2017_08_24 Al day All day :)

2017_08_24 Well we are back to normal and our regular workday produced great results today.
First of all, Al completed the track laying at Trentham, and also completed the silo area there as well.

My job was to start mapping out Albury yard, which we will need to work out our approach to the Helix.

Pictures tell the story

So rolling tests were all excellent. Al was pleased with his work, as he should be. First time trains can run on all tracks reliability since we started this project. Thank Goodness ;)

I was supposed to do the wiring and hook up the point motors. Finished up finding some defective track, which took a little time to adjust. Also broke a tie bar trying to attach a motor, and only option was to pull it out and undo some of Al's good work.  It always happens to me, and I am sure it is not that impressive to Al :(  Anyway we both got it all finished and running before 5.00 pm, official end to Alday.

Whilst I was fooling around with wires and point motors, Al completed the second track at the grain silo.

Looking at it, I am going to have to cut a point in this end, as a head shunt. The other end is actually supposed to be a temporary connection, using the head shunt, whilst Honeysuckle was bought on line. If it stays, it will have to be out of service during grain season Ha Ha

So now we have finished track, wired in on the branch line from Bowser all the way to Honeysuckle. However I need tony ,now to come and help me wire that station in place. I think it must be a big job, as he is not enthusiastic about it ;) Which brings me to my job. In this picture you can see I have started to chalk out the south end of Albury yard.

The three way point is through road, runaround road and platform road
The point bottom right is the BG crossing the SG track and it then goes above the three way point to form the two BG roads down past the Station box, and crossing the main lines after the platform, to proceed to Elders and the Flour Mill.
As  you can see I need to work out another way to do it, as its much too tight here.

 A little better?

Sorting out the BG platform roads.

Using SRA diagrams and another designed and drawn by Mick from Murray Railway Modellers, I am attempting to get it all as close as possible.

Micks diagram is at 1 inch to foot, and he had to leave some of it out too. But that drawing represents 63 feet and my shed is just not big enough. The baseboard is not wide enough either.
Lets see what we can do.

Earlier in the day, The Y Class hauled out the first half of the rock train, as the B Class hauls the down morning pass to Honeysuckle

The return pass heads to Wanganella on the up.

A block rock train comes off the branch at Trentham, as the evening pass waits for its turn to proceed up to Honeysuckle. The pilot is shut down for the night. The down goods was cancelled due to track occupation down the track. The rock will pull forward allow the pass to proceed, and then set back in, to stable until track is available for use early in the morning.

Well all I guess we see you at Caulfield?
Heading down to caravan at Kilmore East tonight. Over to see Mum and Dad at Narre Warren, back to Exhibition on Saturday morning. Returning home that night, I guess if things go to plan.
Cheers
Rod Young

2017_08_22 I found the light at the end of the tunnel.

2017_08_22  Members of Hobson's Bay Model Railway Club have built the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle for Hobson's Bay Northern Division.

Picture Story
At 9.00 this morning Ron and Steve arrived from Kilmore East with the new helix, which was professionally built in Melbourne to our specifications. How about that :)

Al, Graeme, Tony and the boys up here can finally see a layout we can run on, and we all thank you guys for your helix. The last link (of the layout) is finally in place.

After some mean cold, windy rainy weather for the last few weeks, the boys arrived with the helix. It was cold, but the sun was out, not a cloud in the sky.

So with 3 willing helpers, Ron lays out the legs and gets straight into it, with Steve looking on.
 

Al's ready to help as always, but it takes time to get it all set up. Our turn comes soon.

So here we are carrying in the first half.

Hold on lets try this again from this direction.

aha! That worked.  So glad the boys had a site inspection a few weeks  back and were able to sort out the obstacles.

.

ok both parts are in, and now we need to set it together and tie it down.

 Ok everything supported and its steady as a rock. The boys pre-planning worked a treat.

Steve talked me into leaving a gap to better access the showcase. We had the room, so why not?

The first level of track bed is in place, after track is laid out, we can lay the second level, and keep going to the 4th level.

Its locked to wall and floor, and is very steady.

 Hey Rod .......What about some track, before you try to run a train? eh? yeah right!

Showing the framework around the legs.

 Oh boy room underneath for double stacked 50L boxes :)

More frame work.

 Ok the road bed supports are designed to exactly raise the track at 1.5% with a gap of 102 mm which will allow double stacks, if the US prototype boys want to run something on it.

The pegs are glued and tacked to the line, then screwed into place. This stops the screw from twisting the peg.



 Now the road bed is rising, and to save work, the pegs were not sanded to allow for the accent. So track bed is glued and tacked to the top edge, to avoid twisting the bed. The outer peg is about 3mm higher than the inner one, and so that translates into super elevation.

The "roof" is in fact a reversing loop on the branch line, and it houses a terminus station and yard.

Not sure I will fit through the gap, but Al got out after we sealed him in. Guess it will work Ha Ha.

The helix is exactly in line with Albury and the BG on top! Ignore the curved bit laying between the modules. It should face the other way and will be the exit from reversing loop. The helix entry point and the reverse entry is going straight ahead and will enter between the next two uprights to right.

The branch line Terminus Station, up here, will have 34, 36, 38 inch curves and room to place straights where the station points need to go in, for reliability.

I will built a 250mm circular back scene around the hole to stop you seeing the track approaching the station on the reverse loop.

After the lads returned to Kilmore East, Al and I started cleaning up, after Al finished preparing Bullarto for more track.  All ready for track on Albury side, as soon as we work out what space is required for Albury Railway Station buildings..

Till Thursday Cheers
Rod

2017_08_19 (Thursday work day cancelled) Friday

2017_08_19  Al's back from sunny Queensland But Thursday was cancelled account Ausnet Power shut down account maintenance on our lines.

So we moved it to Friday and it extended into Saturday!

Friday became a bit of a catch up day, working on an Auscision Walker Rail Motor and playing with Al's B Class and plain catching up after Al,s trip up north. And of cause sausage rolls!

Saturday Graeme arrived to work on his scenery project and Al continued to fix the track up in Trentham.

I struggled with my revers loop sections (still) Cant work out why reconstructing the track sections as instructed by Tam Valley has not fixed the problem.......
Some pictures...

Auscision B Class showing the metal grill warping. Its only glued on and this system, just does not work. Removing grills can cause problems. Paint sticks and chunks can pull off with grills. Many folk just super glue them back on, pushing them back into place. However I have seen many glue stains. So how to do it so it looks ok?

Decided to use a knife blade...

Ran a bead of glue along edge of blade.

and dragged blade back, depositing glue on inside of screen. Then pressed a strip of wood up against grill for a few minutes till glue dried. Sparce application of glue helped not to squeeze glue outside mesh and foul the job.

Its not perfect, however it looks better now.

My biggest head aches are caused by here and here...

 The island reverse loop which just will not work for me. Despite following instructions, I cannot get the dual frog juicers to operate as advertised.

All wired up and track connected. However electrically, not working... still!!

The second area of problems, is Trentham yard, and Al came to my rescue here on Sunday starting to put it all together for me.

What happens when you get a short that does not trip the command station?

A Locomotive was slowly moving in notch 1 out of sight. The loco shorted out, tripping the command station. The circuit reset and held, slowly heating up the loco/, and when I tried to move it later, it was seized up. Put it aside and after Al left I pulled it down to see what was the problem.

Axle and gears all melted (welded?) in place.
 

You can see the bronze bush has fallen into space between metal frame and is touching wheel creating the short.
 

I have spare flex coil bogies. Unfortunately, this is a welded plate bogie, which I do not have any of. So I am hoping Trainorama might have a spare? The flex coil I have is an Austrains X which I thought was interchangeable. It almost is, except the locating hole in the chassis is smaller than the pin in the bogie, making loco sit 3 mils higher than it should. I can drill it out, but not till I see if I can find a welded plate version.

The keeper plate is destroyed, although the side frame is ok. So maybe I can interchange it with a Trainorama Flexcoil if I can get one of those?

Please note. I am in no way blaming the fine folk at Trainorama for this "accident"   One of the main reasons I am working so hard on my rewire project is to stop things like this from happening.
Should you use tail lamp globes for circuit protection? Well you be the judge. I have now lost three engines like this, and I am replacing globes as quickly as I can afford to.

Graeme's mountain is spreading South!

The cutting is formed up from Wodonga and over House Creek.

More work at House Creek.

 

 Uncle Ben's or Kelly Street end. Need to mark out the crossing here.

Near the Stock Race towards South Street and the head shunt.

And that's a real step forward. My job is to glue the towels all over it, now to form a touch base for the ground cover. Just noticed I have forgotten to prepare Kelly Street crossing. Must check that out.

Al has graciously taken on Trentham. He can be made to cast a few oaths, standing on his stool, and dealing with the problems of laying Shinohara or Micro Engineering code 70 track. Ash him if its is correctly called "flexy track" Ha Ha!

Thats better. We will remove this new track and treat the surface of the caneite with the same gap filla we used at Bullarto, to give track a base and allow the nails to hold the track down securely. Have to try and do that before Thursday.

Al tried to save the original track along the platform, however the hand made point was too brittle and came apart. So he cleaned it all back, and he can fit a new point and track in next time.

He lays nice track, and it works very well. Thanks mate :D
Cheers
Rod