Friday, January 22, 2010

Reaching Mancave status. . .


Here's the layout room (click on photo for full-sized view). Plop down for a little telly, or grab a throttle and work the "Yo-yo shunter" at Narrabri West. . .
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Excuse the poor photoshop job here, folks, but I wanted to at least share a panorama of the layout space before I drop off to sleep. It's been a good weekend of work on the layout--I finished the trackwork in Wee Waa and wired that up, tuned up a couple of stubborn points and point mechanisms, cleaned up the workbench and layout room (both really needed it!) and started to put together some train consists for next week's operating session.
So, here's the layout as it exists tonight--no scenery yet, but rolling stock and trackwork and lights and backboards and for the rest of the family, a couch and flatscreen. And, hope you catch that Australian flag. Not sure what'll be on the telly the night we operate. . .a fast clock or Kath and Kim?
All for now. Gotta work in the morning. Rules test, which is a bit of a crock to have it last all day since all but the last hour of it is review and the damned thing's "open book" anyway! Maybe tomorrow I'll get around to vacuuming the dust and accumulated little bits of debris off the layout, and put some quick and temporary wiring on the lower level trackage so we can use that as well.

9 comments:

South Coast Rail said...

Blair,
A very impressive looking set up, and a nice flag to boot.
Don't forget this Tuesday 26th January is Australia Day. I'll throw a snag on the barbie for ya!
Bob

IainS said...

Blair,

you should post a video of the running session and with you and your mates singing Advance Australia Fair!

Iain

B. Kooistra said...

Iain, no one would want to hear US sing, mate, be it the national anthem or some Slim Dusty. We'd likely be scratching our heads at being "girt be sea," anyway!

B. Kooistra said...

er, that's "girt BY sea. . ."

B. Kooistra said...

Um, speaking of the Australian National Anthem, here's a cheeky little piece about it. It was quite a humorous read--I could imagine our own SCR writing something like this!

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2000/398/24100

Ray P said...

Blair

Now that's a very 'cool' looking train room. No way that my garage will ever look that neat.

Good luck with the operating session, I haven't had one go to time or smoothly yet, but they are a lot of fun.

I'm currently being pressured by several including Gary Laker and James McInerney to have one soon so I had better "get my finger out", that being a naval gunnery term from the time of Nelson etc. related to sticking ones finger into the fuse hole of the cannon until ready to fire (to keep the sea water and sparks out). Sorry for that digression, must have been that "girt by sea" reference.

Ray P

Gary Laker said...

Well done Blair. A couple of things before we bestow the 'Order of the Cave' upon you. Will need to see evidence of an operating fridge, situated in said cave (any size) and proof of contents of course! At least one visible Holden poster on the wall and affidavits from witnesses to at least two miraculous operating sessions where nothing goes wrong! Yeah right!

Gary Laker said...

PS "be"(pirate version), "by", doesn't matter - we don't know the words either!

And yes Ray please consider yourself 'pressurized' - I'm hangin' out again ;-).

Yes it does look pretty cool, hope I can capture the same atmosphere.

Sarails said...

Blair, not so sure how many friends you would have after torturing them with Kath & Kim ;) For the real Aussie bogan story see if you can track down some episodes of "Kingswood Country" A fantastic Aussie TV series "made in another time" so don't think too "PC"