robertc

Another one started by a friend , steel C channel and Villaboard construction like mine.

Over the last couple of days I have tried to repopulate the thread with the photos lost in the great server crash some years ago. Some photos have been renamed since, some binned so much guesswork and fudging has been applied. It is not perfect but should help the viewer make sense of the posts. regards Bob

Glad you enjoyed the journey Martin

Iain was one writer I always looked forward to when buying British magazines years ago. Sad to hear.

I visited the shop in 1969 on my trip to Europe. think I bought a Jouef 2-8-0. cheers Bob

Merry xmas to you to Felix. regards Bob

Waiting for the promised snow. Meanwhile here are a couple of photos. cheers Bob

47606odin ( amazing the names some people give their children these days), my track has been outdoors for 9 years without issue and my UV would be greater than Geraldton. A friends layout was out for 10 years in Brisbane without issue which would have similar exposure to your location. Go for it! cheers Bob Comerford

There are quite few O scale locos about, trouble is most are made by the owners. Lots of videos on Youtube. I don't include 16mm in that statement it is not O scale just makes use of the track. There is a facebook group that might help with info on what is out there. ' O gauge 7mm live steam' . No RTR as far as I am aware unless you can afford to pay a specialist builder. cheers Bob

New signals and pedestrian overbridge, 3D printed.

OGH 38 on trial run. cheers Bob

Here is a new loco being built for running the passenger service. Resurrecting an OGH 38 bought with a donation from the Aussie taxpayer this year. Painted with a mix of Tamiya greens and lining etc from teditor. Now onto the mechanical and electrical work. BPRC power. cheers Bob

Hi David, hope you are safe down there. No I have not made a 73. Only one I have had was a Bergs kit with a scratchbuilt mech in HO. Should not be hard to make one in O scale as it is basically a flat box. I have X200 and 79 classes in the small diesel shunters. cheers Bob p.s. spend most of my time on facebook these days so sometimes there will be a delay in answering here.

Today was perfect one for test running the new Jinty purchased from 'Rails'. Very nice! cheers Bob

I must admit I have been long tempted to do an unashamed copy of that loco of yours David as I have not yet found an Aussie loco that I can use the mech in :>) cheers Bob

I originally took a bit off the back of each flange in my lathe. Now the mech uses replacement wheels from NWSL designed for it. This also addresses the gears on the axles that will eventually split with better quality ones provided. I suspect I moved them out to 29mm BTB in the process. cheers Bob

For the enquirer ( no name supplied), I have put a photo of a small loco fitted with an 802 Kadee on my thread (the great Australian outdoors) to demonstrate how unobtrusive it is, particularly with the glad hand removed. I do the same on the full size ones too. cheers Bob

The S scale Kadee fitted to my plywood and paper clip X200 for explanation for the unnamed enquirer. cheers Bob

I find the smaller Kadee couplers sold for S gauge or On3 to be nice and unobtrusive in O scale if the glad hands are removed. The shanks are too short for regular length buffers to be used unfortunately. A long shank version would be very useful; something for a budding entrepreneur. Uncoupling with a kebab stick is easy even with my shaky hands. cheers Bob

I run outdoors with DCC which is a much hasher environment than a layout under cover Woody. The track is kept in good condition by occasional rubbing over with a compressed graphite stick ( available in art stores). Track cleaning is normally only a rub over in a few spots every few weeks, mainly to remove bird poo and wipe away leaves. I had similar experiences using Wahl oil but went back to graphite. In comparison with tests done previously, a squeaky clean track with no graphite or oil lasted about 3 or 4 days before contact started to go down hill. The choice for me was between constant battery charging and rare cleaning of track and loco wheels. I already had an investment in DCC and I have been charging batteries since the 70's being involved in electric r/c planes so that may have helped effect my decision. :>) The best sound options are still with DCC decoders and consisting is easier with DCC so if those are important to you that might also effect your decision. I also like to have my layout available for others and as almost all 7mm scale O gauge modellers I know use DCC that also counts. There is no doubt that BPRC is the most reliable but the level of reliability I achieve isn't far behind using locos equipped with stay alive capacitors in conjunction with the graphited track. I can achieve even better results with what some describe as a 'hybrid' option by using a battery instead of capacitors as the 'stay alive'. Just needs the addition of an on/off switch. Apart from the throttle on my command station, control on my layout is with radio throttles whether dc, DCC or BPRC. My layout thread can be found in the 7mm section under The great Australian outdoors cheers Bob p.s. my points are operated by hand apart from the crossover and access ramp which are powered by the usual Peco point motors and Capacitor Discharge unit.

An r/c throttle to run a dc layout has been around in many forms for decades. I currently make use of my Deltang tx and an rx powered by a 4S LiFe pack to allow running of a dc loco on the outer loop of my O gauge outdoor railway. I have two banana sockets connected to the track feed and there are a pair of banana plugs coming from the output of the Deltang rx/esc combo via a current limiter. Normally the sockets have the output of my DCC system plugged into them with their own pair of banana plugs.. Its only a minute or two to swap plugs and grab a battery from my RC plane battery box. I usually use the r/c dc control to test locos I have built before installing a dcc chip, it is also there if someone was to visit and wanted to run a dc loco. I currently also have two BPRC locos for use on layouts that do not run DCC such as the old AMRA 3-rail layout in Mortdale NSW and the outdoor layout at AMRA Qld and of course they can run on mine in conjunction with any or no form or track power :>) Track and wheel cleaning can be a bit of a pain but the choice I made when building this layout was between regular battery charging and occasional cleaning. I opted for the DCC with its nice sound offerings. My DCC throttles are also r/c.... operating with tethered control would be a right pita on my layout. As for a layout with multiple r/c dc throttles I believe the former Toronto Canada O gauge club layout operated that way in conjunction with fixed throttles in the switching areas before the shift to the new club rooms and DCC control. cheers Bob Comerford p.s. I have been tempted to go full BPRC lately with the track contaminated by bush fire and dust storm residue for many months now requiring far more cleaning than was the norm.

Thanks for the updates Felix, looking good cheers Bob

Finally a day not covered in smoke or blowing a gale. Had to try out the new coal wagons so a British running day was in order. I have enough 16 Ton wagons for a dedicated coalie now, so if I want to make use of my other goods wagons I will have to buy more. What have I done ? :>) cheers Bob

Like magic, five brightly coloured Tri-ang wagons purchased last weekend at the Sydney exhibition are now ready for use. Just need the winds to abate. cheers Bob

Seeing a 3D printed Kadee height gauge on another thread here I thought I would post my meagre effort. Mine is just made from layers of styrene. It locates inside the rails. As I model in 7mm and the centre height for auto couplers on the NSWGR was circa 2'11.5" that made it about 21mm when first constructed. However a friend whose layout is the only one I interchange with started out not knowing what was correct. So we have a compromise centre height of 19mm and my gauge was so altered. The rear of it is used for other settings such as the height for Powerline dunny seats that I used in the middle of some fixed rakes.