Tuesday, December 8, 2009

The Mystery of the Yogurt Containers...Solved!







Alrighty, the title sounds a bit more interesting than, 'Here's more photos of Geoff's Neverending Trackwork to bore you out of your minds'.
The yogurt containers actually contain my store of ballast and scenic earth collection. I do use them as weights when gluing down turnouts as they easily stack on top of each other allowing me to add weight without the whole thing toppling over. So mystery solved! Yep, should I stop now?
Now to the boring bit. I've layed the trackwork for the livestock siding to the end of the module. The track moves to the front of the module to go around a rocky outcrop that is behind it, so there is a reason for the bend in the track. I am now moving from left to right across the layout laying track and points as I go. Actually theres only one point to glue down, after the on in the photo, so I'm fairly happy with my progress. The mainline is still to be completed and it lies at the rear of the layout, the timberwork indicates where it will go. Once the last point is laid I'll put down the rails for the mainline.
Once the trackwork is complete then I'll be upending the module to fit the micro swiches that change the polarity of the frog when they are moved and also fine tune the distance that the lever frame moves the point so that no stress is put on the rails. The modratec clutch system works very well for hand laid trackwork.
Really not that long till its first run I suppose, however this is Geoff time remember and it seems to work a little slower than normal,
Geoff.

A Box of Bits Arrives from Rusty Rails USA


A while ago I was having a bit of a surf and came across this site, Rusty Rails. I immediately saved it to the favourites for further investigation when I had the chance. The site is well set out and it did appear to have quite a few detail bits I thought I could use. They deal in HO and O detail parts for the corner of a workshop, or outside a loco shed. If you're after a bit of a junk heap then this site is for you.
Then the unimaginable happened! The dollar rose...and it was time to test them out with a small order. The prices seemed OK but I didn't know anyone who'd purchased from them before. So with trepidation a $60 order was placed.
Less than two weeks later it arrived. When I got into the box to say that I was pleasantly surprised is indeed an understatement. Every one of the mouldings looked as they had in the photos on the site, minus paint and a little flash to remove.
The guys at our Tuesday Niters were even impressed, so they must be good!
Here's a couple of pix and remember there is a link from my blog in the suppliers list. I'm very impressed and thought a few of you may find them worth a look also,
Geoff.