Layout progress in the time of Coronavirus

I'm sure there are many people at home all over the world at the moment with extra modelling time on their hands thanks to the efforts to contain the spread of Coronavirus. I was supposed to be leaving Sydney on the Indian Pacific today, however with the SA and WA borders closed the IP, the Ghan and the Overland have all been cancelled until 31 May. I'm a tad disappointed, but it's for the best. Plus, I've received either a credit or refund for all aspects of the holiday so I'll still be able to go at some point in future.

So what to do with two weeks of holidays...

Firstly I jumped online and ordered all of the supplies I need for a marathon layout session from hobby shops, Jaycar and Bunnings. While I wait for all of that to arrive I've been doing as much as I can in the train room to get some little jobs out of the way and make the modelling time I have as efficient as possible.

I've managed to finish installing all of the lighting on the scenic modules now. Mt Wilson in particular looks like a much larger space with the extension now fitting in. I'm looking forward to shunting here.

I'll get around to making this a bit neater in between other jobs:

I've also had a huge hand from my brother, meaning that we've been able to connect all of the curved modules, scenic modules and fiddle yard together.

Now I just need to build the bridge piece over the entryway when the loot from Bunnings arrives and then I can start laying the remaining track.

I've cut all of the guard rails for the curved modules from 3mm ply -- 50mm wide for the inside and 80mm wide for the outside as demonstrated below with this KLV. I tried using 80mm for both sides and found that it hid the trains too much. If there was ever a derailment I'd want to be able to see where it was happening pretty quickly, hence the lower inside wall. That, and it's just nice to see a train going around.

I've also started cutting the remaining track for the extension module to the yard. I'll have to take up and re-align some of the existing track, but that should be a fairly quick job.

I'm back at work after Easter, and with the chance of being dragged to a social event being pretty low I'm hoping to make fair progress. The aim of the next few weeks is to have a train running around the loop by the time I go back to work. Hopefully that should increase the motivation thereafter to get scenery onto the Mt Wilson module at least. Will see how it goes.

Til next time!

Cheers,

Ben

Diversions...

Last weekend saw 3 months' worth of rain fall across the east coast in the space of just over 3 days. I thought our house was doing ok until my Sunday afternoon modelling time came around and I walked into the train room...

Perhaps it's psychological conditioning from the last place we lived in, which leaked at the slightest hint of rain, or perhaps it's time to stop watching Das Boot, but seeing the train room flooded induced neck-chilling fear.

After some investigation I found the gouged channel in the concrete at the corner of the room had been doing it's job collecting seepage through the walls from the earth on the other side, however the pipe leading outside to the garden was blocked. I managed to unblock it with all manner of fancy tools and the water drained away fairly quickly after that.

All-in-all I was lucky that I found it when I had - I'd left the floor covered in newspaper from when I was painting, and there had been a light layer of sawdust on top of that. Combined, they had soaked or slowed the progression of the water into the house.

When I walked into the room the water was on it's way to my Auscision rollingstock storage boxes, so thankfully they and their contents were spared. Hearing everyone else's experiences on Monday at work made me feel better that it wasn't just solely raining in my basement, but I did spend the rest of the week cleaning up the mess and moving the modules, wagons and locos back into place.

It's been a bit of a setback, and the damp weather has meant that I can't yet finish painting the pelmets and fascias and I had hoped to. Ah well, a minor diversion, but planning continues.

Still on track to have all of the modules joined up by the end of the month, and should have track down everywhere in time for picking up another servo motor and bracket at the Forestville exhibition in March. 

Cheers,

Ben

January Progress

Between getting called into work over the holidays and being conscripted for minor renovations in parts of the house unrelated to the model railway, I'm not quite at a stage where I can run trains yet, but damn we're close!

Here's a quick run-through of where things are up to. I've laid the track in the fiddle yard and have started to store a few of the test trains there. The U Set fits on the traverser table with about 1.5cm at either end, which is pretty good considering I first built the traverser about five years ago, well before any thought of running interurbans occurred! The U set itself is away being converted to DCC sound, but should be back by late March or so.

With the help of my brother over the long weekend, some significant progress was made on construction. I've now added the backboard for the as-yet unnamed halt immediately after the fiddle yard. I'm going to lay the track here and leave scenery until after the Mt Wilson yard scenery is completed. Only the roof and ends to go before I can install the lighting and finish painting on this module.

I had to build this module offset from Mount Wilson due to a large pipe protruding from the ceiling above, immediately between this one and the Mount Wilson module. Construction-wise it's complete, I'm glad to say. I've left the left-hand side open for now to allow for another scenic module to join it in future.

The expanded Mount Wilson yard is also nearly complete. This gives me another 600mm of yard space, which allows for arriving coal trains to run straight under the loading bin, and for the loco to run-around. I will be able to re-locate one of the Rapido uncouplers as a result of this expanded design.

I did make a minor error cutting the mouse-hole though. While not ideal, enlargening the size of the hole will be an easy fix.

And here's the overall progress shot. I've also built most of the two return loops at either end in the last month. The big jobs coming up will be connecting it all up and getting all of the legs level. Still, I'm confident of being able to have the major construction complete and all track laid by the end of February.

I'm keenly aware of the paralysis-by-analysis trap I fell into with the layout that kicked this blog off, and that is giving me a bit of a kick to keep pushing on. 

I look forward to posting the next update towards the end of next month. I'll try to get some scale modelling into those updates too - I'm looking forward to the end of the construction phase as much as you are I'm sure.

Cheerio for now,

Ben

The end of 2019 and the start of a continuous run

After moving into our new place, painting, cleaning, and several trips to the tip and Vinnies, I have finally managed to get the most important part of the move complete: relocating the trains to their new home.

The extra space under the house has allowed me to extend Mt Wilson yard on the right-hand side for the enlarged fruit siding I mentioned in the previous post, as well as turning the coal road into a through-siding. Not sure if this means that I'll remove one of the uncouplers on the Mt Wilson yard yet. Will see how I go.

I've also built another mini-scene that I wanted with a bridge and an apple orchard to give the impression of distance between Mt Wilson and Bell.

Opposite Mt Wilson I've built a new module which will eventually be another small station (see first photo). This leads into the fiddle yard traverser. I'm planning on leaving that one as bare timber with just a straight track over it for the time being so that I can play around with the track plan between now and whenever it gets built. Overall this new arrangement gives me a longer run, and a continuous run for the days when I just want to watch a train run through the scenery. 

After the silly season I'm planning on building the two half-loop modules built so that I can have a continuous run. The goal is to have a train running in a loop before I go back to work in mid-January. There will be much heraldry and fanfare here if that does happen. Plus, the long-awaited SDS 81 class is due in the first quarter of next year and I'm keen to get that out and stretching it's legs.

Until next time, Merry Christmas! Thanks for following along this year, and I look forward to seeing you in 2020, As always, hopefully with more modelling.

Cheers,
Ben

Homebush Exhibition, and a very big milestone

Before we get to the Sydney Model Railway Exhibition at Homebush, I finally finished installing all of the uncouplers. All are wired and work fine, though I was having some trouble getting the LED fascia indicator to switch off on the final uncoupler pictured in the foreground. In the end I've decided to leave an LED indicator off that siding, as when I'm shunting in there I'm not going to be using multiple uncouplers like when I'm running around a train or shunting the coal siding. 

Just need to finish the control panel now and then it's on to scenery!

The 2019 Sydney Model Railway Exhibition - Homebush

Overall, the Homebush site was a big step up from the Whitlam Leisure Centre. I queued with the pre-paid wave on Saturday morning and although it was raining we were permitted to line up undercover (not possible at Liverpool), and even watch The Overland warming up on Murray River Bridge (hi Scott!) through the glass of the building.

Although the interior lighting was a tad dark in places, most layouts had their own lights, and the aisles were generously spaced. I didn't feel crammed in at any point, even in the side-rooms, which is another improvement over Liverpool. There weren't any substantial food outlets inside the building, but there was a coffee cart and plenty of chairs and tables offering somewhere to sit down. With an older crowd coming to the show, the seating is probably one of the biggest improvements in my view.

I'd been hoping for a big commercial announcement or release at this exhibition from SDS or On Track Models, but I get the impression that both have a number of projects on the go already, both announced and unannounced, and are keeping their cards close to their chests.

As for the layouts, it was great to see Murray River Bridge after the pub and roadway had been added to it. And it's just nice to see a layout that doesn't focus on a station, as much as I like station scenes. In terms of NSW HO scale layouts, Goulburn, East Mateland, Blue Mountains, Binalong, Bullenbung Creek and Electric Car Sheds made an appearance and took most of my focus. I think most were at Rosehill, but it was good to see so many at what is advertised as quite a large show.

I really enjoy seeing the Blue Mountains layout every time it makes an outing, but 'Passing Time' caught my eye as a relatively small layout, displaying Australian scenery in an achievable format. Naturally, the smaller layouts appeal to me given my own space constraints thus far, but I feel like this is one of the few examples at the exhibition that shows the average punter an achievable example to inspire building something achievable in their own space at home.

I'll be interested to see if it drew the crowds as much as Liverpool, but for my money's worth I was impressed with the new location.

Of course, no exhibition would be complete without the obligatory loot photo. I really only wanted the Comeng Vol 4 book for the history of the design of the 85 class and the XPT, but Auscision's exhibition sale on DCC-sound equipped locos was too good to pass up, and so 48163 in Indian Red made it's way home in the loot bag. Similarly, the 10 Australian gum trees from Trackside Trees worked out to about $8 each. I find trees disappear into the background in a heartbeat, and despite having 4 other gum trees already I'm sure the same will happen on Mt Wilson. Will have to pack additional funds next time. Rounding out the list is a book of track plans by the German-language MIBA magazine. I always buy a MIBA magazine from Orient Express when they come over to the Sydney exhibition to keep my language skill going - it's so much easier to motivate yourself for revision when you're reading about something you're genuinely interested in.

And now for the big milestone...

We bought a house!

More importantly, the house has a 12m x 3m room underneath, of which I've been able to claim just under half for a train room. We should be in and running trains before Christmas.

Among the minutiae that comes with moving, I've managed to draw up a plan that will expand Mt Wilson to add more of a proper branch line between the terminus and the fiddle yard with another coal mine to justify the use of main line electrics, as well as expanding the fruit co-op industry at Mt Wilson by swapping it and the fuel siding over. More on that in a future post sometime.

I've had to pack all of the trains and tools away for the move so it's going to be a bit quiet on here for the next few months, but I'll endeavour to update the blog again before the end of the year once the trains are up and running again.

Until next time!

Cheers,
Ben

Uncoupler installation update

About a week ago I came down with something slightly stronger than man flu, and have been stuck at home with no voice and very little energy. I decided that in spite of this, the universe has given me several solid days to tackle a job I'd been putting off for far too long - installation of the Rapido uncouplers.

Firstly, size matters. Although the dimensions for these exist elsewhere in the internet, sometimes I find a local comparison helps. Here's my contribution to helping you work out if you can fit one in your layout:

I managed over the last few days to get one installed on the co-op siding, and one on the coal road. I've secured them temporarily with blu-tak while I work out the best orientation for each siding, and I'll secure them in place with liquid nails once settled.

Although the coal road is on a curve like most of the trackwork in the Mt Wilson yard, the CH's have no trouble uncoupling, however the 85 just doesn't want to let go. I've offset the next one on the main to be slightly further out under the curve to compensate for the swing of the couplers, so we'll see how that goes. The shunting manouevres to get a coal train off the main and into the siding under the loader is the main feature of the layout, so I hope the final result comes together.

I prefer to work in creative processes than scientific ones (which probably explains my preference for making scenery), but I've worked out the wiring schematic enough to be able to have an LED illuminate on the control panel.

And yes, that mess of wires will eventually be tidier once the control panel fascia goes on. 

I find that with being under the layout and then testing it all my patience is only good enough for one a day, which is still better than nothing. I hope to have the rest installed by the end this month. 

Other updates

I've also been working on building up a Rail Central Pc2 station, adding a brick chimney and fireplace to it as per Rob Nesbitt's 'Building Wagga' blog post on constructing a similar structure for Tumbarumba, here.

I'll do a separate post detailing all of that in future, as it's worth seeing it from beginning to end rather than as a footnote to the progress updates.

Still on track to get the basic scenery done before the end of the year!

Until next time,
Cheers.

The arrival of the electrics

It's here! The Auscision 85 class turned up recently and it lives up to expectations. Despite the obvious differences in engine sounds between diesel and diesel-electric locos, the sound file is fantastic - particularly the Nathan P5 horn. Can't wait to hear it on the SDS 81 class now...

I placed the 85 on to a coal train from the operating sequence to test the loco out and to confirm that the placement of uncouplers around the layout was still correct. Reassuringly, the 85 fits in the headshunt, clears the platform and traverses all of the sidings with ease.

While doing this I discovered that I'd forgotten to drill a hole for an uncoupler on the main, next to the first wagon behind the 85 in the above photo. I fixed that this afternoon with the holesaw. Drilling the hole from underneath the baseboard towards the track is still a test of nerves...

It's also nice to know that the mouse-hole exit to the fiddle yard fits electric locos with enough room for the overhead wiring catenary too.

I also recently acquired a Bergs' U Set! 

I wanted to have another passenger set to run on this layout and felt that a railmotor wouldn't quite cut it - despite the fact that the 600/700 class railmotors were providing the bulk of services on the Richmond line during my era, as well as CPHs working in multiple units and alone elsewhere in the suburban network. The U Boat (as they are commonly known) set is shorter than my V set, which means I can fit the whole set on a single road of the fiddle yard traverser, as well in the platform road of Mount Wilson and still clear the main for a coal or goods train to depart.

The Bergs' U Boat's are much better to my eyes than the Southern Rail Models versions. Although the SRM ones come complete with lettering and insignia already applied unlike the Bergs' version, the roof profile on the SRM variants are eliptical, as opposed to flat with rounded edges where the roof joins the sides. Decals I can do myself, but the roof profile is deal-breaker. I still need to buy a decoder to convert the set to DCC, but that will be a job for the future. I don't want to work on rollingstock too much at the moment until I've got the basic scenery done on the layout.

Very happy with this set though.

This weekend I adjusted the height of my traverser fiddle yard and worked out how to align it to the Mt Wilson yard module. It was a fairly simple task, but one that was standing in the way of putting the track laying tools away.

Even though I had measured it again and again before building Mt Wilson, seeing the coal train fit into a single road on the fiddle yard with plenty of additional room (which means the CTS hoppers will fit too!) was a nice sight. One less thing to stress about.

I also had a go at building the control panel this weekend, mainly as a way of avoiding installing the uncouplers and wiring them up. I'm really not looking forward to that job. Unfortunately, it only reinforced to me that the control panel can't be attached to the layout until the uncouplers are installed and wired. 

Ugh.

You guessed it. That's the next job.

The only wiring task left after that is the fiddle yard, which will be much more straight forward compared to the rest of the layout.

Until then! 

Cheers,

Ben