The Fraser Line

Got derailed by the new “Rail Simulator” game that came out in October. Its due for release in USA in January. Its called RailRoading on the cheap…… LOL

All the track you could EVER want for round $35-40……………
OK OK OK I jest

Between life and lack of surplus cash flow, the railway has seen little action apart from one day of running on the second weekend of December. The down side was I burnt out a Digitrax DB150 command station/booster. During the alterations to install the Block Occupancy detectors I failed to re connect the short circuit protection board back into the system. Initially it was no big deal as I had been running my DCC RDCs successfully and so didn’t get back tuit ( a relative of a round tuit). On the running day the group of guys wanted to run a couple of the older DC locos I have and me thinks , not a problem , just use address zero and all is well…………….. yip they ran fine for a while and then ceased to operate on the power district covered by the DB150. Turns out that in reality the old locos spent a considerable period of time drawing close to a short circuit in between moving along the line happily. Any ways, tis the third time that particular DB150 has meet with a sad end to a days running for various reasons. The good news being that the train detection worked perfectly all day and kept people entertained as they watched the trains progress along the stretch of track down one side of the property represented by the yellow line on the computer screen. Is a whole different concept sitting there waiting, not being able to physically see the train, and wondering , is it still moving , will the next section light up as the train enters the block, is it really going that slow, are the blocks really that long…… and just as one thinks one really should go out and have a look, on comes the next indicator to show all is well. Yip we sure do get our entertainment in different ways.

keep on Training. It has its rewards

Well, yesterday afternoon/evening was a wonderful time down by the tracks. Could somebody please explain to me again, just so I am sure , why one would look at a perfectly usable 60 metre stretch of track and decide that it would be much more useful as 5 blocks. Guess thats what makes this journey so much fun….

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Life is looking up down by the tracks. Over the last couple of years I have been contemplating what sort of Block Occupancy Detector to use and a while ago settled on the Inductive Currant idea so I purchased 50 of the required single winding transformer coils. Time passed and that project moved further backwards until I decided that it was time to have another go at it so I spent many hours trying to find the simplest circuit out on the net….

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A new asset is this mini belt sander. Intended as the answer to the part in the switch building plan that says file the switch blades .

It also makes quick work of modifying the stock rails to allow the switch blades to butt up snuggly

Not sure “Engine Shed” is the right terminology for this one as The Fraser Line currently has 3 RDC’s, 1 RD3, 1 40 ton switcher, 1 Shay and a couple of other older timers. The long term aim is to focus on passenger services.