Hallett Cove Southern: November Update

In November things started to get back to normal apart from a virus that slowed me down for a couple of weeks.... I helped Chris late in October with some electrical issues, I had a scheduled operating session, I attended an Operations Session at Wayne's and also helped him with some wiring, fixed a JMRI WiThrottle issue and built an Athearn Blue Box Caboose.

Ops Session

Monday 28 November was the first Operations Session since 1 December 2014! Track cleaning was a big issue A big thank you to Derek and Pierre who put hands to track rubbers and drove the CRC 2-26 trains - Friday night, Saturday & Sunday before it was done and this was followed by setting cars out for operations as every car had been removed from every track in all yards for track cleaning, I had to record where all the cars are across the system, decide what trains will be run, assign cars to be picked up by what trains, assign the motive power, complete the individual train running sheets, tidy the train room and arrange supper. I ended up working solidly all Monday and finally completed the tasks as the boys were arriving! - Whew....

Overview

The session was setup for 5 Crews and a "Controller/Tower Man" but due to "issues" I ended up with 4 Crews so I tried to multi task "Crew 1 plus Controller/Tower Man" but I am not superman so it caused "some issues",,, After starting 15 minutes late and the first train having "Issues" we ran a further 15 minutes late... I designed the session to ensure that everyone ended up doing something they had never done before - so we all had learning problems but all was completed within 15 minutes of the "timetable".

I was happy but supper finished around 11pm so some were later away than usual. Rossco stayed on till midnight chatted to Kaye & I.

Layout Details

A refresher of the layout....

Basic schematic...

The actual

Basic schematic

The actual (without Stirling Staging)

The running schedule

Crew 1

Worked fine but the trained stalled on entry to the Helix so it needed helper!

Second train was..

Crew 2

These instructions caused some confusion so based on "my perceptions" and "operator feedback" I subsequently produced these guidelines...

Let's see how we go next time!

The second train...

Crew 3

Went well but needed helper as it stalled on the grade on way back on the grade to Daveyston

Crew 4

Second train was....

Crew 5

This was the first run of my MTH coaches following coupler changes and tuning of bogies fouling couplers and bogies.

Second train was...

For the first time there were passenger cars on the coach storage tracks too!

Some pictures after the session...

MTH Loco Couplers

I changed out the MTH couplers on my PA-PB-PA set to Kadee's. Next month I will speed match them so appropriate motive power will be on the front end of my SP Daylight train!

Wayne's

In my May Update I mentioned future changes at Lowood Crossing - it was redesigned to allow better operations for the functions it performs - we had the first Ops session this month to try the changes out! There was work on the JMRI WiThrottle stuff I set up for him and we had a training session too.

JMRI WiThrottles

The WiFi range extended was replaced with an old router after it failed to operate.... All works ok after I reconfigured the system and reconfigured the WiFi access on all the 7" tablets.

Training Session

Late last month we had a training session on how to shunt the Mine...

The first video includes Wayne explaining everything..

This one has no commentary and is at 10 times speed.

Wiring

I have been helping Wayne wire some of the new relaid Lowood Crossing including interlocking to ensure trains on the mainlines do not foul the points as frog approaches have their power isolated.

Blue Box Caboose

During a modeling evening at Barry's I built a Blue Box Caboose that has been on the shelf for about 25 years... Proto 2000 trucks and Kadee's secured with 2-56 screws.