Easter and taking stock

It's Easter - great I'll get a lot done this extra long weekend.

What dear? you want the family to go down the coast? Oh well!

Friday, coast trip.

Saturday, mundane work, shopping and household stuff - plus a quick blog entry.

Sunday, one of my biannual trips to church, hopefully not a family dinner afterwards.

Monday, Shh!, she hasn't said anything. Maybe, just maybe.

Back to the blog content:

Layout update:

I've ordered some construction timber and 2 marine ply boards for the base so we are on our way.

I've also ordered some 6mm cork floor underlay - way cheaper in the long run than buying track underlay

and can be used as a soft base on flat scenic areas too (no foam for me)

It just needs a bit of cutting.

And as I write this, I realize I didn't order any 3mm ply, which will be the base for all the raised track

and used as supports on the inclines.

I'll have to buy smaller sheets that will fit in the car once I'm close to needing them.

I might now use the cheaper MDF for the track base and ply for the structural stuff - we'll see.

Track rethink:

I found I can manage another 200mm to the width, so I'll spread the layout to suit, which

will ease tight curves and reduce gradients a little bit, otherwise same as original plan.

I'll do a rough physical track layout on the flat baseboard once finished before I set anything in stone.

Taking stock:

I mentioned in the first post about selling off some of my early purchases of locos and rolling stock.

Well first I'd better work out exactly what I have got.

As soon as they were purchased, most were packed away in plastic storage boxes to keep them safe for later on.

Time to pull everything out and sort them.

I'm listing them all in a spreadsheet and adding notes, then creating 4 piles:

1. KEEP - These are usable as is and will not be sold

2. REPAIR - These need work done, be it a service, repaint, repair of broken bits etc.

Their keep/sell or junk bin status will be decided after I've fixed them up

3. SELL - ok to sell as is.

4. UNDECIDED - These are in ok condition but I'm not sure if I want to hold on to them or not as yet.

I have more stock than I realized, 26 locos 40 coaches and over 60 wagons.

You'll see the first batch of sellers on Ebay shortly.

The "REPAIR" pile is huge, so I think this is going to take up much of my workbench time.

The keep items will be worked on and hopefully improved after I've cleared the repair backlog.

No progress on the model today - one solebar was so warped I had to heat it

and flatten against a steel rule to get it anywhere close and that's all I did other than the stocktake.

Next update will be assembled model.