Comtrain goes H0! H0! H0!: 07/26/20

2020/07/26

2020_07_26 With Comrade Andrews revelling in his new powers....

2020_07_23 They say a change is as good as a holiday?

And I definitely must post more often. Maybe an update every Sunday? Maybe I can make MS a little useful and set it to remind me? ok

The change is walking away from the layout as such. First I was thinking about scenery, but my confidence is waning and I feel I am not ready or prepared for that task yet. Trees? Yeah someday.

So I decided to start unboxing all the (still) DC locos and think about upgrading them to DCC and sound. Fortunately I always purchased a sound chip with each new loco, so not being able to get to a hobby shop was not the problem.

The older engines like the original 930's and 44 Class required a lot of work, mainly because they were fitted with globes instead of led's and in some cases mounting sound decoders and speakers became a real pain. In fact I have arranged to send the more difficult engines away to be converted by professionals.

And so after 5 weeks of wiring and more wiring I have now completed 21 DCC conversions and started another 12 or so, with at least 20 more in the to do bins. :(

As each loco tested OK, I added them to the track, here.

Moved the computer to side, to gain better access! The 44 Class as an early one and getting new lights and a new DCC sound decoder.

The Flat Top T Class are rather difficult to fit sounds to. However unless you have really good ears and can hang un-baffled speakers to the side, you can get great results if you cut out the speaker mount and add a sugar cube speaker

This is the modified speaker which was sold to me by Mike Walters who also suggested the speaker mount. And it works perfectly (Only 5 more to convert)

https://www.dccsound.com/
Tell Mike Rod sent you :)

So with a few projects lined up on the desk, here are some more in the Q.
The hardest part is finding all the engines and matching up the bits that fit them. Fortunately, Mike from DCC sounds marked all the ESU sound boxes with the loaded sounds.
The sounds are all authentic and each decoder has the correct speaker already attached. Then it is only a matter of finding suitable wire and LED's to finish the project.

I am trying to finish one project a day, and that includes adjusting the decoders on my computer using a programmer and the ESU software and finishing off with DecoerPro
Decoder Pro is really great when used on Tsunami and TCS chips.

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!

2020/07/26

2020_07_26 With Comrade Andrews revelling in his new powers....

Photographs

About Me

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