A brief photo tour of recent progress

In the past week or two I've been progressing again with scenery work.  I still have a large section of the layout missing ballast and without any scenic details.  Since ballast seems to be the things I hate most, I decided to just get on with it.  In my recent ballast work I've been laying down some green flock and foliage between the tracked areas, so I won't have to fuss with it later on.  Basically, doing 1 foot long sections per session, slowly plugging away.

One prep step I've been doing is also Spackling over any roughness in the table next to my tracks.  I had some areas with very distinct ramps over the table surface, no great elevation shifts, but still funny looking.  In an effort to eventually end up with something more natural in appearance I've been smoothing out some of these edges.   The more extreme ones, elsewhere, will get a retailing wall treatment, but these little guys just needed some filler.

I'm sorry about the image quality, I'm just using my phone here and not a real camera.

This image shows a coaling area, in the foreground near my main station.  Directly behind and beside it is my Spackle wonderland, so very much a work in progress.   The main thing I wish to illustrate here is that the terrain you see is an example of the "after" state of one of my Spackle jobs.   This space was filled with pink goop just two days ago, and now it's on it's way to looking pretty decent.

This nest pair show a WIP of my ballasting process.   Pictured here are two 1' sections, the first has ground + full ballast, the second ground and track ballast only, but you can still see the black edges of the roadbed in the near section.

As I was working along here I literally ran out of my ballet mix.   I use a 60/40 ratio of grey and black to get a salt and pepper mix that matches some reference photos I've chosen to use as a guide.  I have to mix up a new batch to finish up here.

 This is a detail shot of progress near the main station.  Again, the track here is ballasted only between the tracks on the mainline, and fully on the spur in the foreground.   The switch below leads to the coaling spur shown above.   That platform is a stand in, final piece will have matching colors with the station.  for now I just want to be sure I allocate adequate space.

Here you can see the Spackle I've been describing.  It's called DryDex, it goes on pink and dries white, and finishes rock hard.   It's easily sanded and smoothed too.  I've stuck a few plaster cast rocks in to add some details, they should work well with the rock wall I plan to build behind this scene.  (Yes, I'm building front to back and I'm not sure why but I know it's foolish.  I've been frustrated with this space and really want to make some progress here right now I guess).

Here's another image of a recently ballasted space.  As you can see I'm giving the switches a really wide berth.  I've found ballast about switches to be a huge problem elsewhere, so I'm just keeping things simple for now.  When I've taken things to a generally good state, then I'll start fussing with the fiddly bits.  For now there's still lots of low hanging fruit to address first.

Finally, here's an overview of this section of the layout, with highlights on the sections detailed above:

I realize none of this is particularly pretty.  My hope is the end result will be, and then this blog post will be of some value to others doing similar work and curious about methods, product and technique.

FLIRT Update

A victory for obstinacy!

Today I decided to take another pass at the FLIRT cab with the Dremel and bored out more plastic.  I've made the body shell thinner in parts, and removed more of the interior plastic for the top lights (which are non operational at this point anyhow).  It's much improved.  I think the slight difference is now the product of the body shell bulging slightly, and not the decoder preventing the cabin from seating correctly on the frame, so it really cannot be made any better without reducing the bulge at this point:

This is the "bad end".

and for comparison, here's the good side.

I've reduced the bulge slightly by shaving off some of the speaker's housing, but it seems no more can be done there.  As it was, I was dangerously close to destroying the little thing, so this is as good as I will get it.   The cab seam is what really vexed me, it was so obvious.  The bulge is there if you look for it but it does not stand out too badly.

Can you see the bulge in photo one?  Bonus points if you can tell me which Sci Fi series is referenced in these images!

Fleischmann SBB Re 460 With Sound

It seems last years pre-orders are all coming in now.  Today a shiny new engine arrived for me!

 

I will do an in depth review later but I wanted to share my early impressions, as I'm quite excited to have something work so nicely right out of the box.  The photos and video are taken with my phone, and not in great light but I do think it does the model justice. The printing is very fine, as you would expect, but the model is not loaded with detail.  That said, it's my impression that the real thing is similarly devoid of bits and bobs, so this little guy certainly looks the part to my eye. The side texture is subtle, and the pantographs are the finest of any of my fleet.

The big feature here is the sound of course, and this model delivers.  DCC Functions 1-18 are all allocated to various functions, including 3 station announcements, door sounds, direction appropriate interior cab lighting, front and rear light overrides, numerous horns and whistles and all the rest you would expect.

I filmed a short video, (handheld with the iPad while operating the controller so it's a tad shaky) taking you through some of the sights and sounds on my rolling test bed).

So there you go.  Straight out of the box and it's looking and sounding great!  Factory sound seems a much more reliable choice today than it was just a few years ago.  

Oh, and the best part?  This locomotive is only $200.  For a European import I'd call that a steal!

Fleischmann 731372

The BBC reports on train travel in Switzerland

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21294241

I had a similar experience in Italy, leaving me thinking these wonderful machines are run by pretty ugly companies who could stand to learn something about customer experience and service from industries that face more direct competition.  Profits made on fining your market are a short term strategy.

Lilput FLIRT Next18 DCC Sound Installation

Hello,

It's been a while, sorry.  Got married, went to Alaska, some change at work, been building a ship and developed a recent interest in woodworking.  Anyhow, back to trains!

Today I installed an ESU LokSound Micro 4.0 DCC decoder with a Next18 interface into a Lilput Triebwagen FLIRT RABe 526 #163992.

I've spelled out the part names exactly in the hope that anyone googling on the subject lands here and gets to read what I have to say on the subject before trying this, because I sure wish I had found a page like this one prior.

Here's the short version:   Don't do it.

So here's the longer version:

Installing a LokSound decoder into this train is a huge pain in the ass, it's not worth the stress or trouble.  Why?  Because it does not fit.    And yes, I did cram mine in there, but I did so at the expense of damaging my train.  Let me walk you through the difficulties:

1) You have to take the train apart.  It's not meant to be taken apart.  All four cars are permanently linked, so the small thing you are working on has an awkward and fragile 24" appendage that you don't even want to rotate, lest you apply too much torque to the coupling mechanism.

2) The ESU Loksound Micro 4.0 does not fit.   It's the smallest sound decoder there is, and it's too wide and too long.

3) The speaker won't fit.  I had to do terrible things to make it work, and even so, there are still issues.

4) Did I mention the decoder won't fit?  Well, I lie, it does fit as long as you are willing to take a knife to the engine body shell and shave off bits, and solder one of the lights off, and cut the engine compartment interior backing in half, and Dremel out a bunch of plastic that makes up the top of the cab.   Then it fits.  If you do this, will you be happy about it?   I'm guessing no.

So, how did I do this to myself?  The new Lilput FLIRT models are really gorgeous.  Jerry at Quintopia has an excellent review that had me sold.  I ordered the SBB version and saw that it came with something called a Next18 DCC socket.   Well, this is new to me but I love new tech, so all good.   Then I read on a forum someone commenting that this EMU had space for sound, in the authors opinion.  Well, knowing the value of an opinion on a forum I jumped at the chance to sink more money into this toy and ordered a LokSound micro 4.0 with the newfangled Next18 socket, and an ESU LokProgrammer.  The LokProgrammer is a largely redundant piece of hardware but it's one meaningful feature (and one that IMO should be included with the ECOS) is writing new sound data to their LokSound decoders.

This is a next 18 socket, though on a smaller decoder:

Having made this now very expensive I began to wait.  The wait took 11 months before the Lilput model arrived.  I love how the model train industry can sell you on things that don't exist yet.  I can't imagine many other businesses getting away with that.  How long would Sears stay in business if your lawn mower arrived 11 months after you bought it?  But I digress...   In the interim the decoder and LokProgrammer showed up and I promptly lost the PC cables to connect it- more on that later.

So, happy day, Saturday afternoon, the sun is shining, my wife is out shopping, the dog is blissfully quiet and I prepare to do the install.  I clean a big space on the table gather tools, and jump in.

The speaker is in a small enclosure needed so it can make meaningful volume.  This does not fit at all.  It's as wide as the train.  I take the enclosure apart and cut off it's sides.  It's now seemingly narrow enough to fit inside the train.  I check carefully that it's no wider then the PCB, looks good.  I test that I can slide the body of the train over it, it seems to fit.  Good.

The enclosure is chopped down to size.  The fit is so tight the body shell will replace the sides no problem.

So, width solved, now comes the matter of location.  The speaker does not fit anywhere out of sight, as this train is full of huge windows.  Oh well, I bite the bullet on this, we'll see the speaker.  Still, it just does not fit, and I'm forced to get a snipper and cut the tops off of the front row of seats in the first car.  I hate to do this, but if I don't make this work what I am going to do with this Next18 decoder and LokProgrammer?

Pretty snug, but it works!  Note the huge PCB looming on the right- that causes trouble soon....

Next is the problem of the speaker wires.  Something tiny is required, so I salvage some super thin stuff from a burnt out Fleishmann Semaphore signal I bought on ebay.  Getting the wires from the decoder down to the speaker is another problem, as the PCB creates something of an internal ceiling.  I took my pin vise and expanded the holes already in the PCB for the retention mechanism that holds the board in place and threaded my wires through.

This was fun!  Note the missing backrests on the seats to the right.

Next I soldered my tiny wires to the tiny speaker, pulled the slack back up, and slipped the speaker in place.  So far, not too bad.

Now it got pretty horrible.  I test fitted the decoder and discovered that it's about 5 mm too long!  The LED that lights up the destination board is in the way!

Well, in for a penny, in for a pound....  I took my soldering iron to the LED's PCB and loosened it up and pulled it off.  Damn!   That's a really nice detail lost.  So now I'm able to properly seat the decoder, so I proceed.

Something's not quite right.  Can you spot it too?

Soldering 2 wires onto a tiny decoder is hard.  Maybe you have mad soldering skills, but I'm a pretty normal person and it's not a nice thing to do.  The contact point is something like 1.5mm x 1 mm, maybe less.  About 0.5mm next to it is the next terminal, the one I can't touch at all lest I meld the two together with my hot iron...  a miserable task.   Once the first wire is on I look it over and realize the heat from the solder has melted the plastic off the wire close to my connection.   If the same happens for the second wire they are likely to short out- not good.  I snip a 4mm length of heat shirk tubing on the second wire, so I can slide it up in place once it's attached and keep it safe.

The second terminal went a little better, then I used my heat shrink, and started to feel pretty good about this install after all.  Silly me.

All wired up, I'm feeling foolishly optimistic.

Now the fun part.  These new FLIRT EMU's look great but they are awkward to mess with, awkward to get the body on and off of, and awkward to handle because they are 4 cars long.  Fitting the body sell onto the locomotive proved very challenging.   When I finally got it seated properly on the back end I discovered that the decoder is both too wide and too long for the body shell.  Also, my speaker is too wide for the thickness of the windows inside the car.  Triple Arrrgh!

I proceeded to take a knife to the body and carve out some thickness for the decoder.  I also cut the internal end off the shell, since this is covered by the cap at the end anyhow.  I also had to cut down some of the interior of the roof cap piece, and carve out some of the interior volume of the driver's cab.  A lot of plastic was destroyed in making this fit.

Yellow is a cut mode to the body shell, Blue is the cut made on the cab end.

As for the speaker, my best option seems to be living with it.  The car's body bulges slightly if viewed from underneath, but from above and to a casual observer it seems fine.

Obviously wrong when viewed from below

Oddly not visible from above

The driver's cab now fits poorly as well. This is what bothers me most.  Where it's seamless on the unmodified end, there's a distinct seam now visible where I messed with it.  If you were unfamiliar with the model I don't think you would think anything of it, and probably not even notice that the two cabs are subtly different.  That said, I know it's wrong, and I can see it immediately.  It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but I'd rather it was right.

Here you can see the two ends of the train.  Happily, it's not this obvious on the table,

Now the moment of truth!  Did I just turn some very expensive parts into a static model of little value, or will it run?  I put it on my test track and HUZZA, she drives!  The ECOS immediately detected the Railcom device, assigned it a free address and I was off to the races.   The factory sound in quite incorrect but that's a fight for another day.  My early impression of it's driving characteristics is that they are excellent.  Pickup on all wheels and two motors make for a happy little train.

Lesson Learned: No more DCC Sound self installs.