Thanks Ian, but I should really have had this track change done and dusted last year. I blame cold weather Ed
I thought all you top siders had good winter wooly's You may have to get your self a little heater for the train space. Good to see you making progress will we see some trains running soon ?? Ed
It's an age thing Chris, feel the cold more Unfortunately the garage has an up-and-over door and there is a gap between the top of the door and the lintel, which makes any heating almost impossible and certainly uneconomical. Ed
First portal in. Don't think I've got the gap quite right between the pantograph and the contact wire. I want it as small as possible, but not touching. I also need to shorten the station canopy, but I was considering doing that anyway by cutting the back of the roof flush with the wall. Need to wire in the two Y points first. Ed
Ed, do you still use the garage for a car, or is it the railways domain. If the latter, you could always put a false wall behind the door to stop the drafts and insulate it - dont make it too comfy or you may never be let back in the house Paul
It's a utility room/storage/railway room Paul. Tumble drier and top opening freezer to the front by the door............. and I need somewhere to keep me bike Ed
Hi Ed, Looking good. The gap isn't to bad and from a distance ( three foot rule applying ) , I think it's quite acceptable. I suppose it's down to how much time you want to spend on it. Are the pantographs adjustable on the loco's at all ? It could save a bit of work if you are determined to get it closer. Looking great all the same. Toto
Hi Toto Pantographs can either be locked down or they're sprung to touch the wire. At the moment I've been using small pieces of styrene to stop them going to their full height. Think some people use very fine cord or fishing line, but I'll continue experimenting Ed
Your a brave man Ed putting in the overhead Looking forward to seeing the overhead crack on in a flash Ed as your using dcc you could mount a white or blue nano LED in the panto Shoe and set up with with the lighting FX functions to randomly flash to get an effect of the arcing flash.
Hi Ed, The reason I asked was you could set the fixed pantograph " lines " at a predetermined height and let the pantograph fitting on the loco take up any fine adjustment rather than adjusting the fixed installation. Don't know if I explained that very well but I am sure you'll be in the right track ( excuse the pun ) . It will be an interesting read as although I seem this sort of thing on layouts, I've never actually followed it being constructed with all the successes and pitfalls etc. Keep it coming kind sir. Great post. Toto
"Ed as your using dcc you could mount a white or blue nano LED in the panto Shoe and set up with with the lighting FX functions to randomly flash to get an effect of the arcing flash." Well I could Chris, but.................................... I haven't even got decoders in the two AC locos yet, they're quite old Hornby models and I've got a bit of hard wiring to do. Think we're confusing each other here Toto, the contact wire (lowest wire of the catenary) is set at 70mm about the railheads. Note the wooden block in the earlier picture and below. The pantograph extends to some silly height and is being held at the current height by a stop. Not very clear but I've ringed it in an old picture below, just a small piece of black styrene. Ed
Hi Ed, that helps . I can see whats happening. still a bit of an undertaking. looks great cheers toto.
Tarted up the station a bit. Lick of paint, fixed the broken roof and added some glazing and LED lights. They're just plonked and not fixed in place, and I still need to paint the interior and add a ticket barrier. Although you can't really see in the pictures the lights are still too bright, although they come with a 1k resistor already attached and I'm running them at 9 volts. I'm sure someone said you can paint LEDs yellow to tone them down a bit, so I might try that. Ed
If you are buying LED's for use on a "period" layout (maybe up until around the 70's) it's better to get "Warm White" ones if available, as they are much nearer to an incandescent lamp colour. Standard 'White' ones tend to be quite 'Blue' and resemble Mercury Vapour lamps, probably ok for 70's onwards layouts. I have a Bachmann/NRM "Deltic" prototype which has these rather "Blue" LED's fitted, nothing like how I remember it on the ECML in the early 60's! Keith.
G`day Ed, If you can get hold of an old transformer / speed controller you can run your LED`s off that and possibly get the voltage down to 2 or 3 volts which will dim the LED`s. Leave the resistor as is ....set to 12 or 9 volts or whatever and then supply considerably less volts = dimming capable. That`s the system I use for my control panel LED`s ........in effect it becomes a dimmer. http://www.clickGormo
Hi Gormo The power supply I've got can be switched to 12, 9, 6, 3, or 1 1/2 volts, but I've got a feeling if I drop it to 6 volts they won't light. If colouring doesn't work, I could run them from one of the controlled outputs from the Gaugemaster Model D (the other controls the turntable). Certainly an option, so thanks for that Ed