2009 September 29

2009 September 29  Tuesday  (page 8 of 35)

Track laying is well and truly moving ahead. My parcel arrived from End of Line in SA. The no 2 road and platform road are installed in Wang..... as is the 36inch radius curve towards the helix and storage roads. This means the storage road will be a reverse loop and will require a reverser, which has been ordered.
Had to rebuild the old Shinohara curved point to make it DCC friendly.
I wired up all 10 electro-frogs, but did away with a three way point universal, as I decided it was too hard.
Tomorrow I should get the storage roads in, and start moving down the long road towards the stone quarry loop.
Tony K was here last weekend, and we have modified the plan once again. We have enlarged the ballast siding into a full working quarry, along the lines of Kilmore East. Should give purpose to all the rock hoppers I own.
Till another day, I guess
Cheers
Rod


 2009 September 30 Wednesday

 

Day 1 Preparing stuff! Old code 100 Insulfrog is already pretty well DCC compatible. However I connected the blades to the track with jumpers, as in the past corrosion here has stopped my trains. The wire sits comfortably in my rubber underlay. In some cases this would cause an unstable point, I guess.

 

 Day 1 (cont) I drilled a hole under the frog and ran the wire through it. The cut off wheel was a bit thick, but only one I had.

 The circuit board was a challenge. Painted and ballasted with extra sleepers you will hardly see it. I was having trouble with dry solder. A new iron sorted things out though.

 Day 3 Got light tools and a hot iron! printed the how to do it files and all I need is the inclination to get going.

 

 Day 4.From the top of the yard showing the completed platform road and the No 2 or through road,I forgot to cut the points in for the railmotor dock, however it will be an easy job, another day. The carpet underlay is 6 mm. and I need to pack the "Trackrite" underlay to join to it.

 Day 4 (cont) placed a train on the track, a little prematurely Who has seen the advertising for DCC, where you place 2 wires to the track, and run 99 trains independently... yeah!! if only.... Any way the carriages pushed around and looked great. No tight spots, no low spots or wobbles. So Lets get the droppers in!

Y131 was ready to go, but suffered a (lack of) power failure !

 I did not notice the damage on front, I better straighten it out tomorrow, before the Boss starts asking questions!
Had to ring the buffer stop today to get an AR 1 reversing circuit. I was going to reverse the circuit via the point machine. However this was not possible because the Helix actually joins into this loop and that would have caused problems elsewhere. Hopefully the part will get to me Fridays Mail, and then the ways and works train can be the first train to operate on the new project. I can't wait
Well enough here back when something else happens
Cheers
Rod

2009 October 2  Friday

Friday October 2 2009
Well I am certainly sore and weary!
I have strung the heavy gauge feed wires around the bench work. Installed the Digitrax DB150, power supply and three UP5 distribution points.
I also discovered that the top end bench work had not been screwed down properly. I had 25 bearers to straighten up, glue and screw in place.
I also set up the gradient and clamped some risers in place, ready for some renewed energy tomorrow, one hopes

Got a problem
I have two heavy gauge wires running around the layout. What is an easy way to tap the feeders into them?
I don't want to cut the wire, although paring it back with a knife is an option, then soldering the feeders in.
I wonder if their is a clip that will cut through the insulation, or a tool, without cutting the wire?
Their are some joiner clips that can join two wires together, by squeezing a blade through both wires. Will not work here because one wire is too heavy and the other much lighter.
Anyway may have to visit Jaycar in the morning
Cheers
Rod

 2009 October 3  Saturday

Steamtostay wrote:

Rod,

do you have a complete diagram of your layout, as it will look when finished?

Yep!! In my head
Never had a lot of use for diagrams. And anyway, I did not want to get tied down to doing it because it looked good on paper.
However it has slowed me down. I had much difficulty getting started as some may have noticed.

As an example. Tony K and I were walking about the room last week, when we made two important discoveries. The first was to do with the central peninsular that started in the middle of the back wall. As we have decided to install the main sections of Trentham on the top level of this construction, keeping both stations and the trestle bridge on one end. We saw that it was easy enough to continue the branch on back to the end wall left turn it along the wall, and enter a terminal station on the far wall. This would mean that the main BG and SG lines would be hidden for about 6 meters, but visually that side of the railway needed something more than more double line track. Now the junction is going to look a lot like Bowser and the Peechelba line will go to Trentham Which will get some wheat silo's installed and thus not be Trentham any more.
Sometimes it is best to see it on the board as you go. Then draw it up roughly, decide how many vehicles need to fit , etc etc
We were going to put a small ballast siding similar to Balmattum near Euroa. However when we saw the space we had on the board, we found we had room to build Kilmore East
So that is the way I am going, and it seems to work. I have the idea of what I want it to do, and plenty of paper to map it out in position when I get to install it.
Cheers
Rod

 2009 October 3 (continues)

Hmm!
A couple of problems today. One sort of solved, and the other will have to worked out Sunday

The heavy audio cable was brand new and cheap. Will carry a very high current, and resistance should be minimal.
However I need an easy way to join it with the smaller droppers.

 

Although I could use a sharp blade and pare the insulation away then solder the dropper to it, I am thinking that this is going to be a hell of a big job, under the layout trying to see what I am doing and then soldering every dropper. However I found this tool at Jaycar, which would normally cut through the insulation in one twist. However the cheap 100 meter roll of cable came back and bit me on the bum. It took a dozen twists with high pressure pushing in the blade to get the insulation parted. The 'gasless' plastic is very durable.

 Much easier at table top height, but try this on your hands and knees ,twisting your head upwards to get your bi-focals focused on the installed wire 

The join is neat and a dob of solder, then paint it with Red Skin liquid insulation, for a neat finish. I wonder how many cuts I can get before the plastic refuses to move apart for the splice?

Remember those brass brads you used to be able to buy? I thought about pushing one through the insulation and sodering a lead to it. However Bunning's don't stock them, but I thought these screws would work. Simply screw them through the insulation and solder the dropper to them.

 Like this  

Now I knew there had to be a way to do it "solder less". My cable was 6 mm diam. and the dropper much smaller. The normal automotive break out clip does not allow such a large difference in diameter. But just as I was giving up, I found these at an Auto Electricians shop.

Unfortunately the audio cable bit me again, because the clips would rather break than join to the wire as advertised. In this shot, I pared away the insulation with the cutting tool, and joined straight to the wire. Again a long ,difficult job, under the layout.

But looks neat enough, and would be a worthwhile project for anyone using the correct wire.
Cheers
Rod

Edit 27 Feb 2013  My Auto Electrician informs me that these types of connections have gone out of favour in 2012 because of the wet and rough (vibration) conditions found in trailer lighting plug connections where these are more usually used.  However a model railway is generally a dry environment and once clipped into position, they should carry power for many years to come :)
Rod

2009 October 5  Sunday  

STOP THE PRESS!! 
Y131 was able to haul 560 tonnes around the new section of track several times tonight.
Still some work to do, as all live frogs require point motors to set up frog polarity.
The short turned out to be a pair of jumpers in one point that had not been removed
The AR1, Automatic Reverse loop controller, chattered a bit, but adjusting the trim pot fixed that.
So the unofficial first train was a scruffy Y131, whilst a spic and span X39 sat in the platform road awaiting the official guests from Melbourne. Ah well we will get a photo shoot tomorrow, after the ganger makes some additional improvements, I guess.
Cheers
Rod