LeMaistre Loco approach completed

Well since the last post we missed one of the Monday night sessions as I was not well. Chris and BJ have been over for c couple a daytime sessions as it has been school holidays and things don't seem to happen the same during school holidays as we have teachers in our families....

I mentioned Ryan and the Model Railcast show in my last post - thanks for the mention in show 112 Ryan - BJ, Chris and I listened on Tuesday whilst working on the layout.

Show 113 scheduled for listening tomorrow.

Not much of what has been done shows up this time! We have been doing: more wiring - track bus and droppers & point motor position indication; track work quality assurance; and, minor colour and texture changes to scenery on the south wall outside that shown below.


LeMaistre Loco Approach

Trees & shrubs have been planted and the final ground cover glued down, the fascia has been painted and perspex fixed in position.






Southern Wall

Ground cover and shrubs have been added between the lake and the iron hill mine haul road. Th fascia has been painted allowing the details of the top level to be the focus. The lake surface has been coated with clear epoxy.








Lower Level Control Panel

Well there are more mainline points than on the upper level. 18 terminal strips to cater for the 36 mainline turnouts.






Main Layout Booster 1 - Power District B

Wiring Top Section is on the right hand side. A Digitrax PM42 provides four power districts and five Block Watchers provide the block sensing for the proposed signal inputs. The left had side is for the Bottom Section - Block Watchers and wiring remain to be done.

With the installation of these the feed to Huntington had to be disconnected until the bottom (left hand) section is completed.





I'm looking forward to getting the top level running.

A couple of Mondays away from my place for a running night at Bill 2's, Social activities and Scenery at Rossco's on the cards.

Thanks Guys.

First Week in July

No Model Railcast Show to listen to this week, so sad, Ryan was lonesome as no one is around to talk model railroading - it seems very quiet in the US around the 4th of July. I missed the discussions between Ryan and Tim with their guests as many of the issues raised about our hobby relate to those faced by our group even though Ryan and Tim conduct their show from the other side of the world.

You ought to check the Model Railcast Show show out along with the Model Railroad Hobbyist on-line Magazine if you haven't already.


Scenery Stuff


Southern Wall

The ground cover applied last week on the top deck along the southern wall from Jimtown towards Iron Hill was glued down by Barry and BJ
























LeMaistre Loco Approach

BJ has applied the plaster base to the hills surrounding the arrival and departure tracks.






Iron Hill Mine

BJ has also started applying some of the base plaster textures around the machinery park and the mine face.


machinery park




open cut mine face






Track work

Rossco was doing quality assurance of the track work in two areas Fleets Loop and top deck main lines behind Iron Hill.


Fleets Loop

Fleets Loop is inside the lower deck main lines and below the helix.










Main Line behind Iron Hill Yard






Track Wiring

Chris connected the block buses that extend to the top of the helix which are at the other (right hand) end of the bridges.








Chris surveys the growing loom of block bus wires for "Power District B".




Control Panels

Top Level Mainline Panel

I continued to terminate wires - it seems to be a never ending job at the moment.






At last! - all mainline turnouts for the top level have been wired and tested for operation. Now to follow up on Chris's work and install the Track Bus terminal blocks, terminate the bus wires, Power District Circuit Breakers and "Block Watchers" for signal detection inputs.

Once again thanks for the continued efforts of the Monday night crew and the additional work by Chris & BJ.