Greymouth 2 - Moduleing on

DB in another West Coast land grab. 

I don't remember where I left the Greymouth piece off, but some legs have been built with long 'bottoms' to be trimmed later...

...and the top was primed, and some basic track surface (thin basswood sheet from Mitre 10) added in a few key spots:

Next up from the Master Plan...

...we need the intermediate module that will host the Grey station and the yard tracks. This has been pondered for some time, but should be fairly quick to make. 

I have no idea where it came from, but I have a long piece of fairly thin ply about 39cm wide, so cut some fresh 18mm stuff into sections the same width wide to bolster that top sheet with:

And then some sides from Bunnings were added:

And there it is resting on the garage floor, as always, in the hope it will set flat. This only took about half an hour to make once the first cut was made, and this won't need any legs, because Elmer Lane and the Yard Throat/Riverside modules are plenty pedal.

Indeed, this has continued to come together super quickly. It was primed, and blacked up on top with some 99 cent shop paint.

It then came inside and was clamped onto Elmer Lane so holes for dowels and a bolt/wingnut could be made while the faces were mated together. Then today I decided to cut out some copper PCB strips for soldering the rails to at the ends.

The tracks started to reach out for the other end, so PCB was cut and attached there too. And before you know it, five of the six tracks are ready for soldering to the PCB and wiring up. 

Once I've used a Dremel to cut the rails strung between this module and Elmer Lane, the awkward 'new' turnout into Elmer Lane can be laid, along with the third road out from the platform. This is just sitting there at the moment. The platform will be located on the far side in the pic above, or on the right in the one below.

This is basically the access track for the loco depot, which is a bit silly, but that's the way things had to be, given that the extended south end of the station extends well beyond the Elmer Lane throat which has marched north.

I was going to put a small passing loop on that third track, perhaps for storing the Rewanui passenger train, but given the price of PECO points these days, I'll just make it a siding with the turnout at the Grey River end as shown here. A dead-end siding will be more capacious too, so it could also fit a 1990s TranzAlpine or a little work train.

As you might just be able to make out in the above pic, I've finally gotten a look at what a good-length train will look like on this. The coal train above is 32 wagons incl guards van, plus 2 locos, and over 2.2m long. The three rear yard tracks might fit 2.5m trains. 

But whether such trains can be dragged around the Roundhouse loop is another matter! Soon we shall see.