Fastest Model Railroad Ever!

As part of the shop operations, we became a Bachmann agent but only selling their Dynamis range of DCC hardware. When we eventually came out of the DCC market, we were left with two Dynamis units that had failed. We asked the rep if we could get them fixed but were surprised (and pleased) to get a full refund. This left us with a balance on our account and no real reason to use it. We still get the Bachmann stock lists each week and I noticed that they were just about to release a DCC fitted N-scale GE 44 Tonner in New Haven colours. So I came up with an idea.

"As it is cold in shed", I said to my wife, "Why don't I make a small N-Scale layout that will rest on the kitchen table?". "So you can do that while I do my Latch Hook" was the reply - so off I went.

I ordered a wodge of stuff from Bachmann up to the credit note figure, which got me 2 of the GE 44 tonners, a quantity of freight cars and a couple of other bits. Then the Express bit kicked in.

Monday - I went down to Scograil - my local model railway shop - and bought some track. then off to the wood yard for some 2" x 1". That afternoon, I used up some spare Sundeala board and had the baseboard made.
Tuesday - nothing done because it was the Ipswich Model Club Meeting.
Wednesday - I laid all the track that I had - I now need some more!
Thursday - I wired up the track for DCC (I am using a spare Lenz Compact as a controller).
Friday - I have trains running.

Not bad going! Here as some snaps.




































The underside shows the power bus - made from copper tape. You just run droppers down from the track and hook onto the bus. The droppers are all tinned copper wire so it's all nice and easy.

Note to Dan : Nice New Haven colours!

Finally got the turntable working

After many attempts at getting power to the track, I finally stripped the whole thing down this week. I put a lot into making sure that everything was right. I threw the Walthers track base away by cutting it out from the two sides of the deck. I then made a new deck out of 30 thou styrene so that I could lay some standard track down. The previous attempt at laying individual rails using superglue was rubbish. At least this way I know that the track is going to stay in alignment.

After putting it all back together again, I still found that I couldn't get power to the track properly and decided that the brass fingers pressing against the two brass collars on the pivot just didn't have enough pressure. I discussed with a friend (Dan) the option of just 'sledgehammering' it by using direct wire connections into a connector block. That way, every session, I could unwind the wires. He suggested using some springs as they do in slot cars. I didn't fancy the work so what I did was to solder a wire from each finger around the collar so that the finger couldn't lose contact.

At last I have something that works - not every time, but if it fails, it seems I just have to do one more round trip and it all sorts itself out.

Don't forget that the whole layout is DCC, so the turning motion is controlled by a DCC chip addressed at 99. I have set the CV for maximum speed right down so the fastest speed you see here is with the controller full on. This also gives me tremendous slow speed control - I can move it by about 1/16th of an inch very easily. I do have a DCC booster that can control the polarity change as the turntable turns automatically but I don't have a suitable cable. Hence, I have resorted to a DPDT switch which I flip with every turn. Fortunately the DCC controller overload protection is excellent so no damage occurs if I get this bit wrong. I will get it controlled properly but I need to get a cable, which is proving difficult at the moment.


Here is the exciting video.

Further to the Turntable plus a new RDC

No photos this time. I will post some over the weekend.

The turntable is proving to be very frustrating. I seem to have messed up on the internal connections for the track power and the unit is all super-glued together so it's a major drama to take it all apart. Also, super-gluing the track rainls to the turntable deck is proving to be very flaky. they keep springing off so I will probably replace the deck with a piece of normal rail and re-wire the track connections.

My short line - the Sunset and North Eastern connects to a larger railroad, which exists as two lines coming from nowhere and going to the no place - I seem to remember that line from Popeye?. I thought it would be a good idea to have a twice daily Budd RDC travel in from ther connecting line and run through to the S&NE terminus. I went in search of a Proto 2000 RDC. A model shop here in the Uk had one on their EBay store at a delivered cost of £42 but I dithered too long and missed it.

I then went to Walthers and found that searching for a proto 2000 Buddf resulted in hundreds of hits which made it impossible to find what I wanted. If anyone can tell me how to use Walthers search and find what i want then that would be rteally useful.

Ifinally found an undecorated one on an EBay shop from A ustralia which sent it here at a total cost of £43 so I got a great deal.

problem - the RDC is scale length and does two things on my 'cr*py' track laying. At the bottom of one of the grades, it stretches oevr the transition and loses power and on one of my curves it stalls. I will take some photos of these two problems but it does highlight my inability to lay good track :-(

Thanks all for now - as I said, pictures over the weekend.

Turntable in and running - sort of

I have mounted the turntable and wired it up. It works fine in one direction but it is not happy in the other. I think I must have missed a washer from the topside but I don't remember having anything left over so maybe not. I think that I will have to cut some styrene to make a washer, however, if I want it to run smoothly in both directions.

There are no rails on the turntable as these have to be laid using track gauges. I have ordered two Kadee ones but these only arrived today (I did the turntable work last weekend). This is a test to check that everything works with the weight of a loco on there. I used a diesel to make it easier to mount. Putting a 2-8-0 tender loco (see in the background of the video) would have been a bit trickier without rails.

Well here goes:



I now have the gauges so I am hoping to install the rails and the access track this weekend, so watch this space.

The turntable is in place

It doesn't work too well in one direction but fine in the other. I think that it needs some further support around the hub as it seems to rock too much. Maybe I left a washer out although I don't remember there being one left over.

Still it works.

Turntable - progress

As the layout is run by DCC then it makes sense to have the turntable controlled in the same way.
I have a ZTC255 chip spare that has a 2Amp capacity so that is ample for running the turntable.

First off, though, I did a lash up to make sure everything worked. Remembering the mantra - red and black to the track, orange and grey go away, I soldered up the motor leads to the orange and grey (remembering to put some heat shrink over the wires first. Then I connected the red and black to some wander leads to get the power in. As you can see from the video, it worked!

The chip is addressed as 99 to keep it clear from the loco chips I have running.




Needless to say, there is lots that still needs doing - like setting the turntable into the baseboard etc. but, hey , this is more fun!

Turntable - first steps

I have got a Walthers Turntable and their motorising unit. Making the turntable was easy and fitting the parts for both motorising and powering the track were also easy. What has not been easy is fitting the track. I decided to buy two Kadee track gauges but bougth them from a guy on EBay in the US. I have had some great results buying HO MR stuff on EBay.com but this time, I have waited two weeks and received nothing - :-(

Anyway, here is the turntable on its first test.



Hopefully when my track gauges come, I can fit the track to the platform..

Here is a picture of it in-situ, but not finally fitted yet. I first have to wire it for DCC so that will come in the next Blog posting.















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