MERRY CHRISTMAS 2022

Best Wishes from all of us here at Hobsons bay North

Here is a video for you all.

You Tube

 

Cheers All 

Rod and the gang.

Home about 8 weeks and time for an update.

 A video update.

We have been bogged down for many months with wiring problems and also coming to grips with using servo motors to control points and signals.

The point controllers have caused many problems, and recently I was fortunate to discover a solution.

Simple Servos

 

These controllers are simple to set up, and they just work!!

 

Here is an update video.

 

Apologies for the mess, but it does show a lot of work has been going on.

Lets start cleaning up, before we take another video of running trains.

Cheers

Rod

A sad end for Bally Hooley

 Balley Hooley is now a static restaurant. Money not available to keep it running!

The three engines are supposed to be in good running order. However the volunteers were unable to keep railway running. I think the old men sealed their fate when not attracting new young blood over the years.

Touring in my caravan

 No model trains as I am still touring in my van. I am heading south again,though slowly.

So here is a pictorial history of the last few days.

Before departing Port Douglas my son fixed the water leak in my hot water service. We were going to bronze it up, however I found a new unit for $1065 in Cairns So decided to replace it.

Badly installed dissimilar metals. Could not budge it, Finally sheered it right off.

plywood floor was probably saved by this aluminium tray,

We could have ordered a new steel tank, however no idea how long it would take.

Here my son attacks the brass fitting knowing it would certainly break.

The leak dribbled for several weeks and finally burst. We tapped away all the rust and found this hole,

The leak probably started behind this badly welded bracket? left lower...

This was supposed to be new unit, but cannot find that picture.

Anyway unit went straight back in and works very well

Cheers

Rod

2022_07_10 Bloody Hell!!! Where did four months go to?

 2022_07_10  Sorry about the (lack of) posts. 

And thank you to all who have inquired about me. No I still have not got covid, and am still not vaccinated. I don't sit around home, and am out and about as normal. Health is pretty good, although nearing my 77th birthday, I am exhausting myself more than I remember before.  

                                                                                                                                                                THE LAYOUT  

    Its not because we have not been working on the Railway.

Its more like working hundreds of hours and yet nothing much accomplished :(

Wiring has always been my problem and that includes soldering. And that's why we used spade connectors to make our joins. And no that has never been a problem, not once!

However the spades have made trouble shooting much easier. With over 500+ spades being purchased, and all failures caught at installation. Either failed to grab wire, or  difficult to push into main buss thus breaking spade off.

Trouble shooting? If you have a short in an isolated section, just remove connector and follow through till fault goes away. Fix and move along. Imagine using solder instead of spades. Ok Ok I know some of you "experts" out there don't make mistakes and never ever have to redo connections. Sadly that's not me, it would seem.

Trouble shooting is done using Poses track detectors, and multi meters. Yesterday a friend (Graeme who we will show building backdrops later) Built a battery operated buzzer to detect shorts. This caused us a lot of problems.

As an example . If I test between rails with the meter set to ohms and buzzer, I get no responses in some places. When we ran the buzzer over same connection, we get a short indication. So far I have found that you must remove all trains and illuminated carriages from track. And as my Tam Valley devices also run off the DCC buss, I am wondering if we are still on the same fools errand. Getting under the layout to disconnect every TAM device would be a real problem, 6 months into the chase to find out why the Albury section of the layout is no longer working. The c/b is tripped allowing the rest of the layout to run perfectly.... 

Tonight I will make a video of the fault and we can try to work this out together. I am sure it will be solved by one of you :D

The last backdrops (hiding the brick walls are in. Thank you Graeme, who designed and installed them.

 

BACKDROPS

Pictures tell the story again. 

Who put the bricks in front of the backdrop built to hide the bricks??

All we need to do is blue them up a bit :D

Cheers

from all of us :D

2022_03_17 Model Railway Show

 2022_03_17 Murray Railway modellers Exhibition 2022

2022_02_21 Flour Mill for Albury

 2022_02_21  Posty arrived with a parcel :D

As usual some pictures

Nicely packed as promised.

Need to work out where this bit goes?

The building will turn 180 deg. of course.

Going to have to add a bit on here to place the flour mill and a silo.

Store it here till it gets to Albury.

Cheers

Rod

2022_02_14 Public Service post

 2022-02-14  K&M Mech gears

darleyworkshops@gmail.com

special tool available for setting up new gears

2022_02_13 Getting rid of the brick wall (pt3)

 2022_02_13 More camouflage!

Saturday workday.

Graeme and Al arrived to do some much needed work on the railway. Whilst Al actually came to see Graeme work on the backdrops and have a catch up.

I eventually coerced him into another frustrating day, tuning point motors and wiring. Both of us helping Graeme as required.

This is the East wall and as such is much easier than the fully insulated west wall, which was producing so much heat on long summer days.

Top backdrops all cut out, just waiting for glue to dry to remove clamps and glue the long sheets into place

Starting on the bottom as well.

Cuts a lot of light out, but the back drops will protect the trains from UV damage. All LED light tubes are fitted as well,

Did not get it all glued down, however the top is all cut out and long pieces will glue in when clamps removed.

now we need to start glorious sanding and painting :(

Cheers Rod

2022_01_18 Getting rid of the brick wall (pt2)

 2022_01_18  Buying masonite and wet bending it

(or what the hell is masonite?)

 

Masonite is not made in Australia anymore (I believe) But it is a much safer pressed sheet than what is currently available. As well it bends to shape when wet and dries out quickly, retaining its new shape.

Cuts easily with a jigsaw or as seen here with a router.

We then glued and nailed it to the brick piers and filled in the gaps using glue and clamps.

 OK so lets try and make a CHEAP CONTROL PANEL, that anybody can understand.

Found a $4 picture frame at REJECT Shop and disassembled it. 

Then cut out a piece of perspex to replace the glass and left the paper protector in place. I then drew out the schematic track  and marked out where the switches had to go (on paper) 

Next job was to transfer diagram to perspex and drill out the switch layout. I had some Tam Valley Octopus switches and decided to use them here, at Wanganella.

Here #7 push button, will change two motors.

Now I will disassemble the panel. Using lining tape on the back side, mark out the tracks. Spray the back black, and reassemble the panel. I think it should look good.

A bit disappointed that the switch for the slip would not fit and had to be dropped below. Might have to look at that again.  

Not same panel but strengthened it with screws and fixed in place like this.

Cheers

Rod