Pallets, Powercab PCP, Painting and Packing

So this weekend I have cut up 4 strips of HO scale pallets into individual ones and then painted about half.  So these are now CHEP or Loscam (blue or red) in colour.  I plan on doing the other half tomorrow, in a range of other colours.  I have also got back into the tarpaulin making process.  I have painted up at least 24 strips of teabag which will make at least 48 tarps.  I plan on making another 12 tomorrow strips, or 24 tarpaulins tomorrow. 

I had been wanting to add a Powercab PCP to a small demo track, but didn’t want to spend close to $50 for the privilege.  I could not find a spare PCP among my mates that they wanted to part ways with.  So I made my own PCP.  I had some old RG45 sockets which I have had for close to 20 years, that I added 1mm styrene infill to each side of the socket.  This is to align the Powercab cable to the middle of the RJ45 and make the plug fit the 6 inner connections of the 8 pins in the RJ45.  An RJ45 is of course an 8 pin plug.  So I am taking the two outer connections out of play.  I plugged in a power source to the back end of the RJ45 and then plugged a cable into my modified socket and then measured the voltage on wires 2 and 5 of that cable at the far end and made sure that the output was the same polarity to that in my PCP when I measured that.  It was!  So that seems like it will work.  I just need to connect the output from pins 2 and 7 from the RJ45 socket to the track and plug my Powercab in and see if it doesn’t explode and the track power is applied to my test track. 

It should work, but I always hate doing things where there is the possibility of causing damage.  So that is another job for tomorrow, if I can work up enough courage to test it.

The other activity that I was doing over the last couple of days is a bit of painting around the layout.  Some areas where a bit of white (basically plaster) has been coming through the scenery has been addressed with some other coloured washes applied over the scatter.  I have also added a bit of a wash to some rock faces that were also a bit light in colour. 

I will have to start packing up my things tomorrow for the Brisbane May Model Railway show next weekend.  So I will have to work out what I will be taking.  Hopefully next weekend will be fun.  if you are there come along for a natter.

Planning and Prep

This has been a relatively quiet week modelling and model railway wise.  I did travel over to the AMRA-Q Open Day and Buy and Sell on Saturday morning and the caught up with a few mates.  I next went to the NMRA Division 1 meeting at Murrumba Downs.  Again this was a nice meeting where we caught up with some more guys I had not seen for a while.

At the AMRA-Q Buy and Sell I did pick up a NSW oil pot.  So that had been put into an oil siding at Lismore.  Just sitting here now and thinking, this extra oil wagon might force me to have to retire another oil wagon as I think the oil siding might be too small to take this extra wagon.  When I shunt this siding, I add another wagon into this siding, so now this new additional wagon might foul the run arounds when working this siding in our Operations sessions.  I will have to try do a trial run of the oil train and see if it still fits before the next Operations Session.  Mind you, I have no idea when that will be with too many other activities being planned at the moment.  One last task that I did was buy a set of 3 QR wagons for a pretty good price.  PK also bought a packet of 3 QR wagons.  All we need to do now is change the 16.5mm bogies over to 12mm.  So I'm on the look out for some 12mm bogies for some HWO wagons.

Activities this week have included trying to get motivated to build another 10 clotheslines.  I’m still trying to find that motivation.  Maybe later tonight, as I know the wife and daughter will be watching something that I won't want to.

My time this week has been spent thinking about the upcoming May model train exhibition in Brisbane, and the following NMRA-X Australasian Regional Virtual Convention for the 11-14^th of June and a new presentation for this event, and an NMRA Division 1 meeting at my place in July.  So I’m pretty busy planning for these.  I’m trying to identify what I need to complete for each of these events.

I might need to apply for a Blue card in order to do June event, as I’m doing it in tandem with PK.  I think you need one of those Blue cards when working with children.  A long week ahead followed by two short ones.

More Pallets

Well last Sunday night did not turn out as expected, but by Monday night I had painted up a total of 40 clothes lines and completed three strings of pallets.  On Tuesday afternoon I headed to a local hobby shop and picked up some more styrene and have enough styrene in reserves for another 108 pallets if required.  During the week, activity turned to painting up a few tarpaulins.  

On Friday afternoon I sold some clotheslines to a local hobby shop in between various meetings while working from home.  When I got home I produced another 27 pallets for good measure – making the fourth string and 108 on hand.  I had dinner and then produced another 27 pallets – the fifth string.  While at a hobby shop on Saturday morning I picked up a couple of spray cans of paint to paint up some of these pallets – quite possibly next weekend’s task.  I had a plan to make up a few more clothes lines on Saturday evening, before changing tack and doing some electronics type work on Sunday.  But on Saturday evening I did another 27 pallets – the 6^th string.  That is 162 pallets on hand.  I still have enough styrene available to do another two strings or 52 pallets at least.  I can knock off a complete string of pallets in around one hour.

While at the Club on Saturday, I picked through some items that were from a deceased estate and handed over some money to the Treasurer and he had a bit of fun.  I found three small combi vans that had a friction motor in them that you pulled back and let them go.  So while the boring Club meeting was on, we had three of these combi vans zooming across our table from all different directions and trying to have a crash in the middle of the table.  Childish I know, but we all had a laugh.  Greg also brought along some 3D printed items that I ordered from him over the last month.  It was some road barriers and some water tanks. These will eventually go into some wagons loads.  

Today I soldered up six incinerators.  I added a bridge rectifier to a capacitor and added my LED and a resistor.  Next was some lengths of wire and the end result was 6 working incinerators.  These are ready for me to sell at the Brisbane May Show.  I might have my demo board for level crossing detectors also with me at the May show in Brisbane.  So I might have to make up some level crossing detector flashing light kits for that event as well. 

Clotheslines and Pallets

On Thursday afternoon after signing off work, I finally Googled how to solve my Rubik's Cube.  I then did it.  I used to have a book to help me get it out but I lost it a few years ago.  My rubik's cube has been sitting on my office desk for a couple of years in a weird configuration.  So it is now just like a bought one.

On Friday morning I started work on 7 HO clotheslines.  That was when I realised that I needed to buy some 0.040” styrene rod, so I picked up some of that on Saturday morning.  Focus shifted to working on a strip of pallets.  So that was 27 of them.  I needed to slightly downsize them.  This was so they could fix into an open wagon at 2 wide across the wagon.  Of course the open wagon had to be manufactured with thicker than prototype sides, thus the measurement that had to give (so to speak) was the inside measurement of the wagon, while retaining the external measurements to scale. 

On Saturday I hit the road and visited Barnacle Bob to pick an item that he painted for me, and it did look very nice indeed.  Thanks Barnacle.  I then visited some hobby shops for some styrene supplies.  Nine packets later from two shops and I was ready to hit the kitchen table and knock out some more clotheslines.

In the afternoon I continued with some more clotheslines knocking out another fourteen.  I then looked for my 0.030” rod.  Well wouldn’t you know it I only had one length left in the packet I had on hand.  Guess what?  I didn’t pick up an extra packet of 0.030” rod in the morning.  So I think on Monday I will pick up another two packets of 0.030” rod and another of 0.040” rod if the shops are open.  Well just checked online and you guessed it – no cigar.  I am also now out of 0.040” styrene rod, as I used the whole packet I bought yesterday after making up another 20 clotheslines on Saturday night.  While watching TV, I knocked out most of the clotheslines, just leaving the 0.030” braces to the tops of them to complete.  I also started off on the next string of 27 pallets.  I also knocked out another 28 pieces of 4” x 4” dunnage to go inside my many open wagons and to be used to separate some lengths of steel that I sell for various open wagons.  These get painted various shades of brown.

I also managed a trip to Jaycar on Saturday afternoon to pick up the components to make 5 power supplies for my flickering incinerators.  Hopefully I will sell a couple of these flickering incinerators at the upcoming May show in Brisbane. 

I made a trip to Bunnings on Sunday morning and picked up a piece if wood.  This will be used to make another demonstration track setup, this time for Shelton the Photographer.  I may install two versions of this on the track.  One will certainly be using an Arduino for the triggering and firing the photographer flash and maybe I will also install another using just the electronic components only. 

So next up was completing the second lot of 27 pallets.  That was followed by an email exchange with my local shop – aka Raymond.  I borrowed his last packet of 0.030” styrene rod and after a natter with him and Lefty, I resumed building some clotheslines.  I completed 10 clothesline tops with the 0.030" styrene, then painted only 7 of them because I could not count.  I have since completed another 4 and will resume construction in an hour or so, in the hope of knocking them all off tonight. 

I have started a third string of pallets.  So far I have about 7 or 8 complete, I will resume working on them tomorrow morning and before the rest of the family rises, I should have string number 3 completed.  I also spent some time down the shed and will be looking at making the scenes on the layout as you enter the shed more presentable.  The fascias of the two decks may get a bit of a colour if I can work out what colour to do them.