Selasa, 29 Julai 2014
July 29, 2014 Restoring a Rivarossi Tender
I bought a spare oil tender for my Rivarossi articulateds off eBay and it needs a bit of fixing up. The basic tender is in pretty good condition, The only problem is the missing step irons.
The missing step irons are a simple fix, I glued on some of my own resin castings with super glue then painted them with flat black. Even looking closely the steps look like they are the original Rivarossi steps.
In the picture above I have pushed a warm white 3 mm LED into the existing backup light hole. I will remove the rusted weight and install a speaker for a DCC sound decoder.
Here I have removed the rusted weight and installed a DCC speaker. I rewired the power pickup to connect to a ?" wide copper strip below the frame/floor shown in the picture below.
I have removed the Rivarossi trucks and installed Precision Scale #32346 Buckeye Tender Trucks for better tracking, added weight but mainly for the much improved power pickup. Good electrical conduction to the rails is very important for DCC operation.
The next step was to cut a hole below the platform for the NMRA 8 pin DCC male connector. Originally I had tried a small round hole a bit larger than the wire bundle going to the connector but that failed. The wires need plenty of room to move around going through turnouts or the tender will derail rather easily so now standard procedure is the large rectangular hole. The larger hole can't be seen when the tender is coupled up to a locomotive. The larger hole has another advantage, the NMRA connector will clear the hole so the decoder wiring harness can be fully assembled before installation.
Now on to wiring the tender for DCC operation
I use connectors purchased off eBay to make NMRA compatible connectors for all my DCC decoder ready equipment. I buy double row 2.54mm socket strips for approximately 50� each off eBay in quantity. The connectors can be used either as a male plug or female socket. One strip will make 10 NMRA connectors.
The picture above shows a double row connector before and after cutting.
The best vender I've found for #30 gauge wire is Train Control Systems, they have a great selection at a good price too.
Here I have one of the 8 pin connectors in my Panavise with it wired for the female end of the wiring harness, the DCC decoder will plug into this connector.
This is the wiring harness ready to be installed, notice the red paint on the connectors to prevent accidental reverse insertion. The harness is essentially an extension cord for the decoder with a breakout for tender power pickup and connection to the backup light.
The picture above shows the female NMRA connector mounded to the tender shell.
The DCC wiring is completed and the tender is ready to be reassembled. After a bit of track testing and some minor touch up here and there it will be ready for freight service behind a Cab Forward or an AC-9.
Finished Southern Pacific Oil Tender, DCC Ready.
Read More..
The missing step irons are a simple fix, I glued on some of my own resin castings with super glue then painted them with flat black. Even looking closely the steps look like they are the original Rivarossi steps.
In the picture above I have pushed a warm white 3 mm LED into the existing backup light hole. I will remove the rusted weight and install a speaker for a DCC sound decoder.
Now on to wiring the tender for DCC operation
I use connectors purchased off eBay to make NMRA compatible connectors for all my DCC decoder ready equipment. I buy double row 2.54mm socket strips for approximately 50� each off eBay in quantity. The connectors can be used either as a male plug or female socket. One strip will make 10 NMRA connectors.
The best vender I've found for #30 gauge wire is Train Control Systems, they have a great selection at a good price too.
This is the NMRA Color Code
This is the wiring harness ready to be installed, notice the red paint on the connectors to prevent accidental reverse insertion. The harness is essentially an extension cord for the decoder with a breakout for tender power pickup and connection to the backup light.
July 27, 2014 Revisiting my Double Crossover
It's been awhile since my post on my double crossover and I figured it was time to revisit it. My home brew 4 Atlas Custom Line Turnout & Crossover kitbash has worked flawlessly since the day I installed it.
It's been two years since I built and installed my Double Crossover and I have done a lot of scenery work around it but as you can see I still have a lot more to do before it's finished. I have run many passenger and freights through the crossover without a single problem from creep to wide open forward and reverse.
My layout was conceived and designed around having a double crossover at this location. I began laying my track in the late 1980s starting out with a Walthers/Shinohara Double Crossover in place. After months of laying the track the first locomotive I ran to test out my super dream layout was a brand new Rivarossi Cab Forward and it derailed every attempt going through the double crossover.
I worked on the crossover for weeks until there was nothing left of it. I pulled up the totally destroyed crossover and replaced the track with a pair of Atlas turnouts forming a single crossover.
The picture above shows the temporary fix that lasted over twenty years with my CAD drawing of my proposed replacement.
I was depressed for months because of the failure. Over the twenty year period I tried many double crossovers from different manufacturers but none of them would pass my Rivarossi locomotives without derailing, over twenty plus years I had acquired eighteen Rivarossi articulated locomotives. In case you can't tell the Rivarossi articulateds are my favorite locomotive, with a little TLC they all run perfect and look great doing it. With a few modifications they will perform as good as or better than expensive articulated locomotives.
After more than twenty years I finally decided that because my Rivarossi fleet would easily negotiate any and all of the turnouts on my layout easily including #4s it was time to make my own double crossover from normal Atlas Custom Line Code 83 turnouts. I have a few specialty Peco Code 83 turnouts that work very good but the majority of my turnouts are Atlas Code 83 making Atlas my choice for the project.
I started by making a CAD drawing using Atlas Custom Line Code 83 Turnouts as a go-by. With a bit of elbow grease and a sharp track cutting tool I now have a super good working double crossover that will handle any locomotive I own from the smallest to the largest as well as every piece of rolling stock from 25 foot shorties to 85 footers, they all sail through my double crossover turnout slick as a whistle.
Here is a link to my original Double Crossover Post
The moral of this post is never give up on your dream layout, anything is possible if you keep trying.
Read More..
It's been two years since I built and installed my Double Crossover and I have done a lot of scenery work around it but as you can see I still have a lot more to do before it's finished. I have run many passenger and freights through the crossover without a single problem from creep to wide open forward and reverse.
My layout was conceived and designed around having a double crossover at this location. I began laying my track in the late 1980s starting out with a Walthers/Shinohara Double Crossover in place. After months of laying the track the first locomotive I ran to test out my super dream layout was a brand new Rivarossi Cab Forward and it derailed every attempt going through the double crossover.
I worked on the crossover for weeks until there was nothing left of it. I pulled up the totally destroyed crossover and replaced the track with a pair of Atlas turnouts forming a single crossover.
The picture above shows the temporary fix that lasted over twenty years with my CAD drawing of my proposed replacement.
I was depressed for months because of the failure. Over the twenty year period I tried many double crossovers from different manufacturers but none of them would pass my Rivarossi locomotives without derailing, over twenty plus years I had acquired eighteen Rivarossi articulated locomotives. In case you can't tell the Rivarossi articulateds are my favorite locomotive, with a little TLC they all run perfect and look great doing it. With a few modifications they will perform as good as or better than expensive articulated locomotives.
After more than twenty years I finally decided that because my Rivarossi fleet would easily negotiate any and all of the turnouts on my layout easily including #4s it was time to make my own double crossover from normal Atlas Custom Line Code 83 turnouts. I have a few specialty Peco Code 83 turnouts that work very good but the majority of my turnouts are Atlas Code 83 making Atlas my choice for the project.
I started by making a CAD drawing using Atlas Custom Line Code 83 Turnouts as a go-by. With a bit of elbow grease and a sharp track cutting tool I now have a super good working double crossover that will handle any locomotive I own from the smallest to the largest as well as every piece of rolling stock from 25 foot shorties to 85 footers, they all sail through my double crossover turnout slick as a whistle.
Here is a link to my original Double Crossover Post
The moral of this post is never give up on your dream layout, anything is possible if you keep trying.
Sabtu, 5 Julai 2014
July 5, 2014 More Water Problems
I have done several posts on water, small rivers and creeks, ponds and even a swimming pool. I don't normally bad mouth a product but today when I was working close up to my Red Mountain Creek I was shocked to see the water in the creek had turned a brown gunky color.
I poured the Woodland Scenics Realist Water in my creek last August so this time it didn't even last a year. I'm in the process of removing the water, I will have to redo the entire lower creek. With the creek going bad that makes every Woodland Scenics Realistic Water pour I've done has ended up a gunky brown. I will never use their water products again!
I have had very good luck using Magic Water from Unreal Details, I poured a swimming pool over a year ago and it has remained crystal clear and still looks exactly like real water. Magic Water is a bit pricy but worth every penny compared to the worthless Woodland Scenics Product.
As I needed a large amount of the water making product on my layout I went to the Model Railroad Forums and found a fellow that recommended Parks Super Glaze so I give that a shot for my upper pond and creek.
While Magic Water costs $15 for 6 ounces plus Shipping the Rust-Oleum Parks Super Glaze is $25 for 32 ounces at Home Depot. It works GREAT at a much lower cost.
The picture above is my Red Mountain Pond poured with Parks Super Glaze. The water in the pond is ?" deep and super clear after a year. I should have added some fish in the pond for effects.
This picture is Upper Red Mountain Creek. The water in the creek is clear after a year.
This is a picture of Lower Red Mountain Creek after less then a year. The Woodland Scenics Realistic Water has turned a Yuck Brown and is very foggy. The rocks had a reddish tint but the muck turned most of them dark too.
More Woodland Scenics Realistic Water after less than a year.
This is more nasty Woodland Scenics Realistic Water above my water fall. I knew better when I poured the lower creek after I had to remove my swimming pool because it turned into a dirty floor wax buildup brown color, I had swimmers in the pool and the two under water were hardly visible through the gunk. My new pool with Magic Water is crystal clear after almost two years. The pool drain is clearly visible through �" of Magic Water.
Read More..
I poured the Woodland Scenics Realist Water in my creek last August so this time it didn't even last a year. I'm in the process of removing the water, I will have to redo the entire lower creek. With the creek going bad that makes every Woodland Scenics Realistic Water pour I've done has ended up a gunky brown. I will never use their water products again!
I have had very good luck using Magic Water from Unreal Details, I poured a swimming pool over a year ago and it has remained crystal clear and still looks exactly like real water. Magic Water is a bit pricy but worth every penny compared to the worthless Woodland Scenics Product.
As I needed a large amount of the water making product on my layout I went to the Model Railroad Forums and found a fellow that recommended Parks Super Glaze so I give that a shot for my upper pond and creek.
While Magic Water costs $15 for 6 ounces plus Shipping the Rust-Oleum Parks Super Glaze is $25 for 32 ounces at Home Depot. It works GREAT at a much lower cost.
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