Post #35

 Well after our well earned trip away to Victoria it was time to get back onto the tools and keep on plugging away at getting all the track laid. Model traction is like making a cake you have to have the cake cooked before you can put the icing on. So once the track is laid and ballasted then the overhead wiring can go up. As stated in a previous blog I stopped doing the complicated double junction and concentrated on just the plain turnouts, once you get the hang of doing them they become easier to do. But by making them 2 rail it is certainly harder to construct the turnouts than having live overhead.

Working my way along the right hand edge with a few turnouts this then allowed me to connect up both ends of the barn.  One side has the commercial turnouts and the recent end has the handmaid turnouts. They have been made complete except for the throwbars which I have to work out how the point motors will be connected, that will be in another stage of construction. Firstly I will lay all the track, second it will be made electrically operational i.e. all the printed circuit boards will be isolated so there are no shorts. In conjunction at this stage I will have to construct a control panel so that the  turnouts can be controlled.

 

Both ends connected now

One thing I might regret is that because I had to use the Peco set track points to get the sharp radius, they only come in code 100 which meant the track into the barn was also code 100. But when the track comes out where the recently laid track is, that is laid in code 75 rail. It certainly looks a lot finer and more to scale so where they join 75 - 100 it is noticeable. I suppose when it gets covered in ballast and roadway it won't look too bad.

I also connected up the outside the barn track which allows transit through the area without needing to go through the barn. Also a good long outside track for the Electroliner to stable. As can be seen in the above photo the flooring of the barn hasn't be made permanent as yet, I still have to design the barn. One thing is that it will need to be slightly longer as it was previously measured on two PCC cars which are shorter than some other cars.

 

A start was also made on the balloon loop as the fourth road had to come  off it. The curves are all laid to 11" radius specially for the Electroliner. On the balloon loop there is a mixture of the Peco code 75 track, and where the turnouts are the rail is just laid onto the printed circuit board sleepers.

Looking down on the latest work

At this stage the final locations of the roads hasn't been marked out but the track diagram shows the general concept. One thing that can alter the roads positions is the final location of the buildings. I still have a pile of buildings that require assembly although cardboard footprints have been made as can be seen in the above photo. The track plan was always made first and the roads have to fit around the track not the other way around. One thing you won't find on my track design is that tracks aren't often running parallel (except for the double track sections), I certainly like variation and find traction layouts that have a lot of track parallel to the baseboard edges - boring!

Going to be close to the barn fence!

This last photo shows all the work that has recently been completed. As can be seen progress is happening, and once the track is done then onto stage 2.

Don't worry about the tools on the board, they will all disappear eventually. More next time.

Post #34

 Recently a group of six guys had an opportunity of visiting Victoria to do some train riding. The main event was to go to a town called Moe way out in the Gippsland area, then head up to Walhalla (our third visit) and Sunday was going to have another trip on the Puffing Billy narrow gauge steam train ride. Unfortunately Puff was booked out so we looked for an alternative, which was to travel on the Sunday to Ballarat and ride the tram.

My last visit to Ballarat was way back in 1970 where I was able to take some 8mm movie film of the still operating system. The system closed down in 1971 and also the nearby town of Bendigo also had a similar tramway system, both are now closed and both have tramway museums operating.

 We travelled out from Melbourne on the Sunday morning and after travelling through Ballarat, alighted at Wendouree and outer suburb. We figured that this would be the closest station to the museum. The day was fine and sunny and we headed off for the half hour walk to find the museum. (Ballarat Tramway Museum)

The museum operates out of a new modern building having a separate display and depot building.

The display building was set out well and had a large display of trams and plenty of information boards.

Up the back of the building was another room that I discovered had a model tramway section. It was good to see and there was a model layout and display cabinets showing a sample of Australian, English and US styled cars in both O and HO scale.

 

I had little time to view them all as the loudspeaker then advised a tram was ready outside for a trip. The entry to the museum also had unlimited rides on the trams.

The Ballarat system

Our transport for the day

With all aboard we then set off running alongside Lake Wendouree. As can be seen on the map the line use to travel right around the lake. The lake also has fame as it was there that the rowing competition took place for the 1956 Olympic games. We trundled along at jogging pace heading towards the terminus and the 'connie' came along to check and collect tickets. He was suitably attired for the Victorian winter even though this day wasn't 'freezing' We all came to Victoria prepared for the worst - snow, sleet etc but our luck held out again and it wasn't too bad.

Tickets please

 I decided to go up to the front of the tram to get some video and we soon came to a stop. And looking out the front on the road you could see a native black swan had come out of the lake and wanted to cross the road. So everything stopped for them.

 

All the cars also came to a stop for them, they weren't in a hurry and eventually got to the other side. I guess this helped make the journey a bit longer.

 We soon arrived at the terminus and the pole required taking around to the rear. The conductor was good in that he let a young child help him to 'swing the pole'.

 After taking some photos at the terminus we all hopped back on board. It was getting around lunch time and food was on our minds. On the way to the terminus we spotted a large building which turned out to be a popular eating place called 'Pipers by the Lake'

Pipers by the Lake

The place looked a bit flash and after perusing the menu, the funniest thing happened - all six of us decided to get a milkshake each, though I must admit there were chocolate, strawberry and vanilla one consumed. I only wished that I had taken a photo. Getting off the tram half way back to the museum proved a smart move as we were then half way back to the station.  So we then started our journey back to Wendouree station for our trip back to Melbourne.

It turned out to be a great day, the weather was kind to us and we got to see a museum preserving our heritage for future generations to see and enjoy.