Progress (or otherwise) on Jeff's new layout

Hi Jeff.   Thank you for your reply. Despite my eyesight I managed to locate the NEM pockets on the Ex LSWR Road Van, but, I haven’t checked the Kadee height gauge yet. But, that is what you get for being awkward, stumbling around with my Zimmers. One upstairs and one downstairs. I wish that I had more confidence in kit building, as the bloke that made the underground model on YouTube made a “D stock “ model, the newest and last train that I had driven, thirty odd years ago. Best wishes Kev 

SRman wrote:

Colin W wrote:

Hi Jeff,

Nice LT Museum/Bachmann S Stock train video, impressive enough pulling into station that you're left waiting for the doors to retract! Little project for you there perhaps!

Is the fencing across the other track a sign of of poor LT maintenance practices due to labour shortages post BREXIT? All those workers having headed back across The Channel whence they came?

Colin

Stopping in the right place takes a little practice, applying and releasing the F5 key for the brakes.

I only noticed the fence when watching the videos while editing them together. I had knocked it off the viaduct above the track there.

Hi Jeff.    I did reply to your email . But it became amongst the missing? It was that I located the NEM pockets. But, I haven’t gauged their height yet, waddling around like a duck on my Zimmers. I have learned not to try saving time by cutting corners.   Best wishes Kev 

Progress has been made with the lighting frame, although there has been one minor disaster. I inserted the piece of square section wood to take some of the strain as a temporary measure until I can repair and replace bits. Fortunately it isn't that expensive or difficult to fix.




Further along, I have the framework standing properly, and have tried out the first strip of LED lights, using the warm white ones. The result was better than I had expected. The first of these two photos shows the effect with the main room light on, and the second shows the result with the room light turned off.






And to illustrate one of the reasons for having the more distributed light pattern: a photo without my or my phone's shadows spoiling it.

The remaining warm white LED strip has been wired up and fitted to the frame. I still have the option to fit extra strips with different colours to vary the lighting, but I am very happy with the result as it stands now. Two of the photos were taken with the main room lights turned off. The last shows that the area in front of the village is a little darker because it is in front of the frame. With the room light on it isn't as apparent.

Very Fine Indeed!


Colin

That looks good Jeff.   :thumbs

How many LED strips have you got running and what length are they ?

Hi Jeff  You have a busy MPD there, which is excellent and reminds me of many that I have seen from the window of a passing train. Keep up the good work. Best wishes Kev 

Thanks for the kind comments, guys.


[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

That looks good Jeff.   :thumbs

How many LED strips have you got running and what length are they ?

I have two strips, one a little over 3m, the other around 3.7 m long. As the reels come in 5m lengths, I had to use two reels to get the continuous lengths, but I could have split the lengths and soldered some connecting wires between them instead, if I had wanted. The strips can be cut through between every third SMLED, and they have the solder pads to allow wires to be soldered at any of those intermediate points. Each reel cost me around $AUS12 from eBay dealers.

Both strips are supplied from one 12V DC 2 amp transformer.

That was going to be my next question - how much were they……….

I've looked at them in a dhop near us hrre and thought "should I  shouldn't I" ?  The 5m length is a fractuion under €30 so your e-bsay dealer was good to you.

There are plenty of similar items from different sellers, but here is a link to the one I bought from - same sort of thing with choices, so prices vary slightly.

Link to LED strip seller (https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/143631972568?hash=item217121f8d8:g:yoIAAOSwd3FfL5~T) - No connection except as a satisfied customer). I have bought from otehrs as well, but this was the most recent.

Having received a decent tax refund this year, I treated myself to another European model: something just a little rare and different. It arrived today (Wednesday), amazingly after being sent from Sweden on Tuesday a week ago. It is a Jeco SJ X2000 set. The basic set has the power car plus three trailers, including the driving trailer, but I added a Bistro car as well to create a 5-car set. I also opted for the Zimo sound decoder, factory fitted.

The glossy box and packaging give a very good first impression too. The power car has a good amount of weight built-in to its metal chassis, and the finish on it and all of the coaches is also impressive. I do find the SJ grey scheme a little dull, but that's the livery I saw them in when I was in Copenhagen in 2018.

A quick test and a couple of CV tweaks saw it running faultlessly around Newton Broadway. The sound was very loud, so I adjusted the master volume, CV266 from its default of 65 down to 25. I also tweaked CVs 3 and 4 to reduce acceleration and deceleration and make them slightly more gentle than the defaults settings. The red tail lights are pre-set on this decoder to flash.

Hmm - that must have been some tax rebate Jeff but remember, it was always your money - they just "borrowed it".

Are you moving towards continental stock or is this just nostalgia ?

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

Hmm - that must have been some tax rebate Jeff but remember, it was always your money - they just "borrowed it".

Are you moving towards continental stock or is this just nostalgia ?

I gonna be quicker at the keyboard. You beat me, Petermac!

Isn't it amazing how well the train runs without an overhead wire! ;-)

[user=2172]Claus Ellef[/user] wrote:

I gonna be quicker at the keyboard. You beat me, Petermac!

Isn't it amazing how well the train runs without an overhead wire! ;-)

 

Very Fine indeed.

You were quick out of the traps as we were only discussing this a few hours ago when it was delivered to your door!

Colin

[user=2172]Claus Ellef[/user] wrote:

I gonna be quicker at the keyboard. You beat me, Petermac!

Isn't it amazing how well the train runs without an overhead wire! ;-)

I secretly added third rail pick up shoes!

:tongue

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

Hmm - that must have been some tax rebate Jeff but remember, it was always your money - they just "borrowed it".

Are you moving towards continental stock or is this just nostalgia ?

I spent the last year or more working part time, and only worked for two-thirds of the financial year before retiring, so I got a lot of it back.

:cheers


I have been dabbling with a bit of Continental stock, mainly what I have seen and/or ridden in, but a few extras have crept in. I saw one of these X2000 units in Copenhagen H while I was there in 2018, and hope to ride in one the next time I get there, with a planned future trip from Copenhagen to Stockholm. 

Copenhagen is a good base for me as I have my aunt and a couple of cousins there.

p.s. I also had a bit of fun translating the instruction sheets from Swedish into English. I used Google Translator, then tried to improve some of the more literally translated phrasing, and a few anomalies where Google hadn't a clue. There are still a couple of bits where I don't have a clue either.  :lol:

I was going to say! Nice to know you've now become a full member of the gainfully unemployed.

Paying tax is against my religion. I do believe our last net negative vis a vis ATO accounts might have been nearly 20 years ago.


PS - translation, this is where a Swedish au pair comes in handy, AFAIR they weren't much use around our digs at Uni and students were definitely below their radar horizon! 

:hmm  :It's a no no

 

Hi Jeff  I may be able to help with your Swedish.  No guarantee but it's fairly close to Danish. 

We should start a thread on translation services ………………. :roll:

From time to time, I buy stuff from Germany and, (in the case of decoders) Austria.  I thought I'd learnt German at school but I can't even remember being at school now !!