MERG kit # 1 and some photos of the terraces

The week's evenings were fairly much screwed this week apart from Friday. I took advantage of this and undertook the build of the first of the MERG kits. It took me two hours to do all of the soldering and the instructions were simple and easy to understand. I've mounted the PCB onto a piece of ply to be used as a test bed for the other kits and a simple CBUS setup along with inputs and outputs. I just have to source an appropriate power transformer but I have been having problems with that as Jaycar doesn't seem to have what I need. I might send an email to one of the other local MERG members and ask what he uses and where it was sourced.

The MERG kit packet

The kit's contents

The tools

Hi res view of the completed board

The test bed with kit # 1 mounted

No work on the terraces this week but I have included some photos of the work to date.

The front without cover paper

Interior (however I have elected not to put too much in the way of interior fitouts as I can't see the point when it is sealed up)

Floor views

End view

Rear view of floors

Rear view of interiors

One other thing I scored was 40 metres of 8-core control wire. We were at the Aspley Hypermarket on Sunday and in their reduced lines aisle was a swag of Nylex garden irrigation control wire packs, reduced 50% from $10 to $5. Each pack was 10 metres of cable, and each core colour coded. So I bought four packs as I think these might come in handy for connecting accessories to the MERG boards if I go forward with these as a layout control system. I'll still use Cat5 as the CBUS bus and power system as these are twisted pair whereas the Nylex cable I am not sure about as yet.

This week maybe continue work on the terraces and might even get in the second MERG kit if time permits. The Tour De France starts Saturday night so I might be distracted from the hobby for a few weeks!

No MERG but a tad more on the terraces

I was able to get to the terrace houses and get the front walls ready to the point of covering them with their external paper and glue in position this week. I ran out of time to start on the MERG CBUS kits. Maybe this week. Also this week the HO scale bank for Lachlan's layout arrived. I thought this was going to be a smallish kit but as it turned out it was a rather large pre-built building! We spent some time Saturday afternoon making room for it (the shop had to be moved) and scraping out the grass that was present. The building had a light in it so I had to ran soe additional wiring between it and the 16VAC accessory power of the transformer. Lachlan was impressed as he has been wanting some lights on his layout and this is a start. Today he laid the 'bituman' down for the side and rear access road. Not bad. He has been watching and learning! Tuesday I was home as I was getting solar power installed so I spent some time laying the dirt/gravel in the Kensington Hill goods yard.

I note that my friend Mr Mackie had a great day today on a ARHS NSWGR 620/720 railmotor which was up Brissie way and was doing a day trip down to Kyogle and back to Roma St, out to Fisherman Island and back today. I would have loved to have taken the boys out but maybe when they are a few years older and can handle the trip. Either that or they will be 'too old for that' and I can go by myself and the other enthusiasts!

I also had my eye on a pack of NSWGR wagons from Austrains. I decided to wait until after the weekend where I was keeping a watch on some wagons on Ebay. Most of these went dearer than what I intend to buy them for, so my mind is now mind up. They are some idiot bidders on Ebay!

This week I am hoping to start one of the MERG kits as I have brought the soldering iron and bits and bobs in from the shed to the study/hobby room. Also I might be able to continue with the terrace houses. Slowly chipping away at it!

Terrace's progress

This week I was able to put two evenings into the terrace houses. They are now upright with the floors and internal walls in. Finally! Now the next step will be the exterior walls I think.

Earlier in the week the three electronic kits from MERG arrived. I had a look at all three to make sure all the components were in each. So now I have the minimum setup to potter around with, an inputs interface, an outputs interface, as well as the USB interface which allows me to hopefully see what will be happening with the I/O interface boards on JMRI or one of the other software applications I have (ie RocRail). I did some more research on the RocRail site (www.rocrail.net) and there are 3rd party boards which also interface with MERG CBUS that have caught my eye, namely the fast clock and LCD display board, plus a few others of interest. Anyway I still have to actually assemble them yet, so when I start this, I will take my time.

I unfortunately had to decline a running session over at Mr Mackie's today as I had a birthday party to take my son to. Boondall Ice World ice skating ring. If today was cold and miserable on the outside it was positively freezing here as you would expect on the inside! As it was I probably wouldn't have been able to get to Mr Mackie's even if this invitation hadn't been on the cards as the car is in the panel beater's following a rear-ender last week! When I got home this arvo I spent a small bit of time on Illavearf doing some more scattering of ground cover before I do the second step with the anti-static grass, maybe tomorrow.

So not sure what I'll be doing this week, terrace houses or one of the MERG kits. Maybe a bit of both!

NSWGR BCWs arrived

Nothing really eventful this week on the modelling front. My three-pack of Eureka Models NSWGR BCWs (bogie cattle wagons) - 3 letter code arrived during the week, courtesy of Mr Mackie. They look mighty fine. Can't wait to see what the BSVs (bogie sheep vans) look like. I'm getting 2 x 3-packs of these, so six altogether. For a bit of variety I am contemplating buying a combo pack of NSWGR 4 wheel 3 x CWs (covered wagon) and 1 x PV (powder van) from Austrains. Just looking at the finances at the moment, but might be able to swing it as a birthday present (any excuse!).

I hadn't received my MERG order as of the end of week, so I made an enquiry with the store to better my understanding of their order fulfillment procedure. Apparently filled the day I ordered and should take 5-10 days to get to Oz. So probably this week hopefully.

I read Hornby magazine and had finally caught up to March's edition (I am usually at least 2 months behind by the time it gets to Oz) and read with interest an article on Market Weighton. This station is one of the major junctions in the area that I am interested in doing something on specifically on Pocklington station which is rust down the tracks from Market Weighton.

Saturday was wet and without motor vehicle transport, so I spent a few hours in the shed pottering around. One of the tasks that I haven't had time to do got a guernsey, namely starting on putting some of the 'OO' scale storage trays that I bought from the Club about 18 months ago together. I had bought 10 flat packs and managed to put three together. This might be enough at the moment to get store my current stock, but I will have to check. I still have to get the foam inserts from the Club and paint the trays.

As for the Terrace Houses, not a thing was done through the week.

This coming Saturday is Club Monthly Meeting day and i might be forced to trundle down on the treadley again as the car is in the panel beaters following another rear-ender! Hopefully this meeting votes on the acceptance of the proposed modelling competition categories and rules.

Um..maybe not!

I left last week's blog with the notion of possibly continuing with the work on the Terrace Houses. That didn't happen. The week was far to busy most evening with a number of different distractions. The whole week just zoomed by without any modelling being done until late this arvo when I briefly got out to the shed, vacuumed the loose scatters from last week's road making and grassing, and scrapped out a footpath between the signal box and the station platform and crossing gates. That was it!

Mr Mackie advised on Friday night that the Eureka Models' NSWGR BCWs (bogie cattle wagons) had arrived and he was expecting these to be delivered by post to his residence sometime this week. So I might have my part of the order by next weekend. So more rollingstock for the future NSWGR layout.

No word from the MERG Kit Locker as to whether my order of CBUS kits has been dispatched yet or not but as this is one member doing it in their spare time, I may have to be patient! My anti-static work mat and wrist band arrived from Voltronics (Oz) on Friday, so I will have a static free work environment to build these kits and other electronic work henceforth.

I won't promise anything for this week ;-)

Lord knows why the lamps aren't working now!

Yesterday afternoon I was able to pop out to the shed and do a few things. The first was to test the circuit operating the incandescant lamps on the station platform and near the telephone box. These seemed to be the problem in last week's post. So I desoldered one of the wires from the first lamp's wiring from the veroboard and test the mini-panel connected switch. Red light! The second lamp's wiring was desoldered and another test. No red light. So one lamp was working OK. I resoldered the first lamp's wiring and tested. No red light. Yeah may have found the problem. A few more On/Off tests and the red light returned. No idea why this is occurring after so long working OK. This little setup might be a prime candidate for connection to the MERG CBUS modules I ordered on Friday. Yes I took the plunge to buy some modules to play on. The other thing I did was put some 'dirt' down over a PVA bed.

I did manage to progress with the Terrace Houses a bit more during the week.

Today was the Club's Buy and Sell and Open Day. I originally wasn't going due to a previous family shindig, but this was postponed until next weekend. I thought I might have been able to get down and give a hand, but not to be. A few things about the house got in the way and before I knew it 3pm had rocked around, which was the closing time for the buy and sell. So with a bit of time on my hands I went back to the shed to see how things were going with the 'dirt' I put down yesterday. It was still a bit damp as it wasn't a very hot day today. So I put a liberal coating of very wet PVA/water mix over the soil again and put some anti-static grass down with the aid of my home made ant-static machine. Looks quite good. The other thing I did was make a road into the goods yard.

This week I hope to get more into the Terrace House build.

Red light on the DCC system!

This problem first raised its head a couple of weeks ago when I was checking my locos before their exhibition run. As soon as I turned on the lights to the Kensington Hill side the red 'power drain / short' light came on when up until that point everything had worked fine since installation. A quick check of each individual Acc ID for On and Off showed that the LEDs in the station and signal box didn't cause the problem but the incandescent globes of the street lights did. Hmmm no idea. Last week I didn't get around to checking further but on Saturday arvo after returning from the club meeting I had another closer look. I couldn't see any problems with the wiring to the decoder. I changed the wires to another decoder ID block and the same thing happened. Hmmmm. No idea. There I left it. Over Sunday though a thought popped into the old noggin to one by one remove and test each light to see if it is confined to a specific light post. This I will have to do either during this week or over the weekend if I get a chance but it is going to be a busy weekend coming up.

As for the Terrace House, no progress on these this week. Maybe during the upcoming week.

However more progress on my understanding of MERG's CBUS layout control system. It has potential. More research and maybe the purchasing of some starter kits to get a feel for the system is warranted in the not so distant future.