FO progress

Still some way to go but the windows have been installed. Waiting on my supply of CA to arrive to continue with adding the centre dividers.
Here is one of the four. Still couplers, buffers, handrails and some seats and passengers before it will be finished to the initial stage. Fine details can wait.

regards
 Bob

Layout progress

The steel base for the double track oval is starting to take shape thanks to the efforts of a friend. It is now on temporary wood supports. Observers will note that there will be a viewing height to suit everyone. :>)
Still a lot of work to go but the end is nearer. It will be good to have a layout once again where we can watch the trains run unhindered..... having only a few feet between the buffer stops at each end of your trackwork can get very frustrating.

Unless one had a covered area similar to a double garage then the great outdoors was the natural realm of O gauge.... often with an indoor section for storage and/or a small branch station. Who am I to argue with a proven concept?

Coupler rivets

Last night I said a bad word as my usual attempt to hold a Kadee coupler box together by creating a weld around the edges with a soldering iron failed. Of course the spring went west leading to an interesting time examining the floorside debris ( must find that vacuum cleaner again soon). It doesn't often happen but when it does it makes me wonder why the coupler box could not have been designed to lock itself.
Thoughts of finding suitable screws and wouldn't it be nice to just rivet it entered my mind once again, to be quickly dismissed as usual and then just get on with the job.
Hang on......rivets??
Sometimes the obvious finally hit me in the back of the head.
I had some plastic rod that looked about right.
Touch the hot iron to one end to form a head, wait a few seconds, insert from bottom of box in hole (one not being used to attach said box), cut off at top with side cutters, mash down other side of rod with iron until flush with top of box, voila!
You could make 2 rivets if you like but one is enough to enable attachment now or at a later date.
Why didn't I think of this years ago ?? Well, we won't go into that :>)

Photo above shows one rivet installed in coupler box and piece of plastic rod with one head formed ready to do the next coupler.The coupler is one of the new scale head, long shank couplers. Apart from the long shank the best improvement for me is the hidden spring in the head making it harder to loose.

September ramblings

I made it to the 50th anniversary AMRA Sydney exhibition. Plenty of O scale on display so I had little time to take in the other scales.
Arakoola displayed the 2 rail with minimal flanges approach with the latest in commercial products and some very nice scratchbuilt items of rolling stock and structures.
Trainsville and the new AMRA O gauge layouts showed off the advantages of the 3 rail with practical flange size approach.
There were also some nice O scale narrow gauge layouts on display as well.
It is interesting that the most modern rolling stock was present on the 3 rail layouts... that is if a 422 and a U  set can be considered modern. Hopefully we will see the younger generations modelling what is relevant to them one day instead of trains only relevant to their grandfathers and great-grandfathers. 
Trainsville is still to my knowledge the only exhibition layout that can truly claim to be Australian made. There is little in the way of the parts used in its construction that was not produced in Australia.


Overall the exhibition organisers and presenters can be proud of their efforts.
It is disappointing however to still see the running of models from different countries on the same layout. It does nothing to improve the displaying of either model.


In an attempt to get at least one passenger train ready for the new layout I have been assembling a 4 car set of Ron Fox's FO carriages. With the addition of some tie wire and chain store jewellery chain for the end railings and tie wire, jumper wire and pop sticks for the truss rods I have been making some progress.

Suspension

One of the problems with having long rigid wheelbases in O gauge coupled with wheels with tiny flanges is the propensity of said vehicles to leave the rails at their earliest convenience. Assembling them on a flat surface such as a piece of glass might feel nice but it only works if the track never deviates in height over the length of the wagon by less than the height of the flange. Given my layout will be mainly outdoors the chances of never having such deviations is wishful thinking. Visits to other layouts with larger flangeways can also test your models out.
There are many proprietary rocking and sprung systems on the market, however such items don't really fall into this railway's budget. Just removing the bearings added some flexibility that solved some situations but didn't solve everything. Replacing the bearings in one end and adding two springs to bear down on the other axle without bearings seems to have made a very reliable vehicle. The 3 versions I have so far made stay on the track no matter the deviations I have made to test them.
These are all assembled wagons that I have been retro fitting. For my new wagons I might be able to keep the bearings on all wheels and just deepen the bearing hole downwards to allow some vertical movement.

The above photo shows the two pieces of brass wire inserted into the floor of the S wagon. Wire is either 15  or 22 thou depending on what I had in stock. In this case I melted the wire into the urethane with a soldering iron and set it with superglue. Tension is adjusted to be just enough to lift the wheels when upside down. A coat of black paint will make them all but invisible from normal viewing distance. If this suspension system proves itself over time I will have solved one of my biggest concerns since changing from AMRA wheel and track standards.

 

18 class finished for now

The 18 class is earning its keep. Until I equip it with a sound decoder there is little I wish to add to it for the moment. Now I have returned the pickups to my normal method it is reliable shunter.

It runs so well I look forward to finishing some more steamers.

CPH Lives!

After just 18 years since starting this model while away working in Sydney it finally moves under its own power.

It does have a driver, but no passengers yet. I guess lack of seating would not encourage much patronage.
The Athearn universals have gone hard over the decades of use and parts broke off them as I installed them. A temporary fix with sticky tape and heatshrink saved the day. I'll have to check what spares are still available.  Otherwise I will adapt another universal system to the Athearn drive trains.

 There is probably just as much work to be done inside and out to finish it as has already been done but it is a pleasure to watch it rolling up and down the test tracks.

Total cost including decoder would be less than $100 if I had to purchase all new parts. As it was I only had to buy 4 off Slaters rolling stock wheelsets and a decoder. I would never have imagined when purchasing my first HO Athearn diesels many years ago that they would be recycled into O gauge power units.