....its something I'm very good at.

Up the Junction

Since the last post, I've been busy building points for the bottom deck and I've just finished 27 of the suckers for the storage yards. Which means I can start to lay the track for the yard but it also creates another dilemma. What to use for a turntable? I'm going to install a 90ft turntable so I can turn anything up to a 57 class so do I go for something prototypical like the Anton's Trains example and install DCC for it or use a Walthers 90 ft 'table that already has DCC control installed? I'll have to have a think about it as I originally intended to scenic the storage yards but now the helix is installed to get to the top deck, there isn't a whole lot of space now so having an accurate turntable isn't that necessary. I just need one that is going to be reliable.

So onto other things. I've been building the points and crossover for the Loop line junction. I think I'm developing a form of "Stockholm Syndrome" You know, when you start liking the very thing that's tormenting you??? I am actually starting to enjoy building the points and crossovers. Here's how it looks at the moment.

As you can see, there's still a fair bit to go with cleaning up the solder, electrically isolating the tracks and adding sleepers and details but it seems to work OK with some limited tests on the workbench. Next, I'm going to tackle the complex point work and single slip crossover in Picton yard which will also mean I'll have broken the back of building the points. Another step closer to finishing the track laying.

Its Been a While

Yes it has hasn't it? I said a while back that I wasn't going to post anything if there's nothing of interest to post but I thought 4 months between posts is stretching things a bit. Its not that nothing has been happening, more the fact that what has been happening is really boring. I found out that some of my road bed was warped a little. After visiting Es D and seeing his fine models, it was explained to me why by Es and Ian T. The ply I used was too thin. I should have used 12mm instead of 7mm.....God I'm a dope!!!! Anyway, I've fixed all that and now I have all the track laid on the top deck and its ready to be wired. I even managed to run a train from Picton Junction up to Thirlmere. I wanted to make sure the grade wasn't too steep so I ran my son's LNER A3 up the hill with a couple of Gresley Teaks on the drawhook. No problems. So I thought I better try some NSWGR power with a C32 and C36 as the test loco's. Not so good this time with the C36 managing 11 4 wheelers with a lot of slipping and the C32 even less. And this was with the front bogie springs modified to increase weight on the drivers.

Mittagong Storage Sidings

C32 test train at Thirlmere

C36 at Thirlmere

So with that little test out of the way, I've decided to put in a helix to lessen the grade and allow a more prototypical load to be hauled. I cut the roadbed last week ready to install but I now need to lay the bottom deck storage sidings before I can install the helix. I had intended to finish off the top deck wiring and then have a break from track laying and spend some time building some Dogboxes. Well that's not going to happen now as I'll have have to continue laying track so I can complete the Top Deck. One thing though, running some trains, even for the small time that I did, was really satisfying and has really spurred me on to getting more track laid.
On another note, my wife was doing some sculpting with my son to help him in his art classes. I don't know what possessed her but she went ahead and made a burnt out tree stump with which I was very impressed. So I suggested to her, "why don't you make some smaller versions" hint, hint. This she did and she now has a job helping me with the scenery once I get around to it. I don't think she minded too much!!

"I've suffered for my Art and now it's your turn"

That's it for the moment so it's back to the track laying again. If I disappear for another couple of months, you'll know why. Unless anyone really wants me to post more regular posts on the track laying, I'll only post something if its really worth it.

Cheers

Who's a Goose Then?

Um, that'd be me! I was working on the batch of louvre vans during the week and was putting the shade roofs on and marking out where the support brackets go. All was OK for the 3 door wagons but when I got to the 2 door MLV's, something wasn't quite right. I had the GA drawing and somehow the brackets were not lining up where they should be in relation to the louvre panels. Then it hit me. The drawing clearly showed that there were 2 louvre panels between the corner pillar and the door where my MLV had 3. I don't know how I missed this subtle (not) detail but miss it I did. Maybe it was willful blindness with not seeing what I didn't want to see but it now makes the small 2 door MLV's totally wrong. I could live with them (just) being about a foot too short but now that the number of panels is wrong too, I don't know what to do about them. Do I just ignore the obvious mistakes or do I scrap them and be done with them? I can't see any manufacturer bringing out a small MLV any time soon so I may just have to put up with them for the moment. I may paint them up and see how they look in a train. Anyway, I've only got a few things left to do like filling in the gaps in the under frames for the BLV's and adding some small strips of styrene to the lamp brackets which I'll do soon.

3 Door MLV

BLV

Standard BLV

King Post BLV

Last and Least, the Small MLV

I got out to the Train cave today and mounted some more point motors so I'll continue with that for the time being so I can get the track down. Hopefully by Christmas!!

Slacko

Looks like I've been a bit slack keeping the blog up to date so here's a post to make amends. Not a lot has happened since the last post as I'm struggling to find the time I need to make some serious progress. Sometimes I think I've bitten off more than I can chew as I don't seem to be making much headway. I've also been looking at other modeler's efforts at exhibitions and in magazines and I'm getting tempted to try different prototypes and scales, If I had the time I'd do some S Scale NZR, 7mm NSW Trams, HO Scale SAR, P4 Caledonian, On3 DSP&PRR and some G scale Industrial. Of course, none of this will ever happen but I've been thinking lately that If I'd not started Picton and done something smaller, I'd have a chance to do something else as well. Anyway, no point thinking about the what if because I've started it now and I will just have to get on with it and finish it and then I might get the time to do something else. Oh, and I'd like to do an exhibition layout one day too!

So, I've been progressing with the MLV's and BLV's to a point where the bodies and under frames are almost done for all of them. The only things remaining are to make the shade roofs, attach buffers and fix the handrails and lamp irons. To make the shade roofs, I've got some .010" corrugated iron that I bought at Hobbyco years ago. It came in A4 size sheets and is nice and stiff and holds its shape well and is the best corrugated iron I've seen. I use a wood dowel to roll across the metal and soon it takes on the shape of the roof.

Cantilever BLV

King Post BLV. Still have to fix the under frame in place

Regular BLV. There's 2 of these

3 Door MLV

36ft (almost) MLV. There's 3 of these

I hope to finish these off over the next week or 2 after which I'll be back into the track work. My order of Cobalt point motors has arrived so I can mount these and get the track down and wired up. Elscotto has offered to help me with the wiring so things should move quickly once I get the track down.

I had some holidays recently and rather than go to the coast like we normally do, we decided to go inland around Cowra. For a long time I'd been thinking about Gas lamps for the stations of Thirlmere and Hill Top. As these are set in the late 1910's, gas lights are mandatory. The only thing is I'm not sure what they looked like. Anyway, we happened to go out to the LVR at the old loco depot in Cowra and look what I found.

A Gas Light

I took some detail shots ready for when I have to make some for the stations which hopefully, won't be too far away.

Fathers Day Fun

Well it was Fathers day today and I hope all you Dads had a great day. I woke up this morning and was greeted by my wife and kids with a bunch of presents one of which was......

An Ezi Kits D334!!!!

Oh yeah, how goods that? I'll have to do some mods to it like fitting a Belpair boiler and coal rails to the tender as these were features in the era I model. I can picture the D piloting a saturated P with a string of dogboxes on the hill up to Hill Top. One day!!!

Seeing as it was Fathers Day, I didn't have to cook dinner (I love cooking) which gave me a couple of hours in the Cave after doing some more painting and playing soccer and Frisbee with the kids. I managed to get some work done on 3 BLV's that I'm working on alongside the MLV's and LV's. I'm keeping 2 of the BLV's as Andrew and Ian intended but the third I've decided to model with the earlier king post truss rods. So far so good.

BLV with King Post Truss Rods

And here's the 4 truss rod BLV

Still have to add the truss rods

I also went to the Early Days Convention last week and another excellent day of train nerdiness was had by all. It's not often you get blown away by a modelers efforts but when you see the work of Ross B, who built Central, you know why. Ross gave a talk on how he researched and built Central as well as how he's going with his next project, Newcastle in the 1890's. You have to see this up close to see how beautiful his modeling is and the effort he puts in. And its all in N scale too.

Also of interest to me was Tony P's talk on the history and restoration of the ARHS Canberra's AL Sleeping Car. It will be a beautiful carriage again once it's restored back into AL configuration rather than the DCC version that the ARHS purchased 30 odd years ago.

My only complaint about the Early Days is that its not long enough and you don't get to talk to everyone that you'd like to. It's a small price to pay but I love going every year and wouldn't miss it for anything in the world.

It's the best.