Let There be Light

 Progress steps up a notch

Over the last 3 weeks (since my last Blog post), quite a lot has occured

David's layout based on Goulburn, was one of the attractions at the NMRA meeting I attended yesterday (Nov 18, 2023) in Canberra. More pictures of this meeting later

Wagga Station master residence - Veranda posts

6 posts are needed.  The first 2 above, are 3 sided, the last 4 are decorated on all 4 sides.  There are 27 pieces of plastic per post - and quite a fiddly job to make.  The post themselves are Evergreen styrene 0.060 square strips 

The most critical phase was glueing all the posts to the support beam.  Not only were the posts square, they had to be correctly spaced to the nearest 0.2mm for the eventual attachment of the ironwork.  The veranda planks were made from a piece of Evergreen 0.060 V groove

The 2 wall support posts added to the front

Finally the veranda gets added

Even without the cast ironwork decoration, the residence is imposing

Not quite the same angle, but the real residence for comparision

Next stages are the pipework, windows and doors.  The veranda railing too, although that will have to wait until after painting

Train Room progress.

Another Bunnings delivery.  Yellow tongue sheeting, more trim, and the kaboodle kitchen flat packs.  I had to move these  further under my carport as rain was expected.  The Yellow tongue boards are extremely heavy for one person - and there were 13 of them - enough to finish the walls.

I rolled primer undercoat on the ceiling.  over 50 square metres, it took me a full day.  Top coats will come later.

Sheeting (and insulation) in the train room continues

Sheeting in the garage area was a lot easier.  The insulation batt width fitted the panels without any additional trimming

Never assume your floor is flat.  There was almost a 3cm fall over a short distance.  This view from the garage side

Doorway from garage to train room

Doorway from train room, to outside.  Note the openings for the electrical cables

Door between the train room and the garage hung.  The door knob was something re-used after about 20years of storage after being replaced in my previous home in Queanbeyan

Ensuite sliding door

Room Lighting is being supplied with LED batten lights.  The colour switch inside the fitting is shown.  I will have to change the colour, as warm white is too yellow for my liking

The support plate for the Daikin airconditioner was simply screwed onto the yellow tongue sheeting.  You cannot do that with gyprock

I insisted on a switchboard to be installed inside the train room.  The advantage of this, is that I can turn off all power points for the layout with a single switch.  There are 5 circuits: Lighting and Tastic, Kitchenette power points; Hot Water; Air Conditoner; & Layout/room power points

Airconditoning fitted.  The outside unit is visible through the window

Tastic installed in the ensuite.  Heat, light, and fan

Light battens installed.  There are 4 in total - the one for the Kitchenette has a separate light switch

Circuit Breakers fitted

Let there be light!!

External Air conditioner in the passage way between my workroom, and garage.  Not much sun gets to this location.  There is also not a lot of space, but this is not a walkway that is used much. 

Next step is continuing with the painting - there are over 80 square metres of wall to prime.  Further work is the tiling of the ensuite, assembly of the kitchenette, plumbing completion, septic installation, and flooring.   Cost of room so far is $27,500.  

Kittens

Very unexpected, but Tracy found a litter of feral kittens just over a week ago.  Three were well hidden in the weeds that are around my unused swimming pool, but the meow and wandering about of kitten #4 was a giveway.  And we also discovered a den under the rotten wood planking that surround part of the pool. 

We think the kittens were about 4 weeks old,  and looked malnourished, and looking for their mother.

Well, all 4 now are thriving in our house, and Tracy has found homes for three of them.  The fourth,a long haired little girl, who I named Mystique, or Misty for short is being kept  As you can gather, entertaining kittens is a time wasting exercise (as well as expensive - I have spent $230 so far on food, litter, bedding, worming tablets, toys).  I am feeding them 5 times a day, breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, and late supper.  They are growing quickly

We set up a kitten enclosure - using 6 panels of a dog pen, and 4 planks that I had put aside for the future layout.  Works quite well.

"Leo" named by his future owner, contemplates some mischief.  Photographing kittens is a lot of misses to get one hit.

Div 2 NMRA November meeting in Canberra.

Yesterday, I made the 5 hr round trip to Canberra, to attend the NMRA meeting at David's place.

David was offering to demonstrate weathering, and as David is also extremely skilled in Military modelling, it was something I wanted to see.  As my builder Brett was not attending my trainroom build on Saturday, I had the opportunity to attend

David attacks a wagon, surrounded by the curious.  David rarely uses an airbrush for weathering.  Instead, he  makes up a lot of washes using oil paints, turpentine, and white spirits

Subtle weathering.  The NODY wagon is only half done to show the difference

An additional bonus clinic was using the phone application "Engine Driver" on Davids home layout, which is Goulburn station.  Using a Raspberry Pi, with appropropriate software can extend a DCC system to accomodate a number of mobile phone controllers.  Certainly an option for me when it comes to running my layout.  The hammerhead NCE throttles are quite a deal more expensive then old cell phones

The station of Goulburn is mostly scratchbuilt, using plans.  David's modelling work has appeared on many layouts, and was one of the inspirations for me to improve my own modelling standards

David hosts operational sessions on this layout.  The basis is making up trains for the branchlines to Crookwell, and Canberra/Cooma/Bombala.  With mainline trains also coming through, Goulburn can get quite busy.  

Control panel

Summary.

Getting the walls finished, and completing the electrical aspect of my train room has been a major step in finishing the room.  The A/C cooled the room down in around 10 minutes, and then idled at under 500 watts.  With the extensive installation, I hope the room will be a welcoming environment for layout construction, and later operation.  

Until next time