Comtrain goes H0! H0! H0!: 07/22/19

2019/07/22

2019_07_22 Diddling about....

2019_07_22 Two days in a row tried to complete wiring of helix..distractions?

Well I bought this and it wasn't cheap. It is a very heavy 4 wheel wagon with both axles suspended on a phosphor bronze spring, which allowed it to rock front to back.
So much so that KD's simply uncoupled, and made it difficult to tow or even push around.

So I decided to fix it!

Too cold to go and get better pictures :( But here you see the wagon sitting low on left side. Push it down on right side and it will also stay down. Not a really suitable vehicle for my purpose.

It is all glued together and is brittle, and I had to drill out the axle keeper to remove the wheels. I did it wong. I should have glued the coupling bars in first, making sure the vehicle sat flat on its 4 wheels and the coupling bars were horizontal. Once the bars were dried, I glued styrene extensions to the coupling bar long enough to fit KD's to ends and sit on two SEM trucks which supported the device exactly as high as the original two axles did, thus applying correct pressure on the sanding disk, or the polishing disk fitted to the vehicle. I did it the hard way, but eventually got there.

Used gorilla glue as it sets hard and expands to fill all gaps. I just need to cut away excess and lightly sand before painting. Notice the coupling on left dropped. Easy enough to fix.

I used U section styrene which was two light and allowed body to sag. So I filled the U section with Gorilla glue which stiffened it up. It does not bend now.

.
Just needs filing and cleaning up of the U beams where gorilla glue expanded. the wagon is now stable and exerts a solid pressure on rail. Might have to remove a weight or two, as a 442 had trouble pushing it. This is the third vehicle in my maintenance train.

I have a Roco/Atlas powered Track cleaner that power vacuums the track, washes it with solvent or polishes the rail packed away.. and as well.....

This DCC controlled scrubber fitted with spinning polishing wheels. The wheels spin in opposite directions which powers it along slowly, and it does a good job.

Cheers
Rod

About my Railway

The Australian National Railways was established by the Whitlam Federal Government following a commitment made in the 1972 election to invite the states to hand over their railway systems to the federal government. In July 1975 Australian National Railways was formed taking over the operations of the federal government owned Commonwealth Railways.

The state governments of South Australia and Tasmania whose railway systems were deeply in debt, accepted. During the next two years discussions between these two states and the federal government resulted in a number of staffing and operating agreements being made that resulted in all South Australian Railways services (except for the Adelaide metropolitan passenger network) and all Tasmanian Government Railways services transferring to Australian National Railway in March 1978, the latter being re-branded AN Tasrail.

At first Victoria declined to hand over its Railways, however a change of Government after Bolte retired meant Victoria could be absorbed into AN as well.
Despite doing everything they could to tarnish ALP leader Clyde Holding, The ALP were able to defeat Hamer who was seen to be just another Bolte, doing more of the same into the future.

Clyde Holding handed over Victorian Railways to the Commonwealth where it prospered as a division of AN retaining its VR colours until later when AN decided to re-brand it as V/Line.

My Railway thus reflects what could have been ;)
And of course National Rail (Pacific National) has no place in my little scenario. Australian National was never privatised and has continually taken East Coast loads off the Highways. As well many branch lines were upgraded and Whitlam's policy of decentralisation actually moved employment to towns with a ready pool of workers, which of course took the pressure of Melbourne which was starting to expand as bush kids moved away from the Country in search of education and employment ( just as Gough Whitlam envisaged it would do)
Rod Young

Comtrain goes H0! H0! H0!

2019/07/22

2019_07_22 Diddling about....

Photographs

About Me

Time Line