Coach Lighting Part 3

 

28/12/2024

Finally I've tested the fit of the components into the underside of the seating unit; they fit quite well into the recessed parts where the seats are moulded. As this is a brake van I've put the 2x1000uf capacitors connected in parallel in the goods compartment they will actually fit into the toilet compartment of a corridor coach. Components now glued cables rooted I am waiting for the pickup springs for the axles but I've managed to test it on DCC like clipping the wires to the rail. I need to re spray the roof to eliminate the light bleed. Next coach will be manufactured by Mainline who use a different construction technique. 

I need to re spray the roof to eliminate the light bleed.

29/12/2024

Roof re-sprayed this morning and fitted 2.0mm Pickup Springs I polished the axel with a ‘track rubber’ to endure good electrical contact. I stuck a 25mm wide strip of ‘speed tape’ (it is thin self adhesive aluminium foil) to the underside of the roof as a precaution to prevent light bleed though the roof of the Lima model then I stuck a 10mm strip of plastic card with 3 blob of hot glue this is important because the foil is conductive this and the re-spray stopped the light bleed that’s one positive.

Coach Lighting Part 2

 

27/12/2024

I constructed a “bridge” to support the LED strip inside the Lima BSK and painted the interior seats. Some of the components have arrived in the post and will allow me to test on the breadboard I know it looks “Heath Robinson” but it worked the LED’s slowly diminish when the power is removed.

Coach Lighting

 

21/12/2024 

I thought it was time I installed interior lighting into some of my coaches. I checked the wheels on my coaches and I only have 12 wheel sets with “live” axles. I chose to start with a Lima BSK first introduced in 1977. I thought the following circuit may give a flicker free setup. BR1 DB103, R1 3.3k, C1 2000uF and 32 AWG wire duly ordered and a 12v led strip which I already have BUT be warned this circuit is for 12v strips only! When the components turn up in the mail I will test on a breadboard.

Dapol Class 121Slipping Drive

 18/12/2024

This is the second time the drive shafts have failed! The knuckle on the end of the shaft just slips. Unfortunately there are no spare parts available at the time of writing. Fortunately I have the old set from the previous failure I cleaned the parts in isopropyl alcohol run a triangular needle file across the mating portion of the shaft and glued the knuckle with cyanoacrylate. That didn’t work Dapol will supply them on an exchange basis. So the loco and the defective drive shafts are going back after the holidays

 UPDATE

Replacement drive shafts have arrived back; I’m glad to see that the design has been changed. To my mind this is a much better design.

Restoration and rebuild of Western Hills station part 2

 

I Sprayed the completed lights poles with Halfords rattle can Rover Damask red which is a close proximity to LMS maroon, next is to fit all those fiddly little LEDs. Meanwhile I've sprayed 18 GWR style platform benches from model railway scenes with Halfords rattle can Rover Russet brown a close proximity to GWR chocolate.

Restoration and rebuild of Western Hills station

 

14/12/2024

 Continuing with the restoration and rebuild of Western Hills station I needed some station lights I have a bag full of cheap and cheerful eBay station platform lightswhich are a scale height of around 10 feet. They just don't look right so I decided to use evergreen plastic extrusions to fabricate some new lights. They will be a scale height of around about 14 feet I commenced by cutting 3/32 inch round tube to 67 millimetres long for the pole next I need a base so I used 1/8 inch square tube bored out to 3/32 inch to length of 15 millimetres lastly a collar made from 1/8 tube two millimetres long again bored out to 3/32 inch.

Assembly quite straight forward slide the square base up the tube leaving 15 millimetres protruding.  Slide the collar on the top leaving around 2 millimetres protruding run liquid cement around the joints. The next task is to disassemble the cheap and cheerful Chinese lights. All we need to keep is the globe and the top cover. I cut the spigot off the top cover which allows them to come away from the pole.

For the light source I used miniature micro LED’s type 0402 pre-wired from eBay they are so very tiny.

Bachmann Webb Coal Tank 7841 sound fitting

 10/12/2024

7841 is now fitted with a Zimo MS581N18G sound chip and a Sugar Cube SCUBE8 from https://www.youchoos.co.uk/. The speaker fits in the space beneath the bunker after removing the spacer! It must have spring clips (not solder pads) there is no wiring just plug and play. I took the opportunity to fit some crew from the modelu range the terrier crew fits into the cab nicely.

Bachmann Webb Coal Tank 7841

 27/11/2024

Pix Valley announce their latest arrival, in pristine condition after another extensive overhaul into full running order Bachmann Webb Coal Tank 7841 its fitted with a LaisDcc Next 18 chip. A little jigging around with the CV’s it is running exceptionally well. It will be due for a sound upgrade when funds permit.

Kit built Webb Coal Tank 7821

23/11/2024 

A few weeks ago I was gifted a very well kit built Webb Coal Tank 7821, I always liked this locomotive. Unfortunately testing at home on DC it was apparent things were not quite right. The motor was hesitant to start and although the commutator was clean it was arcing and drawing over 2 amps! I scoured the internet for a replacement motor only to find a GEM unfinished kit selling for £125 + postage. However I stumbled on this locomotive on eBay  35-051 Bachmann Webb Coal Tank 7841 DCC fitted £75 free post.

Model Rail (Heljan) British Rail Class 11 shunter revisited part 2

11/11/2024

I am in the process of fitting ‘GoldCaps’ Energy Storage Capacitors to try to resolve the issue of stalling. This was the response from John at youchoos; “The simplest stay-alive to add to the MS581 is a pair of mini GoldCaps, connected in series.  The MS581 is designed to take those directly with no additional circuitry... has to be exactly 2 of the GoldCaps , no less, no more, to get the correct voltage (around 5V).”  I ordered the following KIT-YC1FGOLDCAP6 - 6x Mini GoldCaps 2.7V 1F. They arrived this morning two were joined in series and wrapped in Kapton tape. Then I set about modifying the control desk in the cab to accept the capacitors. Basically pop off the control desk it is held in place by two moulded pins and glue 40 thou strips of plastic strip on the mating faces repaint matt black and cut a slot in the bulkhead for the cables.  After testing on the rolling road what a difference no more stalling or glitch sound well worth the effort.

Model Rail (Heljan) British Rail Class 11 shunter revisited

 

28/10/2024

I’m not sure if I am just unlucky or there is an issue with quality control; I’m having issues with my class 11 loco; it’s fitted with a Zimo MS581N18 sound chip. Randomly it stops and the sound stops. This happens at various parts on my layout even on my 2 foot programming track a slight nudge sideways it starts to move however I have to turn on the sound. I suspect it is a pickup issue, but due to the position of the pickup wipers it is difficult to see them to ascertain if they are the culprits. The locomotive was returned to Kernow modelrail centre for attention. However a replacement was sent virtually by return although it was tested it still has issues randomly stopping after an initial run in for an hour and a half in each direction. I’m not 100% sure if the inside of the wheel sets are chemically blackened if the is the case this may be the cause of the stalling.

Model Rail (Heljan) British Rail Class 11 shunter

 

Today on Pix Valley we are proud to announce our latest arrival, in pristine condition after extensive rebuild to full running order 12100 British Rail Class 11 shunter (the daddy of the 08 gronk) as normal procedure in Pix Valley it was run on the rolling road for 30 minutes in each direction before being chipped. Unfortunately I noticed that when running in the cab light didn’t work! Waved the magic wand till I was blue in the face LOL I selected a Zimo MS581N18 sound chip from https://www.youchoos.co.uk/ using the Class 08 sound file as both locomotive share the same English Electric 6KT engine. Installation is very straight forward two screws behind the side tool boxes release the body taking care to tease it up as its very tight fit. The cab light issue was down to one of the bronze tabs detached from the keeper plate screwed to the under side of the roof moulding. A spot of cyanoacrylate solve the issue.  Fit the MS581 after the blanking plug was removed there is a built in speaker on the PCB all that remains was to replace the body shell that’s it job done. Due to the orientation of the chip to clear the cab light pad it was necessary to set the decoder to reverse polarity, CV’s were tweaked to

CV 2 Start Voltage 5
CV 3 Acc Momentum 20
CV 4 Dec Momentum 15
CV 5 Top Voltage 0
CV 6 Mid Voltage 0      
CV29 reverse direction 39
CV266 Volume 75

 

 

D8015 British Rail Class 20/0 (English Electric Type 1)

 

20/05/2024

Today on Pix Valley we are proud to announce our latest arrival, in pristine condition after extensive rebuild to full running order D8015 British Rail Class 20/0 (English Electric Type 1) as normal procedure in Pix Valley it was run on the rolling road for 30 minutes in each direction before being chipped. I selected a Zimo MX645PluX22 sound chip from https://www.youchoos.co.uk/.

Installation is very straight forward two screws under the NEM couplings release the body taking care as the lighting cables are attached to the PCB. Pop out the blanking plug and pop in the MX645 as there is a built in speaker pre-wired replace the body shell that’s all there is to do.

I may upgrade the speaker to a SugarCube24X15X7-2W t give a richer sound!

Percy from DC to DCC Part 2

Next up solder the four wires to the DCC NEM662 NEXT18 female socket to 14 wire adaptor PCB from BLW Technical Services Ltd on eBay.

With the chip connected I reprogrammed the address to 6 tested on the rolling road.I wrapped as I did with the Thomas conversion the PCB and chip in Kapton tape to protect the chip from short circuits

The chip sits nicely in the space under the coal load. 

Percy from DC to DCC Part 1

The body is held on by 4 clips 2 near the cylinders and 2 by the cab.

The motor is retained by a single screw and spring clip. 

Once these are undone the motor assembly can be removed the chassis

Next remove the pick ups from the inside of the chassis this will free the motor from the chassis.

Gently separate the motor from its mounting frame 

Clip away all the old wires keeping the left pickup for reuse later.

Next solder new wires to the pickups black left red right and 2 new wires onto the motor grey left orange right.

Wrap the motor can in Kapton tape and refit the pickups and refit motor to its frame.

Replace the assembly back into the chassis 

Test run the motor with a 9 volt battery on the grey and orange wires.