2011 August 7

2011 August 7     Sunday     (Page 26 of 35)

The complete bogie after mods. Ignore the temporary wires used to test assembly insulation only.

 Not a lot of room to hide the wipers.

Power bogie sits in the no2 end and the recess gains a little more room.

 Bogie loosely in position.

 Close up.

 Side view.

Cheers
Rod

2011 August 15     Monday  10.15 am.

Got a call from the Postman during a late breakfast! He has a box too big to fit in my roadside post box. Would I care to meet him in 10 minutes at the box. Well I must buy this man a Christmas present. What service!! 

My Auscision 4 wheelers have arrived   

One casualty. The On Track containers fit snugly, unfortunately the Victorian SDS versions don't. I pressed to hard and a piece of the handbrake rigging came adrift. Where is the superglue?

 The On Track container.

 Two KMQ's fitted On Track containers.

 The SDS container.

 I filed off the container lugs, flush on all 4 ends, width was ok! and got a tight fit.

 T424

 U592

 U88 & U1022 two variations

 T232 Just shows what happens if you do not precisely tell the Chinese what you want The Chinese were obviously asked to name the vehicles U T KMQ The chinese do things exactly as asked!
Next time Auscision will need to say "name the T van T" " name the KMQ KMQ" etc etc  

End shot T van.

 T 232

T425

  

Underbody KMQ

U Vans wide door corrugated roofs.

 The lot? no the tail end  

Cheers

Rod

2011 October 14   Friday

Well I guess things have not exactly stalled I have installed ( ) three new lower modules along the short wall front, and started to move along the centre module, perhaps another 16 feet. Should take some pictures.
I have stripped out some wiring on the Trentham side of the branch and started installing DCC plugs and wiring.
Met some local modellers and organised a working party at least once a month, with the idea of getting some entertaining running going. That's a really big boost to the railway. And I thank those concerned. Introductions soon

Our Visit to Liverpool was very rewarding. I purchased some books and magazines, as well as three of Auscision's new T van billboards. Hate to think of how many I have now ( Auscision 4 wheelers that is ) And I also got a pack of the new SRA (red worm) NLKY and also a blue KLV pack.

Spent a week or two rebuilding diesels with Loksound DCC sounds.

Spent a lot of money upgrading 5 brass engines with all wheel pick ups, eliminating the (normal) short between engine and tender.

Mike of DCC sounds upgraded and installed dcc sound chips as well as eliminated a bind in the journals of the Steam Era R Class.

I purchased a Frank Kelly built (And autographed) SEM J Class and had Mike install sound as well.

I guess I could have done a hell of a lot more, but that's life, but at least we are still moving ahead.

Last of all Thanks to Colin Hussey his friend Rowan and Dad Sam, for making us feel so damn welcome and inviting Roger and I into their homes and offering hospitality that was just as one remembers from older times past.

And I cannot forget Roger Lloyd who actually left Hospital a few days earlier and still decided to keep me company on my trip North.
Thanks all of you for such a great weekend
Cheers
Rod

 2012 February 15

Hello Nick

Lost Interest temporarily

However with Christmas, a 10,000km trip to West Australia and back, family visiting and any other excuse I can find, not much has happened.

This morning I arranged to pick up some more ply and started marking out the next section of track which will bring the lower level around into the middle island. Then I will start building the Wodonga Coal siding, and planning the curve into Wodonga Station.

I also hope to start building and installing the Silo area near the top of the Helix.... More soon
In the meantime I have been very fortunate to meet and get some help from a Master NMRA Modeller Gerry Hopkins

He has been working on two Stteam Era white metal engines for me
They can be seen at: See my J and my R Here

Cheers
Rod

 2012 February  16

postst wrote:

Wow! those are spectacular, Rod I'm sure you'll enjoy them

Cheers
Stevo

Yes I am really privileged to own them too
The R Class a steam Era Kit was built by my good friend Mike Walters of DCC Sounds.Com
Mike fitted the sound and tweaked the engine getting it to run nicely.

The J Class was built by Frank Kelly and I was very fortunate to get this locomotive, It was built for another, but because of certain circumstances it was found unsuitable, and I was offered the opportunity of buying it. I fairly jumped at the chance to own a Frank Kelly built Loco. He is a hero of mine

It was not intended to have sound or lighting fitted. Mike fitted a Loksound custom sound decoder and set it up, by working a way out to gain access to a fully soldered up tender without damaging anything. He did a great job.

On my new layout these engines proved that my track was not good enough, but after talking to Gerry Hopkins at the NMRA meet last year in Melbourne, I decided to get Gerry to modify the engines, with improved lighting and better pick ups. We also found some things that limited tracking and radius of curvature.
Hopefully I will have them running very soon.

Its so nice to have good friends and good help, isn't it
Cheers
Rod

2012 March 7   Wednesday

Club night at Murray Railway modellers So a quick post then I can drive into town

Today's job was to secure the new bench work on the bottom level entering the centre peninsular by fixing the legs in place.

Then secure the angle brackets on the top level (where bench work is incomplete) This straightened the bench which should allow track to be laid now.

And clean out all the stuff stored under the peninsular to make construction easier.

This all took about 8 hours to do, even if the pictures do not seem to show the effort expended    

 Trying out the new Auscision 80 foot wagons on the 26 inch radius branch line.
they barely get around I might still lengthen the couplings perhaps at one end only?

 Adjusting the brackets to straighten the top level.

 bringing the bottom level under the branch on the bottom level
Here I got to understand I need an over and under track to keep the SG on the correct side of the Wodonga station and coal siding boards. The climb out of Coal Siding into Wodonga Station should help a lot here

 Interestingly a long SG goods creates a spiral effect at the top level as the engines pass over the top of the rear brake van

CLP 13 makes a out of era appearance and the Loco will be sold off eventually.

Looking forward to completing the next stage and redoing this scenery, so as to match the new scenery I am itching to start on.Lets see if I get in there again tomorrow  Cheers

Rod

2012  March 15   Thursday about 6.00 pm 

 Had a visitor today who like me is into trains, especially the HO type.
We spent part of the morning talking about how I was going to set the middle lower modules up, and discovered a few things that I had got wrong. As I have mentioned elsewhere, I have not been well, and not in the mood for layout building for some time.
So with a big push from Allan and a lot of help we made some changes, and added about 8 meters of new frame work, and we are all set up to add the 5 ply deck on top tomorrow.

 

Its nice to work with someone who knows what he is doing with timber (not wood )
I am indeed fortunate to have good friends like Tony K, Roger and Allan. At my age I need all the encouragement I can get  

 If you remember I was plenty pleased with my early attempt at the first panel of the island module. I got it all wrong. The track here needs to be separated by about 13cm in height, which meant that the module shown needed to be 13 cm higher than the one to be built on the other side. As the module was built 1200 wide extending 600 mm either side of centre, this would not work. I had to cut the pieces off the other side They will be added back later at the lower height. As I said this is because the Coal siding track crosses under the track at the end of the module to head North. It will become clearer with a bit of track in place, I guess
This means that the track arrives from the right (Wanganella). Crosses behind the back drop to this side (of the picture and enters Wodonga Station which will be built on the new bench work. The track will proceed out of Wodonga station and turn 180 deg.around a 1200 mm radius curve (prototype turns 90 deg) dropping 13 cm in 7.5 m which , (correct me?) is about 2% gradient before going through the dual gauge Coal siding yard. By the way, the bogie exchange will be the only place on the whole layout where BG and SG vehicles can be interchanged, with out using the 5 finger crane  

 We are having difficulties getting the front panel straight, however the important part is the track which looks like it going to be dead level.
I might have to gently knock each upright slightly so as to line them up perfectly on a string line to get the fascia to sit evenly.
This picture also shows that the top level at the far end intrudes too much into the bottom level air space.. So I decided to lift that up to the same height as the recycled Trentham module. It will not be a really big deal and should be easy with two of us working at it

We did a huge amount of work, and tomorrow we should have the flat deck installed as well as the plaster back board in place. I guess it depends on how Allan scrubs up tonight I'm sure its my turn to do the back bending sitting on the floor bit tomorrow
Cheers
Rod