42207 wired up

Sorry I didn't have an update for last week as nothing happened. This week I was able to finally get the sound decoder wired into my Lima 422 class, number 42207. This was basically a cumulative effort of small portions of time throughout the week. Sunday morning I was finally able to get to the layout and test the decoder. I obviously stuffed up something in setting up the decoder ID from the factory default of 03 as only the background sound was coming out of the speaker. After much ginning around and not getting anywhere, I reset the decoder to the factory defaults and started again. This time things worked correctly. Forwards, backwards, lights, horn (CV changed to reflect 5 chime horn). I still have to fine tune the CVs. Now I have to try and fit everything into the body (there seems to be a lot of wire leads!), fine tune the CVs, and take it for a spin around Illavearf. Throughout this project I have also been taking notes and photos to write another article. I will have to massage the notes and photos into an article before I forget to much before the end of the year. Once this is done, I will have to get my @rse into gear to weather 4469 for the club modelling competition which is only a matter of weeks away now.

Club meeting at Craig's place

This afternoon saw the monthly club meeting of RMCQ held at Craig Mackie's place. Fourteen members and a visitor made the trip across to the southside. I saw Craig's layout in May 2008 (from memory) and a lot has happened. All praise to Craig for his modelling efforts. I have included some of Craig's modelling that I was impressed with.

There was a serious side to the afternoon, namely the monthly meeting, so we convened under Craig's pagola. Some pictures of the membership, PK and JC, and the three wise men.

Once the meeting finished and we partook of Craig's hospitality with a fine afternoon tea spread, I was able to have 30-45 minutes track time on Craig's layout. I had won my first club raffle, and what a fine prize. A NSWGR GLV wagon, OnTrack Models I think. Photos below of the GLV wagon behind 4464 and EL51.

Then it was time to pack up and make the trip back to the northside. Craig, once again thanks for an enjoyable afternoon. I must get back to your place another time when there is not as many bodies in the shed (not so squeezy!!).

On another note, my rust oxides from DCC Concepts arrived through the week. Once again thanks to Richard Johnson for sending them gratis. I did get to 42207 through the week. Not as much as I had hoped but I did manage to glue the front bogie power pickups on to the bogie, and thread the power leads into the chassis ready for connecting to the decoder's leads. So maybe this week coming up I will get to the front and rear headlights cabling. I am starting to learn not to plan too far ahead with this conversion. I might have to put it to one side while I weather 4464 for the club Christmas modelling competition. Until next update, happy tooting!

Weathering powders and signals arrived

My Eckon OO gauge signal kits (four of them) arrived last week (or was it the previous week?) from the UK. So I have to put these together and work out the best way to activate them on the layout. I have also been waiting for a loco weathering kit from DCC Concepts. It arrived through the week, but it was the wrong kit. Richard Johnson took it on the chin and is sending over the missing rust oxides at no cost to me. These kits seam to be much better value for money than say the little Tamiya kits. So once the rust oxides arrive I can start weathering 4464 for presentation at the club Christmas party competition. This weekend I am heading over to Craig Mackie's place for a looksie and hopefully have 4464 do a lap or two. I might even bring along my CFCLA EL51 for a jaunt! If I get any spare time of an evening this week, I will attempt to get 42207 converted so it too can come for a trip to the southside of Bris Vegas. Unfortunately I got no spare time last wekend to spend in the shed as I was getting the yard and garden in shape so that I can go to Craig's place next weekend.

Club B&S Open day

RMCQ's November Buy and Sell, and Open Day was held on Sunday 1st. To my untrained eyes it looked a better turnout than May's was. Quite a range of items for sale. However after haggling with my good friend and fellow club member Craig Mackie, I was able to purchase two FS class NSWGR candy liveried carriages for a very good price (CM would probably say it was daylight robbery). He also provided a great gift of a large selection of past edition AMRMs for me to go through. Other than the Sunday event, no modelling was done this week.

Ipswich Show outing on Sunday

I didn't get up to any modelling this weekend, however I was able to take the family and my Dad out to the Queensland Model Railway Show at The Workshops Rail Museum at North Ipswich on Sunday. The weather was great and the displays pretty good. I have seen a few before but I can't recall seeing 'Coorparoo' before. Very good. Some photos of 'Coorparoo' and others of interest below. I also saw a few RMCQ members out there with their personal exhibitions. Bob with Dagabar and Ian with Cherry Blossum (something or other! - sorry Ian). Dallas was out there helping Ian. RMCQ didn't get out there this year. Dad was very interested in the models but was more interested in the museum's collection. It brought back some interesting memories! I have also been keeping an eye on some Ebay listings but unfortunately I was beaten in the bidding. Damn response times! Well maybe this week I will be able to continue with the upgrade of the Class 422 to DCC. Time will tell!

Coorparoo






Wygani





Dagabar




Who's Who?

NSWGR Class 422 upgrade

Tonight had me over the table contemplating how best to proceed with upgrading my old Class 422 to DCC. I had thought about replacing the current light globes with LEDs, but this might be a bit tricky with the space available above the internal plastic 'windows' insert. So before I go on the plastic cutting warpath, I might try just connecting up the current light globes to the decoder. Speaker location was decided upon above the front bogie in the body shell's roof. However I didn't have the motivation to start actually installing the decoder and speaker, so instead I started some prepatory work and made up the two black and two red front bogie additional pickups ready for installation. These are based on the pickups I designed and made up for the Class 44 mentioned in an earlier article. I will probably document how I did this upgrade to run past AMRM once I know the outcome of the Class 44 article I submitted.

CV search!

Saturday just gone found my eldest son Lachlan wanting to spend some shed time with Dad, so I didn't say no to running trains. I took the opportunity to do something I have been meaning to do for a while now, and that was to note the main CV values of those engines with decoders in them. Mr Mackie had sent me his DCC loco spreadsheet and I just modified it to suit my locos. Hopefully soon I will get an opportunity to go down to the club and have PK show me how to use the Sprog-II DCC interface to get a copy of all of the CV values per loco. It was also an opportunity for those locos that haven't had a recent run to get one. What a fine excuse. Thanks Lachlan! Now I just have to get in the mood to restart the scenicing of Illavearf. Some Eckon OO signal kits from the UK are on their way so I will have an incentive to get my finger out and get the the layout finished.