Well, after months of waiting, procrastinating and saving, it's here. Shiny, shiny!
O.K., it's black...
My Z21 has arrived and I went to collect it today, keeping my local train shop owner from his dinner...
So far so good (at least with the Z21), I had it wired up in no time, connected a multiMaus and had my Baby Castle running around in no time (using the Maus).
The router? Well Hmmmmm..... Kind of retro.... Not very clever, a piece of junk really.... I think I would have rathe
I need to make sure locos of the same class run similarly under DCC and I had done some tuning in the past, but not written down the settings I had used. So it was time to go and do this!
So over the weekend I dragged my locos downstairs, set up the test track and started to play. Unfortunately one loco was in the box with the carriages. So this just had to happen:
This is a recent acquisition that came with sound (ahem). It had one a not very train sounding bleep. I sent it off t
Hi All,
Over the weekend I completed the base of the kit. I have also ordered (if it hasn't gone already) a chassis other than the Class 91 that should fit.
This is a shot of the progress so far:
It's fairly low res., but should give an impression....
The chassis is a Fleischmann BR 210 class, which has a wheelbase of 72 mm, this is very close to what the wheel base should be according to my scale drawing (in 7mm Scale) of 73mm. And at least it's not the Grafar class 91 chas
The Gerlos Bahn is pleased to announce that it has signed a contract with the Ffestiniog railway to take delivery of one rebuilt Funkey diesel with an option for a further two locomotives should the first prove successful.
"AllScales" managing director of the Gerlos Bahn says: "The introduction of these exciting near new diesel engines will allow us finally take control of our high speed, 30 km/h, passenger services without having to rely on external parties for our prime motive power."
Hi All,
I know it's been months since my last entry on any of my blogs... I do have a good excuse: building works! Shortly after the last entry on Linksuberdorf the builders turned up at the end of October. Short recap: MDF for outside wall for a week, microwave dinners, and finaly just before Christmas: a new kitchen!
Meanwhile I acquired some new kits: W&LL Pickering coaches, Sierra Leone loco, and more...
Now the dust has settled (and largely wiped up off the furniture absolut
Hi all,
It's been more than a month now since my last post on the HOe front but life has not been all idleness. Two points were damaged during the point wiring so they've been replaced after attempts at repair proved fruitless. In the process a short curved piece of track was damaged. This was glued down (never again) so needed to be removed carefully!
Needless to say the new point was installed, a new piece of track laid and the end result is actually better than before! The points was
I promised a photo of the wiring after installation of the point decoders, so here it is:
As you can see the two decoders are simply screwed to the bottom of the board and all the wires from the points around it simply head towards it, in the end only two wires lead into the central hub where it connects to the central distribution point.
Simples....
Yesterday when I went to try the layout right way up, one point motor failed to switch it's point properly. It fired, and you coul
I was meant to be doing this during the week, but as so often other things got in the way or I just didn't feel like it...
Anyway today I managed to finish my chores on time and as the clouds looked a bit threatening figured I might as well do the point wiring.
Two and half hours later and victory! All points wired and working. The two places where there are two points on one output also looks to be working well (at least upside down). Tomorrow I will flip the layout over again to test i
Hi All,
I didn't expect this weekend to amount to much in terms of progress, but when your expectations are low they can only go up!
I was visiting some friends to help with their test track, it's a basic three loop track all N-gauge using set track (Fleischmann). As an aside we visited a train shop, where I found some new DCC point decoders of a type I've been looking for my test track, so bought those.
We tested them this morning and found they work with a Fleischmann ProfiBoss (ma
Well things are on a ham sandwich (or roll if you prefer)!
I had managed to get six out of the ten point motors right on the first go, so this afternoon I spent some time to get the last four in place.
In most cases all that was needed was to drill out the hole (carefully!) from underneath, one motor with slightly bent pin needed to be put in place in reverse to my usual convention and on a different point than where it was previously.
As I went along I tested each point motor first
Sorry but no massive number of photos to attach to this, however Miniatur Wunderland was amazing!
The only problem is that it is also very busy, so it is difficult to get anything other than narrow shots of specific scenes. So even though we came loaded with video camera and several cameras, we only took photos of the little HSB part of the layout.
One of the most spectacular parts of the whole thing is the Swiss section, this is a two storey section with narrow gauge trains running all
Like I mentioned last week, there wouldn't be quite such a hive of activity this week, for starters there was work to contend with, and then the house needs looking after as well!
I did do a little rail grinding, but not much... I also decided that it would be best to fit point motors before going far down the scenic route.... So on Saturday it was off to see Andy at KGR and the builders merchants. The result? One sheet of 50mm polystyrene cut into four chunks four ease of handling, a rock s
After some measuring, chopping, glueing and general noise, dust and everything, the last piece of track has now been completed!
This is a big milestone in the development of "Linksuberdorf". The track at the top of the incline has a 51mm gap under it, just enough for a big Gmeinder diesel to pass underneath (or a ZB U 1, they have very tall chimneys).
I found some bus stops and station name signs on Saturday, so I've put them on now. At the top of the incline by one of the shelters is li
A rare chance to do some testing after dinner. Three trains on the circuit:
HF 110 number 4 (with tender) and three two axles coaches: Made it to the top no problem
HF 110 number 23 (no tender) and two bogie goods wagons: A bit of a struggle...
ZB U. 1 plus three two axles coaches: A failure, all wagons made it onto the incline, but that's all she wrote!
Even reducing the slope slightly didn't get U 1 up the hill, funny because when I did some tests earlier U 1 carried more than th
After a particularly productive day, the test track now looks like this:
At the top is little HF110 loco No. 23, towing a bogie bicycle van. The top of the incline is at a height of just over 5cm, so it is doing well.
The ramp is built from 3 mm MDF, which has a nice combination of flexibility and strength. There are only three supports along the way, at the moment, and there is no noticeable movement in the track.
As usual the loco unhooks from the van at the start of the hill, I'
This years summer (whenever that might arrive) has on it two important items:
A visit to Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg
Visit most of the main narrow gauge lines in Wales
Currently the plan is to visit the Miniatur Wunderland shortly after Easter. I'm getting my shopping list ready now, and a list of Hamburg Model shops...
I'm well aware of the shop opening hours too... ;-) So we are flying out on Thursday night...
So now LinksUberDorf has had a private outing to be seen by some friends.
The big 0-8-0 Mh.6 won't go around one of the curves, this means the back to back points may need shifting
The inside of the loop storage track is a bit short
The rolling stock waddles a bit in places, maybe a little solder filler, or some girding disc required
As this weekend was also the Ally Pally show, I had an HPA (Horrendous Purchasing Accident). In this case an On30 Forney 2-4-4 with DCC and sound at a
Another heavy bout of track laying and another lesson learned: Don't restrict the amount of tools you're using!
I had tried to use only hand tools (and soldering iron), but today I decided to get out the Rotacraft Grinding disc, it's quicker and more effective than doing it by hand. So the track ends of the piece leading up to the Y point but on exactly!
So the result is that I now only need to put in two pieces of track, with two evenings to go! Here is the progress upto now:
I
Hi All,
Well tonight was a bit of a Brucie bonus, the target was to complete the main circuit, but then being a roll I got as far as this:
All the track has been tested and guinea pig number one (a.k.a. Roco loco Nicki and Frank) has trundled around the loop very nicely! No hiccups at all, which is quite surprising given this is my first major flex-track project! The two sidings work nicely as well...
So for tomorrow is the other passing loop, in the top right, there's another p
After managing to lay some more track on the test track last night, I have set myself a challenge: Complete the laying of all track before Saturday...
This is a bit ambituous, but should be entirely do-able as long as I can keep to this schedule:
Tonight: Complete the main loop (one point and two pieces of track), celebrate by running some trains...
Wednesday: Finish the two passing loops (one point and two pieces of track), celebrate by running two trains at once...
Thursday: Add
Well the replacement for the faulty point hadn't come in, so after a trip down to the Haywards Heath OO9 show yesterday (at which items were bought ), it was back to work on the test track.
This is now trundling along nicely:
Today, given the weather, I managed to lay another four points and the intermediate track, together with any wires required. As you can see above the main loop is starting to take shape.
While the track looks somewhat angular, it is no worse than the stan
The remainder of the motors and the last point came in during the week, so this weekend was devoted to getting the station and fiddle yard finished off.
Of course it would have to be that the last remaining point is faulty! The arm that is supposed to connect to the point motor is too short. Back again and another week to wait for that part can be said to be completed.
Today I have spent wiring up the point motors. I noticed a nice safety feature on the Lenz points decoders: they need to
To be honest not much work done this weekend, I'm still waiting for a point and large quantity of point motors. The points and motors I have received already are now mounted and ready for a weekend with the board on its side to do the wiring (it's just so much easier!).
I did escape to the country for a little jaunt to the Tenterden Model Railway show. Nice event guys! Well done!
However (and you probably knew that was coming), as this is very much a family show, why invite layouts where
As suggested by "buffalo" in response to my last post I set up a bit of a jury rigged climb to test the locos. So I have jury rigged a piece of 4 foot long by 8 inch wide piece of ply, with a bit of a run-up...
The end is at just over 5 cm so that over 4 feet is just a bit steeper than the required slope!
First I put a completely straight track along the incline, and 4 four wheeled coaches as the train. The I tried in turn: U2 (0-6-2T), Mh6 (0-8-0), HF 110 (0-6-0), and ZB D11 (0-4-0).
I have finally figured out how to get the photos in a size that will fit within the 2MB limit. So here are two photos of the new track plan, precariously supported by some Kato Unitrack pillars.
This shows the right hand side of the layout. At back on the bottom is the fiddle yard, perched above it is the upper station.
Next is the left hand side of the layout, you can see both tracks leading up the top station. The only concern is the far up slope. This needs to rise 5 cm (alm
