RETIRED GUY PROJECTS

[Kusojiji]

Starting this up as a running blog type thing. Just some sharing some small projects that may help some or glean ideas from others.

First up is an N-scale Tomytec DB20 boxcab. This comes as a shell and you need to get a motor chassis that costs more than the shell.

For comparison against a HO scale GP30 truck.

It runs very well with one sprung axle and both sets can swivel to stay on track.

I wanted (needed) to install lights on both ends as I like to run my stuff through dark corridors. So, I broke out my pin vice and drilled a .5mm hole in the lense and through the mounting base. And then a .7mm bit to hollow out the lense for the led. I used a 402 warm white led.

Soldered them to a 2K ohm SMD resistor, in reverse polarity to each other so that they only light up in the direction of travel.

Soldered the wires to the motor pick ups and put it all together. I also added a 5gram tire weight to the chassis for better connectivity.

Runs fine lasts long time (hopefully!)

 

[Kusojiji]

I bought a Dapol 64XX Pannier tank in n-scale a while ago.

While it ran nicely, it sounded like it was grinding up its gears. I had the milkshake of death on the gears when I took it apart. I decided to remotor with a coreless. It just so happened that the coreless motor and worm from a recently departed Graham Farish Class 08 shunter fit nicely, so I printed up a motor mount.

The nice thing about this loco is that the body is made of metal. The motor had been glued in place, so it was a chore to get it out, but I managed it without breaking anything.

With some minor clearancing, the coreless motor fit into the body from below vice having to slide in from the rear, so I was able to mount it to the chassis.

Got everything back together and added some fishing weight people in the cab to get the weight back up. I should reshape them...

The cool thing about this is that since the motor is out of a GFAR loco, it runs the same speed as my new GFAR Pannier. Didn't expect that.

 

[Bruette]

"RETIRED GUY PROJECTS"​

I think a better title would be "A Master Modelers Projects" but I know you are too modest to have chosen that for a title. But it fits none the less.

Thanks for sharing your work!

 

[Kusojiji]

Or the inner workings of a bored madman! haha

 

[Kusojiji]

Bought one of these Keikyuu DEHA 268 trains as part of a STEAM series that Kato had started. This train car is parked in front of the Tokyo office.

The power unit is sold separately and was relieved that it was still being sold. It ran fine but has one of those older motors that took a lot of voltage to get going.

I could have gone with a slotless motor, but decided to go coreless. Used a 615 motor and a .8 to 1.5mm brass tube to fit the flywheel.

Took some measurements and printed out a motor mount.

Everything went in nicely and runs very smoothly at very low voltage.

The flywheel effect is very good. Running at 5 vdc, I shut power at the rail joiner and it coasted that far.

 

[Bruette]

Brilliant!

 

[Kusojiji]

Been looking at boxcabs for a while and this thing popped on my radar. Microace EF55 shorty. Cost about 4000 yen, which comes out to ~$26.

It runs well for its size. It's pretty weighty, picks up power and drives from 2 of the 3 axles. Only problem is that it wakes up the dead when running. So, I took a peek inside and found straight cut gears. This thing is basically all motor as it barely fits inside. The body is plastic with a big chunk of metal casing.

Took some measurements and printed out a coreless mount.

Now it runs better, as good as straight cut gears will allow, and this thing can pull. Struggles with 8 cars, comfortable with 6.

Still contemplating on adding headlights, but this one really is tight inside.

 

[NVSrr1500]

At the rate everything is going, the first thing I will have to do when I retire is find a job.

 

[Kusojiji]

I've had the Yokosuka line train set for a while. Used to ride this train a lot back in the 90's. I don't have the receipt, but the inspection tag says H6, which is Heisei 6 - 6th year of the Heisei emperor. Can be very confusing... Anyway, that comes out to 1994, which is about right.

Decided to put lighting into the cars. It's a 6 car set, but I had bought another motor unit and a double decker car.

The double decker presented an issue with the lower portion requiring a separate light set.

The upper section went in without a hitch. Lower half was too short to put in a light board.

The solution was to use the trimmed sections that I have built up from shorter installs and solder it in.

This required notching the floor for the wires to pass through.

Since these boards come with so many solder pads, it wasn't too hard to find the ones that fit.

TBC

 

[Kusojiji]

After it all went in, gave it a quick test.

My second double decker had issues with the brass pickups being too tarnished to transfer power. Took the car apart and cleaned the areas that I needed for power transfer.

Once all cleaned up, it went together same as the other. After all 8 cars were done, gave it a run.

And then I found that I had mixed in one bulb colored light strip...

Going to have to swap it out with a natural color strip, like the others. Dang!

Edit: wasn't the light strip. Interior is purple in this car giving it the darker hue.

 

[Kusojiji]

The other train line in Yokosuka is the Keihin Kyuuko, which is a private company. The Yokosuka line above, is part of the Japan Rail (JR) system. This train runs on standard gauge track at 4' 8" width. The JR stuff is narrower. With the wider track, she runs faster.

Bought this set around the same time as the Yokosuka line, mid 90's. So, of course I have to put lighting in. This one was much more difficult as some of the cars did not come with the brass strips under the floorboard for some reason. The power unit and the two ends did since they have head and tail lights.

So I used 1mm wide brass strips that came with the lighting kits. This required trimming the tabs off the chassis so that the brass strip would not be angled away from the bogie pick ups.

I don't have any shots of this for some reason, but I placed two brass strips on each end, and stuper glued the metal weight down to capture it all. Did a continuity test to ensure they were all connected together.

Had to make the brass risers for the lights.

And cut a notch in the floor board, which is a separate piece from the chassis, making it a 3 piece PITA to put back together. I ended up gluing the risers to the floor board since there were too many moving parts.

Got the light board situated and double sided taped into the body.

Once all 6 cars were completed, gave it a run.

 

[Kusojiji]

HORNBY J52 HEADLAMP

Finally got around to installing a headlamp in this thing.

It has a unique feature in that the boiler comes off like a hood.

I went with a Train-O-Matic Next18 decoder and used a N18 socket board.

Got everything wired in and the SPP wired to the decoder.

Everything fit perfectly on the motor mount. Used double sided foam tape to hold the decoder socket on.

Used a resistor board for the headlamp to put a 1K resistor in to protect the LED, which is a 603, warm white.

Had programmed the decoder before adding the SPP as that would prevent the NCE system from programming it. Once it was all assembled, put it on the road.

 

[Kusojiji]

KATO GOURMINO DINNER CAR

I bought this thing to see if I could add table lamps. Well, Kato beat me to it.

Since this is stock Kato lighting, I knew that the flickering was going to drive me up the wall, so I added a stay alive cap.

So I found two gigantic spots to add the wires to and cleaned the insulation off.

Then I soldered 30awg wire wrap wires.

I used a 470 ohm resistor in-line with a 220 uf tantalum. Drilled two holes in the floorboard and put the cap and resistor in the lounge area (forgot to take pics).

Cleaned everything up and reassembled. It does work, but not as good as I had hoped. I probably need to reduce the resistor size to 100 ohms as was recommended by many, but I don't have any.

 

[Kusojiji]

KATO ABe 8/12

This thing looked awesome and I figured it would augment my Bernina Express set nicely. Problem is that it made a hell of a racket while running.

I did send it back to the vender for replacement, but what I got back was the same. I tried everything I could think of, including adding a spacer in to keep the chassis halves apart as it seemed like it helped, but it did not.

I spent a few days trying to figure this out. A little frustration set in and I found the limit to the capacitors in my lighting kit. A little bit too much throttle, a flash of light and a whiff of burnt electronics.

So, I ended up replacing the motor with a coreless motor.

The replacement was easy, just had to move the pick up tabs over from the old motor.

Put it all back together and it worked perfectly.

 

[Bruette]

Well done!

That seals it, I'm going back to calling you Cujo. You attack these projects with the confidence of a mad dog!

Thanks for sharing, take a victory lap!

 

[RhB Michael]

Good work! One of my favorite Swiss Triebwagens.

 

[Kusojiji]

Yeah, it was too nice to let sit. I ran it last night with the Gourmino dinner car.

 

[RhB Michael]

I've got the HOm Bemo version with a burned up decoder. Three of them in fact. There is something wrong with my unit. I've also replaced a motor with no change. I'm wondering if each of those decoders I had was from the bad lots made from the sub-standard Chinese parts that happened during the pandemic. It was purchased during the pandemic, and each of the decoders from the same time frame.

I'm tempted to try a fourth decoder, but I'm sort of gun shy about it. That was why I bought the Capricorn.

 

[Kusojiji]

Do you have the blanking plate for it? Take the decoder out and run it on DC. If your power supply has an ammeter, see if she's drawing a lot and burning out the decoder.

 

[Kusojiji]

RAPIDO BRAKE VAN LIGHTS

Took a while to get going on this, but finally decided to jump in.

I had bought some pick ups from Peter's spares and luckily, it fit perfectly.

3D printed part to hold the two pickup parts together and make it easier to install.

Punched a hole in the stove and installed a flickering yellow LED. Added some red paint to it as well.

Had to cut the weight since the floorboard lays flat against it. Needed the room for the wires. Actually ended up cutting the whole middle section out to make installing the wiring easier.

The components includes a bridge rectifier, 227uf tantalum, 2K resistor for the stove LED, 560 ohm resisitor for the cap. The cab light strip is already protected by 560 ohm resistors.

All this stuff fit under the bench seat.

Got it all together and gave it a test.