August Update

This post is later than usual as I went away with the boys to Port Augusta to do some train spotting and ride the Afghan Express and ran out of time.  During August it has again seen a very significant proportion of my time being taken up with family matters but some hobby time was found and I managed to work on: Control Panels, Maintenance, Ops Sessions, WiFi Fast Clock and Stronger Magnets Under Loads.

Control Panels

The new local panels for Jimtown and Adamsville have been installed with help from Don and Rosslyn.

Adamsville

Jimtown

Centennial Mills had to be removed to provide working room

Maintenance Sessions

Following the ops session on 6th we had a debrief over afternoon tea and a number of issues were identified for improvement so I asked a few over for a few hours to help implement them.

Flintston Warehouse

The MDF used for the platforms at the warehouse had swelled slightly over winter and at the last ops session a number of the older blue box 50 foot boxcars were scraping the sides....  Rosslyn to the rescue using a rasp, file and vacuum cleaner and hey presto all good!

Uncoupling ramp for Coaling Tower

Instead of a big reach with an uncoupling device of some type it was suggested that an uncoupling ramp be installed to make life easier.  Don had the longest arms so he was tasked to remove some ballast and fit the ramp.

Uncoupling Ramp Removal

Some issues had been identified while shunting at Jimtown when the consist was on the grade on the main - occasionally wagons uncoupled themselves and started rolling away.  This was due to the uncoupling ramp so Rosslyn removed it for me and reinstated the ballast.

Putting Scenery Back

For the last couple of months there has been dialogue about the troublesome track that ended up being ripped out along with the surrounding scenery.  Following the successful use of the new track in the ops session on the 6th it was time to start the reinstatement.  Chris took the lead as he has been doing a great job on his layout.

Cold days here so heater deployed to assist drying

Ballasting

Rosslyn continued with ballasting the double track main at Fleets Loop up to and including Helix Junction.

Inkjet Printing Failure

I should have know better than to get wet water and glue anywhere near inkjet printed rock wall - forgot about the massive fail a few years back....

Just another thing to be attended to...

Ops Session Monday 6th

Despite loosing two operators at the last minute 8 of us had a good session with only a few glitches along the way.  Barry, Chris, Des, Don, John, Rosslyn, Wayne and I ran a total of 43 movements during the three hour session.   The session proved we need two operators in the main yard and one operator was "maxed out" and it showed.

Movements by Operator

Movements by Time

Here is a link to the train graph with 43 movements if you are interested.

Ops Session Monday 20th

In preparation for this session I was asked to rearrange the way some things were done in the Jimtown Turn job and the individual town shunts were not identified separately and this has been addressed too.  I had forgotten a couple of shunting movements in Hornertown main yard and we have reintroduced the second pass through the Hornertown Industrial area.  This has increased the number of movements to 57.

Movements by Operator

Movements by Time

Here is a link to the train graph with 57 movements if you are interested.

Well after a couple of last minute operator losses Alex, Barry, Chris, Don, Peter J, Rosslyn, Wayne and I had some fun however some gremlins were at work and after some power issues everything died.....  We were about three quarters of the way through the session.  Investigations as to what has failed will have to wait for a while as there is quite a few family things going on up to the end of the month.

It would appear the amount of work in Hornertown is beyond most operators so more though and feedback will be sought on how to address this.

A short video based on Alex's photographic work...

WiFi Fast Clock Master

I have finally gotten around to the final assembly and installation of all the modules.

Testing the Master at the table

Testing the Slaves (I could only power three at a time)

Row 8 of 32 died on one display

Huntington Slave

Master Near Jimtown

Above Hornertown Sunset - Shasta Slave

Above Flintston - Iron Hill - Stanvac Slave

Between Jimtown - Onka Valley Slave

All but the last one was installed for the ops session on 6th and all for the 20th.  At the run on the 20th I found powering the clock from the Controller mains power source is not a good Idea if a reset is required for some reason.  This will need to change.

Stronger Magnets Under Loads

The existing magnets have always been a bit weak so I decided I needed to add stronger ones to make load remove easier. I found some on Ebay which were 9 mm x 3 mm  N50 Disc Round Neodymium.

Positioning alongside the existing magnets was a challenge until I realised I could put one on top of the load against the existing magnet then add the new one and position it then add supper glue.

I am hoping the new stronger magnets will be more reliable during operating session 39 cars have them to date.

Ops Session at Wayne's

I attended two ops sessions at Wayne's this month and enjoyed both of them.  The second one was in Wayne's words "The slackest session...."  Well the slower pace was appreciated by all that attended.  The general consensus was a"A great session"....

In conclusion

Lots of good but some bad this month.

I am hoping the family issues come to a conclusion at the end of this month and a new leaf appears. I will work on the issues that caused the last op session to end early .

On a high note some of our group weent to the "Cross Roads of Australia - Pt Augusta" to do some train spotting and ride the Afghan Express from Pt Augusta to Quorn and return.  Were away for 6 days - 5 nights and we were in the territory of the 12" to the foot guys who work in the Pt Augusta Loco Workshops.

I will try post the train spotting stuff soon.

Till the end of September.....

-ooOOOoo-