It's been a while between posts, but I'm glad to say the reno's are done, the train room is now waterproofed and looks less like it's been banished to the basement.
To recap from the previous post, here it is before:
And after:
The builder altered the pipework from a bathroom above the layout room during the reno's (the box on the top-right of the above photo), which has necessitated alteration of the final arrangement of the layout in this space. In the new configuration, I've swapped the Mt Wilson and fiddle modules, removed the creek module, and a future scenic module for now. This has also shortened the overall loop by about 2m, but it makes a more achievable railway in the medium term. That's the plan anyway.
I took advantage of one of the many recent sales at Australian Modeller over the last few months to purchase some SDS models' JCW 80-foot container wagons. As you know, I mainly model the main west in the late 1970s, and until recently I hadn't found any photographic evidence of these wagons venturing anywhere but the main south during that era. A fellow South Australian modeller put me onto a history of the TNT-Alltrans Adelaide-Sydney services produced for a Modelling the Railways of South Australia convention a few years ago. This, and seeing a few other photos of these wagons in the consists of some general freight trains on the main west in one of the pictorial groups I follow on Facebook provided all of the convincing I needed to add these wagons to my roster. I probably won't run them on Mt Wilson all that often, but they could make a guest appearance on Rozelle Street, and if I take a main west consist to run at a club or exhibition layout in future. One of those "I like them, I'll make that work" purchases.
I took advantage of one of the many recent sales at Australian Modeller over the last few months to purchase some SDS models' JCW 80-foot container wagons. As you know, I mainly model the main west in the late 1970s, and until recently I hadn't found any photographic evidence of these wagons venturing anywhere but the main south during that era. A fellow South Australian modeller put me onto a history of the TNT-Alltrans Adelaide-Sydney services produced for a Modelling the Railways of South Australia convention a few years ago. This, and seeing a few other photos of these wagons in the consists of some general freight trains on the main west in one of the pictorial groups I follow on Facebook provided all of the convincing I needed to add these wagons to my roster. I probably won't run them on Mt Wilson all that often, but they could make a guest appearance on Rozelle Street, and if I take a main west consist to run at a club or exhibition layout in future. One of those "I like them, I'll make that work" purchases.
Also - I've finally completed wiring the fiddle yard for DCC. It's been a long time coming, but this just leaves the much simpler task of wiring up the remaining loop modules.
I also tested out the JCWs on my loops into the fiddle yard. The Indian Pacific cars are due to arrive from Auscision in the next few months and are around the same length, so this is a good indication that they'll go around my layout for the odd occasion when I want to give that consist a run - completely out of context for the branch line scenario!
A few more weeks and I'll have a train running in a loop. Still planning to complete the basic scenery by Christmas.
Cheerio for now,
Ben
