2010 January 7

2010 January 7 Thursday (page 12 of 35)

Well no track arrived in the mail today, but my upgraded DCC system did.
I now have a Digitrax DT402D a UT4D and a Duplex radio transceiver hooked into my Loconet
Had to go to Jaycar and pick up a couple of 9 Volt rechargeable batteries and put them on charge.
So tomorrow I will have tether-less full loco control, I hope
In the same parcel was a Quantum programmer, so that gives another means of getting Aussie sounds in my engines.

I have also got the third part of Trentham installed, requiring adjustment only. Unfortunately the fourth section is just too heavy for me to lift on my own. Have to wait for a hapless visitor to come and co-opt him/her into lifting duties

Also started a tutorial on fitting sound to my Y Class by Austrains. Not so hard, but never the less you have to use your "kidneys" Cheers
Rod

2010 January 11  Monday

Well with 41C in the shade and 45C in the shed in the afternoons , definitely nothing else gong on here at the moment. However it is time to get the work bench cleared..Where do I start?
Cheers
Rod

2010 January 23   Saturday

How cool is this?

For those not into DCC and sound.
The operator has modified an NCE throttle to simulate a 1/8 full size locomotive control stand.
The throttle has 8 notches, it has a reverser as well as brake switch and horn headlight!
Hope you enjoy the locomotive ramping up and down to match the engine revs with speed
Cheers
Rod
ps little happening in the studio. I have bolted Trentham into its final position, purchased bolts with longer threads today, so I will be able to squeeze the sections together, and align the heights correctly on Monday, when I hope my track will arrive from USA.

2010 January29  Friday

Too hot in the studio projects 

Hot weather project put sound in a Austrains Y Class. First pleasant surprise was that the Y Class was actually sound ready, with a speaker mount next to the cab. It will fit a standard mini oval but as these cannot be used with Loksound, I had to remove 4 mm off the speaker pad, and cut down the headlight stand-off, and fit a mini 100ohm Loksound speaker which did come with the mini Loksound V3.5. I hand filed it to this shape.

 Some actually bore out the oval hole. This gives a better space for the sound to pass out, but I felt the limitations of the smaller mini speaker, did not warrant the extra work involved.

 A dab of Tamiya orange on the blue white LED both front and back, dulls them down, and gives the marker lights a real incandescent look
Blue tac holds the decoder in place, with sufficient clearance to fit the body back on.
Check all your wires are connected and tape the wires neatly in place and you can put the body back on. I bypassed the 8 pin NMRA plug, because my decoder came with a European 9 pin flat plug which I had to remove. I simply connected the wires to the light board using the crimp plugs already used.
Cheers
Rod

2010 January 29 Friday continued

Looking more closely at the Trentham modules 

 Here we see RP25 scale wheels on code 55 track spiked every 6 sleepers or so, and glued down. Looks cute doesn't it?
Who said you could not spike code 55 down?

EDIT just discovered I lied! It is code 70 after all. memories........

 
 Must learn how to use my camera.
Geoff Trueman and Co laid this track over 20 years ago. I hope to retain most of it, it looks so good! However I have to repair the track feeds and make sure the points will be ok with DCC. It looks broad gauge to me

The B looks great on the trestle and soon I will be able to test her on the curves. At least without power it appears to cope with the tight curves.

 Not too much hangover. I have seen as much in small yards, I guess.

 Apart from getting rid of the shiny wheels, that is a pretty cool picture to look at. Those flanges look ok on code 70, don't they?

 This is what you see when you enter the room. Was not meant to be a major part of the railway, but it worked out that way. I sure hope Geoff is pleased with where it ended up Underneath will be on the lower level the curving climb out of Wodonga Coal siding into Wodonga Station, with the triangle hinted at.
This will be a city scene and should make the entrance view pretty spectacular.

Can't wait to see the foliage recreated and trains running on the branch!

 Damn nice job, Auscision!! This is a great model, probably the best I have.

 Lot to learn. How do I take a picture like this all in focus? I don't think I can from close up anyway?

 Y131 looks quite at home here awaiting a grain train to shunt.

Fixing up the earth quake damage, bridging a fissure 

This picture alerted me to the code 55 un-truth  

Because of the serious breaks in the track due to earth quake activity (During the move and installation :) )
The new code 70 points arrived by road, still in their packaging The Chief engineer is unsure if they will, indeed be utilised in reconstruction, as the track is in pretty good condition. It all depends how DCC is handled by the existing wiring. The old points may not survive alteration as they are hand laid.
Fortunate I could not find code 55 points eh?

One for the road, Goodnight
Cheers
Rod

2010 January 29 Continues

S301 wrote:

Rod, I can't wait to see that layout in the 'flesh'!

For the photos, check if your camera has 'aperture priority' mode. If it does, then try and set the aperture to about F8 (higher the number, the more depth of field you get). F8 is generally the best spot for both depth of field and sharpness. You can get more, but things tend to look softer You will need either very good lighting, or a tripod, for higher F stops though.

Zec

Thanks Zec
Unfortunately I went out to buy a $500 camera. A Pentax digital TTL, but at that price it only had a small lens. That camera would have done all that you said, I'm quite sure. However I decided to go the easy way and I bought a fully automatic Olympus with a 20:1 Zoom instead

Its a good camera but the nearest I can get to professional adjustments is turn on the guide
However that did help a fair bit. This is hand held under an 18 watt fluoro. I moved back and took this one 45cm from engine. The pass cars are about half a meter away, see other pics.

Cheers
Rod

2010 February 19  Friday (again :( )

G'day all
the layout is moving slowly. Most work is out of site, adjusting heights, and setting road bed up, and string lines keeping gradients even.
But news today is that about 9.00 this morning my postman arrived with the latest shipment from Auscision.
Ok my photography is not the best, but took plenty of shots, so some should show you what you are looking for  

Took a few minutes to break them out of their box and cut off the shrink wrap.

Took a bit longer to open the boxes and get them on the track

This is what 32 of them look like

 VHGY in V/Line

 Thank you Traino for the great ZLP, now I got something to run this one behind.

 Makes a 15 m room look a lot smaller 

GJF

Forgot about the distortion, its the close up pic not the model!

 Did I tell you they were delicious?

 Underneath

 Handbrake end

 
Other end  Ha Ha!!

Very busy and looks really right!

 Top view

 Hoppers and doors

 Brake Pipe side

Into the distance. Where's the engine?

 Why its a B and S combination.  :)


Cheers and hope you get yours soon ;)

Rod