Benchwork begins for Junee staging yards.
The other end of my layout is Junee, which like Albury, will exist solely as a hidden staging yard.
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| Graeme Dodds took this picture in 1979. X212 has just removed a louvre van off a northbound train |
Benchwork
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The section that will be the murrumbidgee bridge is secured into position 85cm above the floor.
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| Once again, I drew the track plan 1:1 with chalk on brown paper. The Junee staging will be 20cm below the "Wagga Shunt" - which is the start of the branchline to Tumbarumba |
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| The brown paper roll also contained the continuation of the murrumbidgee bridge track, which curves into the future Wagga station peninsular. note: The benchwork for the Murrumbidgee section protrudes above, and will be cut shorter when the Junee staging benchwork is attached. |
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The next section of benchwork is attached to the Murrumbidgee section
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| The first section of the Junee staging will be 60cm wide. This section is around 4 metres long, and will accomodate around six 3 mtres long sidings - long enough for the Southern Aurora, Intercapital Daylight, and interstate freight trains. The remaining sidings for Junee will extend to the right of this picture, and share space under the helix. Note the location of the window - I can reach the latch to open if necessary |
Tools
Mitre Saw
(5 years ago) according to the receipt, I bought a mitre saw on a stand kit, stored it in my container for future use, and promptly forgot I had it. I had been cutting the angles of the benchwork with a handsaw (not very well), so it came as a pleasant surprise when I found the saw. whilst looking for something else.
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| The instructions to assemble the saw were extremely poor, and it took around 2 hrs all up. Hopefully will repay this time in the future. Disappointingly, the laser guide is not working |
Angled screwdriver attachment
When there is not enough clearance for the full drill on its own, a cheap special buy from Aldi is pressed into service.
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| A most useful tool - even the colour almost matches DeWALT |
NSW Crane Book
I was chuffed when Ian Black's new NSW modelling book arrived in my PO Box.
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| The distortions visible in the edges are from my camera photographing the book that was suffering from bending in the post |
Ian has spent the last year modelling, and documenting every type of railway crane that ran on NSWGR. Lots of modelling, and prototype pictures. Well illustrated, and a wealth of modelling information. I understand it will be available from the normal outlets - eg ARHS, and selected model shops (My copy was a thankyou for supplying prototype detail pictures of the Brownhoist crane, and Junee Accident Train - both residing at Junee Roundhouse Museum)
G514
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| A Vline G class leads the Intercapital Daylight north to Junee, and Sydney in the 1980s. I will have to rescan my slide to determine the number |
It is outside my time period, but when a Powerline VLine G514 with replacement mechanism was listed recently on the online auction site, I placed a silly bid, and won it. I had bought from the seller before, and the listing included a short video of the loco running perfectly. So when it arrived, I was sort of disappointed that it was damaged, despite the careful packing.
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| The bogie mount had collapsed in the post. (The silver support visible) |
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| Closeup |
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| After removal of the chassis, the cause of the fault was easy to see. The original modification included supergluing a plastic pivot mount into the original powerline chassis. After cleanup of the old superglue, I used 2 part epoxy glue to resecure the mount. This view from below the frame |
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| Bogies were Austrains C class. |
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| The motor, flywheels, and universals are Athearn. May be a bit heavy in the power used, but Athearn is pretty bulletproof - and 1000% better than the original powerline pancake motor |
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| Reassembled, and as good as new. Probably the other end will fail as soon as I start running the model, but I will deal with that later. Of course, hardwired DCC, and fitting lights is another task for later. |
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| Restored - (other side shown). The Powerline body was good for its day, and whilst the model lacks the fine detail that often breaks off on the more recently released SDS G class, I cannot complain at the price |
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| The real G514 suffered in the Rockville derailment last year in March. I covered this derailment on a blog post at the time |
Pets
What has pets got do do with building a layout. Well, they can be big time wasters. I have occassionly mentioned our lot, and thought it may be time for an update on a few.
2 weeks ago, Trouble lost one of her nine lives after tangling with a small brown snake. She killed the snake, and left that for me to find. But a day later, she was all out of sorts, and a vet visit occured, along with draining of my wallet. Fortunately, she has recovered, and still insistant on outside excusions.
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Trouble, recovering on the sheep skin rug.
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Trouble's sister Misty, is now a year old. We found her as a 4 week old feral, but you wouldn't think so now. A long hair cat takes extra care. Fortunately, she does not want to venture outside, but like her sister, loves to annoy me on the keyboard.
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| Misty, on top of the cat tree |
In October, Tracy found a rescue horse for the paddock muncher role, after Sammy died last April. Razor is a 14 year old quarter horse, and is being pampered, with regular supplementary meals, and rugs. I would not be surprised if I am spending an hour a day with the horse.
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| Razor trudging up the hill last week. We really need rain |
More possible backdrop material?
Always happy with my move away from Canberra a decade ago. The positives outweigh the negatives with vistas such as these.
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| Saturday's late afternoon storm approaching |
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| And a closeup of "The Rock" from the same location and time as the earlier picture. This is one of Tracy's pictures, taken with her Iphone - my samsung phone camera whilst good, can't compare |
Next steps
Add plywood for the bench top, and start fabricating the turnouts using Fast Tracks. Another excursion into the unknown.
Until next time
