Tuesday Night

Second night of the working week has traditionally been a train club night. However with the demise of the club having a permanent home, then a formal structure, we have been left with a very informal bunch of guys who meet regularly and also have operating sessions on each other's layouts when time permits.

Last night one of my fellow modellers came over for our regular Tuesday Night catchup. Not having one the week before due to illness, we had a lot to catchup on in terms of info, stories and updates. It was then time to critique what I have been upto with my current passion of scratch building and painting. Results I'm very pleased with, I must say.

Then it was time to make a new loco net cable for him, showing and explaining some tips ie wires short as possible and a nice firm crimp. Then a new loco net plug on my duplex throttle following the recent Friday Night Operating Session. The plugs digitrax use were never designed for multiple insertions and use, another little downside of the product.

Then it was time to use the very popular jmri decoder pro to set up six locos. We found that one loco was very noisy and after manhandling the body off, we were able to tighten some screws and make sure nothing was rubbing. It's  amazing how a small space can amplify the noise.  So on to the programming track. Download the existing decoder settings into the roster table. On to the layout. Few laps around the scale mile circuit. Then fine tuning the starting point on throttle position 1. Then limiting the top speed. We repeated this until all were done. So we rewarded ourselves with a hot cuppa and home made boiled fruitcake, while surfing local rail fan web pages on the iPad.

What a great night. Good company, in a shed surrounded by something you enjoy doing. It really cannot get much better than that. Ohh hullo dear. Yes I'm coming.........