Two N Scale Turbo Trains, 50 Years Apart

[Dwight in Toronto]

John - thanks for commenting; I will try to tone down the ‘light bleed’.

But dang, these little LED’s are SO efficient.  There’s an 8K resistor on every one of them, and I managed to reduce the intensity of the white LED in the front/top position by way of supplementary dimming using LokProgrammer software.  But, interestingly, when I tried to do the same thing on the lower/left mars lamp, the blink/fade effect was adversely affected, so I had to abandon that option.

[peteski]

Looking good Dwigth!
Yes LEDs are tricky to dim, especially if additional PWM dimming is used for lighting effects. You might consider getting some higher resistor values, so you don't have to connect bunch in series.  There are resistor kits available on eBay and  amazon with entire ranges of values (in either conventional resistors with leads, or SMD) and in various power ratings.  Those kits are not very expensive.

As for the light bleed, I just use a coating of silver or black paint. Sometimes multiple layers. Sometimes I use both, black and silver paint.  That can totally block even very strong light through translucent plastic. I have also used thin aluminum (not the crappy cloth) duct tape to block the light, but since it is conductive, one has to be careful how and where to use.

[Dwight in Toronto]

I eliminated the light bleed from the red end-of-train marker, mostly by withdrawing the LED deeper into its retaining tube, thereby moving it farther away from the clear lense on the nose cone.  That, and some additional sticky-tac to further restrict light transmission. 

Anyway, I think this is pretty much it for this build.  As always, a lot of fun, some valuable new learning, and a satisfying outcome.

Here’s a short, 2.5 minute “proof of life” video, and nod of appreciation to all who helped out and followed along:

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[NorthWestGN]

Nice stuff Dwight! Was following along earlier, lost track and now pleased to see the final product!

Brent

[Dwight in Toronto]

Brent - thanks for commenting.

I just noticed that my Turbo Train thread has surpassed 16,000 views!  I had no idea, since I had stopped checking on it a few weeks ago.  I mean, I had a few dedicated followers who contributed valued thoughts and suggestions throughout the build, but there wasn’t really a heckuva lot of feedback.  I suppose there were a lot of folks who simply gave it a look-see, maybe raised an eyebrow or gave a nod of the head, and then moved along. 

It’s a bit of an effort posting a build thread, what with all the photos, and trying to compose clear explanations of challenges, experimental fixes, new tools/materials/techniques etc.  For me, I kinda enjoy sharing the pain and the successes, and my intentions in doing so are two-fold:
a) I hope that maybe someone, somewhere, someday might stumble on a useful takeaway, and
b) I use the thread as an appeal to fellow modellers, hoping that they’ll chime in and educate me and others with their unique knowledge and experience by revealing newer/better/alternative ways of doing things.

And yeah, as evidenced here, I tend to be excessively verbose when it comes to the written word!  (Which is not at all what I’m like with respect to face-to-face interaction). Anyway, enough … on to the next project.

[peteski]

And yeah, as evidenced here, I tend to be excessively verbose when it comes to the written word!  (Which is not at all what I’m like with respect to face-to-face interaction). Anyway, enough … on to the next project.

If the text is informative, there is nothing wrong with being wordy. A written explanation that nicely supplements photos is very helpful in understanding the building techniques.  If the text was too sparse, the photo alone will not describe all the details or the train of though used for the construction techniques.  You're doing great!

[Dwight in Toronto]

Thank you Peter for the encouragement. 

I’ve made some headway with my latest N scale scratch build, and hope to start another thread imminently - Canadian Pacific’s CP1 vintage theatre/observation coach (I briefly mentioned it in Tim Horton’s Sperry car tutorial). 

[kiwi_al]

I think this thread deserves a Best Of tag. The amount of effort Dwight has put in to getting an old Bachmann train set loco to run so well and smoothly as well as fixing a lot of it's deficiencies deserves it. Just my opinion

[peteski]

I think this thread deserves a Best Of tag.

I concur.

[Dwight in Toronto]

Golly gee - thanks guys! 

It would be flattering to have my wee project immortalized as a “best of” … how does such a thing actually come to be? 

[thbguy]

Really an excellent thread and design build.

Well done!
Michael