Keddie looks to be coming along quite nicely Clyde! Today I modified one of my Marklin Mikado's from the old 5 pole motor to the new can motor, and I did a before and after test of electrical pickup with just the loco and the loco with all wheel tender electrcial pickup from the tender chassis I made with the Rokuhan Shorty trucks. It's hard to tell but my gut feeling is it's a small improvement. Of course any improvement is always welcome/
I would have taken 15 minutes to solder what you did in 15 seconds! Ha! Nice work I usually just pick up loco off the track with tender still on to see how well it picks up. But definitely it appears better!
Rob, I'm feeling a little tender and can use a little pick me up. Oh that's right, we're talking about trains here. Never mind. Seriously though, very nice work. It does seem to flicker less. Scott
Rob You will definitely notice the differences on traversing turnouts. In electric trains, pick-ups on the drivers are a necessary evil, particularly on steamers where contact to the rail is disturbed by the rod motion. Pick-ups on the idling wheels is better. Besides, the conical contacts of the shorties are just perfect: isostatic, smooth rolling and always in electrical continuity. About the connection between tender and loco, I have used a connector made by 2 pins of an IC socket. I had been looking for ready made pogo pin and magnet connectors, but none was small enough for this application.
I finished my Mikado today. I removed the incandescant bulb and made a DCC track power on circuit, to use as an always on headlight when DCC power is on. It's just opposed 2 LED's and a 2K resistor: I put a Digitrax DZ125 decoder in the tender and ran flexible 30 gauge silicon wires for the electrcial pickup and soldered to the terminals where the capacitor was soldered before. The new can motor wires go straight through the tender door and are soldered to the decoder, as well as a tender backup LED: And I made tender truck sideframes, locomotive trailing truck sideframes, and filled the tender with real coal: Here is the slow speed DCC test:
Robert, your Mikado not only looks great, but runs very smoothly! You are always stepping up the game with your modeling!
I finished my passenger station yard. Or at least the basics of it. The platforms are 3d printed and painted with Golden's Heavy Acrylic paints (Neutral Grey N7 and Cadmium Yellow). The full platform, lit up but not yet mounted to the layout. A closeup of the platform, with Atlas warm white LEDs and "Howard's Bench" from Walt's Z scale shop on Shapeways, painted with alcohol based Tamiya Acrylics. It's my first painted tiny thing and it was very satisfying. I need to get a bunch more of them, but Shapeways' website seems to be malfunctioning again. The wiring was done using low voltage T Tap connectors (don't worry, the rest of them look better than these), with each row of lights connected in parallel. The initial plan was to hook up each light bulb to a separate I/O port on a Arduino Mega so I could control them individually and do light shows, but gave that up as unfeasible to install. However, as I was mounting this to the layout, I came up with an idea to use custom printed circuit boards connected to a Mega using a ribbon cable and custom shield. I might try that with the other, smaller station. The lights are currently connected to the layout 5v rail, but once I get an Arduino accessory decoder to work (not sure why I can't anymore), I'll hook up the power to a relay controlled by one. Here's the finished passenger platforms mounted to the layout with trains parked. The station will eventually be mounted to a permanent platform and lit.
Finished the Keddie Yardmaster/Depot. Robert designed the deck bracing and steps on Coral Draw, then cut the pieces out on his laser cutter. I then proceeded to place all the pieces to the model, along with assorted detail parts. Robert also helped with some of the lights to make them work! Only thing is missing is a large satellite dish on the large pole!
drken, The platforms look great! Really like how your bench turned out! Clyde, The stairs and decks really look good! The lighting is a nice touch as well. Your station is looking excellent! Scott
I am back to work on my NP Stock Car Fleet, got all the grab irons and drop steps formed and attached, and the brass brakewheels on: And I airbrushed a couple coats of Floquil Boxcar Red. Now they are starting to look like something:
Wow Clyde, that is a beast of a building --- very intricate!! We need more buildings like that. Ha Rob, I thought they were really starting to look like something without the paint...... with paint is all the better. DRKEN -- those warm white ATLAS led's cast an excellent hue. Plus you have a good number of them to really make the platform pop.
Almost finished, I just found out they need Andrews trucks, so I ordered a 10 pack. Just finished decals and sealed with Dullcote:
