2009 October 6

2009 October 6  Monday (page 9 of 35)

Damn Double Damn!! :cry:
Wasted most of today!
Still got shorts! Cannot sort it out, so started disconnecting tracks! Finally blew fuses on the transformer. Actually the lead from the transformer to the fuse holder cooked and disconnected. Not sure if it was a dry joint (Built this transformer 25 years ago) However I cleaned it up, replaced the fuse and tried to restart the DB150 but it failed. Seems as if I might have cooked it. Although I must admit it has worried me for some time. I did not like the way, it gave all indications that power was connected to track, however sometimes nothing moves. Shut down and reset usually fixed the problem. Maybe it was faulty? Anyway what do I do, now. Risk cooking another DB150? I am still trying to work out where the short is ?
Cheers
Rod

2009 October 8th  Thursday
:oops:

OK disconnected everything, received information back from Digitrax that the DB150 should be returned to them (cost $21.50 to USA and I guess about $31 US return plus repairs?) An expensive brain fade was soon discovered.

I started from the dead end. Connected the feeders and started up the spare DB150, and got one beep! Good news! The Y Class moved and worked properly. Added in the next and the next, finally arriving at the points that connect the reverse loop into the system.
We got a dead short! Could not work out why.... Took me three days and I was still none the wiser. Removed the Peco electro frogs, and connected spare lengths of track to it and the loco ran through both ways and was ok. Did this to all points, but still no fix was found.
Bypassed the faulty section and connected up the rest of the track sections. These were all fine (however they were in the insulated reverse loop behind the AR1 automatic reverser.

Now you got to remember I am a month away from 64 years old, and the hips and the eye sight are not as good as they used to be. It would seem I was unable to see some of the cable I was threading, and had threaded the ring main by feel, in at least one spot.
I found a mirror and did a visual inspection of all unsighted wiring... Bingo!!

What a pity I had not tried to connect that dropper!
Anyway everything is working fine now :lol:
Cheers
Rod
EDIT
Ok why is it working fine? I just looked at the picture again, like I said I am getting too old for this :(
But those twisted wires were going to the right places still !!
So why did the Y class move through this section into the reverse loop?
This could not be the problem? I have just cut the wires and rejoined them together as they were without the twist :shock:

2009 October 9    Friday night blues... Nah!!  .

Ok Trains are running again, at least on 99.9% of track laid. The AR1 is not reversing the power feeds to allow the train back out on the main. I will check the wiring to the AR1 tomorrow. I have a feeling I reversed the feeds to beat a short. Probably needs to be returned to where it was.
The last short was the shinohara point, which was fixed by replacing the circuit board throw bar with a plastic one. Although it was slotted, it still managed to short out when thrown to the outside track.
The next Peco point was a code 100 Universal (Old stock) The blades were not transferring power to the frog (And the insulators for the reversing section were at the frog end). So I modified it much the same way as an Electrofrog. Connected the two outer rails together and droppers to the bus line. the blades were connected to these droppers as well. The engine goes through both roads in both directions without any sign of a problem.
My biggest problem has been that often fixing a problem like the dead point blade, actually creates another problem (in the dead section which is now powered) This has been a big learning curve! And I would dearly love to meet with the idiot who advertised DCC.. you just connect 2 wires to the track!! Bull dust!! :x
Cheers
Rod
GO the HOLDENS!!!


Almost forgot...
2009 October 10  Saturday

Dead short crossing into Reversing loop was caused by the AR 1 . When I first set it up, it was chattering. Since sorting all the other shorts, and fixing them, I was 99.9% home free. This morning, I removed the A 1 wiring, Double checked it and re installed it. Got the short once more on first test. Adjusted the trim pot anti clockwise a "poofteenth" and the trains are running as they should!
Sent word down to Melbourne, that the line was ready for traffic, and so the official train is now scheduled for Monday at 1.00 pm, after a banquet to be held in the Old Southern Cross Hotel in Albury. As both local members of Parliament are Liberals, I sent them an invitation too, however I accidentally informed them that the ceremony will be held on Tuesday :lol: Who wants blasted politicians telling us how they would have done it anyway :roll:
Cheers
Rod ( 10 minutes to go.. Better get the TV warmed up, the recorder on, and the beer fridge and porta potti all ready! I am now camped beside the big screen for the next two days....


2009 October 13  Monday

Got busy in the office today. The weather was so bad, that I never went down to the Station. However I was contacted when I never showed up at the Southern Cross. By this time the weather was filthy. Pouring rain and freeze the brass balls of the Red Brahman at the entrance to the City of Rockhampton! :lol:

Anyway I had left the keys in the ignition, and thankfully when I went to start the Rover, it had a flat battery, thankfully!

So I spent the day in the office. Worked on sound decoders. After 3 months of not getting sound to work properly, I finally downloaded and installed Decoder Pro, and took all day to discover two things....
1/ Its not as easy as they say
2/ The DH165 LO chip I had worked on was a dud, and that was the reason I could not get sound working at all. Not only that but I had plugged two bugs into it and burnt them out as well.. Dispatch them back to Digitrax next time I am in town, I guess.

Also I need an attitude change. All this time I thought I was just too dumb to work it all out. At somebodies suggestion I opened up a new decoder and Sound bug and connected it to DecoderPro. Frustratingly with the new sounds uploaded I got silence for my trouble! I asked the question on the Digitrax users group, and found a bug in the uploader was known to turn sound off, however adjusting CV158 to 0 and CV160 to 200. It worked and I got the project set up exactly as I had been trying all this time. And now I have 5 decoders all ready to install.
One into X43 One into X38 another two into S306 and S317. Might try the third in T385
Well back to the Office
Cheers All.... Rod

2009 October 19  Monday

Got up early this morning and went out into the shed. Imagine my surprise when I found all this... :shock:

The method of fixing the supporting frame.
The block holds the frame against the track base and is glued and screwed to the deck. Each slot spaces the track about 9.5 cm, easy enough to re-rail a vehicle. each support is cut 16mm longer to give slightly less than 1.5% gradient and the Helix is 1200mm radius (rough)

Marking out the diverge to cross the SG over the yard

Now fully awake I remembered that Roger Lloyd was up from Melbourne visiting.
Look at what we did! :lol:
Cheers
Rod

2009 October 21 Wednesday

Gosh I got more aches and Pains than I got places to feel them :lol:
Roger and I had a bit of a play on the layout tonight, before he headed home to Melbourne.
All images are small and friendly, about 60k light.

Y131 with a short Suburban Goods waits a cross with ARHS memorial Goods hauled by AD6042

Track glued down with vinyl adhesive, neat.This was done to maximize clearance.We Waited an hour and it was already holding track in place. Bricks and clamps were used to keep track firmly against track bed. Easy application and track is held firmly in place, and no tacks required. We hope that this method will prevent track buckles in the warmer summer months.

Testing SG diverge on level one of Helix

Clamping point which returns BG track from base height to single line before SG arrives via junction to be laid in foreground
AS the track got above the baseboard, clamps were used to hold the track. As the roadbed gently rises (less than 1.5%) we can get the clamps underneath and it becomes much easier. Here the short BG loop ends to allow the double line SG roads to join in and the Helix will carry three tracks from here to the Top (climbs about 50cm in 5 spirals)

Quickly installed the second BG loop around the back before we got too high with the helix (almost an oops!)

Standing back first spiral is in and track is laid, clamped waiting 30 minutes for it to dry! Cuppa tea time..Yes?

Roger surveys the job. Wonder if he is sorry he came :)

Smile for the camera :) oh and pull that gut in, for goodness sake! :(

 

 Well just to show how much work we did, a longer shot

our two Garratts 6026 and 6042

 

Grandsons Casey (Jones) and (Puffing) Billy home from School to give their appraisal of the work done!

Casey has known about this railway since the day he could first talk. Probably wondering what all the fuss is about?

Here follows a pictorial record of the short play we managed to squeeze in after 3 days of solid work. Most will know that Roger models NSW, so in appreciation of this efforts and support we finished up running NSW stock :lol: 

(edit Feb 2013
We had a bit of a failure Turned out that these multi pin connectors got slightly out of phase. When we carefully reconnected them she went just fine)

This is Roger's AD6026 which has a couple of mods. Modification puts weight on the front engine improving traction (stops the irritating wheel slip too)

Providing more tractive effort. It might be necessary to weight the trailing bogie to keep it on track.
Hope you all enjoyed our efforts and that you all get to visit some day (open invitation!! :D )
Cheers
Rod

2009 October 27  dark time :P

life gets in the way :(
Sister's Birthday, and parents are visiting from Gold Coast. Sister lives in Melbourne! Uncle dies so I stay down town an extra day. Back here Monday night.
Have not unlocked the train room yet, nor have I prepared my Wagga Show trains as I will be helping with Broadford at that Exhibition.
Have checked and tested 20 point motors to fit those tracks in place so I can power route the frogs. They are all manually operable, so I won't need to wire them up just yet. (apart from the switching of the live frogs)
Today was spent clearing cobwebs, washing outdoor furniture down, cleaning up the house etc, because Mum and Dad are coming up to stay Cup Weekend, which is nice. However you know what Mum's are like!! Better have everything in good order, or I will be listening to how well my other brother manages on his own, won't I ?
Cheers
Rod :lol:

2009 September 29

2009 September 29  Tuesday  (page 8 of 35)

Track laying is well and truly moving ahead. My parcel arrived from End of Line in SA. The no 2 road and platform road are installed in Wang..... as is the 36inch radius curve towards the helix and storage roads. This means the storage road will be a reverse loop and will require a reverser, which has been ordered.
Had to rebuild the old Shinohara curved point to make it DCC friendly.
I wired up all 10 electro-frogs, but did away with a three way point universal, as I decided it was too hard.
Tomorrow I should get the storage roads in, and start moving down the long road towards the stone quarry loop.
Tony K was here last weekend, and we have modified the plan once again. We have enlarged the ballast siding into a full working quarry, along the lines of Kilmore East. Should give purpose to all the rock hoppers I own.
Till another day, I guess
Cheers
Rod


 2009 September 30 Wednesday

 

Day 1 Preparing stuff! Old code 100 Insulfrog is already pretty well DCC compatible. However I connected the blades to the track with jumpers, as in the past corrosion here has stopped my trains. The wire sits comfortably in my rubber underlay. In some cases this would cause an unstable point, I guess.

 

 Day 1 (cont) I drilled a hole under the frog and ran the wire through it. The cut off wheel was a bit thick, but only one I had.

 The circuit board was a challenge. Painted and ballasted with extra sleepers you will hardly see it. I was having trouble with dry solder. A new iron sorted things out though.

 Day 3 Got light tools and a hot iron! printed the how to do it files and all I need is the inclination to get going.

 

 Day 4.From the top of the yard showing the completed platform road and the No 2 or through road,I forgot to cut the points in for the railmotor dock, however it will be an easy job, another day. The carpet underlay is 6 mm. and I need to pack the "Trackrite" underlay to join to it.

 Day 4 (cont) placed a train on the track, a little prematurely Who has seen the advertising for DCC, where you place 2 wires to the track, and run 99 trains independently... yeah!! if only.... Any way the carriages pushed around and looked great. No tight spots, no low spots or wobbles. So Lets get the droppers in!

Y131 was ready to go, but suffered a (lack of) power failure !

 I did not notice the damage on front, I better straighten it out tomorrow, before the Boss starts asking questions!
Had to ring the buffer stop today to get an AR 1 reversing circuit. I was going to reverse the circuit via the point machine. However this was not possible because the Helix actually joins into this loop and that would have caused problems elsewhere. Hopefully the part will get to me Fridays Mail, and then the ways and works train can be the first train to operate on the new project. I can't wait
Well enough here back when something else happens
Cheers
Rod

2009 October 2  Friday

Friday October 2 2009
Well I am certainly sore and weary!
I have strung the heavy gauge feed wires around the bench work. Installed the Digitrax DB150, power supply and three UP5 distribution points.
I also discovered that the top end bench work had not been screwed down properly. I had 25 bearers to straighten up, glue and screw in place.
I also set up the gradient and clamped some risers in place, ready for some renewed energy tomorrow, one hopes

Got a problem
I have two heavy gauge wires running around the layout. What is an easy way to tap the feeders into them?
I don't want to cut the wire, although paring it back with a knife is an option, then soldering the feeders in.
I wonder if their is a clip that will cut through the insulation, or a tool, without cutting the wire?
Their are some joiner clips that can join two wires together, by squeezing a blade through both wires. Will not work here because one wire is too heavy and the other much lighter.
Anyway may have to visit Jaycar in the morning
Cheers
Rod

 2009 October 3  Saturday

Steamtostay wrote:

Rod,

do you have a complete diagram of your layout, as it will look when finished?

Yep!! In my head
Never had a lot of use for diagrams. And anyway, I did not want to get tied down to doing it because it looked good on paper.
However it has slowed me down. I had much difficulty getting started as some may have noticed.

As an example. Tony K and I were walking about the room last week, when we made two important discoveries. The first was to do with the central peninsular that started in the middle of the back wall. As we have decided to install the main sections of Trentham on the top level of this construction, keeping both stations and the trestle bridge on one end. We saw that it was easy enough to continue the branch on back to the end wall left turn it along the wall, and enter a terminal station on the far wall. This would mean that the main BG and SG lines would be hidden for about 6 meters, but visually that side of the railway needed something more than more double line track. Now the junction is going to look a lot like Bowser and the Peechelba line will go to Trentham Which will get some wheat silo's installed and thus not be Trentham any more.
Sometimes it is best to see it on the board as you go. Then draw it up roughly, decide how many vehicles need to fit , etc etc
We were going to put a small ballast siding similar to Balmattum near Euroa. However when we saw the space we had on the board, we found we had room to build Kilmore East
So that is the way I am going, and it seems to work. I have the idea of what I want it to do, and plenty of paper to map it out in position when I get to install it.
Cheers
Rod

 2009 October 3 (continues)

Hmm!
A couple of problems today. One sort of solved, and the other will have to worked out Sunday

The heavy audio cable was brand new and cheap. Will carry a very high current, and resistance should be minimal.
However I need an easy way to join it with the smaller droppers.

 

Although I could use a sharp blade and pare the insulation away then solder the dropper to it, I am thinking that this is going to be a hell of a big job, under the layout trying to see what I am doing and then soldering every dropper. However I found this tool at Jaycar, which would normally cut through the insulation in one twist. However the cheap 100 meter roll of cable came back and bit me on the bum. It took a dozen twists with high pressure pushing in the blade to get the insulation parted. The 'gasless' plastic is very durable.

 Much easier at table top height, but try this on your hands and knees ,twisting your head upwards to get your bi-focals focused on the installed wire 

The join is neat and a dob of solder, then paint it with Red Skin liquid insulation, for a neat finish. I wonder how many cuts I can get before the plastic refuses to move apart for the splice?

Remember those brass brads you used to be able to buy? I thought about pushing one through the insulation and sodering a lead to it. However Bunning's don't stock them, but I thought these screws would work. Simply screw them through the insulation and solder the dropper to them.

 Like this  

Now I knew there had to be a way to do it "solder less". My cable was 6 mm diam. and the dropper much smaller. The normal automotive break out clip does not allow such a large difference in diameter. But just as I was giving up, I found these at an Auto Electricians shop.

Unfortunately the audio cable bit me again, because the clips would rather break than join to the wire as advertised. In this shot, I pared away the insulation with the cutting tool, and joined straight to the wire. Again a long ,difficult job, under the layout.

But looks neat enough, and would be a worthwhile project for anyone using the correct wire.
Cheers
Rod

Edit 27 Feb 2013  My Auto Electrician informs me that these types of connections have gone out of favour in 2012 because of the wet and rough (vibration) conditions found in trailer lighting plug connections where these are more usually used.  However a model railway is generally a dry environment and once clipped into position, they should carry power for many years to come :)
Rod

2009 October 5  Sunday  

STOP THE PRESS!! 
Y131 was able to haul 560 tonnes around the new section of track several times tonight.
Still some work to do, as all live frogs require point motors to set up frog polarity.
The short turned out to be a pair of jumpers in one point that had not been removed
The AR1, Automatic Reverse loop controller, chattered a bit, but adjusting the trim pot fixed that.
So the unofficial first train was a scruffy Y131, whilst a spic and span X39 sat in the platform road awaiting the official guests from Melbourne. Ah well we will get a photo shoot tomorrow, after the ganger makes some additional improvements, I guess.
Cheers
Rod