2017_07_17 Belted out of the ground by NBN stupid tactics!

2017_07_17 A little more scenery, a little more on sound installs, and a lot of ruging up inside by the heater.
NBN blues still no internet. Winter starts off with a failed air conditioner (read sole heating) and continues with disconnection of internet communications. What else has it got planned for me?
Scenery
Graeme came over Saturday and we prepared a few areas for scenery. Looking forward to covering the new areas with grass and trees.

Here we started to put the basis of our fascia and filled in the holes in the baseboard, preparing to put Osbourn Street and road in, Then we can add the Shell Fuel depot.

 The facia will be glued on to this

Wodonga yard head shunt in place needs track, and cuttings formed both sides of Main.

Preparing cattle run linking stock race to Abattoirs other side of line.

Still touching up our mountain, getting it ready for rock molds which will be next to construct.

Powerline Cars

I think $150 a carriage is a rip-off. Stupid execs at Powerline, delay production of models for 13 years and then slug us another 80 dollars because their dies had deteriorated and were worthless.

Despite the fact that they were rather nice. Despite the fact that the wrong bogies appear to be under the cars. I would have thought First and Economy were SG on Commonwealth bogies, whilst the Scripted First and Second Class were BG SOP on Argentine bogies?
And despite the fact that some cars had interiors back to front.

The new Helix

Good News is that I have been lucky enough to get my new Helix professionally built. Material was delivered to factory today, and if all goes well it will be cut up and temporarily assembled  to test it out before delivery within two weeks.
There you go Mr. Al :D its finally happening

Cheers
Rod

2017_07_01-02 Coldest night ever! -3.9!

2017_07_02 Early Morning blues!!

Had to get up early to relieve a little pressure old blokes seem to suffer.

Found this

Frost as far as you could see

To the North of West

Looking South of West

Looking  West  and sun sets over train shed roof. But not at 6.00 am!

Looking North East

Now this picture looks like the sun is rising?   Well if it is, we are in deep trouble, because we are looking North WEST near  where the sun always sets ??

Here is  the picture that connects with  the others.. Looking East  and sun is up, but hidden by Hills at 6.00 Am.

The runoff from an air conditioner warming the house, is frozen! Nearly put me on my arse, you can just see the skid marks (in the ice stupid :)  )

And later I checked the temp which has a sensor out side under the verandah. Min last night at  -3.9 C
All explanations gratefully solicited :D
The kids came back from Horse Riding at Chiltern, where it was -7 C this morning
And on the news they said Goulburn got down to -10 C

Its still -2C in the train shed. Guess where I will not be going today :(
Cheers
Rod

2017_07_01 Scenery and its stilll cold 11C Max

2017_07_01  Graeme came over to change the look of the place a little.
Pictures show the change....

 Just measuring up and working out how to support the false fascia

 Fixing supports in place

 Got an edge that we had to smooth off to the right..

 Test fitting fascia with additional supports

and adding to the bottom level as well

We carved away some of the bench work under spirit level to smooth out the false facia.

This will give us the chance to support the foam, and trim up the edges to lay scenery. At the finish we will glue and screw an aluminum true fascia over top to pretty up the effect.

Cheers
Rod

2017_06_23 Signals?

2017_06_23 Ah forgot the new signal didn't I?

Departure Homes from Honeysuckle to Alansvale (left) or Trentham (right arm)

Amazing detail on Tony's new signal building from base to finnials on top!

illuminated as well!

 The Lop bracket received a few months back  helps to arrive trains at Honesuckle other sides of points protected by new bracket

Don't remember if I showed this new signal? It departs down trains on the main  out of Honeysuckle. It needed to be added to allow access to the Loco turntable.

Glad to see Tony returning to his signal building. However it is hardly a money making venture for him. The new bracket post took more than 12 hours to build (I suspect much more) And who could pay $60 an hour plus parts to build something so beautiful? (Just noticed the disk is hanging off (proceed) . It wont do that when a Tortoise motor is attached to it ;)

Cheers
Rod

2017_06_22 trying to get back on track....

2017_06_22  Still cold, but a visit to Bunning's to get some wood and a visit from my signalling contractor is worth a mention?

After not having a heater for over a month after my air conditioner failed during power brown outs last January. Long story but I only switched it on again to heat house up when the cold weather set in, to find it had burned out the compressor. Took a month to convince Insurance Company it was a fused motor and eligible for compensation. So asit warms up from -0.02 C last night to 8.5 C at 11.00 am  with aircon set at 20C Economy. I finally feel warm at 17.4 C, after a month of 11.0C days and 8.0 C nights sitting on an electric oil panel heater,

At the same time the shed was 4.0 C just slightly warmer than my fridge which was 2.0 C


Bunnings?

With Graeme's scenery project on the move , we decided to laminate 3mm  craft strips along edges to hold foam, plaster scenery in place. Bunnings actually supplied 2400 x 1200 sheets cut down to 200mm widths for me, enabling me to get it home in the wagon, and saving me the trouble of cutting it all up here :D All for $30. A bargain.

12 pieces of 3mm craft wood sheets  cut in 200mm strips. These will be used to form edges in particular the curved edges linking Honeysuckle to the trestle bridge and Albury yard to The Murray River bridge and on to the tunnel and around to House Creek on the lower level.

 Just adding head shunt towards House Creek, to allow Graeme to add foam

 The craft sheets will be laminated to cover edges of layout where foam ends.

The embankments glued in place and now to add foam ground level sheets and cover with towels. This in turn will be covered in the same paper plaster mix used on the other side at Bullarto wheat silos.
Then a combination of static grass weeds trees and other ground cover will finish it off.
Need to make a road. Going to try painting cork black (Graeme said)

And finally the next signal to arrive for Honeysuckle is this one. The bracket post controls movement of up  trains from Honeysuckle platform and (left to right) direct route to Alanvale  and Bowser Junction mainline access. And the other arm, trains heading to trestle bridge and Trentham
Cheers
Rod

2017_06_14 ok so today I ran a few trains.

2017_06_14  The Car Train by Auscision....


https://vimeo.com/221556609           Vimeo Best Quality (Google just hashes it)

Cheers
Rod

2017_06_12 Trying a few hours in shed today..still cold!!

2017_06_12 New Ballast :)

Thanks to Malcolm, I received a few different sizes of Glenrowan Ballast, recently

No wonder this railway is moving along with such friends :)

Ballast grade

Rock culvert etc grade

Dust grade..  yards roads etc.

Cheers
Rod
(ps lost your phone number M)

2017_06_11 (continues)

2017_06_11 The pictures are here.

In answer to Tim's email, where he asked if my radii were indeed as broad as I thought  😏 I think I have that covered. I use Fast Tracks specially cut radii tools. They were made for me at 44 inches and 46 inches. On the branch, I try to keep the radius at 36 inches where possible, using the green tool.

And so 44 " and 46" and 48" on the Helix. The 48" was laid using peco parallel track tools fixed to a block of wood, and later adjustable tools bought from Prose's in Turkey.

 The "roarer" cars?

 pin heights all adjusted (But something is hanging on left. A coupling hose. Must bend it away as it might be fouling coupler? Also right hand car has a coupling bar looking to be fouling??

 

The shortest radii will be the points and crossovers, all no.6 But seems ok here.

Entering No.6 crossover.

And departing same crossover.

 

clever design by Auscision and their Chinese engineers, don't you think? Pity our 1/87 scale  passengers though!

Cheers

Rod

2017_06_11 Pottering about in snow gear!

2017_06_11  Damn 😬 its cold !! 

I had an hour or two in the Train room today and tested the "roarer" cars some more. One of my readers sent me an email with suggestions how I might overcome the derailments.

First thing I noticed was that all coupling pins were at two different heights, however none actually hung below rail height. But I did adjust the lowest ones to match the higher ones. 

Alas train still derailed.. Hold on! The same three vehicles kept derailing the rest were just fine.

Ok so I ran a mixed train of freight vehicles with RP25/100 and RP25/88 wheels, short 50 footers and long 80 foot flats, some light some heavy. This train circulated with out problem

I followed it with the "roarer" cars which derailed at about 15 locations.

So I started to check the track. 

Yes they were derailing at the same place. Like I said 7 vehicles ok, 3 would derail, but not (all) at the same place.

Started adjusting track. Used packers, adjusted curves and in two cases replaced insulated joiners which were not holding track together perfectly. The joiners were soft creating out of alignment issues in height and line. New insulators fixed this problem. Still working on repairs for other spots.

The track seems to be ok for most vehicles. The Aurora is finding the faults though.

Pictures(to follow as I left camera in shed)  will show the radius tools I use as well as the gaps for diaphragm and buffer plates. They like the 44" and 46" radii but also navigate the #6 crossovers without derailing. Not a good look but congratulations Auscision for building cars that close couple and still navigate through crossovers!!

Cheers

Rod

2017_06_04 Too cold to work the shed but some scenery work continued

2017_06_04 Scenery is spreading...

Unfortunately not greates pictures but they show Graeme's progress. Going to look pretty nice, I think. Must teach myself how to make rock castings!?


On the wiring front?
Well I can run trains around 90% of the track laid.
A couple of dead sections and the BG between coal siding and Wodonga is shorting. Just need the weather to warm a little so I can get stuck into it.
Ran a couple of goods trains around, one with N492 on front, and was happy with the way things worked. Then I tried to run Auscision X32 and 8 Aurora cars and it failed miserably. Seems to derail every 6 feet or so. No idea why, wheels are in gauge, free rolling, able to twist easily side to side and couplings not binding and carriages almost touching on 44 inch radius curves, but definitely not. Couplers reminds me to check the under pins. Maybe they are fouling the brake hoses and detailing on the cars? Anyone else trying to run them on short shank couplings?

Cheers
Rod

2017_05_30 Time Flies eh? flys

2017_05_30  Hard to believe its been two weeks since I was here :(

Ok have been sick, and was slow to climb out of it. Usually I take a while ,these days to get the spark firing properly.

The Club Exhibition a few weeks back filled in one weekend and a trip to Melbourne to see friends and family helped fill in the last one.

The few times I actually did get into the train room was filled with rewiring and checking out a few purchases from the Exhibition.

Their is a thread on RailPage about the biggest layouts in Australia. Although having the biggest is of no interest to me, but based on what others were writing I decided to roughly work out how much track I have laid, and how much more is to come.
For those who do not visit RailPage you might be interested in this

"Hobsons Bay North is an offshoot of my Club Layout that once was housed near the Docklands in Melbourne.Its  in a 15m x 8m specialty built room, runs around the walls on two levels and via a central island, also double stacked.
At present I have 400 meters of track with Albury yard and helix yet to lay.
I have a three track helix with outer radius of 1.17m and circumference of 7.35m and 5 tiers high to maintain a light grade. If my calculator is being operated correctly, that should have used 110.25 m of track?
The rest of the layout consists of SG track (simulated with code100) and BG track (simulated with code 75)
A second helix,, being only double track (SG) is being built now to access the Northern end of Albury and simulate trains to and from Junee. That will be near 60m long
The existing track, yards and branch line on both levels roughly calculates out at 300m.
Adding in the future Helix and Albury yard is frightening me, but calculated at albury being 600mm by 12m and main line and sidings roughly filling the board  8 tracks across? another 96m?
The helix 60m and the BG branch station on top 20m
I am going to have over 500m and possibly almost 600m of track
My idea was to form a Club up here near Wodonga, but unfortunately I over estimated the numbers of people that might be interested, having very few show any interest despite advertising my intentions. My layout requires at least 4 to operate and could comfortably accommodate 20 people Aisles are huge and from my experiences with Hobsons Bay in Melbourne, I was able to learn from our mistakes down there, particularly the wide aisles
My long delayed layout is overwhelming me, and but for the help of good friends, it would be near hopeless. I guess
Cheers
Rod"

2017_05_15 Hobson's Bay North to Digitrax Command? Are you still there?

2017_05_15 Cant believe it, if I did not have sound fitted to my locos, it would be really quiet in here!

And so one more fault found and fixed at Bullarto, and trains are now running all the way to Trentham through there and to the silos via the junction at Bowser.

Still not really well, so spent the cooler parts of today rugged up inside.

Graeme did come over Saturday as did Al. So I should have added more pictures of the mountain. I will add them next time, I get out there.
Cheers
Rod

2017_05_11 A good discovery?

2017_05_11   Working for loco maintenance and signals branch this Al's Day

I wrote an email to a mate and thought it was probably a good blog entry for today.

My friend Al and I worked the whole day on one DCC territory that had somehow developed a short.

We started by removing every dropper from the DCC bus and then connecting just one black return to bus and found any red wire added caused a short to return.

As every point was fitted droppers but wired with insulated  two middle rails (electro frogs live with own dropper via a juicer) I decided to insulate all four rails on the frog end? Of course a fools errand and as expected that did not work.

Al had me putting sound in his G Class, and he sat on a stool, with the short lighting up a car tail lamp, and started at the other end and reconnected every dropper for me. I told him that as the short persisted, with every thing disconnected, and no path was left for the rails to be the problem, to take particular notice of where the red and black wires were soldered. Perhaps I had bundled two incompatible reds together, or had a red dropper from a black rail?? I have done this before.

We worked from 10.00 am to 5.00pm and  Al called me over to show me one complicated section. The Apex Junction, which had given me so much grief a few months back. He went on and completed the rest of the wiring. I found about 5 bundles of red wires. two wire bundles soldered together were easily traced to the same rail or a pair of rails in the same section. No short possible.

But one bundle had 5 red wires. I cut the spade joiner off and re bundled them in pairs and connected them to the same rail district. Al tells me that the taillight had gone out and we had power back on the section all 13.7 volts of it!

I touched the final wire to the bus and indeed the short appeared.

So I traced it back and found it was actually a SG wire feed which should have been short free. However I had allowed the SG main line to come past the end of the district about 3 feet, and in fact I was crossing into the next district! Damn!! I moved the insulators in track ending that line at the edge of district and added the 3 feet back into the (shorting district) connected the wire and the short was indeed gone. Thank God I decided to use connectors to link wires to the bus. :D

I have 10 NCE circuit breakers on layout, creating districts. As well I have 4 Command stations (3 wired as slaves) giving me 14 districts.

This is the first time I have made this error though. The Digitrax stations are finally silent. I can turn them on and off without  hundreds of warning chimes and the tick tick tick sound has finally been put to silence (I knew this was a warning that two command stations were incorrectly wired together) So the wonderful sound of silence!

Cheers
Rod