Club Meeting, 21st January 2018

Hi All,

I have to start on a sad note.  We learned today that Bob Steward died just before Christmas.  Geoff the Pres will organise a card for anyone who is with us on the 28th to sign.  Bob has been getting less and less well for a few years, and we have seen little of him since he and Colette sold their house on Stradbroke Ave.  He has, however left his mark on our new layout even though he never got to see it.  He built the station building that is now at John's Falls.  The 3 unit DBB EMU, and the single car DB diesel railcar were both donated by Bob.  And it is now time to come up with a new name for Gingin.

We were also short two Geoffs today.  The Pres had to leave early (before I arrived late) to attend a sister who had fallen off a horse.  I have sat on horses twice that I can recall, and the ground looks to be a long way down.  The Sec has back trouble that goes beyond it not wanting to leave the bed.  Best wishes for a speedy recovery to all.

What did we actually do?  Derek made a lot of noise and mess, but the outcome is that we now have places to plug in throttles around the outside of the layout.  And the mess got tidied away.  David unpacked a host of cars that we got at mate's rates from Christine at the show.  Finding somewhere to park at John's Falls is now a problem.  And he is still looking for some tray trucks and a fire truck.  Dale and I unpacked an host of Scaledale buildings that also came at mate's rates, and planted these here and there.  Some have relevance to as yet unlaid tracks in the Sayer yard.  Jack came late, and played trains.  So did Dale, later, although he pretended that he was checking out the new loconet panels that Derek installed.  George, Martin and Rod did something on the other side of the divider,  Judy tidied up various loose ends with Dale, and Helen supplied us with coconut macaroons.  One should have been enough for anyone, but I had to have two.

Over tea we talked about our show.  The Show itself made a reasonable profit and should cover our expenses over the next 12 months.  We walked away with less than that, because Dale could not resist mate's rates, but we would have spent that money anyway out of our bank account, so the swings took care of the roundabouts in overall terms.  Attendance was down a bit, and George suggested that we missed out on the wives and kids who escape from Dad at the Kustom Nationals.  Last year, same weekend, this year not.  We are trying to dig back through history to see if there is a correlation before we lock in our dates for 2019.

We have had an invitation to the Grampians Club show, on 7th & 8th July.  They always support us very well, so, can anyone go?  Either to take Bald Mountain, or a layout of their own.  Last year Judy F and I took Bald Mountain, and a couple of years ago I took Zillerbahn on my own, but this year I expect to be away.  And if anyone is building a portable layout, please tell Martin about it.  George is, but it won't be ready, and he is otherwise engaged so that's no help this year.  By next year, we hope to have the "This is how you step up from Thomas" layout ready to go - but that is next year.  Let me know, we need to give Colin an indication within the next couple of weeks.

'Til the 28th

Peter

Club Meeting, 7th January 2018
Hi All,

Good to see so many of you looking fresh and frisky in this new year.  As predicted, a few of the workaholics did some work.  Most of us did not do anything too serious either before or after the tea break..

A friend of Paul (another David) from Kilmore called in for the afternoon.  An enthusiast of the LNER persuasion, he must have one of the best equipped workshops outside of a factory - looking through his photos of projects I could see a decent lathe, a hydraulic press, pieces that must have been milled and items that demonstrated competence with a welder.  How many all steel turntables do you know of in 4mm?  Drool, drool.

Serious business of the day was confined to finalising show arrangements and jobs.  On Friday (12th) it would be good to have a couple of able bodied blokes at the Seniors shortly after 9am to load up Bald Mountain, the U-Drive, and all their associated bits and bobs.   If it is raining we will move everything in my van, if it is fine then utes are useful.  Dale will be at the Cultural Centre by 10am (unless he tells some one else to be) to collect keys and open up the Hall.  Most of you can go straight there.  I don't expect any of the visiting exhibitors to show up until the afternoon so the morning should be clear for us to concentrate on setting up our own stands.

So, until Friday, or Saturday, or Sunday,

See you

Peter

Club Meeting, 17th December 2017 Mousehole Arises from the Ashes.

Club Meeting, 17th December 2017

Hi and Seasons Salutations to All,

Yesterday we were the metric dozen - nine members plus a friend (perhaps future member) of Rod's from a Men's Shed.

Mousehole Arises from the Ashes

As promised, there was some gentle, disorganised running of trains.  Geoff the Pres ran an F3 or thereabouts hauling a shortish rake of freight cars, then his 0-4-2 T ( I suppose a 1400 Class) with a pair of 4 wheeled carriages as a push-pull unit on the branch line.  Later still the Evening Star hauled the blue Pullman stock around for a while in the (vain) hope that the noisy gears would bed in and quieten down.  I managed to assemble enough freight cars behind the NSWGR 80 class that it finally no longer made it round the uphill curve approaching Sayer from the north end.  By the time that it stopped with wheelspin just short of the summit, the last car was approaching Gin Gin.  That train was more than twice the length of any of our passing loops, so not likely to be a problem when we attack a timetable day.  In contrast, George had a tiny three carriage shuttle of DBB origins that made its way on the branch line.  Geoff the Sec and Rod re -graded the track bed on the approach to the bridge over Martin's ravine.  David did a bit of fine tuning on the scenery around quarry corner.  Dale found things that nobody else could.  And Helen and Judy assembled everybody's contributions onto one table that we gathered around and then put the put the world to rights once more while we scoffed the goodies.  If only the Government would leave things alone from one week to the next, then we could make real progress.

So our modelling year ended with a disparate mob having all pushed in more or less the same direction, and utterly transformed the Pool Room.  We are definitely a fixture at the CSCC for the foreseeable future.

Enjoy your next Sunday away (Christmas Eve), and the one after as well (New Year's Eve), and we will gather again on Jan 7th.  The workaholics will probably want to build something, and I would like to ( read "desperately need to") sort out who will be doing what at our 2018 show.  If you will not be with us, please send me an email prior to the 7th, saying what days you will be able to help out, and what you would like to help with, so that we can spread the load equally, as far as possible.  Set up day is Friday 12th with 13th and 14th as our public days.

Best wishes to all for the New Year

Peter

Club Meeting 3rd December 2017

Hi All,

The end of the day marked the end of "normal"  activities for 2017.  So what normally happened?

As promised, Derek courted death by soldering iron, out of sight of most of us except Rod who kept making holes in the baseboard and poking bits of wire at him.  David plastered the hill which the quarry is trying to cart away.  Geoff the Pres and Dale finished putting up the back scene on the branch line side of the divider, and protected Rod from further injury by neatly fitting capping strip to all the rough edges.  Thank you, gentlemen, it was only a matter of time before I too came away bleeding.  In fact, I guess that most of us are at the stage where the skin and the blood are thinner than they used to be.  Judy had brought a bunch of new, double sided name tags to be laminated.  Why double sided?  For the show, instead of risking more blood-letting by safety pin, we will all have name tags on lanyards (with which to hang ourselves, or each other).  And we all know which way around name tags want to hang on lanyards.  Geoff the Sec had forgotten to bring any tools (as if the Club doesn't have any!) so amused himself by coupling a couple of metres of freight cars behind my NSWGR 80 Class and hauling that lot around at freight train speed.  After a while he disappeared into the store room and claimed to be sorting things out.  Grant walked back and forth, hither and yon, creating cerebral scenery, and wondering where to put the Pub.  Or was it the Church?  If I remember town planning from my days in Ireland, they are on opposite corners of any given crossroads.

I had a quietly fruitful afternoon sorting out bugs that I had built in when I laid the Stanley Creek freight yard trackwork.  During the week I had taken the Porter 0-6-0 home and introduced him to Marco the UPRR gondola.  These two are now inseparable companions, and Marco Porter is now a 4-4-6-0 combo who unhesitatingly explores the length and breadth of the Stanley Creek yard.  He can escape onto the main line if some one leaves a point open. 

I also found that while he did not have any problem pulling a 4 foot train of wagons on the home track, there are a few freight cars on the club layout that he can barely move on their own without wheel spin.  Time for a bit of maintenance, or release the handbrake, or suchlike.

As foretold, next Sunday is set as a running day, so bring along your favourite loco (or use a Club one) and stretch its legs along the main lines,  or fight your way through oncoming traffic on the branch line. 

The 17th is still to a cakes (but no ale) afternoon.  Not to over cater, if you just bring enough for one, there will be enough for everybody when we mix and match.

And somewhere in there, there is a bit of tweaking to be done on the U-Drive.

Peter

Meeting 26/11/2017

Hi All,

More than twice as many of us this week, but not any noisier - at least not when Martin and George turned off the world's second loudest vacuum cleaner.

I rocked up rather late (not too late for tea - got to make the most of it before Helen finds her new house) to find Martin, George, Dave and Paul busy building scenery.  Rod was puzzling over trackwork at Mousehole, Derek was down at floor level with a hot soldering iron for company, while Greg tried to look as though he knew what Derek was doing, and why.  Geoff the Sec was standing around - possibly doing something, I was the other side of the divider so how would I know?  Jack had recharged the battery in his r/c diesel, and ran that around derailing this and that.   As well as a date loaf (or similar), Helen had brought along a box of disassembled USA diesels that Ian was going to do something with one day.  These are available for anyone who wants a challenge.  Dale was harried from pillar to post with the usual range of questions.  All I asked was "Does the Club have a 40' gondola that I can modify?" and that led to looking through every mysterious cardboard box in cupboardus giganticus.  We found a lot more than a gondola.  To remind us that our annual show is now seven weeks away, Judy had brought along the first draft of the Show Programme, and that got passed around.  George did his usual meticulous proof reading, and found every one of Judy's deliberate mistakes- just can't get anything past that fellow.  Check out the Club's blog site, to see if any of the photos taken by Jack's drone came good. 

Next month, Derek is going to try to get the branch line powered up to its end on the 3rd, the 10th is to be a running day, the 17th will mainly be given over to eating cakes, the 24th is reserved for Christmas Eve and the 31st for New year's Eve.  Jan 7th we better try to get the Club layouts in running order for the show because Friday 12th is set-up day.

See you on the 3rd for what will be our last "normal" day for a while. 

Peter

---

12-11-2017

Hi all,

Most of the usual suspects were to be found loitering around the layout, mostly with intent to do something.  This was accomplished with various degrees of success.

Dale had brought in a pack of Hornby DCC point clips, and I spent a happy time fitting these around in the Stanley Creek yard, and getting the Pennsy 0-6-0 shunter to crawl around in a very satisfying style.  Right up to the place where Derek has wired the frog  of a point for the direction LEDs.  As some sort of fringe benefit, this then proved that the power district implementation worked as it should.  The freight yard shut down with a dead short, but everything else kept working.

So, one problem solved.  One problem created.  Plans B, C and D are currently under consideration.

One puzzle that we did solve was the question of why the red or green point lights showed yellow.  We (Derek, Greg or I) will explain it to anyone who cares about square waves and Hz..

Meanwhile,  every one doing scenery, painting, sorting the store room, exchanging hellos, making tea, etc made steady progress without any need for furrowed brows.

I should try it one day - except that I don't really like doing scenery, painting or making tea.

See you on the 19th

Peter

29-10-2017 and 5-11-2017

Hi All

It seems that I kept you all in the dark about what happened last week (i.e. I never got around to writing any notes.)  Put that down to some sort of age-related phenomenon, likewise my inability to fill you in about it now.  I do recall that there were about 10 of us there, busy and happy as ever.  And that both Dale and I forgot to bring the dry-lube potion to fix a sticky point.  This week we both remembered, and then Paul told us that he had some all the time last week.  Note for the future - if you want something outlandish, Paul might have it in his truck!

This week, again ten or a dozen of us at the Club, depending when you conducted the census.  The background scenes have now  been placed all around the inside of the divider, and definitely add to the ambience.  A bit of cunning camouflage is called for to blend scenes behind Stanley Creek - yet to happen.  

The first station on the branch has been  named Gingin until we change it.  Likewise the entire layout is confirmed as the Bass Coast Line.  There is a coal loader at Gingin.  It is filthy - don't know why as there is no coal delivery system as yet.

I have news for those of you who thought that mountains were made of rocks and soil.  If George makes them they are polystyrene foam, and if Paul makes them they are cardboard strips and hot glue.  Once the grass has grown over them, who is to know?  Some sort of epidemic must have swept through John's Falls last week as the local cemetery is now full.  And some of us now know why Yew trees are a feature of English country grave yards.

I also have news for those who thought that DCC layouts need to be wired up.  Jack happily drove his battery powered, radio controlled, loco all afternoon,  without the layout switched on.  Don't let Derek or Greg know, we don't want them to feel unwanted. 

Around the freight yards I am pleased to report that the sticky 3 way point at Sayer responded well to the dry-lube potion and now usually works.  Also (reminder to Dale) those Hornby springy thingies that look like a staple work wonders for little 0-6-0s that are looking for a current supply while sitting on a moving point blade.  We need lots of them.  Or else to do all our shunting with great long Co-Co diesels.

Geoff the Sec asked me to put something in these notes.  I hope that it was to say that there will no meeting on Dec 24th, and that Dec 17th will be be more of a sit down with munchies than a railway day.  If that is wrong then I will try again next week.

Until the 12th

Peter