2013 April 20

2013 April 20 
Nice day for doing nothing, and anyway the Bike Race has closed all the roads out of here for 6 hours.

Ok.. time to plan the track so I can get started on the coal siding. The temporary curve allows me to measure the straight section. I have 24 feet by 1 foot 1-1/2 inches to work with.

The bench work already cleaned down and extra supports added underneath, the enlarged signal diagram shows me how it was in 1978 (Thank you Mark Bau)

So here I am inside burning the midnight oil, and trying to work out how much I can cram into 13-1/2 inches!  Just reviewing the photo, I notice the photo of Matt Kilby on the table. Guess he is grinning at my pathetic attempt at drawing in scale :)  Our Matt was heading in the right direction to becoming one of Australia's best Architects when a brain tumour struck him down and he was at rest earlier this year.  With work on the dome at Chadstone, David Syme and Bankok International Airport already credited to him.

I had to remove one road from the SG, another from the Bogie Exchange. The BG last two storage roads and I am wondering if I should actually add another foot to the width! Although that will interfere with the top level. What I might do is add a few inches on the edge to enable me to model the fuel depot and the Super Siding. At the moment I have moved the Super siding down into the space in picture 1, created by the temporary curve that will switch the track back towards Wanganella. This was done to create a loop for the SG trains and will probably not be used by the BG trains which will terminate at Wodonga / Coal Sidings .

So just to show that even when actual solid building does not happen, in the background their is still much to do.  (And you guys thought I did not plan anything :(  )

Cheers
Rod

2013 April 15

2013 April 15 A cold Monday

Am sitting in my caravan parked out the back of Tony's place. Had a pleasant few days and heading home in the morning. Caravan behaved very well and so did the Rover.

I finished up buying two VR stations and a great looking farm shed, as well as a Silver DRC from Train Builder. I also got a ZP 6 wheel van in Pass Red and a matching T van with Pass bogies, TP ?

A few other things, including code 83 track to finish off the bridge track pieces.

Had an interesting meeting with some of the Hobsons Bay members and came away a lot happier than before. I managed to point my camera at a couple of nice trains, unfortunately after viewing the video once, I cannot now find two of them.  Most disappointed if I lost the stuff :(
Cheers
Rod

2013 April 8

2013 April 8        A warm Monday

Spent the day working on my Caravan, prior to a trip down South for up to 10 days. Going to check on a few trains on the way The noisy 1:1 version.

On Saturday Graeme* Schulz came over and we talked about modifying the supports to the upper level branch line. So when I return to home about April 17, I will fix the supports up and remove the ugly angle supports. In this shot I have cleaned off the new bench tops ready for work when I return.

Those of you who have been with me from the start of this journey will recognise the trestle temporary work bench from the early days. I screwed it back together because I have several projects on the go, and they are more likely to get finished, if I don't hide them away in boxes :)

Here is one of the thinner longer brackets. I was going to remove them and weld thick angle in place that would be strong enough to support the top deck without the angle bracket. This would have been a difficult job, but Graeme* suggested that I simply remove the bracket and weld the angle to the bracket maintaining the the right angle. Drill out the holes for the mounting screws and simply replace it back onto the upright using the same heavy screws. Plaster over the top, and the bracket will disappear.

The wider station end is mounted on heavier brackets over top of the plaster. In this case I will cut around the bracket with the renovator, remove it and weld the angle on the upper horizontal surface. Re drill the holes remove the cut away plaster and remount the bracket minus the angle support, using the same attaching screws. Again all welding done on the bench, plaster over the bracket, and job is done.

Get your head around that one ;)

Cheers
Rod
* Graeme or Graham? Only saw two choices, bet you I got it wrong

2013 April 4

2013 April 4   A warm Friday (after a week of distractions)

A little bit of cleaning up, after sculpting the bank so that I could work out  how the embankment would fit. Need to take some more 3 ply away to keep the ground height below the wingwall, taking into consideration the steep slope.  Only using the VR Models wing Walls as a guide. I have a sheet of model aircraft thin 3 ply and I will use that to create new walls. I think the two outer wings can simply be made taller and placed in the position indicated.
The two inner wings might be better made taller as well, but cut off shorter and then placed at the same angles already used on the outer wings. The new wings can then be joined with a high brick retaining wall which will give plenty of room for the old stock crossing that runs beside the creek. Their is an abattoir on the furthest side to the left, with holding paddocks directly opposite the road bridge. They would walk the stock down from the rail stock pens to the right of picture and cross under rail and road and into the holding paddock.

Almost time to straighten the road bed, fix the underlay and glue down the track :)

This is getting to a stage where I can try my hand at scenery. I have my new grass machine, and lots of static grass and a real excitement about building scenery again, after a big gap of 20 years. Well it will be interesting!

Cheers
Rod
AUSSIE SCENICS

2013 April 1

2013 April 1     Ah! a tool? or an  April fool? now that is a question :D

So 42213 now has windows and the lights were prepared and glued it to a blacked out windscreen which was then wired and installed into the body, both ends.  An AT1000 non Turbo 645 V 16 sound chip was installed and insulated from frame. a small soundtraxx mega base speaker was fitted into a custom enclosure and mounted into the frame. I now do have a problem finding a spot for the capacitor. It bulges the body where I thought it would fit. Looks like I pull it apart one more time before I can try and sort the body out.  The body does fit apart from that. Another problem is the marker lights. I am unsure just how I should drill them out. I think I will use a 1mm drill after pushing a sharp stylus into the lens to start the drill off. Then Fibre optics back to two LED's one forward one reverse, both off or on??

As you can see the two bridges are now almost the identical length, however I have another problem. The VR models deck girder bridge has 4 piers supporting it. Every pair of bridges I have seen on the North East have equally spaced piers. I guess this makes good sense in flooding times, as the creek bed is less obstructed. The pictures show that the deck bridges can be longer between the piers, however they have 4 girder supports the same as the open deck versions.

So the track is glued to the base and needs ballast to finish it off and I have found out how high the piers need to be. All I need do now is build the pier bases and paint them.
Today  I also body filled the metal abutments and piers and sanded them smooth. I then repainted all the bridge fittings in aged concrete. However I did leave the ballast tray in new concrete to simulate the new trays that were sometimes fitted in the 70's, to replace the red gum original trays as they rotted out.

Does not look too bad if I do say so myself  :)

Cheers
Rod

2013 March 31

2013 March 31  Easter Sunday Cloudy and cold :(

Not a lot to report today.  I did get a Lima 422 running on a new Athearn chassis, and only need to tidy it up and fit the right sound module in it before giving it a test run :)

I also assembled the two metal abutments as well as the two middle piers for the extended open deck girder bridge. I painted them too, however they have lots of gaps and I will need to apply some filler before repainting them.

I now need to build bases underneath them, to lift the bridge to the same height as the VR Models bridge.
As that means I will need that bridge finished, I cleaned up all the castings and superglued the top ballast tray together, and painted it a concrete grey. However it does look too clean, and I will sand it back and repaint it floquil old concrete tomorrow.

I also painted the abutments and piers at the same time, and will repaint them floquil old concrete as well.

The I beams are marked out and ready to attach. I wont be able to paint these red, so will have to search for a suitable silver, I guess, or perhaps use the same concrete grey I am going to paint over?  The contrast might be good enough?

So hopefully after installing this bridge I will be able to sort out the open deck bridge height as well.

Cheers
Rod

2013 March 30

2013 March 30 

 Easter Saturday. We have a band of cloud linking us with the Pilbarra, the result of monsoonal rains and a Cyclone. Day has been ok, however steadily cooling down to 19C. Feels really cold.. brrr!

Every 10 years the Doodlebug Association meets to show off their restored motors. They are a wealthy group of people, and this year they loaded their machines on a freighter and brought them to Australia. And here they are, actually outnumbered by members of Victoria's own working Derms which share the same lineage. (How does that sound :D )

(Don't forget all pictures are half size and simply click on them to see larger image)

The RM's arrive and await the Station Staff who are departing the midday Pass to Wanganella
Here we see 3 versions of Victorian Railways liveries neatly divided by Boston and Maine #3.

The wider shot shows two other visitors as well as the two fully restored RM trailers.

Picture repeated, this time from the other end of the yard.

Head shots  :)

Motor End side on.

Again a comparison shot that shows off the heritage shared by these two little RM's.

The other end, the US version does not have a driving cab and this probably accounts for the differences?

Side views showing both ends.

The red version was rebuilt at the McBees Preston Workshops about 25 years ago
The Blue version was rebuilt by the TrainBuilder shops in 2012 as were both trailers.

Both trailers different ends. These things had MU cables. I wonder if they ever wanted to have a set of controls down this end?

Well that's our photo story for today :)  I better do something useful I guess?

I did get a little work done today :)

I have two VR epoxy bridges and one extension kit in stock. Along the North East it is quiet a feature that the BG uses timber lined ballast troughs to support the track over most bridges. THe SG track however uses the unballasted track bolted to the girders as my other bridges are.  In this picture I am trying to adjust the length of both brdges to be the same. I was successful.
The VR bridge uses the 4 longer trays from the two kits and one short section.
To the open deck prairie bridge I added an extra span from a smaller single span bridge. As well I have extenbed pier kits which will lift the bridge to within a half inch of the BG  bridge. I will carve a wooden footing to sit them on to share the same deck height.

Just to show the gap the bridges need to cross!

Not only am I mixing up the bits from the two kits, I have decided to construct the bridges differently as well.
First thing is after truing up the edges,  I will glue a piece of track on top to hold everything in correct alignment.
Then glue the girders underneath after painting them silver. The tubs have been filed smooth and will represent modern concrete tubs, and will be painted to match before the track is attached.  Paint the abutments, piers and wing walls.
Then I will glue locking pieces beside the track on top to ensure the tubs do not separate. Then ballast the track inside the tubs to hide and tidy it all up. Fix the tubs to the top of the piers and then adjust the banks and build the creek bed in place.

Ok assembly starts tomorrow, although I am temted to wander down to Wombat Gully Park at Leneva. They run an Annual visitors day down there and get an old engine out in steam on Easter Sunday each year :)
Cheers
Rod

2013 March 29

2013 March 29  Good Friday   Not a cloud!!

After a week of heavy rain we woke up this morning to see all the puddles had soaked into the ground already. Last night I had no dry spots to walk on, and now it is almost dry. However the dams are both full and overflowing as is the 110,000 litre water tank. That's good news too
And the hills are green again. Fantastic!!

Yesterday I cleaned and glued the girders together ready for painting. Just need to wait for them to dry and then turn them over ;)
The instructions from the USA manufacturer said to use a metal undercoat and then apply a top coat.  These things need weathering and paint deterioration is exactly that... weathering :) So I used  red oxide (satin roofing iron) touch up paint in a spray can. Saves having to clean up the air brush which I find to be a PITA.

Having received the Central Valley bridge ties from the States I was now able to work out how to create a section the correct length.
But I notice here in the picture that I have a problem, that I had not picked up yesterday.

Their are two different types of HO bridge ties (sleepers) supplied by central valley. For some reason I thought that the short sections would match the long sections in profile. Here are two short sections with the ends trimmed and glued together. Works fine. But check out the previous photo and see that although the sleeper size and spacings are a match the top edge rail is not a good match. I will have to use another long section to fix the problem, and I got to hope I have enough of them to complete the project.

     
Just to show House Creek abutments cut into the board and lifted slightly to allow for the thickness of the underlay

The bridge all glued in place. After I fix the bridge ties I intend to strip the sleepers from under a section of flexible track that will start 6  inches before the start of the bridge ties and end 6 inches beyond the second bridge.
I will then mark the rail to indicate the exact start and finish of each bridge tie section.
Next I will move to a hard solid section of bench top and replace the sleeper sections on these pieces of rail, between the bridges and at each end. Then according to Central Valleys instructions, I will be able to fix the bridge ties in the correct position by forcing the plastic moulded in dog spikes down over the web of the rail. I will glue the rail on top as well ;). When I am happy with the whole assembly, I can carefully glue it all on place. The SG closest to the camera will be code 100 if Peco fits (?), otherwise I will use code 83 which I have to buy in. The BG of course will be code 75 which I know does fit.

Now I have to think about the wooden extensions to the piers. The sides are ok because I will create thin ply retaining walls to hold back the banks and cover the edges ok.

I think the middle piers will be sanded back and covered in styrene and painted to simulate old concrete. The BG side should be brick, however I am not certain I want to do that just now.

Ok looks like I can turn them all over now and finish up here ;)

Cheers
Rod

2013 March 12

2013 March 12 Tuesday

We have had a fortnight of hot dry weather and I have lacked the energy to get back out into the studio to get some more work done.
Last weekend I went down to Melbourne and visited Sandown Exhibition.
It was a lovely Mums and Dad style Exhibition, with a few nice layouts, all seen before. Suspect it was their worst one ever.
For Modellers and especially ones from the bush who usually save up for this trip down to the smoke to get all the items they need from our cottage industries, almost a complete waste of time :(

If it wasn't for Auscision somehow getting on side with the Comports and attending the Exhibition, and SEM who came this time because Hobsons Bay was cancelled, I would have wasted  $120 dollars in Diesel and come down for nothing :(

I  Saw the Auscision 422 Class, and although I missed out on the Candy version altogether, I decided to buy Bicentennial 42218 and Tuscan 422.  They are a very nice engine.
I found a couple of T Class bodies in the "bin" as well. I put most of my money back in the Bank.

Because Sandown was never going to help me with the bits I need, I sent off an order to the "States" for enough Central Valley Bridge Tie sections to complete all my bridges. They should be dispatched in a week and get here in 10 days. Once I can finish the decks on the 4 bridges at House Creek, I should be able to start laying track at Wodonga, and in particular, try out my static grass machine and try my hand at some scenery :D   Looking forward to that ;)

I also decided to "attack" the members of Hobsons Bay and in particular the Committee. I fear that mismanagement and a general lack of pride in the Club by the present day membership, is going to hasten the end, and in this case I feel like a Doctor giving CPR to a person whose heart has already stopped. Maybe this Club will start gasping for breath in the next few seconds, or not....

Cheers
Rod Young

2012 December 9

2012 December 9   Sunday  (Page 35 of 35 =350 posts)



Gosh another year almost over! Where on earth did that one go? I must have blinked
Hot day, and just sat in front of the TV. Had a couple of videos that I had not watched, and they were ok.
But then I felt a bit guilty...so...

I opened up the shed and looked at what I had to do to start laying out Wodonga Station.

 Pic 1: Setting up the approach track and laying out the points. Be aware that underneath you need to have enough room for point motors! This area is over top of a join in the boards, and as well the curved track panels meet the yard board. This layout is not exactly right but the best I could do, considering space limitations and using peco track geometry.

 Pic 2: Now you are asking for trouble if you think laying the track on the layout is all you have to do. If you do do that I guarantee before the year is out you are going to get dead spots and especially dead points.
So I remove the two temporary tags in the points and solder to the point 5 wires.
One to the frog, isolated by removing the two tags this a white wire.
Then solder two more wires to the outer and inner rails to guarantee continuity.
and the last two wires to under the point blades because this mechanical joint is never going to remain honest.

 Pic 3: I am pointing at 4 rails deliberately exposed on the underside by Peco. You join the two closest together ,by soldering a dropper to each side these will power the point except for the frog and the blades.

 Pic 4: So here are 5 neatly soldered droppers colour coded and amongst the neatest work I have done with the iron Wonder what was different about today 

Pic 5: `So in this case I need point motors and it is good to plan what you are going to do about now.I have bought some cheap servo motors, some mounting brackets and DCC controllers. The servos come in plastic bags and at about $2.50 are great value.

 Pic 6: Just remove it from its bag and press fit it hard home and secure it with a screw supplied.

 Pic 7: Take the second bag and press fit the mounting piece and screw it home.

 Pic 8: They are slow acting and very inexpensive. Just using push buttons and micro switches will set you back about $7 and using DCC controllers another $8. Still cheaper than one tortoise!

 Pic 9 In this picture you can see a spring wire is bent through the moving arm of the Servo, and it goes through the board and through the sole bar of the points.

 Pic 10: This one is finished and I am using it as a test point as I need to learn how these things go together and work.
The dcc controllers come with plug and wire packs which means they simply plug together. The push buttons can be mounted on the layout fascia with the Bi-color LEDS if you wish to operate them manually. In fact their is a template supplied to allow you to drill out the fascia and attach the circuit board behind the fascia which shows the two buttons and two LEDs on the front panel of the layout. I am sure some will extend the wiring to their control panels as well
(All I need to do now, is learn how to program the things)

See what happens tomorrow
Cheers
Rod

2012 December 9

Aaron™ wrote:

Hi Rod,

That is very interesting on the points, it's something I never thought of and probably no one at CMRC has thought of either, it's something I must try out too.

Cheers.

Hi Aaron,
I should point out that Allan Gartner shared this information with me And it solved a lot of problems I have experienced over the years at Hobsons Bay and my various home layouts.

It was remiss of me not to include an address to the site that put me on to this

WIRING FOR DCC

2013 February 10  Sunday     Another hot day

This is a catch up post, Joining the last post with today's
Inside I have been preparing locomotives to have sound fitted, in most cases the locos have been stripped down and are waiting arrival of a thin belt sander ordered before Christmas but as yet has not arrived. I need this to neatly remove metal from the weights to enable fitting of decoders and speakers. I used to do this with a hack saw and a bastard file finishing off with the Dremel.
However Arthritis is making this much too painful to do these days. I really need a Mill to do this work, However a cheap mill and tools is going to set me back $1000 and I don't feel like it is worth that to me when cheaper avenues are available.
I did however find a box of 62 Steam Era kit built wagons. All 4 wheelers with couplers and various parts falling off. I have repaired 37 of these over the last several weeks and they are commissioned and running well on the existing track. I have 15 GH's and 6 yellow GY's to finish this off. A job I am glad I finished.
Another few weeks was lost when a nephew became very ill and recently passed away in Melbourne. Sad times and I had to pick up my parents (in their 90's) and ferry them around Melbourne for that time. Another Club mate passed away and another suffered a heart attack and a few miny-strokes. So time just goes rolling by.
So today I spent a few hours in the shed working on the approach to Wodonga Station from the South.
The track comes out of a curve past Wodonga SG Loop and then Uncle Ben's crosses Kelly Street on a grade crossing before dropping into a gully and crossing another street and House Creek on overhead bridges So that is 4 bridges needed. The bridges arrived from the US in December and they were not what I expected. Let the pictures tell the story 

 

This is why 15 of these kits weighed 20 lbs The kits are built out of precision cut steel. He does not say how, but it looks like a computer cutting tool, not that I knew you could do this with steel ?? 

 You just superglue the parts together after placing them together like blocks!

 The girders are in two pieces, so glue them back to back.
(edit Mar 2013..  If I had read the instructions I would have noticed the three spaces that I forgot to apply to each girder)

Then place the girders into the machined slots.

 I need better bridge track or will have to hand lay it. This Walthers version has guard rails, which are not used now on the bridges.    Showing the kits and the bits and pieces.

 I unpacked the parcel of 15 bridge kits All machined steel and the Posty was wanting to know what it weigh so much. He went here and not expecting a half bag of cement I near dropped it . Took 4 bridges outside to put together before the picture was taken.

 So here we are today setting up the roadbed for the track and the new bridges.

 The wider gap is the double span over the road and the smaller gap is the House creek bridge. I shortened the distance between the bridges and now after looking at the pictures realise it will be difficult to build the wing walls and the sloping embankment. So I guess Rule 202 "Three steps forward and one step backwards is about to work its business once again. It certainly makes it difficult if your imagination does not first see it as it is  


Cheers
Rod

 2013 February 10   Sunday  (continues)

Next Step is to glue together the bridges. I wish I had done this first, before creating the gap. I did not allow for the small wings that extend behind the abutment. So I will have to open up the gap a few more mm's to make it easier.

 All I need to do now, apart from painting it up, is to work out a way of creating concrete abutments on the SG side built in 1960, and blending it with the brick abutments on the BG side built in the 1870's

Cheers
Rod Young

 2013 February 10   Sunday  (continues)

Whilst waiting for some items I played around with my Fratechni turntable. Made it look more at home on a Victorian layout. The dress-up saw a deck added to each side, fences and some paint. Added wheels to deck as well (replacing dummy ones)
Picture 1 shows the deck is slightly larger than VR used but at 22.5 cm, it fits a J and K with room to spare.

 Paint the beams red oxide and add some hand operated bars to turn her and she will do the job.

 

2013 February 12     Tuesday

 The roof is straight, but I had the camera low which caused the distortion :(

Cheers
Rod

 2013 February  15th   Friday
Hot and sweaty day after not enough rain yesterday.
 Paid for Tuesday via direct debit, bank transferred funds +24 hours.
Merchant Packed and posted +12 hours
Notified yesterday that parcel was in the system by Post Office
Roadside Delivery 10.15 am this morning.

 And here I am at 1120, already got it assembled and test running it on a 422 conversion

I really wanted a Milling machine, but for the limited use it would get, I decided to look for an alternative, and here it is
$149 in Australia and with postage and 13 new belts less than $200. Definitely the way to go
Cheers
Rod
And so next time you visit a model Rail Exhibition Say hello to Stan, a really nice bloke to do business with, and check out his web site    www.sonicminitools.com.au

2013 March 4  Monday

his is a project that has been occupying my time these last few weeks (months
Its a metal kit that goes together nicely (even if you don't read the instructions properly
These pictures show the model of the twin span Prairie Crossing bridge (two 37 1/2 foot spans)
Kit # 7786 Adair Shops       Adair Shops

Sample

Overhead view showing a bridge almost identical to those used by the Victorian Railways SG project in the '60's.

Two in place after painting. The Walthers bridging track is not the right one, and so I am ordering some central valley bridging track from the States. Australian Mail Order is just too hard. Our shopkeepers are much better at complaining about purchases going off shore, than creating lists on their web sites (when they have a web site) to enable easy on line shopping. The 422 is also an ongoing project restarted recently after being tucked away for 20 years!

Central Valley 25 foot Bridge Ties
Central Valley 72 foot Bridge Ties

Please excuse this ":americanism" :) The Yanks make them and of course they call sleepers, ties ;)

I am pretty pleased with these. I will create concrete and brick abutments to cover the pine and it should look pretty right!
Sitting on the bridge (To weigh the ties down ) is the new chassis for a Lima 422 I never finished conversion on. I just noticed the lh bogie is about 6 mm out of position opening up the gap on the fuel tank. I will fix that and it will overcome the short shaft on the flywheel too I guess

Have 15 of these bridges, of different sizes, and I suspect they will be a nice feature.

 The overhead shot shows the results of not reading the instructions "Eh?? what are these tiny spacers for? Oh instructions say to space out the girders before super gluing them together Oh well next time...."

 Ok paint is dry, lets glue them all together and start boxing out the abutments

Cheers
Rod

And this final post catches up the Victrainz Blog New posts will appear from here on :D
Cheers
Rod