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Time seems to go by at a rate unproportional to the speed it takes me to perform a given task. I'm finding this somewhat frustrating I have to say, but, I don't think I'm Robinson Crusoe in that regard.
Just over eighteen months ago we moved into our house, and in my mind within six months I would have been starting on the big layout in the garage, that "empire" that most of us dream about having. Well here we are a year and a half down the track and quite frankly the garage is still in almost as much of a mess as it was when we moved in. Sure a lot of boxes have been unpacked, but I seem to have accumulated a few things along the way as well. In general though what it really needs is to be fully unpacked, sorted, and repacked in a more efficient manner. With the warmer weather and daylight saving it's only a matter of getting a weekend without rain, and the past few haven't been rain free.
In any case Gunnedah is still a while away from beginning, and in some ways that is a good thing, because it is a massive undertaking, and quite frankly some of the things I have learned in the past eighteen months will make for a much better layout when it actually begins.
Last November my wife suggested repainting the spare room and using it to set up a permanent desk for modeling and after that I thought a shelf layout around the walls would be much simpler to do initially, I could try out a few ideas, and overall it should be a quick'ish project. Well twelve months later apart from getting some brackets up and some basic timber modules built, not a real lot has happened.
Sure I've built some more sets of points, done some random modeling on some bits of rolling stock, gathered some more bits and pieces and done a lot of research and played with some ideas I'd like to implement.
Whilst one part of me is frustrated at the lack of real progress, I'm glad that I have taken this time to experiment with different things. The latest "thing" is hooking up a new Mac laptop installed with Decoder Pro to the Power Cab, and installing WiThrottle on the iPhone. It may not seem like that big of a thing, and certainly hasn't made the layout progress in any meaningful way, BUT, it has given me a seriously big shot in the arm enthusiasm wise.
I spent an hour or so today adjusting the various sound levels on my 35 Class to get it all "proportional" to what my brain tells me it should be based on the scale distance I view the trains from. I don't like the idea of some of the sounds being loud enough to be as they would be heard from the footplate or directly beside the engine. I figure that a metre or so viewing distance is similar to being fifty or so metres away from the real thing, and so I will set up the volumes to try to replicate this. Obviously this will be a very personal thing that other people will have differing views on, but I tend to like my trains a little more on the quiet side.
Shown is a pic of my 1,200mm test track with two sets of points sitting upon a set of book cases I knocked up the other weekend, which sits below where the shelf layout will run. Hooked up to the track is the Power Cab, USB adapter, Macbook and iPhone with WiThrottle running.
Already having an iPhone and a now a laptop, makes for a very easy and cheap way to have a radio throttle, because the USB adapter is only $51 from the Model Railway Craftsman, JMRI is free, as is WiThrottle Lite which has a few less features than the full program (which is only $13 anyway) but lets you run a train and perform most functions you'd want to anyway.
Having all of this stuff sitting there now has given me a real shot in the arm and I'm going to make a concerted effort this summer to use the longer hours of sunlight to do what I need to do in the shed construction wise, and use the nights better by making track and points instead of just sitting and reading what everyone else is doing (I follow too many blogs I think!).
Lets hope in twelve months time I'll have photo's and some video of trains running around the room on a scenic'd shelf layout!
Well, thanks to a phone call this afternoon from Marcus Ammann, and some plain old fashion pressing buttons until something happened I now have Decoder Pro talking t the Power Cab, reading decoders from trains on my test track, and iPhone WiThrottle control.
It appears that I'd done everything correctly, except pick the right option for the Serial Port in the Settings section when you go into Preferences and then Connections in Decoder Pro. There was a choice of six, and the option it ended up being was "/dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART", who would have guessed? So for anyone using a Mac, try that one first if it is there.
So with that set Decoder Pro happily connected to the Power Cab, read the decoder on my Austrains 3531, and basically did what it should.
The next step was getting my iPhone to see the Mac using WiThrottle. Not much luck initially. I looked into the phone settings, it all looked ok, I mean my phone switches from 3G to my home wireless network once I get within about 50-100 metres or so of the house, and it was showing a full strength signal so that wasn't the problem.
Marcus and I had looked at the popup that Decoder Pro puts up when you launch WiThrottle and the I.P. like address it shows, but had not needed to use this at his place the other week so didn't look into it any further. After eating tea however I got it all up again and launched WiThrottle on the iPhone, and this time entered the numbers using the Set Server Manually option, and after putting in the 10.1.1.11 into the appropriate four spots and then 49158 into the Port spot, what do you know, connection, and train control!
I wandered out from the spare room into the lounge room to demonstrate how I could blow the whistle on 3531 whilst equipped only with the iPhone. I was well impressed, but my wife gave me "that" look followed by "gee, isn't that great" in a not quite as impressed as I was voice. Having said that the new laptop was an unexpected surprise from her, bought because I'd been talking about down the track setting up Decoder Pro and the wireless iPhone control, so whilst she doesn't share the same excitement for it that I do, she is quite happy to let me have my toys.
I had a bit of a fiddle and then switched it all off, and then a little bit later launched Decoder Pro again to check on something. Upon picking up the iPhone and launching WiThrottle I didn't need to manually put in the address this time, it saw the laptop and connected straight up. It will be interesting to see if it automatically connects from now on. Oddly enough the I.P address Decoder Pro was generating was now 10.1.1.11 and 49162 instead of 49158 the previous time. So it appears to generate another five digit code each time it is launched, but maybe once a connection has been made the iPhone connects anyway? I'm sure over the next few days I'll see a pattern, but either way I now know how to make it work.
All in all apart from figuring out that I needed to use the "/dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART" in the settings and manually enter the I.P. address into WiThrottle on the iPhone it was a fairly straight forward job to get it all going thanks to Marcus's very clear instructions here ..... http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/nswmn2/DCC.htm#USBSerial
Hopefully there will be some info in this post to help others.
It wasn't that long ago (ok it was about twentyfive years ago!) that I was connecting up my EDA Throttle Power Pack #222 to my 4mx2m layout. Two wires, one to each rail, plug it into the power point, slide the slider and my newly acquired Lima 42213 started on it's journey, slide the slider back and it stopped, pretty simple really.
Fast forward to today, and things are not quite so simple. Sure I manages to hook up my NCE Power Cab to my little test track complete with a couple of points, and have set the four digit adresses on the loco's I have, but today I have bitten off more than I can chew for now.
Armed with a new Mac laptop and an NCE USB adapter which turned up today at my P.O. box after ordering it from the Model Railway Craftsman yesterday (outstanding service I must say) I downloaded the JMRI Decoder Pro and attempted to get it to all work together.
I followed the instructions to the letter, and whilst the installation of the software seemed to go ok, and I got the USB adapter all hooked up without any drama's, do you think I could get it to talk to the Power Cab? I have a feeling it has something to do with choosing the "port" (Microsoft term really) or USB output, all of which have rather complicated names and I can't seem to find any references to them anywhere for now.
I'm sure given a few more hours, some Google searching, and randomly trying every option available it will work fine in the end.
Apart from the obvious advantages of using Decoder Pro for programming the loco's as opposed to the Power Cab throttle, one of the main reasons for all of this is so I can use the iPhone as a wireless throttle using the WiThrottle application. I had an opportunity to use this at Marcus Ammann's layout last weekend and it works very well on the whole and if you've already got a laptop and iPhone it's a lot cheaper than buying a designated wireless throttle and the transmitter receiver.
I'll be making plenty of notes and when I get this working I will attempt to put up what setting work which may help someone else using the same bits and pieces as me.
Sadly I don't have much to report on the model train front, time seems to have been at a premium lately and apart from watching my little n scale train running around inside the coffee table for a while I haven't done anything constructive.
However that's not to say that trains are ever far from my mind, I guess traveling for two and half hours a day on an interurban V-Set between Woy Woy and Central tends to help in that respect.
I must digress for a moment and say how much my fellow commuters are not looking forward to our lovely comfortable V-Sets being replaced with the new generation Oscars which are about as comfortable as sitting on a milk crate for any more than about ten minutes.
However, this kind of brings me around to the topic for this post, that of acknowledging the passing of time and the changes that it brings along with it, whether we like it or not.
A point in case was this morning, after disembarking from my train at Central at 6:19am and meandering slowly along the edge of the opposite side of the platform and looking at the sleepers, I noticed a point where the old (who knows how old) wooden sleepers stopped and the new concrete sleepers began. What an interesting photo it would make I thought, and once again the iPhone came to the rescue. Imagine the massive archive of images we'd have from the steam era if capturing every little detail was so simple!
The picture whilst not award winning captures a distinct difference in styles, and arguably shows why I find modelling the old more interesting than the new. Look at the distressed sleepers, splintered ends, the various shades of grey, the rusty finish closer to the rails, the different way the rail is spiked, all combining to create something far more appealing to the eye than simple cast concrete. While even the concrete sleers have some rusty discolouration, they are basically the same, where as each of the three wooden sleepers feature different grain patterns, varying shades of colour and finish, and just overall have a uniqueness about them that just begs to be studied further.
I also snapped a pic of an XPT coming into Central, and remembered back to when they were first released onto the rails of NSW in about 1982, and as a young'n of about eleven how exciting it was to see these new colourful trains whizzing about to far of places. That's not to say that I preferred them to the old indian red 44's, 422's and 421's I used to watch blast through Kogarah and Allawah station on their way to and from the South Coast with the last of the diesel hauled passenger services before the electrics took over for good, as I caught the train to and from school, but the XPT's were none the less representative of the new taking over from the old.
Here we are almost twenty (edit: actually it's nearly thirty!) years later, and after thinking about it one has to wonder how much longer the XPT's actually have before once again being replaced by something "better". I have no desire to model them myself, but I began to wonder how many people have taken pictures of them for future reference? Could these be another part of the railway that in time we will say "gee why didn't I take a few more photo's of them?".
So whilst a V-Set or XPT are not particularly interesting things right now, I will make a concerted effort to take that extra few seconds every now and then to make sure I capture a little bit of the "old" before the "new" replaces it for good.
I've been living up here at Woy Woy on the Central Coast of N.S.W for four and a half years now. Some people up here refer to it as God's country, which is odd, as I moved here from "The Shire" (Sutherland), which was also called God's Country. Maybe he holidays up here because unlike the Sutherland Shire you can actually use the beaches here without parking a suburb away. Anyway I digress.
So, being a train fan, I guess I have it not too bad really up here. I spend an hour and fifteen minutes each way commuting between Woy Woy and Central each week day, at the moment traveling on the old but very quiet and comfortable V-Sets. Talk is they are going to be replaced by the Oscars, which is something only those who don't actually catch the train seem to be happy about. The old V-Set seats are very plush, and seating only two per side of the carriage are quite wide and with enough leg room to actually sink down into the seat and get comfortable enough to sleep away the journey, on the 5am morning trip at least.
Part of the commute takes in the winding path around Mullet Creek, before crossing the Hawkesbury River over the very long Bridge, then Hawkesbury River station before ascending the Cowan Bank. In the steam era, Hawkesbury River was the scene of a great deal of activity. A Coal stage was used to keep the hungry beasts fed, bankers were stationed to help lift the freight up the steep and winding Cowan Bank, and the Newcastle Flyer typically with a 38 at the head would wind itself up as it headed for the steep climb ahead so as not to need a helping push.
These days it's a mere shadow of that former place of railway activity. The coal stage is gone as are most of the sidings on the eastern side of the station, the down refuge is gone, and apart from the odd freight train taking station on the up siding so as not to interfere with the commuter trains, nothing much happens there at all. All we now have to remind us of these items of interest are the photos and rare video footage taken by those who took the time and effort back in the day to record what was happening.
So, getting back to the topic at hand. Rarely does more than a few weeks go by without me finding myself over at Gosford, and for almost the whole four and a half years that I have been living here, I keep saying to myself I must go and take some pics of the turntable and water tower at the northern end of the station. In days gone by this would have been a very busy part of the northern line. Here the 59's, 35's and 36's, std goods and 38's would have replenished thier water supplies, and often been turned on the turntable to once again head off in the opposite direction with the freight of the day. Once electrification reached Gosford, the 38's on the Up Flyer would have handed the train over to the 46's which would handle the trip up the Cowan Bank and bring the train into Central, and likewise the down Flyer would be uncoupled from the 46's, where a freshly watered 38 would be waiting to speed it on to Newcastle on the flatter sections where it could really stretch it's legs.
These days turntable is rarely used and sits quietly, and the water tower stands somewhat un-kept behind a new black steel mesh fence which not only masks the lower section somewhat but looks totally out of place amongst the steam era relics it surrounds. Non the less I snapped a few simple pics which if nothing else will mean that no matter what, if the worst happens and the water tower and turntable are removed by those with no sense of history, there will at least be a few more pieces of evidence that they did exist at some point in time, and for those who may want to replicate them in miniature, at least there will be something to go off.
A small amount of effort, but well worth it if for no other reason than to record a small part of history that may one day no longer be there. Not only that, but the detail that you may later find in such photo's is almost irreplaceable. It wasn't until I began to look at the photo's that I noticed the way the tank had weathered, the different colours of rust, the stains on the concrete supports, the bold and bracket detail, and with the turntable the general look of the pit, the foliage growing, the colour of the sleepers etc. For the modeller, priceless information.
Of course today's technology makes capturing these pieces of history a snack compared to the old days of film which needed to be bought, a camera taken, and then any pictures taken developed. The cost factor also meant that you might only take a few snaps of an object unlike today where a hundred digital images costs nothing unless you want to print them. I took these pics with my new iPhone, and for the quality vs practicality of not even having to carry a camera around any more, there are no excuses not to take pics of anything I see.
So, if you too have been meaning to take some pics of that certain object that may one day face that same fate that the coal stage at Hawkesbury River, do it now, before it's too late!
Unlike the previous gap between posts, this one is minute by comparison. However, in that mere two day break I've probably done more thinking about my trains than I have done in the past few months.
After my post about the coffee table layout I built, I spent a few hours looking further into the idea of building a 1200x600mm HO scale "Timesaver" themed layout to swap around with the N Scale one in the coffee table.
The basic idea of the Timesaver layout it to build something compact, and yet have it so it can potentially take up a lot more time and brain power actually operating it. Typically it involves a run around in the centre, with a few sidings coming off it, and basically you have a few wagons in various sidings that are identified to begin with, a defined destination for each wagon, and then you must shunt the wagons around to relocate them in the various sidings.
The basic layout of the track states that each siding should only be of a certain length to be able to fit the assigned amount of wagons and no more, so you find that the run around gets quite a bit of use.
Most of the HO scale Timesaver layouts I have seen are built to take two bogie wagons in each siding, but having a strict length to fit into, I have made them long enough to take a couple of RU's which are a bit longer than the typical S, K, U etc, and will still hold a BCH, most brake vans and other short bogie wagons. A single bogie wagon doesn't really fit the "rules" however I can make up my own if I want!
The sidings will also take shorter diesels like the 48 (hurry up Trainorama!) and the smaller steam engines, typically of the "tank" style, although a 19 class with a three wheeled tender should also fit comfortably.
Today I took a trip over to Bunnings for a piece of 1200x600mm MDF, and once home out with a whole bunch of photocopied point and track outlines I had, which were then laid out into the same layout as John Allen's design, albeit with the addition of an extra set of points and sidings which will merely help to fill in the space, and might provide some extra movements as well.
By the look of it, what I hoped will fit will fit, JUST. Hand laying the points will allow me to get the track centres as close as possible, and have the point blades and frogs of joining points a lot closer than RTR points. I might even see if a curved set of points in a couple of locations will gain some extra room, as every centimetre counts with such a defined space. Twisting the design slightly so the tracks run more diagonally gains a few extra cm's as well, as does having the sidings curved slightly.
As far as track goes, it will use seven sets of points, and about four metres of track, so there will be very little outlay there. Whilst it is a small area, there will still be room for basic scenery items like a goods platform, loading ramp gantry crane etc. Height will be the main constriction with any scenery though, as the layout base is only 100mm below the glass top.
Point activation will be a little tricky unless I use point motors of some description, and ideally I'd rather use a wire in tube method, but that may not be practical. Manually changing them through the glass would be a little hard, and I'd rather operate it with the top closed so some thought will have to go into this.
In any case, the Timesaver tag will certainly not save me any time at all, but is likely to chew up more of this valuable resource and ultimately slow down the spare room shelf layout, not to mention Gunnedah, which is where this Blog originally began!
I can't believe how fast this year is going past! At the beginning of the year when I started the shelf layout in the spare room, I fully intended having a degree of track laid and trains running by March. Throw in a couple of changes of mind, a quick decision to re-do the bathroom and ensuite by the treasurer which turned the train room into a storage room for a while, and the decision to begin working on another hobby of mine involving my love of old Mazda Rotary engined cars, has really seen the trains on the back burner for a while.
That's not to say I won't be continuing with things, and now the spare room is again turning back to normal and I can get to the desk again, things should start to progress once more.
In any case I thought I'd update the blog, this time with a little project I did a couple of years ago, an N Scale layout housed within a purpose built glass top coffee table. Why you might ask???
My interest in trains had been rekindled, and although I dreamed of the double decked empire, I was still living in a rented villa, with no room at all to build any kind of layout. However, being full of enthusiasm I thought long and hard about a solution.
We had a coffee table, and looking at it one day I figured that something of that size could most probably fit a small N Scale layout on it. Trouble is that would somewhat reduce the ability to use it as an actual coffee table. But what if I built a coffee table of similar size, that featured a glass top, with a layout within it? It was a win win idea, the layout is housed inside and thus kept free of dust and anything that might fall upon it, and the coffee table is still able to function perfectly. When I mention the idea to my wife she simply said, "well, do it!"
So after some quick designing and figuring out the basics, it was off to Bunnings to buy some timber, a piece of 1200x600 MDF sheet which would be the base for the layout, and work commenced. My grandfather is rather handy with the wood working, and so with his collection of tools and guidance the table came together quickly, and more importantly, it worked exactly as designed.
A top that is hinged to allow easy access to the layout, and a sliding drawer underneath to house the power supply and anything else that gets shoved into drawers underneath a coffee table!
Rather than simple oval of track, I figured I could squeeze in a double over and under figure eight design, which would give me something around eight metres of track within that tiny 1200x600 baseboard dimension.
Track was mainly a bunch of second hand flex I bought off eBay really cheaply, with a few bits of set track curves bought new, and all the rolling stock was also bought second hand off eBay, very cheaply. It's amazing when you throw away a set prototype, era and location how easy it is to gather stuff cheaply!
Within a couple of months I had a fully landscaped, operating, and quite entertaining little railway that I could simply sit at the end of the day, with a nice hot cup of tea, and watch this little engine pull its twenty plus wagons up and down, around and around for as long as I wanted. Sure it's not prototype operation, it's not NSWGR, it's not even vaguely representative of anything in reality, but it allowed me to get my hand back in at building using wood, doing scenery, laying track, and just enjoying myself while I couldn't do what I really wanted to.
The links below show trains running both when the track work was first laid and in testing, and when the layout was close to being finished. I cringe at the speed of the train in the second clip, I hate fast running trains, but there you go!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN-qOASQtFo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir0Qr6KDHNI
So whilst I have nothing new to report, I thought that this little post on something offbeat, might just show that even if you don't have the time, the space, or the money to build your empire, you can still participate in the hobby, even if it involves thinking a little outside the square.
Recently I was looking at the table, and wondering how hard it would be to install another layout, still 1200x600, but in HO, DCC, and representing a small yard where short wagons could be shunted around to make trains in various orders, along the lines of John Allan's Timesaver concept http://www.gdlines.com/Timesaver.html
I can just imagine sitting down after a days work with a nice hot cup of tea, shunting some RU's, S's, K's, LCH's and other small wagons and a brake van or two around with a 48 or 18, 20, 26 etc steam engine. Food for thought ........................
