Ballasting begins

Ballasting has been delayed by waiting for some special sieves to arrive and they finally turned up yesterday so the next stage began. The plan is to try ballasting the first road before spiking the rail down.

It began with collecting some gravel and sing it to make it easier to sieve,  where it was passed through a 3mm screen and then a 0.5mm screen before putting it to use. 

Pemberton yard taking shape

Pemberton Mill

Through a joint project of attempting to digitally map the many rail and tramway lines which once serviced the south west along with deciding to base a model railway on Pemberton and a desire to capture aspects of the connecting mill, has lead me to researching the past layout of the Pemberton mills and I have found it surprising how the mill, its buildings and railway line appear to have changed between the pre 1950 map, the 1951 photo and the 1962 photo.

Pemberton Mill Maps and Photos

Pemberton Mill prior to 1950

Pemberton Mill and Surrounds in 1951

Pemberton Mill and Surrounds in 1962

Pemberton Mill and Surrounds in 2005

Pemberton Mill and Surrounds in 2007

Laying of the first tracks of the Pemberton Yard

Track laying begins within the center section of the Pemberton Yard which will include the Pemberton station and goods shed.  My plan is to continue with hand laid track at least for as long as my patience lasts.

Developing a locating system for the table frames

In planning my layout i wanted it to be portable as I am renting and also would like to display it one day and with this in mine i have designed it in transportable sections and to ensure these match and maintain strength i wanted to develop a locating mechanism which achieved both. My final design was based on having a bolt of at least 10mm which would fit tightly within brass collars that would inter lock and align and form a strong and rigid join reducing the need for legs on center sections of the layout. With a design in mind the next challenge was to source the brass to do the job which was a little difficult in Manjimup but thanks to some help, my dad sourced some from Perth and i put the lathe to work to turn up the first prototypes, with the final product providing a pleasing result.

Frame Construction