A Major Change to BYLONG

For those who have been wondering about the hint I made a few weeks ago ("There was movement at the station"), I have changed the layout, the upper staging yard has been picked up, rotated through 180 degrees and is now located over the Bylong tunnel and Cox's Gap cliffs.

A 1 in 40 grade now starts just west of Wollar, near the bottom left of the photo, crosses the garage doors above Bylong and climbs to the top staging yard.

More banking and double heading out of Wollar loco depot!!!

At the start of the 1 in 40 grade there is a junction of the new 40' (12 metre) branch line which proceeds across the roller doors and then under the upper staging to then swing through a 180 degree curve to the branch terminus (where the upper staging was). Only about 3 feet (1 metre) of the branch line is hidden trackage.

If you look carefully you will notice that the branch has a roller coaster in it. I decided to add this feature as I have seen lines that follow the country side rather than just cut through it. The small 'hill' is approximately 435 feet long and is only about 4'6" high, about 1 in 60 each way to the crest. I will be interested to see how this looks once the scenery is done as it looks odd at the moment.

The branch terminus will be 12' x 2' and at the moment I haven't decided on the track layout but it will have a turntable, wheat silo and the usual goods shed, loading ramp, etc. I have about eight prototype station plans to choose from currently and most seem to have seven points.

Although you can't see it in the photo because of the lights, the area above the cliffs where the branch line runs will be sceniced as well even though only about 4" high.

This branch line is the culmination of several years thought trying to work out how to fit a branch in. Of course the idea finally came and it was all worked out in about 10 minutes of measuring, although it took me about another month of pondering before I started.

The tree upper level support (as mentioned on my blog a few weeks ago) can be seen in the photo and the branch line is running just behind it and in front of the printed backscene. The upper level staging is supported at each end and in the middle, by the tree.

Second Set of Scalpel Saw Blades

Here is a second set of saw blades, this time there are two longer blades.

The packet states that they are 0.12mm thick but they are actually 0.24 mm thick, the same as the other set.

The price for the blades by themselves is $20.30.

I Found a New Tool

I am a person who really is a collector of small modelling tools, show me some small obscure tool and I am likely to buy it just in case.

I found this new tool, a scalpel saw at the Auburn Bunnings hardware store here in Sydney. This line of hobby tools had been mentioned a couple of times on the Aus_Model_Rail Yahoo group so I decided on Monday to go and see what was on offer.

As you can see in the photo above the tool is a scalpel handle that takes very fine saw blades. The blades are etched in stainless steel and are 0.24mm thick. There were several sets available; one with saw blades about twice the length of those shown here.

I decided on the short version as I wasn't sure how strong they would be. Well, I was pleasantly surprised, as you can see I have cut the doors from a Trax MHG. This took seven minutes to do and the blade removed the door without taking any part of the doors with it. That is the saw was the width of the moulded crack between the doors.

The blades are etched into a sheet and they must be cut from the etch.

Do not use tin snips as you will wreck the blade edges, the stainless is very hard. I used a thin stone cut off disc in a motor tool but be very careful and go at it slowly at the slowest speed possible, you don't want to bend the blades and do use safety glasses or goggles.

Now for the price .... $30.70, a bit of an ouch and I had my fingers crossed but I am very happy with the purchase.