Mislabelled

Today I started the day by heading over to the All Gauge Buy and Sell.  There were plenty of sellers, and plenty of buyers.  I saw many NMRA members, even some RMCQ members and some Tuesday Nighters.  I was digging through an NMRA member’s stash of HO cars, and found a model of a vehicle for laying bitumen on the road.  Well that went straight into my collection.  A bargain at $10.  I had a good talk to Bill and Smithy from Toowoomba.  I think I talked Shelton into buying a bit of stuff from their stand.  When I got home, just after lunch I eventually was able to add some wagon number decals to the number boards on my scratch built NOCY wagon. I resolved, my problem where they were disintegrating trying to get them off the backing sheet.

Later that afternoon, I went over to Barnacle Bob’s place.  The plan was to install an Arduino under his layout and have it controlling a blinking Buoy out in the creek mouth and a pesky flashing street light in his main street.  Bob had labelled two wires from each LED and I connected them up to his Arduino.  First up was the marker Buoy.  I connected it up and I could not get it to flash using its 3 second on, 3 seconds off timing sequence.  I reversed the wires and still no luck.  Oh well I connected the street light and we adjusted the input power for the Arduino to 9V and the flashing buoy started to work.  But it seemed to be flickering.  I check the connections and all seemed to be good.  But it was flickering randomly.  I looked at the street light and just as I did, Bob identified that the street light was doing a 3 second on – 3 second off sequence.  He said – "They have been connected up wrong".  I said "Well I think I connected them to what they were labelled as".  So whose problem was this?  So I think it was actually a case of mis-labelling.  So I swapped pins 6 and 13 and Voila!  Both LEDs were now working flawlessly.  The Buoy was operating, protecting the navigational channel and the street light now needs to be reported to the local council office for replacement of the flickering bulb.  Both are working like a bought one.

Tuesday this week we went on a bit of a tour.  Probably the farthest we had travelled for a Tuesday Nighter’s meeting.  We went to Brendan’s place for Tuesday Nighters, not quite at Woop Woop, but you can see it from his place.  This was the first trip out there for more than half the guys.  I think they were impressed by the layout and his unique features in his layout design.  This layout will be a hit when it eventually gets onto the exhibition circuit.

Friday I had planned on doing some modelling, but that got ruined when I took the whole day off and drove my Mother-in-law down the coast and back for a funeral.  It was the husband of one of her cousins and many years back, he was my golfing partner in a social golf club for maybe 10 years.  We got on like a house on fire.  So that wiped out the whole day.  We had a blast catching up with people.

Yesterday I spent some time running the cement train on Cassino from Grafton Yard to Murwillumbah and back.  I also took some photos in case this train makes it to a future issue of AMRM.

Next week I should finish up my NOCY wagon with weathering and add the final pieces to the ballast plough being fine chain and an air tank. 

Running Trains and Taking Pictures

Last weekend, while picking up a few things decoder based at a good price, I also picked up an NCE USB to connect an NCE Powercab to a PC.  I think this will be a good addition for my tool kit.  I also picked up another Wifitrax WFD-30 wifi connector for an NCE system.  I have tested it out and it works well.  I was hoping that this version might have the NCE FastClock feature working.  But I just checked on the wifitrax website and it says that this has not yet been implemented.  Bugger!

On Monday I also removed the installed X2F couplers and replaced them with KDs, on the two WAGR Open wagons that I purchased at the Buy and Sell the day before and I then replaced the bogies.  These two wagons have been placed on the layout in a siding.  I will get around to including them on a train sometime in the future.

On Friday this week I printed out a new scale diagram of my QR HO wagon, that printed in the correct scale size.  That night and early on Saturday I used Microsoft paint to draw/colour in the various internal colours of the wagon floor that I copied out of Adam Wuiske photos of a real HO wagon.  My plan was to print the internal scale floor and then then glue it into the scratch built QR HO wagons floor that I have.  Later that morning I went to Aurora Trains and picked up some tins of paint for the outside of the wagon.  This was the wagon colour as well as the rust colours.

Later that afternoon and into today, I ran a few trains on my layout.  This was the Steel train contingent of trains on my layout.  It is 6 trains that shuffle steel wagons from Grafton yard to Acacia Ridge yard and then a shunt occurs from Acacia Ridge Yard to Rocklea Sidings and back, before a shuffle of loaded wagons occurs in Acacia Ridge Yard and the whole process can occur again.  I tried to get a few photos of the events but really, I need a real photographer who can adjust the shutter setting and get more depth of field included.  I’d have to call myself a NAPA.  If only I had some friends proficient in this field.

Later this afternoon, I have started adding more detail to my next layout article on the Murwillumbah Cement Train.  This is a fairly straight forward movement, with some drop offs outbound and pickups on its way back to Grafton.  I will run this train’s timetable sequence in detail next weekend and get a few photos of these movements.  The next train after the cement train will be the Banana Train.  I have a small list of additional trains I can talk about if these stories turn out interesting to the reading public.

I might have to attend a funeral next week and either before or after I go, I might be able to knock off the last couple of tasks for my ballast wagon and NOCY open wagon.  I am having all sorts of issues with the very small wagon number decals for the NOCY.  They just break up under water, and do not separate from the backing paper.  The other decals on the sheet work well.  I will hit them with some clear coat next week sometime and then given them another go.

Slowly Completing my Models

I must start to right down what I do earlier on in the week, as I forget if I did anything modelling related.  That was apart from on Tuesday when we went over to Cliff’s place for Tuesday Nighters.  We got to see the new 75’ Turntable from Andian Models that he installed and wired up.  It looked pretty impressive with the weathering that Cliff had done.  Cliff advised that he also had some motors installed to have it automated, but these were just borrowed to test them out.  Cliff has also extended his layout a few feet to allow the Turntable all its radiating roads to be installed.  He also used the Peco ash or maintenance pits in his turntable shed roads and they look really good.

Apart from that I did not get motivated during the week to do any modelling.  Well Wednesday was State of Origin and Friday I had a date in the city with the work team so again no modelling in the afternoon.  Saturday was the NMRA meeting.  We had about 39 people attend, and we had some really good presentations by Arthur and Marty.  We also had some good catchups with those in attendance.  Another bonus of that day was watching trains slowly traverse Glen’s layout.  They just look really nice.  When I got home, I just unpacked the stuff I took but did not do any modelling.

Today there was a Buy and Sell event at the UPMRC Clubrooms at Holland Park.  I got there and purchased a couple of old Protype wagons (West Australian Open Wagons) for a good price.  I also picked up quite a few decoders for the Club.  When I came home, I tested the wagons on the layout and the bogies on one wagon were absolute rubbish.  They were sprung bogies and the wheels were just coming off the track.  I will confine those bogies to the bin.  During the week I will replace the wheels on both wagons.  I will also replace the couplers as they have X2F couplers.  Really! 

This arvo I added a bit of Micro Sol to my ballast plough wagon as the decal outline was still visible.  I also started to add some decals to my NOCY wagon.  I still have some work to do there, with more decals.

For quite some time, I have had a copy of a scale drawing of a QR HO open wagon internal layout sitting on my office work bench.  This QR wagon has both wooden inlays in between its steel floor.  A week or so ago, I realised that it was not in the location where it was residing for quite some time.  So now I will have to start making a new version of that scale plan – a HO scale HO wagon.  My aim was to paint this scale plan and then glue it to the inside of my wagon, as there is no way in hell I could actually model all those wooden inlays on the wagon floor.

Moving onto Decalling Wagons

I had Thursday off and decided to do some work on my scratch built ballast wagon and scratch built ballast plough.  The ballast wagon, was to have the decals added.  That was quite easy, but I could not find a set of decals for the NHBF wagon.  So I had to cut up some decals from a couple of different sets.  I was certain that I did have a set of decals, and I must have put a set away for safe keeping.   No doubt these will turn up eventually if I did originally have a set.  The ballast plough modelling work involved adding all the brake wheels, the plough wheels, the air hoses and doing a bit of painting touch up.

Saturday I went to the Club and Laurie MMR was there.  I showed him the improvements I did for the two grain wagons, the ballast wagon and the ballast plough so far.  He was very impressed, and thought that they would all get a merit score in judging.  At that stage I still needed to add the decals to the plough and some chain underneath the wagon to link the wheels to the plough.

While at the Club, I was amazed at the amount of QR 12mm stuff running around on the top deck of the HO layout.  I also picked up a DCC Hi-Rail Car.  I will see what I can do with that.  Like extra pickups, maybe changing the shell to be more NSW outline.  But we will see.

Upon return home I continued the work on the Ballast Wagon.  I did some more work on the wheels and the bogies.  I then started to get everything together to continue work on the ballast plough wagon.  These included painting the brass wires connecting the brake and plough wheels from one side of the wagon to the other.  I still have a bit of work to do, like adding crew, an air tank and chain to the plough. 

Today I completed the adding of the decals on the ballast plough.  I might take them along to our Tuesday Nighters meeting this week to get some more feedback. 

The next wagon to decal up will be the scratchbuilt NOCY wagon.  I have the decals out and I might be able to do that later tonight while watching the cricket.  So after this has occurred, I will then have 5 wagons completed to present at the upcoming NMRA Convention in Sydney in September/October.  

The next task will be to address all the comments that Laurie MMR made about my FAM passenger car.  Some of these are quite severe rebuilds of some parts of the passenger coach.  It includes the internal walls and the lighting circuits that I installed.  I will consider these very closely, to see how I can progress them.

That then allows me to turn my attention to going back and continuing the rebuilds of my QR HO wagons.  These wagons have not been touched for over 18 months.  I was going to pull off some external detail that I made with 0.020” styrene rod, and replace them with 0.010” and 0.020” brass wire.  This was the constructive feed back I received from Arthur Hayes MMR.  I also have to add all the external detail to these wagons like brake gear, brake hoses, uncoupler lift bars, air piping, internal flooring, and then decaling the wagon.  I’m not sure where I can find appropriate decals for this wagon.  I will have to do some research.  I also made a template for the internal floor for these wagons, but I cannot find it on my office desk.  So I have no idea where it disappeared to.  So I might have to make another one.  If so I am not looking forward to that task.

NHBF Ballast Wagon Progressing

This week we went to Geoff’s place on Tuesday night and we had a great turn out.  We also had a great time.  We sat at a long table in his garage and there were multiple conversations going on simultaneously across the table.  A great evening was had by all.  Some great information was shared by Brendan and a lot of emails exchanged hands later on as people purchased some of the items he was talking about.  I also got to take some loot home.  I had two Acco trucks that Glen ordered in a bulk purchase.  I also had Marty and Gordy that another Geoff ordered from Mini Prints.  Thirdly I got a set of decals that Darren ordered from AR Kits.

The plan this week was to work on my NHBF Ballast wagon.  On Friday afternoon, I rounded up my air hoses, brake wheels, and started bending up some brass wire for shunters steps.  I added these on Saturday morning and early afternoon.  I now think I had completed all the detail on this wagon and now just need to apply decals and give it a final dull coat.  What I would really like is a plan of this wagon.  I cannot find one around.  I’m sure I saw one printed at one point in time, but where just escapes me.

Progress on Sunday was limited today as I woke up with the biggest headache.  Not sure on the reason, as I had been up very late on Friday and Saturday evening (or should I say Saturday and Sunday Mornings) watching the cricket, as well as attending my daughter’s 21^st Birthday party on Saturday night or the kink in my neck when I woke up this morning.  I’m sure they all played a big part in my headache.  What I did get around to do on the modelling front was to touch up all the pieces of brass wire with a dab of paint.

I am now gathering detail items required to complete my NSW Ballast Plough.  These will be added next weekend.  That will be followed by the NOCY as the decals are here.  That is the week after's job.

Arduino Code - Tick, Weathering HO Grain Wagons - Tick, Decodering N Scale Locos - Cross

This week I struggled to get any motivation.  I had plenty of opportunity to do some modelling work, but no inclination.  However, I was planning to spend some time on Saturday looking at installing some decoders into two N scale Big Boys for an acquaintance.  However, after work on Friday I thought I might get a head start.  The first one I looked at, I could not get the motor out, so I could get to the underneath motor terminal.  No chance in hell.  I needed to do this in order to fit the decoder outputs to the motor.  If I did this, I might have had to cut some loco frame away in order to place the decoder in the loco.  There was talk from the owner that he wanted to set up some lights.  That would have been extremely difficult.  Especially back up lights, as they would have to go through the loco to the tender to reach the rear light.  Not an easy job, and it would have meant that the loco and tender could not be uncoupled.  At least upon testing the loco it ran quite well on DC power.

I looked at the second big-boy and the motor had a bind.  I could not get it to turn.  So that was a waste of time.  Again I could not get the motor out of the frame.  Given that the loco wasn't mine, I was hesitant to apply too much force and completely wreck it.  Not getting the motor out of the frame, I could not determine if the bind was in the drive shaft, the front drive wheels, or the rear drive wheels.  So that loco was put back into the box and items returned to the owner.

On Saturday I decided to test out the last bit of Arduino code the other week.  This was for Bob and was for the Flashing Buoy and the Flickering Street Light.  I worked out an alternate trigger for the street light circuit (it was so simple) I have no idea why it alluded me before now.  I turned on the Arduino after uploading the code, and guess what.  It worked first time.  I could turn off and on the flickering street light and the flashing LED for the Buoy worked continuously. 

My next step is to see if I can also incorporate the additional code for Shelton the Photographer into the same Arduino program.  We will see how that pans out. 

Sunday I decided to see what was happening at the Logan District Model Railway Club’s Open Day and Buy and Sell.  I spoke to a few people there that I knew.  I was certainly tempted to purchase some of the Australian outline items at Col’s second hand table.  I was very tempted at the prices he was offering.  I also was tempted by some other items at a couple of other stalls as well.  But I held out.  Later this afternoon I got some paints out and completed the last few touch up jobs I needed to tick off about 20 improvements to my two QR QGA wagons.  I think they are pretty much complete now.  I just need to fill in the paperwork for the competition entry for Rosehill.  Who knows I might get two Merit awards – we can only hope.

Tuesday this week, we are off to Geoff B’s place for our fortnightly get together.  We have not been there for quite some time.  I should pick up a couple of ACCOs that were purchased on my behalf from Glen and a miniature Marty and Gordy from Geoff C.

Layout Tours Galore

Saturday was the monthly NMRA meeting.  It started early with a pickup and travelling to Archerfield Airport, which will be the base for the day.  From there we visited Anthony’s HO Scale Southern Australian/Victorian Border Region layout.  Those attending for the first time got to run a train and got to learn how the car card system works.  Anthony had his Sheriff there (Brendan) helping.  From there we went to Malcolm’s place.  Also a South Australian layout (N scale) based on the areas between Belair and Murray Bridge Railway.  Malcolm also had two helpers.

We then headed back to base and a BBQ prepared by the help staff of Bob Tisdell’s airline company.  We then had our usual update from Paul and then it was a trip to two more layouts.  First was a stop at David’s Bakersfield to Tehachapi layout in a 6M x 9M shed.  Trains rose 1m above the base deck and were up to 8m long.  # locos, 19 wagons, 2 mid train locos and 18 more wagons and a van with 2 rear train pushers.  It had about 100m of track in its loop to loop track arrangement.  The running and sound was flawless, but scenery is yet to be completed.  We left then and visited Denis’s place just down the road.  Denis has West Ridge layout down stairs in the garage, which is impeccably sceniced.  Many mini scenes are ion this layout.  Upstairs in a bedroom is a British outline layout which was also impeccably sceniced, but trains are currently not running on this layout.

We then drove back to the airport, where we said our good-byes and then dispersed.

This morning was a similar early start, with Darren picking me up at 8:00am.  We drove to Brendan’s place, picked him up and then arrived at about 10:05am in Toowoomba for another day filled with layout tours.  First stop was Bill’s HO Tenterfield layout which is developing around his 6m x 6m shed.  After a viewing, we had coffees by our barista Smithy (who cannot count – he made 9 coffees for the 8 guys in attendance).  We then went over to Paul’s place about 2km away.  He had a shed, in which HO trains could be automated to depart staging and run around the layout and then return to staging.  They also can be manually controlled from his PC or from his Digitrax controller.  From there is was back to Bill’s for a BBQ lunch.  We then went across town and visited Steve’s place.  He has cleaned out his layout room and changed from HO Victorian, to O scale NSW since we were last there.  Currently he has all the track laid and kit building of locos is underway.  We also got to say g’day to Ben who was there all day and Doug who dropped in while we were at Steve’s place.

Following a drive back to Brisbane, I’m sure we are all railwayed out after 10 hours.  Darren had to drive to pick me up and then go home, so it was an 11 hour day for him.  What a great weekend!