2013 March 12 Tuesday
We have had a fortnight of hot dry weather and I have lacked the energy to get back out into the studio to get some more work done.
Last weekend I went down to Melbourne and visited Sandown Exhibition.
It was a lovely Mums and Dad style Exhibition, with a few nice layouts, all seen before. Suspect it was their worst one ever.
For Modellers and especially ones from the bush who usually save up for this trip down to the smoke to get all the items they need from our cottage industries, almost a complete waste of time :(
If it wasn't for Auscision somehow getting on side with the Comports and attending the Exhibition, and SEM who came this time because Hobsons Bay was cancelled, I would have wasted $120 dollars in Diesel and come down for nothing :(
I Saw the Auscision 422 Class, and although I missed out on the Candy version altogether, I decided to buy Bicentennial 42218 and Tuscan 422. They are a very nice engine.
I found a couple of T Class bodies in the "bin" as well. I put most of my money back in the Bank.
Because Sandown was never going to help me with the bits I need, I sent off an order to the "States" for enough Central Valley Bridge Tie sections to complete all my bridges. They should be dispatched in a week and get here in 10 days. Once I can finish the decks on the 4 bridges at House Creek, I should be able to start laying track at Wodonga, and in particular, try out my static grass machine and try my hand at some scenery :D Looking forward to that ;)
I also decided to "attack" the members of Hobsons Bay and in particular the Committee. I fear that mismanagement and a general lack of pride in the Club by the present day membership, is going to hasten the end, and in this case I feel like a Doctor giving CPR to a person whose heart has already stopped. Maybe this Club will start gasping for breath in the next few seconds, or not....
Cheers
Rod Young
2013/03/12
2012 December 9
2012 December 9 Sunday (Page 35 of 35 =350 posts)
Gosh another year almost over! Where on earth did that one go? I must have blinked
Hot day, and just sat in front of the TV. Had a couple of videos that I had not watched, and they were ok.
But then I felt a bit guilty...so...
I opened up the shed and looked at what I had to do to start laying out Wodonga Station.
Pic 1: Setting up the approach track and laying out the points. Be aware that underneath you need to have enough room for point motors! This area is over top of a join in the boards, and as well the curved track panels meet the yard board. This layout is not exactly right but the best I could do, considering space limitations and using peco track geometry.
Pic 2: Now you are asking for trouble if you think laying the track on the layout is all you have to do. If you do do that I guarantee before the year is out you are going to get dead spots and especially dead points.
So I remove the two temporary tags in the points and solder to the point 5 wires.
One to the frog, isolated by removing the two tags this a white wire.
Then solder two more wires to the outer and inner rails to guarantee continuity.
and the last two wires to under the point blades because this mechanical joint is never going to remain honest.
Pic 3: I am pointing at 4 rails deliberately exposed on the underside by Peco. You join the two closest together ,by soldering a dropper to each side these will power the point except for the frog and the blades.
Pic 4: So here are 5 neatly soldered droppers colour coded and amongst the neatest work I have done with the iron
Wonder what was different about today
Pic 5: `So in this case I need point motors and it is good to plan what you are going to do about now.I have bought some cheap servo motors, some mounting brackets and DCC controllers. The servos come in plastic bags and at about $2.50 are great value.
Pic 6: Just remove it from its bag and press fit it hard home and secure it with a screw supplied.
Pic 7: Take the second bag and press fit the mounting piece and screw it home.
Pic 8: They are slow acting and very inexpensive. Just using push buttons and micro switches will set you back about $7 and using DCC controllers another $8. Still cheaper than one tortoise!
Pic
9 In this picture you can see a spring wire is bent through the moving
arm of the Servo, and it goes through the board and through the sole
bar of the points.
Pic 10: This one is finished and I am using it as a test point as I need to learn how these things go together and work.
The dcc controllers come with plug and wire packs which means they simply plug together. The push buttons can be mounted on the layout fascia with the Bi-color LEDS if you wish to operate them manually. In fact their is a template supplied to allow you to drill out the fascia and attach the circuit board behind the fascia which shows the two buttons and two LEDs on the front panel of the layout. I am sure some will extend the wiring to their control panels as well
(All I need to do now, is learn how to program the things)
See what happens tomorrow
Cheers
Rod
2012 December 9
Hi Aaron,
I should point out that Allan Gartner shared this information with me And it solved a lot of problems I have experienced over the years at Hobsons Bay and my various home layouts.
It was remiss of me not to include an address to the site that put me on to this
WIRING FOR DCC
This is a catch up post, Joining the last post with today's
Inside I have been preparing locomotives to have sound fitted, in most cases the locos have been stripped down and are waiting arrival of a thin belt sander ordered before Christmas but as yet has not arrived. I need this to neatly remove metal from the weights to enable fitting of decoders and speakers. I used to do this with a hack saw and a bastard file finishing off with the Dremel.
However Arthritis is making this much too painful to do these days. I really need a Mill to do this work, However a cheap mill and tools is going to set me back $1000 and I don't feel like it is worth that to me when cheaper avenues are available.
I did however find a box of 62 Steam Era kit built wagons. All 4 wheelers with couplers and various parts falling off. I have repaired 37 of these over the last several weeks and they are commissioned and running well on the existing track. I have 15 GH's and 6 yellow GY's to finish this off. A job I am glad I finished.
Another few weeks was lost when a nephew became very ill and recently passed away in Melbourne. Sad times and I had to pick up my parents (in their 90's) and ferry them around Melbourne for that time. Another Club mate passed away and another suffered a heart attack and a few miny-strokes. So time just goes rolling by.
So today I spent a few hours in the shed working on the approach to Wodonga Station from the South.
The track comes out of a curve past Wodonga SG Loop and then Uncle Ben's crosses Kelly Street on a grade crossing before dropping into a gully and crossing another street and House Creek on overhead bridges So that is 4 bridges needed. The bridges arrived from the US in December and they were not what I expected. Let the pictures tell the story
This is why 15 of these kits weighed 20 lbs
The kits are built out of precision cut steel. He does not say how,
but it looks like a computer cutting tool, not that I knew you could do
this with steel ??
You just superglue the parts together after placing them together like blocks!
The girders are in two pieces, so glue them back to back.
(edit Mar 2013.. If I had read the instructions I would have noticed the three spaces that I forgot to apply to each girder)
Then place the girders into the machined slots.
I need better bridge track or will have to hand lay it. This Walthers version has guard rails, which are not used now on the bridges. Showing the kits and the bits and pieces.
I unpacked the parcel of 15 bridge kits All machined steel and the Posty was wanting to know what it weigh so much. He went here and not expecting a half bag of cement I near dropped it . Took 4 bridges outside to put together before the picture was taken.
So here we are today setting up the roadbed for the track and the new bridges.
The wider gap is the double span over the road and the smaller gap is the House creek bridge. I shortened the distance between the bridges and now after looking at the pictures realise it will be difficult to build the wing walls and the sloping embankment. So I guess Rule 202 "Three steps forward and one step backwards is about to work its business once again. It certainly makes it difficult if your imagination does not first see it as it is
Cheers
Rod
2013 February 10 Sunday (continues)
Next Step is to glue together the bridges. I wish I had done this first, before creating the gap. I did not allow for the small wings that extend behind the abutment. So I will have to open up the gap a few more mm's to make it easier.
All
I need to do now, apart from painting it up, is to work out a way of
creating concrete abutments on the SG side built in 1960, and blending
it with the brick abutments on the BG side built in the 1870's
Cheers
Rod Young
2013 February 10 Sunday (continues)
Whilst waiting for some items I played around with my Fratechni turntable. Made it look more at home on a Victorian layout. The dress-up saw a deck added to each side, fences and some paint. Added wheels to deck as well (replacing dummy ones)
Picture 1 shows the deck is slightly larger than VR used but at 22.5 cm, it fits a J and K with room to spare.
Paint the beams red oxide and add some hand operated bars to turn her and she will do the job.
The roof is straight, but I had the camera low which caused the distortion :(
Cheers
Rod
2013 February 15th Friday
Hot and sweaty day after not enough rain yesterday.
Paid for Tuesday via direct debit, bank transferred funds +24 hours.
Merchant Packed and posted +12 hours
Notified yesterday that parcel was in the system by Post Office
Roadside Delivery 10.15 am this morning.
And here I am at 1120, already got it assembled and test running it on a 422 conversion
I really wanted a Milling machine, but for the limited use it would get, I decided to look for an alternative, and here it is
$149 in Australia and with postage and 13 new belts less than $200. Definitely the way to go
Cheers
Rod
And so next time you visit a model Rail Exhibition Say hello to Stan, a really nice bloke to do business with, and check out his web site www.sonicminitools.com.au
2013 March 4 Monday
his is a project that has been occupying my time these last few weeks (months
Its a metal kit that goes together nicely (even if you don't read the instructions properly
These pictures show the model of the twin span Prairie Crossing bridge (two 37 1/2 foot spans)
Kit # 7786 Adair Shops Adair Shops
Overhead view showing a bridge almost identical to those used by the Victorian Railways SG project in the '60's.
Two in place after painting. The Walthers bridging track is not the right one, and so I am ordering some central valley bridging track from the States. Australian Mail Order is just too hard. Our shopkeepers are much better at complaining about purchases going off shore, than creating lists on their web sites (when they have a web site) to enable easy on line shopping. The 422 is also an ongoing project restarted recently after being tucked away for 20 years!
Central Valley 25 foot Bridge Ties
Central Valley 72 foot Bridge Ties
Please excuse this ":americanism" :) The Yanks make them and of course they call sleepers, ties ;)
I am pretty pleased with these. I will create concrete and brick abutments to cover the pine and it should look pretty right!
Sitting on the bridge (To weigh the ties down
) is the new chassis for a Lima 422 I never finished conversion on. I
just noticed the lh bogie is about 6 mm out of position opening up the
gap on the fuel tank. I will fix that and it will overcome the short
shaft on the flywheel too I guess
Have 15 of these bridges, of different sizes, and I suspect they will be a nice feature.
The overhead shot shows the results of not reading the instructions "Eh?? what are these tiny spacers for? Oh instructions say to space out the girders before super gluing them together Oh well next time...."
Ok paint is dry, lets glue them all together and start boxing out the abutments
Cheers
Rod
And this final post catches up the Victrainz Blog New posts will appear from here on :D
Cheers
Rod
Gosh another year almost over! Where on earth did that one go? I must have blinked
Hot day, and just sat in front of the TV. Had a couple of videos that I had not watched, and they were ok.
But then I felt a bit guilty...so...
I opened up the shed and looked at what I had to do to start laying out Wodonga Station.
Pic 1: Setting up the approach track and laying out the points. Be aware that underneath you need to have enough room for point motors! This area is over top of a join in the boards, and as well the curved track panels meet the yard board. This layout is not exactly right but the best I could do, considering space limitations and using peco track geometry.
Pic 2: Now you are asking for trouble if you think laying the track on the layout is all you have to do. If you do do that I guarantee before the year is out you are going to get dead spots and especially dead points.
So I remove the two temporary tags in the points and solder to the point 5 wires.
One to the frog, isolated by removing the two tags this a white wire.
Then solder two more wires to the outer and inner rails to guarantee continuity.
and the last two wires to under the point blades because this mechanical joint is never going to remain honest.
Pic 3: I am pointing at 4 rails deliberately exposed on the underside by Peco. You join the two closest together ,by soldering a dropper to each side these will power the point except for the frog and the blades.
Pic 4: So here are 5 neatly soldered droppers colour coded and amongst the neatest work I have done with the iron
Wonder what was different about today 
Pic 5: `So in this case I need point motors and it is good to plan what you are going to do about now.I have bought some cheap servo motors, some mounting brackets and DCC controllers. The servos come in plastic bags and at about $2.50 are great value.
Pic 6: Just remove it from its bag and press fit it hard home and secure it with a screw supplied.
Pic 7: Take the second bag and press fit the mounting piece and screw it home.
Pic 8: They are slow acting and very inexpensive. Just using push buttons and micro switches will set you back about $7 and using DCC controllers another $8. Still cheaper than one tortoise!
The dcc controllers come with plug and wire packs which means they simply plug together. The push buttons can be mounted on the layout fascia with the Bi-color LEDS if you wish to operate them manually. In fact their is a template supplied to allow you to drill out the fascia and attach the circuit board behind the fascia which shows the two buttons and two LEDs on the front panel of the layout. I am sure some will extend the wiring to their control panels as well
(All I need to do now, is learn how to program the things)
See what happens tomorrow
Cheers
Rod
2012 December 9
Aaron™ wrote:
Hi Rod,
That is very interesting on the points, it's something I never thought of and probably no one at CMRC has thought of either, it's something I must try out too.
Cheers.
That is very interesting on the points, it's something I never thought of and probably no one at CMRC has thought of either, it's something I must try out too.
Cheers.
Hi Aaron,
I should point out that Allan Gartner shared this information with me
And it solved a lot of problems I have experienced over the years at Hobsons Bay and my various home layouts.It was remiss of me not to include an address to the site that put me on to this
WIRING FOR DCC
2013 February 10 Sunday Another hot day
This is a catch up post, Joining the last post with today's
Inside I have been preparing locomotives to have sound fitted, in most cases the locos have been stripped down and are waiting arrival of a thin belt sander ordered before Christmas but as yet has not arrived. I need this to neatly remove metal from the weights to enable fitting of decoders and speakers. I used to do this with a hack saw and a bastard file finishing off with the Dremel.
However Arthritis is making this much too painful to do these days. I really need a Mill to do this work, However a cheap mill and tools is going to set me back $1000 and I don't feel like it is worth that to me when cheaper avenues are available.
I did however find a box of 62 Steam Era kit built wagons. All 4 wheelers with couplers and various parts falling off. I have repaired 37 of these over the last several weeks and they are commissioned and running well on the existing track. I have 15 GH's and 6 yellow GY's to finish this off. A job I am glad I finished.
Another few weeks was lost when a nephew became very ill and recently passed away in Melbourne. Sad times and I had to pick up my parents (in their 90's) and ferry them around Melbourne for that time. Another Club mate passed away and another suffered a heart attack and a few miny-strokes. So time just goes rolling by.
So today I spent a few hours in the shed working on the approach to Wodonga Station from the South.
The track comes out of a curve past Wodonga SG Loop and then Uncle Ben's crosses Kelly Street on a grade crossing before dropping into a gully and crossing another street and House Creek on overhead bridges So that is 4 bridges needed. The bridges arrived from the US in December and they were not what I expected. Let the pictures tell the story
This is why 15 of these kits weighed 20 lbs
The kits are built out of precision cut steel. He does not say how,
but it looks like a computer cutting tool, not that I knew you could do
this with steel ?? 
The girders are in two pieces, so glue them back to back.
(edit Mar 2013.. If I had read the instructions I would have noticed the three spaces that I forgot to apply to each girder)
Then place the girders into the machined slots.
I need better bridge track or will have to hand lay it. This Walthers version has guard rails, which are not used now on the bridges. Showing the kits and the bits and pieces.
I unpacked the parcel of 15 bridge kits All machined steel and the Posty was wanting to know what it weigh so much. He went here and not expecting a half bag of cement
I near dropped it . Took 4 bridges outside to put together before the picture was taken.
So here we are today setting up the roadbed for the track and the new bridges.
The wider gap is the double span over the road and the smaller gap is the House creek bridge. I shortened the distance between the bridges and now after looking at the pictures realise it will be difficult to build the wing walls and the sloping embankment. So I guess Rule 202 "Three steps forward and one step backwards is about to work its business once again. It certainly makes it difficult if your imagination does not first see it as it is
Cheers
Rod
2013 February 10 Sunday (continues)
Next Step is to glue together the bridges. I wish I had done this first, before creating the gap. I did not allow for the small wings that extend behind the abutment. So I will have to open up the gap a few more mm's to make it easier.
Cheers
Rod Young
2013 February 10 Sunday (continues)
Whilst waiting for some items I played around with my Fratechni turntable. Made it look more at home on a Victorian layout. The dress-up saw a deck added to each side, fences and some paint. Added wheels to deck as well (replacing dummy ones)
Picture 1 shows the deck is slightly larger than VR used but at 22.5 cm, it fits a J and K with room to spare.
Paint the beams red oxide and add some hand operated bars to turn her and she will do the job.
2013 February 12 Tuesday
Cheers
Rod
2013 February 15th Friday
Hot and sweaty day after not enough rain yesterday.
Paid for Tuesday via direct debit, bank transferred funds +24 hours.
Merchant Packed and posted +12 hours
Notified yesterday that parcel was in the system by Post Office
Roadside Delivery 10.15 am this morning.
And here I am at 1120, already got it assembled and test running it on a 422 conversion
I really wanted a Milling machine, but for the limited use it would get, I decided to look for an alternative, and here it is
$149 in Australia and with postage and 13 new belts less than $200. Definitely the way to go
Cheers
Rod
And so next time you visit a model Rail Exhibition Say hello to Stan, a really nice bloke to do business with, and check out his web site
www.sonicminitools.com.au
2013 March 4 Monday
his is a project that has been occupying my time these last few weeks (months
Its a metal kit that goes together nicely (even if you don't read the instructions properly
These pictures show the model of the twin span Prairie Crossing bridge (two 37 1/2 foot spans)
Kit # 7786 Adair Shops Adair Shops
Sample
Overhead view showing a bridge almost identical to those used by the Victorian Railways SG project in the '60's.
Two in place after painting. The Walthers bridging track is not the right one, and so I am ordering some central valley bridging track from the States. Australian Mail Order is just too hard. Our shopkeepers are much better at complaining about purchases going off shore, than creating lists on their web sites (when they have a web site) to enable easy on line shopping. The 422 is also an ongoing project restarted recently after being tucked away for 20 years!
Central Valley 25 foot Bridge Ties
Central Valley 72 foot Bridge Ties
Please excuse this ":americanism" :) The Yanks make them and of course they call sleepers, ties ;)
I am pretty pleased with these. I will create concrete and brick abutments to cover the pine and it should look pretty right!
Sitting on the bridge (To weigh the ties down
) is the new chassis for a Lima 422 I never finished conversion on. I
just noticed the lh bogie is about 6 mm out of position opening up the
gap on the fuel tank. I will fix that and it will overcome the short
shaft on the flywheel too I guess 
Have 15 of these bridges, of different sizes, and I suspect they will be a nice feature.
"Eh?? what are these tiny spacers for? Oh instructions say to space out the girders before super gluing them together Oh well next time...."
Ok paint is dry, lets glue them all together and start boxing out the abutments
Cheers
Rod
And this final post catches up the Victrainz Blog New posts will appear from here on :D
Cheers
Rod
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