RETIRED GUY PROJECTS

[Kusojiji]

I am also modifying the light board so that I can control the head and tail lights separately vice the way that I have #1 set up. The lightboards are bidirectional so that on DC, the white light turns on going fwd and the red one going bkwd. In order to control each LED separately, I had to figure out how it worked in the first place and then modify it to work the way I wanted.

After scrutinizing it for a few hours, I decided to give it a try. I had bought a spare lightboard as a guinea pig.

Had to cut a run, drill out a through board connection and solder in a 560 ohm SMT resistor.

Then attached the wires.

Checked for any shorts and then applied power. Blue is POS, white is NEG for HL, yellow is NEG for TL.

 

[Kusojiji]

KATO HO WAFU 29500 DCC

This is a Japanese caboose.

It has tail lights on both ends so can be used in either direction. On DC, it's directional. On DCC, both ends light up. I decided to finally use a function decoder that I bought a while ago to control this. It is only a two function decoder (HL, TL), so I made it so that the interior lights remain on.

So the first thing was to dissect the lightboard and figure out what mods needed to be made. This took some cutting, drilling and soldering. I also had to reverse one of the LEDs so that I would only need to have one VCC wire.

Once this was done, the decoder was soldered in.

I kept the interior lighting the same and it picks up power from two strips on the lightboard that come directly from the rails.

Put it all together, programmed and running. So now, if the tail light is on, the other end is not.

This thing can use a stay alive cap, so I need to do that later.

 

[Kusojiji]

Well, I added a cap to it and forgot to insulate the board, so I let the smoke out. I contacted the designer and he said that the 470uF cap with the 100 ohm resistor should have been fine, so I guess it shorted against something. oh well. I will install the other board that I have.

 

[Kusojiji]

KATO HO KUMOHA 40 #2 WIRE MANAGEMENT

I didn't like the way I had the wires run in #1, so I figured out how to get the wires into a cable run. For the head and tail lights, I drilled a hole in the light fixture and printed up a piece to conceal the wires as they made their run to the roof.

For all the light wiring, all the wires will be in the space below the roof, out of sight. So all the wires were run in channels that I printed and installed adjacent to a space between the windows to keep them out of sight.

I need 8 wires going to the roof so I have them split 4 per side.
With the body on, the interior looks very clean.

Gave it a quick test.

 

[Kusojiji]

B TRAIN SHORTY LIGHTS

Bandai came out with these shortened units that fit on the Kato 11-109 chassis a while ago and have since stopped unfortunately. My buddy gave me some of these when he quit and I got them running. I needed lights.

So, I 3d printed a mount for the LED board and .75mm fiber. Drilled out the headlight holes and ran it all in. I also have lead weights installed for more traction.

Looks much better than what I had before.

 

[Kusojiji]

And EF65 done.

I need to buy some Kato pantographs to make this look like a real toy!

 

[Kusojiji]

And with the real pantographs installed.

 

[Kusojiji]

Started adding decals to my 3d printed box cars. Can't say I enjoy this kind of work, but the visual is much better than just a plain car. I did spray the car with a dull coat, but the decal is still shiny and stands out.

 

[Kusojiji]

KATO CHIBI TRAM LIGHTING

Added some lights to this tram. The front unit has the motor, so adding lights to it was no issue. The rear unit is an empty shell and no way to get power from the track. Original plan was to buy another motor unit, but went the cheap way instead. Ran a couple 32 gauge wires. 5 volt light strip with only two leds per car.

 

[Kusojiji]

After hours of cleaning the trucks of 14 cars, I finally got these UP smoothside passenger cars to stop flickering. Had these cars since they came out in the early 90's. One thing about axle end pick ups is that they like to gather gunk in the pockets. Will probably be replacing the old incandescent lighting set with the newer flicker free led stuff.

Oh yeah, I guess I should go find my E8 locos...

 

[Kusojiji]

Dug my E8's (926, 932, 935B) out of storage and found that I had installed DCC boards, which is unfortunate. I hope I can find the DC light board.

I stripped all 3 down and cleaned them up. Then tried to program them for the first time in their lives. 932 programmed fine. 926 and 935B seem to be DOA. The decoder is a DN145K, which has been discontinued since 2002. Not sure when I installed them.

 

[Kusojiji]

I had remotored this Kato EF81 with a coreless motor and while it ran great at first, it started to die after moving only a couple of inches. I thought the motor had over heated or something, so I decided to put my last slotless motor in.

This has the same type chassis with the tub that Kato used back then. The RDC Budd car is the same, so I just reprinted that adapter.

What I failed to realize is that the flywheels are too big to fit into the adapter. Since I didn't want to take the flywheel off, I redesigned the adapter and removed the top. It still holds it tight. Also had to move the motor pickups over.

Well, after putting everything back together, this thing would move a couple of inches and die. All this work for nothing as it turned out to be a pick up issue.

So, took the bogies apart and cleaned them out. Had 40+ years of fluffage in it.

While I had everything apart, I decided to remove the traction tires. The dummy bogie has 4 wheels that are good for this purpose. Moved both drive traction tires to the bogie.

Learned about this trick when I was working on my HO EF510.

Everything is back together and runs nicely. I have a new EF81 on pre-order and it has the slotless motor as well.

 

[Frenchie]

Hi Kusojiji !
I only recently discovered your thread. WOW !
As a scenery oriented guy armed with two left hands, I am very impressed by your work, amazing !
Personally when I install a decoder and sound in a loco, I feel like a hero.
Great work, sincerely.

 

[Kusojiji]

Hi Frenchie! Thanks! What I see from you guys that do scenery stuff is amazing. I am mechanically oriented vice artistic, so I have no clue and don't have the eye to do that stuff. I am finding, though, that I am making a lot more mistakes such as polarity or grabbing the wrong wire, sometimes the wrong loco, so my projects have slowed down.

 

[Frenchie]

Hi Frenchie! Thanks! What I see from you guys that do scenery stuff is amazing. I am mechanically oriented vice artistic, so I have no clue and don't have the eye to do that stuff. I am finding, though, that I am making a lot more mistakes such as polarity or grabbing the wrong wire, sometimes the wrong loco, so my projects have slowed down.

I understand, to me mechanic is an alien territory, usually when I see a toolbox I make a large detour. As much as possible I avoid diving into it.
In scenery building, mistakes don't have major consequences, changes are easy and cost is minimum, if any.
I also noticed that I make more mistakes, it's probably because we all get younger...

 

[Kusojiji]

Finally decided to finish my Kumoha 40. Quadruple checked the wiring, drew it out on paper to ensure I didn't hose it up, quadruple checked the soldering, and then gingerly placed it on the rail to ensure I didn't break it at the last moment.

Had to go through all my notes to figure out how to program it as I have HL and TL for the headlights on both ends, Aux 1 and Aux 2 for the tail lights on both ends, Aux 3 for the cabin lights and Aux 4 for the number boards. Aux 1 and 2 are tied to Function 1(f) and (r) so that it switches with direction.

The number board required some work as the decals that came with the model do not pass light. I ended up scanning the decal sheet, taking the print of the numberboard and used power point to get it to the correct size and then printed it on glossy photo paper that I ensured would pass light through. Glad it worked out.

I did get my exercise today as the printer is downstairs.

Now, will repeat this process for my other one.

 

[KriegslokBR52]

Started adding decals to my 3d printed box cars. Can't say I enjoy this kind of work, but the visual is much better than just a plain car. I did spray the car with a dull coat, but the decal is still shiny and stands out.

View attachment 255211

Before putting decals on, you should spray the model with high gloss lacquer. This will mostly hide the decal film. I learned that the hard way back in the day. After decals are on, then another light coat of high gloss over the decals is recommended. After that, dull coat if you so desire. Putting on decals is not my favorite job on the model, but taken good care, they will definitely add to the attraction of the models.

 

[Kusojiji]

Awesome! Thanks!

 

[Kusojiji]

Rebuild on Kumoha 40072 under way. While it was apart, I cleaned all the brass contacts for the wheel pickups as I put a lot of hours on it. This one has a stay alive that I need to remove in order to program it. I will probably add a stay alive to 40071.

 

[Kusojiji]

40072 completed and running alongside 40071. Both equipped with stay alives.