Monday September 30

Monday September 30  A nice day

Spent some time in the train room, but mainly fitting sound decoders and sorting through a few things.
I have found some stuff it is time to move on. Hope you will bear with me as I list out this stuff and try to sell it ;)

These models all run, however they have been in storage for 20 years and will need cleaning down and lubrication. If you want them and don't feel  competent to do this let me know.
They were all built by Pete (ANR) Smith and ran without problem hauling long trains at Hobson's Bay. In their day they were much admired and regarded as of the best. Without a doubt Trainorama have put them to retirement. However I know that their are some out there with young families that cannot pay $300 on Ebay for the modern stuff. I think you will be happy with these until your circumstances change ;)

 942
Body is  finished just needs side frames and this mech fitted.
Want $150 +ph.
  The mech was specially made to correct wheelbase. And it is not K&M It was meant to overcome the problems the K&M one had, unfortunately the guy building them moved to Brisbane and died after a massive heart attack setting up a new workshop. They are nice! and I have another 930 mech as well.

949
 modified and weathered is nice and grotty :) Want $110 +ph
Its stock standard mech.

960
 $110 +ph
stock standard mech.

Thanks for letting me know, but the AN single ender was a Trainorama one and so has been  withdrawn because thought it was the Lima one. I will repost the Lima one when I find out where it is :)  Apologies

here are the three of them together.

A look a like N set?   Again 25 years old and its the paint that makes it look like an N set but I loved it way back then :)  Maybe for $120 +p&h they can help you with the illusion as well.

What about NSWGR 3830?
I have never run it because I bought it without a lead truck. Eventually I sourced one from Casula, which is included, and if you are up to it I can sell it for $160 +ph

Some Powerline 48 Classes?
What about $150 plus p&h for each of them The bicent. certificates are included with that one as well.

The 125 year green 48 has an offer on it :)

Well I guess that's all of it PM me if interested :D
Cheers
Rod Young

2013 September 25

2013 September 25  Wednesday  Not a bad day!!

Today Allan Jeeves came for a visit, and we had a great day I think.

The dip down to house Creek has been done. I have cut out the fitted supports already, just noticed in this picture that I forgot to glue them in every 30 cm.

Nice gentle slope should not give the 4 wheelers any problems :)
The bridges were previously constructed and all I need do now is fit them back into the new trackbed. Because I am using Central Valley bridge decking, I had to use code 83 track to match over both bridges. That has been aquired and will not hold me up.

Just need to cross brace it, but otherwise this bit is ready for track.

The trackbed crosses the future connection which heads into NSW at 9cm about 1.5 cm lower than I wanted Not sure how it will effect double stacks?  May need to build a girder bridge over here to gain another 16 mm Ha Ha

On the other side the track clears the temporary diversion and heads towards Wanganella. All fixed in place and ready for work laying the base into the SG loop area previously started.   That will complete Stage 2 trackwork and allow limited trains to operate on the bottom levels, once the droppers are all in place.
This may not seem like a lot of work. However it entailed a lot of cutting, accurate measurements, fitting of new cross braces. Making sure all other track had proper clearances. Al spent a lot of time on the floor gluing in bracing to make everything solid. Whilst I bent over the layout with head and shoulders barely clearing the top level as we lined it all up, and fixed it solidly in place.

Cheers
Rod

2013 September 23

2013 September 23 Sunday  A sunny day ,mostly :)

Its been over a month :(   And I have been ill, in fact I am still not crash hot, if the truth is told. After surviving the whole winter, my chest caved in and although I avoided Pneumonia it was not by much.
So very little to report.    Al Jeeves came over and got me moving again last week and we attacked the Wodonga yard and relaid the approaches to House Creek in 5 ply. Next job is to reinstall the bridges and start laying track.

The hidden work included running wiring under the coal siding in preparation for the droppers to be cut in and protected with our stop tail bulbs. All ready to be installed.

Then connect up the point motors and connect all the droppers. In itself a hell of a job.

Today I decided to do something less strenuous, and so installed a sound module into my new Walker 280 . As well I completed the work on the two GM's, now both fitted sound as well.
I had started work on the Endeavour set I acquired at Caulfield.  The Walker has two speakers installed one on each side of the motor unit. Whilst one speaker sends all the sounds out of the passenger compartment and really annoys me, two speakers can be turned down low and you would swear the sound is coming straight out of the motor unit.
So I have decided to fit four cell phone speakers to the Explorer one each end of the middle carriage and another mounted as far away in each driving car. I can series parallel them and keep the impedance safe, and you should hear the sound coming from every carriage as it passes.  Next thing would be to use a modified GEVO 3 Genset (cummings power) Diesel, and see if I can get individual engine sounds in each carriage.

Well as I seem to be over it (my illness) for now, and Allan is visiting on Wednesday to finish off Wodonga, I should have some pictures and something to show latter on this week.   Also going to Liverpool with Roger Lloyd and we might spend a few days track laying the following week.
Cheers
Rod

2013 August 18

2013 August 18 Sunday  Another wet day?  this is the longest spell of rain arriving every afternoon, I can remember up here.
How long before some cash starved Scientist starts claiming that the Ice Age is coming back and we need go all green to protect from floods and serious cold temperatures :D

This is supposedly the final paint sample of the Eureka R  Thank Goodness the front coupling is fixed and I hope we are not going to see those awful driving wheels? that look nothing like the real thing.
After waiting for so many years, one would also hope they will be blackened rather than slightly darkened?  and what is up with their crazy buffers?   Oh well ready to run or not I can probably disassemble the wheels and paint them black, mask and paint the buffers, and if I was really serious I guess I could source the correct wheels and change them over. Wait a minute every driver has a gear fitted, not sure anybody will be up to doing that :(

This is the real wheel

Here is one of the pictures supplied by Mark Bau on his site. How could anybody not see that they are different?

This weekend I was away in Melbourne. I took the train from Chiltern to Southern Cross where I met Graeme (who helped me a week or so ago lay out the Coal Siding) We spent a few hours searching the shops at Spencer Street and walked to the Docklands where we sat around and waited for a key to turn up to gain access to the Hobsons Bay Club.
We were there to attend the AGM and see a committee installed uncontested. Sad state of affairs, really.
The good part of the trip down continued after I decided to delay my return home by stopping off at Kilmore East to visit Tanya and Steve Munro and conduct an inspection of his new train shed :D

Here is the new shed.

Fully insulated and lined with LED lighting, construction already on the way. The studs are secured through the plaster onto the shed studs, and the tables are hung off the new studs without any other supports.

Here is Steve's helix, and just to show their are many ways to skin a cat. This one is about 40 inch radius but supported on one side only. The ply is also supported with pine spines underneath. Steve and Rob are using this to climb about the same distance as mine, however Steve opted out of keeping the climb under 1.5 % and this enabled double stacks to run, at reduced train lengths. Thisply will never sag like mine did in the finish.

A horizontal piece is glued to a central spline evenly spaced (100cm) around the helix, and the roadbed rises 3 cm and between supports (3%) then central supports are cut in under the track bed, to firm it all up. Once the first level is completed the other levels were added by maintaining a predetermined space on each support.

It is sturdy and very neat and does a very good job of it.


.

Ron finds the studs and firmly attaches the new studs on top of them.

The double main line enters the helix on the bottom circles three times, and exits on the middle level. From the middle level the branch enters the helix and climbs to the top level circles only once.

Using the studs that is 3" x 2"  (What is that 70 x 45 ?) creates a very strong self supporting table top. After seeing this, I am really disliking my "L" Girder technique, and it has started to annoy me. I think I am going to rebuild the top deck from the Helix onwards using Ron and Steve's self supporting studs.

The bottom level does have legs!

Skirting board cut outs and pre drilled pieces helps with installation.

Here are three different ways of introducing maximum stability and strength.

This is the secret in my opinion.
The cross support is rebated with a router  and glued and screwed accurately to the stud.
this means that the integrity of the join is now not just glue and screws, the rebate edge is hard against the stud and adding to the strength of the join.

Of course it is an added advantage if the Cabinet maker is named Ron and he gets the bug whilst helping you with your benches, goes home a builds you a trestle bridge :)

These two get on pretty well together and it did not take very long to get this far along the new wall. In fact 30 minutes later the table top was cut out and the openings in the top for the studs were all cut and the top was dropped down to exactly fill the corner where Steve is seen working here.



I really do wish Steve had been able to build this shed 3 years ago.  I learned what my Router could do today, as well I got a lot of great ideas, and I trust you did too.
Cheers
Rod

2013 August 14

2013 August 14  Wednesday Night

Tonight is Murray Railway Modellers Club night.
However as the Show Grounds is leased out for our Annual Caravan show, the Club was closed and the guys came to my Railway for the night.  I did not take any pictures and more than 10 came and seemed to enjoy themselves. Pity about the refreshments, and I guess Steve is still waiting for his can of coke :) Thanks to Graeme we did finally get a cup of coffee though :D
I will post some pictures if anybody took any
Cheers
Rod

2013 August 10

2013 August 10  Saturday cloudy but Sun is warm when its out. The ground is very wet still, and I just turned the heater off at 1.pm.

Well the Walker 280 arrived these last few days, my bank balance suffered a hit from Trainorama on the 8th, for the remainder of the GM payment, but I have not yet got my parcel.

The last few days have been bedlam as I tidy up the shed and try to get something running by Wednesday night.
Because the Club rooms will not be assessable account the Caravan and Camper Show is occupying the Show grounds for the next 10 days, and I opened my trap and invited the Club to my place for Club night on Wednesday.

The droppers are all in place, just need to join them in, all 127 pairs, to the DCC main.
The two temporary Control Panels are built, and I need them to work because I am using servo motors to switch the points. These are DCC controlled, however push buttons are also provided. The wiring provided is much too short and I have lengthened them by adding similar wire in the middle.  So now I must mount the point machines and join up the plug in lengthened cables

Next job will be to put in the  remaining BG tracks, and wire them in as well.

Ah well it is not going to get finished, is it?  But when I do take some photographs, I am sure you will all notice the difference :D

Oh now I have visitors dropping in on their way to Sydney. Staying the night so thats Sunday gone too.
This morning has not been model train beneficial to me either, as I am baby sitting my beautiful Grand Daughter whilst her Dad is cutting up fire wood. He is late and still I am not into the Train Room, visitors arriving in an hour or two :(
Cheers
Rod

2013 August 4

2013 August 4

Another cold day. Finished up putting an overcoat on to work in the shed Brrrr!!  However it was not as comfortable as my dressing gown which went over the top of a jumper and two pairs of tracky pants two pairs of socks  Brrrrrr!!

Anyway spent part of the day clearing out stuff from under the bench tops to gain access underneath for wiring. As well I sorted through all the electrical bits, electronics and got them unbaged and ready to install

The Tam Valley point switches required soldering and two switches and two LEDS need to be installed before mounting on the Control Panel. I prepared these for work on tomorrow.
As I use dual element stop/tail bulbs for circuit protection with a protective solid state link between the elements, I did spend a few hours attaching the parts and wires and stock piling enough to finish off the Coal Hole. Guess these will get placed  this week as well.

Just a few more boxes to move underneath the bench and work can start tomorrow
Guess thats all folks! :D
Cheers
Rod

2013 Aug 2

2013 Aug 2  Nice day but at 2.00 the skies opened up once again, a "light" monsoon developing as this is happening every day??

Well now that both tracks have reached the "coal hole" its time to match up this end of the yard with the bits Graeme and I did a month or so ago. I need to be careful here and make sure the tracks meet exactly to be visually pleasing at least.

Just a little bit of a laugh.  I have twice this many clamps and I am a real fan of the little one handed clamps. I did buy a new pack today because I could not find any not being used.These Irwin clamps are the Bee's Knees ;) 4 for $30 at Bunnings. I am now only buying the good quality ones, because the cheap ones cannot take heavy use, tightening them up can easily break the plastic shafts used to make the trigger pivot. Not a hard job to fix, because I simply drill out the casing where the broken shaft was and replace the shaft with a bolt and a nylock nut. However it is a waste of time when a pack of 4 Irwins cost about the same per unit as a cheap one. When I returned from Bunnings I was searching for something else, and found the missing clamps :D and here is a clamp tree just to say "You cannot have too many clamps when you are building a model railroad :D

Two days on and the SG yard at Coal siding is nearly installed.
The track closest the wall is BG and the next one is the SG main. The next one forms the No2 Road of the crossing loop.
Then two more store roads and I should have three but just could not fit it all in.  The closest rail, which is yet to be laid will be the Bogie Exchange road. I will lay this in code 100 and change to code 75 inside the BE shed. The track inside the shed will be insulated and dead to DCC. This way the Unimog that will shunt the shed will need to use a match truck to shunt vehicles from the SG side and the BG pilot will do the BG side. In the 70's a BG pilot was at the Coal Hole all day. Usually F206 or F216 and I have a Trainbuilder one for the job.

So now I have all the SG work done on top of the board. Next job is to clear the clamps and also remove all the stuff stored under the middle modules and use the old mans wiring bench to fit the point motors and also connect up the wiring and install the Hex juicers and circuit breakers.

Cheers
Rod

2013 July 30

2013 July 30 Tuesday  damp and not so cold ;)

A66 in one of its many liveries heads up a test train to settle the track on the new temporary access track into the Coal sidings. Here it departs Wanganella.

Crossing the SG and entering the new line.

44 inch outside radius BG track with 2inch centres for SG track. So far so good. This rolling stock has not seen the light of day since about 1997 when I moved to Wodonga.

This is where I was working tonight soldering droppers and straightening track before nailing it all down.

On the Main heading towards Coal Siding Box and the curve up into Wodonga. Track further over is the BP oil siding.

n the photo notice the difference between Code 100 and code 75.  Reminded me that I should replace the upper deck supports which have been modified to work without the ugly stays that I had used before. Then I can plaster in the backdrop wall before I go much further. Even without the stays it is really firm, but it would wobble enough to derail a train if it was knocked hard.

Well I guess that has been a long job and I had to spend yesterday and most of today in town, so I was happy to get a few hours in after dinner tonight to get this far.
Tomorrow I should be able to start connecting up the power. Just counted
106 pairs to be connected to short circuit protection and into the bus, however it is all there, so it should not take so long.
Next job after that will be connecting up the point motors before moving around the corner into Wodonga.  That will be a long job, I guess.
Enough! what's on TV apart from commercials :(

Cheers
Rod

2013 July 28

2013 July 28  Clear and cold Saturday and Sunday

Another trick I have found is to solder droppers to every length of track and point (switch).. Thus the rail joiners only hold and or insulate the joins. No reliance at all on the fish plates carrying power. Although this slows things down, it should protect me from dead spots in the future. The soldered droppers are all connected to the rail close to one end between the fourth and fifth sleeper. This allows the flex track to bend without catching on the solder points.

clean the side of the rail and solder a small tab first then tin the wire and join it to the solder pad.

My standard wiring is black to the outside and red to inside on single lines. However here I have introduced other colours to differentiate between all the different tracks at this point.

Well I guess comparing this picture with a similar one taken of this location,last week shows this leopard is not changing his spots.
Although the permanent track was laid correctly, I fortunately thought a little more about the temporary diversion. In fact something had been worrying me about it for a few weeks. Last night I dreamed about it and understood what I was doing wrong after entering the studio after breakfast.
Because the temporary track was entering the Coal Siding from the Albury end, I needed to swap the sides that the BG and SG travelled. The SG normally travels on the right of the BG but on the diversion it must travel on the left, to align correctly with the track layout at Coal Siding. As the temporary diverge was using second hand Peco Code 100 recovered from an old Layout built in 1985 and pulled down in 95, and stored since. It was not too big a deal. To fix the problem. However it did take me all day to line everything up again.

The diamond had to be slightly relocated to allow the installation of a curved point that was also ex the old layout. First I shimmed up the guard rails and soldered droppers on to the outside rails installed links to the blades and cleaned it up before installing it. Also cut out some broken sleepers and replaced them. Should work fine and tested RP25 and 88 wheels and they were fine.

The curved point allowed the 2 inch centres to be maintained.


Anyway another day and a little bit closer to being connected to Coal Siding Yard.

Cheers
Rod Young