2014/12/01

2014_12_01

2014_12_01 December? but it was just January??
Very hot day with just a little cloud cover after a spectacular light show which was illuminating cumulus clouds brightly, with only an occasional flash of lightning to be seen this side of the mountains,.in pitch blackness last night.

So here I sit 1227 pm and still drinking my (cold) breakfast coffee.  Have fed the grand daughters rabbit and hung out the family washing. Found ants in the house and organized a can of surface spray.

The Studio is still locked up and mate Tony is on his way from Bendigo for the night.
Hardly seems worth while starting another project today :(

Cheers
Rod

Edit 2337 hrs
Well Tony arrived and we did accomplish a few things. We swapped Austrains G Class number and headboards so that we finished up with FA and V/line numbers not released. Suited us both actually :)

Then we fooled around with sound chips Finished off 4483? needing only reapply the couplers tomorrow. Listen to two Alco's destroying the peace. If only we could duplicate the clouds of black exhaust without suffocating ourselves :D
Did not like the Loksound 251 series engine. To be honest it sounds like an EMD with a piston hanging out the side to me. So I substituted the older sounds just because it sounded more like the engines I did remember (to me at least as an EMD driver for VR)





















Model:DL500B
Type:Diesel-Electric
Builder:AE Goodwin
Introduced:1957
Road Numbers:4401 - 44100
Number Built:100
Preserved -2
Preserved - Operational -7
Scrapped -81
Stored -9
Under Restoration -1
Length:17.81 m
Mass:108.00 t
Axles:Co-Co
Engine:Alco 12-251B
Generator:GE 5GT581
Traction Motors:GE731 also AEI253 also AEI254
Power:1455 kW (1950 HP)
Starting Traction:339 kN
Continous Traction:204 kN at 18 km/h
Maximum Speed:121 km/h

2014_11_30 (Thanks Bluesteel :)

Strewth Another month gone? Its true the older you get the faster your clock spins :(

Apologies to all for forgetting my obligations to this blog. Big things are in the planning but only little things are going on at the minute, thus my tardy lack of entries this last month or so.

Wiring is uninteresting! More so when a fault suddenly crops up and you spend days unplugging circuits to find out where the fault is :(
Breakdowns of equipment just as uninteresting.
Nothing new has turned up.
My dear Mother and Father moved down from the Gold Coast to Narre Warren. Why would you do that ?? So lots of time lost to the railway with trips to Melbourne for visits and other things.

So although lots of things have happened a day goes something like this.


 About 10.00 am  Check one
Turned on the air conditioner a week ago and sprung a leak externally on the roof, and it is fixed now.
So opened up the studio and set the conditioner working whilst I checked the circuits that had played up the night before.


13.8 volts at 3.0 amps Running hot check the volts delivering 3.4 v.  Continuing on from last night I started removing parts of the circuit  starting furthermost away. disconnected Tortoise motors and Digitrax  UP5 connectors (the reason for the circuit. The fault lies on the upper modules, as 13.8v is available on the lower sections when top is disconnected.
Check all connectors, ensure all Tortoise connectors are central and not shorting, and eventually about midday the green all working LED is glowing brightly. No idea what was wrong, tightened up the joints and insulated a few so I must have fixed it doing that.


A Win!! green LED indicates all is well once again.

Make a cuppa.. Grand Daughter wants to watch a movie, so set that up and make us both a sandwich. About 1.00pm back out to a nice cool shed. Whats next?

Nice easy job to start things off. I have an orange CLP and it is much too modern for me, but I did find an AN green and Gold body in the junk box. Lets convert it over and check out the sound unit. Bugger its a Digitrax sound bug, stuff all I can do with that, will have to save up for a new decoder.


Little bit of paint under the step and a globe for the marker lights but that can wait for the new sound chip.

Look at the time its 2.15 so what is next?


Had a dummy 44 Class decided to repower it using a cheap 930 chassis. Had to swap everything into the 44 Class chassis because the 930 one is not going to fit.

Lets find an Alco sound chip for it. For some reason the cab interior and the lighting bar will not fit into place so I need to glue it together. Where are those pegs, so I can put it aside?

932 had clicking wheels, so I made some adjustments to the gearing and it is ready for assembly and fitting sound.


Ok the cab clipped together ok this time. Remove one speaker as the Loksound unit has its own speaker which I sealed into its sound enclosure with Khrystal Kleer and attached into the vacated speaker hole over the rear bogie.


Its 4.15 and the new Loksound Select needs a sound loaded on so that will take an hour at least. It took two hours and as I left for Dinner at 6.30 I finally (after two attempts) got the sound loaded and fitted to the engine.


Tried to multi up the CL and the DL, however after running very well since I fitted the Loksound 710 chip it failed and will need looking at. 


Recent projects Tsunami into the 81 and Loksound micro into the F class

This is the SEM conversion E car now fitted with Auscision wheels. Much better :) The flimsy multi piece SM bogies came apart after a derailment.




Whilst tracing out the earlier wiring fault, I noticed that this point was warped, So I did manage to glue it down under a few bricks, and the job looks like its ok now.

Unfortunately this does not sound anything like my 932, Not sure why not? It is an expensive camera?

Its 1134 and I need a cuppa. Closed up the shed and wrote this page for the blog. Long day and only a little of the backlog of work actually did get done.
But thats working on the Railway for you :D
Cheers
Rod Young