Not much going on

Slow progress the railbus is at the same stage as it was in my last blog; however I have made up an adaptor for my compressor so I can use my airbrush, another skill I will have to revisit, I have put my thoughts on my track plan into AnyRail and this is the first draft. [Comments please]

Each square represents 3 inches

Lazy Sunday

Nothing much to report apart from painting the underside of the chassis, Marc spent a good few hours shunting the ‘bus up and down the test track so its had a bit of a run in both

directions.

Marcs Blog

Today we went to school to see the model train show, I liked the small trains best granddad said they were N gauge. I went with Granddad and Uncle Steven he took pictures of the trains. Granddad bought a chip thing for his railbus. After lunch we fitted it to the railbus and we tested it on a bit of track, but when I drove it first a red light was not working but granddad fixed it. I had a good day with Uncle Steven and Granddad here is a small video and some picture from Uncle Steven. My favourite train was the one with Thomas on the back.

Marc 24 November 2012

QuikFit

Marc my grandson Is having a sleepover and wanted to see what the railcar looks like when it will be finished so we test fitted the body on to the chassis, all fitted reasonably well may be a little trimming when the interior is done but so far I’m pleased.

It's all about weight

 

I spent a couple of hours this afternoon working on the interior; I managed to hide 10 grams of lead sheet under the false floor! The chassis with the motor now weighs a healthy 62 grams result! More fabricating of seats to finish the front or is it the rear Compartment.

Smoke and mirrors and a false floor

Its Thursday already where do the days go? Well after taking my PA, sorry Linda my lovely wife for some retail therapy from which she came back somewhat disappointed we popped in to my daughters to take her out to lunch for a birthday treat, Happy birthday Rachel.

I spent some time constructing the false floor to hide the running light cables 0.5mm bearers cemented to the chassis, the cables “super” glued to the chassis to which the false floor with the seating will be attached

 

I intend to make an open topped box to surround the motor and attach the decoder to the front face roughly where the red line is showing that should work. But and there is always a but I may have to change my plans

Case of the missing heat shrink sleeve

I cannot find my small shrink tube any where  off to Maplin me thinks, you watch I'll find it tonight.

Loose wires

I will be going to our local model railway exhibition next Saturday best get a decoder because there are a lot of loose wires hanging out now

well that’s all for now I can hear 'cook' bashing the pans so dinner is nearly ready, Oh there the dinner gong has sounded.

Both sets of pre fabricated running lights fitted to the cab front with rapid epoxy adhesive (well not so rapid) but never the less attached  the is some filling of blemishes the plastic is rather soft and my macro lens to 1:1 ratio picks up all the defects!

 

Underside of Cab front showing LED light board

 

4 pin strip fixed to the chassis top pin red, lower pin white LED. the centre pins + feed to the LEDs next job fixing dropper resistors to the centre two pins and fixing to chassis. A bit of cleaning round the hook and buffer before the whole frond section is encapsulated in epoxy, the fixing of the hook and buffers are rather weak and will not take much handling.







4 pin strip

 



The area in the motor where the wires need modification for DCC operation, gotta get a suitable chip first!





Motor connection



Not a lot of progress this week but its something to give enjoyment and I’m finding all my  old skill that have not been used for over 20 or more years

 

Well that’s both sets of running lights fabricated and electrically tested, time for a little break until the week end.

 In the mean time I have been thinking of my next mini project conversion of a very sorry looking Hornby 75 Ton steam crane a diesel powered version more of that later that’s all for now folks.

Thoughts on the running lights

Day four

I have a few thoughts on the running lights so a re-design of the male plug is on the cards, I’ll strip out the current connections and use “vero” board. LED forward and plug pins facing downwards in theory it should give the whole fixing more strength. Home from work and one light unit built, one to go, all that remains is to epoxy the unit to the cab front the tension in the pins onto the chassis is enough to hold the body in place. That’s it for tonight need to catch up on TV before the dreaded jungle thing is on. Oh just looking at the close up picture I think more black paint on the LED is in order, just leaving the tip unpainted

 

Day Three of the build

11^th November after watching the remembrance parade on the PC I was rather fragile Saturday night Sunday morning so I never made the parade in town always next year!

 I spent a few hours later building the railcar think I have sorted the power connections to the running lights and a temporary installation to the front of the cab it covers the destination board windows black paint seems the fix for that. Around 20 seats made just need to trim the backs and position them on the false floor. I have second thoughts on the white blocks. I must make them more compact and thread them 2mm. this is a close up of the electrical connections for the red and white running lights. 2mm LED hard wired to the male connector dropper resistor on the chassis disguised as some pneumatic cylinder or something it’s going to be tight installing the decoder though

Day three

The interior is going to me more challenging

The interior is going to me more challenging than first envisage, in particular the drivers area. I am also Pondering on the running lights I have 2mm LED’s. But where on earth will I fit the DCC decoder! I have always had a fascination for the Park Royal Rail bus since seeing them during the late ‘50’s or early ‘60’s when visiting my Grandparents in Rugby. Now I have the opportunity to create a working miniature. So I think the interior will have to be sparse with facsimiles of passenger seating.

Day Two

Still Day two

Day one catchup on my Railbus project

Day One

On the 3rd of November I made a start on my Park Royal Rail bus project, A BullAnt Motor Bogie arrived and the fine scale motor and chassis completed, work could start on the floor pan modification cutting out the aperture for the motor. I am not too keen on the nut and bolt fixing of the chassis to the floor pan I think I will fabricate plastic blocks tapped 2mm.  A start on fabricating seats from Ratio parts double 13mm wide the singles 9mm wide cut down in height.