2020_11_22 Plodding along

 2020_11_22 Plodding along

Still boring myself with wiring and fault finding. A lot of success lately..

And then friend from Melbourne turns up and didn't get to see a train move. Isn't it sometimes like that? I spent a day adding jumpers and fixing some track sections and wiring them through isolating switches. The locos would light up and we could hear sound, however I could not connect throttles to them. First the new isolation switches were still in off position! Discovered I had introduced a new back feed, which I eliminated yesterday. Everything went quiet, until I switched on the isolation switches, sound and movement was back. However visitors were long gone. Sorry Mark L.

Al and I are back doing Thursday workdays, except when they are on Tuesdays!  This is happening because of Doctors appointments usually only available on Thursdays after the Hospital reorganized themselves.

The New Helix is progressing nicely. Again its Al's project. He likes doing track work :D  And I am more than happy to let him at it. His track work is really superb.

Here are a few pictures.

And we have to do one layer at a time. Making sure we never have problems here, Al is being extra careful. He is soldering the track joiners to the rails and gaping the rails at an angle to help with curvature which is again 44 inches (112cm) and 46 inches (117cm).

And as of last Tuesday, Al has reached the top of the third level and started on the fourth.

The next full level  will reach the temporary  points controller panel, which needs to be removed to allow a wide sweeping right hand curve that joins up to the Sydney end (hidden) loading track. This loader runs up the wall behind the BG track and Honeysuckle. It climbs (1.5%) another 12 cm to reach the height of the top deck in the other "room" This will become an escape for trains heading North and in another circumstance, will stage trains from the North t run through Albury and to the South. This is facilitated by running a large radius point on top of the SG track helix and dual tracking the Helix making an up and Down line.

Ah Thank goodness for the Aircon!

Cheers

Rod 

2020_11_18 New SouthernModels/Hornby 38 Class

 Here is the 5pole skewed armiture motor, among many other upgrades.

Cheers

Rod

2020_10-24 Playing with Loksound

 2020_10_23 Loksound V3.5 and Loksound V4.0 testing

Setting up two decoders to run properly together. Also a very heavy train hauled by two Trainorama S Class diesels up a very long 1.5% grade (46 inch radius)

Cheers

Rod

2020_10_23 New Helix track work starts and more signals!

 2020_10_23  Al starts on laying out the helix track

Double standard gauge track from Indonesian points creates storage roads and an escape to other half of room which will simulate trains arriving from Junee, North of Albury.

Te first couple of meters is laid in at about 46 and 48 inches radius. (Using Tam Valley wooden track gauges)

About half the first level in.

And almost a full level in place.  free rolling rolling stock moves slowly down the 1.5% grade at a constant speed. A testimony to the fine work of Ron and Steve (from Hobsons Bay MRC) who built  this helix.

It took about 12 hours to get this far, however we modified our methods slightly and expect things to pick up a bit now.

And of course whilst Al slaved away on the helix, I continued with the rewire and connecting up the servo point motors and Tan Valley DCC switches. (singlets)

Signalling

During the week McKenzie and HOLland also attended to test fit the Down home gantry signal (post 10 and 10b) and start preparations for the new  Honeysuckle down end lever frame.

Will need to adjust the track to make this work

Damn next job is to cut away all that unused wiring and attach the led dimmers!

The points for the runaround road should not be off the main line at this point Instead they will be moved to connect with the yard access near the pass cars

In the meantime, I have continued to upgrade wiring, repair rolling stock and fit sound etc slowly catching up with a lot of unfinished business.

Cheers

Rod

2020_09_28 End of month catch up!

 2020_09_28  As I progress with the rewire I find strange unexplained faults!

(Remember this is the struggle of an old fart to run a few trains one day)

Power is now routed out of Allandale and works to the second points arriving Bullarto..   and an area that has worked well since we re-laid the track here is now a short circuit and it is only when the point lays toward the platform.  Only after I climb on the stool, is it all revealed. We installed a code 70 shinoharo point here, because I ran out of the scaleways right hand versions I was using....

And I forgot to cut it up and make it DCC friendly.  I have no idea why it did not fail during installation?? Perhaps I did not test it?

Hoping I have not messed up all the packing Al, painstakingly leveled the point with.  :(

Anyway I found another point with a broken throw bar. Repaired it and fitted it in. It was an exact replacement for the old shinoharo. Note the frog is a casting and is not connected. A dead frog. which allows most locomotives to cross with out interruption.  But I do attach a wire to it and convert it to live frog via a Tam Valley juicer or a switch on the point motor.

Point installed and tested ok.

But thats not the end of this. Moving over to Trentham where I have found more dead track sections. Thats for next time and will be much easier.   Wow I am nearly there!

McKenzie and HoLland were in attendance this weekend.

The Honeysucle replacement frame ??

Tony works on the locking tray.

The first part of the birthing process The basic frame Eh? zygot??

The bits bin.  Looks like a Mechano set, sort of?

The first part of the lever  with a number already installed.

It needs a handle pinned on, a rod to unlock it and a spring return, before installing it to the frame.

Tony is moving along. Only one burn this time when he disrespected BIG Bertha!

On Sunday with Tony returning to his home, I got a visitor from the other side of the "Cold Wall"

Playing with back drops? At least painting them.

The blue is the same darker blue used to paint the wall. The white had a little black mixed with it to simulate clouds.  In this case to lighten the blue.

The two rollers were used in matching paint trays, however they were allowed to contaminate each other on the wall.   This allowed the sky blue to lighten close to ground and get back to blue higher up. This should help to create some distance after we cut out back drop pictures and adhere them to the bottom of the boards. 

I bet you know we are not looking forward to this attempt after all our failures.Thanks Graeme for all your great ideas :D. I like this effect

Cheers                                                                                                                                                      Rod 

2020_09_17 part 2

 2020_09_17 (still)  Played with some lighting today as well.

Now some of you might rightly say that SAR ran large reflectors on their vans. However regulations in Victoria insisted that oil lamps or electric red lights be placed on the rear vehicle of all trains running in Victoria.

The easiest way of doing this,because SAR vans had electric generators fitted, was to replace the reflectors with electric lights and reflectors built into the red shades.

I guess these 8300 Class vans are among the earliest plastic models I purchased of Australian prototype.

Probably the best of the old Aussie Lima from the 70's.

Unfortunately the plug in bogies are unique to the 8300 and I will modify them if necessary. At the moment i will just see how they go.

These did a lot of miles at the Hobsons Bay club at Docklands Melbourne.

So I needed pickups. And I had some nice ones from Blacksmith, but could not find them. So I cut up some circuit board sleepers the width of the bogie frame. 

I was, however, prepared for the job, having bought some phosphor bronze wire for another project.

I tinned them.

measured out the length of the wipers.

connected wires.

superglue' the wipers to the bogies and let them dry. Before this I painted the interior of the vans with matt black, I hoped this would stop the light bleeding through.

 

Unfortunately the black paint was not good enough for the job on the yellow vans.

I found these globes to be too bright. Hopefully I can turn them down and the bleed will be taken care of.

I have two old red vans and these have been turned back to 2.3 volts, and look much better.

Cheers

Rod.