Model Railroading Can Be Fun - Other times it can be a PIA

 Hi All, 

 It's the end of November and work on the GSD continues. 

I was having a cup of coffee with Geoff T the other day and I said to him "Mate, there is so much to do here, what do you think my priorities should be?"  He said " Reg, you need to get your track running  reliably, get your point motors in, get your droppers in so trains cruise through the layout without dead frogs and  jerky locos". Fair enough I said. So I started a program of getting point motors fitted in Adelaide and installing droppers along the longer sections of track.

I got point 80, 84, 85 , 86 in ...... this is a doddle, I thought to myself. Next came Points 82 and 83. The Double Slip. Well, little did I know the poltergeist that resides in these inventions of Satan. I sent six hours over three days, naffing around with Tortoise switch machines trying to get the alignment correct, to have the throw arms move smoothly. after drilling, what seem like 65 holes for securing bolts to go through to get the alignment right. Remembering I am mounting these under Adelaide so had about 100mm to work with and...... Long story short, the Double slip has finished up in the bin and the track alignment changed to eliminate the need for these offspring of the devil. I never want to hear the words Double Slip mentioned in my presence again. That is if you want to live a long and happy life, or meet Emma the Trauma Nurse.

The new alignment in Adelaide Station   

       Not moon craters, Reg trying to align.

Yeah yeah yeah I know, not an Engineers……..On to a brighter Subject.

Op Session.

On 19 November we had an abridged Ops Session (Wednesday PM). As I had a specialist appointment and Steve had a funeral, so we ran for an hour then had lunch, proving once and for all the boys only come to my place for Helen's cake. The trains are something to do between food sessions. nevertheless we had some fun. Reg has a list of things to do to continue to improve the operation of the layout. I couldn’t take photos as Steve’s phone had some problems so he used mine. so I'll keep it brief. Main change was Geoff M and Steve played Yardmasters at Blue Lake. My instructions left a bit to be desired so a bunch of wagons were sent to Mile End early and a car for Wirrega which should have gone early was left high and dry. Not that was a problem as it was an Insulation car, Ice melted and the frozen crayfish from Port MacDonald went off.

 Next session is scheduled for 17 December when we will be running Thursday AM services.

Bridgewater Road Bridge

Many months ago I designed and 3D printed parts to scratch-build a road bridge as a scene block for the eastern end of Bridgewater yard. it has been sitting there as an eye sore since so I thought I would ease the tension of trying to install said poltergeist by doing something i really enjoy. So i I set about building the bridge. Background scenery is yet to be completed but I am happy with the way it is coming together.

This Blog

I am developing new pages for this blog which will detail the way operations are conducted on the GSD and details the activities in each town and the job of each train for each session. Look for the links on the sidebar.