Tenterfield Tall Timber Company

Tenterfield Tall Timber Company (A Tale of 2 Shays)



The TTTC's total loco fleet sits at Tenterfield Loco Depot. No.6 sits on the Middle Road awaiting the arrival of a sound technician and a painter wouldn't be bad idea either to remove the identity of the previous owner. No.5 sits on the Fitters Road and a NSWGR 13 class is in the background on the Knock Out Road.



The area surrounding Tenterfield have been a great source of timber for many years and I understand that this was the cargo on the last freight train out of the town!

This together with a great love of any steam loco that has cylinders that are not fundamentally parallel to the railway line caused “the man with the moustache that twitches” to issue an edict that Tenterfield must have a Shay to haul timber to the mill!!!!  What mill, I haven’t got the Shell depot yet!

Next thing there was a Bachmann 80 ton 3 truck Shay and a sound decoder, all I had to do was put them together!

So the next few photos show how this was achieved. The photos are fairly self explanatory so I won't bother adding captions. These locos already have a PC board in the rear water tank (maybe it’s the only water tank!) which can be retained if you are using a non-sound decoder.

 As we were using sound decoders I decided to slice the PC board into 3 pieces.

The front part was kept as it contained the 2 & 4 pin plugs for the electrical leads from the front of the loco. The 2 pin plug is the track pick-up and the 4 pin plug is the motor and front headlight.

The back part was kept as it contained the rear headlight.

Both of these boards also contained mounted screws for securing the PC board to the body of the tender. The middle part of the PC board was removed as this is where the speaker needs to be installed.

The speaker was a ½” round Soundtraxx. I constructed a styrene box to install the speaker in, which seems to work OK.

Obviously I had to do some serious drilling in the bottom of the tender to let the sound escape. I also took the opportunity to install a sound cam to determine if this option was worth the bother.

I glued the decoder and supplied capacitor to the inside top of the water tank. Everything seems to fit in OK. You have to remember not to make the speaker box too high or it may cause some problems.



 We ended up doing 2 of these (traffic must be on the increase already). One, TTTC No.5 has worked perfectly and that included using the axle cam for sound syncing. However, I’m having a couple of teething problems with the 2^nd loco, TTTC No.6.

Firstly it stops for no reason, and then goes again, which it didn't do in pre-DCC days! Initially I thought this may have been a short circuit but it doesn’t trip my NCE Power Cab so I think it is probably an open circuit or bad solder joint. I’ve re-soldered all the joints in the tender where the decoder is so I may have to look further afield. Whatever it is, its bl##dy frustrating!

The 2^nd problem is that there is a clicking sounding generated when the sound is on. This may be because No.6 has a light to simulate the red glow of the firebox. That is the only difference between the 2 locos so I’m guessing there may be some magic electronics connected to this that is hidden in the main part of the loco. Hopefully the next update will have some good news on this issue.

 To all those trekking to Liverpool next weekend, remember before you hand that plastic over; “Is it a WANT or a NEED!”

Argg what the hell just do it!  

Until then enjoy your modelling.







Tenterfield Abattoir gains a rail connection

Hi Everyone,

Like many fellow blogger I’m lagging way behind in an update!

Firstly to all those fathers out there I hope you have had an enjoyable Father’s Day! Perhaps as part of my celebration of the day I’m being allowed 20 minutes away from my normal list of non-train jobs to type out this long overdue post.



Abattoir's loading ramp will be on the left hand track.
Note the lack of space behind the track which means
relief type structures will be the order of the day.



 Tenterfield moves ahead; unfortunately the scenery makeover has not yet started but we do have another industry from which to generate traffic. There was a Tancred’s abattoir at the northern end of the township and a Google search reveals it operated until 1981.  Unfortunately there isn’t much left to investigate or photograph. The track diagrams I have indicate the facility was accessed by a set of “up” facing points with an internal loop. I assume that this would have been shunted at the same time as the stockyards as these were only about 400 or 500 metres south of the abattoir and had a loop off the main line. This would have saved having to propel wagons all the way back to the yard at Tenterfield.

My version of the abattoir siding is a bit more complex. The design will allow an operator to take a train off the main line, shunt and still allow others to run mainline trains.



Entrance to the Abattoir sidings from the main
with the run around loop in the distance.
Note the vertical clearances!!



 The buildings themselves will be in relief as the complex will be on a section of the layout which is only 450mm wide and that includes the main line which is located at the front of the scene. It is also challenging because of my planning error in only allowing 300mm vertically between the 2 levels. Hindsight is a wonderful thing!! I planned the layout of Tenterfield yard in great detail but underneath it I simply allowed for out of site storage. However, as construction progressed it became very obvious that trains were not going to be seen for considerable periods of time. This resulted in a re-think of how to turn some previously hidden areas into an area where one can watch a train go by and also increase the operational interest. Yes, next time if it’s a multi level layout the top level will be 1500mm + and the lower level will be something like 1000mm so there will be a 500mm separation. I’m trying to see it as a modelling challenge rather than a disadvantage!

The track diagram may help to make sense of the photos which will also give some idea of the tight space available.

Sketch / Track Diagram of the Abattoir & Mainline

 Just waiting on some tortoise motors to arrive and then this should be operational. The final bit of track to then go in will be the passing loop half way up the climb to Bungulla. There will probably also be a goods siding and maybe this is where that Shell siding could go that I mentioned in the previous post. Those new SDS oil tanker wagons certainly would look good.

Perhaps I could also use the oil tankers at Tenterfield itself as the town had an operational power station until the 1970’s which was supplied by rail!

Until next time enjoy your trains.