Sunday, October 30, 2011

October Progress

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Well the appearance changes are not so stark this month!  The last couple of months had so many visual changes it looked like things had been racing along.

With help from the Monday night crew and Chris and BJ we have managed to get a few things done at Hornertown, Davetston, Flinston & Stanvac this month.  I must not forget to mention "welcome back" to Bill2 who has had a break from the Monday night crew for a few months.

And I had the pleasure of traveling to Traralgon 200 km east of Melbourne (900 km from Home) to see Peter and do some more work on setting up his locos using DecoderPro.

Hornertown
We back in the June Update I commented "Droppers, droppers and more droppers.... 36 turnouts and 75 lengths of track = 222 droppers apart from the extras for short pieces of track... " well Chris and Bob have very nearly finished them. See Chris below.




BJ has begun the section of backdrop betwwn the "town Centre" and Hornertown East. The new section of backdrop will be placed infornt of and scenically blended with the basic blue backdrop already in place. Se below





Daveyston

Lat month we showed the formation of the basic landforms. Well BJ has done some basic colur texture work and painted the tresstle I made from Evergreen sections and I have cut the base board and flex track to fit it in.


I installed the trestle on the final approach to Daveyston.




Construction and trial fitting the tunnel portals and retaining wall for Lewiston Loop track (the third one back)  below Daveyston township has commenced.  The inner and outer folded dogbone main lines are in the foreground.





Flintston

I have kitbashed an Atlas truss girder bridge to be fitted to the Huntigton Branch behind Flintston. This will be installed over the industrial access road where it enters the rear of Flinston yard.


Rossco and I have fitted all but two of the turnout motors in the yard this month and the wires and terminal blocks are still to be attached to the benchwork.



Stanvac

Last moth I talked about structures under construction and the various "issues" we faced.

Chris has finished constructing the propane storage tanks. The refinery structures, propane tanks, petroleum products tanks, and loading platform have been temporarily placed in position following painting and weathering by BJ. BJ has also started on the ground cover surround some of the structures.



Petroleum products tanks



The propane tanks


The plant area



The ground cover surround some of the structures



Fascias

BJ did not get much scenery work done one day as he was purloined to help me with the remaining sections of fascia. The photos show the final sections.



Now for Barry to fill over the screw heads and sand back prior to the black paint finding its way on.

Traralgon trip

I once again traveled to Traralgon 200 km east of Melbourne (900 km from Home) to stay with Peter and have the pleasure of his company and to do some more work on setting up his locos using DecoderPro. My previous visit was detailed in the July post.

Last time I came we discovered that the Digitrax Zephyr had issues and was not communicating correctly with LocoNet despite being sent stateside for warranty work some time prior. A new Digitrax Zephyr Xtra has arrived and what a difference a working piece of kit makes! Peter's frustrations have seemed to have evaporated and it is only a few "older" series Digitrax decoders that seem to "under perform" causing frustrations. A lot of the "problem" locos are now running seamlessly.

Peter "tuning up" his locos - note the "pile" under the test track table.


I wonder how long Peter will be able to leave the test track on the dining room table after I have left this time.....

Thanks for the great time Peter & Faye I enjoyed the extractions from the cellar and your excellent cooking!


Once again thanks for all your help guys....



-ooOOOoo-

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

September Progress - Summary

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It has been a productive month visually as things have appeared in a number of areas this month. Some of my hired helpers we called upon for family duties taking them away from modelling assignments. Well the clean up of tools, spare equipment, scenery supplies amongst other things on the bottom level has commenced! A eight draw cupboard has been fitted under loco for storage, this required replacing one central support leg with one on each side.

Ross Lends a hand
Apart from his structure building which can be seen on previous posts he came to help work on the layout for a day and was given the task of mixing the vermiculite, patching mortar, hard plaster, cement mix (4,2,1,1) grout colouring and mixing with the correct amount of water to get Joe Fugate's "soft ice-cream" consistency. He did a great job of the eight loads we achieved during the day. You can see the results in the Daveyston and Flinston sections below.


Once again thanks for all your help guys....

September Progress - Summary
September Progress - Hornertown
September Progress - Daveyston
September Progress - Flintston
September Progress - Stanvac

-ooOOOoo-

Sunday, October 2, 2011

September Progress - Hornertown

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Wiring

Bob and Chris have commenced the large taks of hooking up the droppers to track bus wires and fixing turnout motor terminal strips on the entire southern section of the lower level.

Point motor wiring

Power distribution

Track bus's


Hornertown East

BJ has completed hand painting the rock retaining walls and they look great!



September Progress - Summary
September Progress - Hornertown
September Progress - Daveyston
September Progress - Flintston
September Progress - Stanvac


-ooOOOoo-

September Progress - Daveyston

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Installation of the backdrop had been completed and the scenery base has commenced.


Backdrop installation



Wooden oddments have been glued to the base to form a rough terrain in which the masking tape has been applied to form the base for application of the base upon which the ground cover will be applied. The photos below show the progression.















The plan is for the trestle is to be painted and installed during October.

September Progress - Summary
September Progress - Hornertown
September Progress - Daveyston
September Progress - Flintston
September Progress - Stanvac


-ooOOOoo-

September Progress - Flintston

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Yard Tracks, approach track, shunt lead, cement works lead and Huntington Branch bank

Well this month all the track has been laid in Flintston. Rossco assisted me with installing some turnout motors. The droppers, track bus and remaining turnout motors are outstanding.

ou can see the scenery progression at the Northern end of the yard below. It starts with some basic woodwork then the masking tape and the topping mix. A particular challenge is a hand made turnout in the approach track tunnel that I may want to provide access in case maintenance is required at a later date.








The access "hatch" to maintain the turnout should it be necessary in the future.






Northern Light & Power

A year ago in the October 2010 post I talked about Ross building the Cornerstone kit. It is now time to place it on the layout. The pictures show its location and the approach tracks.





Cement Works

The plan is to build a loading structure based loosely on the one in Dodge City, Kansas that I photographed on my work trip the the USA & Canada in 2008 .


The cement works is behind the "bank" carrying the Huntington Branch on its approach to Daveyston. See the scenery progression below showing the progression from benchwork to building blocks then masking tape landform to application of the top mix mentioned i the Intro.






Bigland Engineering

The platform and tracks have been installed and the structure (the white one on the left which looks like an engine house) comes from Bill2 - it was a mockup he made for his layout - but BJ will do his magic when finished you will not know the difference. Funny this method of construction was discussed on the Model Railcast Show #149.



Warehouse

The siz tracks have been installed between the platforms, The idea is that different products will be delivered to different platforms so the operating complexity will be high.



The last track (7th from the front) will become the piggy back loading facility.

September Progress - Summary
September Progress - Hornertown
September Progress - Daveyston
September Progress - Flintston
September Progress - Stanvac


-ooOOOoo-