The Costerfield Line - Rebuilding the Great Caravan Railway
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27th Febuary 2005



Mark has been slowly making progress, here's a log of the last few weeks:

19/2/2005

Got fishing line, eye hooks and lead weights for turnout control.

21/2/2005

Caravan chassis sold for $200 on ebay.

22/2/05

Drilled 3 holes for turnout actuation.

24/02/05

Installed 3 tie bars.

27/02/05

Installed blades and tie bars on complex track formation at Graytown, except for the double compound which still needs a few blades made. Now considering using the Joe Fugate method of turnout actuation which uses a piece of spring steel wire to both return the blades to normal and project through the road bed to move the tie bar. I hope to move the fishing line by using ex Telecom key switches. As these switches have a hole below the pivot point I have to do one of the following to get the movement I want:
  • drill hole above pivot point in key switch which would complicate the switch mounting
  • pull from aisle side
  • reverse the logic, normal is when line is pulling against spring,reverse is when spring is holding blades against the stock rail.

The complex track formation needs some logic in the blade actuation that dictates that most will be electrically controlled.

Mark




Page written & maintained by David Head.
david@nmit.vic.edu.au