You're Not Going to Believe This.....

The weekend of the 11th and 12th of December was a bit of a non-event. We had our usual visit to Austral Modelcraft where we both purchased a few second-hand items of On30. Raymond bought a Bachmann On30 Climax fitted with DCC and sound and a couple of wagons while I got a couple of C&S boxcars.

On Tuesday, 14 December we received a delivery of 4” X 1” and 2” X 1” timber and the next day three sheets of 12 mm plywood was delivered pre-cut into 3 X 2400 mm lengths at 750 mm wide and the balance of 3 lengths at 450 mm wide.

The 4 X 1 and 2 X 1 along with the three lengths of 750 mm wide plywood is intended for the construction of the upper deck down the left-hand side of the shed.

On Tuesday evening the Tuesday Nighters (alias Mackie’s Marauders) came over for an inspection and our usual bull session. They were suitably impressed with progress but disappointed we didn’t have any baseboard under construction or track down yet.

On Friday, Raymond received his latest purchase in the mail. This is an On30 model of the Coffee Pot steam railmotor preserved in South Australia. It came from Ixion Models and is an absolute gem. The detail is superb. Raymond bought a TCS DCC chip the next day at Austral Modelcraft. It is plug’n play and he had no trouble fitting the chip and test running the model on the garage layout.
Ixion Models Coffee Pot stands on our garage layout. A superb model with a fully detailed cab and interior of the coach. Electrical pick-up is the four wheels on the loco and the four wheels at the rear of the coach.
While we were at Austral I purchased a Bachmann On30 2-6-6-2 fitted with DCC and Tsunami sound. I had had this loco on order for several years since the model had been announced. This was the first shipment Austral had managed to get.

Now, are you sitting down because you are not going to believe this. On Saturday afternoon Raymond and I installed seven of the double-slotted tubing sections and brackets along the wall on the left-hand side of the shed. This is the first stage of the baseboard construction. We installed seven sections of tubing in next to no time with another eight to go. We can then start using the 4 X 1, 2X 1 and plywood. I start holidays on Thursday and go back to work on the 4 January so Raymond and I plan to have this section of baseboard up and track-laying commenced before I go back to work. Amazing – isn’t it?
Ground breaking. The first double slotted steel tubing and bracket fully installed.

The first seven double-slotted tubing and brackets installed. Only another eight to go along this wall and would you believe it? The brackets are all dead-level in line with each other.
The AMRA Narrow Gauge SIG Group will be visiting here tomorrow night (Tuesday 21 December). We hope they will like what they see and how The Shed has progressed since they last came over.