Motorised Dandruff

Pottering

2012-02-06T12:49:00.003+13:00

Finally spent some time out in the Man-sion yesterday. The main task was to check the track work (again) to see that everything was as good as it could get. 1431 did the honours running through all the points to see where the problems were. One in particular presented grave problems. One of the bogies lifted itself vertically almost to the point of derailing before crashing back onto the track. Not overly suitable. Everything appeared to be in gauge and as a last resort I rolled the loco over and checked the wheel gauge. all 3 were too narrow. A quick expand with the fingernails and everything was fine again (my fingernails are an important part of the tool kit you know. I think I could probably use them to set a cars points)

So, all the track now works tolerably well. Its going to severely limit guests though as its vital that the wheels are in gauge, and anything that is not will be found out.

I also did a wee bit of testing to check that the Cb and the railtruck would go round 6' radius curves (the Cb had previously, but the railtruck was an unknown quantity). The answer was yes, but the railtruck then refused to climb anything but the most gentle of grades. Bang goes my plans for a loop on the bush tram layout, or even a climb up a creek valley.

On another track, who is planning to go to the convention, and what are you all planning to bring along? I still have yet to hear if they want the layout, or any track making seminars (and I'd even do one on blogging if there was any interest). I daresay that there will be a special interest group meeting, but buggered if I know what we could discuss.

Saturday morning

2012-02-04T10:33:00.003+13:00

Well, its been a week since I blogged anything. There have been suggestions that I have been busy modeling and not wasting time on the Wibbly Wobbly Wooo.

Instead, I've been reading military histories, which I have not done in a long time. Oh, and trying to think about ways to solve problems at work (chemistry problems, not 'why am I working here' problems). I painted 4 N scale figures to see how they came out (a British 19th century layout lurks somewhere at the back of my mind) and had another look at my 9V jump controllers (which still don't seem to make sense, but I'll see if someone else can solve that).

So, in short nothing useful.

I did some more looking into 4'6"wheels (prompted by Cabbage). It was pointed out that the 3mm society does 11mm 12 spoked wheels (well, it was listed that it existed) but there is no list on their website of what they actually sell. I could ascertain that the wheel standards fit the NMRA ones, but that was it. There is also a shop listed to sell 3mm stuff. Several e-mails later the shops says 'I don't sell them' which was bloody odd considering that they were listed them in the first place. A question on RMweb then lead to a reply 'why don't you join the 3mm society and buy them. Oh and you could model in 3mm scale and on 10.5mm track'. Grrrrr....
So, I could join the society (25 quid) on the off chance they will be able to sell me what I want (which I'm still not sure about anyway) when I don't want anything else from them (well I might, but they don't have a list online so how can I tell?). Its all a bit frustrating really.

Maybe if I win Lotto....

Week off

2012-02-01T21:55:00.001+13:00

Some of you may have wondered whats going on here at Schloss dandruff.

The answer is nothing, I'm just having a week of from blogging. Normal transmission may well be resumed next week.

Book review; 1950's steam in colour

2012-01-28T12:39:00.003+13:00

I was lucky enough to get hold of a copy of this book at much less than cost price off Trademe a couple of weeks ago. Now Derek Cross needs no introduction (fortunately) as a photographer of a railway system long since gone, so I was very interested to see just what had shaken out of his collection.
The answer is, I'm not quite sure. Given that colour photography was in ifs infancy in the 1950's and you couldn't just change film etc, the photos themselves show just how good he was as a photographer by getting the best out of a very difficult medium. I think that the down side might be in the actual selection of pictures. Some are very nice and useful, but others are just odd (A picture of the band playing on the station platform at Glenhope during the 'last' train on the Nelson section? The only use would be to reveal how truly poor men's fashion and haircuts were in those long gone days. And I'm sure that its Danial Craig smoking a cigarette wearing a trench coat on the platform beside them). There is also two of a branch line train on the causeway at Riverton. The same train at virtually the same shot, and both 3/4 views. Was there nothing else left in the box?

Overall I'll have to give this a 'Not quite there' quite honestly. There are not quite enough useful shots to give a man modeling ideas. If you can pick it up cheap, all well and good but there are other Steam era books I would buy before this one.

BR4 - DIY Cardboard Recycling

2012-01-26T10:00:00.001+13:00

DB says with greenliness:

The Broken River blob* continues its pathetic treck forward.

On Saturday I undercoated the area of the backdrop that was expected to be visible above the mountains and then followed that up with some 'Utah Sky'. Alas there were no 'Avoca Sky' test pots left in stock at the local hardware store. Close enough for a base I feel.

The next step was to put in some landforms so it will look like we're making some progress here. My intention was to use some of the various bits of NZ wire netting that have been under various layouts since the Casseolithic period becasue I like the way you can cut shape and fiddle with the stuff in real time to get the terrain you want. Unfortunately while this has always worked fine in the past for larger hills, on these small narrow cliffsides it was just making me grumpy, so I thought I'd give that cardboard lattice trick a try. Strangely enough, I don't think I've ever done this before.

A quick raid on the recycling bin uncovered some corrugated cardboad boxes and some lighter manila folders that might do the trick. These were cut up into strips approx 2cm wide.

The electric glue gun (what a marvellous invention) was then fired up and I quickly started sticking vertical mountain bones on, with the odd horizontal bit weaved in for good measure near the cliff top although I'm not sure they really added much value.

After some strips of the thin card were placed on the tracks to protect them from drippage, the hardshell went on. This job used to be pretty messy before before that Woodland Scenics plaster cloth of unknown flamability entered the market.

Suddenly things are starting to look partially half-arsed. I would have liked the cliffside to be taller, so I might nudge the track closer to the edge at the left side of the centre tunnel to allow that.
*bloody layout operational block

Mid week

2012-01-25T13:00:00.001+13:00

Well, after the weekend I have not made much progress. I did manage to add some more weight to the railtruck, and it has improved the running quite a bit in that it will not run in reverse. Previously this had occurred with a lot of wheel spinning. However.... there appears to be a ghost in the machine, or at least in the DCC chip. This manifests itself by ignoring commands to start or stop, and changing direction at random. Might be time for either reading the instructions or an exorcism.

Today's picture comes from a fishing trip. I've always thought that static grass clumps don't quite look right colour wise. there is no depth. However, there's a prototype for everything.

Who knew model scenic texture people go fishing on the Rangatiki.

Going Off-Grid...

2012-01-24T13:00:00.000+13:00

Am_Fet scribbles:

Since arriving back in the hobby a few years back now, I've spent a lot of time looking and reading about other peoples layouts and have started to form opinions about what (in my eyes) "works" and what "stinks". With actual modelling time being severly limited, its been an interesting thought exercise and a lot of ideas have been written down in a manifesto, and then promptly locked away in a safe and forgotten.

Now that I have contracted the layout building out to a successful local contractor (Druff & Co) it looks like things may finally be moving on finally having a layout, but the hunt for good ideas continues.

This is the one that really has me thinking. 0-4-4-0T is a bit of a clever chap, and his "Yellow Box" has featured here earlier with Herr Druff expounding its folding virtues:

However, the bit that excited me was the electrics: its entirely run on AA batteries. Cabbage (who plays with ergs for a living) has said that it was an incredibly easy circuit. And now The Don(Druff) has built a couple of similar 9V throttles for Paekak to use with his Digitrax system. What has me aflame is the whole portability factor; Not having to worry about extension leads acting as trip hazards (or fatal harbingers of death, if you read the HSE leaflets) is a big bonus for a layout that could live on a shelf and be bought down to a desk for operation (such as The Forks).

Another thing that has me thinking was the recent silly season and the slowly dying pine branch that took up one corner of our living room. Adorning this vacuum cleaners nightmare was a set of cheap AA powered LED lights....and all I could think of was "lighting rig". Obviously the ones that flash multi coloured in time with a tinny speaker squeaking "Jingle Bells" may not really be suitable, but the long strings of white ones might do the trick. It might be worth looking at.....

And then there was the bit in the Wanganui show post that mentioned running a layout from a Laptops USB port....now the geek in me thinks that would be the ultimate...

The day that was

2012-01-23T10:00:00.003+13:00

Well, here is the report from yesterdays open home.

After the cleanup we were ready to go. The drink making facilities were shifted to the garage to save the endless tramp of people through the house.

A grand total of 4 modelers braved the trip to Palmerston North yesterday. Thanks to mark, mike, Bruce and Quentin for turning up. An interesting day was had (I think) with a BBQ for lunch.

A few topics were discussed. Bruce enlightened me on the ins and outs of the JMRI DCC software, and I can see that I'll probably wind up downloading it onto the baby laptop for shows. Quentin brought along his NZ finescale Wb that he is working on, and I could only marvel at the wiggly bits underneath.
There was a fair bit of soldering done as well. mark had brought the mk 2 version of the 4 wheeled underframe and this was merrily attacked by both of us.

There are still a few bugs to iron out and tweaks to be made, but they are still sex on a stick quite honestly. However I am going to possibly have to have a rethink about my wheel choices. in the picture above on the left we have the NMRA standard wheels. On the right are the 2mm FS ones. These just look much better all round. My only concern if I go full noise with these is that I'm not sure if my track is good enough. It will also preclude anyone without NMRA compliant gear from running trains on my layout. Maybe I just shouldn't worry about it and go for it.

Its starting to look quite nice.

So, thanks to everyone who turned up, I really enjoyed myself. Its just a pity that there were not a few more local modelers around.

Oh, and by my count, its 73 days to the Convention. Hows your planning going?

Rush job

2012-01-22T10:24:00.005+13:00

With the impending stampede of modelers expected today, I was wondering what I could do to add throttles. The Digitrax Zephyr has the ability to use 2 DC controllers as extra throttles (which is one of the reasons that I brought it). The main problem that I had was getting 2 old DC throttles cheaply. However I came across a simple circuit on the net which has a handful of parts and runs off a 9V battery. So, it was off to Jaycar.

Looks easy doesn't it. Sorry I can't post a circuit diagram due to that whole copyright thingy.

After 20 minutes with the drill and soldering iron, here's the first one finished. Now to find out if it actually works.

UPDATE; well, it does work, but the bastards have sold me log pots instead of linear pots. For the non electrically minded of you, this means that the useful speed range is compressed into 2mm of rotary movement. So, technically fine, but functionally useless.

The countdown begins

2012-01-21T14:26:00.003+13:00

Well, the snarlers are in the fridge and I'm just about to head out for an afternoon cleaning out the Man-sion. So far I think I've got 8 modelers turning up tomorrow, a mix of nz120ers and some other odd scale. I recieved in the mail enough bits to make some trackwork and I think theres enough food for the BBQ. Still have to nip out and get some coffee though.

'Theres still a wee bit of work to do....'

Book Review: Journey to the Pass

2012-01-21T10:00:00.000+13:00

Am_Fet writes:

I mentioned this book back in my post about the mysterious "Raven Tea" wagon and lalover asked for more info. SO, here is the full un-expurgated review:

Journey to the Pass (Memories of the Midland Line)
Stephen and Matthew Wright
(Hilton Press, A4 card cover, 211 pages)

Normally I can take or leave social history, but I was immediately taken by this book when I first encountered TCO Fred Carter reading it one day while not much was moving on the CHCH-PCTN line. Sure, I was drawn to the photos (mostly B&W with a few in colour) but found that once I finally finangled it off Fred I was really taken with the stories contained within.

Father and Son team Stephen and Matthew Wright started the project as an oral history exercise with no intention of it becoming a book, but luckily they chose to publish. It is made up of interviews with eight people who had links with the "Midland Line" (now termed the coal route) and each person tells there own story with their own voice...It does suggest very little editing happened between drafts and final manuscript. Those interviewed range from railways staff from different areas (driver, guard, station master, etc) through to those who used the line (a gangers son, a girl who rode the school trains). Chapters on the history of the line and a photo gallery close out the contents.

As youd somehow expect, the two biggest chapters revolve around the old refreshment rooms (Doreen Dudley and Bid Elson) and engine driver Jim Dillon. All three have enthralling stories to tell about how it used to be living in Springfield.

The photos range from well known ones (John Cooke and John Brouwer feature) through to those not seen before from private collections. Reproduction is good with the photos very clear. My favourite has to be the shot of several workmen in the cage used to transport them via cable from one side of Staircase gully to the other...dont look down!

Those whose interests dont progress much further than locomotives and wagons will probably think nothing of avoiding this book, but theyd be doing themselves a great disservice to do so. As a modeller (loosly), I found enough operational detail in the book to keep me entertained and I must admit I polished it off in one sitting.

Final verdict? Highly recommended. At the very least search it out through the library system for a look.

More Nutter Details

2012-01-20T17:35:00.002+13:00

Who said NZ120 needs to viewed from two feet away.....

Oh yeah it was the Druff himself.

Well for those of you who like the idea of being able to get a little closer here is a photo of the latest nutter details we have been working on. You may remember I talked about my own Mini Me building a trackgang products Df kit set at the Wellington RailX last November. We got the kits cheap as there a few bits missing like the grills and we talked to Mr trackgang about working on an etch for these parts.

Info and photos were collected from a few good foamer's we know and using the Df Dft and Dx kit we bought a simple set of grill details was designed. The drawings went away just after Christmas to the etcher's and the finished articles arrived back this week.

DFT grills example

The etch is 0.1mm brass and the details are approximately correct.... I think there are one too many bars in each direction so if anyone would like to count them be my guest....

There are 2 grills for the radiator intakes and one for top plus the dynamic brake fan and grill. If you are feeling like a true massacist you could even try making it go round using a simple friction drive :)

These parts will be available from Trackgang very soon and we will have them at the convention too

A Damn Good Fossick....

2012-01-20T13:00:00.000+13:00

Am_Fet writes:

Well, Monday found me again in the wilds of Taranaki occupying the left seat of a few locomotives with hospitality and lunch provided by Drew. As I dont get up that way as often as I'd like, I decided that Monday was the day to spend some time in Patea photographing the old waterfront cool stores and trying hard to get the song "Poi E" out of my head....

Turned out that it was well worth the visit and an enjoyable hour was had by all (well, Drew and I) as we risked life and limb walking over end-of-life timber.

First stop was the compressor room that drove the refrigeration plant. Drew can remember it when it was full of equipment, but now regrettably only the main wheel remains on its pedestals (its about my height, BTW, so it aint small).

The cheese stores are massive reinforced concrete structures, and this is the view on the ground floor showing all the buttressing needed to stop the 2nd floor suddenly being at ground level....It was very eeiry walking through here, and Drew mentioned the local scroatlings used the area to abandon cars in.

After traversing an external staircase that looked none to stable, we emerged onto the upstairs loading bays for a view over the old wharf and the river.

From there, we wandered back out through a gaping hole in the other side of the building to find the worlds most perfect "railfan deckchair" spot. Might have to visit this again, methinks...

Our final stop was the old railway wharf further to the north which is in a similar state of dereliction to the cheese store wharf.

Although I was a bit ambivalent about the exploring when Drew first suggested it to me (I had been awake since 0300 that morning), I am very happy that I relented. I've now got enough photos and a new understanding of the place to help when I get around to building a layout based on the place (obviously not soon!)

For those with a similar love of industrial archeology, I've uploaded the whole collection to flickr here.

Undergubbins

2012-01-19T13:00:00.001+13:00

The other night Fetler D'amatuer dropped off the mk1 4 wheeled underframe etchs. Naturally I had to have a crack at them with a soldering iron.

First up, as it comes....

'Wroowww'

While there are no instructions its all pretty straightforward. here we see it 1/2 way through. I've used Carrs solder paste which really makes things easy.

After a few more poor photos of various assembly stages, here is the final article with its predecessors. On the left is a Trackgang 10' underframe (modified slightly) and on the right is the good old Peco underframe. Total assembly time was about 45 minutes.

I've got a few suggestions that will be thrashed out (figuratively of course) this weekend.
However I'm still extremely happy with it

Broken River 3 - Some progress

2012-01-18T10:00:00.001+13:00

DB reports on another adventure in the trainroom:

After that exciting Broken River prototype flyby in my last post, let's now return to 6 inches x 8 feet of sky-high reality.

Checking aroundabout where the Broken River left-end track should go to meet up with the yard points, I de-lifted the section down onto a set of drawers so that I could do some work on it.
The first item to be addressed was the join between the backscene panels, which are plywood sheets approx 4mm thick. I white-glued a small piece of the same material behind them and clamped this all together while it sets. I also ran some white glue down the join as a filler between the two pieces, although I expect that area of the backscene will be largely hidden by the middle tunnel in my group of three.

Recycled flextrack was then attached with the staplecannon and a few wagons were pushed over the joins to make sure everything was smooth. Being too lazy or incompetent to make my own track (and lets face it, for a layout at this height, why would I bother!) I cut the rails with pliers and then file any burrs off the tops, bottoms and the surfaces where the fishplates go (otherwise you end up fighting with them and don't get a great join). As I happen to be using code 55 Peco track - the one that has 'two webs'; the latter step means running a triangular file between the webs on each side of each rail.

I'm soldering about every second rail jointer (mainly because most of my old recycled track is two sections soldered together) and will be running copious wire jumpers to connect everything else to a thick bus wire running around the layout. Don't want things to be running erratically up in the sky.

DJ 3067 and DG 2376 run the first (unpowered, non-revenue) train of crusty old wagons to 'see how things will look'

Weekend meet

2012-01-17T13:00:00.001+13:00

Well, since the question has been posed, I was thinking about starting at 10:30 ish to give out of towners time to get here. Lunch I'm not sure what will happen but we do own a small BBQ.

As for what is planned, not really that much. Some are planning to bring along a project, and Paekakariki will be available to those who have trains to run (well, even if its only 12' up and back). Oh, and they will need to be DCCed. The power supply seems to be quite grunty and could well fry anything else. Hopefully I'll have enough bits by Sunday to do a track making clinic of some sort. Marks model works will be around to supply assistance in the dark arts of whatever it is he does. Others I'm sure will be there to supply pithy and/or useless comments.

For those who want to come along, e-mail me and you can get the secret password (oh and the location). Remember admission is a model that you are either working on (and I think we will have some tables) or have recently finished. Only fair I think.

Tunnel Vision - Revisiting the Broken River Gorge

2012-01-16T10:00:00.002+13:00

DB hopes that writing this will spur him into action:

I put a lump of wood up in the sky a while back before becoming distracted by other things, but now that it is winter here up in the Top Half of the planet (albeit the mildest I've ever seen) I need a few indoor projects to get on with. And I wouldn't mind seeing a train run around the room under it's own digital steam either...

The Midland Line is a spectacular piece of railway, with the segment between Springfield and Cragieburn, and more specificly, between the coastal abutments of the Pattersons Creek and Slovens Creek viaducts being the most dramatic. While the area around Staircase and the viaducts are all well known, the few tunnel-encrusted kilometres alongside Broken River are less so - probably due both to their inaccessibility and often being bathed in shadow or tricky light; making photography difficult.

Other than the familiar triple tunnels scene below of course. Unfortunately I couldn't conjure up a train at the time of taking the real picture (but I was tempted to photoshop in my new NZ120 DG nose).

So this is kinda what I'm going for in a representative fashion. Something akin to the second shot I would be very happy with: the tunnel 15-14-13 straight section.

I'd quite like some snow but it's not really in keeping with the rest of the layout. Maybe at the far left end there could be some dregs before going into the tunnel leading to the 'fiddle yard' behind it.

An overview

2012-01-15T10:00:00.003+13:00

More cheap and cheerful buildings going up today. After looking at all the plans for the station (which seems to have been rebuilt more times than I've had hot dinners) I managed to work out the size of the main building. with the craft knife set to cut we were off and soon the building appeared. Glued up and on the platform it looked like this.

With the railcar parked next to it, it doesn't seem tall enough, so when I go back and build the real one I'll have to get it right. I was also worried that there would not be enough space on the platform for the station building. Its obvious from this that space will not be a problem.

As the last photos were a bit dark, here is one from the cold hard light of day looking down the whole layout.

Still to come are the houses and town at the far right, the hill close right, and the airail shed on the left.

And here's one of the loco depot showing the recently completed control panels.

'Note the H&S approved soldering iron hanger'

Now if I could just get the minions onto sorting out the turntable then I could get the rest of the track finished. I also will have to decide what to make the final fascia boards from. Ideally it would be 3 or 4mm ply, but I might have to settle for thin MDF (assuming I can get hold of some) of the same thickness. I can't really use card as it is easy to ding, and foam core board has the same problem.

Knocking things up

2012-01-14T10:00:00.004+13:00

Well, with Convention just round the corner, things layout wise have taken a turn towards scenics. I've spent a bit of time in the last couple of days looking at building plans and working out just how I'm going to fit things in to areas that seemed perfectly fine, but are now just a bit small (the water tank area being one). Further to this, today I chopped up some perfectly good cardboard boxes to make some tatty landforms.

Its just there to give visitors next weekend a rough idea of what it will eventually look like. its only sitting there and will not be the final article. I'm not overly impressed with it as I now have nowhere to lean on the layout at the front when I'm working.

I'm tossing up whether or not to build some mock up buildings out of card to see how it looks, and what will fit into some of the areas which are a bit tight.

Ok, so a few beers later and we have a couple of buildings up.

First the goods shed opposite the station. Comments from the peanut galley have said that its not that important. However its one of the few buildings in this area and so it gets made. I followed the guild plans for the standard 20' by 30' shed, and the result was...

Too tall by quite a bit. knocking 5 feet off the bottom and its a much better fit.

Also for a first attempt, here is the loco shed in place. It will be useful to size and place the other buildings in the area relative to it.

So, we have a start on the pretty bits.
(sorry about the lighting, the lady of the house has borrowed the movable lighting for other more important jobs inside.)

Timaru in the 1900's

2012-01-12T22:16:00.005+13:00

Well, after another day in the mansion there is a bit of progress to actually see, but its only painting the track. Oh, and adding some check rails and tweaking others to get the gaps right.

So, sitting down in the evening and having a read and I come across this photo (in New Zealand railway memories).

This struck me as providing the germ of an idea for a shelf layout. the main station is out of shot on the left the main line curves away from the camera on the right and there is a wharf curving towards the camera on the right. Thus one could have main line trains running behind and shunting at the front.

I'd come up with a plan, but I'm busy cutting up bits of cardboard today in the Man-sion

Running in place

2012-01-12T10:00:00.001+13:00

Well, after several hours in the Man-sion yesterday, there is no sign of progress short of the appearance of 2 small control panels on the last module. While this is the final instalation of the point throws on the layout, it doesn't seem like I'm getting anywhere on the surface which is the bit everyone sees. As part of the control panels I also installed the wiring for the point frogs, with the acompanying obligatory shorts. As an interesting aside, for some odd reason I seem to have run out of the black wire, while still having plenty of red. Common sense would suggest that I should have used equal amounts of both. Perhaps the extra black wire is off having fun with my missing socks?

I am also starting to look round and there are a few tidiying jobs to do before the meet next weekend and some vacuuming as well. By the silence I'm assuming I'll just be looking after the usual suspects....

Also, and I'm not sure if I have linked to it before, here is an extremely useful little table of scale rail sizes. Basically for us choosen scale modelers the 2 useful ones are code 55 which corresponds to 100 pound rail, and code 40 which corresponds to 75 pound. Code 70 at >160 pounds is too far out. At the other end of the scale code 30 (which can be got as strip) corresponds to 45 pound, which would work for early track work pre 1900 and later on remote branch lines. However its increased fiddlyness I think would push it beyond my meagre track making skills.

Something a little bit bigger.

2012-01-11T10:00:00.002+13:00

A while ago I blogged about working on some rolling stock for the Fell Museum in Featherstone. Since then, its taken up space on one of my work surface but not much else. Yesterday some pictures were circulated that indicate that the scenery bit of the layout is at the finishing end of getting on. Freshly armed with a new enthusiasm to 'not be last to the party', I started. I had decided to replace the collection of 4 wheeled wagons with something a bit more period accurate. First up was a standard La1. I rescaled the plan for 1:100 which was what my memory told me was the right scale. Banging the old plasticard together and we got to this.

'Hmmmmmm'

On the left, we have the NZ120 La, in the middle the 1:00 La and on the right a Lc of indeterminate scale. The La looks very narrow gauge. Running the measuring stick along the rest of the various bits give various ratios from 1:105 to 1:110. Its like stepping back 25 years to our young days of rubber banding scales. Now normally I would say 'stuff it, lets build everything from scratch', but in this case there is a stack of well made stock that I could never replicate, including a very nice 47' car/van. so, back to the drawing board we go.
(If anyone wants a plasticard la top in 1:100 scale, give me a yell, I've got one going cheap...)

I also managed to fit in some work on Paekakariki, completely the Air rail siding. Not much, but its just ticking things off. There are few jobs I want to get done before I get back to being behind at work next week.

Clearing house

2012-01-10T10:00:00.002+13:00

A stack of small stuff tonight, so without further adoo;

- A small group works on towards an NZ120 competition cup for the convention competitions. Initial thoughts fort he name are the John Rappard memorial trophy. Awarded for the model of a New Zealand prototype to a scale of 1:120 that gains the highest percentage of possible marks during judging. (Categories 2.1 to 2.12). Hopefully this is OK with everyone and we can hopefully get it past the convention committee in time for the convention.

- The initial get together is now down or Schloss dandruff on the 22nd of January. Entry will be a model (of some sort) that you are currently working on or have recently finished. Some S scalers are allowed :v). Not sure what we will do for lunch, but there is also a steam/diesel excursion that day, with a locomotive swap at palmy, which might be a good assembly point. No idea what we will do for lunch either but we will take it as it comes.

-2 hours in the shed today gave no visual improvements but I added in the loco depot DCC booster. This involved working out just what the hell I had done under the hood, but turned out to be as easy as cutting a couple of wires. I had to make a few alterations to the wiring but its now all up and running. The power supply has a bit less juice that the main one so locos slow down/speed up on entering/leaving the depot track. Next up I will look at doing some hand held controllers to add to the Zepher jump ports. I'll also have to come up with some 'novel' control boxes. Still not too sexy, but more important than the pretty stuff. I also fixed another couple of track problems, but I keep finding more.

On Tour; Another little gem.

2012-01-09T10:00:00.003+13:00

On tour to another out of the way preservation site. Today its the turn of the Tokomaru steam museum. I had been thinking of paying this site a visit for the whole of 2011, but didn't quite get that far. Looking for things to do with the parents I noticed that yesterday was a steam day with everything up and running.

The museum has a large collection of stationary steam engines rescued from many old industries, mostly along the lines of 'If you can shift it, you can have it!'. Watching some of these huge machines in almost silent motion is very impressive.

'A very large silent steam engine'

'A steamy steam engine'

But that's not why you keep turning up to read this blog, so lets cut to the good stuff. The museum has a surprisingly good collection of small steam locos. In steam today we had a Manning Wardle 0-4-0. This was towing a home made coach which reminded me a bit of some Swiss maintenance wagons I have seen.

Now unique in New Zealand, Tokomaru has a train set type loop of track, which means that one can walk a very short distance to photograph the 'train' again.

As can be imagined the curves are quite tight, and the grades quite steep at each end. I have seen photographs of a 47' carriage and 30' van running and this must have been a struggle for the small locos involved.

A Fowler ex the Napier harbour board. A sister loco is restored to running condition at Silverstream. I think this might be a runner (I've certainly seen photos of it running in the not too distant past, and the funnel cover is a bit of a give away as well).

A second Fowler, this one ex the Linton army camp where it was used to shunt the sidings at the bottom end of the camp.

There are also a couple of bush locos. Climax 522 worked for Ellis and Burnard and was apparently at one point named Mountaineer. Today its looking a bit worse for wear.

The other side of the cab looks a bit worse.

Next to it in the shed is a price C 0-4-4-0, forerunner of the Cb.

Looking at this I wonder why I spent so much time getting the cab front right.

The bogies are just as small as they look.

Granted that these locos are in rather a poor condition at the moment. I have no idea about any current plans to restore them. However, they are undercover and safe for the time being, and far more restorable than locos that have been pulled out of river banks.

There was also the obligatory baby Tr.

'Does every preservation line have one of these?'
'Does one get handed one for saying "we are going to open a preservation site?"

The station, while looking rather nondescript, is rather important historically. It is one of the few WMR buildings (or indeed artifacts) left.

So, all in all a very interesting day out. if you are planning a visit check up here to see if there is a steaming day on. Its well worth the extra effort to have a look. Oh and on a cold day its nice and warm inside.

Dec 2011 NZMRJ Review

2012-01-08T10:00:00.001+13:00

DB reviews (and almost kindly for a change):
Now that I am a bona-fide, paid-up, full-card-carrying member of the NZ Model Railway Guild once more, let me post this untimely review of the Dec 2011 Journal. Which to be fair, did arrive in Dec 2011. Unlike the US mags, which for some reason are probably issuing the June 2012 edition to the shops as I write this, chocka block with reviews and adverts for models to be released in July 2009...

But where were we... Ah yes, I was pleasantly surprised with this Journal. I must have accumulated 4 or 5 episodes over my current membership stint and I have not reviewed them thus far, firstly because that is normally Señor Druff's purview, but also for fear of being revealed as the constant critic that I constantly am.

It's a difficult job being the Journal Editor of course, because even in our teeny, tiny country, we are such a diverse bunch. A wide range of scales, eras, capabilities and interests, the balance of prototype/model, the balance of technical/aesthetic, the balance of rolling stock/infrastructure/layout modeling with technical articles. Then of course there is the main challenge - having a bunch of authors who can produce a steady stream of good quality material: without which the mag has no option but to become the Editor's private periodical to fill it's pages. Given all these challenges, the Journal has done very well over the 30 years I've been looking at it. Incredibly well given the small size of our modeling population.

Given all this diversity and my usual grumpiness about such matters, I suppose it shouldn't surprise you that my numbers rarely come up. Indeed for me the past year has provided few article oases in a desert of content. A nice Ab on a bridge scene, a CB plan. I'm sure there were others that don't come to mind.

The Dec 2011 edition, however, did float my boat. How could it not grab me from the very first impression - a tasty shot of a nicely detailed DJ which looks a little different from the norm. Yes it's completely scratchbuilt by Brendon Lean. Splendidly detailed, painted and weathered, and with just the subtlest hint of (and this is entirely the wrong phrase) "almost perfection" that proves that this is a model lovingly built from scratch, not just some guy slapping a kitset together or diddling something up on a computer. Nice to see such a beautiful handbuilt model from this dude who is churning out some really nice work. The best model I've seen in a long time.

Nice pics of some Auckland Subbie cars from Mr Palmer with impressive (even under the cruel close-up microscope) hand cut flush glazing.

Drewry DSA - another bloody nice model of a yummy prototype. Thoughtfully planned, detailed, CADed, cast up into a kitset, and nicely photographed too, as is most of the Journal. Certainly a strong contender for Model Of The Journal, maybe the strongest, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to give the nod to Mr Lean for not using a computer to make his. Not that there's anything wrong with that of course, its just harder to get all the bits straight and lined up perfectly without one.

A fairly technical article on producing plans from pictures - I think I need to read this a few more times to fully get it, but the concept seems very useful. This is followed on by the plan generated from the theory - the Bush Tramway Club's Goodman battery loco - and a matching article. Articles on obscure and esoteric prototypes has been very Journaleque for a long time now. I suppose someone is interested in tunnel profile cars and the like, but I'm afraid it's not me. I must admit to reading the Goodman article twice though even though it's not really my cup of cider.

The Merrijigs sawmill - I liked this a lot. A small, simple layout, nicely detailed and photographed. OK so it used Pugs rather than an A or a D or a Cb or some hokey bush tractor, but who cares. The scenery, detailing, weathering and more importantly, the overall effect is just stunning. Quintessential NZ in a few square feet. If this isn't inspiration to get out of the proverbial Modeler's Armchair I don't know what is.

Track Cant - Now there's a subject that is guaranteed a yawn or two, but no, somehow some more useful info on how that should be modeled. I think I'm on some sort of Journal Crack.

Container plans! More modernish-image content! Even in NZ120! Yes! I love these 'wagon' articles and plans. I see a GSY in my future...

Most of the second half of the book I'll pass on, although there is a piece on model photography at the end if you are into that sort of thing. And I am. Although I learned everything I know from this amazing post and this follow up one.

So all in all, a good read this edition with more useful and interesting content than about a decade's worth of the Model Railroader. Not so much for you people interested in hot-water-powered transport other than a very nice pic of journal fixture Wa 289 in the photography article, but perhaps your numbers will come up next time.

Reviewer's recommendation: go out and git yerself one.

Something different

2012-01-07T21:07:00.008+13:00

With the parents in residence this week, there has not been too much time for modeling. However we have been on tour. yesterdays excursion was across to Whanganui and a trip on the 'Waimarie'.

This is the last paddle steamer left in New Zealand, and like all good restoration efforts in this country, was dug out of a river bank.

It is a completely different feeling of motion compared to a screw propelled. There is a definite 'back and forward' motion with every 4th piston beat. The toilets are located behind the paddle housings, possibly to provide a cheap bidet.

The draught of the boat is 22" with a full load. This means (to those of you without a nautical bent) that its very hard to keep it heading where you want it to go as it suffers from a lack of direction. Its worse in a wind.

The soul of the beast. its a marine yarrow boiler, a replica of a 19th century design. It chews through 1/4 ton of coal an hour for a speed of about 11 km/hr. A single sculling rower managed to keep up with us up and down stream for the entire trip.

Don't show the greenies, They don't understand that its good healthy coal smoke.

The inside of the boat has been similarly restored to its original condition.

Also on show was a smaller boat, powered by one of those new fangled internal combustion engines. these were used on the upper reaches of the river up as far as Taumaranui. The propeller was mounted in a tunnel to protect it from the river bottom. This boat was also rescued from the river and restored over a 20 year period.

Also on the waterfront was the beginnings of a tramway restoration effort.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to have a look inside. Maybe next time.

Stock up now

2012-01-06T19:00:00.000+13:00

In news just to hand, A fire at the Woodland scenics plant in the US. No idea what this will do to the avaliablity of the popular range of scenic bits yet, but it could be a boon for other manufacturers.

As far as we can asertain, Brian Roulston of Scenic textures is not currently overseas.

Tea Break

2012-01-06T13:00:00.002+13:00

Am_Fet Ponders:

And so planning continues afoot for the rolling stock needed to populate the 1940's rural idyll that is The Forks. After pondering on the plethora of highsiders needed, attention soon turned to the box wagons. Now, my wishlist was for a couple of Xa's and a K or two, but I got seduced slightly by memories of a 1:64th Z wagon we had as kids, to which I have recently located a plan:

And luckily, there is one up the road in Silverstream waiting to be crawled over with a camera....

So one of those is a must, and the 2mm bogies that the Blogmaster has assembled fit the "Type 97" bill quite nicely. Thoughts then turned back to the 4 wheelers. By pure chance, I found this in a book called "Journey to The Pass":

(Apologies for the photo, it was the easiest way to get a copy.) The photo is from the Aylesbury smash of 1937, and the real interest is the signwriting on the soon to be written off K wagon. It all looks rather "English"...in fact its one of the first times I've seen signwriting on an NZGR Red Oxide van. Uber_Druff managed to find this artifact somewhere on the interweb:

So its time for a bit of guesswork. First thing is the way the wording on the wagon is offset to one side; could it be that the logo was painted on the van side to the left of the door? If you squint at the original, are there a few patches of white that could be the paintwork around the ravens head? How many more wagons were done like this?

Anyway, it will make for a distinctive wagon on the layout. And as Euan McQueen from the Rail Heritage Trust said, "Another fascinating area of research yet to be mined"...I dont know if that was a hint or not!

DG2376 - The Grunge Years

2012-01-05T10:00:00.003+13:00

DB concludes:

You may recall from our last exciting DG episode, that despite low scores from the judges in a somewhat disastrous painting event, I managed to emerge toward the back of the field but still in the running thanks to a spectacular recovery while narrowly avoiding a potentially career-ending decaling nightmare. Here in the final shot at glory I hope to redeem myself with some intensive weathering - always a safe bet when you are trying to make a shambles look a little less shambolic. This is why builders invented plaster, panelbeaters invented filler, and women invented makeup.

As a preparatory step (distinct from previous preposterous steps) I coated the freshly laid decals with a coat of clear acrylic varnish to protect them before attacking what was left of my etch detail with a thin wash of black to highlight grills and doors.

The next target was the roof, which was ambushed by acrylic washes and random drybrushing in eclectic shades of gray, brown and rust. After all that shock and awe, a coat of Testors Dullcote matt varnish was then gently sprayed over the whole model from the can to protect the whole mess and make things a little less shocking and awful.

Finally, weathering chalks were applied - mainly copious amounts of black around the exhaust/radiator area, because DGs always had a grime not (just) from the exhaust, but also because oil mist from the engine room was piped into the radiator area to be expelled by the fan. A little dark brown chalk was added to the top of the nose and some rusty bits in various shades of brown to the roof.

In and around and hereabouts before or after that, I also added:
- MV lenses for headlights
- tail lights (painted red)
- that little spinny ventilator on the cab behind the front facing horns
- handrails (freestanding nose ones from a BLMA N scale GE handrails set)
- brakehoses (thin black wire from a DCC decoder - not thin enough!)
- side windows and portholes - black paint into the half-etched shapes
- front windows - ended up just painting them freehand - eek!
- the round main radiator roof grill (brass mesh)
- air tanks each side of the fuel tank
- steps under the cab doors (old Ratio UK N scale signal ladder etches)
- that little sticky-out step under the end doors front and rear
- painted the headlight surrounds black
- painted the headstocks a delightful shade of bumblebee by hand - eek!
- painted/washed the bogies/fuel tank/air tanks brown and black
- added some plastic last seen doing a rather shoddy impersonation of a cowcatcher.

Ta da....

One slightly sloppy silk purse as requested, sah. No viewing from less than two feet away please. Them's the rules.

Uninterestingly, 2330 was the second NZ120 loco I built (in 1993 maybe?) and has stood the test of time pretty well with its hand-scribed grill detail, freestanding handrails and paper NZR logos. It is still one of my favourite NZ120 locos.

Yes, all of these pics do look a little awkward (although most of the distortions are my modeling!) having been taken with a wee point and shoot camera.

Its a little shonky from some angles but I'm pretty happy with it overall, especially as its the first real model I've made in a long time. The chassis could be a little longer (or the body shorter), the roof is a little tall, I probably need to have another go at the metal around the fuel tank and of course there are those windows, but it looks 'good enough' to sit behind a recabbed DG or a DJ on a train. Especially so if you are viewing from across the room with all the lights off.

Fixing things

2012-01-04T10:00:00.002+13:00

While some of us have been lucky enough to be doing 'sexy' model making, others have been back to basics.

I've been doing an hour here and there this week checking up on my early track building efforts. This involved the exciting task of going over everything with the NMRA track gauge (did I say buy one. Its a must have as far as I'm concerned now). Mostly I've found that the flange ways are either too tight or too loose, or the track is out of gauge. What i have found easier to do is to mark any areas that don't conform with a red marker pen. after I've done an area I can then go back with the soldering iron and do everything in one go, rather than a start/stop process.

Here is an example. The circles labeled 1 have flange ways that are too wide. I simply slip a 0.8mm sleeper into the gap and then carefully close it up with the application of heat. the area labeled 2 has the opposite problem, and the remedy is to slide the sleeper into the gap while applying heat to shift things out. again this works fine. Number 3 is where the gauge is too tight.

After fixing these I then remove the red marker. It has been making quite a difference to the smoothness of the running, though there is still quite a bit of clunking round in some areas. Still in terms of looks (and possibly running) it does beat the hell out of the Peco offerings. As an interesting aside I now find Peco points hideous to gauze upon. Its right up there with not painting the sides of the rails. maybe I'm just getting too snobby?

Fortunately I have been getting better at making points as I've gone along. Having now made about 30 I think I have got most of the 'kinks' out. At some point I will make some videos to show how I have done it. Maybe even the convention organisers might be interested?

There has also been a bit of work done with the paintbrush.

'I've got too many things that are red'

I've also added pickups to the rear wheels. I'm not sure if they are doing anything useful. The tensioning of these has been a bit problematic. Too little and there's no contact, too much and the wheels (and hence the whole thing) don't roll. Tests on the layout have it now moving quite well forwards under its own 'steam', but not at all in reverse. Not really a big problem.

DG2376 - Now in Technicolor

2012-01-03T10:00:00.000+13:00

DB Says:

With the first wave of detailing complete, it's time to slop some paint onto the model in the hope of hiding all the messy bits.

My plan is to make the model as 2376 looked at the end of her career. From the pics I have seen, 783 (her original non-TMS number) seems to have been South Island based for her whole life. She was originally a DH and was involved in the Palmerston crash (see the April 2002 NZMRJ for pics).

She was a fairly extreme example of DG tattiness when snapped by kiwirailengineer at Wharanui in 1979 (note the TMS numbers on the headstock):

The ÜberDruff notes that the track on the above layout hasn't been ballasted yet. My memory also recalls a nice unpowered old-nosed DG that he made once. Wonder where that is now?

783/2376 received a partial Dulux makeover at Hillside in the 1979/1980 timeframe when she was overhauled and became one of the DG 'slave' locos. Ken Devlin took the following pic shortly after then. Comparing it to the Wharanui pic, it looks like the red was been repainted as were the bumble bee headstocks, but not the roof or bogies!

AA654 has a pic of 2376 in 1980 at Arthur's Pass in his phenomenal Flickr photostream and you can see the loco was starting to get a little grubbier:

DG 2376 was withdrawn in late 1982, so I'm aiming for the above with a little more grime. I quite like this look with the fading red, the yellow nose moustache and the white TMS numbers on the sides.

Right, enough deliberating, lets sniff some paint. I used Floquil UP Harbor Mist Gray for the roof base, as it's a medium-light shade and Floquil Santa Fe Red on the sides. That red is a little pink and flat for Santa Fe in my eyes, but it's not bad for the DG here.

Floquil paints are not my faves in terms of applicability though, and I fear I've made a bit of a mess troweling on the paint and covering up all my nice etch detail. But the proof will be in the pudding I suppose, and we shall be tasting that soon enough. I've also partially drilled out the lights to take lenses in a future installment, and added a pair of horns stolen from the PA-1 top and their little mounting ears (a technical term coined by Mr AH). Although they look a little Prince Charles-ish in this pic...

I was not looking forward to the decal challenge.

Firstly because those nose stripes are going to be damn fiddly to get right by trial and error; and secondly because my ALPS printer only works about once every three years as it is possessed by Throckmortons.

Fortunately I had somehow accidentally printed up a set of TMS numbers while trial-and-erroring my DX cabside numbers last year that were completely the wrong size at the time but miraculously they fitted into the available space on the DG (!) so that was one problem down. Shortly afterwards I was staring at a set of N Santa Fe warbonnet decals and the beans started rattling around in my head...

These SF stripes are yellow with a thin black stripe on one side only, but after a little fine-line permanent marker for the bottom line (that marker also used for the joint line between the red and the gray roof) and some cutting, within 30 minutes I had the following (presented here in uglyvision):

Close enough for Government work.

Scayla, the god of modeling, is smiling on me this day.

Resolute from the start

2012-01-02T10:00:00.000+13:00

Fettler_Half_Hand writes:

Well, here we are...somehow. I think my current feelings as we turn the yearly corner are best summed up on stuff.co.nz by Moata (The uber-cool blog writer) when she wrote "It may be ungenerous of me but as the year draws to a close, I can't help thinking "don't let the door hit your arse on the way out, 2011". Truly this is a year that I will not miss."

Sure, she'd just lived through the year of hell that all Christchurch residents have survived, but her sentiments resonate with me in a big way. My year can be summed up as "Worked too much, Fire, Didnt work at all....Damn".

In the end, I spent 11 weeks off work and probably went back too early to boot. I'm in weekly physio and bandage changes to break the monotony as well as wearing a compression glove 24/7 for scar management. Oh, and I've been nicknamed "The Claw" or "Crispy" at work, and you just know thats gotta stick.

So as you can image, those 11 weeks gave me a lot of time to think and plan/dream, and as we turn the corner it seems a perfect time to start turning the plans into reality....call them resolutions if you will. The fun bit will be looking back in 12 months and laughing uproariously at this list when I've achieved none of it.

The first ones are reasonably generic: Work less, exercise more, look at starting my own business (seriously this time), learn more about coffee (?) etc...

So what about goals tied in with this blog? Well....Waihao Forks will be delivered from Schloss Dandruff at some stage and will need to be finished with structures and scenery (Goods shed, station, backdrops, etc), so thats goal number 1. Then, I'll need some stock to run on it (such as a Wf and a plethora of 1940's wagons, all to finescale standards), so that will be goal number 2. Then there will be doing whatever Herr Dandruff requires for Paekakariki (such as the turntable).....and that might just be enough to keep me occupied.

First goal however, is to get this puppy sorted:

Dual boot Win7/OSX Snow Leopard (sure, it isnt the latest, but the name is way cooler than "Lion") running CAD, CorelDraw, Rhino3d and Office 2010 making it a Laser Cutting/RP power house....just the thing to start the new business with.

Oh, and another resolution: More Blog Posts!!

Details, details.... DG 2376

2012-01-01T10:22:00.002+13:00

DB says:

The penultimate step in the saga of creating a new loco is to add some details. But before this, I needed to do some emergency rhinoplasty with my model as I'd decided overnight that my beautifully shaped nose was a bit lopty and a bit wide. This was (surprisingly) easily fixed by throwing a dremel through the thing, pulling the two halves together and gluing the gap shut.

That's not a very flattering pic, in fact it looks like something out of one of those 'Saw' movies, but the nose now looks a little better overall even if its still a little lopty in symmetry although this is only really noticeable when you look from front-on up-close. Pretend I didn't just say that and continue to ooo and ahhh. Or ewww and awww if that's what you were doing.

After that excitement it was onto the details and finishing up the cab front windows.

I stuck on roof hatches above the diesel engine, electrical cabinet behind the cab, and the WHB compressor down the back (almost opposite the dynamic brake shutter cutout). I also added the hatch in the roof of the nose that it would seem was used for cleaning the front windows. These were all made from thin plasticard or paper.

Then I added the nose door, headlights (made from plastic rod popped into a drilled hole), tail lights and MU receptacles.

I'm not sure how I will do the front window glazing as I write this, but as you can see below, I have at least filled the hole that was there previously.

For connoisseurs of over-engineered British design practices, the cab front windows slope back from the vertical (more steeply raked than the nose front face), but the two little front windows also slant back when viewed from above ever so slightly. The cab roof also slopes down toward the front from above the rear of the cabside doors. This is where the side tapering begins too. Thank God for sandpaper and modeling putty.

The back end of the body does not slope down, but the sides do taper in. I'm sure that makes no sense. So I'm not even going to consider explaining the shape of the roof cover over the WHB compressor...

Up until now the pictures that have accompanied the journey have looked a bit daggy, but now all of a sudden, its starting to look almost like a DG:

I particularly like the MU connectors - they are a thinish (.5mm) sliver of the plastruct rod used for the headlights, which was then cut that into 4 sectors/segments/quarters and these are those, so to speak. I like they way they are curved a little like the real thing - at least from a distance!

I smell some paint approaching...

The year in review

2011-12-31T10:30:00.005+13:00

Well, its that time of the year again when I get to sit down and see where the last 12 months has got me.

12 months ago everything was going into boxes in preparation for the great move north. This has worked out very well for us personally and for me professionally. Its nice to work somewhere where one is appreciated and the atmosphere is rather more fun. The lady of the house has also completed her degree this year (only 20 years in the making) and is on to further study next year. So baring family fires and some health issues its been a good year all round her at Schloss Dandruff

Layout wise tracks were still getting made. I could run a loco a whole 7'.

Moving on 12 months later and short of the turntable and the main join between the 2 northern boards its pretty much done. The major other parts to do are checking the track is all in gauge etc and installing the booster for the DCC set up.

'Oh, and did I say it has to be done for the convention?'

In the loco and rolling stock department, there have been a couple of oddities in the Price Cb and rail truck that saw the light of day. On the real rolling stock front there was pretty much zip. The is no Ew to grace the rails, and the large steam locos remain firmly on the drawing board. With the wagons the main problem I face is decent wheels to an NMRA standard on a short axle. I can't get hold of any of the newer Dapol or Farish stuff (and believe me, I've tried) which have the right wheel size. Any US stuff is just too small (5.5-5.7mm vs 6.2mm and to me yes it does make a difference). The 2mm stuff is very pretty, but my track making skills are not quite up to it. However I'm looking forward to the etched underframes from MMW so that may spur me on in the new year.

So what will the new year bring? I'm hoping for some more etching being done, and possibly even a couple of kits or something. Certainly completion of some of my loco desires for Paekakariki. I'd like to think that by this time next year the layout has moved on a bit more

You'll have to excuse me now. Its raining and I'm off out to the Man-sion....

UPDATE; As an aside, does anyone have any suggestions for a cheapish USB web cam? I'm just experimenting out in the shed and the one I own is complete crap.

Upstairs and downstairs - DG2376

2011-12-30T10:00:00.004+13:00

DB says:

I added a roof to the DG today [which is probably a week ago as you read this as I did all this DG stuff over the Christmas weekend] using some 1 inch dia plastic irrigation pipe leftover from the AO cars.

After a lot of dremeling and sanding it's almost done. The real thing has an unusual cross section (curved on top but with steeper sections at the edges, but this will do. Its probably a smidge tall, but so is my other DG. Not shown in the mockup pic below was the removal of a section at the very back of the roof on the port side (avast!) for the dynamic brake roof shutters. I'm sure that will be visible in a later picture.

With that almost sorted it was time to go 'down there' into the netherworld of chassis surgery. The 'new' Kato Pa-1 chassis is DCC friendly, but longer than the old Kato/con-cor ones, so needs a few minor alterations. Luckily, it comes apart very easily:

A little nipping and tucking later and I have reduced the overall length by shaving the ends and removed some of the PA-1 fuel tank as the DGs had tiny tanks:

I then used a marker pen to blacken the lower surfaces of the metal casting that might show under the NZ120 body.

Luckily, the PA-1 bogies are almost perfect for a DG. They are a tiny bit short in bogie wheelbase as almost all N scale mechs are for us (they should stretch further inboard towards the fuel tank), but the details are almost perfect. Technically the PA-1 has a pair of tiny coil springs on the outer of the equalizing beams where we had 1 coil spring, and the top of their bogie main casting has a tiny curve on top of it above the centre wheel, and our brake cylinders are more complex, but none of that bothers me enough to make any changes to the Kato items supplied.

p.s. Except for the bogie mounted sandboxes that one batch of the DGs had (the others had sandboxes hidden behind the headstocks)... I think perhaps all of the late-surviving locos had bogie sandboxes, but just at the '4 corners' of the loco, not one at each corner of each bogie.

Summer

2011-12-29T10:51:00.004+13:00

While kiwibonds freezes in a North American winter and has modeling time, here in the south pacific its much harder to justify heading out to the shed for a few hours given its been blue dome weather for the last week or so. Yesterday was gardening and fishing after getting new tires for the car. Hence we get staggered posting about how to build a Dg which I think is now finished, but still has a week to run cos I'm lazy, and if we posted it all in one go then I would have to come up with something else. I have also been rebuilding an old laptop (an Eee 701) adding a new operating system and more memory so that I can use it when away from home.

Fortunately the weather appears to be packing in (slowly. its suppose to be raining now, but like everything else its on a go slow as well), so I'll be able to run away out the back for a while, where many jobs await.

There has also been some discussion in the peanut gallery about entries for convention competitions. Given that its only 3 months away (REALLY) you should all be planning your entries now. I'll do a separate post on reading the rules and whats involved in doing as well as you can.

Gweilo - DG 2376

2011-12-28T10:00:00.004+13:00

DB says:

The slang term for a westerner in China is gweilo (bignose). Of course you would never call my nose big if you had met an English Electric DG loco. Aiiiyaaa!

I began by making the front face, which on a DG slopes back a little from the vertical and is graciously curved across the front and suddenly more sharply at the corners. A few plastic corner posts and a .5mm sheet rendered a fair representation of this once sanded down and stuck together.
After letting that set for a while I started on the top section. This is surprisingly tall on the prototype - the top of it comes up to the height of the top edge of the cab side windows. To make this I stuck two pieces of 2mm sheet together and began filing. As with the front face, there is a nice curve all over the top with a tighter radius curve at the corners. To make things even more difficult, the top slopes down slightly toward the front. Again, I think the Trackside kit seems to do a good job of capturing this from the pics I've seen (and again, I should have bought a Trackside nose rather than making my own, but that's stupidity for you).

After a considerable period of dremeling and sanding I attached the nose-top to the body only to find it was too tall. The sanding crew were roused from their slumbers and eventually I was happy enough with the general shape. A little modelling putty was applied in the seams and hopefully some paint, hatches, doors, headlights and handrails will complete the illusion of fidelity.

I highly recommend the April 2002 NZ Model Railway Journal's article on DG locos, which has an excellent range of reference pictures and plans.

Rumble in the Jungle - DG 2376

2011-12-26T10:00:00.001+13:00

DB says:

Well I finally made it to my nice clean freshly carpeted train room last weekend, but struggled to find my knife. As such, my NZ120 pilot light was unable to re-ignite any of the half finished efforts that I did find. Somehow I got fired up enough to make some serious progress on a long running Z scale project and kitbash this N scale freak:

No, it's not exactly NZ prototype, but you might be interested to hear that I bought an N scale Kato C30-7 a few months back as I've always wanted one of these UP C36-7s with their lumpy Dash-8 style dynamic brake box. Its not a perfect model, but it will do me. And most importantly, today, when I did find my modeling knife, my modeling juices were already flowing.

Another thing I stumbled on last week was a bunch of DCC friendly PA-1 chassis hiding in my drawers (my desk drawers you understand) and this feeble piece of origami:

Which you may remember from a long-ago post on the use of modern technology in NZ120 modeling

I made this home-made brass etch by starting with a plan in 'negative form' (i.e. black everywhere except where the etch lines should go) printed onto cheap photo paper (because it is coated paper) in a [Dr Evil voice] laser [end Dr Evil voice] printer. Then I turned the printed paper upside down and carefully ironed the DG plan onto some .5mm thick brass strip using an iron (strangely enough).

This process melts the plastic laser toner onto the brass, and annoyingly, while its at it, also has the effect of sticking the paper sheet to the brass. But never fear for once its all cooled down, you can put the whole mess in water and soak off the paper thanks to the photo coatings, leaving the brass nicely coated with black plastic toner except for the grills and windows which will be etched out. This you do in a little tray with some acetone and acid and a turkey baster. Of course I'm not cleverly making this up - you can Google "toner transfer brass etching" if you really want to see how this is done in more detail. It works.

This was a reject sample - note no toner on the top edge of the piece due to poor ironing skills! This could be saved by using a permanent marker to draw over the bits you don't want etched.

Aaaaaaanyway, I thought I might see if I could put some lipstick on this pig as I really should have a model of DG2376; especially now that as I type this blog post, the orientation of the real one is in doubt thanks to the Dec 23 Chch earthquake blitz. I feel for you, Christchurchians...

Since the 'rear end' as I etched and folded it was a bit wide, I cut it out to give me two sides and then made up a plastic replacement back to match my recabbed NZ120 DG 2330. I then managed to glue all of this plus a front headstock together in a geometry that isn't too far off flat and square.

Then it was time to start the nose. Having studied DG noses inside and out for many years I can tell you they are difficult to understand in your head, let alone model, and the published plans can be misleading. The Trackside NZ120 DG seems to have one of the best nose shapes out there from th epics I have seen - the face seems to have the right angles and curvature although the front windscreen face should be sloped more and moved rearward maybe a mm or two which would make the the whole snout look the right length.

Well I'm about to dive in and attempt this with layered-on chunks of plasticard... It might have been smarter to buy a Trackside nose :)

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T21:00:00.001+13:00

Saturday morning

2011-12-24T10:12:00.003+13:00

Well, with the festive season upon us, I have not had much of a chance to do any modeling this week. I've also been expending some energy in getting an old net book up and running. it works, but I'm having problems uploading a new operating system onto it. I'm sure I can sort it out, but its just taking time.

I guess its also the time for an end of year wrap up, so lets get some discussion going. What are your high points and low points (in modeling only please.). Bouquets and brickbats could get a bit too personal.

For me the high point(s) were.
-Getting my track making skills to a point where I can now make good looking track that seems to work well. Being able to demonstrate at shows that its not actually that hard to do.
-Getting back into the show scene, and catching up with friends old and new.
-Making some of the smallest NZ120 locos with some more in the planning stages.

low points were a bit harder and basically boil down to not progressing some projects along as well as I would have liked. Things that spring to mind are the Ew and Ka (both with none). I think this is down to the location of the Man-sion. At Chateau dandruff in Nelson 'Der room' was inside the house, and I could hold conversations with the lady of the house. Now I'm off out in the back blocks and its a bit harder to spend lots of time.

So, we throw the comments section open to the cheap seats. I'll even invite modelers from other scales to post (isn't that generous of me). Just keep it (reasonably) civil.

History is alive and well....

2011-12-23T20:39:00.005+13:00

Armless_Fet writes:

I was wandering aimlessly into work the other morning and saw the interior design team were in with all their tools in the lobby by the lifts. Sitting on some trestles was a long plank of varnished wood. Didint really think much more of it, until I left for lunch and was greeted by this:

Gobsmacked I was! As a student of fine locomotive design, I knew that is from Sir Nigel Gresleys A4 locomotive built in the 1930's.

I've always had a soft spot for the A4's....they looked much nicer than the LMS "Coronation" streamliners, and Sir Nigel's influence lasted even after his death....apart from Thompson ballsing about, the Peppercorn A1's are still the best looking 4-6-2 locomotives to come out of the British Isles.

And for those who love all things steam, that sounds like an open invitation for an argument....Begin!

Short update

2011-12-20T13:00:00.001+13:00

Just a quick note on where things are up to.

I've added the canvas cover to the rear deck, and added the pickup wires back into the guide holes. After cleaning out the inside of the syringe tube with a piece of broken fret saw blade it has taken it's first stuttering steps last night, which bodes well for the rest of the build once I get the pickup on the rear axles fixed and some more mass into it.

When the hell did THAT happen?

2011-12-19T13:00:00.002+13:00

(In which our hero discovers that he has actually become surprisingly competent at some things without noticing).

When we left our last episode the mech was whirring away happily without getting far, and the cab sides were cut out. Another session at the workbench and things moved well along, without many burnt fingers. I should have taken pictures along the way, but as you are all well aware I just don't roll that way. Suficit to say there was some cutting andsoldering and filing interspersed by the sad little plink of yet another fret saw blade giving up the fight.

'Posed next to my double sized ruler'

The cab actually came together surprisingy easily considering its a collection of odd shapes of metal. The plastic deck at the rear was somewhat simpler to do. Personally I was astounded as it is the first time I've tried to do anything like this in brass, and it all came together well without unsoldering itself once (though it did get quite hot at times). As for the atuall prototype, well its a truck of some sort....
I have removed the pickups for the time being as I have to work out where they will go with the lid on.

'looking better'

Next up the obligatory photo with the Cb for scale. I had thought the cab was going to sit too high to clear the front bogie, but it looks OK. The front bogie has now acquired some bush workshop 'wood' frames to cover up the rest of the bogie bits. There are also the beginnings of some weight in the back. There is plenty of space for more weight in the cab (OK, plenty is a relative term) and also under the canvas top. I must go and find out if you are still allowed to buy lead in this country, of if its been banned by the environmentalists.

Final shot today shows the addition of a dumb buffer (on the off chance that it might have enough grunt to actually move something else under its own power).

Not bad for 5 hours of work over 2 days. Not so good for anything important getting done on the layout....

UPDATE; in response to a question, here is a general idea of how I did it. Basically it was sheer dumb luck.
looking from underneath. The top of the hood is shim brass sheet that is curved over and soldered on each side. I've then put a dashboard piece in that provides the bottom of the windscreen.
The top side. Here's where I got lucky, as I just soldered the brass dashboard in and the solder flowed into the right shape. I think its something to do with the silver content. I'd give you a scientific discussion of this but I'm worried about people falling asleep at keyboards, and waking up with a key imprint on your forehead. It does work though, and I just had to do some cleanup on the ends with a file.

Distracted

2011-12-18T10:00:00.003+13:00

Well, with all the best intentions I ventured out to the man-sion yesterday afternoon to work on Paekakariki (which has now acquired italics to show its importance). Unfortunately I was distracted.....

'The enormous DCC chip is 19mm long'

I have made a few alterations from previous pictures. The rear underframe has been built up from a couple of bits of 0.4mm PCB. The spoked wheel has been replaced by a plain 7mm one though I might replace it with a smaller 6mm one as it doesn't quite look right at the moment. I was pondering how to arrange the power pickup from the front bogie. There is quite a bit of swivel required for the tight curves and I was not happy with soldering a wire onto the pickup as I had done with the Cb. A moment of clarity gave the solution. I have some bits and pieces of syringe needle as it is a good source of small tube. A short piece of this was soldered to the pickup stub, and then a piece of phosphor bronze wire was slipped into the hole (a loose fit) and the other end soldered to the frame. This set up actually works, and the mech has taken its first stuttering steps on the layout. I still have to sort out how to run pickups off the rear wheels without inducing too much friction.

One thing that the test run demonstrated is that it will need as much weight as I can manage to fit in. Talk amongst the peanut gallery had suggested that plasticard should be the medium of choice for the top. However, having a long history with making small locos work in this scale, I picked brass to get some more weight in. I need to get as much weight as possible forward of the rear wheel for traction.

I sweatted 2 pieces of brass together and then glued a paper plan on as a cutting guide. Fret saw and file were employed for the shaping. I've now realised that I may need to buy a second decent file. Also compered with making track where I might go through a fret saw blade every 2 days or so, I've gone through 5 in an afternoon.

Saturday morning

2011-12-17T11:42:00.002+13:00

Well, another weekend has arrived. Fortunately this one is accompanied by inclement weather which means that it will be time to get back out into the shed. Its approximately 100 days to the convention, and things need to start moving along a bit quicker layout wise, so there will be much thrashing of minions (note to self; discover where one gets some minions. Maybe they come as a boxed set at the warehouse?). I will also have to better resist the lures of bush tramways as well (which I am seriously failing at)

As an off thought of this, how many others are planning to go conventioning? Mr Trackgang will be there (I assume) plus the motley collection of odds and sods of bloggers from this site, but how about the rest of you? And have you started on that modeling project for the competitions?

Also, assuming that Paekakariki gets to the ball on time everyone is welcome to bring rolling stock along to run. BUT if you want them to run anywhere except the north and south mainlines their wheel sets will have to fit the NMRA gauge. that means that anything with PECO sets is ruled out from the yards, and locos with tight wheel sets will have a hard job of it in the depot.

So, back to the benches everyone, and lets make a decent showing for our scale.

Plans

2011-12-16T13:00:00.001+13:00

So, after doing all the cutting, it was time to see if things were actually going to fit. Instead of photocopying the plans down, I sometimes prefer to draw things out just to see how things work. It can give you a better idea of how its going to work.

I picked a 1930's ford truck as the base. Well, its actually an Opel Blitz but close enough. I've always liked the shape of this truck and it does fit into the period. The closet bit will be fitting the gear drive under the hood, but I can always jack the front end up a bit. I also looked at removing parts of the bogies but these are not as tightly fixed as the previous types that I have worked on. I'll just have to file all the springing detail off instead.

Oh, and it looks like the decoder will fit under the canvas hood. That is a plus at least.

Hopefully at some point we will return the blog to some more normal subjects.

Pointed Comment

2011-12-15T18:10:00.001+13:00

DB says: for those of us lacking the ability to craft custom iron roads with a deft wave of the soldering iron, I note that Peco has recently given the snap-track planning department another option with the addition of an N scale three way point. That is all. Carry on.

Grasp on sanity slipping?

2011-12-14T13:00:00.001+13:00

Over the years I've provided plenty of evidence that I tend to think out of the box a bit, possibly to the point of thinking out of the next box too. I find it very useful in my chosen profession. Anyhoo, a couple of months back I was looking at another bush loco from a Kato B-train.

This wasn't really sitting quite right in my brain,and like most projects that reach this stage in my brain, it doesn't go much further. Fast forward to last week and while looking at photos from a yahoo group I came across something that did send the old grey cell into a bit of activity (and not just the 'rolling over and going back to sleep' kind). A quick search wound me up at the web page of the bush tramway club, and to one of their pages.

OK, so at first glance there are no real similarities, but as I looked a bit harder something clicked. This then progressed to seeing just how much further the Kato underframe could be disassembled. Adding some bits from the spares box (I think it was a Bachmann 4-8-2 trailing bogie) and trimming a bit more and we get.

I still have to modify the front bogie sideframes to something that looks a bit more bush workshop, and sort out the pickups for the rear wheel. Fortunately the front bogie uses the outside pinpoint style pickups. I did have to swap a 1/2 axle that had a traction tire to get more pickups.

So size wise, how does it compare with the previous benchmark (and those who have seen the Cb in the flesh know what I mean).

'Cor boss, that is small!'

The size for the top is 51mm long, and 22mm high. this should just be enough space for a decoder. I may have to remove the motor clip and glue the motor into position.

Must put more thought into a layout at some point as well. They will look a bit out of place on Paekakariki. I'm leaning tiowards something that will fit into a total dimension of 62" (or 158cm) and 23kg total weight, as this will fit on an AirNZ aircraft.

You're not quite right

2011-12-12T21:28:00.004+13:00

Looking at the calender reveals that Easter is the first week in April in 2012. This gives me sod all time to get Paekakariki up and running. Having a bit of a think about what needs to be done, vs what REALLY needs to be done I made a start on the jobs that need to get sorted.

The most important thing is that everything runs well, with no/few rough spots. Thus I've been putting some work in on identifying bad spots that need fixed. This has been a mixture of using rolling stock to identify bad spots and the NMRA track gauge to confirm them. As I wasn't planning to play with the soldering iron till later, I just marked them in red.

The more observant will note that the locations tend to be in the same areas and related to the point frogs. These early points appear to be worse than my later efforts once I had sorted out what I was doing. The check rails seem to be the most common fault. The one on the right seems to be from the really early period where I was trying to get Peco wheelsets through everything and has escaped alteration. The one on the left is too wide and allows the lead Ed bogie to pick the frog. A check with the track gauge shows that these can all be narrowed which should 'fix' the problems. I'll slowly work through the rest of the layout during the week, then have a soldering session to sort everything out.

Getting on with it

2011-12-09T13:00:00.000+13:00

Pushing forward with the fuel oil tanks I made a trip to Mitre 10 midweek (power cut at work meant that I couldn't do anything), and came away with a piece of dowel which I guessed was the right size. Getting it home and cutting it into bits of the 'right' length I then plonked it on the layout in roughly the right spot.

From this angle they look a bit big, but the area is slowly coming together

From this angle the size looks about right. More importantly it looks good which is usually enough to get me back into a project.

If only I could find some better photos of the area. I may have to stage a break in to the NZRLS archives.

The research hunt.

2011-12-08T13:00:00.001+13:00

How does one catalog all the many bits of modeling research that they have?

Case in point. the other night I was trying to force myself to get started on at least one of the scenes on the layout. I looked at the area round the water tower. and thought that's not a bad place to start. I dug out a reject la casting for one part of it, then thought 'I remember a photo of this area'. But where to look. Unfortunately I don't have a 'photographic memory' (haha) for these things like my brother (He would probably say something like 'oh that's on page 34 of the March 1976 'Railways of Oureggostan' or something similar)

First up I trawled through the photo collection on the computer. No luck. Next I thought 'maybe its in one of my hard cover books.' I also recalled it being a black and white photo and so grabbed the ones that just had black and white pictures. No luck again, though I did spend some time looking at 1950's west coast photos and thinking again of that large layout.

Right, next thought. Maybe its in a Railfan, but again which one. Well, its going to be something about wellington, so its either in the EW article (oh, hang on, there were 2), the one on the Baker valve gear Ka's or one of the ones on banking with the section on out of the capital. back out to the Man-sion .

Hmm, Railfan doesn't have any index on the cover, so I consult the Railfan that I use to keep track of which ones I own and which ones I need to buy to get a complete set. Right, December 1999 and March 200 for the banker articles. No luck. The 958/959 article also yields no photo, and I get to the first Ew one. Finally there it is. Search time 2 hrs (with sidetracking).

Now I know that the more organised would say that you need an index to catalog all o this stuff, but what would I file the picture under? Its got an Ew in it, there's the south end of the loco depot and then the one wee bit of the scene that I want to use. Its really down to the old grey cell at the end of it (who is feeling very put upon).

Oh, and I can't do anything as I don't have any red oxide paint so it was all rather a mute point anyway.

Fill er up.

2011-12-07T13:00:00.000+13:00

Pottering in the Man-sion on the weekend I forced myself to make a start on at least doing some more scenic planning. I stuck with the loco depot area and more exactly the fueling points. Paekakariki in the 1960's had 2 separate oil storage tanks and a large coal stage on the south side of the engine shed. This all had to be compressed into a length of 350mm.

I figured out that the easiest thing was to divide the area in 1/2. This makes each 175mm which is about the same length as a Ka or Ja. Its much shorter than the real area, but will still give me the same feel I hope. I was worried that the fuel tanks would look too short (I know the coaling stage does, but I'll have to live with it) but a quick test using 2 30' guards vans as length proxies gave me about the right look. I'll also need to build a compressed air coaling crane and a couple of wagons being unloaded.

The waiting is over

2011-12-06T22:41:00.003+13:00

If you remember the last time Mini-Me-Wagon was here here we said "now we wait......"

Well the waiting is over. Pretty good turn around really for this time of year

Here is the etch, brought to you by Mini-Me-Wagons and Two Foot Models

We have some issues still to work out firstly the detail of the hole through the bottom of the W iron made the fold too weak and it bends in the wrong place which makes it damn hard to fold and line up the bearing holes with ease and one of them broke free during folding

The Etch

At the local support group tonight the first folding was finished with a touch of solder on each of the axle boxes and the brake lever we have a rather respectable model.

It was noted by 0-4-4-0T that the detail looks finer than that of the Peco underframes

Folded up - pay attention to the nutter detailed rivets on the W irons

One of the supporters wants to do one with a true to scale axle length of 12.25mm over the pin points (2mm Association standard) which maybe possible

Another shot of the folded underframe

One the early J5 bodies on top has revealed another issue, it looks like the chassis is a bit over length

This maybe the fold lines adding length so another correction and another prototype to go

Under one of the Batch Built J bodies

A very nice model - if a little challenging to fold

Stay tuned for more on this project

Answering some questions.

2011-12-05T13:00:00.000+13:00

My discussion on a new way (for me) to make throw bars ahs raised a few questions from the peanut galley. So, with teh aid of some terrible photographt I hope to clear (or muddy) a few things up.
Heres an earlier piece of trackwork from Grassmere. The filed heads of the peco track pins are clearly visible. They are countersunk 1/2 way through the throwbar so one can imagine how much weaker these are than normal.

The top side. the pin (with the chemical blackening layer removed) is soldered to teh inside of the point blade. A notch needs to be filed through the 'foot' of the rail to allow the pin through.
For some odd reason I find it very hard to get these notches lined up on each side. As you can imagine, this does take time. By the time I've stuffed up the throw bar once and buggered around with the notches, it can be 20 minutes to do the lot.

Ehibit B. Just soldering the point blades directly to the throwbar. Easy to line up. 2 minutes if I'm careful. Every bit of metal involved in this assembly has a bit of flex in it, so the weakest link is actually the chemical bonding of the copper layer to the resin PCB.

Meeting up part II

2011-12-04T09:51:00.002+13:00

OK, so assuming that this 'meeting did go ahead;
-Admission is everyone brings a model or plate of food?(or both?)
-Would a free for all and chat be OK, or should we do some mini clinics on modeling skills.
-If clinics, what would everyone like to see 9(I can offer track making and guards van construction)
-What sort of dates. is it too close to Christmas, or would the 17th/18th suit (the 9th/10th might be pushing it a bit organisation wise)

So feedback from local readers would be good as well, assuming the local club guys do read the blog. its more for you than the usual suspects.

Saturday morning ramble

2011-12-03T10:34:00.003+13:00

Well, I'm on my 3rd cuppa this morning and its time for my brain to have a bit of a wander again for the weekend.

This week a bootleg collection of articles on American modeling wandered unannounced into my inbox. Now, I'm not sure why, but US modeling just leaves me cold and uninspired. An endless parade of SD/GP-XX locos and box cars that all seem to be the same with different colours just bores me to tears. Its even the same with steam locos, which are basically a boiler with all the bits hung on the outside and the rest designed with a T square (the stream liners are a different kettle of fish, and are beautiful). It could just be because I and more interested in older period NZR that I'm more drawn to the British style. Its an open-ish sort of secret that I do have an interest in the GWR in Devon, though in the late 1880's and with a slightly wider gauge than 4'8". Its something that i seriously have to fight to keep in its dark box at the back of my brain. There's also an On30 layout in the same dusty corridor that threatens to get out, and if Eureka miniatures ever does Teddy bear civilians I may well be doomed. I'm not going to mention the New Zealand logging layout that also threatens to get built (and there is another loco in the pipeline for it if I can find the basis for a decent top)

There have also been a few questions on my plans to change the way that I make my point throw bars so I may have to venture out to the shed later today at great personal risk (I should be tidying the house) to take some photos showing what I mean. And I think that I might have come up with another option that could work but will be far more fiddly to do, so will probably die. In my experience (work and home) theory tends to get its ass handed to it in a bag by reality on a very regular basis.

A moment of clarity

2011-12-01T21:30:00.003+13:00

I've been pondering getting further on with the Waihao forks layout in the last couple of weeks. I was up to adding the throw bars, and I had even got to the point of drilling out the throw bars (3 holes)and removing the copper clad. However I've always been a bit uneasy about using Peco track pins as it requires a fair bit of countersinking to get into the right place. This makes the throw bar quite weak and i suspect that the whole set up is just a wee bit over engineered. I also need to cut groves into the foot of the rail which for some odd reason are a complete pain to get opposite each other.

While thinking about something else the other day it suddenly hit me that the actual movement I was looking at was 1mm and there would not be that much strain on the joint. Why not just solder the throw bar to the point blades and be done with it? a WTF moment if you will.
so, 1 minute to drill the hole in the middle, 10 seconds to file a bit extra off the copper clad board, and a quick run with the soldering iron later and there we go. The NMRA track gauge even has a thingy to get the point blades the right distance apart.

'The old 3 hole with the new 1 hole (trust me as the photo is a bit crap)'

'2 minutes and we are done'

I assume it will last, and if it doesn't its not hard to replace. It might not work with the heavier code 55 rail, but should be fine with the wiggly code 40.

Meeting up

2011-11-27T12:39:00.003+13:00

Comments to my post yesterday have drifted towards meetings. I've been a member of a few modeling and gaming groups over the years. Model railway groups tend to meet on weeknights, with the most common being Tuesday-Thursday. Personally for me the worst night is a Friday night. After a long week I tend to sit down on Friday night, have a couple of drinks and relax. I'm not overly good with going out again and talking for the evening. The frequency can be anything from weekly to monthly. Weekly tends to suit actively modeling clubs, while monthly suits an interest group, such as NZR modelers etc. Weekly groups tend to meet in a fixed location (club rooms or shed) while the monthly ones tend to rotate round the members houses. As an aside it would be nice to have an NZR modelers group in Palmerston North, say meeting monthly for those with an interest

Wargaming clubs that I belonged to tend to meet on weekends as a decent game can take 4-6 hrs. This doesn't suit everyone, but they tend to meet only every other week. The location is generally a cold dusty church hall which are cheap to rent, though I've been to some in working mens clubs (mmm, bar...) or schools.

I have been kicking around the possibility of having a day meeting here one weekend as a get together for like minded individuals locally (and not quite so local). Subject to approval by the lady of the house, would there be any interest in such a thing? I can provide a layout, and there could be some chats about track laying and soldering etc, which seem to be the most common topics of interest.

Saturday morning.

2011-11-26T11:34:00.003+13:00

"Does the sun ever shine here, lad?"
"I don't know sir, I'm only 9."

Its been (apparently) unseasonably wet here in Palmy. The radio commented the other day that it had rained on 62 of the last 25 days. However today it looks like its one of those 'once in 3 weeks' days when I'll get to mow the lawns and even do some gardening. Hence there will be sod all modeling today.

I've also found in the last couple of weeks that I've been a bit stalled modeling wise. Its odd considering that normally after a big show like Railex ones enthusiasm juices tend to be in full flow. I'm just wondering if its something to do with the stage that the layout is at currently. I've pretty much done all the track, and now its on to the making buildings etc. This is not something I feel that I'm particularly good at, despite a track record of building possibly the largest NZ120 building ever attempted (Dunedin railway station). The 2 signal boxes I've done are OK but I'm not particularly happy with them. The station will be a bit of a bastard as its an odd collection of buildings that have just sprung up. then there's the bits around the loco depot etc. This is all getting a bit overwhelming quite honestly but I guess I'll just have to leap in and get started. For some odd reason I didn't have this problem with starting the track work which was possibly even more imposing.

Oh, and did I mention there's a convention coming up at Easter?

So, what have other people run across that has held back a modeling project

No smoke this time.

2011-11-22T19:50:00.004+13:00

Due to Schloss Dandruff being a bit of a plague ship this week, not a lot of progress.

I did receive a care package from the states though, with some more decoders (purchased before the NZ dollar goes spiraling to oblivion). One went into the railcar which had previously prototypically started smoking. I first went round with the heat shrink tube and made sure that the motor contacts were also isolated. Thus far it seems to be fine and runs really nicely, though the chip settings need a bit of tweaking.

'Any stray electrons leaking out then?'

Also note the added weight at the front, which is a cut up Kato 2-8-2 weight. I think it needs a bit more weight, but can't seem to find any of my printers lead.
With the lid back on it now looks the part.

'Now, no more fires you...'

I must get it finished though. The drop windows need to be added, and I must do something about more accurate couplers. It would also be nice to replace the front and rear 'skirts' with an etched offering...

Brain stroming

2011-11-18T07:06:00.012+13:00

Here at Mini-Me-Wagons the madness has taken over again, after spending a few evenings talking trains with the head Druff. Last weekend was spent, out of the rain, trying to get one of the ideas from Druff space into Cabbage space. The starting point was a simple pencil drawing scribbled on the back of the nearest credit card letter of a 4 wheel 15ft under frame.

Druff Space

The idea is based on the same sort of thing from the 2mm Association in the UK and of course the crazy idea of making it from one piece of brass just folded into a wagon.

From the information the Armless one provided in the dim dark past for the design of the J5 laser cut body, the idea was put into Cabbage space. With all the appropriate level of nutter details like 1/2 etched rivets.

Cabbage Space

All the pieces are joined together and fold around each other in a devilishly clever set of ever increasing layers to form a 15ft under frame. A CAD model has been made up to prove the concept and a few errors noted, hand brake on the wrong side again!!!

Cabbage space folded

Final stage is to put it all together in the jigsaw puzzle of the etch and send it off to PPD.

Now we wait............

Sort of done

2011-11-14T21:07:00.005+13:00

Well, after the weekends ramblings, back to something a bit more concrete. I got to sit down at the weekend and have a crack at the fiddly bits of scissors crossover for Waihao forks. This did take a bit of doing. Doing a normal crossover involves a bit of unsoldering and remeasuring, and when it comes to something like this its just a case of making it up as you go along. Along the way I had to reset several crossing frogs, redo the point blades, and shift other bits of rail back and forward to get the geometry roughly right. I still have to do the throwbars at the moment, but its essentially finished.

The end result is something that will accept both finescale and NMRA wheel sets. I'm not sure if I'd attempt another one though. However I've reached the point that working with code 40 rail no longer holds any fears.

Saturday Morning

2011-11-12T10:00:00.000+13:00

A couple of conversations over the weekend past have got the little grey cells prodded out of their slumber and wanting access to the keyboard.

One comment I did hear quite a lot is 'oh, I could never do that'. I also have conversations where quite detailed minuata of modeling was discussed. Now I've never been much of an engineer (I'll work with them under duress, but that's about it). Regauging 2mm wheel sets for me meant twisting them on the axle until they went into the NMRA track gauge, rather than worrying about how i was going to shift them precisely 0.4mm. And with things like this I do think that people do talk themselves out of actually making models. Now Ill admit that it is very difficult to push on with a project that is not turning out the way that you thought it would, and I have plenty of 1/2 finished projects sitting on the workbench to prove it. By in large though, I manage to push through and get things reasonably complete, though I suspect my PhD is the only thing I've actually properly completed in my life. What I have managed to do with my modeling is to push through and build models of things I needed for the overall project. And I do believe that its important to have some sort of overall goal to model making. Be it building a wagon, an entire train or a layout small or large.

This has been a bit rambling but I have a bit of a head cold and have spent most of my energy today being coherent at work. I am not quite sure what the point of it all is, maybe just that its all in the mid you know....

RailX III

2011-11-09T19:34:00.004+13:00

OK you wanted pictures

First we have the big and boy is it big LGB

Second English N not sure of this one's name

Third Taumaniu

Forth we have the 9mm/O gauge Kaikora layout

and lastly Rimu Flat which is the MMW layout

As for running the demo tables at the shows we have been doing this to pass the time and draw interest to the hobby for the last 4 years
It is a great way to get the audience involved
I remember last time we were at Lower Hutt RailX we were modifying S scale sheep for Kai Iwi Tunnel, you could only get runners and we needed some eaters so I was busy moving their heads down. there were about 5 kids standing around watching they would all ask "what are you doing" the reply would be "I'm cutting their heads off" this would have them intriged for 30 mins watching.
At Palmerston North Show last year saw the inventions of the birds we were hand making pukeko, the punters would watch ask "what are you doing" this time the reply was "I'm making......." at which point I would dip the blob of solder I had into a bottle of blue paint and hold it up for them to see "Oh ... its a pukeko"

Here we have Michelle building S scale disels, Steve was making paper cabbage trees Michael was doing nothing and out off shot Micheal Gee painting telephone poles, Tim building Df and Cabbage working in the other 9mm scale D cars

Train hunting

2011-11-09T13:00:00.000+13:00

My previous attempts to photograph excursions have ended in varying degrees of complete failure. This time round I seemed to have everything in my favour. The timing meant that I could take photos over the back fence at work. However a line side fire (and one of the crew did question how an oil burner could start a fire..) held things up, and so I trekked out to the north end of Palmerston North to get some shots.

'Just testing'

'Bugger, too soon again. maybe I need an SLR'

I then headed off to the station to get some detail shots

However, as always things were not to be plain sailing. I then headed out to Longburn to get some shots passing the Fontera factory. After 10 minutes (and being quizzed by a farmer who thought I was stealing a gate or something), I wasn't feeling it at the crossing and moved down to the old over bridge. I had just pulled up when a wisp of smoke announced Ka 942's arrival. The camera refused to start and I was left sitting in the car cursing.

Making rail at Railex

2011-11-07T18:11:00.004+13:00

So, how did my demo session making track go?

The main question was, so why do you make your own track? the three answers were (in no particular order)
1) There's nothing that looks close to the local prototype (apparently micro engineering code 55 isn't too bad, on a dark night)
2) Its cheap, I can build 3 points and a scissors crossover for a total of $40. That's about a 3rd of the price of the scissors crossover.
3) I'm not limited by commercial track geometries. Trying to force a prototype track plan to fit the limited range of points is always a pain.

Most were impressed, Some asked when I was making track for them (and the answer, Mike, is still no, until you move to a decent scale). One guy claimed that he didn't have steady enough hands, till I demonstrated that mine were worse than his (early mornings will do that to you). The Journal editor expressed his approval in that I had moved on from Peco.

I hope that I managed to de-mystify the process for some. I have had an invite to do a talk (which I'll probably have to turn down due to transport problems),and will probably wind up being tapped to do something at the convention. and how far did I get?
well, starting from here
Doing the sleepers sped things up quite a lot on the day. Saturday night at home we have...

The lower track is straight, its just a optical delusion.

A bit of a closeup. I have not put the throw sleepers in yet. One thing I immediately thought after taking this was that it looks like S scale code 70, which it essentially is scale wise. However I have found that its right on the lower limit of what I can work with. Its getting hard to see just how far through I have filed things. And before anyone suggests it (as Teach did last night) I don't do magnification as I can't get it to work for me (maybe when I need glasses) and I have tried all sorts. It just annoys me.

Finally we get to tonight. with the lady of the house safely out of earshot in Melbourne the sounds of fret saws and files echo through the living room.

I'm 1/2 way through the scissors crossover, but for a variety of reasons its being a real pig. I've tossed the rule book out the window and I'm just winging it at the moment.

RailX II

2011-11-06T21:30:00.004+13:00

Well yes it was a very good show always worth the effort the Mini-Me-Wagons got a really open reception with lots of positive feedback and encouragement

On Saturday monsieur Druff was busy wowing the punters with the construction of NZ120 trackwork and points but Sunday there was an empty space, we had to find something to fill the gap so we brought our own Mini-Me.

See building NZ120 really is child's play

He always likes going to the shows but normally has seen it all in less than 30 mins. Today there was something else to do to progress the scale, a Df kit from Trackgang, so with a soldering iron and a few borrowed tools he had the punters wowing again.

This was Tim's first attempt at a white metal kit and he made a respectable job of it to

RaileX

2011-11-05T23:05:00.005+13:00

A report from one of the big shows on the NZ calendar.

Out of bed at 6:30 AM. question the wisdom of having a few beers the night before. Pack up the car, organise breakfast and head off. make it to the show by 9 AM. Load out gear and meet some of the VCC guys and girls. Settle in to the bench and start work when the show opens at 10. wonder why its so quiet, discover Mark and I are facing the quiet part of the hall when I turn round. See some old friends and get to put some names to faces (Muir, you dashed off with the Ka before I could have a closer look :v). Managed to go the entire day without injury as well.

Right, so what was there?

'Has anyone seen my train?'

Mr Trackgang on the S scale Tauranga display layout of Taumarunui. Some very good modeling and its just a pity its in the wrong scale. at 14M by 3M its just a bit large for my garage

Wellington 9mm layout. Was originally made in Christchurch in the early 1990's and has lasted quite well. A 'large' collection of locos and wagons, some of which were still being worked on when I left on the Saturday night.

OK, so not quite the same but pretty close. My Cb perched on a 9mm scale Johnson 16 wheeler. Several people commented over the weekend about how it is much smaller in real life than the photographs show.

Finally I had to include this. Its a German gauge 1 layout. As if that not bad enough, the shear size of the thing is unbelievable. The grey bit in the middle distance is the back side of it, and there's a fiddle yard on the left.

But wait, there's more. The small child obliged by not moving between shots so you can see the rest of it, where the other end eventually stops behind the concrete pillar.

Its not only the size that gets me, but the gargantuan cost of it all (German models are not cheap).
Still I guess they could afford the empty warehouse to have it set up in.

There were also a good selection of traders and second hand book shops. Its defiantly one of the 'go to' shows on the New Zealand modeling calendar, with a wide selection of odds and sods.

How did that happen.

2011-11-03T13:00:00.001+13:00

3 Years and 6 months ago some idiot decided that blogging about his modeling would be a good idea. Today we hit 1000 posts. Someone has indeed blundered.

Lets revisit a few quotes from that first post.

"So whats this all going to be about. Hopefully it will be a blog on modeling in NZ120, running model railways in 1:120 scale on 9mm gauge track, with some incredibly bad typing and spelling tossed in for good measure"

Well, I've certainly exceeded expectations on several of those points, though the locating of the spell checker has curbed some of the worst excesses.

"I'm hoping to bang down some thoughts from the keyboard and try to inspire a few people to have a go at building things. I'll try to do this with some modeling projects, thoughts and ideas. Also possibly a bit of modeling philosophy thrown in. Sounds ambitious I guess, but it all seems rather pointless if you start something without ambition.:v) And I've always wanted to have a crack at this blogging thing. No idea if I'll be any good, but that's not going to worry me that much anyway, as I dont really care if you read this or not."

Well, some things don't change. I'm still not overly worried if anyone reads or not, but its always a surprise to be chatting on overseas websites and get PM's with 'Oh, I read your blog BTW'. Meeting the local modelers has been a bit of a buzz too. Again, having someone walk up to you and say 'Hi, I'm Captain Carbon' is one of the most memorable.

It was suggested that I do a retrospective on our little scale and wheres its come in the last 3 1/2 years. That I think would take too long, and I can't be stuffed. The information is all under the headings on the sidebar even if its going to take a while to sift through. Think of the fun you will have dredging up long forgotten posts from 2009.

One thing that I'm still a bit surprised about is that there's still not a central forum for NZR modelers, whatever the scale. The NZ120.org forum demonstrates it works with very minimal policing. However no-one else has had a crack at exploiting the new media form (maybe with the exception of Grant). It would be interesting to be able to compare notes with other local bloggers.

So, where does the blog go from here. Its sort of evolved from one mans cack-handed odyssey in modeling ~~to a smooth slickly run rag with a tightly knit group of feature writers~~ to a disorganised rabble writing about whatever takes their fancy. Maybe thats why it works. I can have an idea or a thought, and have it written up in 15 minutes and posted. 30 minutes if I need a photo or two. It satisfies my short attention span (though longer than some of the other contributors) in ways that print media just doesn't. I'm still a great fan of magazines for picking up and reading, but its just not my thing to contribute to.

How long am I going to continue? How long is a piece of string? I have wondered at times 'why do I bother', and then just carried on (I don't tend to quit easily, as a few of my wargaming opponents will attest). I might just wake up one day and decide 'thats it, I'm done'. Currently I think that day is a ways off, but who knows. If I could forsee the future I would not be doing what I'm doing.

See you all at Railex on Saturday. I think I'm on the VCC stand (I'm assuming I'm allowed to wear shoes). Drop by and say hello.

Testing

2011-11-01T20:46:00.004+13:00

A question was asked from the peanut galley during the weekend re running 2mm finescale wheels on NMRA standard track. Now, while I had done finger push testing with bogies through various bits of track work, I had not done any 'live' testing' so to speak. So, tonight I gave it a crack. I used 1431 to push my R wagon through a variety of points to see how things went. First up the points on the main that have been modified to allow the use of Peco wheels. This was a fail with the wheels picking the frog. However, on the tighter NMRA standard points everything seemed to be fine. I also took this picture on the code 40 point.

Its quite pretty, and my inner finescaler is almost approving (but not quite. hes a bit of a bastard like that). I think its going to work OK on the Waihao Forks layout.

Saturday morning

2011-10-29T11:40:00.004+13:00

Well, its been rather a long week. Not much/any modeling done due to a variety of reasons. The main one is that the lady of the house has been particularly unwell. This has necessitated a couple of trips to A&E (including an all nighter after the rugby) and some days of enforced rest for her. as such I've not been particularly in the mood, or indeed had the energy to do much else. Shes slowly getting back up on her feet, and I'm due to be 'directed in the garden' this afternoon.

This has put me a bit behind in organising for railex, but since I'm only making track work (on the VCC stand I think, but still to be confirmed if I'm allowed to play with the big boys and girls) it's probably not going to be much problem. I don't have any code 40 rail currently (I'm struggling to make it to the bank to pay Woodsworks, who is busy himself) but I suppose I can get by with some code 55.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to having a day talking rubbish (I'm only out for one of the 2 days for obvious reasons). Might even have to get myself a Fedora hat with a big 'press' lable on the side of it.

Platform 1

2011-10-26T13:00:00.000+13:00

Ive been thinking for a while now about how to do the station platform. Most of this has centered around getting the base material. I've been thinking about getting some 5mm MDF for a while now, but have not had the chance to get out to a hardware shop in the last couple of weeks. The other night I was looking for something else I suddenly noticed that my new stock of foam core board was 5mm think. out with the knife and away we cut. It took an extra 5mm off the width (35 scale feet) to allow to add for a more precise top surface later. I also struggled to cut the foam core as it has a harder outer surface than the material that I'm use to. very good stuff though. I must raid Kiwirail for some more. Anyway, here is the photo.

Stuck down with no more nails. If it wasn't so sodding hard to get off fingers I would be in love with it.

layout pictures time

2011-10-25T19:58:00.006+13:00

A few pictures tonight just messing around, and asked for by the newly remonikered 'armless fetler'.

First up it was suggested that I should add some shape to show how the terrain will look. Now I'm really not keen to do this as its hard enough to move the modules round single handedly as it is without having anything in the way. plus I'm not finished under the hood yet, so to speak, and I still want to get at things. I then remembered that I had my wargaming cover cloths. a few pins and here we go.

'A good example of why you should always take 2 shots of the same scene...'

Now you will be thinking, 'that looks really good'. I found it terribly disappointing, as it does not fit my mental perception of how the overall scene is going to come together. I shot these two pictures and took everything back down inside 30 seconds.

Second up, here's the Waihao Forks layout with some wagons on it to give an idea of size.

I'm just a bit happier with this. Hopefully I will be working on part of this at Railex next weekend assuming I'm allowed to play with the VCC crowd.

Not so much to go wrong with this - Phew

2011-10-24T17:48:00.004+13:00

Here goes the bogie frame build

Cut out the frame

Bend up the centre braces

Bend in the sides

Strengthen with solder once the wheels are in

Must get some wheels one day

Hmmm ...... maybe not

Just past these bits onto some other poor unsuspecting sucker who already has the wheels

AHHH! No - Epic failure

2011-10-24T17:13:00.004+13:00

Well Am Fet you were right the IB didn't work as planned.

But as Thomas Edison once said "I have not failed I have just found another way not to make a light bulb"

Points to note for the next version:

Brake handle on the left
Main beams need to be future apart by about 1.2mm
Deck needs to be slightly longer

D'oh wrong side

D'oh not wide enough

D'oh Deck too short

Things that did work:

Brake handle looks real nice
Twist locks folded nicely

Wahoo - Brake handle looks nice and is only folded

Well back to the drawing board for version 2.0 then off to the etches again

Look what the postman left.....

2011-10-24T11:47:00.005+13:00

Wahooooooo......

New toys.

Just arrived, hot of the plane, the Mini-Me-Wagons KiwiRail Ia and Ib came today. Now the question is can they wait until the RailX or do they get built before then.

Ahhhhh the suspense

Ia etch

Ib etch

These little beasties are the same design as the Uk wagon that Amateur Fettler reported on before he became Armless Fettler.

The under frame is designed to concertina fold up and includes the twist locks, braces, bogie mounts, brake handle and ferry hooks. The deck is designed so the headstock fold down and into the under frame locking into position at the ends holding the completed model together. Then tap out the bogie mounts, screw on some bogies, stick in some couplers and then go nuts with some paint.

Weather it will work like that or if it is going to need to be soldered or glued to stop the parts unfolding we have yet to try out.

Maybe one will be made up, just to find out.

Type 16/18 bogie frames

Also the etched type 16/18 bogie frames designed for 14mm axles and 2mm Association pin point bearings. These will require side frame details but the hope is they will make building simpler as the etch can be varied for longer or shorter axles by packing the pin point bearings with the etched washers provided, each washer will take 0.25mm off the axle length, sort of one size will fit many.

excavation

2011-10-24T10:00:00.000+13:00

To celebrate this long weekend, I have spent some time digging a space for the turntable pit. The first incision was made through the rubber layer to reveal the plywood underneath. I then resorted to the method of drilling a series of holes along the line that I wished to cut. I blame a lack of power tools more than anything else. The picture shows progress halted by the drills battery running out.

After removing the underlying plywood, we struck the next problem. The various bracing under the layout.

Fortunately with a smallish handsaw and some cunning I managed to remove enough of the offending articles to carry on.

'I don't think they were holding up anything important...'

With all this done, the turntable dropped into position nicely. It sits level with the top of the rubber so that it should be a doddle to lay the track up to the edge.

I have also not fixed it into place yet so that it is easy to sort out the rest of the rotatie bit.

Lining it up, and a bit of a rethink

2011-10-23T10:00:00.001+13:00

I had a chance yesterday to do a bit of practical thinking about the location of the turntable. In the last discussion I was intending to set the rest of the track in place and then sort out the geometry for the connecting rails. When I finally got round to it, I discovered that things were not quite so simple.

The plan has been for the turntable to rotate between 2 fixed positions to get round the insurmountable problem of indexing it by eye. My intention was to introduce locomotives from the top right track, turn them and run them off to the center right. I also intended to have the tracks lines up from the top right to the bottom left. Doing the geometry tonight its quite obvious that this won't work out. (UPDATE; looking at the plans from 1940 and 1955 the real thing doesn't line up either. However I can't get tiny men to push the damn thing round to solve the indexing problem.)

Looking at the whole thing it suddenly became clear that the obvious option is to run locos on from the center right, and rotate the turntable 180 degrees to run the locomotives off the same way.

(Just as a recap, the operational plan is as follows. The steam/diesel loco cuts of from the southbound train and moves back to the turntable. it is turned then moves back to the servicing area. it them moves through the shed to the loco ready track where it then departs with a northbound train.)

In control

2011-10-22T10:00:00.000+13:00

I've been doing a bit of thinking about location of control panels on the layout. There's 2 different competing demands. the first is that it has to be operatable (is that a word?) by one person at home, where it will spend 99% of its life. The other 1% will be in a drafty hall somewhere out in the exhibition wilds. This means that there has to be some plan ahead for 3-4 operators at times.

Most important is where to put the master control box. After a fair bit of thinking about it the middle seemed to be the obvious choice.

Deploy saws.....

Next we need a base plate for the controller. I was trying to sort out a mathematical way to get the shape correct, but reverted to the seat of my pants instead.

'Not that the seat of my pants are a rectangular quadrilateral'

Almost neat and tidy, but better than just sitting it on top of the frame members.
its also reminded me that at some point I will have to paint all the framework.

A pattern forming?

2011-10-21T13:00:00.000+13:00

Last week I received a couple of boxes of stuff, which I think is a circular thing (take something out, put something in sort of thing).

Among the bits was another little Kato underframe. No use for any real loco but shifting the frame of reference...

OK, so it has possibilities. Whats under the grey plastic hood?

So, the grey plastic clip is just holding the motor down. Out with the fret saw and we get....

The next thing to note is that the PCB pickup holder is no longer held down. just what is it holding down?

Nothing really important. with a bit of work, it has a bit of potential. Possibly as a Heisler, but also another Price's product.

OK so it doesn't have the right bogies, but the side tanks are useful to hide a multiple of sins.

Old movies

2011-10-20T22:36:00.003+13:00

A bit of a first for me tonight. I attempted to take some videos of the layout. Now, its not easy shooting and driving, but I've sort of managed.

Don't look too close at the rough track work.

Theres more where that came from.

2011-10-19T13:00:00.000+13:00

Over the last week or so theres been a bit of E-mail to-ing and fro-ing. The end result is the following.

Having rattled on a bit about building smaller layouts it was time to front up and start one.
(the boxfile layout not withstanding. I'm not happy with it which might be why its died a bit of a death at the moment).

Waihao Forks is a station which we have talked a fair bit about. It has a few things to recommend it. It's on a curve, is quite short and also has the added interest of a scissors crossover in the yard.

''The pubs not too bad either'

I spent a day at the weekend sorting out the track alignment to my satisfaction. Drawing things out full size beats buggering round on a computer any day.

The tools of the trade. The curve radii are 600 and 750. Easy enough to make on a computer drawing package, then attach to a bit of card and cut out. These were done the old fashioned way using a tramel. Sellotape is used to stick the paper down to the floor (its big and flat, and we don't have a table)

Here is the final plan, with the paper cut to the shape of the layout. It seems to pass the daft 'track shouldn't line up with the front edge of the layout'.

While Mark was pottering away the other night, I got stuck into the hard job of sorting the sleepers out.

Marking, cutting and placing all of these took 90 minutes. I didn't run out of anything (just)which surprised me. This is where things will sit for a while as I'm completely out of code 40 rail. Hopefully I'll have supplies by Railex so will be able to show people how daft I am by making track 'al fresco'.

Squatters

2011-10-18T23:04:00.005+13:00

Here you are sitting at home one night minding your own business, and suddenly there is a toot of a horn, a white van rolls up and before you know it there's people modeling in your garage....

'damn pikies'

Mark of marks model works was in town (well, Bunnythorp sort of counts) and so brought his modeling gear and layout up. there was also time for plenty of free ranging discussions on a variety of modeling (and non modeling) topics.

I also had a chance to indulge in a bit of silliness.

'Hand over the honey, and no one gets hurt'

What lies beneath

2011-10-16T11:08:00.004+13:00

After 3 hours yesterday, the layout looked like this.

'Well, I suppose its a bit tidier...'

Again, the change is all under the hood, so to speak. As we here at MD believe in showing the unvarnished truth to our readers, here is my wiring layout in all its horror.

'You can also get it in a tin from Watties'

The green wiring from the top is the control panel to the point frogs. The auto reversing module for the crossover frogs takes center stage. There are 2 connecting plugs to the next module on the left. One for the main line and one for the loco depot as they will be separate power districts. in retrospect I should have used different colour wiring for them. The brown wire is present as they didn't have any hookup wire in black when I went into Jaycar that weekend, so I had to make do. I've used tag strips to be able to isolate parts of the layout on the off chance that I need to track down a short. Chances of shorts vary from non existent when operating on ones own to close to 100% at an exhibition of when guests are due.

At the end of the 3 hours, the Da could run onto the shed tracks and both main lines. The next couple of jobs (in no particular order) are;
-Sort out the track heights at the module joins. something that would be OK in the larger scales is a big no-no in this one . 9mm modelers must have it easy.
-get the track positions for the back tracks on the depot sorted, so that I can then lay the track across the turntable area.
-think about doing some real modeling again. Its been an awful long time since I've made a model

Saturday morning

2011-10-15T10:00:00.001+13:00

Well, its another day, another trip to Jaycar for wire. For some odd reason I've managed to put 20M each of red and black wire into the 2.4M sections that are so far wired. This really doesn't make sense to me somehow, but the lack of any leftover material in the man-sion seems to confirm my observations.

For inspiration this weekend, I'm back to the 2mm chaps, who seem to have cracked building small sensible layouts.

'Framsden. photo from RMweb by Jerry'

This is a neat wee (4-5' across) layout with a novel shape and a simple track plan. I wish I was 1/2 as original with my ideas. Actually, none of my ideas are really original, I just distill and stuff historical track plans into smaller spaces...

Container Madness

2011-10-14T08:38:00.004+13:00

Here at Mini-Me-Wagons the NZ120 division the Mark's Model Works while we have been waiting for the test etches for the IA and IB to turn up from Scotland we've been looking for containers.

Along the same theme as the wagons we are looking to do it on the cheap

Of course if we allow the models to be viewed, only from a distance, so all the details that DB has got with those lovely cast examples are not a big driver.

Travelling around the internet the cardboard-paper version found at http://www.scalescenes.com/products/T031-Shipping-Containers look to be exactly what we need and if any of you out there have any good photos of local examples we should be able to design our own range of NZ120 containers.

The OO sheet can be printed at 63% to make it NZ120 and a special trip into work to see the friendly draught person

Printed

Cut

Glued

Cut again

Then glued again

One 20 ft ISO container in 120th scale

Not sure about this gluing business, just don't have the patience for it.

Still only cost, the time and the original 3.99 GBP for the download.

Coal Containers

2011-10-13T03:19:00.004+13:00

DB says: I see someone was asking for a pic of one of these on NZ120.org

This seen at Oamaru in August, with an older HLC at right, so if you have the plans in the Journal, you can probably guestimate the dimensions pretty well, as the footprint will be the same

If you click here you can see examples of modeling earlier HLC versions in NZ120. Armless Fettler still has those spare ones for sale if you want to make a donation to the DG 2376 Restoration Fund...

Steps forward, steps back

2011-10-12T20:46:00.002+13:00

Yesterday I arrived home to a package from the US.

Step forward; Auto reversing unit installed on scissors crossover. the center crossover is now powered and switches with a nicely audible click when it changes. (I'm a sucker for a click to tell me something is still doing its job).
Step back; Installing a decoder in the twinset railcar, only to have the smoke escape after 5 minutes of running. All rather odd. Will have to check with Digitrax about repairing it, even if it was only $20.

Idiocy in the Weekend....

2011-10-09T12:24:00.006+13:00

Am_Fet scribbles:

They should never have put video cameras on phones....

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;The Cb lopes along the Paekakariki yard at pretty close to top speed (with inane comments from the camera crew).&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

The Cb lopes along the Paekakariki yard at pretty close to top speed (with inane comments from the camera crew).

The delivery

2011-10-08T16:55:00.004+13:00

An impromptu visit from Fetler d'Amateur and his family also brought gifts. Even reduced to a left hand hes still very useful (and we may expect more from him when he has 2 hands back).

The first parts for the turntable pit in 3mm acrylic sheet (he first attempt in plastic failed dismally). These were cleverly designed with a 3mm hole in each corner so that it was easier to line everything up. however I could not find a bit of 3mm brass rod. I also only had 1 3mm drill. Fortunately the 2 'good' files that I own had the right handle size.

Note the sleepers for the turntable track marked in position. I will make up a shaper to sculpt the sloping ground at the bottom of the pit. Acrylic is not the easiest material to glue together. However I did have some 5 year old glue from another project which says on the label that its thick acrylic cement. It was quite a bit gummier than I had remembered but seems to have done the job.

'In Position'

The pit is designed with a larger top so that I can let it into the module. It's the same thickness as the track base so I'll just be laying the track on top.

Putting it roughly into position has altered the order that I will be doing things. My initial plan was to position the pit and then lay the track up to it. I can see now that I will have to make the track first (with a 180mm straight piece in the correct spot)and then position the turntable and cut the track. Discussions have now turned to the turntable itself.

Powering the turntable will be one of the Switchmaster point motors that I've had for eons. its got a top speed of 4 RPM so will do a 1/2 rotation in about 7 seconds. this seems to be about right speed wise for me. lining up will be simplified as its a stall motor that will just run the turntable up to a block and stop.

Unfortunately I've run out of flux to solder the track up with, so it will have to wait till next week.

( Enquirys about avaliability are rather premature as theres still no ideas about the table mounting and if it will actually work like it says on the box. And speaking from personal experience, acrylic sheet really ain't cheap.)

Out of Action.....

2011-10-07T11:16:00.006+13:00

Am_Fet types (one handed):

I noticed my last post on the blog was dated Sunday the 18th. Interesting, as the next evening my world got....even more interesting.

A cooking oil fire and a reactionary action to save the house earned me a ride in an ambulance, a close look at the emergency department at Hutt hospital, 4 days of interesting food combinations and boredom followed by a look at an operating theatre....end result is a right hand that Vincent Price would be proud of and a seriously sore right thigh from where the (large) skin graft came from.

(Apologies for the blurry photo, its off the phone cam)

Things I learned in hospital:

- All visitors are to be cherished (thanks to Herr and Lady Druff for making the drive down...It means more than they'll ever know).
- A smartphone is mandatory! With sms, outlook and hotmail in the palm of my hand I was in constant touch with friends and family.
- All emergency and hospital staff (fire, ambulance, nurses, doctors) are SAINTS!

Anyway, I'm now at home in recuperation mode....I don't now when I'll be able to pick up any tools again as rehabilitation looks a bit of a long road and depends on my ability to regain a strong pincer grip again. Computer work is being done, but its a bit tiring with just the left hand.

Despite all this, I'm very upbeat....I am VERY lucky it wasnt worse, plus I get to gross everyone out with pictures taken during dressing changes. Oh, and the painkillers are great.

And who would have thought my graft was being held on by SuperGlue while it took! Now THAT was an interesting conversation with the nurse (while she picked most of it off with tweezers)....

Another day

2011-10-06T22:28:00.005+13:00

Well, another session in the Man-sion tonight. This consisted of lifting all the track on the north end module to put in the point throws. These things would have been easier if I had thought of them beforehand, which is a statement I tend to make allot. I have wondered at times if the whole project would be easier if I had some help. Thinking about it tonight, I've decided that for the most part I'm a bit of a lone wolf when it comes to the day to day building stuff on the layout. I don't tend to be particularly organised, so I just pick up jobs when I feel like it, or if it has to be done before the next step. Hence tonight's taking up track so that I can fix track more permanently in this area. I also have to do something about this area in particular as I can't finish things up till its done.

This is one place where I've subcontracted out the work, and with luck the first iteration may be here at the weekend. After this is in and working (the most important bit) I can then sort out the positions for the rest of the track around it.

Things might change once its time to do the scenic work, but for the most part I'm happier doing the track and electrics on my own. Its easier to spot and fix mistakes on my own.

The otehr issue is that if I had guests I would have to clean up and locate all the tools, rather than spending the obligatory 5 minutes looking for then every time I need a new one.

Hidden progress

2011-10-02T20:18:00.003+13:00

Got to spend some quality time in the shed today. Yah.

If I had soldered together a couple of random bits of brass into something vaguely approximating a prototypical object I would have felt like I made progress. Instead I spent the afternoon soldering up the power feeds for the loco depot on the middle module. Turn it over and nothing to show for 4 hours work. And, while I can now run a loco on all the tracks (bar some rail adjustments where things are a bit tight) , I still don't feel like I have achieved much at all. Just another box ticked, and a few more things to fix. At least the dead shorts I discovered were easy to find and fix.

And for some odd reason the Da DCC chips keep reverting to old deceleration settings. All a bit of a shock when one kills the juice and watch the loco sale blissfully on towards the end of the world.

Inspiration

2011-10-01T18:45:00.003+13:00

Well, I must admit to being rather uninspired of late. I have not really lifted a tool in anger on the layout or picked up a plan. I have been doing a bit of research for a left field 2mm fine scale layout, but my brain is still mindful of having too many projects on the go at one time, so its in the box for the time being.

Today an off the cuff visit by an old friend and a suggestion to visit fielding to see if there was anything interesting their brought a bit of a surprise in the form of F163 running up and down the yard with 2 56' cars. A reminder that I need to come back to take some photos and do something useful with the bits I have from the 2mm association. Unfortunately I had no camera with me to record any of it.

Second up is the arrival of the September Railfan. Photos from lucky photographers of the Dl class moving. Also a great article on the Wairarapa rail cars with plenty of photos which is leading to deep primeval stirrings again on a Rimutaka incline layout. Unfortunately this beast is harder to keep in the cage. Maybe if I build some 3mm scale wagons it might go away....

Slow weekend

2011-09-25T21:31:00.002+13:00

Not much has happened modeling wise in the last week. I've been out to the Man-sion several times but have not had the drive to do anything. probably because the jobs are not overly fun. Wiring up the loco depot trackage doesn't spin my wheels too much at the moment, nor does laying card to bring the level of the yard up higher so I don't have to waste a stack of ballast.

At some point I will have to sit down and compile a list of 'jobs to be done' with 1/2 an eye on the convention next year and the plan to have an 'operating' layout by that stage.

In other news the hunt for wagon wheelsets continues with feelers being out out to Dapol to see if they make anything usable that they are willing to sell. Also, who else is off to Railex in November or Pokaka a weekend later?

2011-09-22T19:40:00.004+12:00

Up to the minute shots by our roving Otago reporter Mike H.

A test train with 2 of the new AK carriages. The first built by the railways since the second world war.

DCC; learning curve not leveling off yet

2011-09-19T23:35:00.004+12:00

Well, I eventually got out to the shed in the weekend. one short job was to reprogram a couple of the chips. when I first had a play with them I set levels for acceleration and deceleration. While this was nice on the short track, on the layout it had a few problems. The Ed's don't pick up from a particularly long wheelbase and so stall from time to time. Now, if muggins sets the acceleration rate, when the power is interrupted the speed resets and starts again (this is why you need stay alive in sound equipped locos). This is not ideal at all, so I reset the acceleration rates to zero, but left the deceleration rates. This has solved most of the Ed running problems.

I was also using the digital camera to investigate some of the track work problems that I have found. I then realised that i could try to take some low angle shots of the locos.

'You would never see this in the journal.'

'Hmmm, wiggly...'

Hmm, it does look like crap at the moment up close. If you think your models look bad, here is real life warts and all

Readers will have also noticed that now if you click on a picture for a bigger view it goes to a separate slide show. No, I don't have any idea how or when it happened, or how to change it, so it's staying for the moment.

Cabbage does it again....

2011-09-18T12:13:00.013+12:00

Am_Fet writes:

Things have been exceptionally quiet lately, and save for the fleeting visit of our NY based blog author its just been work and sleep basically. I was thinking the other day that I hadnt heard from Cabbage recently either...turns out hes been busy as well; Just look what turned up in my inbox on Friday:

"Its an Nz120 UK made up of only 2 etches" he stated. "Get a leave pass for Sunday and you can have a look at it". Who was I to turn down such an offer?

SO! Here it is in all its glory, an NZ120 UK in etched brass. It is deigned to be assembled WITHOUT SOLDER (all will be explained!). First, the etch:

The underframe is in one piece and folds up concertina fashion to provide the beams, side sills and twistlocks while the triangular supports fold down as well (one day I should learn wagon nomenclature):

The twistlocks can then be folded up into position, and quite easily too...Cabbage was doing about 1 a second using a "fold and crimp" action:

(And is that a handbrake lever I can see there?)

The last job is to take the deck (with shunters handgrab!)and fold the headstocks UNDER the beams, thus holding the whole thing in place. Of course, you could solder or glue it, and being underneath you could do it as badly as you wanted and no-one need know. :

Note this is still very much in the prototyping stage so could still be miles off (depending on what Cabbage's workload for his own stuff is), but he thinks it could be in the $15 range to produce. Still to be worked out are the bogie mounts and couplers, plus I believe the IA is getting drawn as well.

Possibly the most exciting thing I've received in my inbox this year....

Saturday Morning

2011-09-17T10:20:00.004+12:00

Well, another morning here at Schloss Dandruff (I must fine a suitable Germanic font for that).

Not much modeling or thinking going on lately. I did a couple of 1 hr sessions out in the Man-sion during the week, but that was just installing power feeds and check rails, which from a blogging point of view is about as exciting as watching paint dry (however if there are those of you out there who would like live commentary on paint drying drop me a line. I think we can get help for you). I have been thinking about other projects on the layout though, and its occurred to me that I have not done any building modeling for over a year. something I need to sort out I think.I came across this picture last night which reminded me of the plan from almost exactly a year ago.

'Local spots of interest'

I've made a start on the base for the water tank. though I've made it a very tight squeeze between the main and loco depot tracks. The rest are just on hold waiting for that to get started.
At least they will all be cheap (the car had an expensive trip to the car hospital last week, which has left me wondering how I was able to drive it. it was making awful grinding noises though). I've just noticed that I have not included the signal boxes so that will ahve to be done as well.

I've also been musing (to myself) recently about the path not taken. Paekakariki is a project that does tick all the boxes, but in hind site maybe I would have had more fun building some smaller layouts instead. I've had a few ideas for small country stations that would have been interesting to build (and one day might actually get built). The flip side of this is that I would not have been forced to learn how to make track as if I only needed 3-4 points I would have brought PECO or Atlas(with some mutterings as I've never really liked the look) and I may well have not bothered as they woudl not have been challenging enough. With a large project the common problem of not finishing it is pushed so far out that it no longer becomes a problem. The flip side is that there are times when despite ones best efforts it appears that no progress is being made.

I might get out to the shed this afternoon, but there is beer to be bottled as well (which really needs to be done) and then the summer beers need to be put down as well. The weather is not good enough today to garden at least...

Back from the dead... Broken River Quickie

2011-09-13T11:14:00.007+12:00

DB Says:

Did I miss much while I was away?

Something strange happened over the weekend. It started with us deciding to replace the takeout-food-stained carpet in the TV room and the sickly green carpet in the main bedroom and the train room.

This would mean having to actually clean up the train room which (as you may have noticed) for the past year has been barely enter-able. Which I duly did.

Holy crap! It's clean! Love that carpet.

And while I'm moving out all those lengths of wood, wouldn't it be an idea to throw one of them up along the wall and bung some track down onto it? Then we might actually be able to run a few trains around in the near future.

So I duly screwed some of this to some of that to add strength and height, and cut some thin backboard in half and screwed that in and put some brackets up. Thanks to the power of mechanised drills and saws, I had assembled and installed this lump of instalayout foundation in about 10 minutes.

The last two shots are from standing height level and illustrate the benefit of having a stepped baseboard to lift the trains up a little. I have some spare thin backboard, so I might make a taller one to replace this one which is only about 10 inches high overall.

Not bad for a minimal effort!