2014 July 20 It did snow but....

2014_07_20

The poor old winter Doona almost let me down last night. Under the clearest night sky we have seen for more than a month, I turned in and wrapt the Doona all round and slept peacefuuly till 10.00 am :D
Apparently the whole place was covered in a thick white frost with some "snow" on the hills?
Missed it all, but this was what was left :(

About -0.7C under the verandah on the leeward side and -3 C in the open.
It was actually frost, but it looked the part :)
Cheers
Rod

2014_07_18 The Day the Russians Shot down another Passenger Airliner

2014_07_18

My heart goes out to the people killed and their families Hopefully justice will not be denied.

on the model I will simply show pictures of Honeysuckle  which is to become the branch line Terminus.

This layout was built by Tony Kociuba to demonstrate McKenzie and HOlland signalling systems, and is in working condition. A little bit outdated for its original purpose, but should fill an empty space on my large layout. To the right of the picture you will see two unpopulated modules which sit between the two ends (end +new+middle+new+end)
Rod

2014_07_17 still raining!!

2014_07_17 still raining!!  Bloody droughts!!

Still holding the enthusiasm :) In fact its a bit like I am determined to at least put up a fight with the bitter cold.

Before running trains I have to go out and check the rail shrinkage Ha Ha!

Some yard lengths on the Helix have popped the fish plates joinersand gaps are growing everywhere.
Its currently 4 C in the shed at night. I really cant afford to heat such a huge area 24/7.

Found another few sit down jobs, after working on wiring in the branchline for a few weeks. Installing point motors can become a PITA after a while and I took a break.
Mike Walther called in and showed me a trick or two with sound installations in BRM T Class and Austrains Y Class. He is a wizard installing sound in the Y Class in less than 20 minutes!
Unfortunately the new series of Y Class have some mechanical issues and the loco runs really nicely Long End, but clatters like Mothers egg beater Short End. I had to undo all Mikes work and strip the engine down to replace the bogie. The damaged Y 131 donated its bogie and the problem appears fixed.
Still impressed with my car wagons :)
Here another few pictures.

Cheers
Rod Young

2014__07_ 12 Stawell Show

 2014__07_ 12

The decks and floor of my Studio are covered in the stripped plastic insulation bits as I enjoy the wonder of DCC You know, connect two wires and 1999 trains can run independently I guess I have made over 1000 connections just to hook 6 tortoise and 5 servo point motors into the extension which is in reality only 10 lengths of track long (10 m) However despite the fact that the two wire story was in fact unlikely to be of any use to anybody beyond the most basic of modellers, its all very much worth the effort. Today after a break of two days to go to Stawell Exhibition, I am about to test it and see if I got it to work :p

The Car Carriers arrived today also   :D
Don't ask me how much these cost me :(  Ask Rodney or Paul at End of Line Hobbies instead!

http://www.endofthelinehobbies.com.au/

Just search in this format substituting your railway name and letter code to find your model

VR WAGON KIT STRATH VR ALX CAR CARRIER KIT SKELETAL HO

In Stock

Price: $109.95

After buying the kits two years ago, I decided to get them built, mainly because with age and such a huge gap between when I did build kits, I was not prepared to have then sit un-built for ever. It took about a year to get 10 built and I simply direct debited $100 a month till the build cost was covered. It was easy and I did not notice it.

Now if only Auscision would allow this!

(Picture by Rob ORegan edited Mark Bau and found here Mark Baus VR Web site!
This is how I want my Ford train to eventually fill up :)

The Stawell Exhibition was 500 Kms away and I returned home after it in one long drive. Was good till I got to Glenrowan where I broke my oath never to visit a McDonalds store again, and purchased a cheeseburger and a huge cup of coffee. 10 minutes later I was ready to drive the last 112 km, and made it safely. Whose idea was it to let those bastards have a monopoly of the Highways in Australia?
No wonder everybody is looking obese!

On the way to the Exhibition, I explained to one of my "guests" (passengers) that all I really wanted was a  WABX. The Exhibition was huge!  And even though the Traders were limited to  1/3  of floor space their was a number of them there, and only End of the Line Hobbies had the wagon.
My guest who said he did not know what a WABX was ,was told it was a WAGR version of a VSX louvered van. That they ran on the gauge between Syney and Albury, and on the BG between Wolseley and Dynon. Oh! he says. After working my way around the hall my guest races up and tells me who has the vans I am looking for. When I get there, I find that he also had bought the only packet I was interested in. He almost walked the 200 km to his home :(

No way would I do that to a friend. And although I can live with it, I am not impressed. And the fix is to keep my mouth shut, but hell, you all know me, I guess :)
Cheers
Rod Young

2014_07_05 Building the branchline!

2014_07_05

Well the enthusiasm is still there and the body is doing what its told. Not as cold today, although raining again, Clouds only a hundred meters above and the Hills are out of site again.

But Trentham is now connected to the main line at Bowser. The track is down as are the main line points. Need to go back and install the Grain Silo when I build the kits and work out where the discharge / loading tracks need to be placed. Tomorrow I need to gather up the droppers and connect them to the bus, also wire in three more point motors and at least two switches.

Some pictures follow, as usual :)

The area towards the yellow capped bottles is reserved for grain hopper storage , need to add a point to connect in where the RH one is sitting.

Track runs through wall.

And enters the other section, ready to join the main BG line and head towards Bowser again.
That slope through the back drop actually looks wrong and I might have to smooth it out by lifting the ply a little this side of the wall.

Joining the Main BG which parallels the SG. Closest I got to running a train today :( Setting up the SG line to ensure enough room was left for it.
Track on the extreme left is the No 1 rd through Bowser (Code 70) with a passing siding No2 Rd to its right (code 70)
The next track is the BG Main Line (Code 75) and beside it will be the SG Main Line (Code 100)

The Shinoharo Code 70 is a pain to use, and should not be regarded as being flexible!

Took me a long time to get a 442 Class. This original production model was sold to me by a Club Member after I missed out on at least 12 of them on EBay.

 

The track becomes a little separated on the corner because of a pair of points placed around the bend which although in a wrong position, actually allowed the passing road to hold a standard train. Actually hated it until I laid the BG Main around it, and now it does look much better than it did.

 

Here is the point that caused the trouble. You can see the BG track has to sweep out to get around it.

The BG branck No1 track maintains 36 inch radius. The No2 road pinches down to 30 inch for a short time, but does reach 34 inch rad whilst the BG Main on the outside is at 36 inch and the SG Main 38 inch.

 

Looking over the three way point. Again the left trach enters the branch and you can see No2 track points towards the corner?

The BG Main Line through the middle roads and the Quarry siding  takes the right road and crosses the SG Main line, which will run up to the Bg and space 2 inches off the BG at the corner.

Well thats about it for tonight. Inside about 9.00 pm. A pretty solid day, with a couple of breaks to watch the Motor Races at Townsville ;)

Cheers

Rod

 

2014_07_04 (continues)

2014 July 4th at about 8.30pm Work ends for the day :)

set about 10 m of track after tweaking the roadbed, and mounted two points. Wired two more ready to plant tomorrow.  Track fixed down and insulated. Just need 10 pairs of droppers and the point motors installed, and lay another 6 m of track to connect in on the Bowser end.
Hopefully this will be working tomorrow.
I just ran a train in using jumper cables to get an idea of the grade and how it looks. I think I am really pleased with it :)

Cheers
Rod

2014 July 4 Happy 4th of July USA

2014 July 4  Happy Birthday Nanny Gertie! Always remembered.  Happy 4th of July USA

So the sun is out first time in what seems like weeks. Last night it was 2 C and right now its 12.8 C.
The solar panels started up again after being dormant for weeks.
putting out 2028 watts with today's total  (so far) 5.73 KW that's feeding 7.5 amps into the grid :D

But inside the shed things are moving. I now have all the 12 volt feeds in for my tortoise motors and all the loconet UP5's are externally powered. The Digitrax sysem worked last night without a hitch.

Had a sound decoder self destruct last night, first one that shorted out the system. Almost lost a Traino V/Line S Class as well. It got mighty warm by the time I found where the fault was. Unfortunately it was in a section protected with an indicator globe, not a circuit breaker type device. Will have to finish upgrading this old system :(

Got moving a little earlier this morning, and decided to put aside my problems with the servo motors until I can get an answer from Tam Valley.

In the meantime I have sorted out the bench work for the branch line extension.

Looking along No 1 Rd to the end of the line and towards the new work

Small adjustments to the road bed and awaiting the base to settle (glue dry)

This is the bit Al and I worked on last Friday. It now has a higher road bed screwed down, a pad for the wheat silos at right and is connected at both ends

In the middle distance you can see the temporary diversion track off to the right whilst the branch continues on straight and climbs on to the trestle.

The temporary track sits on the sceneryand will enter a tunnel in the back drop hidden in a hill.. When the diversion is no longer needed, I can pull the track and model an abandoned tunnel :D

The trestle can be finished now and permanently mounted in this position ;)

Just stepping back a little. The new point will go middle right hand side.

Now looking in the other Direction back towards Trentham. The grain Silo and associated track will fill in the area closest Trentham (where the rail is sitting)

Well I have had a late lunch, so back out in the shed, see if the glue has dried and perhaps lay some track :)
Cheers
Rod

2014_07_01 (Continues)

 2014_07_01

So what is next?
Al Jeeves and I cleaned up the end of the branchline a few days ago, and as promised I can now show what we are doing.
Am afraid it leads to another temporary connection, but it is all in a good cause. To allow me to get trains running, and test what has been laid. Then perhaps I can attempt a bit of scenery?

Ok  After all the prep work was done and the deck cleared and cleaned, and clutter already was starting to appear! I am designing the area allocated to a rather large Wheat Silo which will run along the backdrop.

Eventually the branch will continue to the left over the trestle to the terminal station at the end of the line. But for now a temporary line will be built over the flood plain and into a tunnel and back towards Bowser where it will become the main line until construction starts on the other half of the Railway

I decided to modify the track by raising it the thickness of the five ply. This will reduce the grade to the trestle and out of the station on the old layout in the distance. It does create a few extra problems though.

This is Bowser on the other side of the layout, and definitely marked for a clean up!
The track to the left enters the branch and the one to the right crosses the SG and enters Glen Rowan Quarry. Yes a bit of compression is used here :) The middle line will continue on as the main line into the other side of the room behind the wall shown in the next picture.

So with both BG and SG running along the wall into the other side eventually, I decided to improve running in the short term, by using the BG main line and swinging it to the left and through the backdrop.

And rejoining the branchline across the flats and via the dead ended siding of the new Silo? or maybe not? I will see if I can find another way. (of entering the branch)
Another stuff up? yes the backdrop was cut back to front I think :(

Cheers
Rod

2014_07_01 Still wet but still working in the train room :)

2014_07_01
Well its not exactly raining, however I have two pair of socks on and my V/Line bomber jacket over a winter long sleeve shirt. Sometimes 11.8 C is a lot closer to zero, than one might think :(

A couple of days of frustration. But I at least I have one point motor in and working. I want to operate the branchline with Tortoise point motors. I have about 20 and that should cover all the points.
But these motors do not work off DCC without diode support and anyway, I feel by DCC bus is going to be taxed as it is. But before we get there another problem arose!

I added two more  Loconet UP5 plug in modules and found that the system began to break down. Already my Wireless Receiver was not maintaining connection with my DT402 throttles. But now my plug in throttles were not connecting properly.

Spent about 4 hours searching the Digitrax site (What a great resource they have developed there)
And finally decided that I had two wiring mistakes to fix and a new 12 volt DC bus to install.

Ok first the wireless receiver. I had already moved it from the command end of the layout to a spot high on the island modules. It receives in a 360 degree circle, therefore that should improve things.
It didn't........

Then I checked the flat cable connections of my Loconet.  The loconet must go from one UP5 to the next using the rear connections adjacent the front connections. The loconet must be open ended, that is the last UP5 only has one connection. You must not complete a loop.

However the command station has two Loconet connectors. Can you send one bus to the left and a second bus to the right. I cannot see anything in the documentation saying you can or cannot do this. However it appeared to work for the last 5 years, so I guess that is not my problem?

Now everything looked right till I got to the UR95(?) wireless receiver. I had connected this into the side connector on the UP5 as the instructions tell you this can connect a third throttle or a single device that does not allow further devices to be connected beyond that device..  so I connected the wireless transmitter to that connector. It sort of worked, but kept dropping out. So I made up two new loconet cables and ran the Wireless receiver in line with the rest of the Loconet....   And it  now works perfectly. No more drop outs providing the 9v battery stays around 8 v or more :)

So why are my wired loconet (throttles) playing up?
What did I do last?   Add two more UP5's?    Ok when I bought my cable kit I got some testers for the coax cable. So I plugged all the new cables in and as when I built them, they all stood up to the test. Plugged the system back together, and still my throttles LCD screens were rotating through a menu and not setting up ??

So back to Digitrax site and some more research.

Now I have never before worried about external power to the UP5, which loads up the Command station just a little. I have before I added the last two, 10 UP5's on my loconet which is 70 m long, brocken into 2 sections at the command station which sits in the middle of the loconet.

So I found a HD 13.8 V stablilsed transformer taken out of a car radio display case many years ago I found at the dump :) Ran my new bus line down the middle of the island and connected the 6 UP5's on the module to it and tested the system. Everything worked just fine ;)  So their is a limit in distance or numbers for unpowered UP5's  ?? or not?   But at least it is up and running once more.

Next job was even more frustrating!

Job description:   Install power to an already installed Tortoise point motor..  Ha Ha easy because I have a quality 12 v bus running right past it courtesy of the loconet fix :)

So  have special connectors for the circuit board on the Tortoise, havent I? So out with the diagrams.
The 8 pin plug has a connection either end for the Tortoise motor, and the middle 6 pins operate the two inbuilt single pole switches. I want one switch to switch my point frog power. pin 2 to frog and pin 3 and 4 to Pos and Neg bus!    But which one goes where? I stuffed about and finally decided to go eeny, meeney, miney and mo and just connect it.
Now the wires were short and I am trying to wire the plug over the bottom deck and under the top deck, and I am stretching. How to hold short wires and solder to tinned tabs? When the whole lot is swinging free and the solder iron and solder are in both hands? Well I just could not get it done and solder went everywhere but on the connection. After hours of stuffing around getting it up, and finding Eenie was actually Mo, and redoing it my back was stuffed and my mood was not much better.
I am sure I could do better than this when I was younger?    maybe not :(
Eventually using extended wires protected with shrink tube I got it up and working...... no I didn't :(

All this frigging around had broken the throw rod on the points :(
Remove points and solder in a new brass throw rod, drill it and insulate it and mount it back where it belongs. Test it, and it works just fine!
Run a train over it and Loco derails! Bloody insulating joiners!!  On the frog end I had two insulated joiners, however trying to fit 4 joiners at once, somehow I had allowed one joiner to slide under the rail  GRRR!!

Very carefully pull it out and redo the whole job, this time correctly.
Run train over it and all cross inboth directions, no further problems.

So at least I saved 15 minutes not having to run a new power feed, but the whole job took me 6 -1/2 hours.  Just to wire up a tortoise!!  I cannot believe I could do such a lousy job :(
Cheers
Rod Young

2014_06_29 Auscision deliver the BLX

2014_06_29  Auscision BLX / BLF arrive

The Wodonga yard pilot collects a bunch of Victorian box vans from the Bogie Exchange and waits line to haul them up to Wodonga for return to Dynon.

I took the opportunity to take some pictures whilst I still had some light to use!

Painted signs are only as good as the men who may read them ;) We often saw vehicles return through the bogie exchange from directions, they were not supposed to be :D

At Wodonga in the through road and ready to depart as soon as the road engine arrives from Wangaratta.  

Y 139 arrives from Seymour with a military special, heading for Albury via the bogie exchange.

I am extremely pleased with the detail and the models in general. Well done to our Sydney suppliers Auscision. You just get better and better :D

Its not all that happened on the layout in the last week :)  Al turned up again and we started to work  on the upper level of the branch line. We are attempting to get the branch up and running. More about that another time. But we did get my table saw going which has been just another place to store stuff on, since its purchase 6 years ago. Thank's again Al. You are a mate and great company, but I hope your back was feeling better when you got to relax back home :)
Cheers for now
Rod Young