2016/12/30

2016_12_30 Another year almost under the belt, lets get a head start on the New Year!

2016_12_30  Hooray!! Quarry siding is working!! But where are the trains?

Ok Al wants to do more work tomorrow, and I promised to leave Wodonga for him. He is a glutton for punishment. But Thank you mate, we all know you are getting me moving again :D

So I am started at the quarry and moving towards the wheat siding near Helix. Tidying up the wires ensuring all are connected. Along the way I found 15m of straight track without droppers, so I am adding those and cleaning the underlay and base board as I go. As usual a 40 minute job turns into an all day sucker!



The BG closest to the pliers has not had droppers installed. So as I move towards the helix, I am adding droppers, connecting all wires where they should be (connected) and cleaning down the bench as I go.


I find it easier to add droppers to all track on the bench. Here I join the droppers underneath the fish plates. I solder the fish plate lightly to the rail as well. That gives a friction connection forward and a soldered connection behind. Every length of rail and every point is treated in this way.



push the rail into fish plates, gap it and tack sleepers temporarily to base board. Adjust if sleepers bend. Drill holes beside rail and push feeders through and connect them to the proper bus lines underneath.




adjust track to existing SG track with a track gauge and tack it down.



Black and red wires to DCC bus Link outside rails and also point blades. Made a mistake with this lot because the blade wires should be thinner. I run the risk of jamming the points, because the wire beds itself into the foam underlay. I might have time to modify these before Al comes tomorrow to install them.
  I guarantee electrical contact with any track that is to be ballasted and sealed into a fixed position.  This point is now fail proof, I hope ;)


And it does not look modified once the droppers are passed through the baseboard, and visible cables are blackened and ballast applied.

Cheers
Rod