Progress post AMRE

There's been a little progress since the Adelaide Model Railway Exhibition last month. The layout is now back up and running at home, with my loco storage facility now under construction. This depot is mounted between the front modules and the rear set up tracks (which doubles as a second yard when at home).

The centre of this module being a Walthers 90' Turntable which has been 'Australianised'. Unfortunatley, there have been a few headaches getting the table to perform as well as was expected, which having read several US forums, isn't a suprise - thus why Walthers now release it as a DCC ready "built up" with indexing etc.

The main issue being that the table bridge itself has alot of play when in position, to the point that any loco entering it, will most likely derail as the table can move left to right. I'm thinking about installing some sort of solenoid to secure a locking pin (similar to the prototype) to prevent the bridge moving.

Motor control is temporarily via an ancient "Power Mite" controller (possibly from my first train set some 23 years ago) - its certainly showing its age and its performance is average at best. I intend to replace the controller with a TCS T1 decoder for motor control and a return loop controller to control bridge power.

Given nothings been wired of sceniced yet, all track has been tacked into position so that I can adjust/remove the turnable from its hole in the baseboard while it is tweaked.

Once i've finished this section of the layout, work will then focus on rebuilding Liralau's loco servicing facilites, with a new track arrangement, relaid mainline and passing loop, and a scenery update - as this was the last section of the "original" layout to have been rebuilt - to me this section is now the most embarrasing section of the whole layout, so its certainly time to do something about it. I intend to get this done over the next few months.

Adelaide Model Railway Exhibition over for another year

Liralau had its last outing for the year (quiet year this year) at the Adelaide Model Railway Exhibition this weekend.

Having completed wiring the new setup tracks last Wednesday night, i'm glad to say the layout performed flawlessly - which made my weekend enjoyable as for a change I didn't have to spend the whole weekend under the layout or behind it trying it keep trains on the move. I would like to thank my crew for yet another great weekend - my brother Nick, Pete Semmel (who came from Melbourne for the weekend again), Ash Bennett, Brad Turner and my long suffering partner Sarah for putting up with the mayhem prior to the show (again).

There was alot of fun had this year (probably helped by the fact that Allan and Dwayne (running Stewarts) were next door), and we had the innaugural appearance of the "little man in blue" who brought the planking craze to the exhibition - all in the name of fun - he also appeared to become a little randy at times, taking a liking to the cows and sheep (where comments were made - something to do with modelling the New Zealand railways), not only on our layout, but also Paradigm, Stewarts and Florey Springs.

The dinner on Sunday night was also an enjoyable social aspect of the show which keeps us coming back year after year.

Now onto my favourite hate...

Once the layout was put to bed, dog fed, dinner prepared and eaten, I sat down to review some photos of the weekend, and see what people thought of the exhibition - reading a few of the various forums, yet again, there have been many comments made regarding the usual "same old" layouts turning up year after year. Well, perhaps its time for these folk to "put up or shut up", Adelaide only has a reasonably small modelling community, and of that small modelling community, theres only a small ammount of people who have the ability to build, maintain and exhibit a model railway layout.

Its interesting to watch these forums, particuarly with the "armchair experts" who feel they have "seen it all before" and therefore deserve a show with new layouts every year. Well, let me tell you something - each year, I throw a few thousand dollars at the layout to keep it running, and its not always that the changes are evident to the casual observer. For example, new stationary decoders, point motors, re-wiring, re-laying track etc - I had a number of punters come up to me over the weekend and ask "is anything new?", my answer being "yes, we've rebuilt the rear staging tracks" - at which they mumbled about the show being a "waste of money" and wonder off. I don't know about anyone else, but I certainly can't afford to build a brand new layout each year (don't get me wrong, i'd love to though - and plans still exist for Liralau's eventual replacement layout deep in the back of my mind).

I don't want this to tarnish my enjoyment of the weekend (or peoples opinions of me, as a member of the modelling community) but I feel it is important to voice the exhibitors side of the arguement for a change.

I'll put some photos online soon,
Until then, happy modelling!

New setup tracks

With the Adelaide Model Railway Show fast approaching, work has quickened on rebuilding the setup tracks for Liralau - this time, they've been built like the proverbial brick sh*t house, they are damn heavy, but should last for many years without bowing.I'd rather over engineer them, than have them bow and have to start over next year.

Sarah's given the completed modules a coat of paint to seal them, and to blend them into the rest of the layout, now it actually looks finished out the back.

Last night track laying began in earnest, with the join behind the pub being re-laid (again) - still needs some work, but the Auscision B class that always gave trouble traversed it with ease. Even with the gaps cut into the rail for the module join, so far so good. We've now gone from 2 1/2 roads on the set up tracks to four, with loco and railcar/railmotor sidings at each end, i've also been able to ease the radius slightly on the end curves and also ease the kink that used to exist at each end of the yard.

The yard is being laid with a mixture of Peco code 100 and 75 points (shimmed to match the rail height of the code 100 points) and Peco code 100 streamline flex (I can't believe it was cheaper than the Atlas equivalent) - by the time the yards complete, there should be over 20 metres of standing room on those sidings - enough room to have the full Overland in the yard without fouling any of the other roads.

Superchooks

Following on from my earlier post regarding Railshow, one of our operators- Brad Turner, provided me this photo of my two car superchook set 2301-2302 pausing momentarily at Liralau station while on tour.

Unfortunatley, the spud has a split gear which caused some running problems - i'm hoping to have a replacement power bogie shortly.

SARMA's Railshow 2011

Last weekend, saw Liralau exhibited for the first time for 2011, at the South Australian Railway Modellers' Association's Railshow 2011, held at The Tea Tree Gully Arts and Recreation Centre, which was a great venue - not only because it is approximately 4 and a half minutes drive from our new home, but it also is a relativley modern venue with floors that are dead flat - fantastic for those of us trying to get their layouts level. This show is one of the best in the state and Iain does a great job keeping us all in order and under control.

Unfortunatley, this show also highlighted that the set up tracks have long passed their use-by date, and will need to be completely rebuilt from scratch prior to the layouts next showing in June at the Adelaide Model Railway Exhibition, at Greyhound Park. Much grief was caused by these now badly warped and twisted set up tracks, which had been a minor problem at home, but caused major problems at the show - perhaps it was a case of one exhibition too many. Drawings are currently being prepared now, if anyone has been here before and can offer any pearls of wisdom, please comment below, as i'd appreciate some ideas.

The good news however is that the 2009/2010 rebuilt sceniced section of the layout performed flawlessly for the whole weekend - with the exception of one failed point motor that was replaced on the evening before the show which caused some trouble on Friday night - this was subsequently traced to a self-tapping screw head used to mount the motor and associated bracket to the underside of the trackbed being about 1/8" too thick and causing the arm fitted to the motor to get caught. Some quick work with the dremel fixed this quite quickly, and we didn't have a problem with it for the rest of the show. I should also take this opportunity to thank Gerry from TimeSaver Layouts for his prompt assistance in getting the replacement point motor in the mail, and having it in time to replace it last Thursday night.

The show was also the first time John Eassie had brought Austrains to Adelaide since 1999, so a third series X class #X47 was aquired - I've been trying to aquire a 3rd series X class in traditional VR Blue and Gold livery for some time, so I was very pleased when I saw one at his stall amongst the QRN liveried units - sadly there were no V/Line or VR units however in the "junk box" on special, but who am I to complain, i've finally got the loco to share haulage of my Overland set with my Traino AN green signle ended 930.

The well documented build of my two car STA 2300 class "Superchook" set came to a close on Saturday, when the pair finally entered service after a 7 month build process. I am extremely happy with them, and am now looking to commence work on assembling the 2500 class trailer to go between the pair. I just need to replace a split gear on the leading axle of the Tenshodo spud.

So, now with 8 metres of set up tracks to assemble, I am going to have my work cut out for me over the next month or so, but this will hopefully make our lives alot easier in the long run.

Keep an eye on this blog for further updates.
Pete

A new year, a new house and most importantly...a new train room!

First of all, happy new year to all of my followers.

The new year break was extremely busy with a week spent in Melbourne - which was made better by the fact that our Red Premium seats on the Overland were paid for by GSR as thanks for me allowing them to use some of my photos to advertise this years Southern Spirit tour programme - and amazingly, they were found from this blog!

The Melbourne trip involved alot of train travel, with a trip to Geelong behind N457, a V/Locity trip to Ballarat and of course a trip to Belgrave on Puffing Billy - photos of this trip can be found on my flickr page (http://flickr.com/sarail2009). I also had the pleasure of viewing Seymour Rail Heritage Centre's "Fireworks Express" at Southern Cross station on New Years Eve, hauled by restored heritage EMD's B74 and S303 - along with the societies collection of restored Spirit of Progress S cars, and the Parlor car on the rear.

On our return to Adelaide, we moved into our new home in the North-Eastern suburbs of Adelaide, and have subsequently spent the last month and a half fixing those things that Sarah continually finds! But, now there is a big but here... I do finally have a layout room and attached workshop - or is that a layout room, workshop and attached house?

Liralau was set up once we'd settled in, so without further ado, here's a couple of pics of the new room following fit out - all I need now is an air conditioner out there and it will be very comfortable at any time of the year.

Liralau's exhibition 2010 exhibition season over

Well, I think we can all say that the Noarlunga exhibition is one of the best run exhibitions around. The team of organisers know exactly what's going on and put on yet another good weekend.

Liralau didn't fair too badly either - picking up "Best Display" for the second NMRI show in a row. I'm not sure how we went in the public vote, but evidently, our peers appreciated our work, which is always a nice ego boost!

There has been a Walthers 90' turntable purchased, which will hopefully be incorporated into a working locomotive depot module (for home use, not exhibitions) some time in the future. A quick look at it, shows it looking quite similar to the SAR 85' electric turntable - it will be interesting to see what it looks like once its been painted oxide red. A two car SAR 300 class redhen set has also been purchased for conversion to the Superchook set (a one-off 300 class refurbishment which was a failure) - and after seeing Ian Wade's LokSound equipped 400 class hen, it might be our first sound equipped model.

So, after three shows in 2010, we can look at the work that will need to be undertaken over the layouts summer siesta. The main concern for all of us was the rear staging tracks, all of which are suffering and will need to be not only relaid, but the baseboards scrapped and replacements made. The Saturday of the exhibition showed very few faults, but the Sunday however dawned with a nice buckled join behind the pub - its always the worst spot isn't it?? The curves joining the staging yard to the sceniced section of the layout have a bow through the baseboards which will need to be replaced - not that i'm particuarly worried, as this gives me the excuse I needed to increase the number of roads in the staging yard from 2 1/2 tracks to 5 tracks, which once fitted with power operated points, should make for far more varied operations out the front.

With Sarah and I now hunting for our first home, here's hoping that 2011 will Liralau a new home, where it can be set up and left up - allowing us to actually use it for more than a few days a year!