Border District Visit and Going Up A Level.

Yesterday we were invited to Anthony's Border District layout which features some fine SAR and VR rolling-stock and modelling.  This was his April Running session and it was a pleasure and delight to once again take control of a few varied movements and operate on his layout.  I did some videography which tries to capture some of the movements. Everything operated very smoothly and the best part - there were no frustrations encountered like on some other layouts I have operated on (like my own).

Click on youtube link to view larger resolution

Talking about my own layout, I am now by and large happy with the overall design, however not completely happy with where I would like to put the loco depot and possible turntable.  Initially I had it situated in between one of the return balloon loops however I didn't like the idea of trains going away on one line of the loop and then returning on the other line - there has to be a solution.

First I moved the return leg of the loop further inside towards the other leg and thought of having the loco depot on the outside.  This allows easier access to the turntable should I get one.  However I still wasn't completely happy with this set up as it was near impossible to hide this return leg which really is staging track and there wasn't really enough room to do some proper modelling.

After a break and a bit of a think I decided to go aerial!  Now this is really going to throw a spanner in the works as the grade could be a problem, especially for steam engines should I get any someday.  However, since this road is going to the loco provisioning, most movements will be Light Engine with the occasional shunt of an Oil tank and or I wagon so loading should be quite light.  I did a quick run of a T Class and had no problems.  Had to race in before the heavens opened up so will fine tune and look further at this prospect of having the loco depot and turntable on a higher level.

Initial concept

Limited space for turntable and loco tacks

Previous concept of trying to isolate the lead track to staging

In the above photo you can see the incline to the loco roads

This photo shows the lead to staging disappearing under the loco roads

Some Footage

It's been a while since I took some video of the layout so yesterday I got out the P&S and took some footage of some movements.

Last few months

As i was saying in my previous post, I had to reset the thinking process of what I wanted to achive with a layout.  Over the last few months I have come up with a track plan which gives me some main line running and when I feel like it the possibility of
doing some shunting in the form of adding or removing wagons from a consist.  Basically the trackplan consists of a balloon loop in either side of which the main station is at the centre.  This gives me quite a nice main line run where I can enjoy watching trains roll by.
Wagons are added and removed when required at the "next" station and at times I have the ability to add and remove motive power as well.
I am not sure where I should put the loco depot or should I even have one at all and use some of the sidings to layover the locos.

This scene shows the two reverse balloon loops

Possible location for a Loco Depot - this comes off road 2 which was more prototypical

Another location for a loco depot, this comes off one of the stub ended sidings, less prototypical

Yard with stub ended sidings - not very VR

Possibility of a Dock Road

Angles, Degrees and View Points

Over the last few days as I began dismantling one side of the layout (the un-ballasted side), this give me the opportunity to move the other side about 70cms away from the wall.  I always wanted to view the layout from both a concave and convex perspective and at one point or another I had attempted to do this but then pushed the layout back to the wall as it was too difficult a task.
I then moved the other side away from the wall and now both sides of the layout are closer together joined by a nice radius curve with the viewing area in the middle retained.  I think the best thing I have done is move the layout away from the walls!  The different angles and view-points are extremely pleasing.  Not only has this given me these additional viewpoints, it has also allowed me access to the side-door, and both windows.  Having all three open and the shed is cooler than the garden!

As I was doing this, Darren came over last weekend to talk about lining the shed.  We also talked about what I was doing.  He made some very valuable remarks, such as the wasted space near the station area, and about how the shed is mainly used for playing trains with the workbench activities a secondary activity. This actually confirmed that having the layout run round the walls was actually wasting more space than having it in the centre of the room!  Another idea Darren threw my way was to have the curve continue on until it meets up with the other (ballasted) benchwork doing away with the centre viewing, however I enjoy seeing the layout from this area so did not implement this, but this did however spark the idea on having a gently S curve which again moves be further away from the rigid and too symmetric track layout I have had and been frustrated with.

Here is a rough diagram of how I set up the bench work - you can see I put them closer together away from the walls:

Now the challenge is to create a track plan which has the following:

1. Continuous run,
2  The option of shunting which usually entails a town of some sort
3. Sticking to a VR track schematic
4. Country scenery somewhere on the layout
5. Staging
6. Industries
7. Loco tracks?

 - all in 6 x 4.7m!  Is it possible?

Dismantling Layout

I am in the process of dismantling the layout.  There were a few fundamental things I didn't like, for example I find the layout height too high for my liking.  Also, I am considering lining the shed.  Furthermore, this gives me a chance to restart and reset the thinking process.

Thanks for your interest

That'a all for now...

T is for Trouble

This weekend I set out determined to resolve a very irritating issue.  The Austrains T Class locos would jerk and pause over two sets of points I have built.  The points are set to take you from road four to the main line.  After I lay the points down, I run a few locos across them to fine tune anything that comes up.
I noticed the Auscision B Class would traverse the points without any hesitation.  The odd thing was that the isolated section of track is lower than the length of the T Class wheelbase, so in theory either bogie should have power.
To make things worse, this issue would only occur sometimes.
I decided to have a look at the bogies and how the wheels transfer power from the rails to the motor.  I eventually pried open the enclosure of the bogie to get to the wheels.  The T Class uses  square brass fittings which are threaded through the wheel
convey power a bronze or aluminium chassis which in turn has a lead connected from the motor.  These square brass fittings have some play through the axle so the wheels can obviously turn, however this means that the contact on the wheels is not constant.
These fittings are also loose on the chassis, again contact is a hit and miss affair!  If you ask me this is quite poorly designed.
On Auscision's B Class, there is a wiper which is always making contact on the wheels.  This (copper?) wiper is securely fastened to the chassis.  There is always a permanent connection.  No wonder my B runs smooth like melted butter even on moderately dirtly track!
I initially noticed this odd behavior of the T Class when I went to clean the front bogies of a T.  With a paper towel under one bogie and the other in contact with the rails, the motor would not move!  Only when I moved the loco with three wheelsets in contact with the rails, was there power to the motor.  I found this very odd.
Anyway, I spent alot of time removing and cleaning and then applying some solder to the brass fittings in the hope of better conductivity from the rails to the chassis via the wheels and these small bronze fittings.
After spending sometime putting the wheelsets back, initially, after deploying the T over this section of track, everything seemed to run smoothly.  Little later after numerous runs over the section of track in question, another moment of jerking and pauses!  I cleaned the rails again and again and again.  I cleaned the wheels of this T again and again and again!
I even looked to see whether the rails were not even in height and if they weren't I corrected them as best I could.  But still, the T stood for trouble!  Night fell and I was defeated and disillusioned.
Before it got too late, I went back out in the shed.  It's not often I go back out at night.  I was determined to resolve this.  I decided to solder droppers to every section of track.  This, in theory, shouldn't make a difference as the wheelbase of the T is longer than the isolated section of track, so at any one time, there is electrical pickup from either the front or B end bogie.
This however it the trick!  It worked!  The T class ran through with a very small amount of ficker from the headlights.  I was happy.
Today,  I decided to just run trains over this route of the layout.  This time I used a few different T Class locos.  Again a stutter, a pause, a complete stop!  Must be dirty wheels so off to the programming track to clean the wheels.  Another round and again a pause!  This can't be happening!  Cleaned the track again, cleaned the wheels again.  Sometimes the Ts would just go by without any issues, other times a stutter or three.
Then the same loco, such as T375, would traverse this section without any hesitation.  What do I do now?  A while back I read somewhere that some people were using graphite as a conductor on their track to improve running performance.
As the last throw of the die, I decided to grab my tube of Kadee powered graphite and puff some of this stuff into the bogies targeting the axle and bronze fittings.  I placed T375 back on the track, and thinking this is not going to work, I could not believe what I was seeing!  This same loco, without any cleaning of wheels and track, ran through this section without a flicker from the headlights!
I ran this loco again and again without any stuttering whatsoever.  I placed T385 on the track and yep, after a while a stutter!  Puffed some of this graphite into the wheelsets and gave T385 a run, and again, I couldn't believe my eyes!  I was overjoyed!
The biggest test will come with time.  How effective the longevity of this graphite is will be interesting.  But I now know what to do next time.  So all you folks out there that have a similar locomotive with this type of electrical pickup arrangement, to increase running performance, use powdered graphite!  It's very easy to determine the pickup arrangement, just look under the loco!  Hope someone out there finds this post helpful.

Above photos show section of track in question

Auscision's B Class electrical pickup design - note the wiper

The only reason I looked under here was due to another issue and found a bent wiper!

Complete wheelset

Chassis of bogie - made from aluminium I think.

And this is what is used to transfer electrons to the motor!  Note how dirty these things get.

Poorly designed

Gold!

Point Work

Over the last couple of months  I have been quite engaged building some points.  I have built about a dozen of them.  Some didn't turn out too good so I had to strach those and start again.  It doesn't take too long once you get the hang of it.
There were two reasons why I decided to try my hand at building some points.  The first was due to the code 088 wheelsets that I fitted to some of my rollingstock.  After seeing some of the rollingstock fitted with these wheelsets, I couldn't bear looking at the code 100 wheelsets.  The funny thing is that something like this is only noticable when you make a change.  Anyway, with the code 088 wheelsets fitted, on some of the standard peco code 75 points, there was a noticable "wheel drop".
At the beginning I could bear this unrealistic movement, however it eventually began to annoy me.  This lead to the second reason for building points.  I wasn't too happy with the curved frog rails as well as the somewhat sharp deviating angle.  Actually this was a "bonus" extra that I could rectify by
building my own points.

Having placed some of these points on the layout, I had to make some finer adjustments once I had some of the rollingstock go through them.  One thing I noticed is my B Class, the front wheel, on No. 1 end, would always short near the entry to the frog.  I think the wheels are mis-aligned.  I need
an electronic caliper to check this out.  I had to widen out this section of the point to cater for this.  This didn't look too good however.

I realised today that I could increase the insulated area a few more centremetres, keeping this area shorted than my shortest wheelbased loco, the Y class, and have little better looking points.  First I decided to cut the stock rails shorted and add another section of rail (photo below).  This seemed to have worked really well with the B traveling through the modified point without any fuss.  However, after a while, I didn't like the look of this as well,  the two gaps in the rails - doesn't look too good.  So I then decided to
make the wing-rails and a small portion of point rail one piece.  This looks alot better and the B travels through the point without any shorts.   The added bonus with this was the greater smoothness of the rollingstock given the reduction in breaks in the rails.  I will need to make this adjustment to all the points I have created.  I could have looked at the B class and the wheels, but I am not so inclined to open the bogies and look at the wheels at this time.

I have had other issues with the points.  Sometimes, the flange of the wheel would ride up on the tip of the point rail, resulting in a derailment.  I would need to file the point rail further or verify the track gauge was correct.  I am using 16.2mm track gauge and made a jig using a 1mm piece of plastic.  I have used less that 1mm flange ways through the points.  This avoids the wheel drops.

I cut sleepers from a printed circuit board then solder them to the points.  I still got a bit way to go to finish any of these.  I will then paint over the copper and hopefully the points will look more realistic.

I must say it has been a frustrating journey at times!  Alot of filing, alot of soldering (my lungs must be full of solder material) and alot of time spent!  Some of my rollingstock still derails so I need to look at the rollingstock wheels as well.

Here are some images.

No. of Points created

The above image shows the entrance to the frog and how it had to be enlarged to cater for the B class

Increased the insulated area near the frog to avoid the shorts occurring.  The insulated area of the frog is about 7cm.

Another photo showing how I increased the insulated area by cutting back the point rails.  This increases the area of the two point rails (where they merge), which allows locos not to short out.  This solved the problem of shorting, but doesn't look too good.

Here we see a one piece wing and stock rail.

Once piece wing and stock rail fitted to point

Both sides now have one piece wing and point rails.