2015_10_10 Warm Day and Back Drops! (continues)

2015_10_10 Warm Day missed several calls on the phone (Bloody Telstra)
And Graeme is coming...... oops
Only a few weeks since he was here and take a look at how quickly I can mess the place up :(

 Strewth!!  I counted 6 unfinished projects and I had to box them all up and sort them out till later. Can't work around this mess :(

Tip of the day!!  If at all possible finish projects before starting another!

I remember just moving the chair along the bench as I needed more space, not good at all....

This was not so bad. Just a box of shinohara track to put back and pick up some track used to set up the spot for the new Goods Shed.


Fortunately my association with the Fat Controller meant I could borrow his new walking Cane and Abracadabra........and a huff and a puff......

Ready to work on once again

Will add some pictures tonight :)
Cheers
Rod

2015_10_08 SDS Flour Hoppers :)

 2015_10_08  Shunting the brand new flour pots ready for the arrival of the up goods tonight

 Gives us a chance to look at the new flour pots as they were freshly out shopped from SDS Workshops over the long weekend

Of course the S Class is unable to take the train on, because of bans on No2 end running.

Ha Ha the white ones look like they were built out of raw white plastic. Severe dusing is required I think. Although I think they were always kept pretty clean.

Although I am happy with my Southern Hoppers, these seem to be different enough to add variety, and they do look very nice :) The better hopper? Well that's your choice and it was mine, to have both versions.
Thank you to Steven and all the people at SDS (Liverpool Exhibition) for the genuine interest they exhibit, help sorting out problems, and for arranging a swap with another customer who didn't want the Bunge hopper. It was fortunate because I really could not afford two packs to get the extra hopper. May have cost SDS a dollar or two, however he has two customers singing his praises, doesn't he?
And I paid him up front for the 4 packs of 80 footers still on the ship out of China. Well I guess I had to, didn't I because I kept pushing him for 5 or 6 years to make them Didn't we Bruce Race? :D
Cheers
Rod

2015_10_07- Col hussey visit

2015_10_07

Roger and I had a side trip on Saturday. WE visited our old friend Colin Hussey and his wife Julie.
We were well entertained and enjoyed our visit. As always I was looking for hints and Col stepped up and showed the work he has completed on his Model Railway which is situated in a large shed.
The theme was to be backdrops and as Col  introduced me to the sheets I purchased, it was good to see how he treated them on his layout. Let the pictures tell the story :)

Nice :)  The clouds are made using templates of real clouds and then touched up with darkening pigments using an air brush.

Cheers
Rod

2015_10_07 Shinohara ???

2015_10_07

So I found a three way code 70 point I did not know I had.
Fortunately it does fit exactly into the foot print of the existing three way point which derails everything that goes through it. So out it went, but first I need to work out how to install a DC Point in a DCC railway ??

Clearing the roadbed, ready for the new point.

So I guess we need to cut between the frogs and the point blades?  That said, their are three frogs, and each route uses only 2 frogs.
I am definitely using a Hex Frog Juicer for this point :)
Only one cut will give me trouble, mainly because it is so close to a point blade.
Cheers
Rod Young

2015_10_06 Thinking about Grafton

2015_10_06

Well Liverpool has come and gone for another year.
Roger and I made our third (or is it 4th?) pilgrimage up to the sprawling big smoke (Thank God its this side of Sydney :)

Spent a lot as per usual, strangely did not bring a huge amount home with me :)

All Aboard had its 40% off Sale so we called in there on the way up the Hume, and I stocked up on ESU Loksound  and TCS Wow Decoders.
At Liverpool, I paid for the SDS 80 foot flats and forgot to get the Victorian fuel tanks. However remembered the Bunge Flour pots ;)

Austrains had some great specials and I bought a few more NSW 4 wheelers to populate Grafton, and as well I got a bargain 35 Class. But it was a silent one, so I had to buy a Wow to make it just as noisy as the rest of them Only cost me $200 so I was happy with that.

   A  bag of 5 chime Leslie and 422 Class Nathans for the spare parts bins

A few spare G Class bogies

A $200 Steam Engine for the Grafton shed :)

Got an automatic reverser for the second reversing loop as well. Also picked up a couple of SAR Billboard M vans, they looked really nice.

Also got some nice level crossing flashers and a Stock race for Wodonga, a bit of glue to stick them together.

A second Auto reverser for the Wanganella store roads.

Going to see if I can make the Stock Race look busier ...

That has got to be the smallest purchase ever from Auscision :)

Back at Yackandandah
 
When we got home, Roger happened to wonder out loud about all the NSW wagons I purchased, and that led us on to my South Grafton Extension. This of course led us to the plans, and a drawing of the proposed extension to the layout.
I think Roger has helped me a lot, and his scale drawing certainly led me to think that this extension will be well worth while.  Pictures to follow when I get batteries for my hand scanner :)

Roger really likes a challenge :)

So after examining the Rail Diagrams (Aboout 9 of them from 1920 To 44 we sat down with a rule and a tape measure and came up with this.

 It seems to work. Even though we ran a Victorian branch line into this area it is on the top level and visually separate.
Grafton to Albury Exchange sidings is a fairly long way, and add NSW trains operating to Wodonga Coal Sidings and Cattle race, allows for a lot of operations.

Cheers
Rod Young

2015_09_29 wiring :(

2015_09_29  Wiring continues...


All three point motors up and running South end of Wanganella.
One circyuit breaker supplies feeds to all of Wanganella, and proceeding with replacement of all droppers. About half way through but need to install 10 new point motors after track continuity tests ok.

NEWS

Look at what Roger is doing :)

I fear my layout is not good enough for such a magnificent building!

Its a huge shed, but it has plenty of room opposite Wodonga platform  penciled in opposite 3 road.

                                                Blade detached from throw rod...


This morning I found a damaged curved point and had to fix it before getting on with todays work. It was an early point with pressed in tabs rather than twisted lugs, so I expect it will continue to give me grief, however I do not have a replacement point handy. I tried supa gluing it in place.although it did fit back in tightly. Think the Tortoise was putting too much pressure on it. I backed off the tension.

This code 100 insulfrog point has been modified with styrene shims glued to the base of the frog, and the insides of the guard rails ensuring scale wheels roll through freely and don't hit the pointed (plastic) nose of the frog, wearing it down. It also stops wheels dropping in to the frogs. Peco Code 100 is Universal and designed to allow older Hornby and Euro standard wheels to run through, and is not good enough to run code 88 through without these mods.

The other problem I have with points is that mechanical joins do not conduct power well over time. Our club layout with fully ballasted track, has started to fail just over a year after it was laid.   So I solder the blades to the next section of track leading to the frog. I then join the outside rails to that section of track with droppers direct to the DCC bus. This means that the mechanical linkages between point blades and outer rails is eliminated. The Universal frog is wired in, but if using an electrofrog, I add another dropper which goes to the point machine, or a juicer, whichever is fitted.

No failures when wired this way, and entirely necessary, if you do not have "Keep Alive" capacitors added to your decoder to prevent drop outs.

SUGGESTION OF THE DAY !!
Don't use Peco Code 100, instead use Peco code 83 NMRA standards, or Peco code 75...Really!

Ok back to the floor under the layout, only 55 connections to make and prove.....
Rod

2015_09_24 Haunted by short cuts!

2015_09_24 Well it continues....

I repaired the Wanganella storage Loop and rewired it. Set up new circuit breakers and got it to run really well. Its also two long reversing loops, to enable me to approach from either end into separate roads (of course). Really happy with how neat it all turned out.

But when I tried to run through into Wanganella, found a huge power drop on entering the yard. Not sure what I had done to cause that, but either side of the station in new territories the power drop was not present.
So lets have a look and see what we can find...
On top I found one metal fish plate that just might have let power slip through and short, but could not figure out why the short was actually a brown out? Replacing it with an insulated joiner did not help, only isolating a piece of track, which had a dry solder joint feed. Easily fixed, but brownout still happening.
Time to go underneath.....  oh sheeet!!

 Well I did warn you all once before that I was just an old bloke having fun, and showing you all, no matter how many skills you migh have, or might not (my case of course) you can still build a model railway :D

Now Wanganella was the first bit of track I actually laid, way back in 2008 (?)  And I spent a lot of time getting the track right, but it took a lot of time to figure out how to wire it all up.  I used Peco code 75 electrofrog track and as previously shown, I connected the live frogs, blades and rails all up through slide switches, or hex juicers or point machines. With three double slips and a three way point, as well as several simple points, their was going to be a lot of wiring under here.

It took me a few weeks to figure it all out but with help from this site
Allan Gartners Wiring DCC

So what happened was I temporarily linked up all the wires and kept changing things until it all worked...  and then went away for 7 years and did other things.. and blow me down!!   It kept working!!  Go figure :)

So now its time to work out what this mess does and fix it with a permanent (neater) job
The photos were taken after I had already cut away half of the birds nest, so these are actually a sanitized view :(
So how many jobs have I got on at once? Dont ask, but I did get sound into a Trainorama 830 and an Auscision 421. I also started putting sound into an SCT G Class, as well.
Back into the shed, to take on my haunting punishment :(
Cheers
Rod