2015_07_26 Wind Wind and more Cold!

2015_07_26

Track Planning ?   Well it was too cold to paint and no other work was seemingly possible today so I opened up my latest purchase and checked it out ;)   Aldi at $99. Why were these things as cheap as this 30 years ago. I remember a Badger portable compressor selling for $600 and you had to find a water trap, hoses and spray gun on top :(
This one came like this ;)

  Edit:  Could not see google video so uploaded it to YouTube, might take a few minutes 7.21pm

Track Planning?  Well before I can build any bench work, I need to know how the levels work out. The track on top (window height) will represent a BG track and will be totally isolated from the track below which will represent my NSW part of the layout. The top area will also have a 1.5% descending, SG  track with a passing loop,  that enters the RH Helix at the second top level and runs three times around before exiting into South Grafton. On the way down at the second level

(click on it to make it larger)
So now that I know my levels I can avoid all the troubles that Al helped me overcome last year on the back half of the layout. (typo BG level is 1400)
First thing to do is insulate the West wall, using the green foam board. Then cover it all with board to act as a back board for back scenes.

This is lowest level coming out of Coal siding and representing the move into NSW territory.
(I just had a thought :(  I have very little NSW rolling stock )

The BG track pokes out unsupported,yet.  This is the highest level at 140cm.

Starting to clear an area away to work in. Hoping that this can store underneath when the bench work and track are in place.

This shows the gap where the SG and BG tracks will enter from the older section of the layout. I think I can make this work by dividing the back scenes into two parts.
A smaller backboard will curve around covering the tunnel on the right at a 4 foot radius. I will cut this into the plaster and swing it around till it meets the sceniced area left of picture It can be 6 inches high and a 15 inch backdrop where the ply is against the window. The top half of the scenery attached to the top of that board, whilst the bottom bit goes on the short front section. it will not be perfect, and blue sky can do a lot to hide it too. This gives me access to the hidden tracks which let the spot light remain firmly on the branch line which is heading for a terminal station on the first third of the front wall.
The hidden track behind the terminal station, will be able to be accessed from overhead exactly the same as described in the paragraph above.

2015_07_21

2015_07_21  Cloudy ,not so cold? Am I obsessed with temperature these days?

Ok just fooling around and thinking about what I need to do with these projects. Of course I will concentrate on back drops, but I also need to work on the Depot module, at some time, particularly as most of the materials are coming together.

Backdrops?  Got a part order of 4 drops. I set one up to get an idea how it might look. Pretty pleased actually :)

Pretty happy with that.

Then I started playing around with the round house. Fits well enough. Its an "off the shelf" model after all :)

Although the five roads in the shed line up if I move the shed out this far, it creates problems with where the old shed was set up. Particularly the road this side of the closest wall. Moving the shed in closer is not an option, so looks as if in fact I might have to remove all the shed roads and start again.
Its not easy reusing existing bits in your model empire. Its closely aligned with DCC uses only two wires. You expect using something like this will save you time, but not so. I  now think it is always easier to start over fresh. 

2015_07_20

2015_07_20  Brrrrr!!  starry skies new moon, bright planets hanging below. Was -2.5 C and frosty this morning. Going to be coler tonight I suspect Brrrrr!!

Just went to the shed to take a few pictures. Its 4C outside and 3C in the shed!

Here's a picture story!
Got sound into my first P Class and went to test it, but as luck will have it I got a lemon. Very unusual, now after fitting sound I got to hope Auscision will give me a new bogie to save all that work :)  I am sure they will.

Speaker in place sealed with KrystalKleer and then boxed in with thin (1.5mm thick) styrene also fixed with KK to side of housing. The styrene actually sits flush with the side of the loco which fits to the chassis as easily as it did before the baffle was fitted. Still a gap at top where wiring went in, and a bit of blutac filled that in nicely

Unfortunately the bogie shown here has a lifted wheel (closest) and it does not want to sit down. Will ask if I can pull it apart or if I can have a spare bogie, can't return it after all my work fitting sound, can I? :)

I also dragged South Grafton out of storage and started to sort out where the shed and coaling stage will sit. Need to make a few adjustments to fit both the Coal Stage and the new Engine Shed. Think I better weather it as an old shed. Definitely too bright and shiny for a 70's working shed.

Sitting where it is, I have five roads pretty much in the right place The sixth road furthest from camera is ok for clearance, but the road and pit closest to camera outside shed, will have to be removed 

Bit of fill around the back of shed and Bob's your Uncle!

 Now the Victorian shed that I am going to install in my version of Wodonga is just about perfect :) What do you all think?  I think Stuart deserves a 10, and your business as well ;)

Stuart you are a wizard and I am so thankful that I found you and that I have this stuff. Without you I would be just too far, from finishing this and getting some fun out of it, before my time is up. At least now I have a chance.

Thinking this way, and carrying the theme a little bit further?    I got to thank Auscision, Austrains, Trainorama, SEM, AR, Graeme Hawken, Steve Munro, Roger Lloyd, Brian Chester Johnny Humphreys, John Gilbert, Paul Hawdon,Tony K, and all the people at Hobsons Bay who helped me get so much fun out of this hobby. Thank You All of you especially the ones I missed!
Cheers
Rod Young

Model Train Buildings

2015_07_11

2015_07_11 Stawell

Had a very pleasant drive with Tony from Bendigo to Stawell. Navman took us the shortest route and we traveled on mainly good rural roads and saw perhaps 5 other cars the whole way once we left Bendigo.  Came home the quickest route via main roads and again time was about the same, roads good and traffic minimal. Finished up headed home after a short stay in Bendigo, as Tony was thinking about traveling down to Diamond Valley early for Sunday.

Asks my good friend Brian Chester to help my other good friend Graeme out as we had a Trainbuilder problem. Although Bruce could have sent the model back to China, we decided on a quick fix there and now, which Brian was more than happy to do for us.
Rather than supaglue it, Brian spent an hour and a half scraping all the super glue off so he could low melt solder it back together. I am talking about the Derm bogies that simply fell apart whilst we all tried to fix up a wiring problem.  Thankyou Brian.
And Graeme, Brian is telling you here "You owe me big Time Mister!"

 The shirt says it all :D
Cheers
Rod

2015_07_10 At Bendigo

2015_07_10   Resting on way to Stawell Exhibition

Already blown the Bank at PCB Hobbies Bendigo Thank you Geoffrey :)
Found a few kits to help build the Shell Agents off Osbourne Street
Got another 3 SDS Centurion tanks on flats to complete my military train.

And bit the bullet and ordered a set of 15" high Back scenes from ID

ID-Backscenes

click on

Bought 7 sheets That's 70 feet for !25 pounds air freight paid.  Hope they look as good as pictured ;)

Contents: Length 10 feet in 2 sections x 15 inches high - making one continuous backscene
All 4 packs of series 207 can be used in order to make a continuous 40 feet long backscene (Packs A-B-C-D)
Shot by a professional photographer and printed to a high standard on 160 gsm heavyweight paper, these backscenes add depth and detail to any layout.

Cheers Rod

2015_07_07

2015_07_07  addendum Waiting for my P Class's  :(

Last weekend Graeme came back for more punishment, so we sanded and put a top coat over the cornice plaster joins (which were still slightly damp too.

Now we will leave it for a fortnight so I can attend the Model Railway Show at Stawell

Somebody asked what filler we used that was fast drying?? It was this one :D

Got a text message to tell me a parcel had arrived. Was only waiting for two, and as one was the video cameras from China, and they were post free which usually translates into 4 weeks , I thought the P classes had arrived.. YEIIIII!!

However on arrival at the PO, I found a typical Chinese wrapping and found myself in possession of a pack of surveillance cameras and a DVD recorder. I'm happy but really disappointed that the P's are still not here  :(

Oh well it will give me something to take my mind off the post for a day or two ;)

oops the zoom-able 340 rotation one is coming in a separate parcel it would seem
Cheers
Rod

Addendum  :D (near forgot)  CHILTERN shed arrived (well not really)
We elected to take delivery of it on the Thursday before Caulfield Exhibition when Matt will drive past on the way to the Exhibition, and hand it over / over a cup of coffee at Chiltern Bakery.

This shed will live at Wangenella ;) 
Might get a picture of the two sheds together and post it if we have time. So instead I have 3 pictures to keep me company till then

2015_06_28 Suns out!!

2015_06_2

Just setting up in the shed to do some more wiring, but after 20 hours the plaster is starting to dry. At least the lighter layers are. However the thicker work is still very wet. Lets hope the week is a little warmer than last one.

Ahhh!!  have to rejoin the old modules and solder those rails together. The damn rail was all we could use 30 years ago, old profile n scale rail hand spiked onto wood sleepers to give the correct light rail branch line look. However the new profile n scale track fish plates will not fit, and neither will the code 70, or code 75 ones (The old n profile is more like bull head rail with a small rounded foot rather than the traditional flat foot.)  I think I will have to reshape code 70 plates and solder them in place. Or perhaps cut a trip of brass and just solder it on the outer sides?

Cheers
Rod

2015_06_27

2015_06_27 Another Saturday rolling on...
So what happens Saturday?? Oh that's right Backboards are the current theme...


And here's Graeme :)

We top coated all the filler and now we need to sand it back. The way things are slowly drying around here, we decided to wait till next week, and perhaps we can undercoat it all.

 

Its an illusion it is a tough join but shadow is making it look worse than it is. The variation at the join is about 2mm  using a 3 foot straight edge

Its nice to have a friend who can motivate you, and has the skills to show you how, Thanks mate :)
Cheers
Rod

2015_06_25 Lazy Freezing Days of Winter!

 2015_06_25
Things are rather quiet here at Fernleigh Court.

But the check book is still hemorrhaging :)
Two 4L cans of plastic paint, 1 undercoat and the another Sky Blue.
More filler and a few tools to help get it all on.

Only problem is that the plaster will not dry (over two weeks and balls up when I sand it... It's just too damn cold :( )

I also decided to upgrade my computer to better manage Decoder Pro in the shed, and spending some time getting that up and running.

Got sick of the wiring, so planning a general tidy up whilst I wait for things to warm up a little.

I have a video camera and screen that I want to install so that I can watch stuff on the other side of the Island.  But it will not easily do the job. I found a Chinese company that will sell me 4 wireless cameras that will broadcast a 1080 signal and it offers clear reception in noisy environments as well as obstructed communication over 20 m. Too good to be true, especially as they have daily specials, and today they sold me 4 cameras, with a 10 inch monitor, and a terabyte of hard drive, recording to a 8 track 1080 Digital recorder. Normally $599 but one last superseded model, brand new for $375 (edit). I could have got a 4 camera wired version for $275 and a pack of 4 50 m cables for another $39

I wanted to get the LED light strings secured in place as well as the video cable in the tidy up.
Well now I don't have to worry about video cable, however I will need to supply 1 amp of 5 V Dc to each camera.

So that's about all I have to say Bye for now
Cheers
Rod

2015_06_06 (Back Drops)

2015_06_06 Heater on ,heavy cloud, but sun is shining most of the time.

Been crook most of the week. Kidney giving pain on Tuesday and could hardly walk Wednesday. Not sharp enough for a stone, so probably a chill. Feeling ok today, so Graeme decided to come over and give me another big push on the model railway. Nice mate he is too!!

So whilst Graeme (Schulz) filled up the gaps with plaster, I got to straigtening up the back boards and securing them as they were just loosely fitted.  We spent 4 hours on it and got a lot accomplished. I used a premixed Filler last Monday and it was still damp today. So we used cornice cement, this time and it did dry better, abling Graeme to get three coats on.
If you remember we had strengthened steel brackets set into the plaster to take the wobble out of the top deck and they had to be plastered over. Some pictures.
(Note it took half my time to finish clearing the decks, the remainder to secure the back boards to a new frame which helped straighten them all out)

The frame on top helps to increase the back board to 600 mm standard (Haskell back ground)  I will need to glue strips of Masonite on above original and fill it and sand it back.

Its a bit hard to see, however the painted back boards here rippled and were not flat, but now the top bracing has almost pulled it flat again. The joins are still wet a week after I applied selleys pre mixed stuff and will have to be replaced

Look no more steel support brackets :)

Really pleased with this, Tanks Graeme ;)

The join in front of the clamps has a lump of wood behind forcing it out of shape. Next job is to remove it to allow it to sit correctly.

Graeme says we can sand it back and put another coat over the top, before undercoating it all.

So much to do. The wiring is on the to do list as well :(

Cheers
Rod