Image Stacking

I've been playing with my camera again!  One frustration I have in photographing all my little trains is the shallow depth of field one always gets with n scale. So, today I made a small project of going the other way, and the result is the image above.

The locomotive is a Dapol LNER B1.  I'm not really blown away with it's running properties but I'm reserving judgement till I've given it more of a chance.  Right now major landscaping work is underway on the JaggyBahn and the track conditions are poor, so a full review is a long ways off.  Anyhow, the image you see here is a stacked composite of 5 images, each taken with slightly different focus at a set aperture.

Full size image here.

Gear: Canon 60D, 100mm macro lens, F11, 1"3, 400 ISO, small tripod, Zerene Stacker software.

So obviously it's still not perfect, some areas are a bit soft and the dust (which was invisible to the naked eye) looks terrible.   For my next attempt I'll go with perhaps 20 exposures and computer control to focus the lens.

Kato Gottardo RAM TEE

Gottardo Trans Europe Express!  This model proved quite tricky to acquire.  Kato originally released this about 12 years ago in Europe, and it was a flawed offering. Apparenly it was their rerelease of an earlier Hobbytrain mold, the original of which featured power pickup on multiple cars and a bad coupling mechanism.  for Kato's first release, they put the power pickup in the motor car and and used a brittle coupling mechanism.  This was prone both to uncoupling and cracking, rendering the trainset useless.  

Recognizing these defects Kato re-re-released this in 2009 with a new quieter motor with dual flywheels and an updated coupler mechanism.  If you find yourself shopping for one of these on eBay be very certain you get the new version. It's part number 11400 (11405 with factory interior lights), or 11401/11406 for the "grey mouse" livery used in the 1980s.

"Grey Mouse" Livery

There is an excellent blog post detailing the history of this EMU here, along with some photos of the model.  

As for my own impressions, I find the engine to be a little noisy, and like all Kato products it is setup from the factory to run very fast.  The cars couple together with a rotating diaphragm mechanism, giving a realistic appearance even on tight curves  It's rather fiddly, and I always find myself loath to uncouple or move it once it's setup in place.  That said, the cars still do not always latch together as firmly as I would like, so I shudder to think what the old mechanism was like.

The train itself is a very attractive unit, and 6 cars seems like the perfect length on my layout. I love the unique look of the TEE, and the retro-futuristic styling. 

DCC installation was a little unusual, as your only option is to buy a Kato DCC decoder.  This decoder is low cost and low frills, but it drops in easily enough via a special door under the engine carriage. Operation is reliable.  Curiously Kato chose to factory illuminate the table lamps in the dining car.  This led me to attempt to illuminate the rest of the train, not wanting only a single car lit.  I added Kato's LED interior light kits and have been quite unhappy with them, they just flicker endlessly.  Some day soon I'll remove them. The money would have been better spent on directional lighting for the front and end cars.  That aside, I'm quite happy with this train.

On my subjective scale, I give this a 7 out of 10.

Urban Development

Continuing to develop the main village today I began to lay the foundations for the hillside.  Below are a few images showing the process.

Above is my village area with the buildings removed.  Each has an outline traced on the table with a sharpie marker, and for those that will sit atop the hill I've already positioned wires to power the interior lights.

It's not much to look at yet, my base is a combination of 1/4" plywood, 1" extruded foam and strategically balled wads of old newspaper (not pictured)   It's all help in place with white glue, and masking tape in the case of the newspaper.   You can see I've use some handy bottles and cans to weigh down my foam board as the glue dries.

Here we are a few hours later.  Newspapers drop sheets now protect not just the track but the ballasted area in the foreground.  I've cut up one full roll of plaster cloth into 4" strips and applied it to my hillside.  Once this dries a second later will go on.

The flat spots will be the foundations of structures.  After the second coat goes on and dries I'll begin considering where the rock face will poke through the grass.

That's it for today. More to come soon!

Town Planning

Now that I'm back at it I've decided to tackle some of the tricky things I've been putting off first, and top of that list is figuring out how I plan to build out the main station area.  Since the inception of the track plan I had planned to build a town here, but I've been troubled by some logical issues with access and roadways.  Call me a curmudgeon, but it always irks me to see layouts with buildings with no plausible road access.  The modern world is all about the automobile and a house, industry or workshop without road access is just  wrong.  My station is ringed in by track, it's an island... so what to do?

Before I go any further I should mention that all the images below are greyblock quality only.  Buildings are placed in approximate locations, roads are drawn in with a sharpie, hills and elevations represented by foam blocks and plywood- I'm just trying to lay out the key objects in the space, to find the right balance of density and appealing sight lines.   Also, as always, just click on an image to see it in high res.

Step one was building a level crossing.  I found some miscellaneous bits and bobs and took a stab at it.  Still needs paint obviously:

Next I took a stab at my main street.  I'm planning an elevation (represented by the plywood) with a road extending from the level crossing, leading up and along the back wall.  There will be a T intersection, and from that my town's main street, heading into the depth of the image below:

The foreground is slightly older structures.  As you go up the hill, much as in the real world, the real estate improves.  Out past the station is a freight warehouse, and a freight unloading platform, as well as the signal tower I previously located on the other end of the room.   It has bothered me for months that the tower is a closer match to this station than the one it was previously paired with, so tonight I finally made the move:

Here you can see the new freight platform and the warehouse behind it.  I'll probably look for one more industrial type building to block off the street and bridge the space to the line running in the background.  You can also see my planned spot for the semaphore signal.  I'm happy to report that wiring this is very easy, it will attach directly to my switch machine and operate automagically!

The station area is still in flux.  My largest concern in that I am now using three different styles of platform!   I'm really not sure how I feel about this, it was not entirely by design, but of course in the real world we see things like this daily.  Perhaps it speaks to a narrative of expansions... First there was the passenger platform extending from the station, then a freight platform was added, and then as traffic increased a second platform was needed... I'm just not sure. Please, let me know what you think:

Front right: passenger, center left: passenger, back right: freight.

The old church site is now a farm:

And the former site of the signal tower now has a small platform.  A new signal tower is on order from Euro Rail Hobbies, it will go on the opposite side of the tracks, and so make much better use of space that the previous arraignment afforded.  While I'm still not entirely happy, this area now feels significantly less cramped.  I've photoshopped in a picture of the new signal tower in it's planned space:

A new platform now sits where the old signal tower once resided.

Finally, you may have noticed above a bunch of new structures.  Sharp eye Sir!  I've been busy building a number of new structures, many of which were Christmas gifts.  Those of you responsible, you know who you are, and I thank you.  I only wish I could have got to them sooner!

Faller 232234

Faller 232245 (Apothecary)

Faller 232245 (Bakery)

Faller 232235

Ballast Update Infographic

Click to Zoom

Visually much progress has been made, as my ballasting now covers all the territory where some  landscaping exists. I will hold off on ballasting the rest till there's a more defined sense of what it all shall be, because at present it's little more then plywood with a quick coat of green paint. This progress looks pretty good but it is somewhat misleading. The track marked as green above is not yet operationally sound.  in fact, most of it is now pretty dismal. The tedious job of picking out stray gravel, polishing all the rails and making sure the turnouts are free to move has yet to be completed. Worse still, this operational handicap and my recent work schedule has prevent any operations for many weeks, rendering my underground and tunnel track is poor shape too.  I need to get some trains moving soon before it all becomes a quagmire!

Blasted Ballast!

We have normality!

I the game I've been working on for the past four years is on the verge of complete, we have submitted it to the publisher and I once again have time for some life outside of work! 

In the past week I've built myself a newer and bigger storage shelf for rolling stock and resumed ballasting my track. I've also picked up some old Fleishmann signals and semaphores that will be going near my main station.   I'm not sure how prototypical they may be for Switzerland but I don't really care, I'll be the only one who knows better and seeing a moving semaphore responding to traffic is just too cool to pass up!

Sleeping Dogs

Work on the JaggyBahn has ground to a halt as I finish my game, Sleeping Dogs. I say "my game" but it's not, I'm a cog is a big machine that's been working on this for years, yet in a sense it is mine too, as it's taken over my life. We just hit beta and have a few weeks to go till it's in-the-can.  Until then the trains shall be silent I'm afriad.  I do however look forward to some serious comp time to follow and will be getting everything in order ASAP.

Here's the game, for the curious:  http://sleepingdogs.net/

Automation

Click for full size

This is the main view from TrainController Bronze.   The top of the image shows my layout, as the software knows it.  Track is divided into logical blocks (the yellow boxes) and is monitored through feedback modules informed by vertical mount reed switches.   Top center you can see there's one locomotive on the table, which is currently idle.  Were it in motion you would see track ahead reserved for it.  Bottom right is the currently defined roster.

Progress

Work has been ongoing but it is not work with much visual appeal and so I've been reluctant to post, as I know everyone likes pictures.  Here's what's new:

- I now have 43 sensors (vertical reed switches) on my track, and 5 in hand.  I'm going to hold off on installing the last few till I have a good sense of my current coverage.

- Ballasting work continues.  I am about 30% done now.  Hoes does one ballast about a switch?!?

- The train PC has been upgraded.  It was an old xeon server, it's not a much newer dual core system with a ton more ram, a raid boot volume and many generations better graphics.  Why?  Because I can.  

- I've discovered that windows 7 does not cope with multiple identical web cams.   If you plan to use several, vary your brands.  (I'm working on live cams for my tunnels).

- The wifi camera car project has taken a step back with Win7, seems the very cheap hardware used has little modern driver support.

More, with pictures, soon!

Blasted Ballast! (And some weathering too)

I have read many articles that begin with "People do not like doing ballast but it's really not that bad if...." and I'm here to tell you that they lie.  Ballasting is just not fun.  Not if you take it slow, are fussy about it, and don't want any stray stones on your track.  That is, it's no fun if you are like me.  I've just started ballasting a section of track where I know I'm done with embedding sensors and I've spent perhaps 6 hours on perhaps 7 feet.

My process is standard stuff.  I'm mixing two types of ballast stone to color match my photo reference. Once mixed I spill it gently from a cup onto the track, about a foot at a time, and shape it with a fine brush.  Next I clean my rails of any stray stones, moisten the area with wet water, add glue, add more water, dab more glue and move on.  The only good thing I can say for all this is that I like the look of the end result, not perhaps because it looks great but because it makes everything else look poor, which must mean it's doing some good.

Wet water and glue applied

The keen eye'd among you may notice that my rails are weathered as well.  This started off as the most horrible chore ever, as I was doing it by hand with a very fine brush and then sanding the rail tops with 900 grit paper.  On a layout the size of mine, this is frankly a task best left undone.

In a fit of frustration I experimented with a sharpie marker on some of the staging tracks (tracks that will not be seen once all scenery is in place) and thought that looked okay- better then nothing, but not good.  The tracks were not all shiny silver, now they were shiny black, a modest improvement.  This lead me to research paint pen options, and lo, I found the answer.  Floquil sells a 3 pack of weathering paint pens (Rust, Railroad Tie Brown and Grimy Black) for just this purpose.  Exactly what I needed!

Now, as many of you may know, I'm Canadian.  Being a Canadian my government seeks to protect me from the many dangers of the world.  As such, we're not allowed to shoot one another, or bring handguns to schools, or sell one another paints without proper labeling.  Yep.  My government seeks to protect me from poorly labeled paint.  These paint pens, fiendish things that they are, have labels that do not meet with my government's approval.  What is wrong?  Apparently the warning label on the paint is only written in English.  So obviously if I were a Francophone I'd paint my eyes and then insert these pens somewhere awkward, as my government apparently feels the Quebec population is prone to do.  In their paternal wisdom my government has banned the import of these paint pens. Seriously. Go to MicroMark and try buying one- US shipping only on just this one product.  National moratorium on running with scissors to follow.

At this point I'll just skip ahead in this narrative and say that I received many wonderful Christmas presents this year and over the holidays I managed to weather all my remaining track in two evenings.

Completely Off Topic: Sleeping Dogs

I mentioned a while back that I'm a video game designer.  Today I can show you the game I've been making for the past few years:

We're not quite done yet but will be soon. As with any game development project the hours are occasionally very long, though sometimes not.  As we wrap this up I'll have less and less time for trains, and then suddenly an abundance, as shall be evidenced by the the frequency of my posts here.

REVIEW: MiniTrix 12455 DB V300 with Sound

I have heard very few people say good things about sound in N scale.  Well, I'm about to buck the trend.  This V300 has been rock solid, both as a locomotive and as a locomotive with sound.  That is, even if it didn't have sound, I'd be very happy with it, and the sound performance has been flawless.

Is it loud enough: Yes.  It's really loud.  I have the volume set at 150/255 and find it really loud.  I don't want to turn it up more.

Is the sound distorted?   Does is sound bad when turned up?  No!   It sounds good, all the time.

How many sounds:  Start up, Shut down, various rev ranges, wheel squeal, and air brake release, horn and whistle.

The DCC interface from the factory has been trouble free.

So, I've been very happy with this engine.  I guess my only complaint is that when there's dirt on the rails that creates a power interruption you can hear this revving down when it stops, and then if it recovers it revs back up again as it pulls away.   If you're not looking it it, by listening only, you may think something peculiar is going on, but it makes sense.  If the alternative is it coming to a dead and silent stop I don't think I can complain much, and as is it's great for spotting trouble on your rails.  

Overall, I'd give this a 9/10.  This locomotive is singularly the reason I continue to believe in N scale sound, and keep rolling the dice looking for similarly good performers.  I've preordered a new Fleischmann 460 with sound which I've read good things about, I just hope it lives up to this.

Here's a video I found on You Tube this will give you a good taste of what this thing sounds like:

From the Manufacturer:

German Federal Railroad (DB) class V 300 general-purpose heavy diesel hydraulic locomotive. Built in 1957 by Krauss-Maffei as the type ML 2200 C'C', remotored in 1959 as the type ML 3000 C'C'. The locomotive looks as it did from 1964 to 1968. Era III.

The locomotive frame is die-cast metal. The locomotive has a digital decoder for DCC, Selectrix, and conventional operation. It also has a sound effects circuit with many operating sounds, diesel motor, horn sounds, blower motors, and others. The locomotive has a 5-pole motor with 2 flywheels. 4 axles powered. Traction tires. The headlights and marker lights are LED's and can be controlled digitally. The engineer's cabs have interior details in relief. The locomotive has a close coupler mechanism. Length over the buffers 127 mm / 5".

Digital version for DCC and Selectrix, with sound functions.

E94 Update

A while back I posted about some issues I had been having with my Fleischmann E94.  As you may recall my decoder on hand didn't fit.  What I didn't mention is that the E94 is just slightly taller than anything else I own, and it was getting stuck in one of my tunnels.  The rise from under the table had the top of the E94's pantograph hitting the plywood underneath my roundhouse building.  Because that structure is integrated with tracks, it's no simple job to list it out and cut a new bigger hole in the wood.

I had tried a fix earlier, using a course wood file and a Dremel tool to take a little wood away but to no avail.  Working from under the table was extremely awkward with the file, I just could not apply any force to it, and my sad little wireless Dremel was not up to the task.  I had a Dremel Stylus and found that it just didn't have the power to do more then scratch the wood.  Now, this being the only Dremel tool I owned, I assumed that this was what they were, and what they were was not very good.  I probably offered some detailed opinions on the subject because for Christmas my wife gave me a new Dremel, and this new one is good.

What a difference having the right tool makes!  This new Dremel made the job easy, I spent maybe 30 minutes on it, tops.  The only thing I had to be careful of was not setting the table on fire, because the sanding head never bogged down once.  The funny thing is I had considered replacing my old Dremel before but didn't think I needed a new one, because it was a pretty useless tool.  I thought a fractionally better one would be similarly useless, only slightly less so.  Well, I was wrong. This new one is many orders of magnitude better and I just wanted to share the experience with you all in case your find yourselves mired with bad tools.

My E94 now can traverse the whole of my layout.  I feel like I just got a new engine!

An ECOS Update, A Camera Car, and my Class 37 Lives!

Reports of the death of my My British Rail Class 37 were apparently exaggerated.  I looked up my repair options yesterday and was preparing to ship this engine back to England but decided to tinker with it one last time.  I found the power connection between the PC board and the chassis (it's built North American style, where the weight is split down the center and carries the current!) and poked at it and voila!  All better!

I'm very pleased to have this back in operation again.  Also, if you happen to find yourself in York, I can thoroughly recommend the Monk Bar Model Shop, as it made me sorely miss the great hobby shops I grew up with.  The staff really know their stuff.


Camera Car A few weeks ago I bought a WiFi camera and USB receiver on eBay, like this:.  

I cannot recommend it, not yet at least.  The software it comes with is beyond poor, but it does work. I'll be posting a video made with this toy soon and you can judge for yourself.

On my first attempt to use it I found it the camera made the car I butchered for it top heavy- it tipped in corners, even at very low speed.  On straights it also wobbled something terrible.  Granted, my effort (seen below) was rather crude, but I did learn from the experience.

The battery was to help balance the weight on the car.  Didn't work well.

The key seemed to be stability and size.  Out of the box it's a little big for n scale so I knew I'd need to take it apart and loose the housing.  I bought a North American well style cargo container car to use as a new platform, the cheapest model I could find of one of these:

The beauty of a well car is that it has storage space very low to ground, and so a very low center of gravity.  I ripped off all of the details, which were few, and using model ship strip wood built a wooden platform in the bottom and then added a layer of lead fishing weights and solder as balast, and then capped that with another layer of wood.   I then removed the camera from it's case, mounted the guts to the well and the lens to front of the car and I had a super stable camera platform.  It''s not pretty, but it does the job.

What's the video quality like? Well, I'll edit something nice together sooner or later.  The raw feed is pretty iffy and the included software is just crap.

Live from the tracks!

In tunnels the WiFi signal drops out so I plan to look at extending the antenna.  I think I can make a long one and have it spread over several cars.  More on this in future posts.

ECOS 50200 v3.4.3

A few weeks ago ESU released a minor update for the ECOS.  It's mainly bug fixes, but there are a few tweaks I really like.  First, they have added a save option in one of the config screens, which means you no longer have to hold down the stop button to power cycle the unit for force a store.  Also, when connected with a browser you can reset the ECOS remotely, so if you are uploading train icons you can cycle the ECOS without having to power down, which really speeds things up.   The only other big new add for me was the addition of a track crossing icon for the mapping mode.

And with the above goodness comes the not so good.  Updating will also wipe out your user defined locomotive images, all your switches, and your layout map.  ESU gives you a convenient way to back these up via HTTP but if you are really excited about new firmware like say, me, you may forget to do this.  Happily I'm now largely controlling everything from the PC and Train Controller anyhow, so it was just a matter of restoring my icons.

ESU hosts a large library of icons for the ECOS, but they rarely seem to have just what I want.  I'm a bit fussy I guess, so I want all mine to be in about the same scale, all facing the same way, and all with a background matching the system color.  For these reasons I've spent many hours photoshopping exactly the icons I want.  Perhaps they are of some value to a few of you, I'll put them at the end of this post.