Post #36

 I have made some progress since the last post dealing with getting the track finished to the stag where I will be able to make a complete circuit around the baseboard. It was only this week when that happened. At this stage I could push a wagon right around the board but to operate under power will take a little longer.

Reflecting  now on my first tramway layout some fifty years ago, I realise how simple it was to make it work from the overhead in that there was no need to worry about reverse loops and diamond crossing were a breeze to lay as they were all one unit and no gaps required. This style then required the overhead to form the return path for the power, so a little harder to test until the overhead was in position but more simple in the end. But the two rail system will allow testing with either DC or DCC connected up.

After the failure build of my first double junction due to two different height sleepers received in an order of printed circuit sleepers from Fast Tracks, I then turned to my second double junction but this time I used sleepers all the same height. As I now couldn't use and mix the two types of sleepers I was running out of the turnout sleepers. So as this section of track was to be hidden under a roadway I cut up the outer supporting board around the outside of the sleepers. They weren't cut straight but it didn't matter. Look at the photo and you can see what I am referring to.

The first rail is in

 Again I used eleven inch radius curves due to the Electroliner. I don't use any templates, the only essential tool is the NMRA track gauge which puts the track into the right spacing/gauge. It is a slow job and tedious, is this why there aren't many traction modellers? But this style of modelling is a two edge sword with the overhead still to come. I am always up for a challenge.

As can be seen I am using standard Peco code 75 track mainly to speed up construction. Another issue I encountered was again variations in sleeper height. The plastic track sleepers were slightly higher than the PC ones so prior to joining the track I had to slightly sand down the plastic sleepers which then worked out okay.

In the double junction the two turnouts are different, the trailing one doesn't require blades as it only has the one direction. The facing turnout is operated with a single blade. So far it has operated okay with pushing a wagon through it but under power it may be different, I'll have to wait and see. I need to get in and cut the gaps into the pc boards to enable operation. I have thought of hooking up a light to each rail and in theory when the last gap is cut the light should go out. (To be proven)

I am tackling each set of work throughs one at a time. So I will work out how to connect up the point motor another time, anyway I need to construct a control panel first.

I am pleased how well using the code 75 rail looks a lot better than the code 100 track that is outside one side of the trolley barn, but the appearance will improve when the ballast goes down and the rail is painted and weathered.

The three photos above show more progress down the 'other' long side of the layout. I didn't use cork underlay on the layout as I am not sure how stable it would be gluing the pc sleepers onto it. By gluing directly onto the plywood baseboard it gives a strong stable surface to glue to. The bottom photo clearly shows the 11" radius I managed to find out at the Rosehill Model Rail exhibition two years ago. It was intended for N scale but with some slight sanding it fits perfectly between the tracks in HO scale. A good find. And the same exhibition is on again this weekend, I wonder what gems I might find there?

As can be seen in the above progress diagram of the layout, there is now a complete circuit of the board. I can now feel I am in the home straight. I hope that I can complete all the track laying by the end of the year. I made a start on the curved diamond crossing which failed so I need to come back to it later. SO when all the track laying is done then I suppose I will need to build the control panel and start putting in the point motors. But that is all for another day.

Post #35

 Well after our well earned trip away to Victoria it was time to get back onto the tools and keep on plugging away at getting all the track laid. Model traction is like making a cake you have to have the cake cooked before you can put the icing on. So once the track is laid and ballasted then the overhead wiring can go up. As stated in a previous blog I stopped doing the complicated double junction and concentrated on just the plain turnouts, once you get the hang of doing them they become easier to do. But by making them 2 rail it is certainly harder to construct the turnouts than having live overhead.

Working my way along the right hand edge with a few turnouts this then allowed me to connect up both ends of the barn.  One side has the commercial turnouts and the recent end has the handmaid turnouts. They have been made complete except for the throwbars which I have to work out how the point motors will be connected, that will be in another stage of construction. Firstly I will lay all the track, second it will be made electrically operational i.e. all the printed circuit boards will be isolated so there are no shorts. In conjunction at this stage I will have to construct a control panel so that the  turnouts can be controlled.

 

Both ends connected now

One thing I might regret is that because I had to use the Peco set track points to get the sharp radius, they only come in code 100 which meant the track into the barn was also code 100. But when the track comes out where the recently laid track is, that is laid in code 75 rail. It certainly looks a lot finer and more to scale so where they join 75 - 100 it is noticeable. I suppose when it gets covered in ballast and roadway it won't look too bad.

I also connected up the outside the barn track which allows transit through the area without needing to go through the barn. Also a good long outside track for the Electroliner to stable. As can be seen in the above photo the flooring of the barn hasn't be made permanent as yet, I still have to design the barn. One thing is that it will need to be slightly longer as it was previously measured on two PCC cars which are shorter than some other cars.

 

A start was also made on the balloon loop as the fourth road had to come  off it. The curves are all laid to 11" radius specially for the Electroliner. On the balloon loop there is a mixture of the Peco code 75 track, and where the turnouts are the rail is just laid onto the printed circuit board sleepers.

Looking down on the latest work

At this stage the final locations of the roads hasn't been marked out but the track diagram shows the general concept. One thing that can alter the roads positions is the final location of the buildings. I still have a pile of buildings that require assembly although cardboard footprints have been made as can be seen in the above photo. The track plan was always made first and the roads have to fit around the track not the other way around. One thing you won't find on my track design is that tracks aren't often running parallel (except for the double track sections), I certainly like variation and find traction layouts that have a lot of track parallel to the baseboard edges - boring!

Going to be close to the barn fence!

This last photo shows all the work that has recently been completed. As can be seen progress is happening, and once the track is done then onto stage 2.

Don't worry about the tools on the board, they will all disappear eventually. More next time.

Post #34

 Recently a group of six guys had an opportunity of visiting Victoria to do some train riding. The main event was to go to a town called Moe way out in the Gippsland area, then head up to Walhalla (our third visit) and Sunday was going to have another trip on the Puffing Billy narrow gauge steam train ride. Unfortunately Puff was booked out so we looked for an alternative, which was to travel on the Sunday to Ballarat and ride the tram.

My last visit to Ballarat was way back in 1970 where I was able to take some 8mm movie film of the still operating system. The system closed down in 1971 and also the nearby town of Bendigo also had a similar tramway system, both are now closed and both have tramway museums operating.

 We travelled out from Melbourne on the Sunday morning and after travelling through Ballarat, alighted at Wendouree and outer suburb. We figured that this would be the closest station to the museum. The day was fine and sunny and we headed off for the half hour walk to find the museum. (Ballarat Tramway Museum)

The museum operates out of a new modern building having a separate display and depot building.

The display building was set out well and had a large display of trams and plenty of information boards.

Up the back of the building was another room that I discovered had a model tramway section. It was good to see and there was a model layout and display cabinets showing a sample of Australian, English and US styled cars in both O and HO scale.

 

I had little time to view them all as the loudspeaker then advised a tram was ready outside for a trip. The entry to the museum also had unlimited rides on the trams.

The Ballarat system

Our transport for the day

With all aboard we then set off running alongside Lake Wendouree. As can be seen on the map the line use to travel right around the lake. The lake also has fame as it was there that the rowing competition took place for the 1956 Olympic games. We trundled along at jogging pace heading towards the terminus and the 'connie' came along to check and collect tickets. He was suitably attired for the Victorian winter even though this day wasn't 'freezing' We all came to Victoria prepared for the worst - snow, sleet etc but our luck held out again and it wasn't too bad.

Tickets please

 I decided to go up to the front of the tram to get some video and we soon came to a stop. And looking out the front on the road you could see a native black swan had come out of the lake and wanted to cross the road. So everything stopped for them.

 

All the cars also came to a stop for them, they weren't in a hurry and eventually got to the other side. I guess this helped make the journey a bit longer.

 We soon arrived at the terminus and the pole required taking around to the rear. The conductor was good in that he let a young child help him to 'swing the pole'.

 After taking some photos at the terminus we all hopped back on board. It was getting around lunch time and food was on our minds. On the way to the terminus we spotted a large building which turned out to be a popular eating place called 'Pipers by the Lake'

Pipers by the Lake

The place looked a bit flash and after perusing the menu, the funniest thing happened - all six of us decided to get a milkshake each, though I must admit there were chocolate, strawberry and vanilla one consumed. I only wished that I had taken a photo. Getting off the tram half way back to the museum proved a smart move as we were then half way back to the station.  So we then started our journey back to Wendouree station for our trip back to Melbourne.

It turned out to be a great day, the weather was kind to us and we got to see a museum preserving our heritage for future generations to see and enjoy.
 

Post #33

South Coast Traction has been underway for close on two years and at this stage nothing has been able to complete a circuit on the baseboard.

A lot of work had to be undertaken to get the room ready the major task being the laying of carpet tiles right through the shed. This wasn't a hard project except for the bits under the existing portions of the layout. The baseboard and legs had to raised to get the tiles underneath.

There was plenty of design work to get the track layout  worked out. I have tried to make it an interesting design with options of routes and two termini that the cars can operate between, that is also dependent on them being twin pole equipped.

I came to the realisation that distractions on the layout such as doing small pockets of scenery and assembling the multitude of building needed wasn't advancing the trackwork. If you put the projects required the first one would be to get the track laid. It doesn't have to be every piece of track so I will concentrate on getting a circle of track around the baseboard.

What has also given me incentive to get a move on was that I have nominated a gathering of friends here later this year to see what has been done. These have been regular meetings over many years where we gather, have a drink, barbeque, lunch, a layout run (if they have one) maybe a video if we have time and then decide who will have the next one.

So after laying some of the track that only requires ready made points and track, I now realise that I have to get on with doing the hand laid track slog again. I say again as it has been around fifty odd years since I last handlaid points (some of the earlier blogs detail that). The previous layout had the overhead live and return through the rails. This made trackwork so much easier than using the two rail method. Going down this path will mean I will be able to have operation well before the overhead is erected. And also other people who have 2 rail traction will be able to run their equipment on the layout. It will be designed for DCC operation but if I have to switch over to DC then the whole layout will be live as one large section. The depot will be isolated so that any DCC trolleys can be left there saving them from having to being removed from the layout.

Previously I had a go at the first handlaid point but got into trouble when I discovered that the Fast Track sleepers I obtained had different heights from the smaller ones compared with the longer point sleepers. Dumb. So I decided to give it a rest and decided that I would try something simpler in doing some plain points.

 I thought the best way to get some consistency in each point was to create a full size template drawing. As previously stated I have set on 11 inch radius to accommodate the Electroliner in the future. I am aware that I could have gone to a smaller radius but this size looks good, not too tight and not too large. I knocked out a right hand point in Coreldraw and then flipped it for a left hand point. The template allows to pre-bending of the rail to the correct radius or as close as possible. By doing this the extra tension that would be there by forcing the rail into the right radius is eliminated. It also allows for a uniform check rail and closure rails length. Win win.

11 inch point template

 

The first step was to lay out the sleepers and glue them down for the correct spacing and length. Initially I didn't use many wooden sleepers but more PC ones. But after building a few I found it will be possible to use more wooden than the PC ones. I was able to get some Mount Albert timber which required a light sanding to bring them down to the same height as the PC ones. 

The first point I laid used some code 83 rail that I had spare from the old HO layout. The sleepers were removed from the rail. Some of the ready to run track was unfortunately Code 100 which when laid beside the Code 75 looks way bigger. I also managed to get some Peco code 75 rail similarly stripped from the sleepers.

Throw bar and isolating the rails to be done

 The photo above shows the results of the first two points constructed. A little bit on the rough side but the true test will come when the throwbar and the PC boards are cut to enable two rail operation. I will be using some Tortoise point motors to power them but that will be a problem for another day. I have never used this type of point motor so that another thing I will have to study. These points will be ballasted in their own right of way and not street ones. They will be a single blade if I can work out how to make them. There is a continuous radius of 11 inches through the complete point and I was lucky to find an 11 inch radius template originally designed for N scale that fits right between the rails. As you can see in the photo I have also incorporated some of the Peco track sleepers onto the rails between the points. This also acts to keep the track in gauge. To test the track at this stage I use a single bogie and run it through to see if there are any tight spots. And also I use an NMRA track gauge to get the track right.

The grey track template and bogie for track testing

 So far I have managed to get around three points constructed and at this stage seem to be in gauge and OK. I have pushed a tram and bogie freight car the points and there doesn't seem to be any binding. A lot of surplus/extra solder on the sleepers will be removed later on with the copper wick that sucks up the solder.

And my first curved one.

I now feel some progress has been made with these first three points nearly complete, the building exercise gets easier the more you do. They might look a bit ugly at the moment but once they get painted up and the ballast is added and weeds I think they will come out alright. I have also built these points directly onto the baseboard, I don't see the need to put them onto a sub base of timber or cork.

Well I have bitten the bullet and made the hard start on the handlaid track. I still think I will prefer putting up the overhead than doing the trackwork but the track has to be laid first. Then once the trackwork is done ballasted and looking pretty then the overhead goes up.

Car 250 waits patiently in the depot for the overhead

This a progress diagram showing what track is currently laid and what there is to go. I will update when more gets done.

 

 

 

 

Post #32

Some times you can be lucky. I was looking through my favourite time waster the other day. I have joined two specific Facebook sites dedicated purely to model railways. I was lucky the day I was looking and came across a tram that was being offered up. Long story short I ended up getting a fleet  of cars from the buyer that were already painted and ready to go. What a way to go, the whole fleet in one go. They are currently being fitted with dcc decoders while the layout building continues.

But I recently spotted a pile of rolling stock surrounding a green tram. I wasn't familiar with what it was, the photo wasn't very clear. I messaged the seller that I was only interested in the tram and a yellow wagon that was beside the tram. In his posting he declared that he wasn't familiar with what he was selling. I ended up in the end getting all of the items as he didn't want them.

What I ended up with

The package ended up here today, nicely packed in bubble wrap. I suppose one bonus was that there were also two freight cars labelled for 'Pacific Electric' at least they were an traction line that I was aware of.

Once I got to the bottom of the bubble wrap the tram was a pleasant surprise. I discovered it was a painted brass model and I found out where it operated by showing my ignorance and posting some photos on a US Facebook site 'Traction Model Railroading' to see if anyone could shed any info on it. Despite it being around midnight in the states a reply came back advising that it was a model of a 'Sacramento Northern Niles car'.

At the South Aurora terminus

Another interesting issue was that the car was labelled 'South Pacific Electric Railway' I was familiar with the 'Pacific Electric Railway'. A possible reason for that particular naming is that our Sydney Tramway Museum was also know as the South Pacific Electric Railway so I am guessing it was named after that. As I am collecting cars from anywhere and not just a specific company it will stay that way.

I took it down the shed to try it out and after giving it a good dust off with the paint brush it went onto the track for a run. It was only DC at this stage and when the throttle was opened nothing happened, not what I hoped for. So out came the screwdriver to take off the four screws from the body. (Why can't current models be assembled this way? So simple.) There no broken wires and when the wires were placed onto the carbon brush terminals it sprung into action. Great. It gave off that familiar electric motor smell these old motors seemed to have. After having the motor working I then placed the body back on and then gave it a run up and down a short section of track.

The wheels were clean indicating that it probably hadn't done much running but it will benefit with a bit of running to loosen up the mechanism. I found also that operating under DC there wasn't much of a range on the throttle but when decoder is fitted I hope there will be a much smoother operation over the speed range. I much prefer the slow side of the dial.

One bonus with this car is that it is fitted with two trolley poles meaning it will be able to travel between the two termini on the layout. It will mean dropping down the front pole and then putting up the rear one, but that is at least part of the fun and operation.

The car has an inbuilt sound when moving along which makes you wonder why fit a sound decoder? The only bonus there would be a horn and compressor sounds. It would be certainly different if it was a steam or diesel locomotive.

Next to the new platform under construction

Well I am certainly happy with this purchase, just means I will have to keep looking out for more? 😇🚋