2012 September 09

2012 September 09    Thursday   (Page 32 of 35)

Ha the sun is out and it feels like its over 20C Great!

Well I guess that looks a lot better! Everything clamped in place so that I can find the mistakes before it is fixed in. You can see one of the double crosspieces furthest from the camera has a 35mm block on top. This block sits on top of the extension already fitted to the too short post 

 Putting another 8 legs here is not the way I want to go, however the 3 ply road bed is not very thick and needs reinforcing. End view shows the heavy clamps already deforming the road bed.

 Its not as bad as it looks, thank goodness
Now I need to centre the road bed then level everything up, glue the track bed after trimming the ends and then reinforce the bed. I first thought of sitting it on two 2 x 1 (inch) pine pieces, but experiments have shown that one will do the job, end on.

 Carefully cutting in the strengtheners should smooth out the gradient and fully support the road bed, hopefully no dips or twists just a smooth 1.5%

I need to think about things again so next time I hope to have this bit finished. Then spread the bench work down the length of the Island.
 I discovered another fault whilst temporarily installing the road bed. The gradient was actually 70 mm higher than I thought. I could not leave it like that, so I have decided to mount the decking for the Coal siding on 2400 x 600 box sections using 70 mm framing This reduces the gradient back, but also fixes the problem at the other end, by taking 70 mm out of the climb back up to the Wall on right of pictures.

Like I said need to think about it more
Cheers
Rod
 
  2012 September 22    Saturday

Still at it today.
Adjusted all the legs and screwed most of it together. Only a couple of clamps left to replace.
Have one of those new fangled "Renovators" Going to use it to cut slots in the tops of the legs to fit 38 x 19 pine 'strengtheners to sit under road bed. I think I have figured out how to get these strengtheners to slot in at a constant 1.5% gradient before gluing the road base straight on top.

On unlocking the "shed" this morning noticed that the TV was still not installed. Thinking about Bathurst in a few weeks, decided to build the permanent shelf in and set up the antenna, power cords etc. Lost a few hours there, but if I want to keep "working on the railroad", I am going to need the TV as well

Going to move the DCC power supply on to the short north wall as well (opposite the entrance door) Started moving power cords whilst fixing the TV.
This will put the transformer and the command stations and slaves in a more central location and help with shortening the distance to the end of the circuits. Rewiring will also help me sort out problems that have developed, as well as tidy up the early temporary connections...its never ending  

 

 Moving the turntable over high street will work

Cheers
Rod

 2012 September  24   Monday

 This cold has got worse. Saw the Doctor three times in 6 weeks, and I am supposed to ride it out. Nose running like a tap, head blocked, ears blocked and coughing my heart out every night. Supposedly hundreds of thousands of Victorians have it, but I am the only one I know around here. We think Tess brought it home from Child Care, although she still has a runny nose, appears quite comfortable. 10 years ago I would have been given 5 days of antibiotics and it would have been all over 6 weeks ago

Anyway I struggled on today and got the rest of the Loco Depot bench work in place as well as cutting out the turn table.

 But I am heading back to bed now, more when I am feeling better
Cheers
Rod

2012 October 5  Friday    The Start of Bathurst Weekend

Have been pretty crook, still!! My cough is still tearing me apart. No help from Doctor, as anti-biotics are not on these days
So my self cure on day 3 is working
symptom 1 Continuous raking coughs until lungs are cleared, resulting sore chest and throat and dull numbing headaches
Cure: 2 Paracetamol every 4 hours...works
Symptom 2 Runny nose heavy mucus....
Cure: Seretide Asthma puffer morning and night and Zirtec Hay-fever tablet mornings to dry up head
Symptom 3 Cannot lay down and sleep at night, continuous coughing erupts in the cool of the evening.
Cure: Set A/C for 22C and run all night. Take Duro Tuss Chesty Cough tablets and chesty cough liquid Forte
as required, but when laying head on pillow suck on one Anticol Throatie. This hard little jube will glue itself to
your top plate, dribbling down your throat, and stop the coughs...dead!! Long enough to get to sleep, at least.
Doctor Big Fat Zero !!
Self so far 100%

Now if it will only go away completely

Nothing much happening in the train room. However I am installing containers on top of my new SDS 65 foot OCY Flat cars...NICE!!

Cheers
Rod

 

2012 October 13  Saturday 

 Cumulus clouds lazily crossing a deep blue sky, and I have lost my cough! (And if you find it, please DO NOT send it back)   

 

 

Another reason to start the relocation, was to add the new power districts, which meant introducing two extra Digitrax power stations.
The DCS100 will be a spare but two DB150 @ 5 amps and two DSC100 @ 8 amps should give me plenty of umpph!! The transformer is a ..

PS2012 20 Amp Power Supply 12 to 23 VDC
Regulated power supply delivers more power with less heat for more efficient booster operation. Operate up to 4 Five amp boosters with the PS2012 supply.
I am told it should easily manage the 4 boosters as it is highly unlikely even one would demand full power at any time. In most cases the two 8 amp boosters would be doing all the work.
The transformer sitting beside the PS2012 is a home made toroidal based unit that can deliver 30 amps at a constant 16 volts ac. This unit was designed and built by Tony Kocuiba of McKenzie signalling fame. This will be a back up if necessary.

The smaller transformer is a switch mode speciality device producing 12 volts 30 amps for my LED lighting strips when I install them under the top baseboards to illuminate the bottom boards.

Well enough time wasting, turn this thing off and lets see if I can get the power back on, today

Cheers
Rod Y

2012 October 14    Sunday

Wiring of the Panels complete and tested ok. At this stage the Branch line is operating. Just need to replace some track and finalise the connections to the Helix. I think I need a couple of bridges also
Cheers
Rod

 

 

 Friday October 19 2012
Up early and started with lots of odd jobs in the studio.

First thing was finding where all my models were stored and sorting out the stuff that needed work on whilst I searched for engines that I needed for sound projects. The speakers and decoders have arrived
This left a few hours to start the project I originally thought I would do today. That is lift the Coal Sidings board 70 mm

Ok I'm doing it again! That is after spending a lot of time setting the baseboard up, and about to fit the plaster back drops, I discovered a problem
I had to lift Coal sidings about 70mm. This was because the curve up the hill into Wodonga was not allowed to exceed 1.5% and it did. The distance travelled was just not long enough.
The only fix was to rebuild the deck 70mm higher. First I started stripping out the original work This was Friday the 19th and although Gold Coast V/8's was on, I managed to get a few hours here on Sunday as well. The TV is invaluable

I think I already mentioned that the curve climb back into the long wall and Wanganella was also found to be too steep. So the lift fixed two bad mistakes I had built in previously

I must admit that I am getting pretty sick of all this double building. It seems that my age is catching up to me  

 

At this stage I decided that to save setting up time, I would leave the 70mm pine along the back in place, as it was perfectly levelled, and by clamping new material on top, I would be wasting the old material, but saving hours of set up time. Everything has been cut out and the posts have been lifted 70mm by screwing and gluing a block on top.

2012 October 22   Monday
 Beaut day, not a cloud in the sky!

 So this is where I got to today. Does not seem like much, but believe me, there is a heap of work here, cutting timber to shape, preparing the backdrop on the Wodonga Station side to take 240 mm of extra plaster to fill in the background near the bridges over House Creek. Also bolting wood attachment point beside the steel uprights to screw the plaster to. Then I had to prepare the new 70mm back board, attach the cross pieces and screw them in position after accurately locating them above the existing cross pieces (new bits just sat on top) Then clamp to original boards, check for level, and secure everything and check levels once again
Then using the large square, make sure everything was true, so I could replace the front board at the new higher level... All done!!

 So happily that bit is all finished.
Next job will be to bolt wooden uprights to the steel supports so that I have somewhere to screw the plaster too. Then prop up the top level securely, and then cutting out the plaster back drops. I also need to visit some local building sites to purchase some plaster off cuts to finish the job.
Remove the angle iron supports and fix the plaster in place before replacing the angle iron supports on top of the plaster. This will be a two man job, and Allan and I can do that next time he gets some time.
In this shot, you can see the 3 ply patches placed to help join the new plaster on the Wodonga Station side. Glued and screwed.


Well that's it from me
Happy Days All
Cheers
Rod

2012 October 28    Sunday

Well I did get to spend the last three days on the model railway. A lot of that time was drawing up and measuring the yard (Coal Siding) and getting ready an order for more track.

 
 This shot shows the back drops all finished on the south west side of the island. It took a while to organise it all, as I had to rig up a support to allow me to remove the angle brackets to put the plaster underneath once the two brackets closest to the camera were removed it took less than 20 minutes to cut out and mount each sheet.
Of course I had to build an extra post to extend the backdrop into the loop area.

 That clamp is still there Keep forgetting to screw it down.

 Three sheets in, six to go I am starting to run out of plaster. On the other side we were able to fit 2400mm sheets and it took little time, but this side will be all 1200mm sheets
Remember because the shop fitting supports are only 50mm wide and steel, I have to bolt 40mm x 40mm pine to each side of the supports because of the 1200mm joins. Just takes more time, but the plaster was left overs from my house when it was built. Its cost was virtually zero this time round

In between these other things I started a new record of locomotives in my Victorian Roster.

I have found 53 boxes!! And maybe more to come. Now I am going to work out which are keepers, to be honest, I am never going to afford 60plus sound decoders, and I am not happy to run them without sound..The bloody whistles don't work

So ends another productive weekend
Cheers
Rod


2012 November 10
 30 minute Victorian Railways BG girder bridge

G'day All What a wonderful day! Still not much getting done in the shed, however all the timber was picked up and with enough material in place , I only need the motivation to start again. Time not truly wasted because I sorted out a few things, and I now have a better idea of how to go about doing things that I am wanting done next. Today was a bit of a mess, motivated but with visitors and a trip to Wodonga, little got done.

But it was not a total waste of time. I have been trying to buy RTR typical Victorian Railways bridges without success. So when I saw these unlikely Atlas Plate Girder bridges I got an idea how to rebuild them into a typical bridge Rivet counters can just go away (anyway their are far to many to count  

Take one Atlas plate girder bridge (about $20 if you buy it in Aus) Tell yourself that it looks nothing much like the bridges we have on the North East. The girders need to be on the bottom!
Make two cuts lengthways exactly 15mm from each edge. I started this with a sharp spike and created a deep scribe line then opened it up carefully with a scalpel. And no I did not slice myself up, because I thought about what I was doing. Going Automatic always creates grief
Very carefully deepen the scribe line and snap the girders away. You are now left with the track piece. Put aside after cleaning up the edges with a bastard file  

Clean up with a file. Take one girder and take another 8mm off one side.

 

 

 Clean up all cut edges with a file.

 

 

 

 

 Test fit the girders under the track bed. The girders should sit under the rails when closed up tight together. Line them up and glue in place I used MEK or an equivalent because it almost instantly holds the parts together You have just enough time to move them back into place if they moved on you.

 

 

 I then used white glue to attach sleepers along each edge to hold the ballast.
Next job will be to purchase miniature bolt heads and install, as well as paint the bridge red oxide, the sleepers and rail appropriately.
Then ballast and I have a 65foot VR BG bridge for the North East

one down and 4 to go

Cheers
Rod