2022_07_10 Bloody Hell!!! Where did four months go to?

 2022_07_10  Sorry about the (lack of) posts. 

And thank you to all who have inquired about me. No I still have not got covid, and am still not vaccinated. I don't sit around home, and am out and about as normal. Health is pretty good, although nearing my 77th birthday, I am exhausting myself more than I remember before.  

                                                                                                                                                                THE LAYOUT  

    Its not because we have not been working on the Railway.

Its more like working hundreds of hours and yet nothing much accomplished :(

Wiring has always been my problem and that includes soldering. And that's why we used spade connectors to make our joins. And no that has never been a problem, not once!

However the spades have made trouble shooting much easier. With over 500+ spades being purchased, and all failures caught at installation. Either failed to grab wire, or  difficult to push into main buss thus breaking spade off.

Trouble shooting? If you have a short in an isolated section, just remove connector and follow through till fault goes away. Fix and move along. Imagine using solder instead of spades. Ok Ok I know some of you "experts" out there don't make mistakes and never ever have to redo connections. Sadly that's not me, it would seem.

Trouble shooting is done using Poses track detectors, and multi meters. Yesterday a friend (Graeme who we will show building backdrops later) Built a battery operated buzzer to detect shorts. This caused us a lot of problems.

As an example . If I test between rails with the meter set to ohms and buzzer, I get no responses in some places. When we ran the buzzer over same connection, we get a short indication. So far I have found that you must remove all trains and illuminated carriages from track. And as my Tam Valley devices also run off the DCC buss, I am wondering if we are still on the same fools errand. Getting under the layout to disconnect every TAM device would be a real problem, 6 months into the chase to find out why the Albury section of the layout is no longer working. The c/b is tripped allowing the rest of the layout to run perfectly.... 

Tonight I will make a video of the fault and we can try to work this out together. I am sure it will be solved by one of you :D

The last backdrops (hiding the brick walls are in. Thank you Graeme, who designed and installed them.

 

BACKDROPS

Pictures tell the story again. 

Who put the bricks in front of the backdrop built to hide the bricks??

All we need to do is blue them up a bit :D

Cheers

from all of us :D

2022_03_17 Model Railway Show

 2022_03_17 Murray Railway modellers Exhibition 2022

2022_02_21 Flour Mill for Albury

 2022_02_21  Posty arrived with a parcel :D

As usual some pictures

Nicely packed as promised.

Need to work out where this bit goes?

The building will turn 180 deg. of course.

Going to have to add a bit on here to place the flour mill and a silo.

Store it here till it gets to Albury.

Cheers

Rod

2022_02_14 Public Service post

 2022-02-14  K&M Mech gears

darleyworkshops@gmail.com

special tool available for setting up new gears

2022_02_13 Getting rid of the brick wall (pt3)

 2022_02_13 More camouflage!

Saturday workday.

Graeme and Al arrived to do some much needed work on the railway. Whilst Al actually came to see Graeme work on the backdrops and have a catch up.

I eventually coerced him into another frustrating day, tuning point motors and wiring. Both of us helping Graeme as required.

This is the East wall and as such is much easier than the fully insulated west wall, which was producing so much heat on long summer days.

Top backdrops all cut out, just waiting for glue to dry to remove clamps and glue the long sheets into place

Starting on the bottom as well.

Cuts a lot of light out, but the back drops will protect the trains from UV damage. All LED light tubes are fitted as well,

Did not get it all glued down, however the top is all cut out and long pieces will glue in when clamps removed.

now we need to start glorious sanding and painting :(

Cheers Rod

2022_01_18 Getting rid of the brick wall (pt2)

 2022_01_18  Buying masonite and wet bending it

(or what the hell is masonite?)

 

Masonite is not made in Australia anymore (I believe) But it is a much safer pressed sheet than what is currently available. As well it bends to shape when wet and dries out quickly, retaining its new shape.

Cuts easily with a jigsaw or as seen here with a router.

We then glued and nailed it to the brick piers and filled in the gaps using glue and clamps.

 OK so lets try and make a CHEAP CONTROL PANEL, that anybody can understand.

Found a $4 picture frame at REJECT Shop and disassembled it. 

Then cut out a piece of perspex to replace the glass and left the paper protector in place. I then drew out the schematic track  and marked out where the switches had to go (on paper) 

Next job was to transfer diagram to perspex and drill out the switch layout. I had some Tam Valley Octopus switches and decided to use them here, at Wanganella.

Here #7 push button, will change two motors.

Now I will disassemble the panel. Using lining tape on the back side, mark out the tracks. Spray the back black, and reassemble the panel. I think it should look good.

A bit disappointed that the switch for the slip would not fit and had to be dropped below. Might have to look at that again.  

Not same panel but strengthened it with screws and fixed in place like this.

Cheers

Rod

2021_12_29 Graeme Apple seed and more!!

 2021-12-29 The apple orchard and more back drops.... In pictures!!

OK, I did an oopsie here forgetting that the new frame needed to be screwed together on the flat and sit flush on top of the old plaster backdrop.

 

And I had to undo them and screw them together the right way.

The measurements were still ok.

The angle will be hidden behind the brick pillar covers And when I find out where the covers locate on the frame, I will have to add another upright to glue the cover on to. Then we will cut to fit masonite sheets to fill in between the covers.

MR Apple seed plants his best!

Nice!!

Cheers

Rod

2021_11_26 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

 2021-11-26  Merry Christmas :D

Seasons Greetings!  Things are slower on the blog than I would have liked. But Covid is still slowing us down. Al has een out of action for a few weeks looking after a sick wife. And the season has its effects as well.

Was very quiet here as family took the opportunity to take advantage of the "freedoms" the Andrews gov, has graciously granted its slaves. I cannot believe my Labor Party has actually dressed in red and joined the Chinese CCP empire. But enough of that. At least he has left our models alone for now.

Biggest work here is point motors and wiring. We keep taking the way ahead with many success's. But one fix shows us another problem. Good news is that we think we can see the light at...eh?

As usual pictures can tell the story!

Ok here Graeme prepares the apple orchard. Ah ok we thought we had plenty of trees!  70 is about half our needs.  First the spacing was marked with pins. Next blended bark (Vitamised) was sprinkled uner the tree canopy.  Next job will be to "plant" the grass, build the fences and then place the trees. Mark out the wheel ruts etc and it should look ok.

Bugger!! not enough trees.

Touching up the tunnels. 

Finishing off the backdrops (East wall)

Decided the backdrops should be made higher and really wanted to hide the bricks.

And Graeme found some very rare thin masonite. He bent it into shape, and hopefully liquid nails will hold it to the bricks.

We have pre-cut the masonite and will fill in between the covered brick piers.

Last week we finally worked out how to fill in the windows. (How much money would I have saved!)

 

We created frames that can sit on top of the original backdrop. Masonite sheets will cover both the old backdrop and the new frame. I will add two additional uprights when we work out the distance between the brick pier covers after they are fixed to the bricks and extended onto the frame.

And thats about all their is.  Except to thank all of those who are watching and to wish everybody a MERRY CHRISTMAS    and a HAPPY AND SAFE NEW YEAR.

Cheers 

Rod 

2021_11_26 D3 on Pass this morning!

2021-11-26..  Yeah making point motors and panels today.. and a video

Cheers

Rod