After completing work on Wednesday afternoon I started doing some modelling. This included a styrene box shed that will have corrugated card glued to its outside. This will be placed over the motor that runs the Murwillumbah turntable. So I scratch build a box for the shed and aquadhered some corrugated card onto the box. This has been painted an appropriate corrugated iron colour and is ready to fit over the turntable motor.
On Thursday I then started to cut up some styrene sheet into the shape for the base coal load of 5 of my QR coal wagons. I test fitted the sheet styrene so that it could easily be inserted into the coal wagons and removed from the coal wagons. These bases were also fitted with five legs (2 at each end and one in the middle) about 10-12mm high to enable the load to sit proud of the coal wagons opening, but below the lip of the wagon. I then super-glued two metal washers under each end of the wagon load. These bases were then painted matt black, as an undercoat before the fitting of some white glue and some coal to form the load. I have found one coal wagon had a dodgy coupler at one end. So I will need to fit a new KD spring to ensure that the wagon does not get failed when we operate that coal train.
I decided to do some electrical work on Friday. I purchased some components from Jaycar. When I got home I soldered everything together and I connected it to a 12V transformer. I connected a multi-meter to the output of the components, and when I powered it all on, I got a 9V supply. Just what I wanted. That was tested on my layout headset system. This will mean that I wont have to keep buying 9V batteries. I also spent some time trying to find what is causing the awful noise in the headset system. I failed.
The next task was to splice in a flashing arrow onto the back of a truck in a road works site. I purchased this from Gwydir Valley Models at the Armidale Convention. This flashing sign is controlled by an on/off switch on the layout fascia. The item is powered by a rectified circuit from the track bus.
I also found out that 5 of my yet to be used power supplies that takes the track bus and rectifies it for use in DC power supplies, had a capacitor connected in reverse. That was going to be an interesting occasion if these ever got powered up. I have fixed them all now.
One thing that had been causing me some issues, was the lighting circuit to the Park Road Transhipment Shed. The lights just stopped working. I was connecting a battery direct to the building and it all worked. But It would not work from my rectified power supply straight from the track bus. I checked things. I replaced things. I swapped things around. I had no success. But it looks like the real reason was the plugs I have imbedded in to the baseboard. These plugs allow my good shed to slot into to get a power connection, but it must have been a bad connection. After almost two days of work on this project, it is now working.
I then started work on adding two switches to the light circuits at Cassino overbridge. My street lights were put on one circuit and car lights on another. I am considering adding a few more lights in some surrounding streets.
I am also starting to deploy lights to The Risk Station precinct. More work to follow here tomorrow.
Merry Christmas everyone. I hope the big fella in red provided some much wanted items for the layout. The cricket stars again tomorrow.
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