2016_10_05 ( 7 Days over Liverpool weekend)

 2016_09_30 Picked Roger up at the Station.

Its Liverpool weekend, and Roger Lloyd and I are heading North once again. Roger normally spends a few days working on my railway. The hope is that his inspirational presence will keep me going for another year ;)

Prior to his arrival, I had fitted the Wodonga goods shed into position, but had caused a few problems, one being the wagons were not able to clear the door.

Here is Roger fixing in a base for the model. We found some 9mm ply, cut out the track through the shed and laid thin caulk inside and found platform heights, and clearances were spot on. Like I said...inspirational :D

Cannot fit Wodonga yard in exactly, so will build car storage towards left of picture.

The ply lifts shed high enough. You can see the through track on rear wall? It is also lowered and will represent bitumen over track for vehicular access.

Long view with shed lifted and track roughed in.

The "Roarer" arrived  on BG ???? Modellers license is a mysterious thing :D

2016_10_03  Back from Liverpool

The new territory now gets some track!

The long SG link road is hidden track. It sits aainst the wall and drops 210mm over 17 m. Although hidden, the operator will be able to look over the top of the "blocker" and watch his train climb,or descend.
In front of the SG will sit a level BG track which runs to a reverse loop on top of the Helix, with a mail line station built into the S bend. then return via the same line.

Roger is planning the next move, which is stringing cable and laying track to connect to that cable.

Cable is in, and now he is laying track which has droppers pre-soldered to each length. Small strips of ply are screwd and glued to side to stiffen up the ply, and stop trains dropping to floor. Remember this is hidden track.

It is hidden because I decided not to use South Grafton in the space behind where Roger is standing. It was better to keep the open area, rather than close the acces down to 900mm

2016_10_04 Continued to lay track.

And whilst Roger worked this side, I ripped out part of the silo at the top end of the old helix. Had to relay the silo yard as well as the SG loop points after replacing the ply under it with one piece of 5 ply. This was needed because the surface was just not flat enough to guarantee safe passage of trains.

Whilst working here, the old mind was ticking over. You can see the white new ply under the piece of foam? Well that was the new bit. I have already placed the BG and started to put in the SG loop points at the furterest end..

Fitting out the SG loop points

Now that I have thought things out, I have decided to install a ready made station, I have, in front of the silos. That means, I need to sweep the SG track, back towards the Silo area in order to install the station, facing the passage way.

This shows the realignment of the BG towards the edge of the baseboard. The SG with train sitting on it, is also pushed back, opening up the space for the platform between the two tracks. I now have to remove the SG crossover and push it further away from camera and realign it to the new through track alignment. Just about run out of track too. So better order some more.

And as I reached the Quarry end of the long straight, Roger poked the SG through the gap behind the center modules.

Hey Al?  Look oat our clean floors :(  But at least we re-commissioned the table saw. Mind you, all the junk sitting atop it, is now sitting on the layout. I need more boxes for storing things :(

Thanks Roger and Al for getting me this far along.

Cheers
Rod

2016_09_22 Work on new territories continues....

2016_09_22 Al and I continue ....

Setting up the SG track that runs behind the branch terminus, out of site about 1% down grade.
Just setting it up temporarily at this time.

The BG near Al's head creaps out and will be in front of SG and remains dead level. It too will hide behind Honeysuckle Creek and only appear when SG is out of direct sight.

1% gradient almost perfectly set up. Al has great eyes!  I probably need to fix more supports to plaster though to take out bumps.

We tested the Honey Suckle branch modules and they fit nicely in front of these tracks.

Feeling a little bit unwell, so decided to finish off early at 3.00 pm.  Al is on his way home and I am
improved after a couple aspirin and a cup of tea.

Going to see if I can return to rewire Wanganella tonight.
Cheers
Rod

2016_09_21 Another work day?

2016_09_21  Al came over to escape painting at home :)  Well it was wet and bleak day, I guess?

Fortunately I had worked out we could do a fair bit of work.
Typically I stuffed up with the maths (again :( )  and it was a good stuff up, because it reduced the gradient from Wodonga Coal siding to Albury from a possible 3% back to 0.5%. How I managed that, is beyond me :(

I need to make 3 connections around that corner of the building. Apart from making a lot of work trying to reduce the 5% grade, and then having to repair it when I found it was really much less than that  <sheesh>

some pictures...

So this is coal siding to Albury connection. I was going to install two girder bridges here but when I discovered the gradient was so steep, I gave up on that idea. Happy mistake because now I can fit the bridges back in.

Tomorrow we are going to have a go at the two tracks on the top level. First one at back is the long descending grade to the new Helix at the other end. Beside it is a level BG track running to the S Bend station on top of the new helix, with the SG descending down the helix. Because it descends gradually along the long wall, it joins the helix 21cm below the BG station.
The Helix then feeds the Sydney side of Albury Station forming a reversing loop for the SG Main.

 Bridges sitting in approx. position

 Walthers double track Girder bridges. Will do till a typical NSW river bridge comes along!

The picture shows the blind divider in behind the the trestle which will hide the link track behind, whilst still allowing re-railing because the top is left open. I hope to cut the background sheets to show sky on the wall and trees etc on the divider.

ok went out a grabbed this shot. Shows off the divider behind trestle, hiding the tracks behind

Thanks Al, you  were a great help, pity I made the blunders that slowed us down. Tomorrow is another day :D
Cheers
Rod

2016_09_20 a mixture yesterday and today

2016_09_20 Happy Birthday to my Grandson, Kae 14 yo yesterday!

Got a few jobs finished or started...

WODONGA GOODS SHED

 Need to stick down this road bed in front of the Goods shed. Going to use some spray adhesive for the job. Enables me to lay the track to the turntable finally. The black foam perfectly matches the Trackrite underlay and was provided by them.

NEW TERRITORIES TRACKWORK

So  next job was to destroy a $100 sheet of 5 ply!

The aluminium tube has two pencil holders clamped to it and using the floor to find the center point , I was able to create curves wide enough to fit two tracks and a third one track that will allow 36' and for double track, 38" radii. 

And then I cut out two of the three straight sections, along the weakened edge, to link up with the curves.

The bottom curved bed is the link between Wodonga and Albury. This is a real problem, because my gradients badly messed up here. Fortunately the wall is so long and the station fits somewhat in the middle, so I can cut the gradient back into the main board. Unfortunately this makes it look less like Albury than I intended.. Top level shows the single track  branch line heading towards the terminal, Honesuckle Creek, which is here crossed by a timber trestle.
The slightly lower level track is hidden SG and BG connections that will run behind Honey Suckle out of site.

BACKDROPS (cont)

Although not perfect, with paper loose between tape fixings, it is by far better than anything else we have been able to manage. Happy with it. Just waiting to see how Graeme feels.

WIRING!
As well as all this, I started removing temporary wiring from Coal siding to Wanganella, commissioning the changes last night. Now I am going to start on Wanganella, which is still running the original temporary set up. Hoping this will overcome some of the mystery shorts that shut me down last few months.
Cheers
Rod

2016_09_16 two in a row :)

2016_09_16  Back scenes again :(

Graeme arrived today with a grin and an optimistic view that today we could win the battle of the scenes. We checked the test edge on the existing sheet and found it had held. So onward and into the next sheet. We will wait a week and see what happens with our double sided tape trial.
Here are the pictures.

 Trimming the 5 foot sheets using a scalpel and a steel rule.
(Now if I thought it out, I could have had this prepared before Graeme arrived :(  )

Cutting strips of double sided tape and applying them about 6 inches apart,
after inserting the drop behind scenery, and pining it at bottom.

Ok we used drawing pins to locate the bottom and folded it back. Then we fixed the double sided tape as shown. striped off the protective layer of tape and simply holding sheet tight pressed paper from left hand bottom towards right hand top. I held the paper tight but clear of tape by about 3 inches and Graeme worked towards me.

The last strip of tape was applied after we got the paper fixed without any folds. It really looks great.
Then we fixed the tape to the paper and fixed both in place.

Ok we decided to leave the less buckled sheet in place. But removed the badly wrinkled one furthest from the camera. I need to sugar soap the glue off and we can replace that sheet next week.

We are both pretty happy with the way it all turned out.
Cheers
Rod

2016_09_15 Another Thursday Work Day

2016_09_15  Rained a bit, sunned a bit and Al came for a visit :)

What to do when your mate says he will only come and visit with you, if you are organised and their is a job to do?
Well you get organised and tell him you look forward to his visit, I would think?

What to do? Have I got a days work ready to go? I must have...  ok lets do this ;)

Like all plans, it did become complicated. I needed to adjust these table tops (Albury Yard) But I had moved all the tools and fixings here after removing all the paint tins, and plaster etc.

So in order to start the programmed work, I moved all the boards to the left, allowing for the necessary gradient at the Wodonga end. (Coal siding is actually 90mm lower than Albury, which was a mistake not picked up when I fixed Albury in position...ah well :(
So clean it all down, and screw the boards down, less one now not required.

The gap will allow the gradient  to stretch 6m and will be about 1.5 %

While I fool around with the new camera, Al adjusts the new baseboard...

And I fit a new leg and remove most of the L Girder to allow the curved track bed to gently climb into Albury.

horisontal braces in place and two by one recycled from top L Girder screwed and glued in bottom to create another L Girder to support weakened frame. New leg further strengthens frame.

WE cleaned up this base board a little removed a leg and horisontal side and fitted extra leg nearest camera. Also cross pieces far wall to support new track bed which is just visible under red handled clamp.
Now all I have to do is cut out track bed at 42 " outside radius, 40" inside radius and set up the gentle.5% gradient.

And that's about all there is folks ;)
Cheers
Rod

2016_09_06 Little jobs and big wins

2016_09_06  Track Gangs deployed.

First Job! Mechanical engineer has been pondering the operation of the scharfenberg coupler system in HO because of the immenent arrival of the Sprinters from major supplier On Track.

Because of unreliability problems we have purchased a quantity of  1mm thick, 2mm diam. rare earth magnets. They are small enough to drill out the couplers and fit inside  couplings supplied by On Track. They will create a problem, because North and South poles need to be set to attract and thus hold the coupling together. This will mean that the cars cannot be coupled No 1 end to No 1 end, or 2 to 2.
As it turns out the cars operate this way anyway. V/Line never turn them, they always couple this way, and so will we.

The top coupler will have the magnets fitted to keep the powered cars together.

The 500 magnets sourced from Sydney on EBay.

My camera needs replacing. No longer focusing properly. These things are 2mm by 1mm thick.

Second Job for day (after packing car) was track repair.......

 Lining up the prefabricated points

Clearing away the rubble .

And that's three tracks aligned in , ready for ballast
Final adjustments to connect the Rail Motor dock and the platform road. Then connect up all the power leads and point motors. polarity changes done electronically, and point motors only change points.

Third job was to adjust the Led lighting and add a couple more supports then trim off the zip ties

Taken before adjustments and with flash

Without flash. I am happy with light level. I am not a fan over over lighting my scenes.
So far so good

More soon
Cheers
Rod

2016_08_31 How do you make a better Venetian...eh? blind?

2016_08_31  Making LED light reflectors.

A few years ago I bought 5m lengths of LED strip. And decided on using old recycled venetian blinds as reflectors.  I found some 14 foot blinds in good condition and installed them above Wodonga Coal Sidings.  They were not very successful, unfortunately.
The first thing was that they were too flexible and failed to attach flat to the bearers. As well the self adhesive LED strips did not attach firmly to the slats and after a very short time the buckled slats and detached LED strip had to be removed.
So back to the drawing board.
I tried to reinforce the slats, and as I recovered a hundred or so from the old blinds, decided to laminate two together using overlaps to extend the length.

I tried to join the slats by overlapping, which produced two thickness slats, but it was still too flexible.

So in the finish I had a third layer glued over the top, three thickness dried appeared to be ok.

My son who is a Carpenter swears by anything in a  SIKA bottle, particularly Sikaflex silicon sealer.
So when I saw this one at Bunnings, I thought  Why not? :)  SikaBond TechGrip. Although later on, I found, in the instructions, that it works best when one layer is porous.

 Anyway it was checked this morning, and had a strong bond.

 So  I will try to get a 12.5 m length glued together, today, and will reinforce the LED strip with Sikabond after pealing off the self adhesive cover strip.

Now I need a way to suspend it underneath the top level baseboard. It probably need to hang as I still will need to access point machines and wiring uner that board. The fixed one over the coal sidings is a real pain sometimes. I was thinking about long threaded butterfly clips which would allow me to push the slats aside when necessary? Or perhaps just use picture frame wire or chain?


Cheers Rod
EDIT

Trying not to reinvent the wheel :)  I came up with this whilst pondering the problem :)

 Not sure if I have enough strip I can recover, as I tossed a lot away already. But this is what controlled the slats and held up the blind when it covered a window. So why not use it again?

Glued or stapled in place might fix the slat permanently in position, and allow the reflector to be focused?

If it covers the led's, I believe I might be able to find a similar string design at Spotlight.
Of course, looking at this picture, I am thinking if I measure the slats correctly and mark exactly where the cross pieces are, I could glue the tapes between the slats and they would not then interfere with the LED's :D
Rod