Plenty happening.

3034 with a short up mixed heads away from Kirkham towards Narellan. Those cows will be contained in the future when the fencing contractor is free

Have made it to Bunnings and now have enough timber to complete the layout. There have been quite a few purchases over the last couple of weeks a new SDS NEO CCA in Indian red, another HG, several cattle grids and crossing signs from Anton at Uneek.

Work progresses slowly with the Narellan module and coal loader as well as the Kirkham and Elderslie module. The latter module is in the process of having track laid and some scenicing. I airbrushed the sleepers and rails before laying a length to see if this was a better method than painting after the track had been laid. My experience is its better to paint after - the reason being Shinohara track sleepers are for want of a better description a greasy plastic that acrylic paint doesn't adhere to particularly well. This is not a criticism of the product just an observation. After ballasting, removing the odd bit of ballast on the side of the rails and vacuuming, there were quite a few scrape makes along the sleepers and inside rails that had to be repainted by hand so I will continue to paint and weather track after its laid.

 In my blog of 23 May I mentioned some point switch failures. I am using a 4 pin automotive type plug and socket to connect the switches to the main looms under the baseboard. The terminals on the switch are an unusual size and I was not able to get any correct size slip on terminal fittings. All new switch installations will have the plug assemblies on, however I will not be retro fitting existing switches until they fail as the time can be used more productively elsewhere.

the point motor switch and revised loom and plug

All the electrics have been documented in a spreadsheet as well as on CAD and I will post a bit of story on documenting the electrics in the future. This is a traditional analogue DC layout and while I can see the merits in DCC particularly for splitting double headed locos at Camden and Narellan its way beyond my budget.

There have been a couple of new photos discovered and currently seeking permission to reproduce them - one is of the coal loader in colour loading BCHs - as a result it appears my coal loader was too  high and through a variety of means have reduced its height by about 19mm. A review of one of Weston Langfords photos shows where the road coal trucks unloaded the coal behind the raised timber ramp. The small building on the Camden side of the coal loader appears to be a weigh bridge. I now have to try and determine what was in the raised building at the base of the conveyor. Some pictures indicate possibly a large tank with conical bottom, perhaps for washing the coal prior to storage any info would be greatly appreciated.

3013 with a down mixed approaches Kirkham station

Enjoy the easing of restrictions and stay safe