Today was a bit of this and a bit of that type of day. (Reminds me of Mambo No 5)

On the way to the club I stopped by Bunnings and picked up a large burr for the Dremel tool so I could make some drains later in the day - you'll see.

I started with a little dirt and grass application along some of the branch/industrial tracks on the middle peninsula.

Next I decided to do a tiny bit of cutting and shaping of some foam at the top of the helix - just to see what it might come out like. I think once a smear of no more gaps material and dirt and we'll be on our way to a nice rock wall.

While I was at it, Doug was doing some work in the canyon/gorge where the bridges are going. He was adding in some support for the ends of the middle bridge. While he was at it, he gave the jolly green bridge a lick of engineering type grey - it now just needs a coat of a dulling compound and she's right to go.

I then did just a little, about 30 cm, of drainage ditch along one track at the base of the helix. Peter A is working on making that area a very highly detailed scene - will be very nice. So to that end a bit more three dimensionality is required. So a bit of cutting into the deck with that new burr I bought and the Dremel to give a drain along the tracks will work nice for part of the scene. The drain I did today can be seen at the bottom of the photo in front of the outer track.

The last bit of scenery I did today was to grab a shovel and bucket and head out back of the club shed and down to the creek. I needed more "dirt" as I am out of it. So I got a half bucket of clay/silt from the dry banks of the creek. This I spread out in the shed to dry so it can be pulverized and sieved on Saturday.

So then it was a bite of lunch with all the fellas. I reckon we need a longer table as there are so many we now have to split into two groups! After feeding the worms, we all went and played some trains on the layout. Well, I played with my HO scale Auscision NSW 45 class loco which I found again at home and saw that I hadn't even gotten around to putting a decoder in it yet! 5 months I've had it - so now it does have a decoder. I installed a LokPilot V4 21 pin decoder. One day I'll get a sound decoder for it, but this will do for a while I reckon.

I do have to admit, Auscision made some good design choices with the 45. The packaging is great and sturdy and protects the loco well. The internal design has plenty of space for the decoder to sit and it is an easy plug-in install - no soldering - love it.

And as a surprise, when I got home there was a parcel card, so off to the PO before I got too settled at home. Collected a long thin parcel. Yep, it was some more LEDs. It has been some time since my last look at what is available out there in the LED strips for use on a layout. So I've ordered the latest two types being used so I can test and compare against those already tested by myself. Once tested I'll release my report to all. So today's arrival wasn't a 5 m strip, but 10 x 50 cm hard strips which I have plans for. There are 36 LEDs on each 50 cm strip and the LEDs are the 8520 type. The two 5 m strips I am waiting to test are of the 8520 LEDs and the 7020 LEDs. So stay tuned in the coming weeks for an illuminating article...  Geez I'm a funny bugger :o)