2013 November 21

2013 November 21  Sunny not to hot, a really nice day :D

Had two visitors today. Tony was over from Bendigo for a bit of R&R and my Corowa mate Al was back for some more punishment :) I think he went home with a bad back. Hope he forgives me :(

Last few days has been tweaking track and running trains. I am absolutely thrilled with the results.  Still got some places to fix. R752 is the test engine. If it goes through and sounds are uninterupted, everything will go through. I was planning what to do for today. Al and I work well together, and we do heaps! Anyway I am afraid it turned into a demolition derby once again. I am certain Al looks forward to building bits, not tearing things down. Sorry Mate :( Next time I promise we will spend a constructive day ;)

Remember this photo?  I was pretty shocked at how bad it looked, and after fixing the long back wall, I bit the bullet and removed this eye sore!

 

The following pictures detail our efforts at improving things.   The last picture shows just how straight we got it.  

In this picture the boys are working out how to lift the heavy brackets. It turned into an awful job, as the brackets had to lift 70mm, and every pre drilled hole lined up with a cut out slot in the upright strut. Every hole needed re-drilling. Fortunately Al was able to fix my pedestal drill,that had not worked for 10 years, but it delayed us a lot.

So all the brackets have been raised and checked to be true with the level.
Now I usually take a heap of measurements and get down on the floor with right angle clamps and screw a frame together after cutting out the material. 3 days later....  :(

At Als suggestion, we simply cut out all the bits and then assembled the frame in situ on the brackets.
It took a couple of hours and fitted the space it was meant to occupy and was a near perfect job. We took time to get the brackets right, and the material measurements right, and carefully trued up the bits as we screwed it all together..

 THis picture shows it all bolted down and it is perfectly true! The brackets do slope up about 5mm, but that was designed to take the weight of the scenery on top. When I add the 5 ply sheet to the top, I feel certain the weight will pull it back down again .

Just looking at this picture, and remembered the plaster back drop was not done!  I meant to fix that in place before screwing the box sections in, to save my back. Oh well can't be helped.

So a great day, and the Railway takes one giant leap backwards (again :D )  but rebounds with this much improved bench top :D
Cheers
Rod