Wiring commenced

After soldering and slightly warming my fingers for a couple of hours each night for the last few weeks I have started to make progress.

I purchased the largest enclosure that I could get from Jaycar, as Dicksmith no longer sells components and small parts. 

No enclosure, with laminated track plan held down by screw. DPDT switches except the double slip

Plugs and leads both connecting the two modules temporarily when
on display.  

Wires going everywhere! 

Now to begin wiring the control panel and purchase a power supply. 

Mark

 

Alternative legs

After attending the Phillip Island model train show and speaking with some experienced modellers I have been advised and pointed in the direction of not using the screw in legs and instead using the folding white trestle tables that you can get from most stores. Such as BigW, and Officeworks.

I have been finding the legs very unstable and a pain to setup so I will now endeavour to find some reasonably priced folding white tables. 

A layout under construction at Phillip Island using the white tables to bring the layout up just about little kid height!

I have found some that BigW are selling my only worry is that I need them to be either 2 metres in length  or 1 metre in length so that each module is supported by some of the table surface, as I don't want anything to fall or be unbalanced.

Ill see how I go! -better start watching the catalogues.

Wiring Begins

Wiring will begin in the coming weeks with the arrival of the first batch of female RCA (or DVD to television plug-commonly known for) these will be wired to join up and link sections making less connections back to the control box.


The male ones purchased can be found here

Used generally for game consoles or DVD players to the TV.

First batch of Female RCA Plugs

I will then be looking into the Kato train controllers. 

Featured Article

Recently I wrote an article for the 'N Scale Modeller' about making paper/cardboard buildings using Microsoft Publisher or Word, although not using this technique for the buildings in Euroa, I will use the cardboard building technique to create a prototype to save money on plastic if measurements were out.

The article can be found here..
https://docs.google.com/a/nscale.org.au/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=bnNjYWxlLm9yZy5hdXxuc21hfGd4OjFhMmZlNTBjZGVmOWEwZmE

Euroa over the Xmas break will start to develop and wiring will take place, keep watch!


Mark

Euroa Returns

Euroa arrived back home yesterday after the long process of being marked and accessed for the VCAA. 

Looking forward to working on Euroa now that school is completed! 

Euroa Secondary College

Victorian N Scale Collective Meet

What a great day, thanks to Rob for holding the meet, it was well worth coming along, and now I can say I'm a member of the Collective. http://home.vicnet.net.au/~vnsc/ for those who maybe new and thinking of joining it's worth it! Looking forward to the newsletters and some more light reading!

Below are a couple photos from todays meet, 

Circuit Panel

Well before I could lay any track, I had to work out where my separate circuits were going to be isolated, as I am using DC the whole track would be electrified, and only one loco could be sitting on the track without disaster! So insulated joiners are used to do this, and isolate sections, chosen by the end user.

The diagram has to be drawn up correctly in a program like Adobe Illustrator, ProDesktop, or Corel. Then saved for the program Euroa Secondary College uses, with there Roland CNC machine, Dr Engraver- which requires a .BMP file.

The CNC machine cut the diagram out and the holes for the switches, but it didn't show up easily for the eye to tell the difference between where it had cut and where the original plastic was left.

That meant hours of painting and masking to get a smooth well done paint job of the lines, I was pushed for time and didn't want to do it this way. So what then was done was I went to Splash Gecko http://splashgecko.com.au/ where I have done work experience and with Signage Vinyl and board I used Flexisign to cut my design into the vinyl. This was laid on the corflute board with app tape-technical words! :) to allow the vinyl to be applied. I then cut out the holes for the switches and super glued and hot glued the switches in!

So a simple circuit diagram was not that simple!

Circuit diagram drawn in adobe illustrator, saved as a .BMP file for the Dr Engraver Software that works with CNC

CNC'd diagram in acrylic plastic, single colour, lines manually painted with enamel paint

Vinyl cut tracks, onto corflute sign panel, switches holes cut out manually.

The panel is then bolted to the sign of one of the moduls and can come off in transport and when the modules are placed away in the case.

Cheers
Mark



Easy Adjustment!

After travelling to train shows and seeing what others are doing and how they hold or join there modules Ive just used what I think is the best and easiest!

Basically the screw in legs allow easy change of height, all though the metal nut is in the wrong side the idea still works screw it in the leg gets shorter, screw it out and the leg/height of the module gets higher!

Making it this easy means less time trying to align track and correct height differences when setting up!

Then all you do is just use a basic largish clamp between each module to keep them all togther and make them stable.

Painting the case

Painting the case enables it to be now protected and covered so it can be cleaned if required. The case will hopefully have some signage and instructions painted onto!

Paint used, is

Dulux Black PGI.A9

Taubmans_w.lib

Neutral 1 Litre

B   2Y 26N

J    0Y 12N

I    0Y 16N

W  0Y 13N

Water based enamel - never knew it existed! :)

Track Diagram

After referencing photographs and track diagrams from the below sites,
http://www.signaldiagramsandphotos.com/mywebpages/vr/North_Eastern/15'29.htm
http://www.signaldiagramsandphotos.com/mywebpages/vr/North_Eastern/9'69.htm
http://www.signaldiagramsandphotos.com/mywebpages/vr/North_Eastern/40'89.htm

http://www.victorianrailways.net/signaling/completedia/sigdialist.html

and photographs from
http://www.westonlangford.com/search/?q=euroa
http://www.flickr.com/photos/syncrostep/

and David Langley via email.

I drew up the track diagram with help from Rob from Aust N Rail in a program called Anyrail http://www.anyrail.com/index_en.html which is just fantastic because the diagram as below was printed to actual size to make sure things fitted on the modules, there are the options within the program to place in the points and objects sold by the leading companies and it also allows you to see if the radius's are to tight or not, so yep its recommended!,
We discussed removing a couple of points around the goods shed which we couldn't have due to size constraints of the modules., but in doing this we were able to still have the double slip which is great for shunting in the yard later down the track!

Below are a couple of photographs of the printed diagram and how I used it!

Mark

Screenshot from Anyrail

Euroa drawn in Anyrail

Ready to go!

Well after many, many classes, the case and modules are ready for some paint and track!

Cheers

Mark :)

Completing construction of case.

The final touches to the case have now been completed. The ply (3mm) top was a little fragile in the last couple of days of class, so I decided that it was best to add some support to make sure if weight was added on top of the case that it wouldn't break the ply, -well as easy anyway! so 5 pieces of pine cut to the correct width and 40mm height were glued and screwed into the framing to support the top.

The case with the modules in it, weighs a fair bit, and carrying it with 2 people is possible but not for a long distance, so I purchased some casters. The back of the case has fixed wheels screwed on, while the front has the swivel type so allow some movement in any direction, the reason for two of each to be fitted is so that it makes the case easily moved without wheels going in all directions! In saying that I need a locking system so that it doesnt take off on you, while unloading and loading the modules into the case!!

Case with one brace fitted.

The two types of casters

Standing Tall

Well after all the hard work modules are finally starting to stand on there own!!

The legs from Bunnings were a metre in length those are now 800mm tall and have the Leggz bit in the top to screw into the underneath of the module.

When the legs were 1metre tall!

800mm legs holding up one module

3 of 4 modules

3 of 4 modules

Modules setup as per original plan

Module Issue

When I tried to fit the last module into the case it seems to be wider than the rest for some strange reason, so we had to remove 1mm for each side of the module. Using the combination of a belt sander, and a planer (if I remembered the correct name) I removed material from each side to allow the module to fit. 3 Shelves were required and the 4th module sits on the ply bottom part of the frame.

Shelves

Adding my steel shelves created with 2mm steel folded by and sourced from SJ Rural, Euroa.

I just pre drilled some holes each end and once marked and gaps between selves checked, leaving height for the modelling to be done onto the module the shelves were screwed into place.

Right angle, 3cm tall 4cm wide

Shelves fitted 

Handles added to help lift the case later on-Handles both ends, 4 in total on the case

Modules sit easily in the case.

Completing the Case

Sealing as such the case, was not a simple task only for the reason that adding that extra 9mm create a gap on one side of the frame, which was not expected. So when it came to lining the case we had a couple extra gaps than what I intended. 

Case on side, above the gap below sealed perfectly 

9mm gap because of the ply on right in photo

Case with all walls and base attached 

Case with all walls and base attached, just need to fix the gap and add the top and front.