Hallett Cove Southern

This month has seen a very significant proportion of my time taken up with some work and family matters. Some hobby time was found and I worked on: Track Maintenance, High Capacity CD Unit, WiFi Fast Clock Slaves and Control Panels.

Troublesome Track

Last month I ripped out the problem area and after some mdf was removed by chisel and an acceptable road bed was determined I sealed the area with paint prior to relaying the track. The section functions well now.

High Capacity CD Unit

I built Rosslyn some CD Units thinking they would drive Peco solenoids. When I turned up to help install them I discovered he was trying to throw Tenshodo solenoids which are much larger and require significantly more umph!

I normally use Rob Paisley's circuit with a 3300µf or 4700µf capacitor which easily throws 3 or 4 Peco solenoids simultaneously.

I built a version with two 4700µf capacitors in parallel (9400µf) and that seems to work OK when tested on an old Tenshodo point motor I have from a previous layout. I still need to get to Rosslyn's to install and test where she has two in working together at a cross over.

Control Panels

Following introduction of more realistic operating sessions my operators have been asking for local control panels at Jimtown and Adamsville instead of having to ask the controller/tower man to set the turnouts. I have agreed to this and commenced building them.

They are made and pre-wired ready for installation

WiFi Fast Clocks

I have finished assembling the four slave units.

I have acquired a project box to mount all the base station components in. I started the component measurement process to design the layout of the 8 x 32 LED time display, LCD showing staus of slaves and the control push buttons.

Project Box Width

Project Box Length

Push Buttons

LCD Width

LCD Length

8 x 32 LED display width

8 x 32 LED display length

Now for designing the layout and then work on the project box to ready it for the components.

Ops Sessions at Chris's & Wayne's

Due to the work and family issues I missed both sessions, hopefully I can avoid this in the future.

Till the end of July.....

-ooOOOoo-

This month has seen a significant proportion of my time taken up with family matters but some hobby time was found and I did some work on: Card Cards, Car Card Implementation, Track and Car Maintenance, Farewell Derek, WiFi Fast Clock, Ops Session at Ross's and Wayne's.

Car Cards

The work continued on implementation however only a few things got done this month and the sorting racks are still to be finished.

Card Card Box Labels

The labelling has been completed.

Additional Car Cards

Two missing Loco cards and two missing reefer cards plus six new hopper cards were made.

Troublesome Track

Some time ago the section of track between Helix Junction and Hornertown Yard was replaced due to differential movement (the back track in the photo) between benchwork sections and "all the problems went away". The track from Helix Junction to Hornertown Passenger had similar but far less problems however even those problems became annoying as derailments had been occurring too often.

So track replacement was the only option so a similar fix to the other track is being applied.

Replacement track will be installed in June. This will be followed by restoring the scenery removed during the process.

Santa Fe Coach Tune Up

My older Santa Fe coaches were the ones causing most problems together with the troublesome track so Don put his magical fingers to work and inspected each coach with some "fine tuning" undertaken. The final test will be after the section of track has been replaced and trials recommence.

Farewell to Derek

It is with a heavy heart that we fare welled Derek over a dinner at a local Chinese restaurant as he is retiring to Berwick in Victoria. He will be missed by our Monday round robin group.

I look forward to spending some time in 2019 at his new residence helping to build part of his new layout.

We wish you all the very best in your retirement and hope you get great enjoyment building your new layout.

WiFi Fast Clocks

Following on from the prototype build last month I continued to make more of the four slave units.

Ops Session at Ross's

Barry, Chris, Derek, Rosslyn and I enjoyed an evening at Ross's followed by supper.

Ross, Barry & Derek watching a cross at Hallett Cove.

Rosslyn & Chris at Yarrara.

Ross watches on as Derek's train arrives in Adelaide.

Rosslyn operates Birkenhead while Chris is operates Yarrara and Ross watches a movement coming out of Willunga.

Crib break for me!

Ops Sessions at Wayne's

This month we had the pleasure of "the boys from Port Augusta" joining us for our usual 4th Thursday run.

Barry, Chris, Jock, Peter S, Rosslyn, Spacky and I joined Wayne for an enjoyable session.