"The best laid plans of mice and men" and the End of a Story Started in 2018.

Well, so much for posting more often, "the best laid plans of mice and men". Life intruded yet again when my wife Christine dislocated a 2 year old hip replacement at 2:30am on 26 January, just by rolling over in bed. The first time was on 15 August last year followed by a couple of months of rehab physio. Christine had hip revision surgery on 31 July to correct the implants. Apparently, the implants have socket and ball parts that can be replaced. We have been assured that it will not happen again. It was a different surgeon this time, however I won't blame the first surgeon as Christine had a fall, slamming the knee onto the concrete floor of the garage, this was about two weeks before the first dislocation. I think that she dislodged or cause some thing to turn out of alignment.

So for the last year I have been the main 'doer' around the place and I still have the last thirteen signals to build.

I recently got a Samsung tablet and tonight I wanted to check something on my BYLONG blog but didn't have a bookmark saved on it yet so I did a search for my blog. Among the results was a link to my first BYLONG blog post so I read it and a number of the following posts. Well, with time everything changes and also remains the same. More on this in a later post.

In the first post I explained the back-story of the layout and as things worked out I had to back date the layout to the early 1890's. This happened because I received a mystery box in the post containing the parts for a round brick water tower (see the January 2018 post in the side bar to the right). There was a cast plaster round brick column and a brass Trainbuilder VR water tower tank and no explanatory letter or note. After checking the post office mark on the postage stamp, I made a phone call. The mystery gift was from a friend, Rohan Fergusson, as he had noticed that BYLONG didn't have any water facilities.

Now, back to the present or at least the recent, and not so recent past, to begin with. For some time I pondered on where to place it in the confines of the BYLONG yard, it moved a number of times. Next, I was a bit worried about how to treat the bricks without losing the white mortar lines.. The prototype round water towers in NSW seem to be built of red brick but I felt that the red would stand out way to much compared to the drab drought scenery of late 1965. I eventually chose to use various pastels, as paint would likely spread into the mortar which would mean that it would have to be corrected with a white wash in the future.

After a lot of experimenting with the pastels over a long time I decided that it was done.

The next step was to finish the build and scenic it in place on the layout. I designed and 3D printed a circular base 20mm larger in diameter than the tower with a 1mm deep centre to accommodate the round tower. The base was glued in place followed by zip texturing using a light yellow ochre powdered tile grout, some light grey/brown tile grout followed and various coloured static grasses, all held in place with watered down glue. Care was taken not to glue the tile grout in the centre where the round tower was to be glued.

After removing the dry tile grout from the centre of the base the round plaster tower was glued in place and once the glue had set the water tank was glued on. Finally the ladder and incoming water supply pipe were attached.

Along with the water tower BYLONG needed three water columns, so three white metal Uneek water column kits were bought. Two were placed at the Down end of the loop for the double headed goods trains tackling the 1 in 40 grades and the other was placed at the UP end of the loop as not so much water was required when descending the grades. The water columns also service the Main line.

While zip texturing I forgot to cover the loop track with some masking tape and as a result the zip texturing went onto the side of the ballast and ends of the sleepers. The story now is that there is a water leak from the tower that has got in under the loop track and the trains have pumped a muddy slurry up through the ballast as well as turning the grass near the tower a slightly healthier green.

Here is the mud being pumped up by the trains.

The observant will notice the valve wheels on the water columns

While checking my plans for water columns I found one for this style made by Goninans for the SMR with a spoked valve wheel. I thought, why not? So, I drew a 3D version and printed it in resin. I printed six and just as well as the shaft of the wheel/valve is very thin and I broke one while assembling the column. I will have to be careful around the water columns when cleaning the track.

Have a Happy Christmas and a Great New Year

I would like to wish you all the best of the season, have a safe , enjoyable and relaxing time. Ray

I have my Fathers Disease, I like Tools

EDIT 2024-06-05: The links for the mini vertical drill press machines were updated and another slightly larger drill press was added along with photos of the drill presses.

As the title says, I like to find useful tools and use them, although this last part sometimes takes quite a while.

Here is my latest find, a small vertical drill.

I had been drilling holes through the brass signal posts for various detail parts, handrails, ladder supports, etc. by eye using a cordless Dremel motor tool and a 0.45mm drill bit. I knew I needed something better and I saw someone post on the Aus7 Modellers Group on Facebook about a small vertical drill he had bought but without a link to it. An initial ebay search found three that were of similar size with what looked like the same 12-volt small motor. Here is what I chose.

Note that the small steel vice is from my Unimat lathe to the left

Now, it isn't the prettiest version but I liked the large diameter main shaft for likely accuracy and the specification stated that the chuck would hold drill bits from 0.6 - 6.0mm. The other two vertical drills either didn't state the drill bit sizes or the minimum was larger than 0.6mm. Note the plastic vice with the red parts, this came with the vertical drill but really isn't a great deal of use, although the four red columns may be useful to hold an odd-shaped job.

Here is the link for the vertical drill, current as of the date of this post edit 2024-06-05

Here is another vertical drill with a 1.5 - 10mm chuck - Link updated 2024-06-05, nice and compact.

A third vertical drill, this one also stated the chuck capacity as 1.5 - 10mm. Link updated 2024-06-05.

Here is another Mini Drill Machine, added 2024-06-05. Chuck size 1.5mm - 13mm.

Given that I needed to hold very small drill bits, I wasn't prepared to take the risk on those with a 1.5 - 10mm capacity chuck.

My drill came with a power pack that has a multi-position switch for different voltages to give different speeds. I use it at the fastest speed as I want to use very fine drill bits.

The lever to move it up and down looks a bit basic but it gives very good control. To test the drill, I started with a 1mm drill bit, a piece of 0.5mm half-hard brass, and some cutting fluid. It is always a good choice to use cutting fluid with fine drill bits. This drilled quite well, and I followed up with a 0.45mm drill bit. Wait, now the chuck won't hold the 0.45mm bit so I used a very small chuck that I use in my cordless Dremel motor tool held in the existing chuck. I did have to check the runout of the drill bit and needed to move the chuck around a little in the larger chuck until it ran true. This is a good trick to learn. I also used a fine-marking pen to mark both the big chuck and the small one for future alignment. This 0.45mm hole also went well. At this stage, I thought, why not? I then put a 0.3mm drill bit into the small chuck and very slowly and carefully drilled through the 0.5mm half-hard brass.

Here is a link to the very small chuck, it isn't cheap but cheap will get you a small chuck that won't centre the drill bit or it won't hold it. This very small chuck is quoted as holding down to 0.35mm but I held the 0.3mm drill with it.

Once I had satisfied myself that this vertical drill was very good I then 3D designed and printed a jig to hold the tapered brass 'timber' posts such that I could drill a hole through the post at a right angle to the centre line of the post. I designed the jig to hold 16-foot, 18-foot, 23-foot, and 27-foot posts. This jig really makes things easier for me in preparing the signals for the kits.

So overall, I have been very pleased with this quite inexpensive purchase.

Please note that the links above were good at the time of posting.

The Best of Intentions and a Change

 Well, my last post was my Christmas one in which I said that I would try to post more often, but that didn't work.

I am now seven months further down the track and thought I had better explain myself.

By Christmas last year I had finished putting together 22 HO NSWGR signal kits for the North Shore Model Railway Association for their Blue Mountains club and exhibition layout. These signals were about equally divided between those for Katoomba and those for Valley Heights. A number of the signals were very specific and required modification to the posts with extra signal mountings, lamps, etc.

By the time I finished them, I was near to burnout having built about 70 signals and made up 54 kits. I decided to take January off as at the time I had an order for another 12 signals to build.

By early February as I was about to start the 12 signals when over a 2-week period I ended up with 45 signals to build. After my birthday in early May when I had turned 74 I decided that I wouldn't build any more signals but just supply signal kits. I realised that I hadn't been able to do much for myself in the hobby over the previous three and a half years and this is evident with the drop off of Bylong blog posts as well. I had started several modelling projects but they were stillborn when I had to get back to the signals.

Currently, I have 23 signals left to build which I hope to get done by the end of the year. I allow about 8-10 weeks for a build run of perhaps 8-10 signals with a couple of weeks break in between.

While I was building the recent signals I spent some time perfecting some 3D-printed jigs for drilling the various holes in the brass posts with 0.45 mm drills as well as various wire bending jigs for operating rods and improving the signal instructions with tips and ways to build them.

The signal kits have the brass castings cleaned up of sprues, holes all drilled, and small operating wires bent up except for the long 0.015" steel ones from the counterweight lever to the bellcrank or linear servo but this is covered in the instructions. White and black decals are supplied for the stripes on the signal arms as well. The bases are 3D printed for either the bellcrank type or the type for the small linear servos. I even have narrow versions for placing between tracks that are too close together. The signal range has posts with up to 3 signal arm positions although I did do a one-off signal with four arms down the post with linear servos. I can supply posts drilled to accept castings for the signal arm mounting bracket, the lamp, and the counterweight bracket for 1, 2, or 3 counterweight levers. To match the number of counterweight levers there are extra pulleys for the bottom of the post. I can supply the posts drilled for these extra fittings as required. Some of the 3D-printed drilling jigs were designed for this purpose.

Here are examples of some of the signal types I have built and can supply as kits.

Yes, the small arm works - Moss Vale signal

35 ft co-acting signal from Moss Vale

Another Moss Vale signal with a working small low arm

Also from Moss Vale

And another Moss Vale signal

Moss Vale again

Here are two signals on Tim Preddy's Cooma layout. The blurry bracket in the foreground is here below.

Available in this steel tubular type are a 23 foot signal, a 27 foot signal, left and right brackets

Here is an example of one production run, I think this one took longer. :-)

Another recent production run.

Here is a current work in progress to be added to the range, guess what and where.

And here are a few things to think about for the future.

These are just a selection of signal kits I can supply, please contact me with any questions at:

rpilgrim@bigpond.net.au

If you contact me initially by Messenger I will request that you continue by email as that is where I keep all correspondence so best to just use email.

That will do for now, I will hopefully get back to modelling subjects other than signals soon.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Christine and I would like to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a very happy New Year. May all that you hope for come about.

This would have to be the longest break between posts for the blog. I have almost sat down to type several times, but life has become a bit complicated in the last six months. I have managed to do a couple of things on the layout as well as make some signals for others but the main situation is around a now eight-month-old puppy. The last pup we had was in 2003 and it is amazing how you forget how much work a new pup is. We have just about got it toilet-trained and it seems to be starting to quiet down so things should improve soon. It certainly cuts the day into pieces of time where I can work, or alternatively, look after the pup when Chris is having a break from doing it. However, all considered, it is a lovely little thing.

I hope to get back to posting more often next year.

Australian Made Servo Control Boards for DC and DCC

EDIT : As of early 2024 the Railcon products are no longer available and the web site has been shut down. 

As we now know the past two years have disturbed the normal supply of many things. Among those have been my goto servo control boards from Tam Valley Depot. I have used Tam Valley Depot Singlet IIs, Tam Valley Depot Quad-Pics and a Tam Valley Depot Dual 3-Way board. Tam Valley Depot's owner Duncan McCrae stopped production due to ill health and at about the same time, COVID-19 hit the supply of electronic parts. Tam Valley Depot has since recommenced production but only a small part of its range. All of the above servo control boards are no longer being made.

As a result, I began a search for alternatives. I found suitable servo control boards in the UK as well as one in the US but given the cost of shipping, these become expensive.

I came across a local Sydney supplier, RailCon with an inexpensive range of boards in both DC and DCC versions.

At the time I was designing and printing linear servo signal bases for some US-made Tomar brand Upper Quadrant signals after an enquiry from a modeller here in Australia. Now the modeller didn't want three positions for the signal arms so I told him about the 2 position RailCon MD-003 boards so he purchased them for his signals and had them sent to me.

USA Tomar brand Upper Quadrant Signals with RailCon MD-003 Servo Slave Units

The RailCon MD-003 boards arrived and I found them quite easy to adjust the linear servos to get the correct throw of the signal arms but the speed of the throw was too fast. I called RailCon and spoke to the owner, Jim Crew about the issue. Jim said the boards were originally designed to throw point blades so the speed wasn't an issue then., however, he said he would have a look at slowing the speed. After a couple of days, Jim said he had done it so I sent the RailCon boards to him to be updated. They arrived a week back or so later and the speed was good. This speed has now become the speed for the boards in the RailCon range as it won't have any effect on the point blades since they only move a small amount.

The RailCon MD-003 Servo Motor Slave Unit will drive 2 servos and is priced at $24.60 which is $12.30 per servo output. The board requires a 12 Volt DC power supply.

For use on a DC layout, the MD-003 is used as is but for DCC the $24.85 SD-001 Central Control Unit is required. The SD-001 board connects to 4 SD-009 Servo Motor Slave Units. This gives $15.40 per DCC servo output.

While talking to Jim I asked about the possibility of a 3 position servo board for our NSWGR Upper Quadrant signals and he said he would look at it. About two weeks later Jim said he had a 3 position board and could I test it, the answer of course was yes.

Here is a video of a HO NSWGR Upper Quadrant signal arm being moved by the 3-position servo board. As I didn't have any Upper Quadrant bracket signals under construction I set up the Upper Quadrant arm on a Lower Quadrant timber post from my range.

As you can see the arm moves through the correct sequence going from CLEAR (vertical) to STOP (horizontal) in one movement then From STOP to CAUTION (45 Degrees) and then finally back to STOP. A three-position switch can be used to change the signal but the software has been written to ignore the centre switch position when moving from CLEAR to STOP. Of course, other switching methods can be used such as DCC, track detectors, relays, etc.

The MD-003a Servo Slave Unit is the 3-position Upper Quadrant version and is $24.00. The MD-003a is for DC and only controls one servo as the existing MD-003 printed circuit board has been used with three input connections instead of the four inputs (2 pairs) of the MD-003 unit. This was the simplest and least expensive way for RailCon to give us a 3-position option.

Although the website hasn't been updated as yet there is a DCC 3-position version, the SD-009a Servo Motor Slave Unit, The  SD-001 Central Control Unit will support 4 SD-009a Servo Motor Slave Units to control 4 servos in total.

One of my NSWGR Steel Bracket Signals with
Upper Quadrant and Lower Quadrant signal arms

I hope you have found this information useful and I think that RailCon should be supported as it is a very good local product.

Wollar Roundhouse Completed Finally

Way back in June 2011 and July 2011, I did several posts on my build of an Anton's Roundhouse kit (click on the links above or see the old posts list to the right and down).

Well, I finally decided that I needed to finish it, only 10 years late.

The problem that stopped me originally was the large rear windows that were wrong, or at least based on a plan and some photos I have of the type.

I measured the existing window frames of the model and worked out that I needed to modify them to get the windows anywhere near correct. The problem is that the roundhouse is designed to go with the Anton 75 foot turntable and the turntable has incorrect spacing(read angle) of the radiating tracks. This angle difference means that the rear walls of each stall are wider than they should be and this makes the proportions of the windows in the rear wall look wrong. It also became apparent that some of the rear wall framing was incorrect. I worked out what I needed to do to make things look proportionally correct even if not dimensionally so.

Cowra Roundhouse rear windows showing proportions

I turned my computer on and drew up some replacement window frames and the two different size windows in Sketchup for 3D printing.

This view shows that the model framing for the windows is quite wrong

The smoke vents that I made from various Evergreen strips and sheet can be seen in the above photo. These days I would of course draw them up and 3D print them. It is amazing how much 3D printers have added to my enjoyment of the hobby.

After printing a frame and some windows I checked how they might look. Apart from being wrongly placed the large louvres above the centre of the windows then looked too tall.

Incorrect framing cutaway and printed frame and windows in place

The large louvre supplied with the kit was then replaced with a shorter 3D printed louvre.

All 3D printed frames, windows and new smaller louvres are in place.

The windows and window frames were printed on a filament printer with PLA filament and a 0.4mm nozzle and a 0.1mm layer height. Here are the STL files for those who wish to use them to improve the Anton's roundhouse. The link points to a folder with the STL files. Please note that there are two small window STL files as the 0.4mm nozzle made slight variations in the window frame, a function of the printer trying to get the frame dimensions correct but needing to accommodate the nozzle size I guess. The difference is only tiny but it can stop the wider small window from fitting into the frame. It is best to print one each of the wide and narrow small windows first then try them in the window frame to work out how many of each size you will need. 

I spray painted the roundhouse 'timber' frame with a very dark grey and brush painted the windows and lower roundhouse wall with off-white.

After painting, I was able to clad the roundhouse with Evergreen corrugated sheet. It used up quite a lot of the sheet that I had been collecting over the intervening years. I found that each piece of sheeting had to be measured carefully to fit as no wall or roof section of the roundhouse seemed to be exactly the same size as another notionally equivalent section.

A light grey was applied to the walls and roof cladding. The edges of the various corrugated sheets were drawn with a fine point pencil to show each corrugated iron sheet. The roof corrugated iron sheets were delineated with black pastel powder and a brush to dirty up the roof. Further weathering will be applied with rust pastel powder until I am satisfied with the look.

After all the work on the rear windows, the roundhouse is placed such that the rear can't be seen, but I know they are looking a lot better and especially through the front of the roundhouse.