I finally got to the shed today after a few days of waiting for the cyclone to come ashore and then we experienced the relentless rain.
On Monday afternoon I painted a small area under the QR HO wagon along one edge. I used a micro brush to get access to some less than suitably painted areas between gussets and along some ridges. Attention then turned to the QR 2050 class railmotor. I then drilled holes on one side of the railmotor and fitted handrails to the doors. I then painted the handrails with a micro brush and then fitted these to the railmotor. On Tuesday, I turned the railmotor over and drilled the holes for that side’s handrails. They were attached and the railmotor set aside. I then painted my walkway protectors a darker grey colour, and set them aside. I will eventually get around to fitting them.
While on Tuesday when picking up my QR QH loco, I noticed that one of the bogies had seized (did not swivel), after I painted the inside of the bogie supports a few days earlier. The bogie clips into these bogie supports. Whoops! While trying to unseize it, I broke off two of the bogie side frames from that bogie. So on Wednesday I re-glued the bogie side frames, and allowed them to dry.
On Thursday I took my QR DH down to the layout and put it on the track at Acacia Ridge Yard. I gave it a run back and forward shunting some coal wagons. It was struggling with 5, but ran OK with 3. I brought it back upstairs and proceeded to add some more lead over the power bogie. Now with this extra weight, it can easily haul 5 coal wagons back and forth on the flat. It takes time to get mobile, but has momentum when going.
While watching some F1 practice on the TV, I was looking at the marker lights on my QR 2050 railmotor. I added a bit of red paint around the 0402 LEDs on the rear of the railmotor and when I turned them on, they looked pretty good. I was thinking of adding some red paint to the fibre optic outputs that I had for the front facing red marker lights. But I cannot get a good enough brightness out of them. I did some experiments with some more 0402 LEDs and these were also dipped in some red paint. When lit they look reasonable. So some work was undertaken to remove the LED controlling the fibre optics and replaced with these two 0402 LEDs for the front facing red marker lights.
I then had to get my head around adjusting the various CVs in my decoder in the railmotor. I have decided that the following setup will be programmed:-
- Headlight will be F0
- Front white marker
lights will be F1
- Front red marker lights
will be F2
- The rear marker lights
were removed from the F0R and setup to be controlled by F3.
I actually did a google and found an article that explained the CVs operation to me. About 10 years ago I was all on top of this. I had forgotten quite a lot. So I programmed the decoder and gave it a test. Brilliant! All lights operated independently.
On Saturday morning I took the railmotor to the track and tested the new LED front red marker lights. Worked brilliantly. That was when things went wrong. I was looking at adding a screw through the railmotor base to the roof at the rear of the model to lock the roof on. I had drilled a hole in the floor and while drilling a hole in the roof (with a power drill) at a very slow speed from beneath the floor, I snagged the micro wires from to the rear 0402 red LEDs. I also ripped one of the LEDs from the rear of the railmotor, and tore through a few wires. Bugger. I was able to save one of the LED in the rear of the railmotor. So I had to get another 0402 LED ready, dipped it in red paint, trimmed the length of wires attached, soldered it into the circuits and installed it in the rear of the railmotor. Everything looks good again. I could have done without that inconvenience. However when I did a further test tonight, all the LED lights were turning on. I had no idea of the cause. The loco would not move backwards or forwards. I put it in DC and it moved, and all the LEDs came on. I blew on the decoder. There had to be a small micro filament wire bridging somewhere. I gave it another test, this time, movement came back. All the lights individually worked. Phew! I could breath again.
Because I could, I did. On Saturday afternoon while watching the Formula 1 on TV, I started to plan the construction and start the build of the Old Cassino Dairy structure over the siding for the milk wagons. This will be in low relief. I saw a post yesterday from Darren earlier in the day and he was putting together some Milk tank containers. I have a few of these that I have had for some years now. Maybe I should put mine together as well. So two great minds doing dairy modelling.
Today construction continued. I am pretty happy with the result. Ther needs to be some painting, and I will try and replicate the colours of the Old Cassino Dairy siding lean-to. I will try the painting this week.
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