Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Well another year has gone by and this now makes the tenth year of the blog, quite amazing!

I don't know what I expected when I started the blog in 2008 but I have had fun although the posts have got a bit further apart of late. I will try to do more posts about the layout and little projects this coming year although there will be the odd 3D printing post as I find it a fascinating way to model although not suitable for everything.

I have always liked to push the boundaries and try new techniques and as such BYLONG has really been a test bed down the years since it first started in 1978. Parts of the existing layout are still in evidence from the first exhibited 1979 version and it takes me back to an earlier time when I look at this years Christmas card as the hill behind the town with the rusty corrugated iron shed above the street is from the original layout.

Talking of projects I really must finish the pub on the corner of the main street, slack! Unfortunately this is a side effect of having ideas and wanting to try new things.

It doesn't look like the lack of a two story verandah and awning has caused the locals to stay away on this Christmas Eve afternoon.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Lambing Flat Running Session

Last Friday night I attended a running night at James McInerney's Lambing Flat layout along with James of course, Ron Cunningham, Terry Flynn, Marcus Ammann and John Zubrickas. James will be moving in the New Year and the layout won't be in its current configuration at its new home so it was a night to run it before it goes into a temporary limbo.

I tried out a small 4K video camera that has been designed to be used on a drone. The idea being that as most of these cameras have a wide angle lens which can give some distortion in the outer areas of the picture the 4K resolution will allow a Full High Definition(or near enough) segment of the images to be cropped to remove the distortion and also possibly room walls, etc. The camera doesn't have a screen so I had to place it where I thought it would give a good view of the action. Sometimes I placed it a little too close so the trains might be a bit out of focus but the low down by the track effect is good I believe.

The operating was fun particularly the shunting which I didn't video unfortunately. James has his shunting locomotives set up with momentum and he requests that you shunt by accelerating to step 20 of 128 on a DCC throttle so that the movement is very smooth. As the shunting locomotives have Soundtraxx Tsunamis (original Tusnami, Econamis and a Tsunami 2) then a working brake is also available and this can be used to great effect to slow down and neatly couple to a wagon, great fun!

Here is a video I put together of some of the trains running that night, enjoy.

And here are a some photos as they progress around the layout.

After adding the above photos to this post I realised that I missed a creek section between the station yard and the stock race as well as the branch leading to another staging yard, it can be seen leaving to the right in the second photo immediately above.

I hope you enjoyed the video and photos as I certainly enjoyed the night, thanks James!