A warning - Please read

While reading the Aus_Model_Rail Yahoo Group tonight I noted a discussion on the use of DCC high amp boosters (10amp), short circuits and the way to handle them with circuit breakers, etc. The discussion has prompted this post and I pass on a warning for those using PCB sleepers with copper on both sides.
Recently I was at the first running night on a friend's new layout, now this layout had handbuilt points using the Fast Tracks method. My friend had been having mysterious short circuits that very day and said that the layout was out of action due to the short. On turning the system on so that we could check for the short he found that it was now working so the running night proceeded.
All was good for a while then as I was shunting his branchline terminus I saw a small approximately 8mm ball of flame erupt from one of the sleepers on a point. I quickly called for the layout to be turned off as the cause was immediately apparent.
There was a short caused by the track pins/spikes passing through the sleeper which had the usual piece of copper removed between the rails, however the copper layer on the bottom was still there and both pins/spikes were touching the copper at the top and the bottom of the sleeper hence a short circuit.
The scary thing here is that this is relatively standard practice in point building and as we often leave the power on the layout when we leave the room a fire could result.
The solution is simple, do not put a track pin on both ends of a PCB sleeper if it is double sided.
I checked my handbuilt points and sure enough I have the same situation on my Cassilis branch terminus but luckily mine aren't shorting.
I am going to remove one track pin/spike from one side of each PCB sleeper.
The interesting thing with this situation is that the booster didn't trip it just kept putting out the amps. I should also point out that the DCC booster was only rated at 5 amps, a very normal booster.
So beware, you have been warned.

Thornleigh Brick Pit Exhibition

I managed to get to the Epping Club exhibition on Saturday and was pleasantly surprised by the quality and the number of new layouts on show.
Of course there were also the commercials to visit but I had to restrict myself a bit this time as Chris is not working due to her bad back problems. I picked up a pack of Austrains CWs and two of the Andian lever frame etches, a two lever and a three lever frame.
Well, I took a few photos while walking around and meeting people so here are a few of layouts that particularly caught my eye.

ARAKOOLA - A 7mm layout, very nice and not possible to all of it into the picture, there is a little more to the right.

WYEE - Very nice, there is more to the left of the first photo.

BOOROWA - A well done implementation of the scenery leading into Boorowa with photos of the real locations. The bridges need to be greyed up to represent old timber but still nice. The station area was highly compressed but this was likely done so that the interesting approaches could be modelled and space may be limited where it lives normally.

BULLENBUNG CREEK - A delightful, less is more, fine scale layout with a number of those quintessential NSWGR infrastructures features we love so much.

YENDYS - If you read YENDYS backwards you will understand the name. I quite liked this suburban themed layout which surprised me as I don't have any real interest in the Sydney electrics. You need to read the sign to the left of the road that is blocked by the police in the first photo then move onto the second. While the flooded creek is a bit 'cute' it is done very well. The street of flats and the shops also give a sense of perhaps a North Shore station. There is another half of the layout with an industrial theme to the left of the first photo. Over all well done.

GEOFF KNOTT - Of course you can't go past Geoff's work. Geoff and co. were running a scenery clinic for the kids and I saw several proud young ones walking away with a small diorama that they had made with guidance from Geoff and his friends.

AUSTRAINS - Finally, here are a couple of not too good photos of John Eassie's SRC, ICV, MV and LV wagons. Unfortunately they were at the back of a layout opposite the Austrains stand and with the barrier and gap to the layout front it was tricky getting a good photo.

I hope that you have enjoyed this rather disjointed view of the exhibition.

Sorry for the lack of posts but here is another video

I haven't posted too often lately as I am otherwise occupied. My wife Chris has had a bad back for more than 10 years and it has now come to the point where she needs an operation. Currently she is off work and spends most of the day laying down and can only stand for 20 minutes or so at a time. As a consequence I am spending a lot of time being with her and generally assisting where I can.
The operation is scheduled for 19 June and it can't come soon enough for her.
Anyway, just to post something I give you another video of an Austrains C35 traversing part of the layout. Now this video has no sound so don't try turning the sound up. It is one of my early try outs of the Micro HD video camera and while it isn't that clear (disappointment here) it does give a nice low down next to the tracks view.

The view is often a bit crooked as the camera is so light that even static grass can throw it off level.
I will post something when I can but I may not be able to do much for obvious reasons.

A trip Along the BYLONG Main Line

Last week I was at the Model Railroad Craftsman shop at Blacktown to buy a small item from Gary's Grandt Line range of structure details and well, the usual happened! I walked out with a Soundtraxx Micro Tsunami EMD 567 sound decoder for my Austrains NSWGR 421. Now I didn't go there for that but you know how it goes, something happens and its done.
I fitted the decoder the same night still suffering from that disease I caught in the afternoon, I think they call it enthusiasm.
Here is a picture of the install, note that I trimmed back the metal chassis projection holding the rear headlight to make room for the speaker and tapped the decoder and wires to it. I installed the speaker on edge held by yellow 'Blu-Tack'? Also the speaker is facing forward and the sound actually sounds like it is coming from the middle to front instead of the rear which is good.

A while back I bought a tiny Full HD video camera fitted with a micro SD memory card and here is a video taken tonight of a run over the main line. The camera is in a K wagon in the train behind the 421. My apologies for the date in the corner, unfortunately there is no way to turn it off, the camera is a bit basic also it doesn't seem to have the clarity that I would have expected of Full HD but I suspect it is the low light conditions and perhaps the lens quality, a common problem with small cameras.

Click on the YouTube logo below to see the video larger and better on the YouTube site.

What would it look like?

I was playing around last night with some photos I took of my new Cassilis branch terminus and decided to have a little photoshop fun.
I started with this photo:

and ended up with this:

All a little rough but it is interesting to see the station in an extended countryside setting. I might have to look at painting the black fascias with some sort of foreground scene to blend it in, it could work.
Of course I will also have to build my Keiran Ryan S08 silo to replace the temporary silos, looks like an interesting project. There will also be a couple more buildings on the street behind the station.

Kadee Scale Head Whisker Couplers for the Austrains KP and LHO

During the operating session on Bylong last week the Austrains KP Mail Van had issues with a low coupler, this post describes the resolution of that issue and how I had originally mounted Kadee No. 153 Short Scale Head Whisker couplers to replace the very long supplied couplers. Please note that the minimum radius curve on Bylong is 762mm (30").
The process of replacing the couplers had me scratching my head until I worked out the following:
1. Remove the supplied couplers.
2. Drill a hole of a size suitable for a small coupler mounting screw, hard up against the small rear wall of the coupler box on the van floor.
3. Cut off the small rear wall of the coupler box as per the photo.
4. Carefully cut away the coupler mounting bush from the coupler box (see photo below).
5. Now you need some coupler bushing adaptors from Kadee 20 Series couplers, you are going to use the larger of the small plastic bushes.
6. Assemble the coupler into the box with the bush in the pivot hole of the coupler and screw the lid on.



Kadee 20 Series Adaptor Bushes



Now, the coupler box seems to be a little deep which may help the coupler to droop a little so a 3mm washer needs to be placed on each bogie mounting to raise the van slighty. Adjust the coupler pin with pliers if necessary.

I suspect that the van might be a little low as it now seems to align better to other passenger cars but I have not checked any dimensions.

The Austrains LHO can be similarly modified but it seems to need 1/8" washers as the central post of the bogie mounting is fractionally larger in diameter than the KP.

The boys have gone back...

As a lot of you would know Blair Kooistra of North of Narrabri and Lance Lassen of North West to Southern Cross arrived to chase trains across Victoria, South Australia and NSW about three weeks ago. They arrived in Sydney on Tuesday afternoon for some layout visits and a hobby shop crawl, Lance having to leave early on Wednesday morning and Blair left today but I will leave the details of the trip up to them if they wish to put them on their respective blogs. I mention this to explain why I have been tardy in updating the blog of late.
One of the layouts they came to visit was Bylong so I decided that I should get it ready and to do something about my Cassilis branch terminus that I started about 6 months after their last visit in 2009.
As you know I posted a Cassilis update a few weeks ago and since then I have managed to finish the trackwork, install the Blue Point point controls along with install undertrack Kadee magnets on hinges, start the station and do some scenery.
Here is a picture of where Cassilis is up to.

As you can see the Antons 60' Sellars turntable is sceniced in place along with ash ballast and static grass reaching to the station platform and building. I chose to build the Rail Central Pc3 station building stock standard and I also used the platform with three straight pieces and two end ramps. This makes a very short platform but there is a picture of Gwabegar station on page 22 of the Train Hobby book Country Railway Stations New South Wales Part 6 that shows just such a short platform on a terminus station. There is also the fact that I only had space for a platform of this length. Of course these platforms are very regular in shape having come out of the same injection moulding die so I decided to correct that, I took a file and scraped it along all the timber parts to give some grain and I then added nut-bolt-washer castings and some extra steel strapping to replicate what I had taken photographs of at Crookwell a couple of years ago. After this I painted and weathered the platform and here is the final result.

I haven't finished the Pc3 station building as yet but I am painting it in an austerity version of the stone paint scheme as this branch wasn't going to be a greater money earner (of course being a lazy modeller it matched up with my desire to not worry about too much trim paintwork).
A couple of weeks ago I had the Ramblers over for a Sunday afternoon operation session so that I could fine tune the timetable for the operating session we had last Tuseday night with Blair and Lance. The afternoon session showed some problems which I proceeded to fix with the next timetable. Unfortunately on Tuesday night we had three trains arrive at Cox's Gap Loop at the same time. I figured that someone had left a station without permission of the signalman but no I had managed to timetable three trains to arrive at the same time with two crossing between Cox's Gap and Wollar!
Lance ran several mainline trains and Blair ran the Cassilis branch goods that involved making up the train in Wollar, proceeding to Cassilis, shunting the wagons, making up the return goods and proceeding back to Wollar. All was going very well until James McInerney wandered over and told him about the rules regarding locos with hook gear and wagons with auto couplers both with and without buffers. A little bit of consternation, but he managed very well and completed the moves.
Apart from my three train stuff up and two very late trains (someone forgot to run them) we only ended up about a 6:1 fast hour late on the 12 fast hour timetable. All in all a fun time was had, here are a couple of video clips of the fun.

See you next time Blair and Lance.