Thursday, January 31, 2019
Tomatoes
These tomato plants were photographed between the rails on a British mainline railway.
This was before the use of retention toilets.
Single Line Terminus
This was a single line terminus board I built for O Gauge, mainly for the Bachman Brassworks Class 121 DMU.
The platform is on the left (without the platform surface. The fiddle yard is at the bottom.
The Class 121 at the bufferstop end with a figure for scale.
Unfortunately it did not get any farther.
The Class 121 at the bufferstop end with a figure for scale.
V100 - Lenz O gauge
A while back I bought a V100 diesel locomotive.
It is DCC sound fitted and has a storage system which will allow it to continue moving briefly if the power is interrupted.
I just need to build a layout for it.
I just need to build a layout for it.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Heljan Class 31
I have just received a Heljan 'O' Gauge Class 31 locomotive from Tower, having also made use of their numbering and weathering service.
It looks really good. I now just need to do something about a layout...
More pictures later.
More pictures later.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Ixion 'O' gauge locomotives
Ixion issued their brass model of the Manning Wardle H Class 0-4-0T locomotive in the first half of 2012.
I bought mine from Dragon Models at a show.
The model ran very well on the rolling road, with excellent slow speed control.
The only fly in the ointment came when I came to take it apart to check the lubrication (plenty of grease) and to see how easy it would be to wire it for DCC.
There is a design or implementation flaw in the sanding gear/ brake gear. There is a piece of plumbing (ah technical term) under the footplate with pipework running from the footplate to the chassis side, passing under the connection between the brakes. By design the connection is not contiguous, there is a path you can use to move the connection rod through the 'maze'. Unfortunately I did not manage to disengage it (I am also rubbish at those dexterity games with the wiggly wire, the loop and the buzzer) and managed to break the connection to the chassis. It is not particularly noticeable. The other problem is the sand pipe. It starts outboard of the brake rigging but end up flush with the chassis side, again trapping the brake rigging. While trying to move the sand pipe I broke it off at the brass moulding. It will need to be replaced on both sides.
As you can see, there is plenty of room inside the body to install a 'OO' decoder (it runs at well under one amp, well within the range of a higher power 'OO' decoder).
At the Gauge O Guild Guildex show in September, I bought an Ixion Hudswell Clarke 0-60T locomotive.
This is DCC ready and is again an excellent runner.
There is a design or implementation flaw in the sanding gear/ brake gear. There is a piece of plumbing (ah technical term) under the footplate with pipework running from the footplate to the chassis side, passing under the connection between the brakes. By design the connection is not contiguous, there is a path you can use to move the connection rod through the 'maze'. Unfortunately I did not manage to disengage it (I am also rubbish at those dexterity games with the wiggly wire, the loop and the buzzer) and managed to break the connection to the chassis. It is not particularly noticeable. The other problem is the sand pipe. It starts outboard of the brake rigging but end up flush with the chassis side, again trapping the brake rigging. While trying to move the sand pipe I broke it off at the brass moulding. It will need to be replaced on both sides.
At the Gauge O Guild Guildex show in September, I bought an Ixion Hudswell Clarke 0-60T locomotive.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Thankfully, they made it foolproof...
Though I had a good go at testing it...
At Warley I bought a Dapol Class 121 railcar in BR blue (and a Lenz Silver mini DCC decoder to go with it).
Due to pressure of time, and not having either a rolling road or continuous run available to check out the running of the unit, it has sat on a shelf since then.
At the Milton Keynes show, I bought a Dapol class 121 railcar in green with small yellow ends and an Uhlenbrock 73410 decoder.
Last weekend, I had some time so set up a continuous run and tested both units. Once I was convinced that they ran nicely on DC, it was time to take the plunge and convert the two units.
The Uhlenbrock decoder is slightly smaller and has shorter pins, rather useful as we shall see later.
I also had in stock one Dapol White lightbar, which I intended to use in the Blue unit, not convinced that they had fluorescent lighting, most references indicate that they had their tungsten bulb lighting replaced when they were refurbished.
The Lenz Silver had pin one marked with a spot of paint.
The roof comes off fairly easily. One thing to make sure of is that you keep your fingers away from the clips on the inside. On releasing the roof my finger tip curled under the roof edge and snapped off the clip.
As you can see, the dummy plug is easy to see and carefully labelled. Also note (and I just noticed this) that the pin numbers are printed on the dummy plug. Two other points. The first is that this is the green unit which has an illuminated headcode on DC (there are a pair of LED on the left end). The second is the small space available for the decoder.
So, it was on with the installation.
The first one to be worked on was the BR Blue one (blanked headcode, so no LEDs).
So, I installed the decoder (see above) based on the diagram in the PDF manual on the Uhlenbrock web site.
Having not noticed the pin numbers on the dummy plug, I managed to plug it in the wrong way round (Lenz mark pin one as the left hand pin with the pins pointing upward), Dapol have their socket arranged so that pin one is on the right. This means that the pin one marker is towards the PCB. Slightly frustrating, especially as I think I made the same mistake when I installed the decoders in the class 153 and class 156 from the same manufacturer.
So while I was working out what was wrong, I shuffled the two decoders round.
Above is the Lenz decoder in the blue unit, as you can see, it is a very tight squeeze.
As you can see, the Uhlenbrock decoder is physically smaller, plus it has shorter pins, which make installation in the slightly cramped Class 121 easier.
The Dapol White lightbar is too long to fit in the body, that will be used to light the St Ives Bay class 153.
Keeping your programming track clean is important, after all the fuss getting the decoder in the right way round, the first unit shuffled itself off the main part of the track onto a grubby bit which meant that it could not be programmed. A quick wipe of the track solved that.
Once programmed (imaginatively 1211 and 1212) I ran them on the continuous track. The head and tail lights worked fine, but the head code lights on the green unit failed to light.
Initially, I thought I might have burned them out when I had the decoder the wrong way round, but it appears to be a 'feature' of the models. A quick search of the Internet showed a number of people having had problems with the headcode (different decoders have different effects). I will have to as Dapol at Ally Pally later in the month.
At Warley I bought a Dapol Class 121 railcar in BR blue (and a Lenz Silver mini DCC decoder to go with it).
Due to pressure of time, and not having either a rolling road or continuous run available to check out the running of the unit, it has sat on a shelf since then.
At the Milton Keynes show, I bought a Dapol class 121 railcar in green with small yellow ends and an Uhlenbrock 73410 decoder.
Last weekend, I had some time so set up a continuous run and tested both units. Once I was convinced that they ran nicely on DC, it was time to take the plunge and convert the two units.
I also had in stock one Dapol White lightbar, which I intended to use in the Blue unit, not convinced that they had fluorescent lighting, most references indicate that they had their tungsten bulb lighting replaced when they were refurbished.
The Lenz Silver had pin one marked with a spot of paint.
As you can see, the dummy plug is easy to see and carefully labelled. Also note (and I just noticed this) that the pin numbers are printed on the dummy plug. Two other points. The first is that this is the green unit which has an illuminated headcode on DC (there are a pair of LED on the left end). The second is the small space available for the decoder.
So, it was on with the installation.
So, I installed the decoder (see above) based on the diagram in the PDF manual on the Uhlenbrock web site.
Having not noticed the pin numbers on the dummy plug, I managed to plug it in the wrong way round (Lenz mark pin one as the left hand pin with the pins pointing upward), Dapol have their socket arranged so that pin one is on the right. This means that the pin one marker is towards the PCB. Slightly frustrating, especially as I think I made the same mistake when I installed the decoders in the class 153 and class 156 from the same manufacturer.
So while I was working out what was wrong, I shuffled the two decoders round.
The Dapol White lightbar is too long to fit in the body, that will be used to light the St Ives Bay class 153.
Keeping your programming track clean is important, after all the fuss getting the decoder in the right way round, the first unit shuffled itself off the main part of the track onto a grubby bit which meant that it could not be programmed. A quick wipe of the track solved that.
Once programmed (imaginatively 1211 and 1212) I ran them on the continuous track. The head and tail lights worked fine, but the head code lights on the green unit failed to light.
Initially, I thought I might have burned them out when I had the decoder the wrong way round, but it appears to be a 'feature' of the models. A quick search of the Internet showed a number of people having had problems with the headcode (different decoders have different effects). I will have to as Dapol at Ally Pally later in the month.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Distractions
Well, it has been a while since I last posted here.
Warley was interesting, and A & H Models provided a Lenz O Gauge DB BR64 Prairie tank, DCC sound.
So far, it has spent some time on the Bachruss rolling road, demonstrating its sound capabilities.
I am still no nearer building any of the various layouts I am planning (see the Miskatonic Valley Railway for some developments).
Warley was interesting, and A & H Models provided a Lenz O Gauge DB BR64 Prairie tank, DCC sound.
I am still no nearer building any of the various layouts I am planning (see the Miskatonic Valley Railway for some developments).
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