First Post of the Year

Well, it didn't take too long for the first post. Now that the holiday season is over, I've had a bit of time and was able to finish off the Down Main Ash Pit. I'm pretty happy with the result for such a simple scratch build job. It's basically a box built from laminated .60" styrene with some styrene strip added for the steps. The longitudinal wood beams are Redheads 90mm long matches stained with diluted Tyre Black. The NBW castings are Tichy Group 4.5" bolts which i had lying around in the spare parts box. I also added some Chucks Ballast ash in the bottom of the pit where some lazy labourer hasn't done his job.

I've started on the other 4 pits I need which are 2 x 40' in front of the Engine shed and 2 x 80' for inside the Engine shed. The plans I have of the Engine shed show only 1 x 40' pit inside the shed but all the photo's i have of inside the shed show long pits running nearly the entire length of the shed. So, I'm guessing that they're around 80' as the shed itself is approximately 106' in length. Also, one of the roads has a wheel drop so I'll put that in as well. You probably won't be able to see it unless you take a peek in the windows but at least we'll know its there.

That's it for now.

Last Post for the Year

Postings for this year (and the last for that matter) have been a bit on the slim side. I can't believe its been 2 years of making, painting and laying track but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The Top deck is done with a big chunk of the lower deck laid and all the track made and ready to be laid. Rest assured, work has been progressing with the results looking like this.

Picton Yard Sydney end

Picton Yard

More of the same

I've even been able to do some non-track related modelling. Well I guess it really is related as I've been building  the 60ft ash pit that was on the down main near the Engine Shed. I have to build this before I can lay the track for the down main.

60ft Ash Pit

I'm tossing up whether I put a baffle plate half way along as I've seen photo's of ash pits on mainlines and some appear to have this baffle plate installed. Anyway, still a bit to go with the pit as I'll have to install some NBW castings to represent the rail fasteners once I attach the rail as well as some heavy weathering and putting in some ash remnants.

So that's it for this year, hopefully next will be more timely and have wider subject matter post wise than the last 2.

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and I hope your New Year is a prosperous and successful one.

See you all in the New Year.

Cheers!!

Progress

I was able to get on the power tools recently so I finished the lift out section for the bottom deck. I'm not going to show you the first attempt as that would show how useless I am but the second attempt was much better and now just needs some paint to finish it off.

Nice and lite too

While the tools were out, I finished off the last pieces of ply for the station yard of Picton in preparation for the track to be laid. I still have to fix the ply to the bench work but that will be the last thing I do as I prefer to mount the points and then fix the point motors off the bench. I laid the points out to start getting a feel of how it will look.

Picton goods yard...one day

I was going to start wiring the top deck but then realised that if I did this and wired the helix, it would make things difficult when laying the track for the bottom deck storage yards. So I dismantled the helix temporarily while I lay the track for the storage yard.

Storage Yard....Goulburn or Sydney?

A little while back, I went down to Thirlmere to meet up with Standard Goods Fan and take some measurements of one of the archbar bogies that is used as a  workshop bogie. Eventually, I want to make a master and cast some for my various wagons (E, BBW etc) that will need these bogies which are unavailable commercially. I'll let you know when you can place your orders, hehe.

One of many photos

Archbar Detail

Standard Goods Fan was a great host and took me on a tour of the workshops and showed me what remains of the H dump truck.

Not much left I'm afraid

There's little left but you can see the main components like the tilting mechanism and other metal components. When you see what some preservation groups have done with wagon restorations, you realise that the H truck can be brought back from the brink, it just takes money, people and time.

And lastly, you can't go to the museum without a ride on a steam train and a visit to the footplate.

The Driver's View

Toasty!!

That's it for now.

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