I'm Still Lighting Up the World

Monday’s task list for the shed started early.  I had to measure some resistors in a circuit that powers three street lights near Cassino.  These lights are powered by globes, and they are being replaced by LEDs in the same street light posts.  I also tested the point motor that is not working at Dutton Park, by using a direct connection from a power pack.  I could not get it to throw using that circuit, so it looks like everything will be lifted and relayed.  The point may be replaced in the week following the RMCQ Exhibition on the 12 and 13th of July.

Monday afternoon activities centred around street lights again.  I removed the three globe based lights from Cassino which were between the road overbridge and the bridge over the Richmond River.  I half installed the LED based lights.  I also installed two more LED based street lights for near the Cassino Station.  These are in some of the street that back onto the railway right of way.  I ran the cables back to the Cassino light control panel.  I cut the cable runs for the platform lights on Cassino platform.  I also added another switch to this light control panel.  I also added another switch to a light control panel located at Kyogle.

Tuesday activities continued on the layout lighting.  I wired all the platform light posts together and also the two street lights at Cassino behind the station.  These cables were brought back to the light control panel.  Wednesday I had a lay day.

On Thursday arvo I got under the layout and found the power supply for all my lights around Cassino.  I worked out that the resistor was on the negative wires.  So I added a resistor to the Cassino street light feed and the station lights feed.  I connected them up to the negative of the power supply, and connected the positives to two switches on the panel.  I gave them a try and they worked first time.  Next task was to complete the wiring for the 3 street lights south of Cassino.  I identified the positive and negative wires, and added a resistor to the negative wires to be consistent.  I had to wire the 2 wires for the first LED street light and the negative to the second street light and by then it was all done.  The other wires were completed earlier in the week.  I gave them a flick of the switch on the control panel and it was all good.

So wiring activity then moved to Kyogle near Summerland Way and Lismore near the traffic lights.

On Friday I got out some gear to take to our fearless NMRA leader’s place to work on some of the Divisional exhibition modules for Saturday morning.  I rocked up there early on Saturday and was soon joined by Glen.  We worked on 2 of the corner modules, that together make up a 90 degree turn.  We put down some foam, and gave it a carve and then covered it with plaster soaked paper towel.  The general shapes have been formed and next week we will paint the then dried plaster and then add some soil and scatters.  A road over rail bridge will also be installed.

Today after drilling a few more holes in my shed awning posts on one side and attaching some anchor bolts from the brackets to the awning frame, I went and continued my lighting wiring activities.  I added the second street light to the Summerland Way circuit.  I then installed two street lights into the road behind the track at Lismore.  These lights have been wired in, but as yet I do not have a power source installed in this area to power the lights.  That is next week’s job.  I also added some ballast between the track and the platform at Lismore.  The location of the platform was adjusted some time back, when a new platform fascia was installed at Lismore.  But I never added the ballast until today.  I also built up a frame from Lego to allow me to pour a concrete abutment for a bridge from plaster.  This abutment will be used on the NMRA Exhibition layout.  I just remembered that I had left it outside the shed, so I better go rescue it.

Next week’s jobs will include some activity on investigating the installation of the lights around the Old Cassino level crossing.  I will also be looking at the Semi-trailer that will be installed on Summerland Way, and making the lights inside the prime mover headlights a bit dimmer, and also stopping the light bleed from happening.  The semi will then be powered off the same light source as the street lights and car lights in that area at Kyogle.

NMRA Meeting at My Place

Early on Monday morning work focussed on the continued preparation for the awning outside my shed going up on its posts.  I got up and drilled another hole (the second) in post 1 to fix the bracket to support my shed awning.  I had a piece of steel between the first two posts that set my slop for the brackets and thus the whole awning.

On Monday arvo I went to the shed and did a few odd jobs.  I ran a test wire from a my NCE QSNAP to a troublesome point, and connected it up.  It tested just like it operates –‘Crapilly’.  I think there is an issue with the QSNAP.  I also found a wire off under the layout powering my Fairy Hill Community Hall Arduino.  So that was easily fixed.  It also allowed two vehicles on fairy Lane to light up their animations.  I then worked out what was causing the ammeter in power district 3 to not work consistently.  It was a loose wire to the ammeter.  So that was re-soldered and is all good now.

I then started painting the baseboard in two small locations near Lismore.  On Tuesday I sprayed one of the areas with a diluted Aquadhere mixture and then spread dirt over the area.  Then after a bit more glue, I added various scatters.  The next task was to start installing a fence next to the railway line in the area just sceniced.

Wednesday afternoon, I had Darren and Geoff turn up (after their workday) along with one of my brothers-in-law and we all provided the necessary muscle power to lift my awning up onto the four steel posts.  Damn it was awkward to get up there.  Once up there and square I drilled four screws from the post mounted brackets into the awning frame to keep it there.  As you could have guessed, the main holes in the brackets did not line up with the frame.  So at a later date I will drill new holes in the brackets and fit two additional screws to each bracket to help it keep secure the awning from any wayward winds.  The brackets on posts 3 only had one bolt holding them, and the bracket on post 4 only had a clamp holding it.  This is so the third bracket could self-adjust the correct angle for the awning, and after we used a level to adjust the levelness of the front of the awning over the shed, we drilled one bolt hole in post 4 to keep everything at the correct position.

So on Thursday morning I got stuck in and drilled two more bolt holes in Post 3, and 2 more bolt holes in Post 4, and another bolt hole in Post 2.  So all of these brackets are held by 3 bolts in them through the awning posts.  These have all been tightened up and are pretty secure.  On Friday morning I went to Bunnings and purchased some steel strip to act as tie down straps.  I affixed one of these from the awning frame back to each of the four posts.  When I feel like drilling some more holes in the posts I will add a second tie down strap from the awning frame to the posts.  I will also add the third bolt hole to Post 1, to help secure the bracket.  The reason why I don’t like this one as I have to get basically inside my lemon tree and I hate getting jabbed by the thorns on some of the branches.  I am thinking of now adding a small weather shield on at least one side of the posts up high for some added weather protection.  I am also looking at adding some handrails beside at least one side of the steps down to the shed.  Over the weekend there has been some light showers and my steps have now remained dry and the shed door has remained open.  Success!

The shed with the awning sitting proud in front of it.

Saturday was D-day and about 40 people rocked up for our monthly NMRA Div-1 get together at my place.  Most people stood around under the gazebos when they arrived and had a chat before festivities began, with four presentations.  We first presentation had Mark Hourigan giving a talk on Dynamic Operations.  He previously gave this talk late last year at the Victorian Prototype Modeller’s Forum.  I asked that he present this to our crew and I think it was a very popular topic with the attendees.  Next up was Phil Flynn talking about adding internal detail to his NSW signal box.  Phil covered what he had included and where he got the various detail items from, or if he scratch built them.  Again a great little preso that captured people’s imaginations.  The next preso was part of our ‘show and tell’ section of the gathering.  Scott Whitiker from Bowen (O scale modeller and author of about 14 articles in AMRM on his layout build in his shed) gave a video walkaround of his shed showing the various views inside the shed and discussed progress and some of his issues he has to faced and how he got over them with his build.  In October this year, our division has a meeting up at his place in Bowen.  It will be a long weekend of activities, but I will be so far in debt that I cannot afford the trip this year.  I will eventually get there I’m sure.  Last up was myself giving a presentation on Simple Railway Fencing for the layout.

At various breaks during the day, members filtered down to the shed and had a look around.  At the end of the day I found 3 wheel sets left on the track at two locations and a 4 wheel drive left on an occupational crossing at Running Creek in the Border Ranges.  I also found a lion on the track near Fairy Hill and another African animal up a tree.  I think these incidents were 100% all Clinton’s work.  Small things …..

Today I went to Jarcar and picked up a new kit for The ‘Champ’ Amplifier.  This is to replace the kit that is currently in operation in my shed and has developed a huge squeal through the headsets.  My plan is to potentially swap the chip out from the current build and see if that resolves the issue, and if not, put the whole kit together and swap the new for the old and see if that resolves my problems.  If so, that will be brilliant and I will return to headset operations for the two upcoming Operations sessions on my layout in July and August.  So while checking the existing amplifier, when I touched something there was a change in sound from the headsets.  I measured the resistor and then resoldered it to the circuit board and there might have been a slight change in sound.  So I started soldering all the layout plug in point runs back to the connect point.  But I removed the 12V power plug source that I had dropped to 9V from the circuit, and used my old fashion 9V battery.  OMG!  You would not credit it, there is now no hum, no squeal, just silence.  I tested every plug in point and my problem is solved.  Maybre I did not have to buy that second amplifier kit now.  But at least I now have spares.

So the next issue to be resolved on the layout is the operation of a point motor at Dutton Park.  I will bypass the NCE QSNAP and run it directly off a 12V power supply and see if this fixes the current issue of non-operation.

A Post About Posts

Tuesday this week was the fortnightly meeting of the Tuesday Nighters at my place.  That made Monday cleanup day in the shed a little.  On Tuesday morning I had to clean the benches, test the urn, and get the tea, coffee, cups, milk and sugar out.  Also on Monday and Tuesday I did some painting of some 3D printed vehicles.  I worked on 3 perway vehicles and 5 x 4 wheel drive vehicles.  The 4x 4’s had their wheels painted Floquil Grimy Black with a brush.  Just that small amount of work made a difference to these models.  They were placed on the layout before the event. 

The guys came over and discussions centered around my shed entry awning.  They came to the conclusion, to not attach the awning to the shed roof, but add two more posts, and have it sit on top of the four posts.  I got some good feedback about the painted 4 x 4s.  So a review of the layout after the crew left, revealed that I had mysteriously acquired another 4 wheel drive flattop vehicle on the layout.  I didn’t see any extra KD’s or mutton birds though.  We had a good night talking about lots of stuff.

So on Wednesday I did the rounds for local steel distributors looking for steel posts.  I decided at a steel place at Coopers Plains.  They delivered and the posts were supposed to be here on Thursday afternoon.  Wednesday was also spent digging the poles for the posts.  The right hand side hole (facing the shed) was very easy.  The left hand side was a bit complicated by the existence of a storm water pipe from the side of house to right next to where the post was to go.  Bugger!  That just meant that I needed to dig slowly and use a water jet to help break up the sandy soil.  I then used a small spade to remove the soil.  Eventually this task was completed.

On Thursday morning while I was on my morning work, I got a phone call from the steel delivery driver that the steel was being delivered in 17 minutes.  So I hightailed it back home and carried the steel delivery around to the shed.  The posts were temporarily sat in the holes I dug the previous day.  I then got them out and drilled some screws into the base of the posts so that they get some extra grab into the concrete when that gets poured.  I picked up 5 bags of postcrete from Bunnings, along with some other hardware.  This included some bolts and two more ‘L’ brackets to support the awning from the post.  I also had a small amount of postcrete left over in another bag already at home.  The posts went back into the holes and I measured up the correct distance apart that they had to be and I ensured that they were square with the other two posts.  I then braced the posts so they were square and had a good old rest.

It was Friday that I bit the bullet and then filled the post holes with the concrete post mix and added water.  They were left to set.  I then read that the posts should not have any stress put on them for 7 days.  Bugger!  I was going to put the awning up on the posts today.  So I have delayed this activity until next Friday.  I will put out a call to rally the troops and see if I can get 3 or 4 of them come over at about 3:00pm to help me lift the awning onto the brackets on the posts while I then screw the awning to the brackets.

Saturday was Club day and I was very annoyed with the traffic both ways over and back to the Club.  I will go via gateway next time.  I have no idea why people will sit in all lanes and not to do the speed limit when there is no one in front of them.  While at the Club we were helping people do some programming of locos on the programming track.  Checking out the new electronics that Laurie has rigged together and pushing some of the guys to 3D print some QR 2000 Class Railmotor shells.  

On Saturday night I watched a live feed of Marty and Darren running on Aaron Stinson’s layout with Tyler dispatching.  It was great with Marty, Darren, Tyler and myself all on discord chatting watching online as the signal panel updated in real time.  This went for 2 and half hours before I bailed.  Great work by Aaron developing this.

Two 3D printed QLX vans looking great on the 12mm sidings on the Club layout.

Another 3D printed QLX wagon.

Today I started doing a bit of maintenance and a cleanup in the shed again.  This time I started with the phone system.  That was working OK.  Next I moved to the headsets.  Well I decided to pull it totally apart.  I tested it with the single North Coast Controller headset and there was a squeal in the headsets.  So I think I can confirm that it is not related to any of the plug-in panels and the long cable runs parallel to the DCC bus.  That was what I thought it was.  The test today did not have any plug-in panels connected.  But I think it is the actual amplifier module.  Maybe something went bang in it and now it is not working 100%.  I will check out JAYCAR to see if there are any more around that I might be able to buy and retrofit into this into our shed circuit.

I then moved outside the shed and I then drilled two more bolt holes into one of the new posts for the bracket and that side is now ready to accept the awning.  I lined it all up with a small 2 metre piece of steel substituting for the awning.  The third post has a bracket attached, so now I will wait until the awning it up to add the bracket to the fourth post and hopefully get the awning next to perfect level.  I will then drill two holes in post four and add a second hole in the third post, and add the bolts.  It takes a while to drill through the posts with my screwdriver and drill bit.  The more I use the drill the blunter it gets.

Posts 3 (front) and 4 (rear).  These have work done on them this coming Friday.

Post 2 has had the bracket attached.  My temporary steel angle pretends to be the awning allowing me to get the angle of the brackets correct.

Shed Entry Awning Progress

On Monday I had good intensions to action a simple painting task of one of my 3D printed SRA perway vehicles.  That stopped when I saw some photos of some of these vehicles in real life and the various colours on them.  So I had to sit back and have a think.  I did resume painting this afternoon and I have three vehicles in various stages of painting with the grill, mudguards, steps, windscreen wipers, seats, steering wheel all painted in different colours.  I still have more to do with this activity and hopefully, a couple of these vehicles might be on the layout later on this week.

Not much other modelling occurred this week.  I was too busy completing the assembly of my shed entry awning.  I had to purchases a couple of packets of hex head screws of various sizes.  On Wednesday this week (I think) the roof sheets were delivered.  The awning is complete, but now it seems to weigh quite a bit.  There was about 37kg of roof sheets.  The frame is quite light, but there must be a couple of kgs of screws in the assembly as well.  Now I just need to work out how I will attach the roof to the posts.  I’m thinking bolts screwed through the posts supporting an L bracket which will screw to the bottom of the awning frame.  I will now need to then work out how to attach it to the shed roof as well.  I was hoping to have it sited above the shed roof, but this huge weight has put an end to this free-standing idea.  I did have a think about it and on Saturday I had to call in the re-enforcements.  Luckily Darren could come over on Saturday arvo so we could have a discussion on assembly.  We might have had an amber fluid as well.  This subject will also be a topic for discussion this Tuesday night when the learned guys rock up.

I still have lots of work to complete inside the shed.  This includes LED light wiring to do around the layout, some fascia painting when I remember to buy some more black paint, and I might need to do a clean-up before Tuesday Night.

It's Raining 44 Classes

I visited a local hobby shop on Monday and purchased some paint.  I wanted to paint up some NSW perway trucks and a compressor trailer.  I bought a yellow for the compressor, and the Freight Rail Blue (Teal) for the SRA trucks.  I painted them with a brush.  The outcome was suitable but not excellent.

On Tuesday I did a deal with Anatol and purchased two second hand Trainorama 44 class locos and a Austrains 80 class to add to my collection.  These came from a deceased estate that he helped dispose of.  The 80 class was donated a decoder from an old Lima 44 that I had, which has now been set back to DC only.  I will dispose of this now DC Lima 44 class at an upcoming Buy and Sell.  I took an old Tsunami decoder out of an old thumping 44 class loco and moved it to the new Blue 4483 class loco.  However, me being very clever, I did not notice that I already had a 4483 in the roster.  But my other 4483 was Tuscan.  So I had to swap the shell over to a red terror 44 shell that I had sitting around.  I changed the decoder address to the new shell number.  I think it is now 4475.  I also obtained 4473 from Anatol, and I eventually found a donor sound chip from another 44 class.  When I tested it on DC it would not run.  Then I realised that some of my very old sound DCC chips did not run on DC.  So I tested it straight on DCC and it ran well.  So 2 more working 44 class locos back on the layout.  So at this stage I also had a current dummy 44 ready for the layout.

On Wednesday I found another old Lima 44 class that has a chip in it, that will donate its chip to another 44 class – the current dummy loco.  The old Lima 44 was also re-DC’ed.  This will also be disposed at an upcoming Buy and Sell.  I have a collection of old Trainorama 44 class shells and a few 44 class mechanisms.  One Trainorama 44 class mechanism has a broken universal.  I had planned to try and build a new universal and re-fit it to the mechanism.  I also had two broken Trainorama universal shafts.  So I enclosed then in a styrene sleeve, and drilled a larger hole in the Trainorama chassis for the thicker drive shaft to go through and I installed it in the loco with the missing drive shaft and it was tested and it ran OK.  I also had some steel wire that just fitted into some universals ends which I had previously bought from Austral Modelcraft, so that is some years ago.  I doused the join where the end and the shaft meet in super glue and two universals have now been set aside as future spares.

It had been a while since I removed the wheels on a 44 class bogie.  But I figured it out again and swapped some wheels over.  I’m getting pretty good at it now.  Screw driver in and lever a bit, squeeze the base with the plyers, move to the next place, squeeze there and lever some more, and move to the last position and squeeze with plyers again and it pops apart.  I had one mechanism that was binding in one of the power bogies.  So hopefully I donated a DCC chip and this upgraded bogie and get another 44 back onto the layout.  This is potentially 4468, as it has a position in the timetable, and it being run by an alien loco.  I then did some work on making 4473 rise again, but it is currently lacking a DCC chip unless I can find one hanging around.  But it does seem to be running quite smoothly as well.  Overnight I thought that I had a chip that I had set aside for a future brass QR DH locos that I have not budged on for about 2 years.  So I set about putting the decoder into the 44 class loco.  About half an hour later, it was complete, so I took it down to the test track and it was test – all OK.  I then brought it back up stairs to the kitchen table and added the headlights to number 1 and 2 ends.  So another 44 class can be used on the layout.  These 44 class are multiplying.

I still have four x 44 class bogies left over.  Two of these have a bit of a bind inside.  Another two bogies, are lacking the keeper plate to lock the wheels into the bogie.  But they also are lacking the top gear in the bogie, so they cannot be made to be motorised.

Two 44's sitting in Grafton Loco.

Another 44 sitting in Acacia Ridge Yard.  This had previously been in a consist on a train.  It was replaced when it failed in the last Ops Session

2 x spare 44's and dummy 44 also sitting in Acacia Ridge Yard

On Friday, after another long period of procrastination, I started installing the decals on my QR HO wagon.  Two x red spots, and two x HO decals, and two x 5 digit wagon numbers later, and then the wagon was complete.  My next task is the rust application on the QR HO wagon.  Thanks to the Wuiske Models website, there are some great photos of a QR HO wagon.  But they are very rusty.  So the plan is to replicate this rust application.  While I had my decal tools out, I decided to check out my Freight Rail Blue 44 class shell number 4483 into 4480.  So I scratched out the '3' and then found some ‘0’ decals to install over what remained of the '3'.  It fitted quite well and now from a distance this loco is not 4483, but 4480.  I should have done this earlier in the week.

4480 (a dummy) with the side number changed from a '3' to a '0'

The front view with the number also changed from a '3' to a '0'.  the number boards still need some more work.

On Saturday with all the rain around, I decided to do some more 44 class bogie work.  I removed the keeper plates on the two binding bogies.  I replaced the gears on 2 x 44 class wheel axels with a piece of styrene tube (I had already done this to one wheel), checked for correct gauge and put these axels into one of the bogies without a keeper plate and added a keeper plate and made up a dummy bogie.  On another bogie I just turned the wheels around so the gears did not mesh with the gear train, added a keeper plate and this bogie was all go.  I now had two dummy bogies.  They went into a 44 class chassis and then under the 4480 class shell.  So now I have a dummy 44 class loco also for the layout.  But with no decoder, it has no lights etc.

Now my attention turns to another wagon to add some more detail to and make it presentable for entering into the modelling comp at the upcoming NMRA Australasian Convention in August.  I was also tidying up a desk in the office and found some photos on this particular wagon.  So I really need to do some more building before adding the detail.  But I have a plan.  I have made a list of steps in order to attack the rebuild and started putting the various items aside for this to occur over the next few weeks. 

The Original AN wagon for rail haulage.

The wagon with a new rib on top of the walls.  Other end detail added.

The other end of the wagon with some detail being added including a brake wheel.

Another task that I tried to do, was to make the rail loads sit down better in the wagon.  I thought I could imbed some small magnets in or under the rail loads and more magnets under the wagon, to pull the load down flat.  But it bows up a bit.  I will continue to work on this issue.