2019_05_30 RUB Cars and another "AL-Day"

2019_05_30  On Wednesday I was able to pick up my newest Auscision production!

 Saw a nice review by Rob Nesbitt here so check it out    https://buildingwagga.blogspot.com/

Neatly packed and very secure as we expect from Auscision.

 The six car set as run through Albury Wodonga 70's and 80's

 Very clean crisp decals

several cars had pick ups to operate tail lights. very subdued and just exactly correct in my opinion.

 The six car set came with extended couplers for minimum radius operations. So far I have not worked out what the bits  in top pockets are. Very top is Intercapital Daylight signs. I think the middle are buffers and diaphragm bits?

I built my set up with an extra two cars, and decided to add candy cars as my era saw the changes coming in.

Extra couplers and ? for candy cars

Don't remember if they ran louvre vans on the thru trains, but what the heck :)

Thursday work day
Ok Al and I got back into the swing of things and finally completed the baseboards for the whole branch. And so we are now connected to helix. connected the helix into the system.  This has taken so much time but we were really excited that the next phase will be to lay track into the Branch terminus on top of the new helix.

 I rebuilt the top deck allowing me to cut off 450mm from the horizontal supports, making that mistake a little less obvious. Albury yard now will not sit in the shadows ;)

 It will only be a single line, however its just wide enough to include scenery, perhaps an s bend snaking through a cutting?  A small hill?  a culvert or two? Ha Ha Graeme is getting to me :)

 All baseboard cut and ready to glue and screw. I will install wiring first.

In background you can see two 50 inch radius curved boards clamped together? We used this to prove the curve to the left into the Terminus Station. The platform will sit along side a 46 inch radius S Curve, and should look interesting. The track runs towards display case and runs around top of helix into station. Several roads will be laid out servicing service pit, coal stage, water facilities as well as a Goods Shed, Silo, Briquettes and Super siding. Have I room for a fuel depot?

 Screwed and glued with the outrigger cut back. Its very solid and would support my weight Ha Ha

 

Here Al checks my measurements. And why wouldn't he Ha ha

Thats enough for now, and I am taking a short break for the next several weeks.

Cheers
Rod

2019_05_27 Sound install B Class continues

2019_05_27     Al's B Class

So we finally worked out that Al's B Class was defective. I built another B up using a similar sound chip and speaker, and Al took them both home to test. The original kept derailing, and the new one ran just fine, apart from having working marker lights but no headlight.
 So I lifted off the body and swapped it with Al's and put the faulty chassis into the parts bin. I bought a few cheap B's for parts and put them into service, because they appeared just fine. So parts are a good thing, just in case :D

 When I had the top off, I tried to find out why the headlights were not working. I started to think about the switch in the fuel tank, and what it did? Of course it turned off the headlight. So I shorted out the plug and got headlights. The male plug is fitted to the socket without wires shown here.

 Closer up. I need to permanently join these together.

Quickly solder the plugs (wires had been cut off neatly leaving the crimped connectors inside) I released the connectors with a hobby knife and slightly pushed them out with some piano wire.

And while I was here, I took a shot of the space I created to snug down a full sized Version 4.0 decoder on board. The wire bridges were formed by soldering in the ends of resistors after snipping away the green parts at L1 and L2  The Capacitor C1 was also cut out, but not bridged with wire.

The decoder now snugs down another 4 mils and the roof fits on without touching ;)


W Class more coming soon.

New speakers arrived, however I ordered wrong size speaker boxes. Re-order soon.


I am the King of messing wiring!  maybe these clips will help?

I have seen these before (on Honeysuckle) But they were stickons, and the wood was not a good surface to use them.

These clips cost $9 for 300 on ebay (45c each in Australia)

You screw them where you want them, and fix your wires in position with a short plastic tie!
How easy is that... Yeiii  no more hanging wires, I hope.
Cheers
Rod

2019_05_17 Continued W Class sound

2019_05_17  Fitting sound to the W Class and modding a B Class install

Trainbuilder CLASS W

 To remove body from chassis I removed four screws from air tanks inside steps each end. Seemed obvious, however it did not loosen body.  Bruce seemed to agree that it should work.

 Directly in front of wheels at each end are located 4 screws. These are the ones that do loosen the body. You can just make out the top one in this pic.

Body will slip off easily, but you MUST loosen handrails and be careful they dont scratch body as you remove them. Notice the cat walk stays attached to chassis. The electrics are wrapped in insulating tape and secured into corners out of way.

 Bruce suggests you hard wire the 8 pin decoder into locomotive. This eliminates a lot of wire that needs to be secured away inside body to prevent fouling mechanism.

 Here you can see the tape and with decoder nearby, the mass of wiring to secure away.
Also look at the size of the standard loksound 16 x 25 rectangular speaker which almost fits above gearbox. I will not use this one, and have ordered a special sugar cube array, which I will show when it arrives.

 Much improved build when compared to the F Class of some years ago, when Trainbuilder first entered the market. The locomotive performed well when running on DC.

Auscision B Class (original build)

I used two Loksound sugar cube speakers (50326) in the fuel tank when I converted this loco to sound a few years back for Al.

 It seemed very quiet and Al asked me to replace it with a 50333, which he thought would be louder.

 Al's B Class will not run around 22 inch set track, and run through one Peco No 6 universal point. It runs around my layout here ok. But look at the pattern on the underfloor of the No2 end cab. I suspect that the gearbox permanently slides on the floor, preventing the bogie from rocking up and down to cope with track height variations. The fix used by others, I believe, is to cut a hole larger than this pattern to allow free movement? Why does this not happen with all B Class models?

Back to fitting the speaker. I removed the sugar cubes and decided to use the Loksound sound baffle inside the fuel tank. Here I am filing the sides away to make it fit. The sides are thin, however they are glued to inside of tank when fitted, sealing off any thin spots.

ok fill the holes after placing speaker and wires through. I used BlueTak to do this.

 Looks ok, just need to file the top off a smidge!

That looks good. Glue it in and fill spaces around it with putty or like I did, bluetac.

Lot quicker than cutting out a lid to mount speaker and seal the tank. I sealed speaker into enclosure with Krystal Klear glazing fluid. I think white glue would be ok if you are careful not to get it on mylar cone.

The Auscision wiring left in place (for switch) was used to connect speaker to sound decoder. (Or you could use it to pull through the speaker wiring (Just solder together and gently pull it through)

 If you used existing wiring, cut it away from board and solder it to sound decoder (Brown wires)
 When I fixed the decoder in place it stopped the body from fitting down snugly. What I did was removed the sound suppression devices (blue green) and joined the solder tabs with wire to complete the circuit, and cut free C1 as well, Not needed with DCC.
This allowed the decoder to be shifted to the rear and dropped closer to surface of board. Roof fits correctly now...  Wonder if this will allow bogie to sit better?
I used a normal size V4.0 decoder. A micro decoder would have fitted better.
Al took it home with my B74 to see if it sounds and runs any better. Time will tell. Interesting to see if B74 derails as well?

Cheers
Rod

2019_05_17 Albury Wodonga Exhibition

2019_05_17 Albury Exhibition

Sorry about late notification. It ended up in drafts a week ago.

Cheers
Rod

2019_05_13 Playing around with my RUB set plus new Loco!

2019_05_13   Lighting it up...

S313 comes around behind Wodonga with the Daylight behind.

Almost all circuits are completed and test ok around Wodonga station.
All I need now is the point motor switches to be connected. Ha Ha  Promises of things to come.. eh?
Cheers
Rod
EDIT

Another project Trainbuilder W Class. But I am having trouble getting the top off to install a sound decoder. More to come?  Now Bruce tells me to detach the handrails, and being careful not to scratch, lift body off. Damn thing is not moving.  Maybe I am being too careful? We will see.
Rod

2019_05_04 second coat!

2019_05_04 Another coat!  

Yeah looks ok, I think.

Second coat. Not an artisan painter, but it will do :D

Now back to rewiring the helix. I can see a weeks work here alone
Cheers
Rod

2019_05_04 Paint it black..

2019_05_04  So today we painted it black.


Here is the first coat.  Ever tried to buy interior black paint?  asked Graeme :D

Put a second coat on later in afternoon, will finish painting when I take clamps off tomorrow.
We both like the look.
Cheers
Rod