By Wednesday evening, I had finished the manufacture of one of the end diagonal braces, and trial fitted it to the layout. I must have mucked up the angle of the cut with the mitre saw. One end had to be 41 degrees, the other 49, but I think I transposed them. Not ideal, but not too big a drama as they won't be visible once the curtains are fitted.
After returning from piping practice (well, drumming practice, for me) on Thursday, I finished off the second brace, fitted both and finally returned the layout to its upright position.
I didn't have any lengths of salvaged timber long enough for the 4' diagonals, so had to splice 2 x 2' lengths as shown above.
The end diagonal braces fitted...
... tip her up the right way ...
... and you'd have to be pretty happy with a nominally flat section (through the station) coming in at 0.4 degrees right away, without even adjusting the legs!
Thus ended another late night in the garage.
Friday was a night off, as I had a group of mates over for an old-style slide night. All 35mm stuff, with a real projector and screen - none of this fancy digital, view-on-TV business. It was a great evening. Dennis brought shots from a trip to the narrow-gauge Weihe logging railway in northern China from 2003. Hoges had Mallets & ancient 2-4-0s from Java in 1983, and Scotsman trips from 1988-89 (including the record breaking Parkes - Broken Hill non-stop run). Derek & I had "run-of-the-mill" NSW stuff from the 80s and 90s, plus a bit more Scotty, and Silver City Comet. Unfortunately, Steve the Master Photographer wasn't able to bring anything, but it was great to catch up with him. Roy was there as an observer, never having shot slides, and also to inspect progress on the layout.
No progress was made on Saturday, as I went up to visit my parents overnight. On Sunday morning, Dad suggested a trip to Richmond Vale, which proved rather eventful. Clyde 0-4-0 saddle tank "Marjorie" was in steam, working a single car (HLF460) between Richie Main & Pelaw Main. This was the first time I had seen her in steam. However, some local idiots had dumped a car on the track just short of the latter since the last running day, and then torched it. The first couple of trips only ran to within a safe distance of the burned-out wreck. Eventually, X.217 was dispatched, propelling a rail-mounted crane to remove the offending article. Thereafter, normal service was resumed. I hadn't taken my Nikon, because ARTC controllers were on strike, and I wasn't planning to do much gunzelling, so I had to make do with the dumbphone, and also borrowed Dad's Fuji for a couple of shots where a zoom was needed.
"Marjorie" propelling the second train of the day back to Richie Main.
The offending article, about half a km short of Pelaw Main.
X.217 near the level crossing, en route to the work site.
Short work is made of the remains of the Commodore.
After picking Alison's mum up from the station and spending a couple of hours with her over dinner, I ventured back into the garage in search of the curtains, tracking etc. Half an hour was wasted looking for my glasses, before I managed to determine how best to utilise the tracking and brackets. There were five sections of curtain, which was enough to go along the front and both ends, with one spare section, but not enough to go around all four sides. No matter, it was a big improvement.
Tonight, I decided I would paint the fascia after all, there being just sufficient evenings left to do so before the family returns home on Friday, so I applied an undercoat and called it quits.
The pink blanket is protecting my uncle's N scale layout-in-a-coffee-table while I'm storing it for him.
Cheers for now.
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