Mid week

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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