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Simple
Electrical Box!
We
recently upgraded our main control system for main line heavy
train running to the new Aristo-Craft Train Engineer which I might
add is fantastic with great control of your trains. We needed a
small electrical box to house the reciever, so down to the
Warehouse we go & bought a self sealing click clack box for a
couple of dollars, job done! Below; A shot of the finished
result up & working.
USA
Trains Turnout Fix-up!
USA
Trains make a fantastic turn-out, AFR has 4 of these in operation
in the shed on the mainline, 2 years ago a screw worked loose so
pulled up 2metres of track either way of it to get access to the
under side & replace the screw. Thinking this was a one off
problem no other precautions were taken.
Nearing
the end of the September Club Day run I noticed the same problem
had occured again this time a different turnout at the oppisite
end of the loop, New Zealand Rail fish plates save the day as I
just needed to slide them back to release the join to lift out the
turnout to access the underside & the screw was replaced.
So
the problem was to stop this happening again, I could not glue
them with anything as it has a jumper wire running to it, so I
came up with the spacer idea.
Above
Left; The 2 red dots are where the screws are positioned, I
thought if I made packers high enough to just touch the head of
the screw it would stop them un-screwing. The packers (Orange
Dots) are made from scrap styrene & all 4 turnouts had
different height packers so do each one seperartely. Above
Right; A side on shot of the packer in place, it is secured
with a good supa-glue & pinned into the base board as well.
In
theory this should work, but if nothing else it has high-lighted a
small problem that can be fixed before installing this great
product from USA Trains.
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F72
Chassis Re-Build
In May 2010
the Bachmann chassis of F72 finally gave up the ghost after a
running life of ups & downs of reliability. It was decided to
have ago at building our own chassis, this is a first for the AFR
so the methods used could be totally different & quite basic
as I have used bits from scraped locos & materials that I have
obtained from different sourses ;-)
Above Left;
the chassis is constructed out of 32mmX30mm aluminium door
channel. Above Middle; all the axle holes, power pick-up
holes etc have been drilled & the bottom runners (the curve
pieces) have been cut off. 4mmX4mm spacers hve been added these
were drilled & tapped with machine screws with the heads filed
off. Above Right; a clear view of the underside with
spacers in place.
Above Left;
close up of the crank pin, these had to be added as the wheels
were only spoked with-out crank pins. This was done by filing a
slot in the pin & slipping over the spoke with a collar to
hold in place while the glue set. Above Middle; motor
& wiring are all in place. Above Right; under-neath
shot showing the bachmann pick-ups in place, the bearings used are
nylon so will be interesting to see how the wear!
Above;
F72 on its test run after major work on her chassis, I am very
pleased with the result as this is my first attempt at chassis
work, but time will tell!!
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