The Full Monty (Python that is!)

It was only a matter of time that we had another visit from one of the National Parks neighbours. I should expect the occasional visit from wild life living so close to the bush. We seem to have the annual pilgrimage of the brush turkeys, possums and recently two days in a row a large goanna decided to walk up the front driveway and then disappear down the back yard.
The other day we were visited by a rather long diamond python. My wife spotted him (her? hard to tell) It was a warm day and he just slithered for a while over the warm concrete and then shot off into the garden. After taking a photo I went to warn my neighbour in case they got a sudden surprise. Being an ex National Park worker he rang a mate to come and take him back to the bush, but when we looked again for him he was gone. Never to be seen again. I suppose it is not a big deal with many of you having also come across snakes.

A visit from Monty

Ballast laid with weeds to come

There is never any shortage of jobs, both large and small to do to complete a layout. Picking out the one to do is the hard part. I decided to add some more ballast on the other side of the level crossing at Eden that leads to the goods yard. It was just a small section but like doing a jigsaw it filled in another spot. The above photo shows a cardboard outline of a factory/building that will serve the dead end siding. A VR narrow gauge buffer stop has been installed to stop any runaway wagons ending up on the road.

After the rains come the weeds and flowers

 For this area I have used the usual dirt from the local streets to provide ballast, I think it works well and the best part - it is free. The siding is typically more covered than the 'main line'.

Harry has stopped off to pick some flowers for his wife

Rolling into Eden

The critical piece of infrastructure for the Yowaka River bridge was obtained yesterday in the form of a piece of U shaped aluminium channel. After doing my calculations on a dodgy plan of the Thomson River bridge, I calculated that I needed a piece of channel 33mm wide and 15mm deep. After searching the web site of DIY Metal Supplies I found I was in luck that they had a stock size of 32mm wide and 16mm high. For a piece over 3 metres long it was only $13.26. Yes an exact figure. I dealt with a really nice guy there Mike and after I told him what I wanted it for and showing him a few phone photos, he understood as he had done some wargaming. So he wants to see some completed bridge photos one day. He cut it down to a piece 2 metres long for me as the bridge measures around 1.98 metres. So I have an offcut for another smaller version!.

The track will sit on top of the channel

I now think I have all the bits and pieces ready to make a start soon. I have ordered some rivet decals off Ebay this week and will trial them on the bridge. They might work easier than drilling countless holes to set the plastic rivets I have on standby. It is a big project but one I want to tackle and by saying I am modelling a bridge that looks horribly like the Thomson River bridge, I have an 'out' if I stuff up somewhere!
In the above photo the stripwood is ready in the tubes, the laser cut beams are ready in the bag and the long strip of foam for the concrete pylons is ready.
I plan to work out from one side adding the bridge top and sides. Once this is done then I will put the pylons up under the bridge and glue them into place. That's the current idea anyway. It's going to take a while to wade through the plans to work out how to do it. More on the bridge as it happens.