Op Session - Cassino

Last weekend we had the opportunity to operate on Craig's layout Cassino.  As usual, we started with Craig's generous hospitality - a snag or two fresh from the bbq. By 1pm, we worked our way to his shed.  Unfortunately numbers were down and hence there was no North Coast Control.
I had the pleasure of driving the rail-motor, the Brisbane Limited on the UP direction and a few other freights.  Stopping at some of the stations I couldn't help but admire the lovely station buildings and residential houses Craig has made from styrene.  I really need to build up some skills in this area.

Having no North Coast Control was fraught with danger and even though I took the staff diligently, I couldn't help to laugh out loud as I saw an impeding Head On Collision with a container train!  This happened to be right at a crossing loop so no one was really at fault.
This was the first Op Session where I have taken a train from South Brisbane as this is the new section on Craig's layout.  This is the third and upper-most level.  It was quite a feeling to drive by Acacia Ridge, the initial starting point for UP trains.  We managed to run quite a few trains before the session was deemed over.  There were a few minor issues which Craig has rectified for the next session.
Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of the head-on as the collision was cleared in no time.

Visit to Wattle Flat

Last Saturday we had an opportunity to visit and operate Darren's layout, Wattle Flat.
After a brief run-down of the layout, we were grouped into pairs for two-man operation and I joined Geoff as his driver.

We were tasked with train no. 15 (I think it was) which departed the main station of North Gulgong.

We took 60 mins to run train No. 15 from the junction to the branch terminus of Wattle Flat, do some shunting, and return to staging via North Gulgong with a lovely 44 class Alco for motive power.  The sound from the 44 class was very authentic and added another dimension to operations.

About 50 mins was spent shunting the five or six industries at Wattle Flat.

There were more than enough industries on the layout and plenty of points to operate to accommodate for all the shunting movements at each of the towns.

Once this run was completed, we all had a break.

There were no derailments or any other mishaps like engines falling off the layout.  The construction and track lying was done to a very high standard.

I think Darren has achieved what he wants from his model railway, with plenty of industries on the branch line and more than enough points to be thrown, all adding  to maximise operational potential.

Overall a very good time was had.  However a suggestion would be to replace the couplers to something of a higher standard, like Kadees.  It was frustrating to uncouple with the with imitation kadee couplers on the rolling-stock.

It will be really good to see Darren slowly add scenery and other details to his layout.  I think once this is done, the layout will look incredible.

Unfortunately the battery indicator on my camera started blinking and I was low on juice so I could only grab a few shots.

Arthur's Place

A few weeks back on a Tuesday night we had the pleasure of visiting Arthur's layout and what a fine layout it is.  It is based on NSW prototype and is located in the garage.  I thought I had to share with you his layout. Arthur's modelling skills and eye for details is quite amazing.

Built My First Point

Over the last two weeks I took up the challenge to build a turnout.  Well after much perseverance I am quite happy with the result.
I made a few errors.  The stock rails are little too short and the first frog I made disintegrated and came apart during a soldering job, so I had to basically rebuild the frog.
I used about 1 mm for the flange-ways and tried to keep close to the AMRA fine tolerance standard.  I noticed that the wheels on the wagons and locos also need to be precise, so will need to look at each of the wheel-sets at a later time.
The sense of accomplishment seeing a few trains run through the point that I just built was all worth the frustration at the end.  There were many times when I was about to throw in the towel!  I will use this point in the yard somewhere.
I made a few sleepers using paddle-pop sticks and tried to keep to the VR profile as much as possible.
One advantage of creating your own is the spacing of the dead frog.  Since I was able to reduce this area by about 3cms (on the PECO large points, this distance is about 10cm), my short wheel loco, the Y class, happily moves through this area without any pauses with both frog rails isolated. I still need to trim down the PCB sleepers and paint the sleepers.  I am now keen to make another one.
I need to work out how to secure the point rails.  One of the nice things about the PECO points are the spring-loaded mechs.  Any ideas would be appreciated.

Here are some photos.

Tracing an original point and I used this as a template.

This idea was created by DKRickman and used from this site

I used super-glue to fix the sleepers to the rails

Nearly completed point.