Progress During October.....

Following my return from the US at the end of September, Raymond and I were ready to tackle some more work on the framing for the baseboard.

I mentioned previously that we had been in a quandry as to how to support the upper deck on the two peninsula modules. The Tuesday Nighters had a meeting at our house after we had finished the two lower deck peninsula modules. We discussed this with the guys and as usual, Darren, practical man that he is, told us exactly how to do it.

Raymond and I followed Darren's recommendations and we soon had the two upper deck modules which we had made previously mounted above the lower deck.


The two upper level baseboard modules have been mounted securely in position. We still had to work out how to build the triangular fill-in on ther corners of the upper and lower levels.

The upper and lower deck extending at right angles from the right-hand wall of The Shed

The two baseboard modules extending down the centre of The Shed towards the future helix.

Looking towards the front of The Shed along the dead-end operating aisle.

Now we had to construct the framing for the triangular in-fill joining the two island modules.

Again, a meeting of the Tuesday Nighters at our home came to our rescue and again, Darren, bless him, gave us detailed instructions on how to do it. The task was easy and worked well.




A good view showing the triangular in-fill on the lower deck



Another view of the triangular infill on the lower deck

Despite all our care in getting our levels and heights right we ended up with an issue where there was a mismatch where the framework along the right-hand wall met up with the peninsula heading away from the wall at right-angles. I tried several different approaches but none suited me. In frustration I phoned our New South Wales friend from nearby Parkinson. Craig (Cassino) was soon over inspewcting the problem and soon came up with a solution that had been staring me in the face all the time through the use of a right angle metal plate. Fixed!


But wait there's more. Tomorrow I will fill you in on what we have achieved during these past few days between celebrating Christmas and working through some more layout issues.


Visit to the United States.....

When I posted this originally the images were too large so hopefully, I have now fixed this.

During August and September 2013, I visited the United States for the first time. Altogether I spent 5 weeks there but only visited two States - California and Colorado with a short visit to northern New Mexico.

The initial incentive for my visit was to attend the 33rd National Narrow Gauge Convention being held in Pasadena on the eastern outskirts of Los Angeles. Since I was travelling to the States I absolutely had to organise visits (and train rides) on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge RR and also the Cumbres & Toltec RR. Being a museum professional, I also had to visit the Colorado Railroad Museum (Denver), the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento and Steamtown 1897 in Jamestown.

The Narrow Gauge Convention was outstanding. I have attended a few conventions here in Australia but the size of the Narrow Gauge Convention and the 1700 delegates, exhibitors and trade stand attendees was amazing. I met a few Aussie friends over there and met a few new people including Lee Riley from Bachmann and Chris Lane, Editor of the On30 Annual.

The following is a gallery of a few of the many images I took during my visit.




The Hilton Pasadena Hotel was the Convention Hotel for the 33rd National Narrow Gauge Convention and also where I stayed




Rio Grande Southern C-19 No.41 at Knott's Berry Farm



A small scene on a combined On30 Modular layout with modules from all over the United States



Durango and Silverton Railroad K-36 No.486 brings its train along Narrow Gauge Street as it approaches Durango Station



Durango and Silverton RR K-36 No.482 in Silverton

Cumbres and Toltec RR K-36 No.488 departs Chama for Antonito



The Engineer (Driver) of K-36 No.489 oils his engine in Chama yard

Cumbres and Toltec RR K-36 No.487 fitted with a wedge snow-plough stands in Chama yard

The only remaining cab forward Southern Pacific AC-12 No.4294 is preserved in the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento

Virginia and Truckee RR 2-6-0 preserved in the California State Railroad Museum

San Francisco Cable Car No.54 descends Hyde Street and is about to turn into California Street

San Francisco is not only famous for its cable cars but also its historic trams. The F Line uses these PCC cars that were used all over the US, Canada and Mexico. This one is painted in the famous Pacific Electric livery.

My next post will show some significant progress on our On30 layout.

This Post has been a Long Time Coming.....

 

It is almost twelve months since I last posted a record of our progress on this Blog and for that I apologise. Craig (Cassino) has been “on my case” almost every week as have a number of others including Graham, a co-worker with Raymond.

I feel I need to fill in some of our construction efforts from the first half of the year before catching up with our efforts these past few days.

I bought a new desktop PC in January because my old one was dying and becoming unresponsive. This was another reason why I had not updated this Blog as my computer was sooooo slow. However, it was not until mid-year that I managed to install it. I also spent a considerable amount of time planning a trip to the United States.

I decided to purchase a new laptop PC as well which was to be smaller and lighter than my previous laptop. I intend using this laptop for work as well as travel while my old laptop now lives in The Shed though its WiFi internet connection is somewhat problematic. I intend using it for model railroad duties. If I could improve the internet connection I would like to use it for JIMRI as well as maintaining an asset database of our model railroad equipment.

During June, Raymond and I assembled the first two sections of the lower deck level of baseboard framing for the island peninsula of our layout. The first panel is located at right angles to the right-hand wall of the shed. The second is attached at right angles to this and runs towards the back of The Shed.

The first two rectangular sections of the island peninsula baseboard are completed and installed

While we found it easy to build two plain rectangualr baseboard panels we were uncertain how we would build the triangular infill sections which would be required on both the bottom and top levels.

The triangular area we would need to fill in to properly join both the rectangular panels



The space we have allocated for the terminal locomotive depots on the upper and lower levels

These two tables are occupying the space of the future helix near the back of The Shed.

We then also made two identical panels for the top deck but we were at somewhat of a loss as to how best to fit these in position and support then with a minimum of posts.
                                                                    

The two baseboard sections for the upper level can be seen leaning against the layout on the left-hand side

Little now happened on the layout for a couple of months as I went on my trip to the United States to attend the 33rd Bational Narrow Gauge Convention which was held in Pasadena (Los Angeles). My next post will give an overview of that trip.