So Remind Me Why I'm Modelling in Nz120 Again?

Oh, Yeah....Thats why...Thanks DB...

Operation

I was just doing a bit of thinking about how to operate the layout. I know its getting a bit far ahead (there's still the little matter of 4 Ka's to build), but it doesn't hurt to do a wee bit of planning. So, what are the givens and druthers? The layout is intended to be dual use (there's no point designing a layout purely for exhibition display as there is just not the number of exhibitions in this country).

A home layout is operated from the front so that would mean picking a side to actually being the front. Paekakariki has a huge assed hill behind it which dominates the whole area, so this would logically be the back. The plan is to have the station behind a line of houses to set it in the scene better (plus I really want to model the railway settlement as the modeling opportunities could be quite cool).

Exhibition layouts are operated from behind. suddenly the big hill behind is a bit of a liability as the operators have to reach a long way over to do anything. However there is the possibility of operating a layout from the front at an exhibition. This does have the downside that you have to talk to the punters and there is nowhere to hide (behind the layout is good for this).

I've also been thinking about the operator jobs, and I'm now convinced that the signal box is is a viable position. If the north (steam and diesel) and south (electric) drivers are positioned at each end of the layout they will be able to see the signals for the most part. Another thought is that the layout (for exhibitions) could have no front or back, and could be viewed from both sides.
I'm still not sure if there should be a required uniform.


I do like the control panel though.

Put the Kettle on

For a change of pace tonight, I sat down at the bench and picked up the first thing that really came into view. So its time for a Wf update. The bit that I had been angsting over was the rear bogie. I had previously cut the bit of brass for the main bar, but had to spend 15 minutes finding it after the last clean up. I cut a couple of bits of copper tube ( I had it lying around so I used it) to the right length using the same sort of methods I've previously used for the Ed. However I didn't have enough room for a 2 part suspension system, so I've just gone with the 2 axles attached to a single beam. What could go wrong?

Some short tests show that I'll have to add more weight to the outside end of the bogie to keep the leading axle on the track. I'll also have to think about how I'm going to conceal the fact that the chassis is about 2mm too long.

Out of the concrete-work

After the Marton loco shed pictures we have had a small group come out of the concrete to say that they like such abominations. Personally I find this odd (and I have a passing affection for the re-cabbed Dg's), but to keep the people meeting in the phone-box who like these sort of things happy, here's some more pictures (thanks to Michael Harrison, sort of:v)

The first is of a perfectly civilized good shed build by good hard working craftsmen in the days of the British empire.


Then we have a collection of sheds built by various layabouts and designed by people with only a t-square for company with all the architectural merits of Te Papa

Woodville

Oamaru

Clyde

Notice that the lack of a nameplate on any of the sheds, possibly due to embarusment.

However all is not lost, and here is my favorite picture of one of these buildings.

Marton

Reviews; Trackgang 5' passenger bogie

The last items in my box of goodies from Trackgang were a set of bogies listed as being for 'guards vans and some passenger coaches'. The wheelbase is 13mm (or about 5'2") and again I have no idea what prototype they may be following. I brought these to use under a 30' wooden van. The bogies that I was after were 4'10" (or around 12 mm wheelbase). The visual differences are not that bad though so I decided to press on. As previously I added in the Markits pinpoint bearings after drilling the holes out. I then assembled the bogies and inserted the wheels. The free rolling previously mentioned was again observed. The only real problem was that the axles were not parallel, which is probably due to my drilling skills as much as anything. To complete the modifications, I decided to add the external strapping from strip brass, as they are very important for the look. Finding a plan of bogies to BP1656 (the 4'10 ones), I managed to read that the top strap extended 2' outside the wheels at each end. A piece of brass strip was cut and glued to the top of the bogie frame. The bottom piece was the cut and bent to shape to give the correct look.

It was attached by gluing onto the bottom of the sideframe, and then soldering (Yes, Soldering...) the end pieces of the bottom strip about 1/2 way along the overhanging piece of the top strip. Geeze I'm crap at verbally explaining things. Its why I normally revert to the whiteboard before I open my mouth.

As built bogie on the left, modified bogie on the right. Its a short job which I think is worth the effort.

Down at the depot part 2

Darryl Palmer has sent some pictures in reply to Michaels appeal for photo's of the engine shed at Marton.




The only comment I'll make is 'Man, someone had an awfully hard 3 day weekend before they designed this first thing Monday morning'. Thats one butt ugly building. I wouldn't even hide it in a fiddle yard.
(I suppose I should apologize to people who like buildings like this, but I won't. It rates right up there with Clyde and Oamaru sheds in shear horribleness. give me a run down rickety wooden structure any day.)

Reviews; Trackgang 6' passenger bogies

Today I've been playing with some of the other Trackgang castings I received. Todays victim is the 6' passenger bogie from the 56' car. I've brought a set of these to fit under a 50' Z van which I'm in the process of rebuilding from 20 year olsd castings. As an experiment I'm also going to fit brass bearings to see; 1) how hard it is and 2) if there is any improvement that's worth the trouble.
I started by cleaning up the casting and gluing one side frame to the spreader. Once the glue had set I first drilled out the axle holes on all the side frames with a 1mm drill, and then enlarged them with a 1.5mm drill (take care not to drill too far here but you will need to go at least 2mm deep (with 3mm being better).

I check the depth with my thumbnail on the drill when its all the way in, then take the drill out and check just how far in I am. I went right through to China on one axlebox. The brass bearings are from Markits in the UK (3 quid for a packet of 50) and are of the tophat variety, with a main body of 1mm and the rim about 1.5mm (so I did move the drill about a bit to make a hole that was marginally wider). I then pushed the bearings into the holes so that the bearing was about 0.5mm inside the face of the side frame.

Then, without instaling the wheels I glued the second side frame on. After the glue sets this time round I bend the side frames slightly until I can slip the wheels in and then carefully squeeze them closed again. Some adjustment may be necessary to get the wheels parallel and the bogie sitting square. I then put it on some track and pushed. Not quite Kato quality, but better than Peco.


Summary time. The bogies look quite nice ( the springs don't line up that, but that's my only real quibble which isn't doing that bad at all). The combination of the brass axle bearings with the shorter axle wheel sets improves the running qualities out of sight, which makes it a very worthwhile modification to make.

Book corner

Today I made a rare trip to the library (I was on my way to Resenes to get some paint and just happened to be passing). The book I did find that I've wanted to read for a long time is 'When Nelson had a railway'. Its a very good collection of photo's of the local railway throughout its history. What I found particularly interesting was the documentation of the removal of the entire line. I've only seen anything similar with the removal of the Otago central line.

Being involved with the local group (some of whom model the Nelson line) its interesting to look at why you would model the line. Its even come up that an attempt should be made to build a club layout modeling some of the scenes. The major problem I have is that while the line had 4 Wf's, only one was ever in steam at once, and the only time there were really 2 running was during the lifting of the line. So you can have a large layout, but only 1 engine in steam at any one time, which doesn't really appeal to me.

Don't worry folks, tomorrow night its back to Trackgang reviews, with a look at the 6' coach bogies.

Kit review; Trackgang Nc part II

When we finished up last night with a stack of unburnt fingers, the basic underframe of the wagon was together. Now, read on.

The 2 ends were tided up with a file. The ends of the floor were squared up, and also the notches on the ends of the solebar were filed until a test fitting of the end was square. the ends were then glued in. The Nc has an outside brace on the floor to support the outside of the deck. these were filed to fit in place and then glued.

'This is a crap photo'

At this point the only thing left to fit were the stanchions. These were first filed as there is a bit of mold mismatch on the castings. This is the hardest bit of the job. I measured up the location points on the deck and marked them with pencil. As I didn't have a plan to work from (my preferred method) I measured the deck (50mm) and divided by 7 (there's 6 stanchions) giving 7mm between stanchions with a wee bit of a fudge factor. The stanchions were set up on the workbench with the square pad side down and the side with the notch face up (a close inspection will reveal all). I applied glue to the correct mounting points and, with the wagon sitting on it's side but slightly raised off the bench, then slid the stanchions into place one by one. I then braced the wagon while the glue set.


After the second side was done we get to the final model sans paint.

So, now to final comments. The smaller wheels have not made as much visual difference as I thought they would (from the photo above its about the same height as the Lc next to it). The flanges are possibly a bit smaller than I like. The kits itself goes together nice and easily. The downsides are; the bearings could be better shaped, the stanchions are quite fiddly (but there's no easy way round that), and also quite weak (I'm not convinced solder would fix this).

Overall, its not perfect. however it does look OK, and with a deck load will look the part. I think it could probably be converted to an Na (again having not seen a plan) with the attachment of the bond chain housings on the sides.

I will probably buy a few more.

Kit review; Trackgang Nc

(For some odd reason I keep starting to write Trackside instead of Trackgang; I'm trying very hard to get out of the habit Russell :v).

Tonight another parcel in the post. Several items but first up is the Nc kit. I've always liked the short open wagons as you can put a variety of loads on them. At this point in the review I'd ramble on about when they were built and by whom and how many there were to blueprint so-and-so, but I quite honestly don't have a clue. Anyway, in the bag we get the following.


2 Solebars, 2 ends a floor, the 2 sides, a brake cylinder and lever, a pair of non working knuckle couplers, and 12 stanchions. Oh and 2 bits of brass. I'm still wondering what these are for (update, I've found the instructions and they are for handrails and brake hoses). The wheels are different to previous ones, being sourced from America rather than England. They have short axles (14mm vs 15mm) but also a smaller diameter (5.2mm vs 6.2mm) first one good, second one...we'll see as we go.


First up I carefully used a 1mm drill to put a pinpoint into the axle holes on the solbars. I then glued one solbar to the floor in the correct spot. I also glued the brake cylinder on at this point (though it took 4 goes as the little blighter kept dropping off).
I then put the wheels in and glued on the second solebar. At this point I noticed that the new wheels are metal, and are only insulated on one side. Thus make sure you get them the same way round or your power supply won't love you any more. Hold the second solebar in place till the glue sets and make sure that the wheels remain parallel at this time.

Once the glue has set, check that the wagon sits flat on the workbench (I have a small sheet of glass for this sort of thing). If it doesn't, 1st make sure that the wheels are in the right spots in the bearings. If that's not the problem then very carefully bend the wagon so that it sits square (only if its out by less than 1mm). If its really serious you will have to take it apart and start again.

Well, thats all for tonight, You'll have to wait for the second installment tomorrow night.

Down at the Depot

Drew has passed along these photo's (taken by Bruce Rogers) which I was quite taken by. Its the New Plymouth loco depot in 1988.

'Tomatoes awayyyy'

The small provincial loco depots were mostly the remnants of the steam age, with only a few (Oamaru) being built new in the 70's. There are several photo's I've seen in books taken from the other end of the depot which I must hunt out. The depot itself is located 1/2 way between the port and the main station which would make a great setup. Several modules dedicated to a depot like thiswould make a great place to display a collection of loco's (both steam and diesel).

Forum time

I've just poset a thread up on the Nz120 forum for all those who have brought trackgang kits and are now either assembling them or wondering where to start. I'd love to see some pictures of the models in the flesh (I have my eye on several that are not currently avaliable).

It doesn't have to be fantastic, just an account of your experiences assembling them. I'll post some later in the week once my package arrives.

First time

Its always exciting/frightening to get the first shot out of a new mold. Tonight I poured resin into my W11 mold for the first time. I also had a shot at Darryls solid top method. I was very happy with the results.


The plastic master is on the right. now I'll just have to buy some trackgang 10' underframes to put under the 1/2 dozen or so I want.

Taking a step back in time

I visited Dunedin today and thought I'd take a picture of some rolling stock that Ken Devlin acquired upon John Rappard's passing. This is perhaps two thirds of it (and other people may have more) , and while some of the earlier items might seem an little basic in this day and age, one must remember that 30 years ago, this was pioneering stuff; back in the days before Atlas, Kato and Microtrains ushered us into the Second Age of NZ120.

The exquisite models of double Fairlie 'Josephine' and its attendant period rolling stock exhibited around the South Island in 1988 and some of John's modern rolling stock such his CBs are at least the equal anything being produced today.

Covering up

Having now assembled a reasonable number of open 4 wheeled wagons, Its time to think about loads for them. I can either sit down and start making detailed models of whatever the wagon was carrying, or I can cheat and toss in a jumble of shapes and then put a tarpaulin over the top. This isn't as easy as it sounds, as in real life tarpaulins are quite heavy articles and tend to 'drape' over the load concealed underneath. 120 times smaller, and whatever you are using has this annoying tendency to do anything but. Anyway, the first step for this is to make some loads. As the wagons were resin on Peco underframes, I glued a layer of number 4 lead shot to the base first for ballast.


Then off into the bits boxes to come up with some shapes. I used a bit of foam board for the box like shapes, and some wooden beads for the more rounded ones. The paper is from a writing pad, and I'm guessing about 1/2 the weight of the normal printer paper. However, you will need to use something that does not come apart when its wet. The paper was cut to approximately the correct dimensions (I think 32 by 52mm is close to scale for la's and 32 by 62mm for Lc's). The next step is to get it wet and drape it over the load. Its not going to sit too well at this point, so just get it centered. Then get some PVA/water mix (about 50:50) and paint it with a brush over the paper. This should get it to sit down a bit more over the load, and the glue will add a bit of stickyness so that it will hold to the outline of the top of the wagon. The corners tend to be folded from the side to the ends on the prototype. After its all dried paint the tarpaulin a dark grey and add some tiedown ropes ( I haven't got to that bit yet).


(I painted them black without reference to photographs, but have since found that they should be a dark grey, which I couldn't find in the local hobby shop, so will have to go to Resene's instead)

Undergubbins

Slow day at work today ( well, it should not have been, but the boss wasn't there, and I hate writing reports), so of course I was sifting the net.
One thing I did come across was this picture on the rmweb forums of a test etch for a 2mm scale wagon.


This is what I would like to do if I had the skills, talent and Patience to actually draw it out. Pin point bearings, outside cast detail.
Maybe one day when I grow up. :v)

Superdetail parts for the eTch ceTera DC revisited

DB says: As a follow up to this post, I received the packet of bits yesterday to superdetail an eTch ceTera DC kit from Ken Clough.


My initial thoughts are:

• The quality of the castings looks to be very good and clearly a bit of effort has gone into this.


• The core of the fuel tank/battery box (if that's what the big lump is) obviously won't be of use with an Atlas or LL chassis - which already has a tank casting there - without surgery


• The antenna looks more HO sized than NZ120


• The cable runs (I assume that's what they are)are nice castings, but I'm not sure they're too prototypical. On the real thing there are exposed brake pipes running under the sills on one side and a square metal tube containing cables on the other


• The ad mentioned dynamic brakes and tail lights...?


• The rest of it looks very good. I think the exhaust ports, horns, fuel tanks/bb, sill channels, brake hoses (with taps!) and speedo (that must be the small circular thing below the horns casting) will look neat. The tablet exchangers are sweet too if you model that era. I might save them for a DJ or DG.
  

I'll use them on a new DC build in a few weeks time. In the meantime, if you'd like a set, email Ken at k-m-c@clear.net.nz Cost is $20 plus postage.

Goings on at the new site

Over at NZ120.org, there is a couple of articles now uploaded. These are the DFT in a day ( and a bit) and the 88 seat railcar build. Both have been culled from the blog witerings, but have been converted into long article's, for easy reading.
hopefully more of the old stuff from the blog will be moved into this format to make it easier for people to find.

Boxing on

Tonight its Ed time again. I had mentioned in a previous post that I was intending to start with the roof and build down. Plan B has wrapped that up and tossed it out the window. Instead I decided to build the sides box up and glue it onto the frame. the correct sides (Hutt and Addington) were placed together, and assembled into a box with pieces of plasticard. These were cut so to avoid the mechanism, and also to allow for the addition of a DCC decoder later (I think I can fit an Ho chip in, and they are much cheaper than the N scale ones).
While letting the assemblies dry, I marked out on the frame where the ends of the box should fit, and then simply glued them on. All rather simple and anticlimactic.

It's just reminded me how butt ugly these things really were (but very European)

Coupling pt II

After the last post I've had time to have a bit more of a think about the whole problem (another WTF moment, if you will). An idea crystallised after looking at Pats non working NZR couplers (or coupling bar), as well as thinking about the British tension lock system, and my own first forays into NZR modeling where pocket money didn't extend to fancy couplers. Hence the following was born.

"Da da da Dum"

I had some 1.6mm square brass tube which provided the base. One piece had a hacksaw cut made in it to a depth of ~2mm. I then soldered (yes, soldered!) some 0.25mm brass sheet squares to the ends, and used a file to round them off. A gap was filed in the top of the disk to allow a coupling hook to fit. A coupling hook was folded up from brass wire, and after being bent to a slight hook shape was soldered on the end without the hole in the shank.

A brass crass brace was soldered on and then the assembly's were attached to the wagons for testing.


The coupler will push and pull happily round a 15" radius curve, and probably a bit tighter. the slight reverse curve in the coupling hook means that when there is a load applied the couplers are pulled down towards each other rather than square where there is a possibility that one will lift away from the other.

As a prototype I think it has a fair bit of promise for a non working coupler which makes as least as much sense as anything else we use. There needs to be a bit of work done on the shape of the neck, but its not a huge problem to solve.. Rakes of wagon can have the coupler of your choice at each end. Its not quite as flexible as regards to wagon facings, but you can't have everything.

UPDATE: Darryl has provided an excellent sketch of what I'm talking about.

More Exhibitionism

DB says: Your roving southern correspondent was cajoled into attending the Alpine Energy Model Railway Expo in Timaru on Sunday by his mother. Warning: Alas, no NZ120 content.


Attendance looked pretty good from where I was standing - 13 layouts, 7 trade stands nicely-endowed with often-overpriced merchandise, and plenty of paying punters. We weren't alone in lingering at most of the layouts for quite some time (and Mum is no trainspotter), which filled us both with warm thoughts of it being a good show and well worth the $6 admission.

One of the most popular layouts was a fairly large local HO setup that featured loads of animation. Hidden magnets drag boats around a lake, clever Faller trucks and buses navigate the highways as if by magic - even pausing in front of buildings, a chairlift spins up the mountain, skiers run down the slopes, smoke comes from a power station stack and even a volcano erupts from time to time with a deep rumbling that could easily be mistaken for a passing WRX.


The Stamping Ground (below), from NZ120's formerly-own Glen Anthony, also garnered hoards of spectators. This is a neat wee layout comprising two (soon to be three) modules that packs plenty of action into a small space, including animated water wheel, stamping battery and gold digger; ore that is loaded from bins into the wagons and then dumped at the battery; and a couple of trains that purposefully shuffle the wagons around to effect this. Although not a huge layout, it's peppered with interesting scenes and people were easily amused for five minutes before they'd seen all the action. And all running very smoothly with kadee magnetic uncoupling, hidden point operation, lots of wagon-tipping unloading and not a five-finger-shuffle in sight. A really well thought-out and executed layout set amongst captivating scenery.

So that's the takeaway - "lots going on" keeps the punters amused.

Of course another, often easier, way to do that is to simply run lots of trains. The winner here, with about a dozen concurrently operating trains, is the following fairly rudimentary, yet completely mesmerising setup. Yes, every train in this photo is moving, and its all made of Lego, including this nice BNSF doublestack train. The layout is also in the foreground of the top picture. Its big.


I spent a surprisingly long amount of time staring at this layout with a silly grin on my face and Mum liked the blue train out of shot to the right. From what could ascertain, primarily because it was blue.

A couple of other interesting ideas...

A small and achievable N scale layout that could both live at home and attend exhibitions is the two-module Wedderburn (shame it was populated with American rolling stock) below with the station out front and a small fiddle yard hidden behind a backscene. All in about 8x2 feet. Mum lauds praise on the layout's exhibitor, who is doing his best to avoid eye-contact.

I'm a fan of the theatre-diorama-look as well and this (below) is fairly effective for something that's not a huge leap up from the diorama-in-a-night that ECMT presented a few weeks ago (here and more pics here). It is an HO Swiss timesaver-style module billed "as an example of a layout for a small space that can be incorporated into a larger home layout, have a fiddle yard added to one or both ends, or linked to other layouts Freemo style". Good stuff. Just the sort of thing NZ120 modellers should consider for part of a home layout.

Attached to one of the few NZ exhibits:

As a postscript, or should that be pre-script, on attendance after reading Rhys' post, there was a double page full colour spread in the local paper earlier this week (half was adverts from local businesses and a couple of the more distant trade stand businesses which no doubt funded the spread) and there were a few large canvas signs around the town above the main road as well as outside the venue. The hall itself was also on the main road/bypass through Timaru, so a few people may have seen it as they were passing by. It wouldn't surprise me if it was on the radio as well. I seem to remember the Christchurch people doing a really good job of publicising their shows. After all, if you're going to go to all the trouble of staging an exhibition, you might as well have some people turn up, eh?

Trackgang 13' underframe review

Well, tonight I got home from the oddest exhibition I've been to, to find a package in the mailbox.
I decided to order some 13' underframes as I had several Kp tops that needed undergubbins. So, for a start, what do we get.


A floor, 2 solebars, 2 wheelsets, a brake cylinder and 2 sets of cast non working couplings. The length of the floor scales out at 20'10", which is not too far off the 21' of the real thing.
A quick check revealed that the solebars would not fit into the intended spots on the cast floor without some work. I drilled out the axle holes with a 1.5mm drill by hand until the cone on the wheelset could only just be seen. There should be less than 1mm between the wheel and the inside of the solebar at this point. The first solebar is then glued/soldered into position with the ends equidistant for the ends of the floor (I grabbed the 5 minute Araldite again, solder might be easier). Leave to set/cool. The second solebar is then attached with the wheels in place in position so that the axles are square.

Don't worry if the solebars don't match as you can trim them up afterwards.For some odd reason when I tried the underframe on the track afterwards it rocked quite chronically, so I had to bend the floor a fair bit to get it to sit flat on the rail's.
The main problem with this for the scratchbuilders among us is that the cast floor makes any cast top sit too high. To solve this I cut a piece of 2mm plasticard (about 11.5mm wide), and having removed any whitemetal tabs on the back of the solebars, then use the plastic as the central base for the underframe, andproceeded as before.

The resulting underframe seems to sit a lot flatter. The rolling resistance seems to be OK (not great but not too much drag) but should improve with a bit of running in. The solebar miss match at the ends is a bit of a worry, as is the squareness issue ( I'll put a couple more together later today to see if its any better)

Despite the faults, I think I will be buying some more of these.

UPDATE: Here's a picture of the second underframe under one of my Lc tops, with a Peco version for comparison.

I think that the solebars should be closer together as while they are the correct height (as measuerd from plans), they look far larger as they are not hidden under the wagon as well. I might try painting them a darker colour to trick the eye away from this. I trimmed to solvars down at the end so that they were square, and the length was just right for my Lc, so thats now something I'm not worrying about.

(also note that the Trackgang underframe on the right has had the head stocks and brake ratchet added by me from my own castings. They don't come with the kit. And i should add that I have no financial links with Trackgang products, but am open to a little bit of bribery:v)

Diary

7:00 Wake up, decide it far to early, and try to go back to sleep. Unfortunately brain is awake, and someone else is snoring.
8:00 Get up, get gear sorted. Quick check of E-mail and blog to see if anything intelligent in comments. Trackgang 13' underframes have not arrived so will go without them. Remember doe's and don'ts about exhibitions; plenty of coke, and try to avoid people wearing hats or badges.
9:00 Load up bike. Make sure nothing is left behind. Question sanity of going out while its 1C outside on bike.

'Holy flapping bat turds, to the workshopmobile'

9:30 Arrive at Founders park. Discover that park not open till 10. Also discover that have left plastic cement at home. Bugger.
10: Get let in. Get set up at venue. Lay out all models etc, then have a quick look round. Next to an ON30 layout, and across from a European Ho layout. Next to large heater which is nice. Make a start on altering PECO chassis to go under a set of La's.

'Hmmm, maybe if I moved around it would stay tidy'

10:41 First punters through the door. Wonder if anyone will come out when its not overly warm
12:00 Made it to lunch. Notice that number of punters now equals the number of exhibitors. Feet cold, and fingers not overly nimble either. 5 Minute Araldite taking 15 minutes to set.
1:00 Friend rescues me and we go to the cafe for a beer.
1:30 Arrive back as desk, and get accosted by man wearing hat and badges who seems to know me. great.
(turns out to be a good chap).
2:30. Finish up la's. Try to start other stuff but have no plastic glue. Another group member passes through, and comments that he was not aware exhibition was on, and only turned up to film the DSA. wonder idly if I have been set up.
4:00. Pack up. Maybe 100 people through the door during the day. Have had more in shows in Waimate. Organiser comes over to see how I went. Lament the lack of plastic glue.
'Oh, I've got some under the layout".......