A Few Photos from the AMRA Liverpool Exhibition

Here are some photos I took last weekend. They do not represent every layout or my interpretation of the best layout(s). They were taken just because a particular scene caught my eye.

Please note that the photos are not up to my usual standard as I used a small pocket size camera as dragging a tripod around to take good photos is just impossible at the exhibition.

I hope that you see something to enjoy.

BINALONG

MUNGO SCOTT

ILLABO

YENDYS

PENROSE GORGE - WOLGAN VALLEY

A small amount of photo shopping was done to extend backscenes upwards and eliminate backscene joins and marks, etc.

Of course I would probably have taken more but I had too good a time catching up with many modellers. If I didn't catch up with you then maybe next time.

Catch Point and Indicator Update

I haven't had a post for a few weeks as Chris had a sudden gall bladder operation after two attacks in two days and last Monday I had a cataract operation on my eye that was infected when I had the shingles in March of 2013. The eye drops I had to take to clear up the infection in the eye ultimately gave me a cataract. So for some time I have been working with basically one eye shut to eliminate the blur. It was OK for driving etc. but not for reading, the computer and modelling. I now have to wait for about 6 weeks for the eye to settle down before I get my glasses sorted. So I still have dodgy vision for modelling, etc. but not as bad as before.

Anyway, my Shapeways 3D prints of the catch points (White Strong and Flexible) and the indicators (Frosted Ultra Detail) turned up last week and I have been assembling them to see if I have designed them well enough to have them actually work.

OK, well the catch point needs to be amended as the dog spikes are too fragile and I lost a number of them while inserting the rail. The rail was Peco Code 75 flat bottomed. I haven't tried MicroEngineering Code 70 as yet but it does have a similar base width so I would expect a similar result. If you get a catch point when I put them on my Shapeways Shop then don't paint the sleepers first, it just makes it harder to insert the rails and I lost a few more dog spikes doing this.

I have beefed up the dog spikes by 10% and raised them slightly to give better clearance for the angle of the rail bottom flange area but there is a limit before the spike heads will be hit by the wheel flanges. So far they are clear of 88 and 110 wheel flanges.

Printed Left and Right Catch Points as received

The catch point indicators were printed in Frosted Ultra Detail which gives nice detail but can have occasional slightly rough surface areas which is due to a support material used during printing. As usual, I used a rinse in acetone for 1 - 2 minutes to clean any oily material that is used to clean away the support material.

Catch Point Indicators - Brightness and Contrast adjusted to try to show the detail

As I mentioned above I inserted some rail into the sleepers to test the fit but also to test the gauge which was successful.

Check of rail gauge - Lower rail temporarily fitted

The three items attached to the sleepers are from left to right, a wedge that is fitted inside the lower rail to raise the wheels up and over the rail and two alternate sleeper extensions for mounting the indicator on. The sleepers plug into the ends of the main sleepers around the area of the point blade.

One indicator set clipped from the main sprue with most of the sprues cut away to assist with painting access

The rails were cut to size, inserted and glued in place with Super Glue (ACC). The point blade was filed to a taper and then cut to length. he main rail was filed away to accommodate the point blade where they meet.A MicroEngineering rail joiner was cut in half with a cutting disc in a motor tool. The joiner was held in a pair of pliers and it was opened up by inserting a scrap piece of rail into tit before it was carefully pushed onto the end of the rail in the catch point. Another piece of rail had one end filed to an angle to meet the rail before being inserted into the angled sleepers.

Part assembled catch point with an indicator

Here are several photos showing the catch point with indicator in a typical position in Bylong yard. Catch points were placed where a siding met the main line so that parked wagons would not foul the main if the rolled away. This catch point would need to be curved to fit in this location so I will build one from the new design when I get it back from printing. The catch points will be able to be curved by clipping away sections of the web between the sleepers on each side of the rails much as is done on flex commercial track. This is one advantage of the White Strong and Flexible material, the other is cost as the catch point would be exorbitantly expensive in the Frosted Ultra Detail material, 'horses for courses'.

Overall view of the location - A lit Clearance Post can be seen on the right

A closer view

A close up view of the indicator - The square section rotates to the other aspect (arrow)

Unfortunately I didn't design the operating component of the rotating indicator head well, it won't turn the head fully. It is amazing how it can be difficult to envisage the way something should work when designing in 3D but how obvious it is when you hold the item in your hand. I now know what I have to do to make the indicator aspects move through 90 degrees when the point blade moves, or I hope so.

Another set of prints will be ordered when I finish the design changes. I hope that this indicator can be lit from below the baseboard by an LED in a hole drilled from below but I will only find out once I try it. The light will have to go vertical (easy) then be bright enough to reflect out sideways  through the pivot, into the head section and out the small red lens and the arrow area. Fingers crossed on this one.

Finally, here is the NSWGR plan again.

NSWGR Standard Catch Point - 1936

Wired Bi-Colour 0605 Surface Mount Device Red and Warm White LED Issue

I recently ordered some wired Red and Warm White 0605 Bi-colour SMD LEDs on ebay for marker lights as I really don't like the red/cool white versions we seem to get on our locomotives.

When they arrived, I sat down to use them as marker lights on a Trainorama 44 Class and realised that I had a problem.

Size of a 0605 Bi-colour SMD LED

Just before I ordered them I was looking at wired RED and White 0605 SMD Bi-colour LEDs from the same supplier and had noted that they were wired with a Common Anode.

Well, you can probably guess by now what my issue was, yes, the Red/Warm White ones were Common Cathode!

Why is this a problem?

DCC decoders are designed for Common Anode, so if I had used the LEDs as they came I would have ended up with both Red and Warm White turned on at the same time.

So, I was left with little option but to rewire them. I had bought the wired ones to avoid just this scenario!

I bought a magnifying glass on a gooseneck from JayCar Electronics that has a small 5 X lens in the larger 2X lens, more expense but it will be useful I guess.

I took a piece of Bostik Blue Tak, made a small 1 cm ball of it and pushed it onto my workbench. Into this I pressed the 'lens' side of the 0605 LED exposing the wire connections on the rear.

I placed the magnifying glass so that I could see the LED through the 5 X lens.

I have a temperature controlled soldering iron with a very fine point which I used to unsolder the three wires.

Rear of a 0605 SMD Bi-colour LED - Correct Anode Common wiring

0605 SMD Bi-colour LED Circuit

As can be seen from the circuit above there are simply four contacts, one in each corner to solder to which made the rewire easier.

I took one of the two long wires and soldered it across the opposite two contacts than the ones that had previously been bridged. This now formed the Common Anode connection.

I shortened the long wire to the same length as the remaining wire to form the two Cathode wires and soldered them in place.

The first one took about 30 minutes of stuffing about but I can now do them inside of 5 minutes. So far I have done five.

I did try double sided tape first but I found that the LED moved around too much, the Blue Tak holds better as the 'lens' can be pushed into the Blue Tak for a better bond.

I don't know if all RED/Warm White 0605 Bi-colour SMD LEDs are Common Cathode, probably not, but I made this post to make the modeller aware of a potential issue.

Oh, yes, how many did I buy?

40!

And no, I haven't installed them as yet, took the wind out of my sails a bit, not an uncommon thing of late.

A Paddock Full of Sheep

Over the last few months I have been trying to distract myself from events earlier this year and have done a few different 3D printing projects. Two of these are HO sheep both in 'free range' and wagon loads.

Both the free range sheep and the wagon loads can be seen in this photo of 5085 climbing the grade to Wollar with a stock train of sheep.

Those who know the layout will note that the stock train is headed towards the country, away from the Bylong abattoir and the city abattoirs so the sheep must be being moved for agistment elsewhere, 1965 being a year of drought (yes, I know my backscenes are too green for a drought).

The sheep wagon loads have been designed to fit both the Austrains NSWGR GSV four wheel sheep wagon and the Eureka Models BSV bogie sheep wagon.

I have now offered them for sale on my Signals Branch Shapeways shop and while the price may appear to be of some concern the quality can be seen in the above photo and the 64 'free range' sheep work out at 57 cents each which is a bit over half the hobby shop retail price of approximately AU$1. The wagon load sprue has 100 sheep so these work out at 37 cents each.

The roofs of the above mentioned sheep wagons come off by slightly levering at the roof corner. The GSV floor comes out by slightly flexing the lower body sides away from the solebar. The BSV bogie wagon floor comes out by first pulling the buffer heads out of the wagon and then slightly flexing the lower body sides away from the floor.

It is advisable to spray the sheep on the sprue prior to snipping them off as it is easier to touch up the white snip area than to hold and paint the sheep individually. For Australia, a light brown is more correct (dust) than white as would be found in England or Europe.

While these sheep a just standing I hope to modify them so that they are grazing or looking another way, etc.

I hope that the modeller will find these useful.

Clarification of Sheep Wagon Loads:

1 sprue of 100 sheep has 4 blocks of 25 sheep which will do 2 GSV four wheel sheep wagons or 1 BSV bogie sheep wagon. The legs are dangling free so to speak, no 'floor' on the block of sheep.

Signal Box Rebuild Update

Well, I have slowly been working on the signal box modifications and I am reasonably happy with how it is coming along.

I received my Frosted Ultra Detail signal box door to replace the incorrect one and gave it a soak in some acetone for a couple of minutes to remove the remaining light oil that Shapeways use to remove the wax support material.

Unfortunately, you have no control with Shapeways over how the item is oriented in the 3D printer and this can impact on some surfaces leaving white and very slightly rough areas where the wax support material was attached. These areas can often be smoothed with 'wet and dry' paper or by scrapping with the edge of a hobby knife blade. The orientation may also leave very fine print layer lines and this was the case on the rear of the door. Most of the back of the door didn't matter except for the glass areas. I used a small 3 mm wide chisel blade that I had ground from a small wood carving chisel many years ago to scrape the rear glass smooth. I then gave the glass areas a coat of clear gloss acrylic paint front and back which made it go almost fully clear, clear enough anyway to look right.

I have added the missing small vertical trim pieces on the gable end walls and used some 12mm wide modellers masking tape to mask the windows prior to spraying the Light Stone (it was exactly the right width).

I then added barge boards, fascia boards and gutters as well as spraying the walls Light Stone. I used Humbrol Matt 103 a cream to represent the Light Stone. It is slightly yellow but could be toned down with some weathering. The door was painted white as a bit of research indicated that the signal boxes didn't always seem to follow the usual stone colour schemes and often had very simple schemes. It seemed to be a bit hit and miss. The doors colours varied, sometimes all Dark Stone, sometimes Dark Stone with Mid Stone lower panel and with or without the white window trim. Later signal boxes in the pastel colour era seemed to often have a white door so I decided that this signal box was part way into that simplified scheme era.

Here is the current state with Dark Stone gutter and trim colour added. I haven't decided if I will do the vertical trim on the gable ends with the Dark Stone or not (veering towards not). Still thinking about adding some Mid Stone on the gable barge boards.

One thing I like about 3D printing is the ability to add small details such as the door handle and the bolt on the signal box door. The door handle is actually a proper knob with a thinner shank behind.

Of course there are the limitations of the 3D printing design minimums to be taken into account when drawing anything up. I should probably mention to anyone thinking about getting into 3D printing to be careful with your design as the various 3D printing companies don't use the same design minimums (usually related to wall and 'wire' thickness minimums). The prices vary considerably as well. To me Shapeways is the cheapest at the moment but there is the orientation trade off and their minimums are smaller so there can be a potential for breakage of very thin parts.

The small platforms outside the door and across the tracks are next on the list to be done.

Catch Point and Indicator

For some time I have been aware that I should have catch points on my layout but after looking at a number of station track plans I am not sure what the rules are for placement. They seem to be protecting sidings onto the main which is obvious (e.g. private sidings, oil/petrol sidings, etc.) and also loops but then not all loops.

Since the station yards are already in place on my layout I have decided to install a few where I have the room for them.

On the layout I have used code 70 track and points from Shinohara, Peco code 75 track and points, Micro Engineering code 70 track and a number of code 70 hand built points so I began by looking at the Peco code 75 catch points as these were the only commercially available ones I knew of.

A study of a NSWGR Standard Catch Point plan from 1936 showed that the Peco one was reasonable but not quite right.

Here is the 1936 plan:

I decided to try to draw up a 1936 catch point for 3D printing. Once again I used Sketchup a free 3D drawing program (there is also a professional version that is about US$500).

Here is a screen view of the resulting 3D model; I have done both a left and right version. The horizontal pieces are two sleeper variations that plug into the two long sleepers at the left hand end and are for mounting the catch point indicator. The small triangular piece is the hardwood block that guides the wheels up and over the rail (see plan above) and it plugs into the sleeper with the small square hole in it.

The catch point has been designed to take code 70 or code 75 rail (as long as I have measured and drawn it correctly). Of course a single point blade will have to be filed up and it would be pivoted on a fish plate. Due to the minimum wall thickness restriction of the 3D printing process for the White Strong and Flexible material the tops of the dog spikes may need to be filed slightly once the rail is in place to clear the flanges (based on flanges to NMRA RP25). Being a nylon the webs between the sleepers may be cut occasionally (every alternate web) to enable a slightly curved catch point to be made.

I haven't had one printed as yet but will probably do so soon as I will need to check that it all works before I make it available on my Signals Branch Shapeways Shop.

One reason for delaying is that I am drawing up a catch point indicator which I would like to make work off the catch point blade. The basic shape has been done but I am a bit stumped at the moment on trying to work out how to get the indicator part to rotate through 90 degrees with only a very small movement from the point blade. I guess if I can't get it to work then I will release a static version.

Catch Point Indicator at Gunning - Sourced from the Internet, Photographer unknown

The indicator will be printed in the Frosted Ultra Detail material, a translucent plastic that can be used to pipe some LED light for the aspects from below the baseboard.

You would think that this would be easy since I have an actual catch point indicator in my layout room, a 50th birthday present from my brother Noel (it came from the Tumut line - he used to live at Adelong). Unfortunately what works on the prototype may not work on a model.

I am not sure how many modellers would be interested in a lit and working catch point indicator but there is nothing like a challenge!

SDS Models Bitumen Tanker - Fixing the Handrails

The SDS Models Bitumen Tanker is a lovely model however it has a small issue with the handrails on the walkway. The handrail posts directly above the ladders on each side do not touch the walkway, they are between 0.5 to 1mm off the walkway. This appears to have been caused by the handrail post mounting holes in the tank not being drilled or moulded deep enough to allow the handrail posts above the ladders to drop down to meet the walkway.

I decided that this needed to be corrected so I used a pair of long nosed pliers and a piece of strip wood as a levering block on the tank to carefully extract the vertical handrail posts from the tank one at a time. The posts do seem to be glued but it is a flexible type possibly an acrylic contact cement and the posts came away easily on my model.

Once all the posts were out I cleaned away any excess glue from the tank and posts ends. I then drilled the mounting holes in the tank deeper using a 0.7mm drill in a pin vice. The tank casting drills easily.

The tricky process of getting all the handrail posts back into the tank mounting holes came next. It isn't to hard, just take your time and dry fit the posts working from one end of the tank to the other. I followed up by applying a small amount of clear drying acrylic contact cement to each post mounting point with a pointed tooth pick.

Unfortunately I didn't take a before photo of the handrail post issue but here is a photo of the finished tanker, still to be weathered.

As can be seen from the photo bitumen tanker is the one with the flues on each end. The flues were there as these tankers had gas burners running through the tank which allowed the bitumen to be reheated if it had cooled enough so that it would not come out of the tank easily. I chose this version of the bitumen tankers as being fitted with the flues and burners it could be left in a goods siding to await the arrival of a Department of Main Roads NSW spray seal truck which could use its own gas tanks to reheat the bitumen if necessary. So this is the version tanker that can be useful on the pickup goods during operation sessions on the layout. The other version bitumen tanker does not have the flues and burners so would be for delivering the bitumen to the several BORAL depots around the state. A spray seal truck is used to spray molten bitumen onto a prepared road surface which is then followed by a specially fitted tip truck that spreads a single stone thick layer of stones onto the bitumen by reversing over the freshly spread stones. This process is then followed up by a roller that embeds the stone into the bitumen . The rolling must be done quickly as while a stone will push into bitumen that has cooled it ultimately come out of the surface by the action of the traffic.

Of course,wanting this particular tanker meant that I had to buy the two pack with the blue AMPOL heavy oil tanker which I didn't particularly want as I never saw them in blue. I am going to heavily weather the blue tanker so that it is virtually black as by 1965 they almost certainly would have been, having been painted blue in the 1950s.

Now, do I need an oil burning D55 or D59 Class and a heavy oil filling point in my Wollar locomotive depot?