2013/05/23

2013 May 23

2013 May 23 Thursday  The Posty just arrived :)
Got my first look at these new OzRail L wagons today. My first impressions were favourable.  Have a look at these pictures.


My  L vans came in packaging from our newest Chinese Importer, much like any other, as we would expect


Individually wrapped in plastic and sitting closely in a moulded package. All arrived intact in great condition. The top and bottom mouldings were sticky taped on all 4 sides and needed separating with a knife.



On the left a SEM kit completed and painted in the more modern red. The OzRail model is in the early brown livery, which I feel detracts a little from them particularly those that model the end of the 4 wheel era.


The larger diameter wheels lift the floor slightly. I am sure David and Chris have their reasons for the differences.





The roof heigh almost the same?


Ends Sem on left


Two roof styles of OZRail models with SEM in middle.


Axle box and springs and those large diameter wheels :)


Top View



Underneath SEM on left


Those who model true BG will like the extra room allowing opening up the gauge ;)



Happy to see the wheels looked better than the samples we saw a year or so ago.



the bars look ok to me



Yeah I'm satisfied with my purchase.
Than You Chris :D

Bugger!  it blurred but I am not going back to set it up again :(




I think most will be happy but still interested to see what our members think
Cheers
Rod Young

2013/05/19

2013 May 19

2013 May 19  Sun is appearing for a hour or so, clouds again and sun back for a short time Still bloody cold :(


I talked Graeme and Norma into staying another day :D

So after a quick trip to Albury to get rid of a hire car, at 1130 we again turned our minds towards the Coal Siding.



Here I am with my mouth shut, is that a smile Graeme? Already a couple hours into construction and the SG loop and yard is almost completed.



I was asked recently if I felt like I was leaning on my friends too much?
Nah!! certainly not :(  Who ever would think that?


One of those defining moments?  Something like boring a tunnel from both ends and meeting in the middle?
The new track arrives at the Albury end and line up perfectly on the points, and it would seem the abbreviated yard is going to fit ok.



Graeme checks out the Wodonga end. In this shot you can see we discovered when looking at the pictures from yesterday that we had forgotten to install the SG entrance points towards the yard. Job now done and the loop is very much mostly built and looking great.



I guess Graeme has headed off for another holiday and will be at Corowa tonight...  hmm that's not far is it? Maybe I could get him beck for......  No better not!  Not sure how Norma would take that :D

Cheers
Rod Young
All pictures are reduced in size. Double click any picture to see it full size :)

2013 May 18

2013 May 18   Friday /Saturday  Yesterday and today cold and miserable.


Yesterday may mate Graeme and his wife Norma came for a visit and it was great catching up. Graeme kept pushing me to do some layout work, and finally I understood he was serious. Fortunately with a short delay in setting up, we were able to spend a couple of productive days setting out and installing the most difficult part of the Coal sidings.  It was pretty cold but busy hands kept us warm.



After a few hours work here is a picture of of Graeme about to damage his head under the top deck. Fortunately the blood did not flow


Here is the Wodonga end points The BG enters coal siding by crossing over the SG 



On the backdrop Graeme is finishing off the BP siding, Can you see it is protected by catch points both ends



   
Hey Graeme :)   smile!  I better introduce you to the Blog. I have known you for 41 years and you built me parts of at least five layouts and I am very pleased to see you here this weekend.
Thank you again.(and again and again ;) )






Its late Its cold (8.3 C in studio with no heating). Finishing up and ready to go into town for a meal.  So what did I do,apart from taking the pictures?  Well I could say I entertained Graeme with colourful conversation whilst he slaved away laying out the route. But I tried to keep all the soldering and modifications one step ahead so that Graeme did not have to hang around and wait .. Ha Ha!! productivity whilst it is available Ha Ha!










Using a NMRA track gauge to see improvement in flangeway after adding .010 x .060 Evergreen strip styrene to the inside of guard rail on all Universal points that I recovered from my original 1985 layout at Greensborough.  I believe that the material added forces the RP25 type wheels away from the (plastic) nose of the frog. It does not fully convert them to NMRA standard, but it does help to save the nose from being worn away. And I found that it makes the Universal points more reliable.

Time to go shopping :)  More later
To be continued :)
Cheers
Rod


2013/05/16

2013 May 16

2013 May 16  A very wet and cold Thursday

Sorry people nothing to report here, as I have not even been in the Studio since the last post :( 

I have car troubles, again It seems that the bad fuel I got a year ago, most probably has reeked more damage on my Landy.  The Injectors and almost certainly the Injector Pump have been damaged and are leaking enough to be dangerous. The Landrover Discovery is now sitting at Blacklocks waiting repairs.
The good news is that Insurance will probably cover it, and if they dont the bad news is that a proper fix that can give me confidence to tow my van far and wide will cost over $7000 and possibly more.
Anyone with a common rail diesel engine should know that bad fuel will destroy your fuel pumps, your injectors and Injector pump. It does not matter if you own a Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi or a Mercedes or any other Common Rail, You are going to be slugged $1000 for a pump $2000 for a high pressure injector pump and up to $1000 for each injector! Mine has 6 of those. Its a days labour and possibly up to 12 hours if the mechanic is not good at his job, and when undoing the timing belts you would be mad not to replace them too, another $700.

Where did I get bad fuel?  It really does not matter The operator may not be responsible for what his staff does. So another friend say he only uses Coles or Safeway outlets because he felt that rogue managers might have trouble operating in places like this. If the pump is clean, not diesel greasy and the smell is not what you expect, then you are not going to continue your fill up there!

Fortunately it would seem that Allianze accept that rogue fuel operators are out of the Insured owners control and usually agree to reimburse them, which is quite a relief. I got to hope and pray it happens.

Otherwise I got this cheap hardly used shed full of stuff to sell :(
Rod

2013/05/09

2013 May 9

 2013 May 9  A quiet day spent mostly baby sitting (sorry "Big Girl" sitting says my 4 year old grand daughter :D )


Sorry about lousy picture :) But the content looks ok to me ;)
Well I found out today what Austrains planned to release at Hobsons Bay. Imagine that over the past 4 Exhibitions every product planned to release at Collingwood was late! The first time I product is sitting and waiting to go... Hobsons Bay goes arse up.
The news is not good over there either
Marching orders are we are to be out January 1 2014 from our leased rooms at West Melbourne. We can probably hang out for a while if we do it right, because the other tenants BHP have told VicTracks to go root themselves They have another 4 years on their lease, I heard.

2013 May 7 and 8

2013 May 9

The painted boards were dry by Tuesday but I was still not ready to lay track. So I decided, instead to start getting stores in place. So I needed 21 point motors ready to attach to 21 new points.
The point motors needed to be put togeter and that was the first job to tackle.
Then I need to attach 5 wires to every point to connect the live frogs.
Then I need to assemble the "singlet" DCC point controllers which is really only adding two LEDs and two push buttons to the board and drilling out a template for the push buttons to mount into.
This means I need to think about the control panels. Originally I meant to have one panel at each end of the Yard, however if I go this way I will need some perspex to create the panels.
Another way to do it is to cut out and install the facia panel along the front of the layout, using 5 mm masonite sheets about 200 mm high bt I might have to add to the edge of the board in a couple of places to build my Super shed and the cement siding. So the panels is the way I will go after I get some perspex from town.
Here is a photo story on how to build a servo point motor ;)


Well here I am assembling my servo point motors. Difficult to know where it is, but pictures were timed as I was on my own. You can see the vegemite jar contains the white plastic cranks that have to be attached to the shaft on the servo motor,


The servo simply snaps into the base and is held by one screw. But before you do that you need to know that the shaft is centered so that the crank can swing in both directions.


I have a small battery box I purchased from Tam Valley, and by holding my finger on the shaft whilst connecting the device I can feel the servo wind and center itself. Once satisfied, simply connect the crank at right angles and tighten it with the screw provided


They provide an actuating wire which needs to be fixed to the actuator and then bent to a shape to present a wire pivoting from side to side to change the points direction.(click on picture to see a bigger picture)


I used pliers to bend the end into a U shape and as the actuator arm has multiple holes in it, I threaded the long end through the outermost hole and the short end into the best fit, then bent it flat with the actuator arm, to present a firm join



Here it is bent to shape and fixed in place


Different angle.





pressed onto the shaft with the actuating wire passed through the small access pivot hole in the board


This is the small circuit board purchased from Tam Valley for about $6. This is a push button device with two bi-color LEDs that indicate the point throw as well as help adjust the motor for optimum travel and service. And that is my next job :) assemble 21 of these and mount them into signal panels.

EDIT Done :)
(Well it will be as soon as I get my MBR fixed on the main computer :(  I have picked up something and lost my C and E Drives. And of course I deleted the pics on my camera when I added them to the damaged drive! I can see whats on the drives using another computer. Just cannot boot the C Drive anymore)

Cheers
Rod

2013/05/04

2013 May 4

2013 May 4 pleasant day, storms missed us today, it was a great day:)

Not a lot happened in the studio. However I did strengthen the Coal Siding base boards by adding three extra cross braces. Turned out a more difficult job than it should have been, because access was almost non existant to allow attachment to the back, under the back drop. Ended up shortening the pieces adding a short plate on the back. glued and screwed together then screwing that into the back support from tyhe front..simple ;)
Anyway job down. Instead of charging the compressor and using the nail gun, I decided to screw the whole thing down. It probably took less time that way anyway :D

Tomorrow I need to undercoat the two new sections and cut out a short extension for the Albury end of the yard, and fix in place the shell siding at the Wodonga end.

Then I have to accurately set out the BG track (Code 75) and fix it in place.
That is....
Cut underlay to fit, secure it to baseboard.......
Select points rewire them as described previously
Build up a point motor, drill the board and fix each point and point motor as I go, wiring and all, and Link the points in place with flex track.

I guess it will be slow progress but when finished all point motors will be operating already with DCC and manual push buttons installed.

Now I am going to turn this thing off and go watch some commercials.. eh??  I mean TV.
Cheers
Rod

2013/05/03

2013 May 3

2013 May 3 a Friday
Well the Postman came today and he had 3 parcels. Which was a bit of a change because my purchases have been low key lately.

DCC Sound Victoria sent me 5 Loksound Decoders preloaded with Aussie Diesels. Two X Class and three 422 Class. That was a long term thing, paying out all that money was not an easy thing to do, however I will soon have 5 very much improved engines running on my layout :) 

Then came an old Lima 422 running an upgraded Mains West Chassis, which I bought off a Face Book site.
Then my order from Hattons which arrived yesterday afternoon was waiting delivery at Yackandandah post office. Hows that for service!!
Here is the happy snap :D Now I have no excuses ;)


Stay Tuned ;)
Cheers
Rod

2013/05/02

2013 May 2

2013 May 2   Thursday




Life getting in the way again :(
My dear old LandRover Disco  is still suffering the bad fuel I got from a Liberty Garage in Hallam Victoria Apparently it was mostly bio-diesel and it killed my fuel pump and fuel lines It melted fuel filters and ran muck through the system and cost me $2500 to fix. We thought we escaped lightly because the Injectors and High pressure pump appeared ok.
Last week the car sprang a diesel leak on the injector nearest firewall, and it appears the vehicle is heading for a $7000 rebuild. None of this reflects badly on a beautiful motor car, just on unscrupulous people from foriegn lands (Guess) who think they can escape punishment and do what is needed to bank even more cash.
   So last 10 days or so has had me rather preoccupied .... But

I finally worked out what I wanted on my Tombstone.

Under my name and dates etc....   This ;)


Cheers
Rod