Wagon review
Cassette shelf
Wiring change
A full house and plenty to do, but first, Geoff showed the results of some weathering he'd been trying out on the ore wagons. Metalwork paint and rust, and replacement planking all worked well.
Stephen had brought a melamine shelf trimmed down to 205mm wide, as decided, together with some 50mm wide strips of 9mm ply. The shelf was cut to length and then in half. A pair of hinges were found together with some 6mm tee nuts and left-over '50mm cross dowel flat headed bolts'. These were chosen over ordinary screws for long-term solidity as the joint is likely to be subject to rough handling. Stephen and Laurence prepared the boards - hinges were positioned and their holes were marked. 2 screws per hinge would be tried first, but all three holes prepared (it made sense at the time).
A Forsner bit was found almost the right size. Geoff lightly turned the tee nuts down to suit and the burrs were ground off.
The joint was solid, but we'll have to do something about the extra holes.
Two lengths of timber were clamped to the trestles and the new shelf placed on top. It all worked well...
Too well, as it was immediately taken-over as a working platform for tools during a wiring mod, which then took our minds off fitting the edging strips. The edgings will be fitted next week.
During running sessions, we regularly mis-select track section switches around the cross-over, which is very annoying. We decided to investigate breaking a particularly long section at the board joint. Geoff quickly made the modifications, but discussions ensued about whether to make the newly severed section a separate entity or join it onto the adjacent station section. After a 'spirited' discussion about train shunting in the goods bay, opinions remained divided, so it was agreed to test the merged option and then decide. Testing took place and went well until one route was found to have a dead section at the heart of the cross-over requiring an adjacent section to be switched on in parallel, to work - not ideal. It's all down to the 'unique' way John constructed his points, which would be difficult to change. Either a permanent live feed or additional micro-switches on the point actuators would be required. Another one for next week.
