Posts

Busy in Winter - Shunting Yard Electrification

Image
Initially the Shunting yard was manual, from the switches to the engines. It was becoming very labour intensive to move trains into the 12 shunting lines. From day dot, these shunting lines was connected with isolating clips  . Before I added the electricity,I first laid the track on the black polyurethane compressed foam. I then wired each track individually Next the wires was soldered to the track.. It also helps using colour coded wiring. Here we see wiring was routed through the holes to the switch. As you might know, I am very much into recycled old stuff, so I am using these switches(VINTAGE LIMA 3065 POINT SWITCH UNIT) I bought on a sale at our Toy Fair . They work fantastic, as you have to press the button to allow electricity to flow to the train. Some of the switches had a short, and was quickly rectified by opening the switch , and bending the connectors inside. Shunting Yard Switch 1 Shunting Yard Switch 2 Shunting Yard Switch 3 I am qui...
Post a Comment
Read more

Something old, something new , something bright and something Yellow.

Image
A mate of mine was clearing his dads garage out, and found some Lima Model train stuff and model cars. I really like old nice stuff, and they are very welcome on this display. 2 Containers, which fits nicely on this wagon 2 cute old ore wagons 2 row boats, maybe a tad too big for the scale, but my wife likes it. Some of the trucks, predominantly yellow and white.
Post a Comment
Read more

Busy in Winter- Some LED lights added.

Image
As with most people, Winters are spent more indoors. There are less chores outside, except for chopping some wood to keep the fire burning. My plan with the model rail road was always to get the basics ready before attempting any detailed modelling. That is why the board was built first, track lain and electricity added. Nnd now it was time to add lights. I got Network cabling from a friend at the office, and used LED strips (each strip is about 6 cm-12cm /2.5" -5 "" long ) on the inside of the buildings, or at the back or bottom of the buildings. At some stage I will add some more. Here is another photo, showing more eerie shadows. Led Strip pulled out of church, showing little hole in Layout. Led Strip stuck at the back of station, neat and practical. No one will see it as it is at the back of the display.
Post a Comment
Read more

Building my first Model Train Bench work : 2017/05/13

Image
Since childhood, I was dreaming of mounting my train track on plywood, so that I never have to remove carpet fibers in my loco's moving parts, never having to worry about track pulling loose, after some serious railroading. In the past 5 months, I was deliberating where to put it up. I have quite some track, and needed a large area,but don't have the space. So , naturally I was contemplating a shelf layout, or a garage My nature is to plan for ever. However  "How To Plan A Layout - Just Build It" , with what you have was implemented immediately, after my darling wife gave me real estate in our Braai Room I built a 4m x 1m (13ft x 3ft) bench, as I already had the wood. Here are some pictures of the effort. Except for the front fascia board, all the wood was reclaimed. The cost of the wood was about R400 , which is about 30$. No glue was used ,only good old chipboard screws. We could add another 5$ for miscellaneous costs, sandpaper, wall plugs and screws. The benc...
Post a Comment
Read more

Collecting Lima Model trains

I have been collecting Model Trains as a kid. Actually my brother and I got Lima HO Model trains as Christmas and birthday gifts. They were very wonderful to small Primary school boys, as they were made of steel, and used electricity. Simple round circles, and later in the shape 8, and later even larger track with joins. We saved our money to buy trains,buildings, tracks and and couches. If memory serves me right, I went into collecting a bit more than my brother in the end. The tracks was always built in our rooms , and in the lounge, on short hair carpet. Our parents was quite easy, and never complained too much,having to walking carefully over our trains. We bought our model trains at Aladdin's Cave, Kempton Park ,South-Africa, when it was were the new Civic Center is these days. As kids we didn't go to town much, but it was very exciting when we eventually went,seeing the latest models and couches available. I bought myself a crane, a motor vehicle carrier and some extra...
Post a Comment
Read more