Donnersbachkogel

[Vecchio]

Well - the Lais decoder arrived, and following the instructions on the website of one of the traders instead of a motor you can also put a 560Ohm 1/4W resistor on for programming. Tried it, no success. Trial with the resistor. 

IMG20230803205850 

 

Well, back to a motor. And - surprise, no problem in programming. So all needs to be stuffed in, it just fitted. 

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Today, a few days later, I made a trial. And found out I used the blooming wrong Led strip. I thought it will be blueish white as it is a modern train,  but a few years ago, when I bought the coaches I thought different and put warm white in. 

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Just a few days to the show, I do not want to rip all apart again. And I cannot even run without lights as I programmed it in a way that it goes together with the sound of the loco (F1). Also I have 2 tunnels, so light it should be. As I have a strong led light bar above the layout it may be less visible... (I hope).

 

Played also wit something else. Last year I have been told that my trains have no end of train signal. Well the modern stock has it (red light), but the old stock and freight trains don't. Thanks god OBB didn't use lights for a long time but a reflective signal disc. So on we go with the printer, printing small red dots on photo paper. After that I cut them out with a 'tube cutter' (tube with a sharp edge instead of a drill, works a treat). 

Problem was to center the cutter above the dot, so I got may bad shots... The whole disc has a diameter of approximately 3.5mm. Also this doesn't help. 

 

Scrap on the left, acceptable (but not perfect, on the right. I glued a 0.3mm brass hook on to fix it on the buffer.

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Those are the 7 best ones. 

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And this is how it looks on a vehicle. Job done. 

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Edited August 7, 2023 by Vecchio

[duff man]

Hi Vecchio

Love the tail markers, your post has triggered an addition to the to do list for Wolfstatt although I will be making the present day rectangular version.

Enjoy the Milton Keynes show, I sadly won't make it I was at a friends home layout all last weekend and we will be in Loughborough with Wolfstatt this coming weekend so a third railway weekend in a row is pushing it with the domestic authority.

 

Craig

[Vecchio]

Thanks Craig, 

As I model the 90th of the last century round is ok. Also I think to remember that they use lamps as well today. 

Wolfstatt is a great layout, saw it at Ally Pally. Unfortunately my train shed doesn't allow this size... 4.5m is the absolute max length...

[duff man]

Gerhard, many thanks for your kind comment regarding Wolfstatt. Coming from you who grew up in Austria your remarks are very much appreciated.

 

Craig.

[Vecchio]

Two days before setting up at Roade and I had a problem with Megapoints controller. I was adjusting the endpoints of one of the points when the bloomin system decided to change the controller from slave to master... Means 25 % of my points (or exactly 10 points and 2 uncouplers) were dead and didn't react to the commands of mimic board any more. Well this is quickly written but it took me more than 5 hours to bring them back to were it should be.  And of course, I set it all up in 2018, I had to re-read the manuals to understand where the problem is. I am using a home made remote control switch unit for the setup, probably one of the momentary switches got stuck so it did it when I powered it up. After finding the reason for the problem I also had lost the set up for all 12 channels, they are back up now. Well this was a quick booster course in Megapoints controller... 

This is my home made set up tool. Now you can buy them, they were not available when I built the layout. 

 

20160222_215502 

 

Panic mode over. Back to normal.

 

Tomorrow I will pack the thing up, ready for transport. 

Edited August 9, 2023 by Vecchio
typo

[Vecchio]

Right. This was a nice little show in Roade, unfortunately I didn't make any photos as I had to run my layout.

But: If you are interested, the Western Signalman made a nice Video on Youtube which you can find here. And I am sure it will not be the only one, as also purple vision was there. 

 

Well, Donnersbachkogel and it's rolling stock didn't behalf too well, I had one important point not working (and climbed minimum 30 times under the baseboard to switch it manual) - now I know why we all use curtains in front of our layouts - it is so the spectators do not see such actions 🙂. Also 2 of the uncouplers were misbehaving. One didn't make any move, the other one came up - just to go down again a couple of seconds later. I think they were all leftovers from last weeks trouble. I will deal with them later. 

 

Now to the rolling stock. I had again a mishap with a pantograph, this time it was a different loco, but again from Rivarossi (Hornby group). May be their pantos are a bit fragile... 

IMG20230813164413 

 

Well I had enough locos with me, so I changed it to another one. 

Next was my H0e workhorse from Roco, it managed to jam the gears somehow. This happened already once, I need to take the driving wheels out to fix it. 

IMG20230813164334

 

Tried to switch to the mighty HM4, but for some reason this one didn't even want to come out from the shed. Had a closer look - stripped a traction tyre. 

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Here in more detail

IMG20230813164556 

Roco has a tendency to put traction tyres only on axles which you can hardly reach, so I have to dismantle also this one.

 

And finally my Siemens Dispo loco ES64 F4 (I described this one further up in the thread, it's the one with sound, electric couplers and 2 panto servos) decided not to lower one panto any more - well the servo motor was burned out and lots of molten plastic is around it... 

IMG20230813164652 

 

And here inside: 

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As I will be at MK Silverfox next Saturday I better start with the repairs.... 

Edited August 13, 2023 by Vecchio
photos mixed up

[Vecchio]

Had a successful evening. 3 out of 4 done. 

First the H0e stuff: 

VID20230813185559 

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...and then the pantograph. Was a bit fiddly I have to say... 

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For the burnt servo I need a new part. Available for £7.76 including postage from China for a pair... 

Will have a look at the layout next. 

 

[Keith Addenbrooke]

For those of us who don’t exhibit, it all serves as a good reminder of the huge amount of effort and care put in to entertain visitors to shows.  Thank you for sharing the story here - and good to see the problems being resolved one by one.  Keep up the good work, Keith.

[Vecchio]

One day to go until set-up at Silverfox DCC. 

After looking into the rolling stock I had finally time to look at the misbehaving points and couplers. All set up now, let's hope they do what I want them to do on Saturday. 

 

Point adjustment is easier when the layout is in pieces... 

[Vecchio]

Well the second exhibition went quite well, of course I have again a few points which need improvement. So there is a short break for Donnersbachkogel now. 

 

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Unfortunately for my wallet but good for Donnersbachkogel was the recent purchase of a DMU for branch lines. I used to travel with exactly this model every day in the morning from Bockfliess to the main line, where I took a commuter train to Vienna (1997 to 1999). Scograil had an offer I couldn't resist to, so here it is. 

 

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And also the Hattons boys had some bad stuff - there was a Steyr 380 fire engine I needed to have. When I did my army service in 1980 there were still a lot of these in the streets. The army owned a few, even they were changed to Steyr 680 and later Steyr 1291 (which were also built in China). So here it is - the 380 fire engine. Absolutely lovely details on it. 

 

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And of course, just to save on postage, also this Iveco truck had to come to me. 

 

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Looking forward to the next exhibition!

 

[Vecchio]

Well, this was quite a long break. For the next two exhibitions I have already announced the new size, with the new fiddle yard. Means it is time to finish it... After some playing around with surface mounted solenoid switches I decided that they are all rubbish (or the springs in the peco points are too strong). So I ripped them all out and servos it is again... Thanks god somebody wanted to get rid of 4 servo decoders (DR4024 from digikeijs) and I grabbed them all for a good price.  Even the company went bust, these decoders were great.

 

So - quite some work to change that over, also I was not happy with the board connectors, so I changed all of them as well. I tested the boards all connected together and did the set-up for the decoders. As I needed two more points controlled I built in also 2 Cobalt IP point motors. Set-up of those was dead easy - means they didn't need any set-up, just an address.  Set it all up in my Z21 and defined some routes. 

 

And now I am butchering my existing scenic module... 

Tunelmouth ripped out. 

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Track removed

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New track glued on

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The fiddle yard is twin-track, as I want to use it also for some future projects. Here only one track is used. But as you can see it goes immediately to a curved point which is the connection to the inner track, means I can use all tracks of the fiddle yard. 

 

And finally some ballast 

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This was the work of several weeks, it doesn't work as fast as you read this... Also it was so cold in the shed that I couldn't work in there for a long time. Now it is getting warmer again, so no excuse... 

Quite some more work to do. 

Edited January 20 by Vecchio
Some more description.

[Vecchio]

Some more work on the layout. I found out that for some reason the old and the new part are different in height. 2.2cm. Means all legs out, insert nuts for adjustable legs out, cut them, all back in... on we go, leg after leg...

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The overhead line gets tested on the new bit.

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Now everything is closed again, the landscape still needs a little bit of plaster and paint to get back to normal. 

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View from the fiddle yard side. 

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Also a few electric connections needed to be made, to get power and DCC signal to the fiddle yard.

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Hope I can get it all together tomorrow. 

Edited January 28 by Vecchio

[Vecchio]

IMG20240129202628

 

Together it is, and now some people will ask themselves "what on earth did he do?" Well, I ballasted the fiddle yard, there will also be some greenery.

Why should a fiddle yard always look like track wacked to a board?  I have seen a few 'green' fiddle yards, and they look better. Gives also the operators something to look at. 

 

IMG20240129202635 

 

Now I can run much longer trains than before, also I can use all of my models, before it was restricted because of the radius. For instance the 4010 (the white express train for those not familiar with Austrian trains of the last century) I couldn't use.  

 

Point control is done via DCC and servos. The Z21 makes it easy by allowing routes. One click, all points set. 

IMG20240129202824 

 

There is a little video showing one round on the layout.

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[Vecchio]

Well the chipping of my blue and white express train didn't go too well, even I found a nice space for the speaker and the stay alive. Dyslexic people should always check their work before they switch on... I have soldered the first 4 wires correct to the 8-pin plug, but the second 4 in mirror image... Understandable that the decoder didn't like it. Will see what the Austrians say. 

 

On its way after filling in a customs declaration...😑

IMG20240203104035 

Edited February 3 by Vecchio
spelling

[Neils WRX]

35 minutes ago, Vecchio said:

Well the chipping of my blue and white express train didn't go too well, even I found a nice space for the speaker and the stay alive. Dyslexic people should always check their work before they switch on... I have soldered the first 4 wires correct to the 8-pin plug, but the second 4 in mirror image... Understandable that the decoder didn't like it. Will see what the Austrians say. 

 

On its way after filling in a customs declaration...😑

IMG20240203104035 

I had a measure twice cut once moment at B&Q this morning.

 

Got home to find my cut timber was 20mm to short as I’d written the measurements down wrong….

[Bergmann]

Hello, I have only had good experiences with Zimo and they even repaired a decoder for me free of charge, which I destroyed myself through carelessness.

[Vecchio]

Zimo return: Went well wrong, got the envelope back after more than 6 weeks - "insufficient documents for customs clearance". My Austrian friends were a bit over-bureaucratic.

They were probably not happy with the value - a damaged decoder has in my opinion a value of zero. 

Anyway. something for later as I am on show on the 13th April in Royston. 

 

Quick check of my scenic fiddle yard

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Now it is time to pack everything up. 

[Stefan88]

Perhaps address it to a Zimo employee specifically and declare it as a gift? Is there an option to declare it as a return? The last time I sent something to Austria (a Peco point) I declared it as a gift to avoid complications, he still had to pay a handling fee to the Österreichische Post but no VAT and it got delivered ok. If you're travelling to Austria (but not going to Vienna) or anywhere else in the EU you could just post it from there.

 

I have a burnt out MX648 or MX649 that I'll just drop off in person the next time I go to Vienna, I keep it with my passport so I won't forget. From what I've read they usually repair it while you wait, or at worst the same day. I seem to recall they are walking distance from Schönbrunn, and Memoba aren't far away either, so no shortages of things to kill time without venturing too far away.

[Vecchio]

Thanks Stefan,

 

I know perfectly were they are as I worked in the 12th district for 14 years... (Oswaldgasse 33, once a cable factory, now housing). Problem is the number of relatives in Vienna is almost down to zero, means the chances to get there are low. I suppose it was also the personal judgement of the customs officer. I sent another decoder back a few years ago (after Brexit) and there was no problem. Will try again, but after the next show. This time the 4010 Transalpin will run without sound. At a show you cannot hear it anyway. 

 

Actually I am in Spain end of this month - may be I put the envelope into my suitcase and post it from there...

Edited April 4 by Vecchio