Progress on my tramway.

[No72]

Now that I can use my hand I have planted quite a few traction poles in place.
I have to do some cad work to sort out the best location for the poles that will have the 3 way frog suspended from the wiring as the location of that is critical and I'm not quite sure where that frog should go. I'll assume its on the intersection of lines drawn through the centres of the 3 sets or track. the centre poles are in place along memory lane as well as the end strain posts.
One of the colour light staff is up as well as the tram at terminus sign. They will of course work when my little rotary converter power supply arrives from China and powers up the system.
As all my cars have poles in the neutral position ie in the centre of the wheels it should work ok.
No poles yet for the curve into the car sidings as I have to be fairly precise with their location too as there is a frog over the curved turnout. The "big" tree will then be planted so as not to interfere with the overhead wiring...

 

[Nodrog1826]

I recognize that style of work, carn't keep a good man down for long, LVET re born.

 

[trammayo]

Hi Trev - nice to see you back creating!

 

[Alec K]

Now that I can use my hand I have planted quite a few traction poles in place.
I have to do some cad work to sort out the best location for the poles that will have the 3 way frog suspended from the wiring as the location of that is critical and I'm not quite sure where that frog should go. I'll assume its on the intersection of lines drawn through the centres of the 3 sets or track. the centre poles are in place along memory lane as well as the end strain posts.
One of the colour light staff is up as well as the tram at terminus sign. They will of course work when my little rotary converter power supply arrives from China and powers up the system.
As all my cars have poles in the neutral position ie in the centre of the wheels it should work ok.
No poles yet for the curve into the car sidings as I have to be fairly precise with their location too as there is a frog over the curved turnout. The "big" tree will then be planted so as not to interfere with the overhead wiring...

Welcome back, Trev - I found (and find) your work inspirational.

 

[Gizzy]

Hullo Trev....

 

[No72]

And now the fun begins.... Now you can see the reason I needed my carpal tunnel rectified. I now require the trolley ears as all the traction poles are up and some overhead on the No3 depot road has been partially installed. Indeed 2 cars are now sitting there with their poles on the wire waiting for the starter - he could be some time yet.
The ears are not difficult to make but they do require considerable dexterity to fabricate. I have to remove them from the sheet where I etched the 2 halves then put the tangs into the insulator bead and bend them very carefully so they are at 90 degrees. Next I use a jewelers butane torch to fuse the insulator onto the brass tangs. The flame can only hit the insulator or it will melt the brass before the glass does. They are stored in alcohol to stop them tarnishing before being soldered to the trolley wire. I hope I have enough of them - last thing I need is to have to etch another batch........
If there is an overhead section maybe this should be there?

 

[No72]

Some progress today. All the ears have been made and finished. As I did not have any chocolate on my fingers it all went smoothly enough. The remnants of the tabs have to be clipped off and the part that solders to the wire has to be cleaned with a profiled rubber abrasive wheel in the rotary tool. This is because I have to use fluxless solder paste because I don't want to have to clean off flux residues from the joints nor do I need flux residue there to gum up the trolley wheels. Looks like I will have to design a SST ( special service tool) to swing the poles on the back road as I wont be able to reach over to do it.
The next tricky bit is positioning the 3 way frog. The wire form the 2 outer roads need a bridle to get it at the right angle of approach but I'm thinking of adopting 1902 practise and using cross over pull offs. That will add a bit more overhead wire to keep the casual observers eyes engaged. The span wires have not been crimped and clipped off in case adjustment sideways is needed - which I'm sure it will be.
I'm using slightly over scale wire at .69mm diameter. I had some left over and as my supplier of the stuff seems not to have any in stock I use what I had. I could have used pure silver wire but it tarnishes.....

 

[idlemarvel]

Impressive workmanship there, I could never do anything like that with my thumbs for fingers!

 

[No72]

Can you spot the subtle difference? I have made up a new 3 way frog because the original one didn't pass the trolley wheel test. The new one is a little bit longer with a "lead in/out" on the single track and the 3 way end has a slightly more obtuse angle with more "wiggle" room in the centre that will eliminate the need for a bridle to hold the wires in alignment.

 

[dunnyrail]

Nice work Trev, good to see you back in the frame again.

 

[trammayo]

Can you spot the subtle difference? I have made up a new 3 way frog because the original one didn't pass the trolley wheel test. The new one is a little bit longer with a "lead in/out" on the single track and the 3 way end has a slightly more obtuse angle with more "wiggle" room in the centre that will eliminate the need for a bridle to hold the wires in alignment.

I take it that the frog is a trailing one? Nice bit of casting by the way.

 

[No72]

Actually used both ways coming out of the car sidings into a short length of single track before going into 2 tracks along Memory lane.... Its not cast, grit blasted machined brass but the grit blasting gives a nice burr free surface that for reasons I do not understand also repels tarnishing.

 

[No72]

A few pictures showing what I have been up to. Overhead to the turnout to Memory Lane is completed not without lots of adjustment. Actually I discovered that I could not work on it for more than 30 mins at a go as it was just too tedious. Not sure that I'm looking forward to the curves from single track to double track yet....The Eucalypti Non specificus has been planted but is loose in its hole to allow removal for overhead and track maintenance. Gricers wishing to visit and take photos are advised to bring wide angle lenses, my point and shoot camera really is not up to the task.

 

[mike]

Wow..is a understatement...very very nice..

 

[No72]

Its been an exciting few days at the Tramway. Lots happening. Firstly the switch box had to be rebuilt. The bi colour switches did not actually turn anything off, when the button was pushed led changed from red to green but the switch reversed the polarity and caused me a major migraine till I worked out what was going on. So now there are 3 toggle switches SPST, KISS!!!.

All the under-board cabling has been completed and it all works now. Except the Yard lights...... Took me 15 minutes to work out I had not connected them.

Next part of the project will be to continue the overhead works and tidy up the cabling. The Colour light staff, Tram at Terminus and track charging ( for the steam tram) all work as expected.

Now all I have to do is twiddle my thumbs till the power supply arrives. My 2 amp lab power supply does not have enough grunt to move a tram but the lights work........

 

[dunnyrail]

Its been an exciting few days at the Tramway. Lots happening. Firstly the switch box had to be rebuilt. The bi colour switches did not actually turn anything off, when the button was pushed led changed from red to green but the switch reversed the polarity and caused me a major migraine till I worked out what was going on. So now there are 3 toggle switches SPST, KISS!!!.

All the under-board cabling has been completed and it all works now. Except the Yard lights...... Took me 15 minutes to work out I had not connected them.

Next part of the project will be to continue the overhead works and tidy up the cabling. The Colour light staff, Tram at Terminus and track charging ( for the steam tram) all work as expected.

Now all I have to do is twiddle my thumbs till the power supply arrives. My 2 amp lab power supply does not have enough grunt to move a tram but the lights work........

Very nice work. Trev what size is the layout please? Think that I could have got something like this in where I have been struggling with an 00 layout.

 

[penylanpip]

"Took me 15 minutes to work out I had not connected them."

This internet thing is wonderful - I now know that I am not alone...

 

[No72]

Very nice work. Trev what size is the layout please? Think that I could have got something like this in where I have been struggling with an 00 layout.

2.5m x 3.0m.... Lots of short shunting will happen....

 

[dunnyrail]

2.5m x 3.0m.... Lots of short shunting will happen....

Thanks Trev so width would be around 2ft where there are 3 sidings and 18inch where the main line with double track is?

 

[No72]

Thanks Trev so width would be around 2ft where there are 3 sidings and 18inch where the main line with double track is?

Yep... its about 600mm wide in the car yard and 350mm wide along the road.... I have left it a stub terminus because I could add on at a later stage. As it is all it needs to be moved is unscrewing it from the brackets on the wall. Which means it can come with me when I get put into care or be sold so that I can afford to be put into care....