August update

I thought it might be time for an update as I have done a few things in the last couple of months. 

On the modelling front, I have been continuing EVER so slowly on PK's gas and fuel depot kits for the Club HO layout. Not as fast as I would like as work and family seem to keep getting in the way ;-) Whether I get to finish these for judging at the Club Xmas modelling competition is another guess. The project that I am working on will be gearing up again for some fun (read hectic) times so more than likely I'll be stuffed by the end of the day and not have much time for the modelling side of things. Weekends might be a go now that my son's soccer commitments on Saturdays is over for the year, but I am sure the missus has that 'things to do list' to show me. She mentioned something about bathroom and laundry renos, which after 18 years in the same house are probably well overdue!

The June-July school holidays saw the family go on a road trip through NSW and to Canberra to visit the national monuments and places of interest. Enroute I was able to call into Thirlmere railway museum which was great. In Canberra we went to the Canberra railway museum, which isn't as big as Thirlmere in its collection, however it does have Garrat 6029 which is operational compared to Thirlmere's 6040 which is static. The boys and I were even allowed to venture into the cab of 6029. (Took away a piece of coal as a souvenir from its tender!). Photos below.

On the electronics front, I have been reading and researching Geoff Bunza's articles about how to use Arduinos (in their various forms) as DCC decoders. Very interesting. So much so that I sent away for the particular opto-couplers from China (via Ebay) as I couldn't source them at either Jaycar or Altronics. These arrived last week, so now to find time (ha ha!) to put the electronics together, at least on a prototyping breadboard, and see what can be done. I see some immediate possibilities such as building and street lighting control and effects which one decoder using various functions to control these. Also servos for crossing gates/booms or industrial site gates. Just need to experiment a bit.

On the computer front I have been mucking around with Linux Mint as an alternative OS for some old PCs with out of date Microsoft OS (Win XP, Win 95, etc). The Raspberry Pi side of things has been fairly stable of late, just keeping the OS up to date.

On the Internet side of things, two big decisions made in the last week. My website "GB's Shed" is no more. I didn't have the time to keep it maintained and having documents in various locations was becoming annoying. So I shifted all the documents to my Dropbox account and re-linked them on my Blog site. Having them on Dropbox allows me to maintain them in the one location. Then I deleted the website.

The second big decision was, after many years of baulking at the idea, I have joined the Facebook community, but only for modelling, prototype railway articles, and things that interest me (electronics, etc) purposes. No family posts or joins on this account. It might also be an easier medium for sharing progress photos of the modelling. So if you are on Facebook, look me up if I haven't already requested being a "Friend" of you. The link is on the "My Facebook site - Greg's Shed" link in the side bar. Hopefully I have set it up correctly, but please feel free to provide any guidance to this FB newbie.

So the rate I am going, the next blog update may be over the Xmas holidays, so maybe best to keep track of what I am doing via Facebook ;-) 

Some photos from the road trip for your visual edification.

Class 6040 at Thirlmere

Class 40 leader - 4001

Class 43 - 4306

DMU 723

Steam crane loco 1034

NSWGR 4490 and 3642

Thirlmere roundhouse

NSWGR Breakdown crane

NSWGR Pay bus

8646 and friend

Canberra Railway Museum photos

Garratt 6029

6029's brakes

6029's gauges

looking through the driver's window of 6029

NSWGR 3016

NSWGR 4807

CFCLA C502

CFCLA S311

CFCLA 44209

44209's control desk

44209's engine room

44209's radio

NSWGR RM37 under renovation

Bye Beaver Spring

Today marks a sad day as my son Lachlan's layout, Beaver Springs (see link to side) is no more. He decided it was time to pull it up and make more space in the Shed.
No soon had the space been cleared and vacuumed then the missus put up the reserved sign for the BBQ table she is currently renovating. It was my Dad's and we became its owners when we were settling his estate. Dad LOVED painting so there was about 4 or 5 coats to strip off back to bare timber so that we can start again.

My thanks to Lachlan's Followers for supporting him over the last few years.

Quarterly update January - March (Easter) 2016

I thought it might be time to update those that follow my blog with what has been happening so far this year. Unfortunately I haven't had much time to spend on the hobby due to the project that I am on being very busy at the moment and by the time I get home, sorted out the usual family related stuff (kids, dinner, washing up, etc) I don;t have much time left of an evening to do anything as I am pretty stuffed by then. 

However I have been plodding along with the Gas and Fuel Depot kit that PK asked me to put together for the Club HO layout. He has also added two other kits for the same project, a dual fuel tank depot and a fuel gantry. I have measured the area onto graph paper and will cut baseplates for the kits from 3mm ply to aid easy fitting and removal if required. So far the building are put together as are the two longitudinal gas tanks. I will probably repaint the office and out buildings as the default plastic colours are pretty non-prototypical. 

I have also been spending some time putting together various options for the layout station town backscene from photos and Model Builder software.

Today I went out to Mr Mackie's for a running session on his layout Cassino. There was a good turn up of other crew members and the session ran pretty well I think.

Well the next quarter will probably be much the same as the first. Continuing with the kits and backscene.

If I have anything special to note I will add a blog entry but at this point in time another update in June-July is probably the goal.

Ciao for now and happy modelling.