Hobbies / Books   (Gardening, walking, books, films, theatre etc.)

Sorry Folks, not much of an update I am afraid, Thanks to all of you that keep looking in though!
Most of my activity lately has been trying to get some trains running on a more reliable basis than they were, along with converting some of the older models to run on the Digital Command Control system.
Whatever happened to twirling a knob on top of a transformer ? it would seem I am rapidly becoming qualified to land the manned flight on Mars!
We just had our first 'warm' days of spring ( ie: > 32deg) which has then caused an assortment of issues with trackwork that has been in place now for several years!
The lift up 'bridge' section that allows ease of access into the train room without having to go down on your hands and knees to get under the layout suddenly grew (over night almost ) by 2mm in length and would not close fully, it is either heat expansion or the wood has started to grow again!
Having cured that I then discovered the reason for all the trains derailing on a 4' radius curve was that again due to heat the rails had grown in length and broken all the chairs that hold the rail to the sleepers in one section allowing the outer wheels on anything passing to drop of the rail!
Ripped up that section and replaced it and off we went, Hurrah!

Now believe this ( or not ) but it is a fact that if the Adelaide to Darwin Rail line was fixed hard at Adelaide and only allowed to expand towards Darwin of a Hot day the buffers at Darwin would end up more than a Kilometer out to sea !

ps. Tried my first beer since my treatment finished (12 months ago) still tastes B. Awful
Bugger