RETIRED GUY PROJECTS

[Kusojiji]

PLUM DIESEL SWITCHER KIT pt2

Got the body painted and detailed. Used paint pens that have .7mm tips which made life so much easier. Also found out about accent color to help make the louvers stand out a bit.

She's getting a coat of dull tomorrow and then final assembly. I am going to stuff as much weight as I can in there.

The power unit has a coreless motor in it and it usually takes off at low voltage. I hope the lights have a chance to come on before mach 1.

 

[Kusojiji]

PLUM DIESEL SWITCHER KIT COMPLETE

Got the dull coat sprayed this am, which took the sheen off of the undercarriage pieces. Mounted the power unit and wired the lights. I was only able to get 31 grams of weight into it, but it came down to weight or interior cab details. If I chose not to do the cab, I could have added 10 - 15 more grams. We'll see how it goes as I can remove the body shell from the base plate. I added window glazing, which came from the excess stuff from that wooden tram I built earlier.

She can pull 8 40' boxcars around no problem.

 

[Michael B]

PLUM DIESEL SWITCHER KIT COMPLETE

Got the dull coat sprayed this am, which took the sheen off of the undercarriage pieces. Mounted the power unit and wired the lights. I was only able to get 31 grams of weight into it, but it came down to weight or interior cab details. If I chose not to do the cab, I could have added 10 - 15 more grams. We'll see how it goes as I can remove the body shell from the base plate. I added window glazing, which came from the excess stuff from that wooden tram I built earlier.
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She can pull 8 40' boxcars around no problem.

It's like Babe Ruth, what with those tiny feet!

 

[Kusojiji]

Those are rollers. Good for checking lights, etc.

 

[Kusojiji]

While trying to stay awake till midnight, I started a project to install headlights in my Tomytec 6000 tram.

Designed and printed a mount to hold a warm white 603 LED.

It followed the contour of the front and rear of the tram nicely, so bleed is minimal.

Used a 1K 1206 resistor and wired everything up. And completed.

 

[Kusojiji]

HORNBY CLASS 08 MARKER LAMPS

Finally decided to start this project. Loco runs very nicely.

Problem is that the lamps are very small and molded.

First step was to cut the "lense" off. Used a cuticle cutter since they are small, have a flat face, and are very sharp.

Then it was drilling a .8mm hole for the .75mm fiber. The LEDs will be mounted on the inside and fiber running through to pass the light fwd.

Then I designed and printed the LED mounts for the hood end and the cab end. The hood end was easy. The cab end is two small pieces since I did not want to have to cut anything off to get a single bar installed.

 

[Kusojiji]

HORNBY CLASS 08 MARKER LAMPS PT2

Next up is the electronics. This will have 5 LEDs installed - 2 red, 2 white, and a cab light. The prototype has a white marker on the left and a red marker on the right side of each end. So, I needed four resistor boards with a 1K SMT resistor and a logic driver board since my decoder AUX 3 is logic.

I designed and printed a mount for the boards to sit on and ensure that they clear the flywheel.

Currently waiting for the glue to set for the LEDs in their mounts, then will start the task of attaching the LEDs to their respective resistor board. I have them all color coded by the wires, using NMRA standards (white HL, yellow TL, etc) and hope I don't screw it up.

 

[Bruette]

hope I don't screw it up.

You won't. If you do, I know you well enough to know you will fix it.

 

[Kusojiji]

Thanks! So far, nothing was irreversible, just more time.

 

[Kusojiji]

LED tests on the hood end. Fibers not yet installed.

 

[Kusojiji]

Got the cab side done. Painted the fiber to try to reduce bleed. Seems to work. Getting the wire between the lamps back on was a real pain since I can't see the hole, even with a magnifier. Cut the fiber flush with the front of the lamp and left about 1.5mm out the backside to touch the LED and hold the lamp in place.

Only managed to break the left side seat off so far...

 

[Colorado Midland Modeler]

PLUM DIESEL SWITCHER KIT COMPLETE

Got the dull coat sprayed this am, which took the sheen off of the undercarriage pieces. Mounted the power unit and wired the lights. I was only able to get 31 grams of weight into it, but it came down to weight or interior cab details. If I chose not to do the cab, I could have added 10 - 15 more grams. We'll see how it goes as I can remove the body shell from the base plate. I added window glazing, which came from the excess stuff from that wooden tram I built earlier.
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She can pull 8 40' boxcars around no problem.

Beautiful little critter! It reminds me of a Tractive Power Corp. TP56/TP70, but with four wheels instead of six.

 

[Kusojiji]

TP56/TP70

I just looked these up. I was looking for a solution to replace the motor unit if I couldn't get it to run more reliably and was thinking of either the Kato P42 drive or placing a motor on a 6 axle truck again.

This is a Kato truck for an SD40, I believe. It used to run very nicely until I but that dang bachmann "conductive" oil on the bearings and now it has problems. I think it may have burnt in as solvents won't clean it out. I need to figure out how to get it going again.

or go with the P42 drive which works very nicely.

 

[TheXModelRailroader]

Had no idea you started this! Great work buddy!

 

[Kusojiji]

CLASS 08 DCC COMPLETION

Felt good enough to finally complete this. Been procrastinating since my brain wasn't too clear lately.

Got all 6 lights wired to their correct boards and in the correct polarity. Told ya I felt good!

Put some heatshrink to try to get some kind of wire management going. Left it loose so that it can move.

Programmed it and got it going.

I'll need to add a stay alive cap since the lights take hits. It doesn't stall, but the lights flicker sometimes, which drives me insane.

 

[Kusojiji]

KATO N SCALE C62 TENDER LIGHT

Kato just released a new run of the C62 steamer that now has a tender light. All of the previous models did not. My original plan was to buy the new model, but I found that they were selling the tender by itself. I emailed Kato to confirm that the tender included the metal parts inside, so I ordered 1 to give it a try. I have 3 of these.

So, first step was to take the tender apart and see what was involved. The frame needed to be notched to allow the light to get to the lense.

Then the LED and resistor were soldered together and added to the metal frame halves with aluminum tape. I had to remember to ensure that I reversed the polarity so that it would light up going backwards.

Put the tender back together and moved the wheels over from the old tender.

Now I can see where I'm going when going backwards.

The only thing I wish they did was to add the white piping on the top rail like the old tender. Kato custom shop does the light mod for about 4000 yen. I did this for a couple of hours.

 

[diesel]

It's like Babe Ruth, what with those tiny feet!

Like this one?

 

[Kusojiji]

1 to 1 scale rolling road! What was that for?

 

[Kusojiji]

N SCALE J94 HEADLIGHT

Finally decided to pull the plug and install a headlamp on this thing. Runs great after all the fixing I had to do.

After I got the body off, I removed the 6 pin decoder socket and hard wired the motor to the pickup wires.

Then drilled a .75mm hole in the nose, right where the lamp iron is, so it is in the correct position. Painted the LED white.

Tried to secure the wires in the shell as I had to get around the smoke stack hole which is where a screw goes in to hold everything together.

I used a 2K resistor to keep the light from lighting up the room.

Got everything back together and gave it a test run. Looks awesome!

While I had it apart, I painted the valve motion under the boiler.

And since I removed the DCC socket, the cab details are now visible.

 

[Kusojiji]

KATO HO KUMOHA 40 #2

I received my 2nd Kato HO Kumoha 40 passenger loco. After running it in to make sure it works, I started the DCC process. First up is to try to get the number board to light up. My N-scale stuff has theirs going, so I wanted to get this as well.

So I designed an LED mount that will keep most of the light focused on that small window.

I will be tying the numberboard lights to AUX 2, which is available.