Weekend Update 12/29/13

[C855B]

My big train project for the week and finished today was rounding up some help to get the 1:1 switchstand out of the car. This is the eBay win mentioned four weeks ago. Weather and personal schedules delayed retrieving it any sooner.

Turns out it was likely not from the CGW as attributed in the eBay listing. The seller, not a railfan, had no clue of its origins other than having bought it from "some kid" who acquired it from an estate sale, where it had been living in a barn for at least 20 years. I will be disposing of the plastic flag - it's ugly as sin.

We'll have to wait for a break in the cold before pouring a foundation for it.

[nkalanaga]

Alex:  I agree, that top photo, in the sepia tones, looks very much like some of the 1880s pictures.  In this case a "cheap cellphone" camera is perfect, as many of the pictures then were made with low resolution equipment.  Actually, many of today's "cheap cellphone" cameras are better than much of the consumer photo equipment a few decades ago...

[rodsup9000]

 Spent part if the day drawing a roundhouse base in sketchup and started printing it. Hopefully I'll have enough room for at least 10 stalls.  I'll be using parts from the Modern Roundhouse kit.
Here is the first base printing with 5 stalls. The printer is a 300mm cube printer I built last spring. I also have 2, 200 cube printers I built for smaller stuff.

[pjm20]

Spent part if the day drawing a roundhouse base in sketchup and started printing it. Hopefully I'll have enough room for at least 10 stalls.  I'll be using parts from the Modern Roundhouse kit.
Here is the first base printing with 5 stalls. The printer is a 300mm cube printer I built last spring. I also have 2, 200 cube printers I built for smaller stuff.

What's your resolution on both printers?

[CBQ Fan]

Mike, nice looking hoppers!

I kitbashed a master for a Kato E5 B unit. The shell is now in Silicon Rubber but I took two photos before I started the mold making process. I should have castings early this week if all goes well.

These look awesome!  I am ready to order!

[davefoxx]

I built an N scale Code 40 #6 turnout yesterday out of inspiration from Chris333's handlaid trackage on his Nn3 Carbon Limestone Co. layout.



More over on the Seaboard Central thread: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=25551.msg351141#new

DFF

[Dave V]

Spent sometime weathering my right of way and installed a Penn's Cave billboard in Lewistown to further establish locale.

Yesterday I took my kids and parents to the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden...my third visit. Narrow-gauge fans will appreciate the awesomeness preserved there.  Here's a few quick samples:











The rest can be seen here:

https://plus.google.com/photos/108798159233854075737/albums/5962838305473668145

[rodsup9000]

What's your resolution on both printers?

On one of the 200's I just installed a .025 mm nozzle and need to work on getting it calibrated better. I'm hoping that I can get the layer height down to .005 mm. I think even at that, you will still see and feel the layers. Here is vase that a friend printed on his Ultimaker. He has spent many, many hours getting it calibrated.






Rodney 

[pjm20]

I'm hoping that I can get the layer height down to .005 mm.

Dang, that is even better than the Makerbot Replicator 2!  If you can achieve this, I may just have to buy a printer off you!

[rodsup9000]

Dang, that is even better than the Makerbot Replicator 2!  If you can achieve this, I may just have to buy a printer off you!

  The biggest thing about FDM printers is the calibration. I built one for my youngest son and he has it calibrated pretty good. He has run about 200 pounds of PLA through it and has spent a lot of time calibrating it and his prints are almost as good as the vase.

Rodney

[Iain]

I've got a few projects in the works:

For starters, NS 1502:


Can't really see it from this angle, but it has cut levers, z scale couplers, and air hoses.

Next up, I've started working on NS crane 900, but that project is likely not going to go too much further because the earliest photo I can find is from 1955:



I may wind up doing the crane as it looked in the photos I have, anyway.  It's mounted on BLMA 70 ton trucks.

Finally, for today, I have a NS tender:



This is the first tender I've modified; if it goes well, I'll mass produce a bunch of them for my steam.

[peteski]

Alex:  I agree, that top photo, in the sepia tones, looks very much like some of the 1880s pictures.  In this case a "cheap cellphone" camera is perfect, as many of the pictures then were made with low resolution equipment.  Actually, many of today's "cheap cellphone" cameras are better than much of the consumer photo equipment a few decades ago...

While I agree with all you said, I had to smile when I saw your use of the term "low resolution" applied to the 19th and early 20th century photographic equipment.  I don't think that back then anybody would have used that term.  The poor quality of the photographs was due to the graininess of the photo-sensitive media, and/or poor quality optics.  Long exposure times didn't help either.

I don't think it is wrong, or incorrect, to call that equipment "low resolution". I'm just used to seeing that term used for describing digital-based photo equipment.   

[Chris1274]

I've been working on the interiors of a set of CSX coalporters:



The metal weights and interior braces have been epoxied in place, and now I'm making inserts from sheets of gray styrene to cover up the weights. The styrene matches the interior gray of the car pretty well. Unfortunately there's a bit of a gap toward the bottom where each insert meets up with the adjacent brace, but it's not too noticeable from 3 feet away.

[peteski]

I finished a project I started few weeks ago.  I recently acquired a model of a German E77 loco (by Brawa).  It was so over-olied at the factory that the oil actually oozed out onto the outside of the shell!

So I took it apart and cleaned it thoroughly.  A word of caution: this model is definitely not designed to be easily taken apart.  But I felt adventurous.


Since I had the model apart anyway, I decided to install a DCC decoder and replace the yellow LED headlights with white LEDs.

First the headlights.  The original design used large yellow LEDs attached to a light shield/cab interior molding.  That molding stays attached to the loco chassis. The light from the top LED was shining into the top headlight. The bottom LED was directed to a clear light pipe that distributes the light to the lower headlights.

I decided to use the light pipe to hold a couple of SMD 0603 white LEDs. The light pipe made a great LED holder, resulting in a perfect alignment of the LEDs with the headlights in the shell.  This way the headlights would be housed in the loco chassis with no wires needed between the chassis and the body.

For ease of interconnecting all the components, I etched some printed circuit (PC) boards. They serve as solder points for the LED wires, and hold the current-limiting resistors.  The small PC board for the top headlights also holds the top LED.


Completed headlight assemblies.  I painted the light pipe black to only allow the light to shine out of the front. I also painted the lenses with clear orange paint to "warm up" the light emitted from the cool white LEDs.


Since I already had the model apart, I also decided to install a DCC decoder.  I could have tried to shoehorn a decoder into one of the outer sections of the model, but I didn't what to have even mode wires between the sections. This model already has plenty of wires coupling the sections.

However, there was not enough clearance to install the decoder either over or under the models circuit board.  Here is a photo of the factory circuit board  (with its components removed) and a DZ125 decoder board (with the wires removed) under it.



I decided to literally transplant the decoder into the factory board. I cut out a hole for the decoder in the factory board and then glued the decoder in.    I then wired the decoder into the factory board.

Bottom view.


Top view.


I then reassembled the model.  In this photo, the right side is still missing the headlight assembly.


Fully reassembled.


And finally, the loco is again complete.  It runs quite nicely, and no more oil oozing out of the mechanism.  It was lubricated very sparingly (at it should be).



That was a fun project: this type of work my favorite part of this hobby. 

[Kisatchie]

I finished a project I started few weeks ago.  I recently acquired a model of a German E77 loco (by Brawa).  It was so over-olied at the factory that the oil actually oozed out onto the outside of the shell!

So I took it apart and cleaned it thoroughly.  A word of caution: this model is definitely not designed to be easily taken apart.  But I felt adventurous.

Ahhhhhh! Too many parts....


Hmm... Kiz thinks a bunch
of bananas has too many
parts...