Ruritanian Railways - 2011
- Thread starter whatlep
- Start date
whatlep
Registered
It's been a very quiet start to 2011 with the freezing weather, but out of sight the loco works has been busy....
First up, a new acquisition, to be released formally to service upon the Managing Director's birthday in May. "Tiny" as it has been nicknamed, was a source of bafflement to the shed foreman. He originally refused to accept the loco from it's German suppliers on the grounds that it was deformed: no second pair of cylinders a la Mallet. "Tiny" has now been chipped and, when authorised for service, will be the locomotive of choice for the invisible ballast hoppers:
The railbus has had a major works service and emerged with Mad Max's brother, Mad Fred, in charge of the driving trailer. Fred attended the Douglas Bader school for a major pedicure. The trailer has also been chipped - a remarkably simple and satisfying exercise - and can now operate without being wired up to the motor unit. Couplers still need to be added to this end of the trailer. Amazing what you forget until you see a photo, ain't it?
Look Ma: no wires! Both sets of intermediate lights can be controlled independently of the main head/tail lights, so any legitimate vehicle arrangement can be accomodated and - using DCC - lights set up at the touch of a couple of buttons. Lovely!
First up, a new acquisition, to be released formally to service upon the Managing Director's birthday in May. "Tiny" as it has been nicknamed, was a source of bafflement to the shed foreman. He originally refused to accept the loco from it's German suppliers on the grounds that it was deformed: no second pair of cylinders a la Mallet. "Tiny" has now been chipped and, when authorised for service, will be the locomotive of choice for the invisible ballast hoppers:
The railbus has had a major works service and emerged with Mad Max's brother, Mad Fred, in charge of the driving trailer. Fred attended the Douglas Bader school for a major pedicure. The trailer has also been chipped - a remarkably simple and satisfying exercise - and can now operate without being wired up to the motor unit. Couplers still need to be added to this end of the trailer. Amazing what you forget until you see a photo, ain't it?
Look Ma: no wires! Both sets of intermediate lights can be controlled independently of the main head/tail lights, so any legitimate vehicle arrangement can be accomodated and - using DCC - lights set up at the touch of a couple of buttons. Lovely!
whatlep
Registered
Today another job has been undertaken. Following trials with battery power, a Schoema diesel has been acquired cheaply to act mainly as a dedicated battery loco, but also as a convenient test bed for any work on DCC chips.
The Schoema is one of my favourite LGB products: simple, rugged and untypically straightforward to assemble and disassemble. It's perfect for a "bad day" loco which you don't mind getting scratched or assaulted by the weather. I've had Schoemas before, but they had two downsides: too short a wheelbase for adequate pickup and a lack of "guts" due to their light weight, with insufficient room to add enough lead, due to the various electrical bits and pieces inside. Going to batteries with a trail car definitely sorts the first problem. As to haulage power, some testing will tell!
First things is to undo all the major components and rip out the wiring loom. Here it is. A curious one-piece soldered assembly with a form of direct decoder interface I've never seen previously. Note the absence of the F1 function pin row. Did someone design a new board just for this starter set loco? I should mention that all the pickups and skates were removed too, making the loco much, much freer running.
All factory wiring removed, two wires are now all that's required to connect the motor to the trail car. This version of Schoema wasn't fitted with a "multi-purpose socket", but the hole is still there (covered by a cover which appears again to be a special design!) so a joiner from a 68333 lighting set gets glued into place instead.
That's the wiring done, though I intend to add an LED for the front headlight using the connector block as the "junction box". The final job was to pack lead shot carefully into the chassis, making sure that as much weight as possible is over the axles. That meant stuffing the front bonnet and the cab below window level with shot to add to the factory-fitted weights.
The loco now weighs in at 2.35 kilos. Tuesday will be testing day.
The Schoema is one of my favourite LGB products: simple, rugged and untypically straightforward to assemble and disassemble. It's perfect for a "bad day" loco which you don't mind getting scratched or assaulted by the weather. I've had Schoemas before, but they had two downsides: too short a wheelbase for adequate pickup and a lack of "guts" due to their light weight, with insufficient room to add enough lead, due to the various electrical bits and pieces inside. Going to batteries with a trail car definitely sorts the first problem. As to haulage power, some testing will tell!
First things is to undo all the major components and rip out the wiring loom. Here it is. A curious one-piece soldered assembly with a form of direct decoder interface I've never seen previously. Note the absence of the F1 function pin row. Did someone design a new board just for this starter set loco? I should mention that all the pickups and skates were removed too, making the loco much, much freer running.
All factory wiring removed, two wires are now all that's required to connect the motor to the trail car. This version of Schoema wasn't fitted with a "multi-purpose socket", but the hole is still there (covered by a cover which appears again to be a special design!) so a joiner from a 68333 lighting set gets glued into place instead.
That's the wiring done, though I intend to add an LED for the front headlight using the connector block as the "junction box". The final job was to pack lead shot carefully into the chassis, making sure that as much weight as possible is over the axles. That meant stuffing the front bonnet and the cab below window level with shot to add to the factory-fitted weights.
The loco now weighs in at 2.35 kilos. Tuesday will be testing day.
jameshilton
Registered
I always likes these models too! The Liliput Euro Davenport pipped it for me though as it has outside cranks. I look forward to seeing it in action on RR.
whatlep
Registered
Tuesday means testing. A first opportunity to check the layout too after a harsh winter. Luckily, no real damage seems to have occurred, though there was a magnificent frost heave on one section (you can see the hump-back bridge effect in the video referenced later...). Anyway, here's test train 1 for the "Barkerised" Schoema:
That went up Pootank Pass with ease, so a couple more vans were requested....
The results on YouTube speak for themselves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrCs.../8/6e644fa6920b4a98988d9609f027f3a2.jpg[/IMG]
That went up Pootank Pass with ease, so a couple more vans were requested....
The results on YouTube speak for themselves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrCs.../8/6e644fa6920b4a98988d9609f027f3a2.jpg[/IMG]
whatlep
Registered
yb281 said:Blimey Peter, as you know I need no converting when it comes to the merits of battery power, but even I am gobsmacked by how that flew up the pass!!!!!
Bet Gareth's crying now
Yep, I was a bit impressed myself. I think the secret ingredient is weight and lots of it. The Schoema's 1.2Kg per driving axle is good, but I noticed yesterday that the Rugen 0-8-0T has 1.85Kg! I'm pondering acquiring a shed load of lead to put in one of the 2095 diseasels. There's quite a lot of room in there for interesting electronics too.....
If Gareth wants to know where to buy some lead shot for his 2091, I can tell him.....
nico
Registered
lovely testingwhatlep said:Tuesday means testing. A first opportunity to check the layout too after a harsh winter. Luckily, no real damage seems to have occurred, though there was a magnificent frost heave on one section (you can see the hump-back bridge effect in the video referenced later...). Anyway, here's test train 1 for the "Barkerised" Schoema:
That went up Pootank Pass with ease, so a couple more vans were requested....
The results on YouTube speak for themselves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrCsD27m1Os
It really is astonishing the difference that adding some weight and getting rid of the skates/pickups makes to loco performance. The plan for the future is to run the Schoema while cleaning the track to bring some entertainment to an otherwise boring activity.
All testing results were verified by Charlie. Charlie likes testing the layout: preferably by finding a bit which can be flicked around by one paw....
i have a few humps on my line as well
whatlep
Registered
Wednesday was a "Windsday". Too cold for mucking about outside, so a quick conversion was ordained. Hallelujah!
Today's reading is taken from the book of LED, 6 volts, pre-wired with a righteous resistance, begat of the hosts of EBay:
"Lo and they did take the white LED and insert it into ye Schoema, observing the sacred polarity. It was the work of but moments, yet the light did shine all around, yea even at the lowest of useful voltages."
Blessed be the LED.
Today's reading is taken from the book of LED, 6 volts, pre-wired with a righteous resistance, begat of the hosts of EBay:
"Lo and they did take the white LED and insert it into ye Schoema, observing the sacred polarity. It was the work of but moments, yet the light did shine all around, yea even at the lowest of useful voltages."
Blessed be the LED.
CoggesRailway
Registered
Very impressive... lead makes all the difference- I have plenty in the WP diesels and they have great tractive effort. They have pulled very long trains for hours at a time with now obvious problems.
Gizzy
A gentleman, a scholar, and a railway modeller....
Extra lead and now extra LED too....whatlep said:Wednesday was a "Windsday". Too cold for mucking about outside, so a quick conversion was ordained. Hallelujah!
Today's reading is taken from the book of LED, 6 volts, pre-wired with a righteous resistance, begat of the hosts of EBay:
"Lo and they did take the white LED and insert it into ye Schoema, observing the sacred polarity. It was the work of but moments, yet the light did shine all around, yea even at the lowest of useful voltages."
Blessed be the LED.
whatlep
Registered
Inspection of the line over the past couple of days has revealed some soil loss at one corner of the garden. This seems to happen every year as the "made ground" by the pallisade compacts (and some bits escape as the rain lashes down). Anyhow, Pat and Mick were onto things today, trying to raise the slabs back to rail level. It may be a long job....
While work proceeded, the Schoema was back on test. Two bogie coaches on the local service? Certainly sir. Stop and restart on the 1 in 20 at Pootank Pass? No problem.
While work proceeded, the Schoema was back on test. Two bogie coaches on the local service? Certainly sir. Stop and restart on the 1 in 20 at Pootank Pass? No problem.
jameshilton
Registered
Looks well on the 'winter' train 