Dylanlewis2000
Registered
Well today has been a miserable day outside so i thought that i would create a new thread and just give a quick update to all those who are on G scale central. Jenbob was created a year ago, but it was a bit of a rush job as i wanted to get some track down and have something running. The track consisted of one large oval with R3 track, and two dog bones, one with R1 and one with R2 track. There was a small amount of custom track used to create a large curve too. When the track was laid all was well, trains were running nicely. There were a few gaps in the track here and there which were filled in with small pieces of brass cuts. The major downside with the layout was that it was not level and some parts were higher than others. Large trains had trouble going around the dog bone sections and often derailed.
So here is the plan... a rebuild!
The rebuild was started at the beginning of May. New wood was ordered and instead of slapping it together in any old fashion angles were calculated and measured correctly.
This also allowed me to make the track as level as possible. Although this methodology took a lot longer it was nice to see that the track was fitting together nicely and that it looked a hell of a lot better.
So as the track has started to come back down i decided to think about the buildings. I had recently purchased an LGB shop made ironically by PIKO. The shop was a nice easy build and looked the part on my layout so i started think about things i could do with it, one obvious answer was to put lights in the shop.
Now although my old layout did have the White knight hamburger shop which was modified in to a station, it was powered from the track. This does have some advantages and some disadvantages. When the track is a little dirty some of the trains can create a shorting effect and cause the lights to flicker, therefore i had decided enough was enough and ran a separate power from a LGB 0.5 amp transformer.
The wire that you can see at the back of that image i s going to a set of points ans will eventually be hidden from view. The lights really do make a difference. While i was in my little lighting frenzy i decided to add some lights to coaches i had recently acquired. The plan was to make them battery powered but that soon ran out as i wanted to try and hide the cables, so a trip to Jeremy to buy track pickup wheels and a bit of soldering later and hey presto lights!
First off a little bit about the coaches...
The coaches were from a starter set that i recently acquired from an auction site. I have wanted these style coaches for a while but their price has always put me off, however the price was right on the auction, so i went for it. The coaches were not that clean.... so the first task was to clean them...
And here is the after. Now the photos do not really do it justice but they were very very dirty.
So the light installation began.
I decided to use strip LED, mainly because it was a lot easier and buying a pack of resistors and LEDs.
I also had a blue coach which was cleaned and lights inserted... so how do they look? Well ... Very good i think.
The only downside is that when they go over points the lights will go out, however this can be solved two ways. I could either put another pickup wheel in, as currently i only have one in each coach or i could add a small capacitor to hold a bit of charge. I may investigate the capacitor route but i dont know what type i would need.
Now unfortunately i did plan to do a bit more of the railway however i had a nasty accident involving my thumb and my saw, lets just say my thumb nail is no longer and i am waiting for it to grow back a bit before continuing on... More to come soon!
So here is the plan... a rebuild!
The rebuild was started at the beginning of May. New wood was ordered and instead of slapping it together in any old fashion angles were calculated and measured correctly.
This also allowed me to make the track as level as possible. Although this methodology took a lot longer it was nice to see that the track was fitting together nicely and that it looked a hell of a lot better.
So as the track has started to come back down i decided to think about the buildings. I had recently purchased an LGB shop made ironically by PIKO. The shop was a nice easy build and looked the part on my layout so i started think about things i could do with it, one obvious answer was to put lights in the shop.
Now although my old layout did have the White knight hamburger shop which was modified in to a station, it was powered from the track. This does have some advantages and some disadvantages. When the track is a little dirty some of the trains can create a shorting effect and cause the lights to flicker, therefore i had decided enough was enough and ran a separate power from a LGB 0.5 amp transformer.
The wire that you can see at the back of that image i s going to a set of points ans will eventually be hidden from view. The lights really do make a difference. While i was in my little lighting frenzy i decided to add some lights to coaches i had recently acquired. The plan was to make them battery powered but that soon ran out as i wanted to try and hide the cables, so a trip to Jeremy to buy track pickup wheels and a bit of soldering later and hey presto lights!
First off a little bit about the coaches...
The coaches were from a starter set that i recently acquired from an auction site. I have wanted these style coaches for a while but their price has always put me off, however the price was right on the auction, so i went for it. The coaches were not that clean.... so the first task was to clean them...
And here is the after. Now the photos do not really do it justice but they were very very dirty.
So the light installation began.
I decided to use strip LED, mainly because it was a lot easier and buying a pack of resistors and LEDs.
I also had a blue coach which was cleaned and lights inserted... so how do they look? Well ... Very good i think.
The only downside is that when they go over points the lights will go out, however this can be solved two ways. I could either put another pickup wheel in, as currently i only have one in each coach or i could add a small capacitor to hold a bit of charge. I may investigate the capacitor route but i dont know what type i would need.
Now unfortunately i did plan to do a bit more of the railway however i had a nasty accident involving my thumb and my saw, lets just say my thumb nail is no longer and i am waiting for it to grow back a bit before continuing on... More to come soon!
