Ballasting!

Well, I felt the urge to give ballasting a try this weekend. After taking some advice from Al (who is MonsterRailroad on youtube), I basically used his technique.

I started on a curve just incase it didn't come out right. Well, I think the curve didn't come out too right, and then I did another section, making sure to highlight the drop to the sides of the track just like in the prototype. This took me like one hour for a 1.2 meter track, before I finely sprayed the ballast and then sprayed the PVA/water mixture.

Here are some shots and a video of the curve I did as the first attempt.

BW Car - Partially Complete

Well here are some photos of the BW Car partially complete.
Overall I am happy with the result. Just noticed that this is my longest 'wagon' on my layout and hope nothing exceeds this length.

Breakthrough

One of the detector / signal circuits did not work correctly all the time. This is the signal for the branch (or the lower aspect). Sometimes, it would work when a train went past the signal, other times when I pressed the switch for the green aspect, it would automatically go back to red straight away and on yet other times, it would stay green for say 10 secs and switch to red all of a sudden! I spent ages trying to work out what was wrong, even cut the strip of track into two blocks (one of the top aspect and one for the bottom).

Well today I removed the BOD circuit and noticed when I moved the 2.2uf cap the signal would turn to red even though I didn't have the feeder wire looped into the transformer! On closer examination, I found that one leg of this cap was not soldered properly! So, as I eventually suspected, a bad solder joint somewhere. So next time I know to look straight at the circuit(s)!

Well here are some videos from today:

BW Car

Well since it has been raining incessantly today, I decided to work on my BW Car. Alot of work to build one of these, however, with most of the components put together, at last the kit is looking like a passenger car. I had a lot of trouble putting the floor together with the sides and ends. Also, painting the window sashes is really hard to get that nice smooth look. If anyone has any tips on how you guys put these AW/BW SEM kits together, I will appreciate it.


Cheers.

Y164 and a Tank Car

Here are some photos - The Y hauling a tank wagon is a bachmann Silver Series. Had some issues with replacing the ezymatic couplers with Kadee 58s. At the end of the day, I had to file off the moulded on gear box and use the draft gear box from Kadee.

Received some goodies

Well I gave into temptation and bought myself one of those Austrains JX Hopper wagons. To me, so far these are a true delight to look at, and the finest RTR models I have purchased (although I don't usually buy many RTR wagons).

Also in the mail was my order from SEM. Suprised to see how small the BW Cars are length wise (which is good) - and also ordered a T Van. So plenty to keep me busy for the winter months ahead.

Cheers!

Off Topic - some pictures from Germany trip

Just some pictures of my recent business trip to Germany - the ICE is really fantastic.