15-10-2017

Hi All,

It has been a busy few days at the Club.  Last Friday, a few of us went in to prepare for the Senior's Open Day.  George dropped in with the core of the quarry, Rod helped, Dale and I did a few things on the HO layout - most noticeably painting the fascia boards black - and Derek and Ankie set up Bald Mountain in the main hall.  More on this later.   Jack was there, too, carpet bowls in hand.

A slight variation on the same personnel ran things smoothly enough on Saturday.  The public attendance was disappointing for the Seniors - showing how important it is to get the advertising right - but they emphasised that they appreciated our support.  Jack was there again, this time with OO locos.  He had an A4 Pacific (miraculously, not the same loco number as Dale's) and a very nice model of an SR Adams Radial tank engine.  In my youth it was Hornby Dublo, and you had a choice of 3 locos.  Now the Hornby range is 113 locos.  How times have changed - more on this later.   At the end we packed up and wished Derek a happy holiday in Japan with Ankie.

Sunday was another quiet day - much of it devoted to trying to find things that had been put away to make the place tidy.  Geoff the Pres and Dale added more fascia boards and I played with a recalcitrant 3 way point.   David, George and Martin beavered quietly away and now, by accident not planning, we are developing continuous scenery along a whole section of branchline - from Port Gary, through John's Falls, past the quarry and over the gorge carved out by the river X.  Of course, if we were in Devon, that would be the River Exe.  Come to think of it, our branchline terminus is indeed based on a station from somewhere in that area.  After tea (nice fruit cake, Helen) we tidied up again in preparation for the BRMA visit on Thursday.  After the happy day that Geoff the Sec finishes the shelving in the store room, it will be much easier to find things that have been put away.

Now to the "more on that later" things.  Bald Mountain, like many of us, is showing her age.  She started off as five modules in, I think, 2006.  That has now grown to nine modules.  Eleven years of mantling and dismantling, and being carted around the state is taking its toll, so we are seeking input from all and any of you.

She remains good to look at, popular with the younger generation (and therefore their parents), and reliable and easy to operate once set up.  And to replace totally would be a bald mountain of work.

However, she too was a learning curve, and the N gauge scene has changed over the past decade.

Things that now give trouble: 

1)  The legs are too wobbly for an exhibition environment.

2)  The mechanical connection between modules is wearing, making alignment difficult (critical in N gauge)

3)  The track is prone to work loose at the module ends.

4)  The electrical connections between modules are becoming unreliable.

5)  The old MiniTrix locos donated by Ian have worn out.  Typical of their period, they were powerful, heavy and went round tight curves.  The bigger new locos need a wider radius (the bogies don't have swivel clearance).  

6)  Our new smaller locos struggle (with wheelspin) to haul even short trains around the "figure 8" module that has steep grades on long 200mm radius curves.  This is the module that contains the Bald Mountain.

7)  40' boxcars are fine on the tight curves, but there is not the trackside clearance to handle new 70' and 80' passenger cars.  (They look silly, anyway).  Second hand older shorter models are not easy to find.

8)  Once upon a time, the Rapido couplings were universal in N gauge, but now all American rolling stock has KaDee style couplings.

We already have possible fixes for some of these deficiencies, but I don't wish to lead the debate.  Any suggestions, and preferably real life experience, will be welcome.  Send me an email, or discuss it at Club.

We don't intend to try any miracle cures before our next show so no rush, just bear it in mind while looking around.

Peter

8-10-2017

Hi All,

Brief notes this time.  I do like our new home - I think that there were fourteen of us there - including Geoff the Sec and Alan sawing up great lengths of wood in the middle of us all - and there was still room to move.  Of course, with Jack back the noise level was well up and the relevance of the comments was well down.  Even Martin's non-sequiturs do not hold a candle to Jack's.

The diesel railcar and the EMU were back to running smoothly.  On getting them home, I found that the only problem they had was the amount of dirt caked onto the wheels.  Can it be co-incidence that they used to operate on the branch line on the old layout and, being at the back, this track was harder to clean?  Another thing to wonder about - the EMU picks up power from the first and the last of its six bogies.  These were the only wheels that had dirt stuck to them.  Because they are the first wheels to encounter dirty track, or does the electric current flow attract dirt?

Next weekend is the Seniors open day, and we had a great tidy up and clean up at the end of the day.  The down side is that we will never find anything again, but the public image is much improved.  A few of us will be there Friday afternoon setting things up, and a few more on Saturday to run things, then Sunday we get to doing our own thing again.  But leaving things tidy for the BMRA visit the following Thursday.  

Busy as a bee with a bum full of honey.

See you somewhere,

Peter

1-10-2017

Hi All,

Back on schedule again, but don't think that means you will find out what happened.  There were so many there that I ran out of fingers to count'em, let alone keep track of what every one was up to. But we did not fall over each other - what an improvement!

I know that Barrie called in briefly, to check progress and pay his subs.  Alan, who had recently been working to join the occasional members group, was there.  Helen was not, and the biscuits that I took along were a poor substitute.  Jane came by to rip George away all too soon.  Paul started to move a mountain (into place) and Geoff the Sec continued with his shelving project.  Geoff the Pres was welcomed back - boy, did he get out of Las Vegas at the right time! - and gave Dale assistance with fascia strips.   Martin installed a trestle bridge, Derek crawled around the floor wiring things up, and Greg did not.  Judy brought me up to date with her campaign (that's longer than a battle) to get our show listed on the Shire website.  Dave contemplated the new town planning requirements for John's Falls and I saw Rod looking dangerous, hammer in hand, while he spoke severely to track pins that were sticking up.  I installed point motors at Sayer until the three-way point defeated me - there's always next week.

At tea I tabled the letter from the Shire confirming this year's grant.  Then Geoff the Sec forgot that it was the first Sunday of the month, and did no more than point out that it is time that we came up with a name for our nameless branchline station.  So please give it some thought and share it with the rest of us.  Those present know that Geoff's favourite at the moment is something aboriginal, such as Gingin.  Or was that Gin Gin?

After tea we cleared (some) stuff off the track, and tried to get things running.  Some locos behaved, some have been taken away for maintenance.  Next week, more clearing up and further efforts to make the room look presentable, and to get things running reliably for the open day on the 14th.  

See you on the 8th

Peter

24-9-2017

Hi All,

This getting to the point where it is not so much a report on last week, but is a reminder for this week!

I don't think anything major occurred.  We had two chiefs, but Martin keeps such a low profile as to be practically invisible.  Paul brought in what he called a rough mockup of the lighthouse for Port Gary.  Most of us would have have been pretty proud of it as the end product.

Last week I noted that one of the points was happy to accept Hornby rolling stock, but consistently de-railed our USA locos and cars (wagons).  I put such notes in these reports to see if some one out there has a solution.  Our low profile Vice President came back with the news that glueing a thin strip of plastic to the guard rail had worked on his layouts in the past.  As is happens, that was what I was going to try - but it is so reassuring to hear that it is a proven fix.  The point at the club is now fixed.

The Senior's Open Day is bearing down on us (14th Oct) and I believe that we intend to get some trains running on Sunday.  Much better to show things working than to explain why they are not.

See you on Sunday - and remember to put clocks forward

Peter

17-9-2017

Hi All,

Tuesday evening already - I had better knock out a few words before the short term memory fails me altogether.

So, with only one Chief present, the Indians were able to get on with things quite nicely.  Truth to tell, we did need the Chief - he had the keys.  When we did get inside it was plain to see that that Derek had put my borrowed keys to good use during the week.  You can always tell where a sparkie has been at work - there is a trail of bits of wire and insulation.  Quite unabashed, he carried on doing the same all afternoon.  Following on from a comment by Derek about USA diesels derailing when he tested his wiring, I re-aligned a curved point and swapped another that had its actuator boss cut off from the wrong side.  The re-alignment did not help.  Both locos and wagons (freight cars) of USA origin continued to derail, whereas Hornby stock would fly through.  The problem appears to be that fine scale wheels are not held into the curve by the guard rail, so that the outer wheel can ride up on the frog and derail (bl**dy insulfrog).  It may be down to the difference between 3.5mm and 4mm scale but, whatever it is, more work is required to solve the issue in perpetuity.

Oblivious to all this, Dale finished clearing out the long room and later in the day, after George and I scavenged anything even slightly useful, we cleaned the floor and gave back to the Seniors the table tops that had been cluttering up our new store room, plus the two tables that had been in the middle of the new room.  We are out of there, folks!  Alan Droscher was even there, to help us celebrate.

On the new layout, Grant and Rod finally solved the riddle of how to connect the branch line to the Port Gary wharves.  Greg lent moral support to Derek (i.e. I did not see him crawling around under the benches).  Helen indulged her penchant for tidying things up - somewhat inhibited by cries of "Don't put that away - I'll never find it again".  George shuttled back and forth with quarry bits.  Judy helped with anything that she was asked to do.  Ernie was with us initially, deep in discussion with Dale, then left early with a commitment to watching a footy match and the intention to build a farm house.  

Spoiled for choice at tea - chocolate cake from Helen and little berry cakelet things from Jane (I don't know what these things are - I just enjoy them) - conversation turned to such burning topics as how hard it is to break into the pill bottles for the pills that we all seem to need these days.  And also every other child proof container that we seem to be stuck with nowadays.  It remains a mystery to us all - how did we survive to our current ripe old age?

If I survive another week - see you on the 24th

Peter

10 - 9 - 2017

Hi All,

As promised it was demolition day.  I think that everybody - bar Derek and Greg - had a spell in the long room, tearing down the remains of our learning curve.  

Our two sparkies devoted their time to laying in wires and continuing the discourse on raspberry pies.  For the rest of us it was out with the electric drills, who's got the bit for these bl--dy square head screws, ouch I didn't see that screw tip sticking out, pass me the crowbar - no make that the hammer, and give us a lift with this.  By time to go home the long room is clear and clean, apart from one lonely piece of bench, Geoff the Sec's trailer was loaded high and wide if not handsome, and a  bunch of old men were wandering about saying "Don't know about you, but I'm st-ff-d"

We had the sense to break off at one point to sample scones with jam and cream, and talk earnestly about same sex marriage - no one present had any first hand experience, so it was a bit one sided.

Our thanks to the effort put in by Geoff tS, Dale, Martin, Judy, George, Helen, Rod, David, and the sparkies of course.

Next week we should be back to building rather than destroying.

Peter

3 - 9 - 2017

Hi All,

Nine of us turned up to play on Daddy's Day.  Not all were Daddies.

I arrived a bit later than usual to find half the mob there and already busy.  The stealth team had been in during the week and had poked, prodded and muttered incantations until the Digitrax booster began to boost.  Derek was following up this warm and fuzzy moment by connecting point motors to his revised power supply and demonstrating that crossovers now switched back and forth.  Sadly, at the end of the day, he left muttering about LEDs, AC loops, and having a drink.  Rod was playing Charades - the answer is that he was pretending to be a Crown fork lift truck,  (picking them up and putting them down) as he went around fixing the points that had been laid with metal rail joiners to the frogs.  Martin arrived with prefabricated walls for Mousehole Gorge, and Port Gary marched in, tucked under Paul's arm.  The bar for scenery standards on our new layout is being set pretty high.  Helen and Judy came, which improved the afternoon tea prospects beyond all measure.  I eventually finished nailing down the Sayer yard - as far as I will go until the turntable arrives - and Geoff the Sec did the same with his branch line tracks - as far as he can go until the coal flood loader arrives.  And we all managed to keep Dale busy with a stream of "have we got?  have you seen?  where is?  what do you think about?"

Over tea and coffee, after our inaugural monthly committee meeting, conversation revolved around exhibition layouts - triggered by comments from those who had exhibited at, or taken kids to, AMRA's Show at Caulfield.  A success from AMRA's side - big attendance - which brings its own problems with parking, moving around the venue, and catering.   Also rather inward looking, not much for kids, and too many trade stands and exhibits that were not well presented.  With "the holiday mob" making up the bulk of our patrons we have to strike a different balance - and this has drawn favourable comment from many of our exhibitors in the past.

Next week is planned to be a working bee, with a blitz to clear the long room - most of what is left is destined for the tip.

See you then,

Peter