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O Gauge Monthly Photo Polls:
June 2018 Winner!
""Think of it as a train - 40' of train!""
by member Balto&NY
Vote Now! 
Submit Now!
(Coming Soon...)
Past Polls Winner's Gallery
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Most-Recent O Gauge Topics:
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JuneH
Topics: 5 Replies: 28
posted on Aug 12, 2018:
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Balto&NY
Topics: 71 Replies: 124
posted on May 17, 2018:
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They are back! Well, that Mercury convertible hauling New Moon trailer is not a train, but in the "Long, Long, Trailer movie it was referenced as such when 'Nicky" was learning to handle the rig.
This is a repeat entry. It was posted for August 2017 but this site closed from August to late October, so no votes were cast or counted.
So, I thought I would try it again. I'm hoping some of you will also post photos for June 2018!
The trailer is scratch built in styrene and hauled by a 1954 Mercury Sun Valley, since a '53 (used in the movie) was not available. The car and trailer wear accurate California tag numbers.
The rig has just passed over the Baltimore & New York main line grade crossing on Highway 5, on its way to a new adventure.
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Balto&NY
Topics: 71 Replies: 124
posted on Apr 25, 2018:
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Back when coal was king - heating homes, buildings and for small businesses like my father's bakery in the 1940's and 50's were the customers. Local coal dealers had dump pits with silos or, a dump trestle. Anthracite was the main coal used in the northeastern US, dug from mines in NE Pennsylvania. Coal dealers stored it in various sizes such as egg, pea and buckwheat. When a carload was delivered it had to be carefully spotted where that size coal was to be dumped. Each bay of a dealer's coal dump trestle usually held a specific size of coal. Not good to mix them up!
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jdcrawler
Topics: 45 Replies: 64
posted on Apr 10, 2018:
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This will be a crew car to go with the crane that I just finished.
It will have a small cabin on one end with tool boxes along the sides in front of the cabin.
I'm using a short base made out of aluminum from an old Lionel tender for the frame of the flat car that the cab will be mounted to.
The deck for the flat car is made from a sheet of styrene that has grooves in it to represent boards.
Searching thru my collection of trucks, I found this pair of old lief spring archbar trucks that will be perfect for it.
The are mounted on the underside of the flat car.
The end sills and couplers are mounted on each end.
These caboose steps will be mounted on one end to make it easier for getting on and off the car.
The area is cut out on each side of the deck where the steps will go.
Then the steps are mounted in place.
The cab is going to be built out of 1/8 inch plywood.
I've cut the opening in one of the sidewalls for a window and I'm machining the edges to make the opening square using a 1/16 diameter end mill.
When all of openings are cut out of the side panels, they are then glued together.
The sidewall of the cab are all glued to the floor.
Gluing the roof on the cab.
Strips of plastic and wood are glued to the edges of the roof to trim it out.
Plastic " L " trim is glued on the corners and strips of plastic are glued to the sides for the bracing.
Small nails are put in to represent the carriage bolts that hold the trim and bracing strips on.
The doors and windows are all glued in place.
The walkways have been added to the roof of the cab.
Making the railing for the end of the car is next on the list.
The holes are being drilled into the end sill for mounting a piece of brass angle that the railing will be attached to.
Here I am using a small hand drill to hold the tap for putting threads in the holes for 00-90 screws.
These screws are only .040 diameter and I have to be very - very careful when tapping the holes in the pot-metal end sill.
The piece of brass angle is to the top right in the photo and the two screws that I'll be using to fasten it in place are at the tip of the pencil.
Here is how the brass angle fits on the end sill.
The two halves of the railing are bent to shape and the piece of brass angle is soldered to the bottom ends of the railing.
Then the center supports are soldered onto the railing.
The finished railing is mounted on the end sill.
Here I'm soldering a piece of brass angle to the back side of the ladder so I can fasten the ladder onto the end sill.
The bottom of the ladder is fastened on with a small screw and the top is fastened on with two small nails.
The two hand rails are mounted on top of the foot board to finish the mounting of the ladder.
The brake wheel has been mounted on the opposite side of the railing.
Using a small end mill for making the hole for the mounting stub on the smokestack that I'm using for this.
The smokestack is pressed into the hole in the roof.
The ladder on this end of the cab has also been mounted in place and the two hand rails are fastened onto the foot board on the roof.
Here is the finished crew car.
I set the crew car and the crane outside and took a couple of photos.
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stan
Topics: 17 Replies: 16
posted on Mar 26, 2018:
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MTH AIU relay outputs can be used to activate the momentary pushbuttons on wireless remote control transmitter fobs. The AIU SW(itch) port outputs close for exactly 1/2 sec when the Straight or Diverge button is pressed on the DCS remote. The AIU ACC(essory) port output closes for as long as the ACT button is pressed, or indefinitely if the ON/OFF latching buttons are pressed.
On eBay and elsewhere, there are many low-cost transmitter and receiver components using the somewhat dated but tried-and-true garage-door wireless technology using 315 MHz or 433 MHz RF and basic Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) coding. These products use the venerable 2262/2272 chip set which can be configured to generate over a thousand unique addresses - enough for any practical train layout.
An example of transmitter and receivers:
For just a few dollars, you get a 4 channel remote fob and a 4 output receiver. The transmitter is powered by a 12V battery. The receiver requires 5V DC; and one of its 4 digital outputs is activated when the corresponding button is pressed on the transmitter. The low-current digital outputs could then drive a relay or transistor to control the remote load. Or, there are relay receiver modules that integrate one (or more) relays.
The idea here is to demonstrate how to attach the AIU to a wireless fob so that ALL remote control can be performed from the DCS handheld remote...rather than having multiple handheld control devices.
In the above 4-button remote fob, there are 4 momentary push-button switches. So the idea is to simply tether the 2-terminals for each push-button to the AIU. As it turns out, one of the terminals for each push-button is in common. This common wire means only 5 wires need to be tethered out to the AIU. This common wire will go to the "IN" terminal of the SW(itch) or ACC(essory) ports. And the "IN" terminals will be daisy-chained at the AIU.
Here is an ACC port in action using 2 buttons to control 2 of the outputs of the 5V receiver. There is enough output current on the receiver to drive a small LED. As discussed earlier, the receiver output would more likely drive a relay or transistor in a practical application. Refer to another thread showing how this exact receiver module controls the action of an MTH operating reefer boxcar.
Note that it is unwise to mistakenly press the ON button when using the ACC port. This would continuously activate the remote control transmitter (note red LED on transmitter) until turned OFF.
This video shows a SW(itch) port controlling two pushbuttons. The take-away is the exact 1/2 second AIU relay closure when the Straight or Diverge control is pressed is long enough to generate a wireless burst that the receiver can detect and decode.
In the above video, the relay module is shown operating in different modes. These relays generally provide 3 operating modes. 1) Momentary, 2) Toggle, 3) Set-Reset.
In Momentary, the relay is closed as long as the button is pressed; this is like the ACT button of an Accessory Port.
In Toggle, the relay closes and opens on successive button presses (same button). There is no equivalent mode in the AIU. Note that with this method, the Straight and Diverge controls of a single SW(itch) port can control 2 ON/OFF relays.
In Set-Reset, the relay closes on one button press and the relay opens on a different button press. This is similar to the ON-OFF (separate buttons) behavior of an ACC port.
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jdcrawler
Topics: 45 Replies: 64
posted on Mar 22, 2018:
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While unpacking some of my stuff, I came across this crane that I had built way back in the 70's when I was was first trying to learn how to build with metal instead of plastic and soldering them together instead of gluing.
This is made out of tin ( using the metal from an old paint thinner can ) and small diameter brass rod.
I have learned a lot about soldering and working thin metal over the years and this model is a little crude compared to the standard that I set for myself now.
This is the crane.
I've taken the back cover off of it so I could put paint remover on it and get it down inside everything.
The first thing to do, was to separate the main parts of the crane.
You can see that the crane boom was mounted using two large terminals for electrical wiring.
The pulleys are made up from putting brass eyelets together on a rod.
I'm only going to modify this enough to make it look a little more realistic but still has some of the oddball things that I used when I first built it.
The base for the crane is a single sheet of tin that extends out the front ( where the boom is attached ) and hangs out past both side of the main body.
I trimmed both sides so they are flush with the main body of the crane.
The gear and pulleys at the top front edge are for the cables that raise and lower the boom.
Originally, I had the cable for the hook running up over the center of these pulleys and going under the center of the lift pulleys out on the boom and from there, on out to the end of the boom.
Now, I made up a bracket with two rollers and mounted it down closer to the base of the crane body.
I want to use a clam-shell bucket on this crane so the cables for it will come out between these two rollers.
A piece of brass is bent up on the ends to form the new mounting bracket for the boom.
I have also soldered 1/4 inch square brass tube to the underside of the base to make it thicker.
I machined a cover out of a piece of brass for the gear on top of the crane.
The cover makes it look a little more realistic and it also has a screw in the back of it that will keep the gear from rotating.
The gear is used to wind the two boom lifting cables up on the pulleys then tightening the screw will keep the cables from unwinding.
If you'll look back at the first photos, you'll see that the framework for the cab is made out of round brass rod.
I want to be able to put glass in this cab so I cut the brass rod out so it can be replaced with pieces of angle.
This side of the cab has a hole in it that was for clearance for the boom mounting bracket.
Here I'm forming the frame for the rear window behind the seat.
The top was also held in place by the brass rod so I decided to just get rid of it and make a new frame for the top from the brass angle.
The rear window frame is soldered in place.
The brass angle is used to form the windshield frame and the support for the top of the cab.
A new roof piece is soldered to the top of the cab.
Remember that hole in the lower part of the cab to clear the mounting bracket for the boom ?
I covered that with a piece of brass.
The I used some narrow strips of steel to frame out a door and soldered a strip of brass along the back side of the door.
This looks kind of gaudy but I think it will look okay once it is painted.
I also made up a door handle and put it on.
Here is how it looks so far with the cab mounted to the main body.
The front and rear window and the two angled side windows will have clear plastic in them for the glass.
I took three straight pins with the little round heads and soldered them to a piece of brass.
This is the panel with the control levers for inside the cab ( I know a real crane has more than three levers, but this cab only has room for three. )
This is mounted to the dash inside the cab.
Next is to build a clam-shell bucket.
Starting with a piece of sink drain pipe, this will form the bottom 'curved' part of the bucket.
I squared the two sides on the lathe and I took a skim cut to remove the chrome plating.
Then I cut two sections from the drain pipe for the bottom panels of the two bucket halves.
The sides are cut from sheet brass and a brass washer is soldered to the hinge point on each piece.
Soldering the sides to the bottom panels.
Trial fitting the two halves of the bucket together and making sure they upen and close properly.
Here I'm fastening 'teeth' to the bottom edge of each half.
Each tooth is soldered onto the cutting edge of the bucket so it over laps the the other side just a little.
They are only soldered lightly so the solder doesn't flow across the surface of the whole tooth and stick it to the edge of the other bucket half.
Then two small holes are drilled thru the tooth and the bucket and two small brass pins are pushed thru them.
The long ends of the pins are cut off about 1/16 inch above the surface of the tooth.
This is place on the corner of the vice and the cut ends of the pins are hammered flat to form a tight rivet to hold the tooth in place.
The teeth are all attached, 3-teeth on one halve and 4-teeth on the other half.
I cut a brass rod to length and drilled and tapped the ends to form the pivot bar for the two bucket halves.
The pulley goes in the center of this bar and is free to spin on the bar itself.
I made up a triangular shaped housing with brass tubes soldered on each side of it.
This is the guard to keep the cable from coming off the pulley and it also keeps the pulley in the center of the bucket.
If you look close, you can see that each of the washers also have two rivets thru them to hold them in place because they are only soldered on 1/4 of each washer.
Here is how it looks so far with everything assembled.
All that was left was to make a top bar and attach the four arms to it and the corners of the bucket.
The arms are valve linkage parts from the Rivarossi 0-8-0 locomotive kit.
The operating cable to open and close the two bucket halves goes down the the small hole in the center of the top bar, then under the pulley and will be attached onto the underside of the top bar.
With the bucket hung from the hook in the center of the top bar, releasing the operating cable will let the center pivot bar drop and the two halves of the bucket will open up so it is only held by the cable attached to the top bar.
The open bucket is then lowered down so it sits on top of the dirt.
Then the operating cable is pulled back up and this lifts the pully on the center pivot rod up and causes the two halves of the bucket to close.
The teeth on the cutting edge of the bucket dig down into the ground as the two halves close so it digs a hole and fills the bucket with dirt.
The whole bucket is then lifted by the operating cable.
The cable attached to the top bar is also raised at the same time but is kept slack to keep the bucket closed.
To drop the dirt, either the cable to the top bar can be raised up to let the operating cable go slack and open the bucket .. or the cable to the top bar can be held still and the operating cable is then lowered to open the bucket.
A drag line from the crane will be attached to the chain that is hooked to one end of the bucket, to keep it from spinning on the cable and also to help position the bucket.
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Balto&NY
Topics: 71 Replies: 124
posted on Mar 21, 2018:
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Fresh from a five year overhaul in 1897 per B&O practice, Staten Island Rapid Transit Forney number 18 with white flags returns to St. George for it s first scheduled assignment, after a 5.5 mile shake-down run to Arlington.
Forneys like this were used in commuter service on some late 19th century roads and were bi-directional and did not need to be turned at the end of a run.
This loco is equipped with the Eames vacuum brake, as seen by the vapor ejector on the cab roof.
Vacuum brakes were ideal for short trains making frequent, short stops often less than a mile apart.
That is because the system recovers its working vacuum faster after a stop, than air pressure raised by a compressor in the Westinghouse air brake is able to do.
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