After some discussion as to where Raymond and I were going next with the layout, the Supreme Leader of the Tuesday Nighters (alias Craig) assisted by Darren and I think, Geoff (I was a bit bedazzled at the time) decided to help the slow progress along by doing a bit themselves. I had pointed out a corner section of the first station yard saying I was going to fill in a triangular section at the end of a couple of carriage sidings and extend one of the sidings so we could fit more cars on the siding. Next thing I know the trio had measured the timber requirements, sawn off a piece of ply to the required dimensions, fixed it in place and laid a short piece of track to the desired length. All this was completed before I could say “When will we do it?”
The small triangular baseboard section and siding extension can be seen under the yellow car and adjacent green car, built by Craig, Darren & Staff during a meeting of the Tuesday Nighters on the 13 December. Thanks Guys. You can also see some trim along the front edge of the baseboard which I installed later.
We have still not had the air-conditioner installed as there is some other work that I think should be done first. Early in December, I started making enquiries about getting a 2 ft wide concrete path down the outside of the left-hand side of the shed and across the back of the shed. The section across the back of the shed, in particular will be essential before the outside inverter is installed for the air-conditioner. The grass grows as a thick jungle behind the shed quite quickly and would soon suffocate the inverter unit so a concreted area will be important. Since it was getting close to Christmas I did not have any luck finding a contractor but will try again early in the New Year.
Early in December, I asked my electrician to give me a price to lay heavy duty cable from our street power box to the power board on the house. Again, coming up to Christmas, he has been very busy, but I hope he will come to have a serious look at the task in the next few weeks. When this and the concreting are done we will purchase the air-conditioner and have it installed.
I have painted the small HO Scale storage shed from NorthEastern Scale Models with a flat grey Floquil paint to seal it and have assembled this kit. I have a fair bit of work still to do on this kit so will see how it turns out.
Santa Claus (Raymond) was kind to me when he gave me one of the new DCC chipped and sound equipped Bachmann Porter 0-4-2Ts. I love the maroon colour scheme with the gold lining – even on the wheels. I played Santa Claus for Raymond when I gave him a 1:20.3 (Garden Railway) Bachmann flat car with a log skidder load.
My beautiful Bachmann 0-4-2T from Santa Claus
Santa brought Raymond this 1:20.3 Bachmann flat car complete with a log skidder load
Ever since we installed our two work benches in the shed in November 2010, Raymond and I have been discussing building some shelving along the wall. While we haven’t really advanced the layout construction we have now pretty much finished our two work benches.
On Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 December, I visited several Bunnings stores at Kuraby, Kingston and Browns Plains to purchase the timber requirements to make the shelving.
We installed our two work benches way back in November 2010. Since the we have been saying we need some shelving - 7/11/2010
Ever since we installed the work benches, I have been “stewing” over an area at the left-hand end of Raymond’s bench which was just a wasted “black hole”. I convinced Raymond we needed to build something for that space. Wednesday, 28 December we built a corner shelf unit specifically to go in that void and fitted it in place. We then moved both work benches about 80 mm to the left to fill the gap.
The corner unit we installed on Wednesday 29 December 2011
I had to go to work on Thursday as a researcher had contacted the Museum wanting to look at Railway Annual Reports and Working Timetables. We only have a total of three Museum staff to supervise and assist researchers and with one away in the US on his honeymoon and the Senior Curator away on her holidays, I volunteered to go in. I got back home mid-afternoon on Thursday and Raymond and I measured up the timber to make two shelf units. We fabricated both these on Friday 30 December and installed them both by about lunch time.
The two shelf units we fabricated and installed on Friday 30 December
We now discovered we had a problem as there was a 10 mm difference between the top and bottom of the two shelf units. We decided that we would need to make the middle set of shelfs specifically to fit snugly into the location available. We also discussed at great length how we could make the styrene/wood strip storage units more readily accessible. These were currently located on the very top shelf of one of the metal shelf units we had built some time ago. Finally, we also wanted to incorporate shelf units for our supply of paint spray cans and bottles and tinlets of Floquil and Humbrol paints. We finally came up with a solution where we would divide the centre unit into two halves. The desk-top alcove on the left-hand side would house the styrene/stripwood storage units while the desk-top alcove on the right would house a shelf unit for cans of Tamiya spray paint and a shelf immediately above would house the small bottle and tinlets of paint. Both these would incorporate a stepped shelving arrangement to enable clear selection of the paint colour required. The spray can storage should be able to hold 45 to 50 cans.
This took a lot of discussion, measuring and remeasuring as well as much doodling on paper but we finally came up with what we thought was a workable solution.
This final shelf unit was built and installed on Sunday 1 January 2012. The styrene/stripwood storage units fitted in snugly. Now we will have to make the paint storage units. I am quite pleased with our accomplishments over just a few days. Now we need to start building some of the many kits we have on hand and also get back to some meaningful work on the model railway.
The final shelf unit which caused us some anguish over a couple of days was made and installed on New Year's Day.
I just had a telephone call this afternoon from our friendly electrician. He is going to come and inspect the work needed for the heavy duty power cable to the house and give us a quote. Hopefully, if I don’t faint from the shock I will be able to give him the go ahead to “get it done”.
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