Almost time to run a test train with your favorite (or “favourite”) can of refreshment to help you better evaluate your work!
Eric
1 Like
So close Eric, sooo close. 
I can see it now… Neil excitedly gets his first train running and while walking around the layout to switch out some hoppers completely forgets about the hole he forgot to fill. His foot drops in and he breaks his ankle. Then spends the next couple months looking at the layout thinking what he should have done like fill the freaking hole!
oh, stupid me! i thought, that hole was to receive the roling stock, that reaches the end of the sidings…
no, i was wrong.
Neil told us, that his place is swampy.
so that hole is the drain!
just still missing the plug.
Y’know, that hole was for ‘one day things might sag so I’ll get ready real early’.
It’d got to the point where I never even noticed it anymore. Now I can’t ignore it… It’s haunts my dreams… 
Thanks guys.
It’s worse than that Rooster, my T5000 suddenly stopped working on Sunday (right before a club meet), no sign of life at all.
So Neil is not running trains until a replacement is found. 
Well if you resort to “Pushing” trains around the layout “DON’T FALL INTO THE HOLE”
I don’t know what else to say except CVP USA rocks!
I decided to email them and see if there was anything I could do myself with it. Not worth mail costs to get it back Stateside for checking or repair.
Super helpful discussion, ended up with the suggestion of a cracked LCD (hairline on the rear, so nothing visible). Sure enough, after some testing the controller actually worked - just no display. They supplied the part # and tonight it’s back up and running.
Definitely not fun on the soldering front, but it did justify a new tool, I’ve now got a solder sucker.
Cheers
N
Edit - The likely cause of a crack is dropping the controller, no fault of CVP.
Nice going Neil! Well worth your effort. 
Wow you take a couple weeks break from LSC and come back and it really is impressive how much you are accomplishing so fast.
Thanks Devon,
We are getting right into winter here so things have slowed over the last few weeks. Dark when I leave for work, dark when I get home. After seeing Cliffs workbench I’m in the middle of the beginning of a plan to tidy something up so I can get something underway indoors (maybe a concrete tunnel cast??).
Glad yr still kicking 
Cheers
N
1 Like
You could be a nice guy and go fill it in for him…
I agree Bob, and will go with him to help out!
Just need someone here to win a lottery and fund that trip… 
2 Likes
Heck if we are dishing out free trips sign me up.
Mid winter update.
The upper loop is finally in! It’s Peco G45 nickle silver track - half new, half second hand.
I hard soldered 2 (sometimes 3) lengths together then bent them up to fit the ladder.
Still have to do final fix on the mine tracks - there was quite a bit of swapping around to get enough good lengths for the mainline so that’s still to be done.
I’ve added a turnout for a future storage track off the back mainline as I figured it’s going to be quite a while before I get track all the way down to the container.
Next project - probably summer, is to build the ‘middle’ loop. I’ll likely add a cutoff to make this another return loop so I can get a roundy round fix while I build the rest. Approval at the moment is to go around the small tree in the third pic below.
Current end of line:
Next bit…
I’ve also decided (read permission not withheld…) to add a station/industry coming off Missing Brick Spur. It’ll be loosely based on the terminus town of Cromwell on the Otago Central line.
The station’s underwater now as part of a hydro development in the 80’s - so I guess I actually have a free pass to model whatever I like…
Cheers
N
5 Likes
Nice progress Neil!! Looking forward to seeing trains running soon!
Working on it Pete, got some raw footage that I need to edit.
Neil you really are setting a high bar. Between the bench work, track work, and rock work this will be an epic layout. You may proceed.
For what it’s worth - first run around the loop. Apologies for the first clip - shooting into the sun and then a plane took over the audio!
Cheers
N
4 Likes