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

2014_10_26 Daughters Birthday Happy Birthday sweet Daughter :)

2014_10_26
So just because the posts have slowed does not mean that the enthusiasm is drifting.  40 years of collecting, with only a few years of layout ownership before circumstances and shifting houses brought that to an end has presented me with huge problems sorting out the chaff, repairing stuff that I did not know was needing it, and putting things back together again.
Catching up on 30 sound projects. I have a need to buy the chips when I buy the engines, but find it difficult to actually find the time to fit the more difficult ones.

So the last few months has been given over to relaying track on the Branch and making it reliable which has turned into a marathon. Even where the track was not replaced, I have had to remove the old DC wiring and start again. Then double insulating sections creating dead spots ,putting new droppers in etc etc.
Still not working, as I have found 3 persistent dead spots and three points that bemuse me by becoming reverse circuited, every time I change something..  I just do not understand how the original circuits were made to work, but discovered a few places where droppers went to point motor switches and switched the frogs from track rather than the feeds. These places generally got new wiring to fix the problems.

So Then because I can run trains now Woooooeeeee!!  I found that I wanted to double head and triple head :D
So hours spent speed matching locomotives!!
It is never ending :(

So here we are joining code 70 ME track to the old code 88 n scale rail of 30 years ago. Rolling stock including 4 wheelers bogie feight and carriages go through without a problem But Locomotives stop dead. Just noticed scratches on the gearcasing and suspect that one of the problems is caused by the point motor rod sticking up a fraction too high?  Need to trim it and see.

Another problem I discovered taking the picture is that both rails are loose and the dog spikes are no longer holding on to the rail. The track is a long way out of gauge and larger diesels and all steam engines are dropping into the gap.  Again easy fix, but where are those dog spikes?

The long roads are all now connected and operate as wanted, but two points at the other end suffer with reverse polarity problems. Just need to solder new droppers and remove the old ones from the point motors.

In most cases I have not found the old droppers, suspect it was soldered to the bottom of the rail before spiking and ballasting in place. The rail is bloody awful to solder to, even after using flux to etch it clean. But I did finally realize I had made the old mistake. That is I learned long ago to use single core wire for the droppers not multi core which is usually the best to use everywhere else. Single core just hides away so much better than multi core and seems to stick better as well (for me at least)

Speed matching locomotives which generally means slowing them down.
I use JMRI DecoderPro for all chips except ESU Loksound which seem to work much better after hooking it up to Lokprogrammer. Here I am running through the K Class trying to sort out a jering motion which I think might be a short between the foot plate and tender. Now as I have all wheel pick up on the tender, that should not happen?  I wonder If I reverse the wheels and transfer the pick ups if that will match polarity between engine and tender?  Should work, I think??

Write out notes and move to computer when I have got them right.

Walker is there because I just love the sounds :) The two Ts now run together. F Class waits a sound chip from Sounds of Australia (Thanks Mike)

B's and A's all waiting sound chips. I have the chips, but thought up an easier way to fit speakers. Waiting speakers ;)

Tried to run DL, but missing chip. Swore I fitted one?  Anyway here it gets a Loksound Select chip, unfortunately with a 16 cyl 710, because nobody makes a cheap alternative for the DL.

When I start a project and need parts I gather all the bits together and place them all in a clipper bin or storage box. Unfortunately after I order the parts they arrive and I should put the parts in the clipper bin they belong to, but rarely does that happen. I have a box of spares and a dozen bins with half started projects sitting around :(

The recently cleared space in front of Wodonga Coal siding took about 2 days to reach the cluttered stage once again. And as fast as I put the locomotives back together again, more seem to take their place.

Another lot out of storage and into the queue.

A load heads out to the Ford factory to pick up some falcons (probably drop them off at the tip? ;)

 

Took this one out of storage with my Auscision E Cars and found a very fragile bogie with loose wheels. Started sending off a few choice words before I noticed the coach was a SEM kit and the wheels were actually the flat pack SEM kit bogies. Really fragile! So order sent off to Auscision (sorry for the bad thoughts wrongly directed) and 5 sets of E bogies are on the way to upgrade all the SEM E cars

And now back out to the shed to fic that DL and if it does not get too hot, maybe fix the last of the polarity issues on the branch
Cheers
Rod

2014_10_17. Gosh October already! what happened to September?

2014_10_17

Well Bathurst has come and gone and one of the young guns has done Ford proud. Lets face it, it was won by attrition and the second car home was patched up after hitting the wall twice, no less. I believe Volvo had it all sewn up, but one little mistake put him into the marbles and game over!
Nice to see Whincup ignore advice and run out of bio-fuel Ha Ha
But there is always next year.

Anyway if Bathurst is over then my Annual trip to Liverpool must have come and gone as well.

Enjoyed my time with Roger Lloyd and Tony Hough (of AMRA)
And my visit with Col Hussey.   His layout is coming along fine. It seems he has a new wind since recovering from his spinal surgery. Thanks for putting up with us Col.

Spent a fair bit of money I did not have, up there, especially as my car needed a major service and took an unexpected $4000 out of the kitty.

The layout is still moving a little day by day.

The wiring of the old  Threntham layout being used on the top level has brought me undone and the last week saw me undoing it all and starting again.  I finally fixed all the dead spots and trains can circulate through the two stations and back around the deviation at long last.

Most of the 4 wheelers were circulating without a problem through this rewired area, but when I tried to run the new BPL carriages from Austrains, they kept derailing, suggesting that it is not just the track (4 wheelers prove that) The BPL cars are very light and appear to be very unstable. Not sure if it is just weight they need?  Anybody else finding problems with them?

Well I think I might relay a few lengths of track tonight and see if that improves anything, before attacking the carriages.
Cheers
Rod

2014_09_21

2014_09_21  a bit of a lull?  Maybe too much RailPage :(

But yes things have been quiet around here, although several projects are on the go.

Work is continuing on the Branch line and thanks to some prodding from Graeme Schultz we even started experimenting with some landscaping (eh? scenery

Here we have laid some shaped foam on the flat surface to break it up a bit and then conered it with paper cloth, which has been glued down with white glue. The towel comes in large rolls from Aldi for a few dollars.

And using granulated paper mache product already impregnated with plaster , just add grout colour and water and spread it out with a trowel and smooth with your fingers.  Better keep going before Graeme notices!

And after constant derailments and just frustration, I did rip up most of the track at Bullarto. (a long time ago?). Its time to run some trains and with Honeysuckle sitting on trestles, the branch line is the place to get operational.  Just a few joins left, add the droppers and the branch will be able to run trains ( via the temporary connection near the scenery works).

Just three connections left. If I shut this thing down, I might get them done today :(

These two magnificent guards van were added recently. They are the best hand made epoxy pieces I have seen. Its a tribute to the skills of our young modellers who are using the modern equivalents of the old epoxy resins and creating strong accurately detailed beautiful HO models RTR to boot!!

Thank you Dave Luketic, you do great work, and show us old farts the hobby is in good hands. Dave is a Railway Man too, living the dream, and working close at hand. Thank you mate for my great vans.

Ok I am back in the Studio, and hopefully more to do today and in the next few days.
Cheers
Rod Young

2014_08_29 continues

My mods to the Austrains G Class

The bottom board is fine (My V/Line G's do not have ditch lights) But the top board breaks all the rules with one wire an Andode + for one LED and a Cathode - for the second.
I kept the resistors

attached but cut the join on the -ve side and added wires to enable the tsunami  in this engine.

Here you can see the negative Cathodes are connected wtf?

Back of board just hangs the capacitors on the back of the LEDS

The Led on top is headlight and it is sunny white, much too yellow for a modern diesel. I might change it out for a white one, perhaps move the white one from the bottom board which creates a bright white marker light, should obviously have the yellow light there?
So the negative track is cut.

Just to make sure nothing leaks between the leds I cut these tracks as well. Not sure I had to?

Drill out the board and pull wires through to prevent the light path being blocked when the board is screwed back into the body.

Having got rid of the huge light board Austrains had fitted, I now had room to use the speaker boxes. If you keep the light board you can put those two speakers into the chassis below the fitted speakers, but I found the sound awful and did this instead (It is much easier to keep the Austrains light board, however I now have the marker lights connected to the number lights at eac end. I can run with headlights on and marker/number off for daylight running. Or headlights off and marker / number lights on, parked in a siding? I can have marker lights at both ends or just one end for night time running and pulling a train.

Cheers
Rod

2014_08_29 Something Different?

Hello All
The weather has turned, days are warm and dry, and each night is a little warmer than the one before :D

Jobs done! 5 Dcc Sounds of Australia chips fitted :) plus two Tsunami. That's a big deal around here.

And after unloading my goodies from Caulfield I was able to create a complete train.

Damn ETM was a cow to fit Had to file away the bogie top and find a flat head screw because the wheels jammed in the bearing holes. Looks like the hour or two I spent on it stuffed some steps too :(
I intend to swap the US heads with an original VR one in time ;)
So Watto I trump your one tank container with all the above :)