Saturday, May 21, 2011

A Good Weekend!


This photo has nothing to do with anything in the below post. . .but is IS of an NSWGR subject, the 5-ton goods crane at Gunning. April, 2009.


I actually accomplished quite a bit this past weekend. Fine-tuned a bunch of hand-built points that were giving me fits (adjustments of point gapping, wing rail/guardrail clearances and gauge issues on the diverging routes, all easily fixed with file and soldering iron). Painted trackage I'd put down last week in Gurley. Added the Blue Point controllers and control knobs. Glued down the ceiling tiles and sculpted them into a loading bank, as well as sculpted the scenery in Gurley, and covered it all with a layer of brownish-earth colored latex paint.

And have removed three of the Fast Tracks "Bullfrog" switch controllers (reviewed here) that had, in the course of a year and a half and with little use, decided to become stubborn or downright inoperative. I'm guessing perhaps it has something to do with being made out of wood, which isn't as stable environmentally as plastic is. In any event, these have been shitcanned and replaced by Blue Points. I've just got one Bullfrog remaining in service, and when this one fails--as I suppose it soon will--I'll be rid of them (I think I've still got a half-dozen unopened somewhere under the layout).

The laundry list of "to-dos" on the layout before setting a running night is down to a precious few, and I'm well ahead of the late-June deadline I set myself.

Hoo-rah!

3 comments:

Wagonfreak said...

G'day Blair,

Any chance of a review of the Blue Points? They look like a good option.

Cheers

Chris

South Coast Rail said...

Hell - o Blair,
Nice to see you're still there.
great shot of the crane.
I'll send Kaye Dee over to do some shunting. She would fit in well at Gurley. She is the Head girlie shunter at Bega.
Bob

B. Kooistra said...

Chris, try this link:
http://northofnarrabri.blogspot.com/2009/08/first-installed-blue-point-controller.html

This was my initial review. That along with the one referenced in this posting were my reviews on the two commercial under-layout manual throw options.