2015_12_22 Beating the heat.

2015_12_22  
With Summer here and temps approaching 40 C  It was time to fix the West wall for good. Materials for the job were delivered and today we got into the shed, turned up the air conditioner and started putting up the wall.

First you need some measurements and some wood to cut up.

Then you need a chippie who happens to be your son, to show you how to do it :D

ok the sisalation foam board is on the back leaving a 5 inch air gap.
All we need to do is cut a hole for the power board and fill in the other gaps. The horisontal pieces are at 750mm and 1400mm to which the two baseboards will be fixed to after 6 m plaster sheets are fixed to the whole wall. The panels are flush with the piers and some plaster glue will fix the sheets to the bricks.
The windows are almost covered ,just leaving a little light reflecting off the ceiling. This wall used to radiate heat into the room they would would reach 50 C to the touch on a hot afternoon.
Hopefully no more ;)
Cheers
Rod

2015_12_19 Back Scenes

2015_12_19 We had to remove the back scenes.

Despite the fact that we used spray adhesive which meant the paper went on dry, over the next few weeks, the paper rippled and shrunk. We are pretty sure we could iron the bumps out and the paper would return to its original length.
However, unfortunately we could only remove about 90% of each sheet, leaving tears and rips in the rest.
I decided to cut my losses and replace the sheets.

We experimented with some 80gsm paper using white glue diluted 15 to 1 and were pleased with the results. Perhaps that is our answer.
The manufacturer discourages using wall paper paste, telling us to leave unglued gaps between the adhesive, but after seeing the shrinkage we are not happy to do that. The white glue experiment left a perfectly flat secure cover.  Perhaps we could seal it with matte liquid medium?

Cheers
Rod

2015_12_17 Nice weather :D

2015_12_17 Fitting Sound continues

Followed Mikes advice and removed the troublesome filters from the L Class light board.
 A five minute job for most, but my skills in soldering as bad as they are, meant I had to be extra careful with the iron, so as not to damage the body or the board. Ended up taking out all four components and soldering back in links. You need the L links because the motor will not turn without them in place

Mike said

"I believe it may be worth doing a modification to the motherboard in the SRM L class. Remove the dynamic brake blister.
The RFI circuit may need removal as some models don't seem to run too well; some other models are fine. I think it comes down to the particular model and layout also.
1. Remove D1 & C12. Just snip them out with some Xuron orange track cutters. See if this improves operation.
If not,
2. Remove the Inductors L1 & L2 from the mother board, after removing the decoder and pulling out the soldering iron. Only do this mod if you're confident not to melt the body. Pull the decoder up and away from the motherboard. careful to pull is straight up so as not to bend the pins.
3. Then bridge across each inductor pad as the inductor was wired in series with each motor wire. Is use a small (5mm long) piece of resistor wire so power can get through to the motor terminals."


Kind regards"

I then fitted Mikes X Class (Late version) Loksound 4 decoders to my three Auscision Series 1 - X Class. Mike will upgrade the chips for me in 2016, when he finishes off the X Class sound set.

I then ,finally reassembled the last B Class (Bugger that took a long time) :(

Now I have two 48 Class to finish and an 830.

Then 4 G Class and three 81 Class,to finish.

After that I will build two new plaster walls on the west side of the shed to insulate the afternoon sun, and start the new bench work for the NSW side of my layout.

Ordered all the material today, and hope to get it tomorrow.

Then I need to decide what to do with the back ground sheets, which is turning into a disaster.

Merry Christmas from my house to yours :D

Cheers

Rod

Thanks James for your interest and your help. I am going to install your sounds into another X37-44 series I have {in an orange box) that needs sound.as I have a spare Loksound with 8 pin plug fitted that I can use.

 Let you know how it goes :)
( Mike Walters
DCCSound team - Australia
Authorised ESU dealer

Subscribe to our Newsletter, Synchronicity

http://www.dccsound.com/  )

2015_12_16 Nice day :) 27 C ah! that's better :)

2015_12_16  Auscision X Class day!!

Have to add these to the long list of sound installs.

At least Auscision have put a lot of thought into sound in their engines. (Now all we have to do is teach them how to fit tail lights and car lighting ;) )


Here are the first pics :)

Nice one Auscision. I bet this one brings a lot of smiles in the lucky state :)
Cheers
Rod

2015_12_06 L Class days

2015_12_06  Southern Models (WAGR)  L Class day!!
Don't have to add these to the long list of sound installs...YEIIIII!!
Sound already installed.
Unfortunately I do have to make modifications to the light boards though as the pre-installed Loksound chip does not like the mandatory interference suppressors. Not sure yet how to remove the surface mounts, although Mike Walters has sent me a how to email.

Runs nicely hauls a huge load up my helix, and sounds great! Unfortunately the video was not quite right and I blurred the picture of the loco on tracks.
Thanks Rocket and Co. A nicely done job. The colour manual and exploded diagram are a nice touch too. Not letting Auscision get away with anything, eh?
Cheers
Rod

2015_11_28 B Class continues and a tidy up turns into bigger mess!

2015_11_28 So how does one keep a clean work area?

Or even how do some of you ever work on a small desk. Oh I did that once too. I built almost a hundred pink epoxy kits and painted them in an ensuit fitted out with a desk over the toilet, which never ceased to upset my poor dear wife :(

But I spent a few days trying to find some parts that I knew exactly where they were ... that is till I decided to have a clean up a month or so back.

So I searched everywhere and even cleaned up a little more. Taking individual bits and putting them with other similar bits. Going through Athearn box lids filled with tiny parts, screws, detail items, broken off bits, and putting them in one place where they could be found, particularly if I found out where they fell off.  So I started clearing off my work bench (almost finished that too) so I have somewhere to work without cluttering up the railroad.

Go back in my blog to when I cleaned up to lay back sheets?    Now look at todays work area. Yes I know finish one job, before starting another... then the B Class needs finishing and... and.....

The clean up continues and most of this stuff is needing a new home, as I work at the other end adjacent the TV putting the B Class' back together  and  testing them all out.

Talking about the B Class.
As Eugene suggested their are wiring faults with this engine, but they are peculiar faults, unlike the ones Austrains presented us with at the start of the Chinese era.

At each end of the new lighting board note that a red and a black wire extend up from the bogies?
We do not connect red wires to the decoder red wire or black wires to the decoder black wire. we in fact select the wires from the same side of the loco. Actually obvious, otherwise you would connect poitive pickup to negative pickup and create a direct short through the decoder.

I think their are two different batches, because the first B I worked on, did not have this fault. Red wires were both on top, and black wires both on bottom.  So be warned. Ignore colour of wires just make sure you join the same sides to the decoder red and black wires. Thanks again Eugene :)

The next trick is to do with the headlight wires and the marker light wires. Probably due to the original board wiring, however it slowed me down for a time.
In this picture you will note that a pair of wires are shorter and another longer?
The short wires go to the headlight, long wires to marker lights.
the headlight black wire and marker light red wire are positive and join the decoder blue wire. So then the long black wire is green or purple wire and the short red wire is headlight white or yellow.

Here I swap over the wires to correct the short that shut down this decoder.

By getting rid of the Auscision lighting board I had to add 1k resistors to the purple, green, white and yellow decoder wires to protect the LED's. You can see one shrink protected here. hmm the shrink tubing shrunk too much I see in this picture exposing the wire at one end :(
The new board lowers the decoder and prevents it contacting the roof, and overheating the plastic.

Three done and one to go.
Now I need to remember how to connect F4 and F5 so I can turn on my marker lights. Loksound keep talking about  Function 1 and Function 2 which is typical German confusion, if you use other companies decoders as well. F0 headlight, F1Engine start up or shut down, F2 Whistle, F3 coupling and air noise, F4 dynamic brake, F5 notch up, F6 notch down, F7 shunt mode or air release, F8 mute/ handbrake on and off  F9 short horn F10 air compressor, F11 front Marker Lights, F12 Rear marker lights and reed switches both ends turns on red tail light fire mans side only when required Ha Ha  That works for me!
EDIT +3 hours and the lighting is not working on any of the projects. I have identified Anode and Cathode connections and tested them, but for some reason each Loco has the same lighting fault. It can only be reversed wires. How could I do that? Need to recheck the polarities :(
Note to self. Maybe if I cannot solder nicely, I should at least photo shop it to look good?

Cheers
Rod

2015_11_25 Installing DCC continues

2015_11_25   Only got one loco done yesterday.

So its back into the B Class project :)
Yesterday I prepared all 4 B Class for sound and only needed to connect up  the wires. The easy part, so I thought..
I started on the first engine in line and connected up all the lights, then the motor and finally the bogies. When I tested the engine the sound and the lights all worked, however the Loco would not move. As I started checking wires , I found that the grey wire to the motor had a bad solder joint and was only held together with shrink tube. So I rejoined it and placed it on the track to see if it was fixed.  The sound started but as soon as the Loco tried to move, a direct short occurred. After starting to test for the short, I ran out of time and finished for the day.
A few minutes ago I was about to head out into the shed when I noticed that Eugene had posted on my blog about how the wiring was reversed on the bogies.
Thank you Eugene. You just saved me a heap of time. Now I will reverse those wires and see how it goes. I also noticed that Auscision have not used any standard wiring for their lighting circuits either.
More Later,
Cheers
Rod Young

2015_11_13 Fitting Decoders...

2015_11_13

After some domestic jobs, like washing three loads and hanging it all out. Then climbing up on the roof with a new long handled brush to wash 3 years of dirt of the solar panels. I actually got to start off the B Class Decoder job
1/ strip out the circuit boards and the wiring connectors.
2/ Cut new blank styrene boards to fit between the rubber mounts either side.
3/ Locate all the wiring and bring it to top of new board.
4/ Cut out new lids for fuel tank and cut a hole slightly smaller than speaker.
5/ wire in speakers and run wires through to top circuit board.
6/ seal top of fuel tank which now forms enclosure for speaker.
7/ Reassemble fuel tank and attach to chassis.
8/ Glue Loksound Decoder to top surface circuit board,
9/ wait for Silastic to dry

Times 4

So tomorrow will need to
1/ link black and red wires front and rear bogies to black and red wire decoder.
2/ link orange and grey wires to decoder
3/ link front marker lights to green wire via resistor decoder F5
4/ link rear marker lights to purple wire via resistor decoder F6
5/ blue wire +ve decoder to all body lights
6/white wire via resistor to headlight
7/ yellow wire via resistor to headlight
Locate body to chassis  and test movement and sounds
secure body, attach couplers and check for damage.
Run through Decoder Pro, to normalize operations, speeds etc

Cheers
Rod Young

2015_11_22 - 10 projects on go...none close to finished :(

2015_11_22   Something smells around here ....

Well I am not entirely to blame for the lull (Excuses Excuses !)
The kids pet rabbit has gone and died under the floor, and its not very nice out there in the train room.
But today it was a little better so maybe the worst of it is over.

Talking about Spray Glue?
Bunnings, Masters, Art Shops and Office Works, all hand me spray fixing adhesive, and as I found out that just does not work.
So Al and I decided to mix our own and spray it on with a hand pumped detergent bottle, and as we gradually increased the % of white glue we got it to work.
Here we test it out at approx 15 to 1, (after starting at about 30 water to 1 glue) And we are pretty happy with results I had some 80gsm paper which was about the same as the back scenes. So next job is to try it out once again on the real scenes. It did stick permanently after just smoothing it out with a damp cloth and did not curl at all. It was dry in 24 hours.

very firmly attached, and no bubbles / ripples after a week.

Took some effort to peel it off, and appears to be a permanent fix. Possibly only removable by wetting it down?

Three Way Point (Shinohara DC Code 70)

Now lets look at that three way point for Trentham throat.

Before installing it, I joined track to it at all ends, and using jumper leads, connected it to main line. I then operated a diesel in DCC mode over the points trying to locate each dead point or short. Took several hours over several days, but finally using three mono juicers (automatic electronic polarity changes for live frogs)  I got a train to run through each route without shorting or losing power.

But Lord the wiring to achieve this was unbelievable! But I do suggest that whilst these small multi strand links stay attached, I will never ever suffer dead spots here :D

Now to drill out the holes, mount it and connect it up. Going to use Tortoise Motors here.
Cheers
Rod

ps I have 4 B Class all getting Loksound Decoders with Mike Walters sound encoded in an assembly line, as well as several other sound projects that need fixing or doing :)

2015_11_09 (Forgotten Post?)

2015_11_09   Just goes to show, when you are tired, best sleep on it. This post was messed up and did not appear.
Really sorry Roger :(

As was the case back in 1870 or so, the contractors have finished the goods shed ahead of the station, which is being designed as we think on this post.

"Today the new shed was handed over to the Commissioners to improve the transfer of goods between the States. The Customs Gate has been established on the Murray crossing for some time, but now excise will be levied at the new goods sheds either side of the border" (extracted from the Border Paper at the time)

In our case Roger Lloyd fresh from his mammoth task building Maryborough Station has taken on the task of building Wodonga Station.

The first brick building was installed on Monday, and scenic landscaping will be undertaken as soon as the track work is in place.
For your pleasure, I present Roger's new Wodonga Goods Shed. :D

The track is sitting on foam which makes it too high for the door. So I will cover the yard with flat underlay and cut out the track and lay that on the baseboard or on thin cork, if it will lower it enough. Roger explained that the foam would not work too :)

Just need yard lights, fire hoses and hydrants and telephones and signs to finish it off. The roof is painted red and is corrugated iron, because we think that is how it was about the time the SG went through. Modern pictures show lots of fallout giving an almost even red flavouring. So red it is ;)

The building has been accepted by the Commissioners and the cheque is in the mail :)\

Cheers
Rod

11_11_2015 Remembrance Day in Australia

 

Remembrance Day in Australia

Remembrance Day in Australia is dedicated to Australians who died as a result of war, particularly from World War I onwards. A minute of silence is dedicated to the deceased, especially for soldiers who died fighting to protect the nation. Remembrance Day is annually observed on November 11 although it is not a public holiday. 

God Bless all soldiers and for the legacy they left us. 

2015_11_11 The postman called and I was waiting at the post box at 10.15 am this morning. He was late too ;)

Whilst I can manage to get at least some in focus, a picture story follows

Two bags full of ??

cany\t get it open quick enough :D

Another amazing SDS model which should be equal or better than his previous models.  SDS are now producing the best builds for Australian Modellers. Auscision were the Kings (according to some :)   But their quality slips just as Steven tries harder to provide better builds , with each lesson learned carrying on to the next model.  I think his first engine will be top of the tree too.

Out of the wrappings.. First impression?  A good weight and does not appear fragile. None of the detail was loose (except for container locks supplied in a bag in the box)

The went onto track easily, and detail stayed attached, kadees at correct height.

So where did I hide the containers all those years ago, when Steven released them and I put them into store?  Ah an hour later, I have them and my CONTRAINS train 12 JCW's long of about 1978 vintage only needs to have containers fixed in place a van on rear and a C Class up front :)

ok the fixing of containers has begun.

Good time to have a closer look at these :)

Crisp accurate lettering, although my eyes needed the picture blown up to fully appreciate it. You "younguns"  will better appreciate it, for sure.

Go on Tell me the handbrake is on Ha Ha!   Look at the brake cylinder, eh? fully released my friend ;)
The chain may rattle loose as the train runs at speed, but when the employee releases it, that is how it would always look. This is a different thing to the Powerline 48 Class hand brake chain :)

Front pins moulded in as prototype .

and rear pins need adding for a 40foot top lift container.

t'other side

 \
brake blocks as expected. Hope Steven sells the bogies loosely.

overall top view.

and the under view.

My highest rating of  9.1 out of 10 for the nicest model out of SDS. Clearly the leader of the factories at this stage.

Mind you Auscision have a car carrier in our future, and an X Class on the water (I think?) which might tilt things back again.

Congratulations Steven. Not only for building another fine model, but for your recent take over of Austrains. I think that strategic move will also be a profitable one. I do hope that high T Class EBAY prices will help you decide to upgrade and run the Victorian T Class in the near future, with upgraded electrics.

Cheers

Rod Young

2015_11_04 Got home from the city to rain and more rain and this..

2015_11_04 After a week away visiting parents in Melbourne

I came home to a very wet farm. When I finally got into see the railway it was (as usual) dry but humidity seems to have worked against me.

The  back scenes are coming away from the wall, and I think it is a combination of not getting it fixed properly and wet weather and hot weather. To explain..  I had the swampy on when we were installing the scenes and we did notice the paper was being affected slightly (so we turned it off).

What to do?  Well I have another 60 feet of paper left to hang. We could follow other methods of fixing, or even attempt to do it exactly as we were instructed in the first place. As an example we sprayed the whole sheet and adhered it in one place simply holding the sheet away from the wall as the second person flattened it to the wall. Instructions were to unroll the sheet as we held it to the line and spray it as you unrolled. This seemed too difficult. But maybe we would not have seen the air bubbles appear a week after the work was done?

Or perhaps hang it wet as in wall paper?

Either way I think I might have to seal it after placing it into position. Something like dull coat, but in a quantity that can cover such a huge area?   Some moddellers here in Australia have been using a matt estapol normally used on wood, and they use it to seal chalk weathering onto engines and wagons. If it works there on chalks, perhaps it will be ok on wall paper?   
Estapol worries me, because 30 years ago, I used it on some pine furniture, and initially it looked great, but it yellowed over the years and now looks very brown.

Anyway I think I will try to get another wall done, a different way, before trying to recover the first attempt....Some pictures. Hope I got the lens clear :)

Cheers
Rod
ps some of you might not recognise the descriptive noun "swampy"  Its a water evaporative air conditioner that is very effective in dry climates.