2021_01_08 Chasing gremlins again

 2021_01_08  Background sky, DCC lost signal , LT1 tester.

SKY?

Over the Christmas break, friend Graeme came for a visit and started tackling the skies once again.

The top level has been improved with a lighter blue (mixed some cloud white) Then the bottom of the back drop was sponged and wiped with neat cloud white, introducing some natural haze. You may notice the bottom level is unfinished with the blue over the bridges untouched.

A long shot which tends to make your eyes ignore the sky, which was too intense before.

Top and bottom level repainted. The layout was clean to allow the drop cloth to be used without damaging rolling stock. Two days later Al and I were building point servos and installing them. I am so damn messy.

Two weeks of misery

The DCC bus failed (and I cant remember what killed it)  Here the throttle shows the engine on the track. No lights or sound as indicated by throttle. And no movement.

On a test track the locomotive responds as it should.

(imagine the two pictures above were reversed as I set this up after the "fix"

Both throttles are set the same (7 turns on marker lights)

The problem was difficult to work out. It came suddenly. I shut down the layout and the problem was there, next time I started it up. Any locomotive that had been returned to Decoder Pro was dead. All locomotives not recently being run on decoder pro, worked ok.. What the......?

Anyway this was a distraction, because when Graeme came to visit, I demonstrated the problem to him.

Finally we decided to swap the test command station into layout and remove the one there.

That solved the problem. It seems the 5 amp command station was unable to run the layout. Mind you I am able to isolate the 9 other blocks to lighten the load.  Anyway I need to return the unit to Digitrax.

Working on the Loconet!

Their must be a reason why the first command station was only failing after a loco was run on Decoder pro.

 

 The Digitrax LT1 test the loconet. When a controller is plugged in, all 4 LED's light up.

If the right hand led is out  you need to plug in a controller.

I tested every UP5 and found several problems where  One, the two middle led's were off and 2, the two outside Led's were off

So after testing every connection, I found in a couple of cases that the wires were not connected in the plugs correctly.

 

This special tool trims and strips the outer cover.

This is the clip with the lock tab on top.

Looking at the connection the lock clip is on top, holding it this way, and the blue wire is on left.

And so I had to correct the errors. Mind you the errors had been there for 10 years or so.  I am thinking that the errors might have cancelled each other out, as I would make up a cable and hold both ends together to ensure wires matched. I guess I might have got both ends wrong?  Later on I bought a cable tester which would have tested only that all wires were connected.

The last part I tested was the New Helix. This is where I only got two test lights to show.  And so I removed the loconet back to where it tested ok. I then double checked the cables . The only thing I found was one UP5 had been connected with a third connection out the side port and running up to Honeysuckle panel. This was then connected all the way to the BG station on top of the new helix. I decided to remove this connection. I then connected the new helix UP5 to the last UP5 on the bottom level, which was only 5 feet  or less than a meter and a half.

This corrected the bad tests that I got on this side of the layout.

And so two weeks of misery was now fixed and trains seem to be running just fine.

Next week after a frustrating Thursday just past, Al and I are going to solve the Tam Valley Singlet Servo problem that has us stumped. It just never ends.

Cheers

Rod

2021_01_04 (video fix)

 2021_01_04  Video Fix

https://youtu.be/cQ5EBmt3alI

The morons at You Tube are at it again!  Anybody would think it was a political video? :(

 

He was a big man!   He barked at me many times, but I am going to miss him a lot

God Bless you John

Rod Young

2020_12_31 New Years Eve. Last report for 2020

The trains are able to run the whole map...finally :D

Cheers

Rod

2020_12_24 Christmas Eve.... The golden spike has been ordered!

 2020_12_24 The day arrived and finally the new helix was opened yesterday. 

A bit of a surprise stopped trains from running as the link behind  Honeysuckle is a return loop. Hopefully if Christmas does not get in the way I will be able to install a duplex frog juicer to sort that out :D.

Also Father Christmas arrived on Monday last with a sack of Auscision B Classes!

They test ran ok, and documentation excellent.

TRACK is all joined up!

The final piece of track is in and now the layout is completely laid out. Just scenery to do now.

The top of the helix is now all joined up!  The wiring is connected and trains have circumnavigated the entire SG.. WOW  all these years, and we are finally here. Just another reverse loop to sort out :(

The supports were easy and my worries about this piece of roadbed were put to bed. You could stand on it, almost :)

Cheers and Seasons Greetings to you all

From my Family to yours

May you all be blessed this Christmas and this new Year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New year :D

Rod Young

2020_12_18 Nearing the end (of trackwork)

 2020_12_18 

Gosh we are  near the end of the track work! One right hand curve and we will see the light at the end of the tunnel :D

The track on the helix has reached the top! and as Al tests the track he has laid, I connect the track base to the SG escape road leading to the other "room"

This should be the final base board connection! I had to adjust the height with a saw and multi function vibration tool. But it worked out just fine. Could not screw it down but liquid nails did the job.

Ok extra supports and we maintained a strong connection which maintained the 1.5% gradient. This was of course due to the planning of my mates at Kilmore East Social Group! Thanks again Steve and Ron :D

And it looks like the first train through has a long wait for the

Golden Spike ceremony

Cheers

Rod

2020_12_07 Work continues.

 2020_12_07   Posty arrived!

Black Friday Sales!  This year I was not ill, and I scored a nice haul!

A great product and I wish  it was around 10 years ago :(   See them here       Click on blue :)

No discount apart from the normal quantity one. Nick is a friendly helpful guy.

This one was a black Friday sale and set me back $78 Au. It is a usb charged compressor with a 30 minute or more battery.

I am a lazy painter, maybe this little spray system will help?

Auscision had a great 20% off sale and it helped a lot to make my mind up with this purchase. I did not have a pudding bowl N set.

Nor did I have a V/line First Series X.

 

So I am still aiming to die with the biggest number of locomotives. Ha Ha

Cheers

Rod

ps the helix continues only 10 m of double track, a pair of points to fill the hole and lay the golden spike.

2020_11_25 Running a train up new helix.

 2020_11_25 Finally we can run a train up the Helix  (almost to top)

As usual we have no problems, as Al works his magic on the track.

The train was one of my oldest sets of rolling stock. Heavy as and would not roll down the grade. The 40 ft containers were all epoxy resin kits and very heavy. The train was from the 80's before RTR.

First run up the hill with this train was hauled by an Austrains T Class. After setting up the camera it failed to run the hill and ended up wheel slipping to a stand. Must have cleaned the crud of the wheels.

Anyway X32 was given the honors for the camera and went very well.

Cheers

Rod

2020_11_22 Plodding along

 2020_11_22 Plodding along

Still boring myself with wiring and fault finding. A lot of success lately..

And then friend from Melbourne turns up and didn't get to see a train move. Isn't it sometimes like that? I spent a day adding jumpers and fixing some track sections and wiring them through isolating switches. The locos would light up and we could hear sound, however I could not connect throttles to them. First the new isolation switches were still in off position! Discovered I had introduced a new back feed, which I eliminated yesterday. Everything went quiet, until I switched on the isolation switches, sound and movement was back. However visitors were long gone. Sorry Mark L.

Al and I are back doing Thursday workdays, except when they are on Tuesdays!  This is happening because of Doctors appointments usually only available on Thursdays after the Hospital reorganized themselves.

The New Helix is progressing nicely. Again its Al's project. He likes doing track work :D  And I am more than happy to let him at it. His track work is really superb.

Here are a few pictures.

And we have to do one layer at a time. Making sure we never have problems here, Al is being extra careful. He is soldering the track joiners to the rails and gaping the rails at an angle to help with curvature which is again 44 inches (112cm) and 46 inches (117cm).

And as of last Tuesday, Al has reached the top of the third level and started on the fourth.

The next full level  will reach the temporary  points controller panel, which needs to be removed to allow a wide sweeping right hand curve that joins up to the Sydney end (hidden) loading track. This loader runs up the wall behind the BG track and Honeysuckle. It climbs (1.5%) another 12 cm to reach the height of the top deck in the other "room" This will become an escape for trains heading North and in another circumstance, will stage trains from the North t run through Albury and to the South. This is facilitated by running a large radius point on top of the SG track helix and dual tracking the Helix making an up and Down line.

Ah Thank goodness for the Aircon!

Cheers

Rod 

2020_11_18 New SouthernModels/Hornby 38 Class

 Here is the 5pole skewed armiture motor, among many other upgrades.

Cheers

Rod

2020_10-24 Playing with Loksound

 2020_10_23 Loksound V3.5 and Loksound V4.0 testing

Setting up two decoders to run properly together. Also a very heavy train hauled by two Trainorama S Class diesels up a very long 1.5% grade (46 inch radius)

Cheers

Rod

2020_10_23 New Helix track work starts and more signals!

 2020_10_23  Al starts on laying out the helix track

Double standard gauge track from Indonesian points creates storage roads and an escape to other half of room which will simulate trains arriving from Junee, North of Albury.

Te first couple of meters is laid in at about 46 and 48 inches radius. (Using Tam Valley wooden track gauges)

About half the first level in.

And almost a full level in place.  free rolling rolling stock moves slowly down the 1.5% grade at a constant speed. A testimony to the fine work of Ron and Steve (from Hobsons Bay MRC) who built  this helix.

It took about 12 hours to get this far, however we modified our methods slightly and expect things to pick up a bit now.

And of course whilst Al slaved away on the helix, I continued with the rewire and connecting up the servo point motors and Tan Valley DCC switches. (singlets)

Signalling

During the week McKenzie and HOLland also attended to test fit the Down home gantry signal (post 10 and 10b) and start preparations for the new  Honeysuckle down end lever frame.

Will need to adjust the track to make this work

Damn next job is to cut away all that unused wiring and attach the led dimmers!

The points for the runaround road should not be off the main line at this point Instead they will be moved to connect with the yard access near the pass cars

In the meantime, I have continued to upgrade wiring, repair rolling stock and fit sound etc slowly catching up with a lot of unfinished business.

Cheers

Rod