Much Ado About Nothing.....

Raymond has been spending up overseas again. Monday 9 May another parcel arrived from the United States.

This contained several more laser-cut kits from Raggs to Riches. This time he purchased the Ouray Depot (station); Durango Depot; Durango Coaling Tower and a Maine Two Footers, Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes, Sanders Water Tank. Raymond has become a regular purchaser of Raggs kits and each time he receives a purchase he also receives an encouraging note from Joe Fuss, the owner of Raggs to Riches

Durango Coaling Tower by Raggs to Riches
Durango Station - Raggs to Riches Ouray Station - Raggs to Riches
Sanders Water Tank - Raggs to Riches

I thought we had left enough space to locate the Ouray Depot between the wall and the track through the station area. We now have an On30 NMRA clearance template. It turns out we did not leave enough space as the platform is 11 inches wide. We looked at the Raggs catalogue and find their Placerville kit has a 9 inch wide platform which should be just right. Joe at Raggs to Riches will think Raymond is a prolific modeller when we eventually order the Placerville kit. He has already made a comment in his notes to Raymond along those lines. The trouble is Raymond hasn’t even started any yet.

I have the plans for a Queensland Railways 2-road carriage shed with a round roof which I hope to scratch built for the two carriage sidings at our first station. We are certainly going to have a variety of buildings as well as locomotives and rolling stock.

Raymond also now has on order a fine scale modelling magazine from SPV in the UK, a set of four D&RGW green Jackson & Sharp coaches by AHM and a Limited Edition On30 D&RGW 6000 Series Flat Car fitted with a D&RGW Ford Pick-up truck by the San Juan Car Co. These two latter purchases are from his regular supplier in the UK – EDM Models in York. Raymond corresponds regularly by e-mail with EDM.

Today (Sunday 22 May) I went down to Bunnings at Browns Plains and purchased another tool trolley similar to the one we purchased some time ago. The first trolley is being used for our woodworking tools and screws for the baseboard construction. We found that this trolley is very helpful in being able to be located near to where we are working and, provided the tools etc are placed back on the trolley when finished with (so that they can easily be found again), it has proved very useful. Now that we have been wiring the layout we have found we are accumulating tools and bits and pieces on the top of the baseboard. These tools get in the way and “get lost” when you move them from one part of the baseboard to another as well as incurring the possibility of damaging the trackwork or rolling stock. Raymond has been using a couple of the Namco plastic stackable chairs we have to hold the soldering iron and other tools. This latest trolley is intended to be used for the spools of wire purchased for wiring the layout, the soldering iron as well as the other tools and parts (fishplates, dog spikes etc) needed for track laying and wiring as well as the scenery supplies, glues and other paraphernalia for making our scenery. We intend to start the scenicing of this first station before moving on to building the next section of baseboard and layout.

Some of the tool clutter on the layout.
The carpentry trolley for baseboard construction. All the tools and sundry parts are ready to hand