Kev, Great tutorial! Are there any wires that run from the main part of the Shorty chassis in the front of the car to the rear Shorty wheels at the rear of the car? John
Hi John There will be. In the picture below you can see I have drilled two holes in the end of the Shorty and brought the motor leads out through them. The two bare copper wires sticking up are from the pick-ups on the powered truck. The 3D printed bolster has the Rokuhan Shorty segment of PCB bonded to it for the pick-ups on the non-powered truck to feed. Just need to hook them all up. Did think, looking at all that space, that there is loads of room for a Loksound chip and sugar cube speaker Hmmmmm! You can also see how I have thinned the chassis to be a snug fit in the Cmac bodyshell Kev
Thanks Kev. Would love to see a photo when you have it all wired up, that would be really helpful, cause I have plans to do a similar thing for a train on my layout. John
Right, really nasty close-ups to show up my soldering! I used an old piece of 'Verroboard' PCB with rows of conducter and holes with the centre hole bored out to fit over the unpowered truck mounting bolster There will be a thin insulated spacer and a 12BA hex head screw and washer will fasten it to the Roluhan chassis The motor leads are soldered into the holes nearest the chassis and the two wispy pick-up wires from the powered truck are extended and soldered into the next holes The other unpowered truck pickups are then wired across the solder already there from the other wires I tested it first by putting just the powered truck on the rails and it worked and then tried just the unpowered truck with the same results so I know it is picking up on all eight wheels I'm going to use the standard Rokuhan 'Rapido' coupler between the cars The reason for the 'Verroboard' is to give me the flexibility to convert it to DCC sound should I wish more soon Kev
General (brand of hobby/harware store consumer tools) used to sell a metal plate for gauging small 'wire' drills from #61 through #80. Long out production, I was searching for a alternative. Many did not go anywhere close to these small sizes or, were 3x5 more than the original General, like Starrett: 286 @ $60 (MSRP) $54.72 retail but 72.69 on Amazon ! Found one on Penn Tools: 5054, $16. Very clean, well made. www.penntoolco.com/pec-drill-5054-gage-number-size-drills-61-to-80-dg-13/ Lets share our lost finds to help others.
Kev, Great tutorial. Thank you. So if I was not planning to convert it to DCC sound, then I probably would not need the 'Verroboard', and just solder the wires from the powered truck to the unpowered truck, right? John
It works! I wasn't happy with the Verroboard. it looked far too clunky and out of proportion so instead I extened the powered truck pick up wires and ran them through the chassis down either side of the motor and out through two extra holes drilled in the back and soldered all the wires on each side together. put the powered and unpowered sections into the body, put it on the track but is sounded like a bag of nails and would barely pull itself. Weird took them out again, checked the gear mesh, tested it for shorts. Nothing Finally found that two traction tyres had come off and jammed between the wheels and sideframes jamming one axle. Don't know how and they were not easy to get back on but once they were on it runs as sweet as a nut seen with the 175s that just require glazing and decals now Now I've got a running unit I can do the underframe details and add some weight More soon
A picture is worth many words Thinned down Shorty chassis tapered at the front end (Most british rolling stock tapers in at the end to clear the platforms) pick up leads extended. Soldering anything onto the existing leads is a fiddly job but I wanted to avoid replacing the wire all the way to the truck. Pick up wires and motor leads come through four holes drilled in back of chassis and thn these are linked to pick up leads from unpowered truck Kev
Kev, So the thin wires run all the way down to the unpowered truck, what about the black and red wire? John
Hi John The way I did it was to bring the pick up wires down to the red and black motor leads. soldered them together and trimmed off the excess and then soldered the wires from the unpowered truck to them there. When I get the other car sorted I'll photograph the complete assembly before it goes into the body and will post it here. Kev
Not the Workbench, but the Wall Since wife and I don’t always run some trains at shows (and certainly not right now) or some trains are collectibles, we built a wall display to hold them and show to home visitors . We used Showcase Express aluminum extrusions, series 2000 for the HO stuff and series 1000 for the N & HO. The extrusions only come in 4’ lengths, which sorta sucks as it is harder to get a clean long line as it uses a single plastic ‘tongue’ to connect. The extrusions come with a clear plastic ‘sliding window’ but we did not use, for a better view. There are grooves in the lower surface, perfect for N but o.012” to far gapped for Z to drop in !!! I could have put 440mm sections of Rokuhan R083 & $10 each but would have been ~$220, so used the already in my possession Atlas Z flex for a better look and MicroEngineering flex for the N and HO. Plus, the Rokuhan (and Kato Unitrack) would make the Catenary close to the top. The section track is easier to keep all aligned than the flex. But that was why I used the MicroEngineering c70 flex as is stiff-straight out of the box. Märklin flex would be the same, but I would have to buy that too. Not fully populated yet. I need the 14 car SP Daylight and my Challenger with a string of reefers. Probably put in SD70 (or C44) with a mixed freight, since they’re just down the hill from the house. Maybe *MAYBY* maybe in the future, I'll electrify.
Been working on these for a while. The Z-maker 44 tonner is DCCed with ESU nano and directional lighting. M-T 40 ft. flat loaded with 2 Artitec combines, and a resin printed Milwaukee ribside caboose. The caboose body was printed for me by a VERY good friend. Vern.
readying for a show and Winter train time. Replaced GP38 chassis, DCC'd Finished the RSD DCC boards: Cleaned trucks, repaired railings, couplers on MTL and working on MARS light for new AZL E7's
Decided to create some PRR X-29s, and CNJ XMs, from some Marklin U.S. boxcars. I've got a bunch of these and since no one seems interested in Marklin U.S. rolling stock, I thought I might cut them up and create some other type of box cars. I've sliced them to the correct length, now I will modify the ends, ladders, stirrups, and roof details. Scott