Thanks to Tony Walsham being in town for the Liverpool Exhibition over the long weekend it was decided to have an impromptu running day on the Tuesday following.  I hadn't had a chance to run trains for some time, or to photograph the layout with my new camera, so, despite only Tony, Bill Cooper and an anonymous person who was supposed to be at work (G'day Mike!) attending we had a good time and I got to try out my newly fitted RCS control system in No 2 and get quite a few photos!

Apart from the usual leaves and other debris that normally has to be cleared before trains can run there was the odd tree trunk, brought down during a big windstorm about a month ago.  Had to use the chainsaw on this one!

As mentioned in the introduction, No 2 has now been fitted with RCS radio control and Sierra sound
and is a far more useful engine than it had been as a track powered loco. 

Looking very "Mt Lyellish" No 2 pounds upgrade with a short mixed train.  This trestle is about half way up 
"Bottom Rd", which is still known as such despite the zig zag having been abolished in mid 2001.

The other big change is the complete rebuilding of the station previously known as Possum Creek.  The station is now known as Possum Point and features this wharf.  The RVR now has an outlet to the world!

Looking in the other direction at the new Possum Point, Tom can be seen shunting No 12 backwards into the station 
in preparation for another trip up the line to Devlins.

No 2 stands at Possum Point with a train, ready to depart up the Rurr Valley with empties for the smelter at Devlins.

After leaving Possum Point trains proceed up the old "Bottom Rd" to the watering point and Telephone Block Post at Bottom Points.
No 2 and her mixed train are approaching the junction at Bottom Points, where the track above joins.   That track is the old "Middle Rd" which now forms the first section of the line to Devlins, but No 2 will have to proceed past the junction to Underpool and run around her train before she can access the line to Devlins.

No 1 is proceeding towards the Dragonrock Bridge, having left Bottom Points. 
The scenery is starting to look suitably "West Coast"!

No 1 proceeds past the halt at Dragonrock.  Until recently, Dragonrock had a siding, but with the evolution of 
traffic working on the RVR it had fallen into disuse and has been removed.

There has been a bit of construction activity at the Underpool end of the line as well.  Underpool was for many years a single ended 4 road "fiddle yard", but earlier in 2003 I finished off the trackwork at the outer end, transforming the station to a Main, Loop and double ended goods siding arrangement.  There is still a temporary single ended "Construction Siding" as part of the layout, but this will be removed when the extension that No 1 is standing on in the photo above is completed.  The extension will take the form of a reverse loop and when it is completed trains will be able to proceed directly from Possum Point to Devlins without having to reverse at Underpool, as is currently the case.  Darren, if you are wondering what happened to your Bachmann mine building, here it is!

Once trains have reversed at Underpool they proceed back through Dragonrock and turn left at Bottom Points for Devlins, or go straight ahead if their destination is Possum Point.  No 1 has just departed from Underpool with the empty timber trucks and is proceeding over the "Mt Lyell" trestle bridge.  

  Tony Walsham's modified Bachmann 4-4-0 passes the site of the now removed siding at Dragonrock.

Tony Walsham's 4-4-0 approaches Bottom Points over the Dragonrock bridge.

No 2 taking water at Bottom Points with a train for Devlins.   Left for Devlins, straight ahead for Possum Point.

Tony's 4-4-0 takes water at Bottom Points and prepares for the gruelling climb to Devlins up the old Middle Rd 
and around the tight curves of the deviation, which has been aptly named "Cape Horn" by Bill Cooper!

Having turned left at Bottom Points No 1 is well into the steep grade of the old Middle Rd on her way to Devlins.  While not as steep as it was in the days of the zig zag, the nominal 1 in 20 grade from Bottom Points all the way to Devlins timber siding is a severe test of men and machines, or should that be batteries and adhesion!

Having conquered the grade No 1 drifts into Devlins to be greeted by the Station Master.  The "temporary" printed and painted paper station building is still performing yeoman service and is likely to do so for some time yet!  Devlins has a Loop, and three single ended sidings.

One of the sidings is an extension of the main line and is regarded as the "branch" to the smelter and is used as "staging" to use the American idiom.  Appropriate vehicles are shunted into the siding and left for the next train to extract to represent the loading and unloading cycle.  It is regarded as very bad form on the RVR to have the same wagons in your train on the return journey as were conveyed on the outbound trip!

Having placed its incoming vehicles in the appropriate siding and extracted the outgoing traffic,
No 1 stands at Devlins prior to proceeding down "The Hill".

No 2 is traversing "Cape Horn", heading back down the hill to Bottom Points and eventually to the coast at Possum Point.

A bit further down the hill and No 2 approaches the tunnel.  If this were a real train there would be billowing clouds of brake dust and showers of sparks from the wheel rims as the driver eased the train gingerly down the grade (hopefully) under control with handbrakes on the wagons screwed down hard.

Eventually, after running to Underpool and reversing a train from Devlins will return via the Dragonrock bridge
and proceed down the old Bottom Rd to terminate at Devlins.  No 1 still has a way to go as it treads gingerly over the bridge.

Nearing journey's end, Tony Walsham's Bachmann 4-4-0 proceeds down the old Bottom Rd.  Modified, this engine reminds me of the Queensland A14 class, perhaps the management of the RVR could be persuaded to look to Qld for future prototypes......

Back at Possum Point and RVR Nos 2 and 12 take a well deserved rest in the engine siding.

All is quiet at Possum Point.  The RVR's passenger cars rest in the yard, No 12 simmers in the engine siding
and a couple of wagons wait on the wharf sidings.

Bill Cooper bought along a number of his fine models, including this modified Bachmann or LGB gondola.

Definitely under the heading of future projects is this recently acquired vehicle.  It came as part of a toy train set that Coles is selling for about $30- and it included this, which appears to be a sheep wagon, perhaps based on a Spanish prototype and a rather powerful little 0-6-0T of somewhat Germanic appearance.  Current thinking is to make the sheep truck a 4 wheel vehicle along the lines of the Tasmanian Grover bogie wagons