It's been a long time....

[tetters]

Well.  I didn't finish.  But I managed to get this far tonight before deciding to pack it in.

   

[scribbelt]

Very nice workmanship!

[Schraddel]

Tetters,

i agree with you. In some times a detail made out of wire instead out of plastic is the far better choice. As with plastic there is standard styrene (PS), cheap, superior glueablility, but prone to break. Then on the other end polyethylene (PE), also cheap, unbreakable, but unglueable.
And there between these two extremes the so called engineering plastics, in comparison expensive and according to the type affectionate either to the glueable/breakable or the unglueable/unbreakable end.
Here at the exposed spots the metal parts cut in. Thin brass or nickel-silver wire is simply more rugged and if anchored into bores onto the body even still more rugged. Remember the old wisdom of glueing; the stability of of an glued joint depends strongly onto the seize of the available area.
In the case of the steps out of engineering plastic there are the bugbears of a only very small adherend, a badly glueable plastic material and a exposed position. No wonder the parts were departing like interstellar rockets if "looking to sharp" on it.

And to your work tetters, as we Germans have a different definition code for acclamation as Canadians,
"hervorragend" means really the highest class of praising.


Lutz

[tetters]

Thank you Scribbelt!

...and thank you for the "outstanding craftsmanship" compliment Lutz.  

Sometimes I feel like I'm my own cheerleading squad but it's nice to know some folks notice my efforts.  LOL.

So, some more progress this afternoon.

I wasn't entirely happy with the length of chain I cut for the brake rod and clevis so I brushed some un-cure on the CA'd connections, removed the fiddly bits and cut a longer section of chain.  

   

I was able to reuse the previous brake rod, however I fashioned another "eyebolt" out of some .008 phosphor bronze rod and "needle and thread" style assembled it all together.  I carefully crimped the ends of the rod to securely hold the chain in place.

   

Getting it all back into place was actually easier then I thought.  I paid attention, though, trying to keep the brake rod from dropping to much and keep it as level as possible for the next step.

   

   

It occurred to me and looking at the photos of the prototype that there appears to be support rods of sorts that help hold up the brake rod.  (It's also occured to me that the part I'm referring to may be called something else but I'm going with brake rod).  So I fashioned a couple of supports of sorts out of the same .008 wire, drilled holes in the car floor parallel to the center sills and CA'd them in place doing my best to keep the rod level with the frame.

Here's a picture of the undercarriage with the support rods in place. 

   

I also by this time CA'd the center rod and A end rod in place to the smaller clevis and A end bolster.

   

and finally how it all looks flipped over view from eye level.  I placed a sheet of white paper behind the model to help add some contrast.  It might not be exactly how the prototype was built but it's exactly the look I'm after.  It gives the impression that something is going on under there.  

   

Thanks again for the comments, suggestions and advice guys. It really helps me.

[tetters]

Done!

   

[Schraddel]

Wordless:





Lutz

[FiatFan]

Outstanding work! And you have many fans who thoroughly enjoy/enny your model building skills. Thank you for taking the time to share your work.

Tom

[doctorwayne]

Yeah, work done-well is always a joy to behold!  

Wayne

[ezdays]

My patience wouldn't allow me to do this kind of work. My hat is off to you for the fine details you've accomplished.

[tetters]

Taking a break of sorts from boxcars to turn my attention towards some much needed maintenance topside.  

It's hard to believe that this layout has existed for almost (if not more then 10 years). Albeit it sat for a few years too, dormant and untouched.  

And even though when I finally dusted things off two years ago and fired up the power supply everything came back to life it wasn't without its problems.  A few turnouts needed to be fixed and the track desperately needed a thorough cleaning.

There's been one area of contention that's bothered me for a while where the branchline and yard lead make the only real curves on the layout.  I've been avoiding this because I knew exactly what I'd have to do to fix it as well.  Anyways...something shifted which caused the track work to heave slightly.  Enough so to cause the rail to pull away slightly from the ties and cause occasional derailments.  I didn't take a before photo, however here it is with the rail removed...

   

You can also see how the plywood has lifted about an 1/8 of an inch in the foreground.  Well it was time to break out the oscillating tool carve up all of the road bed and then sand the area as smooth as I could get it.  Why I didn't take pictures of the destruction and mayhem this created escapes me.  

Thankfully it all worked out in the end.

   

I fully admit I cheated here.  I was fresh out of homasote for road bed and the tracks are in an area that's incredibly difficult to hand lay without climbing on top of the layout.  So I ended up using some corkbed and two three foot pieces of Peco flex track to span the curve.  I used cereal box cardstock to shim up the height of the cork in order to ensure the rail head lined up nice and flush with the existing trackwork.

Afterwards the all of the new trackwork received a fresh coat of rattle can espresso brown, followed by a dusting of flat black.  I also took the opportunity to finally paint the spur for the lumber mill in the background.  Don't worry about the overspray.  The mill is only a cardboard mock up and eventually the backdrop will receive a background painting.  The entire layout rec'd a thorough cleaning once all the work was done.

Happy to report that everything now runs flawless and I'm happy with how it looks to boot.  Sooner or later I'll actually get around to some scenery work and structure building as well.  So...until next time.

[Schraddel]

Well done Tetters

Now it is time. Not for tea but for ballast work. Be glad you are not a protopurist which is obliged to place every single grain of ballast individual by means of an spiky tweezers. 
Cheer up! Don't loose heart!  And i wish you the very best success!


Lutz

[tetters]

It's all good Lutz.

I am still making steady progress in the Kootenays.  Mostly freight kits, painting, decals, weathering.

My goal is to finish the small pile of kits I have on hand before I decide to order anymore.  (Yes...I said more...I think I need professional help...)

Continuing towards that goal I finally buttoned up five of six tanks I was working on.  I did a quick and light weathering using powders and applied the final coat of Dullcoat to the models.  

Here's a video I posted on YouTube of the cars getting pulled along the layout.

https://youtu.be/kP0A-iaRYrI

[tetters]

Good day all.  I'm still plugging away here.  My lastest endeavour has me installing some interior lighting to my caboose roster.  The idea or technique is not my own however I can still show/explain what I did here.

So basically what I have here is a 25 volt 220 uf capacitor soldered to a 2 amp bridge rectifier wired to a nano LED and a 420 ohm resistor.  I have it connected to the leads on my PSU to test everything else so see if I like the brightness etc.  It looks very bright but once inside the shell the results are pretty subdued.  

   

Next thing was to install it into the caboose.  I covered the weights with Kapton tape and used double sided tape to secure the components to the floor.  I did clean up my wiring and used some shrink tubing on my connections before putting the shell back on. This was just to test the electrical pick up on the trucks.  So, in the next pic you can see how I achieved the electrical pick up.  Basically a copper "sleeve" was made and slid over the metal axel of each wheelset.  Just be sure you alternate the insulated wheels.  So one axle acts as the pick up for your South Rail and the other your North Rail.  The sleeves were cut from some copper tubing I already had on hand.  The inner Dia was too small so using a jewelers saw I spliced it down the length and the spread the tube apart until I achieved a good fit that allowed the axle to spin freely.  But not so big a diameter that would allow the tube to contact the opposite wheel.  I also filed and sanded any burrs off of the copper pick ups.  I've only done this for one set of trucks for now.

   
   

...and then I put the shell back on.  

   

The only caveats I have is/are: 1) I couldn't find any semiscale wheels.  So I went with standard Walthers RP25 metal wheels w/metal axles...the upside is that when I can finally get my hands on some I can easily pull the sleeve off the existing ones and slide them onto the new ones. 2). There is some flickering.  I could increase the capacitor or just use the other set of trucks for pick up as well.  Which is what I'll probably end up doing.  If that doesn't work then I'll see about wiring in a slightly larger capacitor.  3).  I need to "clean up" my wiring a bit more to hide the bits inside the shell.  I've also thought about relocating the light up into the cupola instead or wiring another light in series...but for now, I'm pretty chuffed that this works.

That's all for now.

[Tyson Rayles]

That brake rigging is awesome!

[tetters]

Taking a break from structures I went down another rabbit hole of mine...Arduino sketches and circuits.  Full disclosure;
...I have no idea what I am doing half the time and get a lot of instruction and help writing sketches, building circuits from online sources.  That said, I've been working on a circuit that will operate some grade crossing signals.  I'm almost there too.  I've been able to get the lights to flash at an appropriate rate however for some inexplicable reason they'll speed up a bit...maybe some wonky sensors or I need to fudge the code some more.  Either way, I'm amazed I got this far and got it to work at all. 

   

I have only one grade level crossing on my layout...granted it's also three tracks but adding some additional photo cells and two more lights for another set of crossbucks and I should be good to go.

I'll keep everyone posted on how this goes and when I'm ready to install this on my layout.