What did you do on your layout today?

Looks like a bad part of town. Cool. Have started looking at building some flat bench work for my Standard gauge  track and trains. On the floor under the O gauge doesn't cut it. My dog gets all confused, that is her area. Finally decided to put about a 6x8  set up in a room in the basement.  Possibly enlarge it after. Just a place to run my Lionel and Ives trains.

To Mitch Marmell,

It toddles along fine.

I love that analogy!

you are doing some fine rehabilitation and creative work!

I got the second table up this morning. Now I just have to figure where I can put the boxes on the table. Here are pics. Sorry they are a bit dark. 2' X 5' table will be the town. The table with the boxes on it is 3' X 5' will have, hopefully, some small industries and a passenger station for RDC's to stop at.................Paul

Lazy laid back kind of a day, just enjoying running the trains! It is so nice to be able to go into the train room, turn on the lights and switches and let them go! I have so missed this!

I ran the vacuum cleaner today to get rid of some sawdust and other dirt.  I just finished so I think that I will have a glass of wine and wait for GRIMM to start.

Norm

Thankee kindly!

Did make an interesting discovery about the Williams chassis: It only has one diode changing the AC to half-wave pulse DC to run the motor.  That's OK by itself, but when I hit the horn/whistle button on my transformer, the motor cuts out.  Guess that half of the wave gets filtered out by the rectifier... 

Easy fix will be to get a bridge rectifier and matching capacitor at my local Radio Shack franchise...  

Mitch

Finished the last two circuits/modules for the LED lighting conversion--they work great.

Also, got out a 3927 track cleaning car that I've had for years and years--can't remember where I got it--and ran it for a bit only to find it had a very noisy engine--screeching loud.  So I serviced it and it quited down quite a bit; not quite satisfied with it, yet.

Also, noticed that it's missing the coupler and had the spare parts on hand to effect the repair.  But, need to figure out how to disassemble the platform and motor for the installation of the parts--it's not obvious to me and will probably ask for help from our many PW expert repair folks here.

EDIT 4/4:  Looked at it more closely today and saw how the car was assembled.  Installed the replacement coupler, plate, and spring.  Noisey operation may be due to absence of ball bearing at base of armature shaft--not sure if it's there or not since it should be located at the bottom of the hole the armature shaft end sits in.

I spattered chicken mole sauce on the corner of it with a pull-tab can....

Hey Ok, It looks like darker brown dirt patch in the grass now

Which reminded me...

Though pretty, so far, on my MARX Crusader project, the mirror stainless is too smooth and shiny. Especially with the tender & cars only being painted an silvery aluminum color.

 I've been adding the rib lines that "break up" the sides

 I can't help but to want them there. The stainless sheet is too thick, and stiff to bend them into ribs. So I ate some soup from the shiniest can I could find Carefully, I cut the can and flattened it. The cut 1" or so strips of the cans ribs to shape, and epoxied them to the train along bottom portion of it, with one rib on top, running the whole length of the train, framing the wheel cut outs.

  It's perfect...Well, "good enough" for sure. and better than the center band that I'll redo before I tear it all down for a repaint & final assembly .

 My pals know this metal well, we all got some at a flea market. When asked how I did it, knowing it doesn't like to be worked, I say "look closer", "look closer", with every guess till they figure out its layered on.

 Adding to the top edge, I will only have room for one rib in order to insure a better portion of mirror stays relevantly visible.

  And there lies the issue so far.

I can't get the edge of a single rib of can to cut, and still have its edge not curve visibly.

  The metal stamping stresses of the ribs, seem to change as I cut. I follow the scribe but its not straight after the cut. 

 Left hand shears, right hand shears, and straight ones. I doesn't matter much. If I can't get it done with another yummy can, or two I'll start looking at rounding square bar stock, or bending the rib fresh, from a flat piece of can (they cut straight)

I also need to extend some "shine" to the tender so it doesn't end abruptly at the cab.

 So I have to come up with a shiny streamlined, fireman"s hood & trim panel set, similar enough to the original, to "pass".

I made 4 already. Three are "just ok"with different styling elements that I both like, & don't like. I think by #5, or #6 it is going to nail it well enough.

With all the pullmor departure talk lately. I also ran the DT&I 8111 & work detail around on the ceiling again. Me running diesel is a normally a special event in itself. I bet I end up doing a lot more diesel running this year just thinking about them more.

 Also having the street lights on, I can see its time to dust again. I'll update you "if"   

I have no clue if it has a reverse capability, nor can I think of the reasons for use of pulse power there (too tired) But, could the diode just be reversed to stop the cancelling of the dc wave?(well, I guess now I have something to think about if I "sleep" ) 

Here's an explanation (sans pics, alas) of how that little coffee grinder comes apart:

http://cs.trains.com/ctt/f/95/t/141813.aspx

This one is ingenious.  Those two screws are threaded into hex-head screws which hold down the field laminations &  aluminum railing assembly(which in turn are staked together).  Remove the brush plate, back out those two screws, & swivel the entire assembly clockwise 90 degrees about the wire to the pickup roller.  You now have full access to the spur gear train for lubrication.

Hope this helps! 

Mitch

One bridge rectifier and nice fat ol' 2200µf 35V capacitor from Radio Shack later, this little toddler is TURBOCHARGED!!!  Glee! 

Probably, but I prefer using a rectifier bridge; a) the DC is cleaner and better for the motor (esp. with the capacitor) and b) you're converting the full wave to DC, getting more power.  Before, I could crank it up to full and get a nice dignified lope; now, I gotta keep the throttle at half lest I go slamming into Our Lady Of Sudden Deceleration again...   

No reverse at the moment, though I may wire things up for a manual reverse switch in future. 

Mitch

Hi All

Ran my L&N just back from being brought into the 20th century.

ABBA and I have 7 60' Aluminum cars for this bad boy.

Now running with TMCC/ Rail Sounds and Cruise Control.

WOW, Soooo  nice  no more clunk, clank cluck and what ever.

And as usual one train running leads to another then another . You know how that goes. SO it turned out to be a Southern run day.

Larry

Mitch, thanks for the very informative post and link for disassembling the 3927.  By the time I read it, the disassembly had been accomplished.  When I looked at it earlier today, I realized that the studs that the brush plate screws use are hex head and threaded into the frame.  Remove them and the entire field and bracket/handrail comes out. 

And you're right, it does sound like a coffee grinder.

Thanks, again, for the help. 

My pleasure!  Have fun cleaning track!  ^.^

Mitch

How much does one of those women cost?  Not that I need one myself...it's for a friend.

Spring, when kings and Orks go to war!

Poured some plaster in place to make grade crossings. Started to detail in places. Proofed all the wiring that got disturbed during this project. It works! Yay! Laid down about $40.00 worth of W/S ballast.
 Getting there!

Complete with Goblin-Goblin-1! 

-MMM-

I made 2 of these...

What are they?

These are part of my power distribution system. The components bridging the two terminal blocks are called Polyswitches or Polyfuses. They limit the current to 6A per power district.

There are already 6 of these units, with ten districts each, in service, but after I did a final count, I discovered I needed more. These will take me up to 84 total. Now, each of the six, 20A supplies can power up to 14 districts. Now there are probably a few too many, but I don't like the idea of doubling up.

The next trick will be to balance the loads. This will require some intuition, so as to not put too many contiguous districts on the same supply. Under normal operation, more than half of the districts will be empty, or have stored trains with the power off. I may also have to move some of the districts from the old supplies on the south side of the room the new ones on the north side as part of the balancing process.

There is no way on earth that I could ever exceed the capacity of all the supplies. At ~2A per locomotive the system is rated for 60 engines max. I have 9 Cab-1's, so if I had 9 operators, that would be around 18A.

Gotta think about this stuff in order to stay out of trouble later.

Those L&N's certainly are handsome - especially as you have them configured as an ABBA!

Excellent scenery. Your layout looks GREAT!!!!

Real and honest, the whole 'hood, IMHO, with excellent results. Cool, too!

FrankM

Williams chassis update:

With just the one diode, the Pittman can motor would get warm after five minutes of operation (this, incidentally, is why extended use of "pulse" DC power is not recommended).  With the bridge rectifier in place, I ran the chassis for half an hour, and the motor barely even budged above room temperature...

Gi-raffe Express shell successfully fitted; might have to file a bit away around a couple of the Lionel bosses, but a good fit otherwise! 

Next up:  Filing the steps down to clear the gi-raffe ramps, then respraying the sideframes! 

Also seen: "Junior's" new working rear headlight... 

Mitch

You can tell your "friend" the scenic express ones run about 5.50 each and if he wants to see what they look like they are on page 295 of the new scenic express catalog.  The orange hall guy usually sells his for around 5 to 8 dollars each depending on the detail and pose. 

And if you can't wait for the mail catalog:

http://www.scenicexpress.com/Cat_Download.htm

Mitch

 Looked around the house for an Eggliner. "Gee" it must be a myth.....

(That's my joke... and I'm stickin' to it!)

 The Pittman was good enough to handle the half wave, but I'm thinking "I got blisters on me fingers" from a bare one too. 

Why do I get the feeling "your friend" is going wants 2 or more new friends?

Today while doing some night running, I realized that some of my operating accessories could not be viewed "at night." The push buttons light up, since they are doorbell units, but the accessories themselves were in the dark. I happened to find some old unused Lionel street light units, and installed them.  Now, when the construction vehicles are doing night work, it is with better visibility.

Bill

That's impressive.

Larry

Detroit Tigers Opening Day

Must get the Train Room Ready

Monday April 6th, 2015 at 1:08 PM • EDT

vs Twins 

GO TWINS!!!

Started and finished the LED conversion on a set of NP North Coast Limited LIONEL passenger cars I'd repainted years ago using a "roll your own" recipe from gunrunnerjohn.  Still have two more cars to repaint and add to the set.

Serviced another pair of PW horizontal motors.  Three more to go.

Some final puttying/sanding on 3 PW F3A's, then paint.

And, spent some more $$$ on hobby tools and supplies via Amazon.

There were white places on my layout where I had  realigned various track loops since I built this ewer layout so I broke out the green paint. Looks much better. Next step is to paint the top part of my bench work so it is less obvious. 

I finished this 18X48" section as a storage 'yard' for under the layout, on 1/2" plywood. The near track that is shorter than the rest is wired as a DCC programming track if I ever need it. 

I painted the plywood with the same paint the fascia is painted with, and it has several 1X2 runners underneath with felt pads.

I belong to 2 train groups Friday and Tuesday.  This is the first time I am hosting the Tuesday night gathering so the last 2 days have been cleaning layout and getting upper level track installed, wired, supports build, and deck siding put on.  Testing all 6 tracks and everything is a go.  Hope no gremlins show up tonight.

Looking good.  Funny how hosting a train club meeting gets you in the mood to finish the layout.  I did the same thing last July.  I agreed to host the October meeting and didn't have any track installed.  I was also away most of the month of July.  I was able to pull it off and get the layout up and DCS running.

All i can say is every time the local division of the NMRA visits my railroad it never seems to matter how well everything runs the day before, the gremlins always sneak in when the 30-50 NMRA members are here. Oh well. Hope you have better luck than i do.

jackson

I got a On30 tank car which is pretty close (though not exact) to the ones used by the RR I model. I recently found out they still had two of them on the RR in the timeframe I model, and in colors exactly like the undec ones Bachmann makes. So I got one. I have decals for the road name on the flat car portion, but nobody makes them for the tank part. So, I got a blank sheet of decal film, typed my own using a pretty good match for the typefaces for both road numbers (I assume I'll want another one at some point) and printed them onto a copier. I then hit them with two coats of gloss coat, and will be decalling the car either tonight or tomorrow.

I also painted the sides to the last civilian automobile (a 1/43 scale 1938 1 1/2 ton Ford Delivery truck) and made decals for a business name for the sides of it. I'll be weathering it along with the tank car this week.

I finally, after a couple of weeks or more away, got to do some work on this Lionel

0-8-0 I am making into a 2-8-0.  I bit the bullet and removed the rear dome, and am

now grinding the sand lines off the boiler for that dome.  I have bought brass parts

like pumps and elesco feedwater heaters at shows, but don't think I have any domes.

Would like some smaller, rounder ones to model this loco.  I was experimenting with

different pilot trucks when I broke off, and will take that up again when I get the

boiler reworked.  I soldered up a new brass pilot platform to clear the truck, and have several different pilots to solder to that yet, after the pilor truck is chosen.

Had a "fun run" of two of my oldies-a 1934 M1000 and a 1935 751 streamliners- both. Had them on adjacent tracks going in opposite directions. Also, tonight I was running some Standad gauge passenger cars - big ones- about 18" long.