alant Posted December 21, 2017 Share Posted December 21, 2017 Chaz, The J6 is looking good and after you have weathered will look even better. Happy Christmas. Alan. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaz Posted December 21, 2017 Author Share Posted December 21, 2017 Two "might have beens"... This is the U.Q. signal on a wooden post that I made for Dock Green. It was never exhibited - before the 2013 Warley show I had decided to use the somersault signal instead. The unused signal lurks in a drawer somewhere. I did consider adding some buildings, trees etc to hint at the world behind and above the retaining walls. The very unfinished "Empire Works" is being held in position (hence the slightly dodgy verticals) so that I could see and photograph the look. The team vetoed this idea as it was always intended to operate the layout from behind; the bridges can make life difficult enough.... Chaz 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sb67 Posted December 22, 2017 Share Posted December 22, 2017 I'll never tire of these photo's, it will be a shame when they eventually run out but I've made it my mission to see Dock Green in the flesh somewhere, hopefully next year. Have a great xmas Chaz and thanks for posting the pics. Steve. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
81A Oldoak Posted December 22, 2017 Share Posted December 22, 2017 Two "might have beens"... P1020339-1.jpg This is the U.Q. signal on a wooden post that I made for Dock Green. It was never exhibited - before the 2013 Warley show I had decided to use the somersault signal instead. The unused signal lurks in a drawer somewhere. P1020368-1.jpg I did consider adding some buildings, trees etc to hint at the world behind and above the retaining walls. The very unfinished "Empire Works" is being held in position (hence the slightly dodgy verticals) so that I could see and photograph the look. The team vetoed this idea as it was always intended to operate the layout from behind; the bridges can make life difficult enough.... Chaz The somersault signal in operation is a joy to watch and well worth waiting to see. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaz Posted December 22, 2017 Author Share Posted December 22, 2017 The somersault signal in operation is a joy to watch and well worth waiting to see. I agree with you Chris. I am very proud of the somersault, it's so much more interesting than the rather prosaic U.Q. job. I was lucky that the square brass tube base into socket arrangement is common to both signals so only a small adjustment to the drive was necessary to swap them. Chaz Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaz Posted December 22, 2017 Author Share Posted December 22, 2017 I'll never tire of these photo's, it will be a shame when they eventually run out but I've made it my mission to see Dock Green in the flesh somewhere, hopefully next year. Have a great xmas Chaz and thanks for posting the pics. Steve. Thanks for that Steve. There may well be a pause but I do intend to take more photos at future shows - the challenge for me is to find some new angles - Dock Green is not a large layout. Chaz 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaz Posted December 22, 2017 Author Share Posted December 22, 2017 Chaz, The J6 is looking good and after you have weathered will look even better. Happy Christmas. Alan. Yes Alan, Heather has done a fine job. Weathering 64253 is on my January jobs list. Chaz 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaz Posted January 26, 2018 Author Share Posted January 26, 2018 (edited) The J6 proved to be a bit tight so I decided to give it some running in before fitting a DCC decoder. Photo above shows the J6 sitting on my Holiday Hobbies frame setting jig, adapted to the role of rolling road with the addition of the ball race units. Power comes from my bench PSU. I set the loco going and used a cheap kitchen timer (smuggled from the kitchen while nobody was looking) to time five minute intervals. Every five minutes I reversed the polarity by switching the plugs over in the sockets on the PSU. By setting all this up on a corner of the baseboard of my On30 layout I could do some track ballasting (OH GOOD! ) while the J6 loosened up. I wouldn't want to leave the running in unattended in case anything should go wrong. Chaz Edited January 26, 2018 by chaz 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
81A Oldoak Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 The J6 proved to be a bit tight so I decided to give it some running in before fitting a DCC decoder. P1070760-1.jpg Photo above shows the J6 sitting on my Holiday Hobbies frame setting jig, adapted to the role of rolling road with the addition of the ball race units. Power comes from my bench PSU. I set the loco going and used a cheap kitchen timer (smuggled from the kitchen while nobody was looking) to time five minute intervals. Every five minutes I reversed the polarity by switching the plugs over in the sockets on the PSU. P1070759-1.jpg By setting all this up on a corner of the baseboard of my On30 layout I could do some track ballasting (OH GOOD! ) while the J6 loosened up. I wouldn't want to leave the running in unattended in case anything should go wrong. Chaz I know what you mean Chaz. I use an as yet undeveloped area of Tonfanau Camp for rolling road tests. I like the PSU; where did you buy it? Chris Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaz Posted January 26, 2018 Author Share Posted January 26, 2018 I like the PSU; where did you buy it? Chris I have had it a while Chris, and I can't remember where I got it from. I bought it originally to power electronics circuit models but have found it useful when testing and running models. Try Googling "Rapid Electronics", they may well have something similar. It's worth getting one with the meters on the front - the ammeter is very useful, the current drawn reflects the varying load on a motor for instance. Chaz Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaz Posted March 3, 2018 Author Share Posted March 3, 2018 (edited) With next weekend's show at Basingstoke in mind I thought it was about time I got on with getting the J6 running. The loco has had most of two whole days running in on the rolling road so should be nice and free and ready to put the DCC in. I have often put a decoder and/or speaker between the frames but that isn't possible with this model... The big space is completely filled with the lovely inside motion. Incidentally that dark grey on the motion parts is not paint, its oil and minute metal particles from the running-in process. I did some careful measuring and decided that there is just room for a vertical plate just behind the motor and projecting up into firebox which would carry the decoder and a sugar cube speaker. I cut a piece of brass and soldered this to the inside of the frames on both sides. The wires sticking up on the left are the grey and orange from the decoder soldered one to each of the wires on the Maxon motor. I insulated both joints separately with small diameter shrink-wrap and then slipped them into a piece of fatter shrink-wrap to make for a neat job that can be slipped into the boiler opening at the top of the firebox. You can see the sugar-cube attached to the plate with a sticky tab. It looks like the speaker is fouling the axle mounted gear wheel - it isn't, it's just the camera angle. There is enough room above the speaker for a keep-alive should this prove necessary but I doubt that it will. Both the loco and the tender have pickups. A side view shows (from L to R) the motor, the decoder (also fixed with a sticky tab), the brass plate (seen edge on) and the speaker. A difficult thing to photograph, but I think you can see that all this just fits nicely into the firebox. The spaghetti of wires will be tied into a neater bundle and slipped into the boiler as the chassis is slid into place. Next job is to program the decoder using the SPROG and then I will weather the model and fit some couplings. Chaz Edited March 3, 2018 by chaz 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaz Posted March 4, 2018 Author Share Posted March 4, 2018 It rained in the night and this morning is bright and sunny. With the snow largely gone there's no excuse for not going to the Basingstoke show next weekend. Will I see you there? Chaz 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeatherKay Posted March 4, 2018 Share Posted March 4, 2018 Indeed you will! I always look forward to the Basingstoke exhibition, even though it's a fair old drive from north Kent. Another chance to see Dock Green running is also not to be dismissed lightly. I'm also looking forward to seeing the new addition to the fleet working! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaz Posted March 4, 2018 Author Share Posted March 4, 2018 Indeed you will! I always look forward to the Basingstoke exhibition, even though it's a fair old drive from north Kent. Another chance to see Dock Green running is also not to be dismissed lightly. I'm also looking forward to seeing the new addition to the fleet working! I'd better get on and finish it then! I don't want to disappoint you. Chaz Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeatherKay Posted March 4, 2018 Share Posted March 4, 2018 I'd better get on and finish it then! I don't want to disappoint you. Chaz Heh! No pressure! I am happy to hear the mechanism has run in nicely now. It's always a worry when something doesn't quite bed in at first. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaz Posted March 4, 2018 Author Share Posted March 4, 2018 I trust that's true - it's certainly had several hours on the rolling road, fast and slow, forward and reverse. I must admit it is difficult to assess the running on a rolling road, which seems to add its own unevenness to any model. I can't see it run on track until next weekend - I have no 7mm track to test it on (it won't fit on my On30 layout ). One or two little tweaks will be sorted ahead of weathering. The crew member who was glued to the fall-plate kept coming adrift. He is now soldered to the plate - don't worry, it was done very carefully and he didn't feel a thing. Chaz Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaz Posted March 4, 2018 Author Share Posted March 4, 2018 As I was typing that last post I had a thought and I remembered - a quick search turned up this... Three inches short of five feet of Peco BH glued to a piece of ply'. It's the top of the sector plate from my old 7mm layout, long dismantled. I kept it because it might come in handy and today it will. Pity you can't change the memory hard-drive as easily as in a computer. Mine seems to crash quite a lot these days. Chaz 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Hal Nail Posted March 4, 2018 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 4, 2018 Do you always ballast your fiddle yards? Now that is high standards! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaz Posted March 5, 2018 Author Share Posted March 5, 2018 Do you always ballast your fiddle yards? Now that is high standards! Well no, it was an attempt (which failed) to disguise the sector plate as a stretch of line. The layout was dismantled before this piece could be developed fully and was rebuilt as the portable version which became Dock Green. Chaz 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaz Posted March 5, 2018 Author Share Posted March 5, 2018 I reassembled the J6 this afternoon, putting the body back onto the frames. The DCC is a very snug fit in the firebox - so snug that the only way I could get the two parts together was to temporarily remove the front buffer rams. It's always fun getting the nuts back onto buffers - with the model upside down if you drop a nut it usually disappears inside and takes some frantic castanet practice to recover. I really hope I don't need to remove the body too often. Chaz 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaz Posted March 6, 2018 Author Share Posted March 6, 2018 (edited) https://www.basingstokemrs.org Just a reminder - Dock Green gets its first outing of the year this coming weekend. Use the link above to see what else is there. Any RMwebbers, make yourself known, say hello! We don't bite. Chaz Edited March 6, 2018 by chaz 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaz Posted March 8, 2018 Author Share Posted March 8, 2018 I had intended to get the J6 running for Basingstoke but have hit a snag. I was going to use a SPROG to set up the DCC chip but it wouldn't work. I have been told that the message I get back from the software suggest that the SPROG is defective, and it will have to be returned. I can use my Lenz DCC to do the work but as I can't set Dock Green up at home this will have to be done at Basingstoke - probably on Saturday morning before the show opens. It's probably at least 30 minutes work - use the ESU auto-tune routine, put in the loco address, set the sound so that the chuffs synchronise with the wheel rotations, set a maximum speed etc . It can't be done during the show itself as switching the Lenz to prog. mode will shut down all the operating. Chaz Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 Chaz I hope you’ll be able to do it - once the track is set up, and cleaned, it won’t take long to do the auto tune (seconds!!!) but I find the chuff synch does take a few minutes - I guess you might be lucky and get it right first go! Unfortunately Basingstoke is a long drag from Kent, so I won’t see you or Dock Green, mores the pity Hope the show goes well Simon Chaz I hope you’ll be able to do it - once the track is set up, and cleaned, it won’t take long to do the auto tune (seconds!!!) but I find the chuff synch does take a few minutes - I guess you might be lucky and get it right first go! Unfortunately Basingstoke is a long drag from Kent, so I won’t see you or Dock Green, mores the pity Hope the show goes well Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barnaby Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 Murphy's law strikes again Chaz. That's interesting what you say about "sync the chuff" I'm still slowly blundering my way around my Lenz Programing. Their German/English manual isn't the most logical in its explanations. but I have found a USA flowchart for V3.6 which helps a lot being a one page show all. You need to get the detail from the manual but it does guide me to the right area. Anyway back to Chuff, does this need doing if I purchase a ready blown chip for say a Terrier. I've always thought a ready blown one was all set up.? Cheers have a great show. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
81A Oldoak Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 Murphy's law strikes again Chaz. That's interesting what you say about "sync the chuff" I'm still slowly blundering my way around my Lenz Programing. Their German/English manual isn't the most logical in its explanations. but I have found a USA flowchart for V3.6 which helps a lot being a one page show all. You need to get the detail from the manual but it does guide me to the right area. Anyway back to Chuff, does this need doing if I purchase a ready blown chip for say a Terrier. I've always thought a ready blown one was all set up.? Cheers have a great show. The ZIMO decoders used in our Minerva Peckett, Victory and 57XX/8750 Panniers are supplied calibrated to the correct chuff rate. Chris 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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