Off at a tangent once more.

Well,

 

first visit and mission to the shed done. Just had my first attempt at chipping a Bachmann 08 with a chip complete with stay alive. Room is tight compared with other loco's but still relatively easy.

I have included some pictures and if anything they show how the loco comes together rather than how to take it apart but the reverse is just the same. I have another the very same to do so I shall detail the dismantling when I do that one. there are a few screws to come out and they are not immediately apparent at first glance.

Anyway, here is my first 08.

Some of the tools of the trade including soldering iron and double sided sticky tape.



Again I didn't show hoe I got to here but will do on the next one. Basically I took of the cab as I knew that the stay alive was going in there. After that I removed the couplings and coupling holders to give better visibility of the screws etc that need to come out.



The body, once the screws are removed hinges to the front. you can see the long slot to the left of where I have fitted the decoder. The decoder itself is a direct push on type but has three cables coming out of it. One for an additional function and two that connect to their similarly coloured partners on the stay alive unit which you will see housed in the cab shortly.




Above, another front on shot of the loco with the decoder fitted.




Once I looked at where the wiring was going to be run, I drilled a hole in the floor of the cab for the cables to come through.

here it is again from the underside.



I fitted the stay alive unit to the floor of the cab with double sided sticky tape after passing the two wires through.



I slid a bit of heat shrink insulation over the two cables to slide over the soldered joint after its done.



job done



and another shot of the whole thing.



I then tidied the cables up a bit and used another bit of double sided sticky tape to hold things in place whilst the body shell goes back on.



The shell goes back on and you can see the stay alive unit sitting there happily. ( I know its happy because I can see it smiling ….. cant you……. where are these tablets )



I didn't paint the chip black which I was going to do but I'll wait until its been trialled. its easy enough to remove the cab again later.



the cab is now back in place. and one last shot below.



job done. I just need to test it out and programme etc. If its ok, I'll maybe chip the other one and attempt a class 03. I think the crack is the same, stay alive in the cab.

 

any comments, queries etc …… fire away. hope its been of interest.

cheers ……. a very fired up toto.

 











 

Nearly forgot,

I done my plastering this morning and had some leftover polyfilla so tried out the rock moulds that I bought last weekend. ( one of the reasons that I volunteered so easily to do the DIY bit.

they are still in the moulds but should maybe be ready for release later tonight. here is the larger of the two which is just one big mould.



I only had enough left to fill a couple of sections of the smaller rock moulds.




I'll post a picture or two once they have been released from the moulds. They'll be good to practice painting and using scatter materials etc.

cheers for now.

 

toto

Well,

That's as far as I got today I'm afraid. Next weekend is the next session. I'll see what time I get home at on Friday. If I'm up for it after the drive down from Inverness, I will programme and test the 08. I'd like to be in the position where I am back on the bridge abutments and brick walling. We'll see. Once the main structure for the bridge abutments is done and I move on to the brick card, things should move a bit.

At the same time, I need to make provision for cabling for the bridge lights which will be fitted to the abutment walls.:hmm should not be any great shakes. I have a choice of lighting types although I'll need to choose carefully as it will more or less set the period for the yard lights etc. a bit of thinking to do there.

Loads to be doing. Hopefully I'll have a burst of energy and make some more decent progress.

Meanwhile, back to the drawing board to take the design a bit further on in my head.

Cheers for now

Toto

You've moved things along Tom , more than I've managed this weekend. :roll:

A bit at a time Matt. My brain has great ideas …….. My body ….. Not so much.  trying to get a bit done before our next visit to Victoria road. Then it's building time and the layouts will take second place.

Look out your scalpel blades

Could be fun.

Cheers

Toto

Could be fun - huh I ask you…..  the boss said it better be fun, it's all were getting :lol:

Good progress Tom, better than I'm doing, I had a layout that worked, now I have a collection of bits :shock:

Have a good trip.

Paul

I hope your not looking for sympathy ………. You started all this.

I hope it's not a Humpty Dumpty story. You know what happened there.

A box of bits ?  Now I'm confused I thought the buildings were bits of box…OK I'll stick to Lego

Cheers


 Matt

Nice work on the 08, but I don't see the speaker… ;-)

Cheers, Gary.

Hi Gary,

I'll save that for an attempt on something a little more generous with space. Could try a 25 or even the 22 but I'm not keen on the alteration to the fuel tank to accept the speaker. I could make a real pigs ear of that.
Still, the 08 was still a bold move for me.. However little steps and all that. It's all about confidence building. Another 08 to go and then an 03.

I sprung my rock moulds and they turned out ok. One of the small ones snapped in two but is still perfectly usable. With a bit of playing around, there are various different versions you could create with the same moulds just by blocking different facets and altering the depth of plaster etc. a handy tool.

I'll try painting one up and applying some scatter materials. No harm in trying.
They will come in handy for Highbridge and even more so for Rosebuddy.

Cheers

Toto

Hi Tom, try a bit of pva in the plaster mix, and a bit of muslin/mutton cloth pressed into the back while still wet- the plaster, not you! also black poster paint mixed in with the plaster will hide any chips or dings in the finished casting.


Pete.

Fair enough Pete. I'll give that a bash and feed back with the results. …….. Filed under medical experiments.

I used a box of polyfilla that I opened for some repairs to my walls and thought …… If I keep this, it's gonna go off now that the bags open so I just bunged it in the moulds to use it up. Just the job. However, If I was doing a bulk load ( maybe for Rosebuddy ) I would by a big bag of
Plaster as it would definitely be more cost efficient. I must admit, whilst the lasted moulds are good, they are not a patch on the cork bark sections. They look the business. Much more natural but also much more expensive.

Cheers

Toto

Tom, if you have a local Dental Laboratory try them for a bag of plaster, I pay £11 for a 20kg bag of white dental plaster..

Cheers
Ron

Hi Ron,

I can do better than that ……… My sister in law works for a dentist and has access to all that stuff. Never even gave it a thought either.

Well done that man:thumbs

Toto

Have a go using this method to paint the rock moulds that I posted a link to previously : 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6O5mM01S9Q

Cheers, Gary.

Good luck trying to get something out of a dentist, I've been trying over 40 years!! ha ha :)

Cheers
Ron

Ordered up a couple of two aspect ground signals for Highbridge. Thought they'd control the shunters siding and the lane leading from the traverser.

Just a little detail that will help I think.

Toto

First task this weekend on Highbridge is to programme the 08 with stay alive and then tryymagnets out again.

No guarantee but I hope to do the 08 tonight.
I'd like to get that out the way and get onto some scenics. Fingers crossed.

Toto

Well quite an eventful night.

Started off trying to programme the 08. It wouldn't recognise the decoder ……. Drat. So …… I took the loco apart only to find a wee long thing ( technical jargon ) with a copper winding thing had become detached from somewhere.

Well …….. Me being so knowledgeable of these things took a look around to guess ….. Ahem I mean see where it belonged. As it turns out there was another one connected to one end of a wee flat thing and it looked like there was a bit where the detached one may fit. So ……. At great risk of blowing the fecker up, I put on my surgical gown, prepared the area in question moving all wires in close proximity well out the way, sort of lined up the doofer with the thingy and went careering right in there with the soldering iron with a tip you could turn over the veggie patch with. Hey ……. It worked. Now programmed and working.

However, not is all well. This wire on tube is giving me headaches as the switched are not moving over fully. I put my version of an omega thingy in with limited success but need to rethink it as they are not reliable at all.

So, yet another setback. I did not even bother trying to test the magnets out with the loco attached as there is that much point work in the surrounding track work that it was just screwing up everywhere with the switches not feeding the frogs correctly. I could change them over to Cobalts but feel like I am giving in if I do that. It would be easy but then I'd be running away from the problem rather than sorting it out.

I think I'll persevere. More on that tomorrow.

Cheers

Toto

That wee copper wire wrapped  thingy is a european suppressor (or choke) for DC, not needed for DCC, so can be cut off.

Paul