Light Switches? ... Turning the Tables...

[jcredfer]

Newbe on the block.  Strange shopping basket on the front end. 

 

 

I had a pleasant surprise gift yesterday.  Close up, it looks quite impressive.

 

 

It is 4-8-8-4 Big Boy, so it says on the box and effectively is 2 x sets of 8 driving wheels.  Apparently it has [they have] a number, 4004.  When I can get a box to it, there is 4005 available too, I am told.

 

 

Both sets of 8 drivers swivel, but I doubt it will ever get round even the 19.88" radius curves on the planned layout.  It has been sitting around for a long time and needs a bit of a clean and a touch or two of Jenolite / paint, particularly on the wire handrails.

 

Strangely only the first 4, on the tender, swivel and the remaining 10 wheels on it are all flanged.

 

The garage + garden, layout they were on, is an interesting work of art and I will try to get some pictures.

 

Kind regards

 

Julian

 

[westerhamstation]

Hi Julian, Wow what a whopper, as they say in Carry On films. All the best Adrian.

[jcredfer]

Following some very helpful comments from Bear & Grifter Guru, elsewhere, I have made a bit of progress on the layout front.  Firstly the plan is now more in line with the stn layout [pattern] most full size small town ones.  It also looks to be giving much more opportunity for running.  Sadly it brings back one more curved set of points at top left, but adds a turntable and siding.  It has a new Mimic panel, but whilst it is better for the switches and lights, I'm not sure it follows the right pattern for Mimics.  I suspect I had better Google around a bit to see if there are set conventional ways to mark them.

 

 

Part of my mind contains a vast fund of utterly useless and redundant information that makes the county council tip look quite inadequate.

However, where airbrushing comes in, there is a lot to catch up on. So, earlier this week, both the very close spray and All Spice methods were tried, but weren't particularly sucessfull. However all was not lost, as there was some paint on the sides of the rails [yea bonus!] ... plus - the interior of the spray booth, the sleepers, airbrush, my fingers, tea mug, combined with the interesting but dubious experience of pushing waves of paint along the rails and the eventual discovery that the scale for air pressure I was using was not the Lbs one, but the Kg one!    Oops!

 

The next day, then required a different approach - remember those flying lessons [perhaps not, quite, everything in the mental dustbin, is as redundant as I had previously considered] - only change one input at a time, do it, observe it, adjust it, move to the next factor and stick to known control effects as much as is possible!! - Right then, back to straightforward Allejo Air paint, straight mix from the bottle, just as the maker intended after consigning yesterday's over-thinned stuff to it's watery grave. Unwind the air pressure even further down to 10 psi, remove the spray-jet crown and spray some kitchen paper roll to see what happens. That was ok, but quite a lot of paint, so I decided I needed another reference point. I turned the stop on the needle backstop until fully closed, then unwound by 3 twists, which produced a far more controlled, but very miserly stream of paint. Great, things were now under control, so a further twist of the backstop on the needle and a pretty decent amount of paint delivered to the rail, indicating another 1/2 turn might be good - which it was.

 

Time to make some comparisons and assess what might happen in the colour mixing department. A reference picture for the colour might assist, so dragged one, pretty much at random, out of the folders, showing nearby mainline rails [sAL - WAT].  Interestingly, it would seem that I can be far less fussy about the state of the ballast and positioning of sleepers - even on the same railway line.  Less rust there than most models get to show, but happy about that. 

 

 

The first picture shows the results of the early Old Spice coat of paint.

The nearest 2 rails are the earlier spray, fully intended to look like relatively new rail [KISS it first!] and compared with the points which are an older look for the rails from a hand-painted job with Woodland Scenics track pens. - Ugh spray job! I'm not, however, bothered about the overspray on the Chairs and Sleepers which will get other tints applied. After that session, I had to introduce a surprisingly large amount of Rust and Burnt Umber into some Dark Grey and Engine Grey to age it to around our local [fairly rust-free] main lines.

 

 

The second picture shows the result of the modified approach and adjusted paint tints.

 

 

Just to get rid of the overspray effect, so a balanced comparison is possible, I gave the sleepers, on the near one, a coat of weathered wood and rust on the chairs [their colour terms -, not mine!]. I'm not unhappy about that, a decent base for adjustments and different locations for variety. It's interesting to note that the rails on both the nearest bits of track are the same colour, if you look very carefully, despite the optical illusion casued by the added colours. It looks as if it might be worth pursueing as a method for applying paint to the rails after all.

 

Kind regards to all and a pleasant Bank Holiday weekend

 

Julian

 

 

 

[runs as required]

Interesting post Julian - I enjoyed reading about changing one thing at a time. Are you actually able to remember that discipline when stressed?

I've been taught that too - but always remember after I've done an initial fumble around. I'm not plummeting from 15,000 ft though, merely trying to de bug the computer.

Wife had a Waaf friend whose man was having think about life after coming out of the RAF. He was disappointed to fail a test pilot course because he had spent too long just simply adapting to the foibles of different supposedly same machines.

dh

[jcredfer]

Hi RaR,

Interesting tale of the Pilot and time to adjust to variants.  I guess that like much military training, part of the idea is to ensure that learned methods get applied, when all around is attempting to do all it can to distract you as much as possible.  It certainly seems to work that way, in general, although I did once get so involved, in attempting to get an a/c to recover from a MEGA unplanned spin from over 19,000 ft and didn't notice passing through the minimum mandatory height for a student to bang out.      In truth, even if I had noticed, I would have probably stayed with the machine which was, at last, showing some signs of responding [properly] to the recovery actions.  It recovered in time to avoid digging a trench, so I guess it also saved a £million worth of machine and some time in hospital recovering from crushed intervertebral cartilages, let alone any property damage caused by the a/c on arrival at ground level.  [Not to mention having to explain away quite how how it managed to get into a mega spin, in the first place       ]

 

I hope all is going well for you in the Northern climes.

 

Kind regards

 

Julian

Edited May 9, 2018 by jcredfer

[westerhamstation]

Hi Julian, that makes stubbing my big toe in the garden yesterday seem a bit tame. All the best Adrian.

[jcredfer]

50 ft of rail sides sprayed and stacked, sleepers and rust can be applied any time, including after being laid.

 

Reddy-trac Stacks

 

10 sets of points, at the rear, to go, but possibly part painted with a brush, as the points have plenty of little nooks and crannies for insulating bits of paint to get in. Colour of the sides is a very slightly rusted, oily steel sort of grey, similar to rhe normal main line tracks near to us.

 

  Reddy-trac Yard

 

I may have slightly more rust added in the sidings, but not very likely, as that's not what I generally see these days.

 

{SAL - WAT}

 

Kind regards

 

Julian

 

[westerhamstation]

Hi Julian, nice work on the track painting, I like the colour you have used. All you have got to do now is lay it and ballast it all, that should keep you busy. All the best Adrian.

[jcredfer]

Hummm!

 

Yesterday, I handpainted one set of points rail by hand.  It took 3/4 of an hour to get to an acceptable look - humm...  again      
Another 9 sets of points to go is almost 7 hours, so I'm having a little rethink on that idea. There are 2 options, I think may work, unless someone, far more experienced than I, can come up with a better idea. Option one, is to mask off parts of the points and spray in sections, masking other areas as it progresses. Option 2 involves the "Old Spice method" and rapid cleaning of the rail tops as it progresses.

Oh well, back to the trial department.

 

Kind regards

 

Julian

Edited May 24, 2018 by jcredfer

[jcredfer]

As the Maltings shopping centre re-opens, we can celebrate Salisbury's return as the great nerve centre of our country.  :sungum:

 

Kind regards

 

Julian

[jcredfer]

I notice a few people have the Bachmann 32-250a 2-8-0 Gen McMullen, or their civvy equivqlent.  Have any of you looked in the Tender, maybe for inserting a chip / sound. 

 

Question is - do they provide a speaker housing as well as the 21 pin decoder plug-in?  I looked at the service sheet and it's as clear as a Hippopotamus pond.

 

 

The question revolves around what size and shape speaker to buy.

 

Kind regards

 

Julian

Edited May 27, 2018 by jcredfer

[jcredfer]

Over the weekend the Paint Studio was converted into a temporary Dining Room, as M-in-Law was over for a visit.  So, I decided to look at planning fitting for Sound, for the WD Austerity, LMR 2-8-0 Maj Gen McMullen. 

 

I knew it had a decoder in the tender, which should make for relatively easy installing, but a look at the Service Sheet didn't look any too hopeful, as a girt great weight lay on the Tender floor.  I asked a question on the interweb and got a reply, that it wasn't too difficult, along with a lovely video of how it sounded.  Appetite well whetted, time to have a look, to measure up for space   .......................   Well now, that's an improvement on the expected!!          ............    I am really not sure which other Bachmann WD Austerity 2-8-0 / [bR?] models have the updated Tender, even after some Googling to try to see, but this is encouraging.

 

 

 

 

I'm not quite sure which are the best speakers, but round seems to be likely[?? any opinions??]  

 

There were even 3 holes drilled and blanks for 6 more, which rapidly got opened up.  They will probably get larger ventilation holes, when time arrives.  Out of interest, the speaker surround is about 26mm internal diameter, which I guess allows for a case on a 23mm Spkr [??again??]

 

Just a small "heads-up" for those who haven't seen this particular Tender, the front ladders each have a support bracket slotted into the chassis and they prevent lifting the body until they are released.  They can be seen on the picture, halfway down each ladder and have to be splayed a fair way before they come out of their holes.  I sliced about 1/2 of each thin end off and now they need far less stretching to splay them.

 

 

 

 

Yesterday the workshop got restored to it's original intended use, so I was able to commence a small project, involving a large hole in the baseboard.  Just a taster, as the other items will need painting before ass'y.  The colour difference, between unpainted inside and painted outside, can be seen on the inverted one.  It's a good job I need a rough painted paint job to look like the usual slapped on railway bridge ones, as me and my airbrushing are not up to smooth finishes yet!

 

 

  and upright 

 

 

Kind regards

 

Julian

 

[jcredfer]

I also came up with a solution to a potential Points "hitch".  When fitting slow points motors, many modellers / motor manufacturers recommend the removal of the Tie-bar spring, shown near the point of the screwdriver.  The spring is inserted in the Tie-bar at one end and the other end in the sleeper under the screwdriver point.

 

1

 

In it'self easy enough, to simply lift the two metal tags on the Sleeper, either side of the screwdriver tip. then remove the staple from underneath the Sleeper.  The Sleeper is in two parts and the spring is inbetween the base part and the smaller top part, and held to the base with the staple.  The extracted staple and the spring can be seen at top right, as can the holes for the staples in the smaller top part of the sleeper.

 

2

 

Easy, so far - but, removing the spring can allow the Tie-bar to move towards the Sleeper, where the other end of the spring was inserted.  One of the functions of the spring also puts pressure on the Tie-bar, pushing it towards the Switch Rails' hinges, removing the spring allows the gap to open at the hinge end of the Switch Rails.  These are in the normal position, in picture 3, but the spring removal can add a couple of mm to that.

 

3

 

 

I was going to place a thin piece of plastic card between the Tie-bar and the Sleeper, but attempts to do so were the stuff of nightmares to get it in the right place, with the additional serious risk that the Tie-bar could get glued to the sleeper and card.  It dawned on me that one of my favourite modelling tools could assist, so I put a piece of clingfilm between the Tie-bar and the sleeper, as can be seen in picture two above.The top part of the Sleeper was then glued back again, but slid towards the Tie-bar to act as a stopper, preventing it from migrating excessively from the hinges.  Cling film doesn't react to any normal sort of plastic solvent glue, making the process safe and easy for shaky fingers.  The amount of slide can be seen at the right-hand side of the Sleeper, in picture 4.

 

4

 

Now all I have to do, is make sure that the paint doesn't insulate the electrical contact in those Switch Rail hinges!!    

 

Kind regards

 

Julian

 

 

 

[5BarVT]

I’ve discovered that too! For most of my points, the operating wire from the tortoise achieves the same thing. For one it’s a bit loose as per your photo so I’m hoping that a bit of judicious bending of the op wire can get the spring action towards the heel rather than towards the toe.

Thanks for the ‘plan B’ option if wire bending doesn’t work.

Paul.

[jcredfer]

I’ve discovered that too! For most of my points, the operating wire from the tortoise achieves the same thing. For one it’s a bit loose as per your photo so I’m hoping that a bit of judicious bending of the op wire can get the spring action towards the heel rather than towards the toe.

Thanks for the ‘plan B’ option if wire bending doesn’t work.

Paul.

 

 

I also understand that the Tortoise and Cobalt motors can use the pressure of the wire, when bent, to keep the Switch rails in place.  DCC Concepts, Richard, also adds that a slightly thicker operating wire could help to keep sufficient pressure.  Hope that this information might be of assistance.

 

Kind regards.

 

Julian

[westerhamstation]

Hi Julian, some nice neat work on the points,and a handy tip about cling film. All the best Adrian.

[jcredfer]

The TT bridge deck got sprayed this week and then an oily spray added. The deck was Primed with a vaguely, used wood, coloured Primer - Vallejo Air 70.614 "Israeli Sand", followed 24 hrs later with Vallejo Air 71.131 "Concrete". That left a weathered yellowy-grey wood effect, which was slightly varied in colour by the number of passes of the airbrushed "Concrete" colour.

 

 

Some Vallejo 517 "Dark Grey Wash" was added in plenty of depth to begin with and when wet, looked somewhat over the top. However, next morning picture 1 shows how much the drying reduced the depth of colour in the wash. After a much bolder approach, the Wash colour started to look a bit more like oil and grease, as picture 2.

 

 

Kind regards

 

Julian

 

[jcredfer]

Got myself into a fine hole, this last week.  I had a Router for Christmas and thought I might have a bit of a practice.  Can't do much harm with a small 8mm bit on it -  can it??

 

 

That's where this is due to go, neatly placed across the join between 2 Baseboards.  Something like this...

 

 

After taking the boards apart, it was possible to remove enough of the Baseboard sides and cross bits to make a hole for the Well.  Into which the Well dropped with a sliding fit, so close, the Well can't be lifted out, it must be pushed from underneath.  Imagine trying to produce that by drilling round the circumference and filing it all smooth, to fit.

 

 

 

I had read in a number of people's posts, that the Peco Well needs bracing underneath, to pull the centre of the Well down in order to make sure the Bridge Deck wheels remain in contact with the Well Rail.  If not done the Bridge Deck would, apparently, rock on the centre pivot, causing problems with rail vertical alignment.  I put the central Washer / Contact Piece in place, through the hole in the centre of the Well.  I placed the pivot of the Bridge Deck through the hole in the Washer and found the bridge rotated nice and smoothly, but as predicted it also rocked vertically at each end, a mm or so, but it rocked.      Beginning to work out some bracing beams for under the Well, I checked to see if there was any flash, or similar impediment, which might not be allowing the Pivot to seat down fully.  I could detect no flash, so began to examine the Pivot and Washer to see if I could file either / both down so as to lower the Bridge Deck.  In the process of doing so, it seemed to be a good idea to see how much might have to be removed, so replaced the Pivot in the Washer again and pressed down hard  ...  and the Pivot sank deeper into the Washer by well over 1mm, but would no longer rotate.  A closer look at the pivot shows a slightly thicker portion right where it meets the underside of the Bridge Deck.  It can just be seen on the picture as a sort of ring, starting where the white flecks go round the Post, but under a magnifying glass it can be seen to be very slightly greater diameter than the rest of the Pivot post.

 

 

Rather than trying to file the diameter down, it seemed easier to countersink a small portion of the top of the Pivot Washer.

 

 

 

After two gentle applications of a Countersink Bit, the Bridge Deck rotates smoothly again and the wheels are fully in contact with the Well Rail.  No under-Well bracing needed - Yippee!!  :sungum:

 

Kind regards

 

Julian

Edited July 6, 2018 by jcredfer

[westerhamstation]

Hi Julian, nice neat job. All the best Adrian.

Ps: I was going to say well thought out but realised as I was typing it how corny that sounded even for me. 

[jcredfer]

Now running on all wheels and ready for laying track next week.  Handrails are painted, as are the Drain Grids, but neither will be fitted until the tracks are laid and the Well has it's Concrete paint job.  Oddly the plastic solvent in the joints decided to flow out onto the well, either side of the joints, causing unusual slightly raised and very shiny surfaces.  Those were rubbed down again as can be seen by the paler areas in the picture.  A few cracks are scribed in the concrete base, some just visible but won't show up clearly until some grime has been added to the concrete paint later.

 

It is intended as a Drop-in job, as it sits on the join between two Baseboards [see Post #418 above], so it will suffer less damage when being fitted to the tracks, in current form, with the Railings, Motor, Decoder fitting and Well painting later.

 

 

Kind regards from the UK City, clear winners of the "Most Police in Hazmat Suits" competition.  [it was rumoured that he City did need a little assistance from an influential Russian leader and a somewhat careless assassin - but that has been absolutely denied, so that's alright then.]  :angel:

 

Julian

 

P.S.  I wonder if the NHS Emergency Depts are fully manned and braced for the additional Cardiac problems, due to be caused by the hot weather and stress from watching England vs some other football team this afternoon. 

 

 

[jcredfer]

The Baseboards are away on holiday, well not quite, but there is almost certainly a good chance they may get laid.  :jester:   ......................   Rails, come along now, tusk, tusk. 

 

It seemed like a good idea to get something else done in the meantime.  Well, being down yer in Wowtshiyer - a representation of Woodhenge perhaps.  Stonehenge seemed to be a little heavy to carry around, so the nearby Woodhenge could get the vote.

 

 

In the meantime, there are Servo controls to be looked at.  I spent some time working out how the Servos might be controlled from a central Mimic Board, as the 5 Baseboard sections have to be assembled and then packed away a few days later.  A Mimic design was put on AnyRail and messed about until it ended up looking like this.

 

 

The white spots are where the 8 Individual switches on the mimic will need to be wired to each of the 16 connections on the Servo Boards.  These wires would require 32 Choc-block slide in connections between the Baseboards, to be done every time - just for the Points and 12 more, eventually for Crossing Gates and an under rail Kadee un-coupler magnet. I also looked at making radio controlled switches controlled by a Raspberry Pi home control board, as an alternative to physical connectors.  Either way a place had to be found to place the central Servo Control Switches and mimic similar to the ones used on full size ones.  Ah-ha, not Woodhenge after all, but a mini Board for the mimic to sit on.

 

 

I purchased a DCC Concepts Alpha Control Board for up to 12 accessories [and additional Alpha Boards can be daisy-chained, with a provided plug-in lead], after a conversation and demonstration by Richard J, at the Alexandra Palace rail show.   No radio home-control, no Choc-block connectors [or alternative plug-ins] no soldering multi connectors, just a single plug into the power board, thank you Richard.  To go with it, I got the matching Alpha Mimic Board, complete with a dozen 2 tone red / green LEDs already included in the pack.  All the Servos can now be done as accessories from the mimic switches or DCC Controler handset, direct through the 2 Bus Wires. 

 

A check of sizes looks ok so far.  Once the glue is properly dry, it can have a decent coat of paint, switches / LEDs inserted and the Alpha Boards placed under the mimic Panel.

 

 

Whilst planning the mimic, I looked to see if there were standard prodeedures for drawing them.     I found that the proceedure seemed to be down to the fitter who happens to turn up with a drill, cans of paint and some wire.  .........   How very convenient.   

 

Kind regards

 

Julian

 

 

[jcredfer]

Background.  There are 8 Servos for 11 sets of points across 4 boards, 4ft x 14in and a small section of infill. They will get dismantled [and mantled] regularly, so means of operating the points from a control box had to be found, with a minimum of connectors.  Richard of DCC Concepts, suggested his Alpha Encoder would provide Signals for the Servo boards and Alpha Mimic could also use the Signals to indicate the  routes set on the Control Panel.  So I left the show, with a couple of boxes in my bag and wondering quite what I had taken on??

 

I have a couple of reasons for the Servo choice, firstly I did r/c planes for a goodly number of years, so familiarity is quite high up there, secondly, I wanted to place as many as possible on the top of the boards, so they had to be small enough to go under platforms. Thirdly there are quite a few bracing walls under the boards and Servos can easily be manipulated around / through them.  I like the Cobalts, they are very efficient, self-contained and easy to use, so they were definitely also in the choice zone.

 

 

Testing the Assembly. Each SPDT [sprung, centre off] switch connects to 3 labelled contacts to reverse the polarity of the feed [see the first picture - far lower left of the larger board - number one switch connected]. The Alpha Encoder then produces a Fwd / Rev signal for Accessory [servo] number 1. The signal is passed to the Controller Handset from the black socket, on the left hand edge of the board, along the black curly cable which is also providing the power supply for the Alpha Encoder. The Servo could then be controlled from either the SPDT switch or the controller handset, both work just as well.  Those same DCC Signals are read by the Alpha Mimic Board, from 2 wires connected to the DCC Bus Wire.  There is one dual colour LED for each direction which could be selected at each set of Points.  It then changes the dual Red / Green LEDs to indicate which routes have been selected, matching the direction of the Points.

At the top of the same picture there is a small black PCB, with a little green light. The 2 wires at the top left of this board carry both power and the digital signals into the board, from the controller handset. It will identify which Servo is being addressed and send Fwd / Rev to the relevant one [1, 2, 3 or 4] along the 4 red wires connected along the lower right-hand edge. The 5th [orange] wire is the common return. The larger board at the right-hand side of the picture sends to the appropriate Servo being addressed, as can be seen in the second picture [only 1 & 4 are connected for initial test purposes]. This board also controls, throw angle, direction and speed that each Servo arm moves. The next 4 Servos will be connected to a second similar board system, with Servos addressed 5, 6, 7 & 8.

 

 

The third picture shows the inside of the box, with wiring nearly complete, only 3 more SPDT switches to add  ...

 

 

... and the last picture looks at the face of the Control & Mimic box, with completed wiring.  There are just 2 wires connecting each of the 4 the boards to the 2 Bus Wires.  Last job now, to tidy the wiring.  The blue ribbon wire at the top is to set the Direction, throw angle and speeds of the Servos.  Each on the top board set to speed 7 [set to 6 later] and Servos set to 180 deg throw angle.  The lower board servos set to speed 6, 180 deg throws and the ribbon removed for installation. 

 

 

Summary.
Actually the wiring is very much more simple than the impression given by the wiring in the pictures. Each Alpha board can be thought of as 12 separate circuits built onto one breadboard, together with some clever electronics, which you don't have to even look at, let alone touch! Each circuit has an SPDT switch wired to 3 push fit connectors [labelled L C R] - Right, well that's it, an Encoder taken care of, done, finished.

For the Mimic lights, each LED is already connected to a plug, which fits into a socket on the board, one for the left Points selection and the other for right [1L 1R - 2L 2R - 3L 3R - ... ] and so on. - Err, well, that's it, the Mimics taken care of, done, finished.

For the next circuit, just go to the next set of connectors and follow the above pattern. In truth the wiring is absurdly simple, if you complete one circuit at a time. It took a lot less time than making the box. The choice of Alpha RGB ribbon wire made life easier, as an aside comment, so much tidier – imagine what the inside of the Control Box would have looked like with single strand wire!!.

Come to mention it, if you chose the right size SPDT switches, you don't even have to solder the 3 wire ribbon to the switch, you could have screw connections there too. I just liked the smaller switches and solder just requires a proper routine. It isn't pretty, but it stuck, so if you don't like "ugly" look away now!

 

 

 

For a working test of all 8 Servos, switches and Mimic LEDs, the link might take us there, but this is a first for the video, for me.

 

 

Kind regards to all.

 

Julian

Edited October 29, 2018 by jcredfer

[westerhamstation]

Hi Julian, its brilliant whatever it is, and would keep me amused for hours just changing switches. I will think of this when i am eating my evening meal tonight as it is spaghetti. All the best Adrian.

[jcredfer]

Well, a bit of research reveals that the motor / gearbox for the Peco Turntable might be too noisy for some.  The current available YouTube shots indicate that there may be some substance in the comments, if you want a quiet Turntable drive.  Time for the brown coat, protective glasses and some research.

 

This video is of a motor the same as the one recommended and should be combined with some Meccano [or similar] spur and worm gears, to connect with the Turntable drive shaft.  The gears need to be located with sufficient support to prevent them from unwanted slop, not really a surprise there.  The comments on the negative side really focus on the noise the recommended motor / gearbox makes.  To my mind, another hurdle, which needn't have been added, is the 6V max of the motor, requiring another matter to be considered....  Ummm.

 

 

Given the noise, I bought an Expo 12v motor / gearbox, smaller and a nylon cased gearbox, so this is that one running at half throttle [already reduced revs by CV speed settings to half Max throttle].

 

 

Better by a considerable margin, but at this medium throttle level not quite what I had hoped for.

 

So what now?  A little research found the Locomotech Turntable kit, which has, metal gears and is a direct connection with the Turntable Bridge axle.  No other gearing is needed, it just hangs from the Turntable axle.  The motor & gearbox test here is at full throttle [not half, as the others], revs at this level may be judged by the pink paper on the gearbox output shaft.

 

 

When connected to the Turntable, this is how it appears, when run at full throttle.

 

 

The Locomotech kit includes the motor and the kit for direct attachment to the Bridge driveshaft and a brass strip, rubber mounted, to prevent the motor from rotating, rather than the Bridge. Very simple, very efficient and whisper quiet. It takes 40sec for 180deg rotation, which is faster than required for good viewing and will normally be rotated at about half throttle. The observant will notice there is one wheel missing, which is at a machine shop to have 4 metal copies made, with smaller axle bearing tollerances than the plastic ones. The lack of the wheel doesn't seem to affect the running, as the Bridge is very rigid. There is also a slight bump where two of the three Pit rail sections are joined, which will soon get rubbed smooth.

 

Kind regards to all.

 

Julian

 

[jcredfer]

The fitting of the motor /gearbox is delightfully simple.  I soldered the wires to the motor and tinned the loose ends before fitting anything.  These were for testing and will be replaced with something rather lighter and cut to length, before final installation.

 

Wiring wise the Decoder connects to the DCC wire Bus, the Orange and Grey Decoder wires go to the Motor, other Decoder wires were snipped back to the Decoder and insulated / sealed in with Copydex or nail varnish.  Two more Bridge Track power wires will be soldered to the TT central polarity changer where those 6 holes ring the Bridge Shaft, also from the DCC Bus wires.

 

 

The brass strip screws {Provided} to the Gearbox before fitting.  The Motor hangs from the central Bridge Shaft, for which a collar is provided with the correct diameters to fit the Shaft and the Gearbox Drive Shaft.  Looking at the outer ends of the brass strip, 2 short lengths of white H section plastic girder can be seen, the left one fitted the other laid to the side for viewing, as can a rubberised wrap to the brass strip ends.  Once the motor is attached to the Bridge Shaft, those plastic girders are placed under the brass strip ends and plastic glued to the underside of the base {not the brass strip feet}.  That's it, done.

 

Kind regards and a Happy Christmas and New Year to all. 

 

Julian