Wallace Creek

Most troublesome loco I have is a Bachmann 08 - not that my UK stuff is getting much of a run out at the moment.

 

Right here are three photos of this years green bits in the gorgeous gorge.

1 - general view through to the cliff face
3 - the improbable geological feature returns with err some misplaced glue, must tidy up the pool a bit.
3 - this shows a gap between two tiles I am going to make into a stream

 

After a weekends gardening for my mum, a quick visit to what I thought a slightly disappointing York show followed by a good 6 hour session on Wallace Creek made up for the weekend.

Dave

 

Not much happening here - too much work in the real world and not enough time in the HO world. Over the last month a bit of ballasting and a bit of scenic fettling and Thursday night a brief but enjoyable operating session of which a couple of pictures are attached. Seriously thinking about converting all couplers to KDs but the Lima ones look trick. Any ideas out there?

Its raining now, and cold but heck - I'm going out there.....I may be some time

 

Hi Richard
I have a couple of wagons which have different couplers at each end which enable me to mix trains up a bit but when you come to shunting the plan falls apart somewhat. Was looking at the bottom of my Lima GYs where the coupling seems to be part of the bogie (like some earlier powerline models). Only thing I can think of so far is to remove the coupling and fit Kadee No5s - More investigation needed. I suppose for block trains I could convert the first and last wagon only as an interim measure. How are things at Dargan?

Dave

 

Thanks very much Tony for a thoughtful and useful answer there. I have already learned the plastic kadee lesson and one of the few remining on my stock broke today. I had not realised there were different size heads either - generally I have used No 5 which has worked well.
regards

Dave

 

I'm feeling a bit faint...….went out and checked my stock and what sort of Kadees I thought I would need (courtesy of the link Gary posted above). So far so good although with several locos and quite a number of wagons I was a little shocked at the numbers. Then I checked prices - ouch! So Kadee number 5 is sold in bulk packets and I have a good number of the little boxes they go in. So a bulk selection of these from Hatton to top up my spares and have some for conversion makes sense. A number of the old powerline wagons (23 in all) could use NEM type KD couplers and at £5.50 plus postage at £1.10 a pair that is around £150 quid or $279 dollars which more or less gets me a new loco (and IDR models are about to bring out a W Class shunter).

So I need to grit my teeth and make a decision - do I persist with the all kadee programme? Do I adapt a first and last wagon for those sets that operate as bulk consists (so no shunting) or do I forget the whole thing and buy a new engine instead. All of this and more in the next exciting episode of Failroad Australia (as Wallace Creek is also known).

 

Sigh....I know you're right Richard and I have ordered some kadees to make a start. How did your speed matching go - and how do you do it (and why?)

Dave

 

Thanks both - first batch of kadees have turned up so as I am away this weekend some work may start next week. Not sure I'll be bothering about the speed matching beyond working out an average speed around the layout and matching it to DC controller settings. Wallace Creek is your clapped old banger compared to the Dargan Rolls Royce!

Dave

 

Its nice having visitors around to assist with the operation of the layout (as long as nothing goes wrong) and yesterday my regular operator Nick was round for what turned out to be an intensive freight only session. The main reason for this was to test the three sets of wagons which during the week had their NEM pocket lima type couplers replaced by Kadee equivalents. As can be seen from the correspondence above the plan was to retain some intermediate lima couplings but that plan failed quickly as a decision to split a steel train at Wallace Creek saw a Kadee loco trying to couple to a lima type coupling. Luckily I had a few spares so the black tanks and VR VOBX Gondolers became fully Kadee and the Golden Fleece tanks will follow as soon as the Kadees turn up.

Nick suggested we run all the tanks as one long freight train so Wallace Creeks first 17 wagon tanker train ran (normal length six) and mighty fine it looked to. Oh for more space.

Having a visitor round does mean more stock gets out as I like to keep visitors and myself busy. No slackers here. It does however mean things look overclogged (how is that not a word) and once Nick had departed I thinned things down. I prefer yards with space and although there is no set value I work to I reckon 6-7 freights in the 12 sidings is about right.

This week hopefully my Powerline engines will get Kadee fitted if I get time. Meanwhile here are a few photographs.

Dave

 

I have been having a lot of trouble buying stock from two different Australian suppliers and I am steamingly angry. So angry that I may come over to Australia and buy from a shop instead.....