Accessing the gears in a Trainorama NSWGR 44 Class bogie

Trainorama have said that they are bringing in replacement axle centres for their NSWGR 44 class bogies that seem to suffer from split gears.

If you have tried to get a 44 class bogie apart then you will know that it is almost impossible. It seems to have been designed to go together and not come apart.

The problem is that there are eight small clips that hold the bottom plate in place. The clips are on the bogie gear box sides and they clip onto the bogie bottom cover plate, however the clips are in a small hole and are almost inaccessible.

The solution to getting the bottom plate off is to grind the clips down until there is only a small amount of plastic still holding on. At this point the cover plate can be removed by flexing the two ends upwards while using your thumb to hold down the centre of the cover plate. This is harder to explain than to do.

I used a micro-engraver which I got from Jaycar but I have seen it in other places such as Bunnings (some time ago). The advantage of using this engraver over a larger Dremel style hand tool is that this engraver is battery powered and doesn't have much torque, there is no out of control damage when the bit digs in, the engraver just stops. A good magnifying light is very useful as well.

Here is a photo of the engraver and the Jaycar link.

You will need to use a small bit in the engraver.

Here is a photo that shows the clips already ground down, I apologise that it is difficult to see the ground down clips in the four square holes along each side of the bogie cover plate, I tried to get a good photo but black plastic clips in black plastic holes are not easy to see at any time.

Now we wait for Trainorama to bring in the replacements.

Prototype correctness or 'artistic' effect?

I have an interesting 'issue' on my Bylong layout involving the placement of the NSWGR trackside line poles.

Now, on the prototype the line poles are placed on the left hand side of the line when leaving Sydney however I have placed them on either side of the line due to space constraints and sometimes because they look better when placed on the wrong side of the track. This has been brought to my attention several times but I have resisted correcting their placement.

Sometimes the poles are placed so that they do not throw a shadow on the backscene and this can put them on the wrong side but then there are other places where I have purposely placed them incorrectly.

I have to say that I like to see the trains in the scenery and not running in front of it and this extends to the line poles if it suits the scene.

I haven't done a search of photos to determine if the line poles were sometimes located on the right hand side of the track when leaving Sydney so I don't know if this ever happened. It can be a problem when viewing photos to know if a train is an UP or DOWN train which of course would be necessary to see which side of the track the line poles are located.

Well I like the layout as it is so I probably won't change anything.

Here are two videos, the first shows the poles on the wrong side and the second on the correct side.

Enjoy.

New Outer Teardrop Scene

The expanded foam eruption ended and I was able to start repairing the damage to and around the road bridge which I could have done without.

I then applied pre-mixed cornice cement to fill in any gaps between the foam pieces and to generally smooth things out. I then used some dry powder colour and a wet brush to apply a basic brown to the surface of the plaster to minimise the potential for any white to show through the scenery later.

After this I marked out the lineside fence post positions on the balsa and the foam, made the holes and put a toothpick into each hole. The reason for this was so that I could find the post holes after I had applied soil and then static grass, it worked quite well apart from the toothpicks getting in the way of the static grass machine.

I used fine sieved soil to cover the whole area and applied a slightly different colour in several places.

This was then sprayed with a methylated spirits and water mixture to allow the 'Long Life Self Shining Floor Polish' (an acrylic clear, available in Woolworths - 500ml or Bunnings - up to 5 litres) to easily saturate the soil. The 'floor polish' sometimes needs to be done two or three times to thoroughly bond the soil but I usually try it and only add more later in any problem areas. I think the trick is not to apply too much methylated/water mixture.

While the soil was wet I applied various colour static grasses, looking for a dry grass effect with a little greener grass in some low lying spots. I also applied some dark green flock to replicate some blackberry or similar low bushes. It was interesting trying to match in with the thirty year old scenery in the centre of the teardrop. I still have to add some dry static grass on the track side of the inner fence to help tie it together. Also the old fence droppers made out of thicker wire will have to be replaced with the new thinner ones.

Here is a picture of the scenery after this first effort, grass tufts and more shrubs and foliage to be added.

And here are a few photos of the first train through the scene.

Volcanic Eruption!

A couple of days ago I decided that I should finish the scenery on the recently added outer teardrop section of the layout so after some thought I took myself off to Bunnings to get a can of expanding foam. The reason for this was that I had a plaster shell of the old scenery near the road bridge that was unsupported by the new fascia which was now about 150mm away. I thought that filling it with foam would be the way to go. I squirted the foam underneath the over hanging plaster shell and continued to do so until it was filled, I then put some blocks of expanded polystyrene between the expanding foam and the fascia, mistake!

I didn't find the problem until after I came back to the layout after some lunch.

Here is the result:

I cut the eruption off and found that there was still gooey foam being extruded from the centre. This is still coming out 24 hours later as I write this but only a small amount now, about the size of a playing marble.

When the foam expanded it broke the plaster shell away from the baseboard below the road overbridge causing the bridge to warp and be on a grade as well.

Now I had to remove the bridge and repair it, luckily it isn't the Laser Rail Bits bridge that I am working on just an old RIX plastic one made to look NSWGR.

I had also tried to apply the foam onto the MDF base to try to get a thin layer but this was not successful as it didn't want to stick and just rolled off when I tried to spread it with a spatula.

Here is the result, not very useful:

I also used some expanded polystyrene at the Wollar township end of the new scenery which is pictured here:

One good thing I can report is that the expanding foam cuts with my hot wire tool, slower than expanded polystyrene though.

Once I got everything sorted and the foam trimmed to shape I painted some PVA glue onto the foam and applied some kitchen wipes of the blue and white checked variety (cheap from Super Cheap Auto). I applied PVA glue wherever the pieces of  kitchen wipe were laid over each other and also where the wipes bridged a gap between the foam.

The intention of using the foam and kitchen wipes with the PVA is to make a scenery landform that can take fence posts and the fine intermediate droppers easily. I use fine wire pushed into the scenery to represent the droppers that are tied onto the wires to keep them apart and from sagging, probably also to stop stock from stepping through the wires.

Part of the new scenery is only about 5-6mm thick and since the expanding foam idea didn't work I realised that I would have to fill this large area with plaster. The problem with this is of course that it would require holes to be drilled into the plaster for the fence posts and the droppers, not a nice job, I have done it before.

The solution to the problem was to glue 25mm wide x 125mm long pieces of 6.5mm balsa where the fence would go. The plaster will be used to fill to the top edge of the balsa and I can easily push the fine droppers into the balsa, posts will be drilled and glued.

Here is a photo of the work so far:

Back dating the Trainorama NSWR 44 Class to 1965

As I model late 1965 I often have to modify rolling stock or locomotives to be correct for the period. An example of this is the Trainorama NSWR 44 Class diesel. I modified my first 44 several years ago and it has appeared occasionally in some of my blog posts. I recently decided that the time had come to modify two more 44s.

I have Rick Merchants small book Railway Album Number 4 which shows 4453 and 4434 on the Inter-Capital Daylight Express near Picton on 2 October 1965 so I have modelled these two along with 4462.

There aren't many changes to be made and they are easy to do. Firstly the double marker light boxes need to be removed, I accomplished this with a pair of sharp transistor nippers (side cutters) because they are ground flat on the back. The nippers left a small raised line which I carefully sliced away with a hobby knife chisel blade that I have ground down to about 2.5mm wide.

The next step was to drill two small marker light holes into the front corner of the 44, these are in line each side with the vertical straight edge at the rear of the buffer plate mounting. and fractionally above half way between the red lining and the bottom edge of the yellow whiskers. the marker lights have a circular metal surround but I haven't worked out how to do that yet. It is painted the same colour as the surrounding body work so it looks OK without it.

Once the marker light holes are drilled I used a small brush to paint some matching Indian Red that I blended from two versions that I had colour matched by Bunnings some time ago. If you want you could take the 44 class to Bunnings or some other paint shop and have them match some paint to the body on their computerised matching equipment. I had one litre of each matched but I had only 250ml matched one other time, talk nicely it could be cheaper.

After the marker lights are done the top step in the front 'cowcatcher' needs to be filled and a grab iron mounted with each side in the bottom corners of the filled step (see photos below).

Now, in the above photo of 4453 and 4434 it can be seen that they have different front horns than the Trainorama 44 however the rear horns are the same as the Trainorama 44. a close up study of 4453 shows that it appears to have an unusual two forward and one to the rear trumpet arrangement which incidentally is how the horns on the LIMA 44 class came. This three horn arrangement can be found on 400 class railmotors, 620/720 railcars and I believe 900 class DEB sets. I used a brass casting  for the 400 class that I had in my parts box. I am aware that some 44s had the same two each way horns carried by 48 and 45 classes but the photo above does not seem to show a second horn pointing rearward.

Studying the above photo again shows that 4434 has a five trumpet set of horns which was how the 44s came originally. I used a five chime brass horn casting for 4434 but not originally as I only noticed it when looking at the photo for 4453.

Here is 4453 not yet numbered showing the modifications, note the whitish number boards. I scrape away the numbers on the number boards including the black paint and then apply a whitish translucent wash of paint as I later apply numbers that I printed on clear decal paper with my laser printer, the numbers being clear to show the white underneath. The Trainorama 44 actually has two lights in the nose, one for the headlight and another below it for the painted out number boards. I replace the light globes with white LEDs (and appropriate resistors, usually 1K). I intend to do the marker lights with some white and red SMD LEDs one day (SMD - Surface Mount Device, tiny).

4434 appears above with the new five chime horns and is otherwise complete with NSW State Crest, marker lights and filled in step with grab iron. Unfortunately when I originally did 4434 I got the placement of the grab irons wrong they are just a fraction too high.

The third 44 class has been treated the same way with the markers and grab irons but I didn't take a photo as it has the twin horns as supplied by Trainorama, you have to have a win sometimes. This 44 is going to be 4462 which of course was involved in an accident resulting in two deaths several years later.

I chose the above three numbers as in late 1965 they all had the grab irons up the sides and across the nose so I didn't need to remove them and fill the holes.

Both 4434 and 4453 have been fitted with Soundtraxx Tsunami Alco 251 v12  decoders and so far the number boards on 4434 are able to be turned on an off separately to the headlight. 4453 will be lit the same and hopefully I can work out the markers given the limited function outputs of the Tsunamis.

Now, 4462 has been fitted with a QSI Titan decoder which has been updated with the Emulator software and the new ALCO 251 v12 sounds. This sounds very nice and even drops into low idle where the diesel will hunt, it also doesn't rev up when you move to notch one from idle which apparently is prototypical. The Tsunamis increase revs when you move from idle to notch one. I chose the nearest sounding horn that is available from the ones in the sound set. While not a recording of a NSW horn it is considered by some who know that it is quite adequate. Keep in mind that given the number of different horns carried by the class and the limited number of 44s still around having the correct sound for the type of horn modelled is somewhat academic.

However if you are into playing with sound files the Titan allows two User Sounds to be downloaded into the decoder with the QSI Q2 Upgrade program and the QSI programmer. Both of these User Sounds can contain a start file, a loop file and an end file so a correct horn could be done from a good recording given that it can be a bit tricky to get the looping file right without an audible click when it loops. That is, the start and end as it loops need to be seamless and must also blend with the start and end sound files.

Here is a quick video showing some of the Titan Emulator ALCO 251 v12 sounds. I was waiting for the 44 to drop into the low idle when the fan went off but by the time I got to the camera it stopped and it dropped into the low idle. I set the sound of the fan to the rear speaker below the fan on the 44 class where the sound should come from.  The Titan can be set to send various sounds to either of two speakers or any where in between them. Note that the 44 class does not have any momentum applied.

I don't know about anyone else, but I like it!

Further information on train loads and locomotive combinations

Colin Hussey has just posted more information on his Essence blog following on from his comments I published in my last post. I advise you to have a read and study the photos as it is very interesting and shows the complications the railways had to deal with when determining the train load for a section. I particularly like the additional information related to steam passenger and goods locomotives and their respective minimum hauling speeds and the effect that this had on the train load along with ruling grade and any sharp and/or reverse curves encountered in a section.

Colin is to be congratulated for his desire to impart his NSWGR knowledge gained during is working life as a driver and presumably fireman.

Thanks Colin.

Also of interest is a comment on my last post from Bob Stack of South Coast Rail which I post here:

"Ray,

The 10% reduction in load does exist today but is applicable to diesels only.

It is brought about when different locos have various balancing speeds on the ruling grades making certain locos try and do more work. Their maximum tractive effort can be at different speeds.

The Train Operating Conditions Manual (which I use to maintain) sets out these conditions on Pages 45 to 49 (Locomotive Operations) in the following link:

http://www.asa.transport.nsw.gov.au/ts/asa-standards#rolling-stock

Look in TS TOC 1.

Certain combinations work successfully together and these are set out in the tables.
So in fact the real world is similar to our models in that certain model locos won't run with others straight out of the box.

A lot of other interesting stuff in the manual as well.

Bob"

A quick look at page 45 2.11 Mixing Locomotive Types and Table 3 shows which diesel locomotives can be mixed to retain a full train load capacity and which when mixed together must have the train load reduced by 10%. 

It would be possible to build this information into my Train Load Calculator spreadsheet with appropriate formulae for the 10% reduction but it would start to make it not so easy to change to suit other State railways, etc. By all means, do download the spreadsheet and modify to suit your own railway or era.

A couple of interesting sections of the Train Operating Conditions Manual that I found are:

Page 56, 3.3 Holding a Stationary Train on a Grade - This will have an impact on any timetable you are using, Cox's Gap loop for instance is on a 1 in 80 grade.

Page 58, 3.7 Track Speed Signs, Table 11 - These would be useful for the modern image modeller

The steam era modeller may not get much from this manual but it can still be interesting to flick through it.

Corrections and information regarding the previous Train Load post

In my previous post I made a mistake and an assumption or two that were corrected in a comment on the post by Colin Hussey a retired NSWGR driver, both steam and diesel.

The mistake was that I referred to the General Appendix and this should have been the Working Timetable. I made this mistake as the document I was looking at starts at page 7 and when I thought about it, I realised that it is a working timetable. I have now corrected my previous post.

One of the assumptions was that I assumed that the 10% reduction for two steam locomotives may have been to allow for inefficiencies between two crews, my apologies Colin, I didn't mean to throw discredit on the drivers and this has been deleted from my previous post.

Anyway, here is Colin's comment in full as it adds greatly to our knowledge:

"Ray.

The primary & best place to look for loads is in the Working Time Tables (WTT), these came out more frequently, showing changes to loads, & train working conditions, much more reliable & easier to keep updated.

Updated loads & conditions also came out in depot affected weekly General orders as well as the State wide Weekly notices.

The load of a double header while slightly less than that of 2 combined single engines, depended more on the added length of the train rather than the actual load itself, which took the amount of curves & train drag into account. Another point was that it was quite possible by adding an extra wagon to the load, the train was then overloaded.

The WTT gave loads, for individual sections over the length of the whole line, with general ruling grade made that making up the through load. Also found was the length limits for single & doubles, another consideration was the length of crossing loops.

Another aspect was momentum grades that allowed for more than the standard load to be taken. Heavier loads were taken from Hornsby - Broadmeadow than from Enfield to Hornsby e.g.: & IIRC (if I recall correctly), a freighter was allowed 360tons Enfield - Hornsby but 390 from Hornsby. Tumulla, Molong – Oge (Orange) & Ardglen had the same loads as those from Enfield – Hornsby.

The 75% load was maximum & no more of the full through load used for accelerated running of old fruit expresses when the train consisted of 4 wheelers, it was primarily meant for faster grade climbs hill grade in order to keep the speed up.

The best example found on the west from Lithgow to Orange, with the influx of 36cl to the area & removal of the freighters almost all through trains were listed in the WTT's as 75% loads.

The reason was to simplify/standardise rostering of engines, set loads were compiled that allowed for single running times for the goods trains, with all running to 36cl running times & loads. For freighters they worked up the grades at the same speed as a pig.

The benefit of this arrangement beyond Lithgow was that when a steam service was programmed for any load single or double header all the trains needed to be made up based only on that load & not of the engine type as it did not matter whether it was a freighter or pig or combo of the two. In these cases, the Pig led owing to operational reasons, when doubled with a freighter.

Rear end banking was not permitted on passenger trains, some notable exceptions, but not on mixed trains, empty 4 wheel stock wagons, which had to be located at the rear.

When working double headers, I would not say there was anything to do with drivers inefficiencies or crews at all, & really is a put down of the men who laboured on the engines.

Every time crews worked a double header there was always a confab between the drivers regarding the trip ahead, rarely did it mean any adjustments to the standard drivers way to drive the engine & train. If either crew needed to communicate it was done with the whistle to attract attention of the other, usually meant to slow down or crack the whip, these were known hand signals that could be seen from cab to cab. Smooth working of the train did not depend on the aspect of single or double heading but on the train composition. We felt it just as much up front as did the guard if the train had been made up badly.

When composing trains, I have worked more on the length based NSWGR form of an S truck is a single wagon, while every other wagon is listed compared to it, e.g: K is 1.2, BWH & early bogie vehicles are 2. Initially I worked on having a load of around 30 S trucks & van, with loops around 2.4 metres, but a train that long looked far too long. I changed the loops bringing back to 2mtrs in clearance which looks quite ok. This allows for train lengths of around 23 S trucks & single loco, without problems.

In modelling the adage of less is more, really comes true & your 57cl load shows that up well.

Cheers
Col"

In the wagon length data of the spreadsheet I used 2 for a K truck to keep it simple, so if anyone wants to they can easily change this to 1.2, similarly any other wagon lengths can be changed/corrected.

My intention is to keep things simple to enhance my hobby to gain the flavour of the NSWGR operations without tieing myself in fully prototypical knots (still pondering on signalling).  Colin is luckier than most of us as he worked with and has an in depth understanding of the rules pertaining to the NSWGR.

Thank you Colin for clarifying these issues for us.

Now of course you also need to look at the maximum allowable speeds for various wagons which can be found in a Working Time Table and which will also have an impact on the setting up and operation of timetables for your layout.

Have fun!