Power on the Bridge

Work has commenced on developing a new area that will incorporate a 1970s section and fiddle yard. In order to for the trains to reach this new area a lift off bridge has to be built so that trains can go around the room and also that inside of the room can be accessed.

Test Run
Below is a test run of the CPH railmotor going over the lift off bridge with the safety zone in operation.

Safety Zone
In order to avoid any mishaps of locomotives still moving if the lift off bridge is up a safety zone is in place about 40 centimetres before this is an isolated section of track and only powered when the lift off bridge is down. A microswitch is installed near the hinge of the lift off bridge which triggers when power is made to the positive wires on the bridge

 

 

Wiring diagram
Sample wiring diagram found on the internet was used as the basis to complete the wiring for the safety zone and microswitch.

 Track Alignment
As the baseboard legs and shelving is movable a sawn connector rod and metal plug is use to align the bridge with the non-attached baseboard



Conclusion

I have been enjoying learning and doing the electronic side of building the layout. There is still some refinement and further testing to do but I am happy with the result

Happy New Year and until 2017

 

 

 

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Christmas 2016

Thanks for everyone's support during the year. Hope to have some new exciting development in 2017

Retrofitting lighting

After my post in August with the installed working street lights, I noticed that the platform and footbridge lacked any lighting. I decided that I needed to fit led lighting to both the platform light fittings and the footbridge. This took a bit of time and was quite difficult but I am happy with the results.

Above: Wardell station at dusk

Platform lighting

The platform light fittings are  Uneek double scroll top lights that are made of white metal and are solid with no actual light fitting. I purchase 10 warm white mini LEDS from a supplier in China from ebay and glued these to the top of the light fittings two for each light fitting. For Wardell station I used 8 LEDS two for each station lamp post.

Removal and reinstall

The most painful and tedious part was to dismantle my previous work such as the footbridge and station and platform. This is so that the I could drill holes in the baseboard to accommodate the lighting wiring to go the the AC power.

Footbridge lighting

The footbridge is quite a fragile structure and many parts had to be reglued. 

The other difficulty was installing lighting on the footbridge and footbridge stairs. I purchased a different set of LEDS for this.

The light fittings on  the footbridge were made from painted wire with plastic no stripped away.

Wiring for the footbridge and stair lights was also difficult as there was so many wires but limited space to hide them. I decided to use cut a terminal block into 2 ways so that all lighting wires would go into the terminal block and then only one set of lighting wiring would come from the footbridge to

the AC power .

Now that I finally finished the lighting I am looking forward to run some trains again!

Another view:Night Seen Wardell Station

On the Wire

Finally after several months of procrastinating and attempting to complete some of the finer details of the layout such as tram overhead wiring and the telephone poles, I finally completed it. My tramway system looks complete with overhead wiring.

Below is a photo of the screen looking on Crystal street bridge.

Technique for the telephone poles and wires
 The tram poles and telephone poles were a combination of bamboo sticks and Rix Products Railroad telephone poles.  I really like the Rix Products as the telephone poles are a taller than the Atlas branded ones. I also made some modifications so they would look more like the prototype in Sydney in the 1950s.

The telephone wires were made from 0.440mm gauge wire from Mitre 10.

Technique for the Tram overhead

I tried many attempts trying to use super glue to glue etched brass overhead fittings together to the wire without much success. The holes in the etched fittings were too small to put the brass wire through. I decided to do without the overhead fittings and just solder the wire together.  After my old soldering iron died I decided to purchase a new solder iron with temperature control and also a new helping hands.

This assisted the job quite a lot. Also by adding further frogs to the overhead for curves the structure became stronger.

The end of the newsreel

"Good Evening and Welcome to Television"


Today is the 60th anniversary of when television was first broadcast in Sydney on 16 September  1956 by TCN Channel 9. Prior to this new technology, one had go to the local cinemas to see something on the screen .


The weekly newsreel provided patrons to weekly content of news, sport and current affairs that were shown at the local cinema. The onset of television resulted in the decline of the newsreel format as it could not keep up with bringing up-to-date news. It also resulted in the decline of the local cinema. 



Below is a tribute diorama to the anniversary. A newsreel film unit filming reviews of the new FE Holden Sedan in 1956.

The Holden FJ van is a Road Ragers diecast with custom designed and made decals. The film crew is a Preiser set.


 While the anniversary does not directly relate to my layout except that this event occurred in the 1950s it does allow me to display my other fetish. My HO scale model car collection. Here is a view of some of my collection as you can see my favourites are 1950s American cars.

Back to the boards

Lacking momentum
Over the last couple of months I have found it difficult to have the enthusiasm and momentum to complete the finer scenic details of the Wardell station section of layout. I would start a project such as installing the poles for the tramway wiring but did not have the patience to finish the frog and hanger wires.This was the same with the planned point rodding which has begun but not complete.

Back to woodwork

The idea of building the layout out was to build each module at a time before moving onto the next section i.e. trackwork, wiring and scenic section completed before moving onto the next board. Each module was either 600mm long or 1200mm long. This was to avoid the problem of biting off more than I can chew and also ensure that some scenery would be complete to do photo some model scenes.

Next Section
The next section of layout is loosely based on the goods area of Petersham before the Training Centre arose in its place. I am aware that there was a overhead wiring shed and a goods shed. However, I have no information of the goods shed as it slowly fell out of use before the 1950s.

Attached is a draft track plan of the next Section shaded in green and also the planned future section for part of the far wall.

Framework and backdrop
As shown with the timberwork to give some variety to the terrain there is some gradient for the main tracks to rise up gradually so that there will be a railway bridge. Whilst the tram tracks will gradient down so it will eventually be level with the baseboard. The area in between will be flat that represents the goods area.

 The backdrop is painted in Accent Iris Waters with a roller.

Here is a mock of the area with buildings. The G2 Goods Shed is taken from my Bilby Beach Layout which I feel has too big a footprint for the goods area. I might replace the The overhead wire Shed is represented by a Dunnyhalt plywood laser cut kit from Models and More. A kit that was easy to put together.

Trackwork has been laid down and using PVA glue and cork

Lasting thoughts:
I was pleased with the progress after two Sunday afternoons work. I still need to decide whether I should keep with the G2 Goods Shed or purchase a G1 Goods shed or another appropriate goods shed that would suit the area.

Leave the light on for Me

Its been a while since my last post, our yearly family vacation took some chuck of the time but I have found it difficult to focus in completing a couple of projects on the layout.


Lighting
The key thing that has been mostly completed is the street lights on the layout. I purchased some LEDs from Ebay and was able to glue them to the telegraph poles. I use a mixture of Two Dollar Shop satay sticks and Atlas Telegraph poles to build them.

To turn the lights on I installed a switch on the control panel next to the point switches.

Trafalgar street at dusk. Ready for the evening peak hour

Another shot with the station in the background

I was really happy to be able to complete this, that I showed my kids. Now everytime they come into the train room they like to turn the lights off and then switch the layout lights on.

After I had complete the street lights, I noticed that there were other lighting I needed to add to the layout and also vary some of the lighting so the brightness is not all the same. I hope to do this soon once I learn how I can change the brightness.