Alice Springs operations preparations

Hi All

Alice Springs moves closer to organised ops sessions, I have been busy testing various scenarios,

 Two new wireless controllers have been purchased, I set them for yard control.  thankfully Roger and Shelley came around for dinner and a get together "session", (always a pleasure) in the morning Roger and myself give the layout another ops session.  This testing proved that these controllers should not be set to yard control.

 I have also decided to add a crossover at the north end of the yard, so that lead units can sneak out, and back into the yard.

 DL39 proves a dedicated shunter at Alice Springs, I have also made the decision to add another crossover from the arrival - departure road, to road #3, again to stop trapping a train in the arrival departure road.  Its noted that in normal ops, 166 and 347 would not cross at Alice Springs.
Ops so far have proved that we can operate the yard while keeping the mainline and the arrival departure road clear, most of the time.

 Thanks to Leon we now have a decent storage capacity, Leon had a set of draws which were custom built a long time ago, however this set had a stack of water damage, at the bottom.  I reverse built the set , knocked it all down, and transported it back to my place, (with thanks to Les and Michael in transportation and logistics).
I wanted to store as much of the rolling stock at a convenient height, so I figured that I could make two sets of draws from the one big one, (thanks to Michael for the idea).  I made new ends, sides and shelves, and added heavy duty rollers.
Rebuilding basically took a day.
I am hoping to use the shelves to store the "exhibition" transit boxes and the useless Auscision storage boxes.  eventually I would also like to have my rail library stored under the layout like this.

This would mean that I would be able to free up another spare bedroom.  Which would be an advantage for for long into the night and "too many bourbon" operating sessions. Keep the chicks and the blokes happy.

 first and second draw is all the interchangeable stock for Alice Springs.

 Then there is the AN power draw.

 The ultra modern stock draw, not much yet.

 Stock that needs to be off the layout, for either repairs, not yet complete, not yet weathered, of just not appropriate for Alice Springs.

 Storage box shelving.

 The castors, this means that regardless of the layout I have in the room, I can move all this stuff around with a minimum of fuss.

 I plonked in the San Mateo Line signals at the south end of the yard.  yes they will be operating, not sure when.

GM20 and GM1 with the south bound Ghan, wait for the low speed caution, permission to get out of the yard, assuming the crew has completed a TC12 and have a valid TO.

Anyway, Enjoy

Scott