Birney Project ~ Window Glass II

Cutting, shaping, and installing widow glazing.

In part one of installing window glass, some of the brass sills were filed away so that I could model some of the windows open. Now that the car is detailed and painted, the "glass" can be installed.

Really the glass is .015 clear styrene. Cut to approximate size, I held it against the window openings and marked the location of the sills with a sharp blade.

Then I scribed in the location of the openings in the styrene (bottom), checked it against the model, and then cut out the openings (top).

A reader of this blog suggested using Micro Kristal Klear for gluing in the windows. Its a water soluble product, so it doesn't craze (fog) the plastic the way petroleum based glue would. I found this to be really easy to use.

Finally, strip styrene matching the dimensions of the brass window sills was painted the trim color, cut to size and glued into place.

And there we have it! The open windows add a lot of character and realism helping to make this car a real one-of-a-kind model. Yes sir! A real one-of-a-kind model!

Dandy

Birney Project ~ A Weighty Situation

Adding Weight to the Birney Car 

The weights I used are those kind that you see that come in a long strip with double sided sticky tape on one side. They are usually divided into sections that can be broken off anywhere at 1/4oz increments. They are usually available at your local model train shop for weighting freight and passenger cars to NMRA standards. I was able to fit 4 of these 1/4oz weights for a total of 1oz added weight.

Location of weights

1. Cut and fitted to clear the motor frame and filed to conform to the curve of the end of the car. Then epoxied into place under the floor.
2. Trimmed to fit under the roof in the sub roof cutout.
3. Filed to conform to the curve of the end of the car. Then epoxied into place under the floor.

Weights 1 & 3 had their double sided sticky tape removed so that they can be slid under the pilot. There they were epoxied in place. Here you can see where weight #1 was trimmed to clear the motor mount.

Weight #4 had to be fitted inside the front of the car. Yes, the car has a "front and rear" now. Originally it was designed to be double ended, but I ran into this problem. As you can see, Birney the motorman has been removed from the seat assemblies and is now fitted into the front of the car.

Weight #4 was notched to fit around Birney the motorman's seat.

The top of the weight had to be ground out to clear the headlight bulb and wires. Then it was painted black and glued into place.

After all that effort I was able to add an additional 1oz to the car bringing it to a total of just over 5oz. Doesn't sound like much but that is another 25% added to its weight. And the car is suprisingly heavy when you pick it up. Yes sir! Quiet heavy.

Dandy

Birney Project ~ Phun With Fysics

 After a test run on the Southern California Traction Clubs city modules, the drawbacks of single truck trolleys became apparent on ol' 301.

Sir Lord Dr. Isaac Nudeton Esq III PHD.

Nudeton's 3rd law of force states: "The force of the trolley pole pressing up against the overhead contact wire is equal and opposite to the force pressing down on the trolley car.". Who knew Nudeton was a trolley fan!

Well that force was evident on the Birney car. The pole pressing down on the back of the car coupled with the fact that there is a weight behind the decoder puts more force on the back wheels than the front wheels. So the back wheels become in effect, a fulcrum. In other words, the trolley wants to do a wheely.

And a trolley that wants to do a wheely doesn't want to take curves, it wants to keep going straight.

So the solution is: More weight in the front of the model, get those front wheels down so that the flanges will help the trolley get around corners.

So after making the bold statement of "There is officially no more room for anything else in this model!", I have to find more room for more weight in the front of the model. Yes sir! Have to find more room!

Dandy

The Model Railcast Show

A Model Railroad Focused Podcast

Packed full of interesting and useful information, I have been listing to The Model Railcast Show podcast for over a year now. I think its here to stay.

The price can't be beat ('tis free), and is published about weekly. And its perfect to have on in the background while working on the railroad (or in my case, while working at work).
The show is hosted by a fun cast of characters, Ryan is an absolute noob, but he is learning fast. And Tim Harrison seems to be a little more advanced. Their guests are all heavy hitters in the model railroad industry, from manufacturers like Duncan McRee of Tam Valley Depot, industry professionals such as former MR Staff writter Marty McGuirk, to basement empire builders like Don Ball and Craig Bisgeier. And the best part is, all these guys are available on the discussion forums on the Model Podcast website for further comment, any clarifications and whatnot.

It doesn't matter what your experience with model railroading is. The podcast is "for railroading beginners and seasoned line veterans" alike.

So give it a listen. I'm sure you won't be disappointed. No sir! You won't be disappointed!

Dandy

Birney Project ~ Installing the Decoder

"You've got too many damn lights in that thing!" George Huckaby.

I may have blown out all my lights, but the Southern California Traction Club has blown out entire decoders trying to get these things to work properly in trolleys running under live overhead! As a grateful benefactor of the trials and tribulations that the SCTC went through, I drew the following schematic based on the findings of the club (clicky to make biggy) :

This schematic illustrates how the TCS M1 decoder is to be wired in my model of SDERy Birney #301. The model has 10 (yes 10!) incandescent light bulbs in it, five of which would be lit at any one time (If I had to do it again, I would rather use LEDs in conjunction with fiber optics). The schematic also includes the necessary resistor that was so agonizingly missed the first time. I have the choice of having one 1 watt 100 ohm resistor* on the white wire and another on the yellow wire. Or one big 2 watt 100 ohm resistor* on the blue wire. Considering how big the resistors are (they are bigger than the decoder!) and how hot they get (and they get hot!), I decided to go with the one big resistor. BUT! That means not all the lights can be lit at the same time! Or else "poof"! Out go the lights yet again! That's a disaster waiting to happen, I'm going to have to be damn careful. Yes sir, Damn careful.
* Note: The value of the resistors were determined by some of the club members using wizardry and gadgetry that I'm not familiar with.
Bonus! Check out the March 2010 issue of Model Railroader for a resistor selector device on page 26.

First, the decoder is mounted to a piece of 3M 4011 Double-sided Mounting Tape, which in turn is mounted to the ceiling of the model.

Then comes the surgery. Two wires from 10 bulbs = 20 wires, plus 7 from the decoder, plus two from the motor, and two from the connector. Let's see, that's... 31 wires that all have to make specific connections with each other and the resistor, all in an itty bitty living space!

In this photo, we're looking through the cutout in the floor to the cutout in the subroof. I'm trying to keep the decoder (which also gets hot) as far away from the hot resistor as possible. So the decoder(right) is mounted to the roof through the subroof cutout. On the left side of the cutout I mounted a weight (simply for better running). The resistor (left) is glued half on the subroof and half on the weight. Hopefully this will help dissipate all that heat. There is officially no more room for anything else in this model!

Everything tucked up into the ceiling pretty nicely, preserving the seethroughableness of the car, even at this low angle. Good enough for me. Next stop will be the programing track to program the decoder. Then I'll officially take my place among the ranks of DCC-ers. Yes sir! I'm getting with the program!

Dandy

Birney Project ~ Going DCC

Taking the plunge into the world of Digital Command Control!

Having been a model railroader my whole life, its about time I made the switch from DC to DCC. Since my layout was designed for automatic operation, it was built with DC block control. But features with DCC have convinced me that this is the way to go. So starting with this Birney project, I'm making the switch.

For the Birney I've decided to use the M1 decoder from TCS (Train Control Systems). The M1 decoder is designed for N scale but fully capable of running H.O.

Programs are available now that allow you to run your layout from your laptop. One of these programs coupled with this decoder and I can have the automated layout as originally conceived.

How about that! For once I can have my cake and eat it to. Yes sir! I can have my cake and eat it too!

Dandy

Seasons Greetings!...

...and a happy strands of LEDs on sale for cheap for all your modeling lighting needs time of year!

I picked up a strand of 70 warm white LED's for like $5. That's less than 8 cents per LED!

Dandy

Tour the Southern California Traction Club

The SCTC displayed it's HO trolley modules setup at the NMRA L.A. Division meet at the South Coast Botanical Garden in Palos Verdes CA a couple weeks ago. This is my first show with the club. I pretty much spent the entire time video taping the layout in action, amassing about an hours worth of video. I was able to distill that video down to about 8 minutes for your viewing pleasure:



The Southern California Traction Club modules feature spectacular cityscapes, fully detailed scenes, long mainline running, multiple trolleys operating from live overhead, and a whole lot more. So sit back and enjoy the ride. Yes sir! Enjoy the ride!

Dandy

Niles Project ~ Headlight and Retrievers

Apparently, in the early days of trolleys, headlights were not standard equipment.

Since nighttime photographs were difficult and therefore rare, no photographs in my collection depict any of the Niles cars with headlights. For years I figured that either the cars didn't run at night, or they ran without headlights. But studying my collection closer reveals:

1. A bracket. And some wear and tear just above it. It could very well have been a headlight bracket and that it was often used.

2. A builders illustration including a headlight. It also depicts how the headlight sits low and rests on the front bumper (?).

3. Historical conformation of just such an arrangement. Pacific Electric 1001, which still exists today, sports a same sort headlamp. It fits onto a braket and you can see how a cord extends from it and has to be plugged in.

Precision Scale Co. Incandescent Headlamp For Interurban Cars #31004 seems to fit the bill quite nicely. The sprue on the back has to be cut off and then I filed the back for a good fit on the car. While I'm at it, I'll add the retriever fabricated from a 3/64" brass rod.

So now we are good to go with some night time running. Yes sir! We're good to go!

Dandy

Birney Project ~ Boom! Boom! Out go the lights!

Dammit! My worst fear has come to pass. I blew out all the light bulbs. F!

Deciding to take the plunge into the world of DCC, I managed to blow out all 10 light bulbs. I thought it was going to be a simple matter of replacing the Utah Pacific Constant Lighting Unit with a decoder. But no. Apparently a resistor is needed between the bulbs and decoder. The total rating of the bulbs have to be under 100 millowatts and how bright the lights shine depends on the resistor. The size resistor needed can be determined from the website of the manufacturer of the decoder, but not on the instructions that come with the decoder. I didn't know that so... pffft! Blown bulbs.

This disaster blew the wind out of my sails. I focused on other aspects of life for a while. Then, after a sufficient time of pouting, I'm back. Birney has been disassembled, blown bulbs ripped out, and new bulbs installed.

Sorry about the lack of posts for a while, but I'm back on track now. Yes sir! Back on track!

Dandy

Birney Project ~ Hold Down Hooks

Fabricating New Trolley Pole Hold Down Hooks For The Birney.

Trolley poles pointing downward is a bad thing. The hold down hooks are too short. So I'm going to fabricate some new hooks that are taller and more prototypically correct.

Using a cutoff disk on a Dremel, I cut off the old hooks.

Since the trolley poles are wired to the leads of the motor, the hooks need to conduct electricity from the brass body of the car to the pole. So I had to remove paint from where the hooks will be soldered to the car.

To fabricate the hold down hooks, I started with .010" x .030" brass bar stock folded in half.

Using a nail (I found a nail that was the same diameter of the old hook loop) I looped the brass around getting a nice curve by using pliers and a screwdriver to work the brass into shape.

Add a reverse curve in the brass so that the apex of the loop is in line with the main shaft of the hook. Solder only the loop, the reverse curve and part of the neck together.

Then bend the legs out and fold in the feet that will be soldered to the base. The hook assembly is now done.

Solder the hook assembly to the roof boards and trim the feet. Give it a tug to confirm a good connection. Now its time to paint the hooks and while I'm at it, I'm going to right a wrong...

Roof boards were never the same color as the roof. Roofs were usually of canvas or thin sheet metal, so you don't want to step on it or you'll fall right through or bend the heck out of it. So roof boards were installed so that workmen maintaining the cars could stand on the roof without damaging it. They were usually made of wood and were painted a contrasting color so the workmen could see where to step out of their peripheral vision. My hands are pretty steady, but not at this tiny scale. So I masked off around the boards.

Brushed on some Scalecoat Roof Brown on the boards and painted the hooks black. Some weathering will kill the shine on the boards.

Now that's more like it! The car looks much better and the horizontal poles are getting a much better electrical contact with the hooks now. Storing the car with poles on help keep the connection from oxidizing. Got to do everything you can to keep good electrical connections throughout if you want to keep them doggies rollin'. Yes sir! Keep them doggies rollin'!

Dandy

Niles Project ~ Turn the Seats Around

Turning The Seats on Suydams' Niles Cars So That They All Face Forward.

George Huckaby of the Southern California Traction Club picked up one of my Niles cars and said "You know what people never do with these cars is change the seats so that... oh! You did it! You changed the seats so they all face forward!"

Suydam, for whatever reason, positioned the seats so that they face the ends. Since my cars are going to be working cars, I want them all to face the same direction, like the real deal did.

The seats pop off easily with the pry of a knife. I found this out after spending a lot of time and butane trying to de-solder them. Everything else was coming unsoldered but the dang seats! Turns out they're glued on. So... yeah, pop them off with a knife.


Next, I soldered the seats back on so that they all face the same direction (though I could have epoxied them on, that would have been faster), being careful that the seats line up with the windows and clear the side wall of the shell.

So! Now that I have everyone facing forward, lets move forward, Yes sir! Let's move forward!

Dandy

Niles Project ~ Make that Four!

Another Niles Car Joins the Roster!

I came into possession of another Niles car. That makes four, two more and I'd have the entire SDERy roster of Niles cars (which I don't think I'll do)! Hollywood Foundry is going to make a mint off of me!

Car #110
Sight Seeing Car:

This car will be painted Chocolate Brown (Floquil Roof Brown is a ringer for this) with either silver or gold lettering (I got to find out which).

I'm excited about this purchase, but now I have a whole bunch more work ahead of me. Yes sir! A whole bunch of more work to do!

Dandy

3rd Dandyversary

Three years and smellin' strong!

Boomin' along here! It's been a good year for this blog. This blog is now attracting crowds averaging 4.12 people a day! (That .12 guy is okay but those other 4 guys scare me). The biggest draw? Well, according to Google analytics the #1 search term that lead people to this blog is... "bending wood". And to those people, I truly apologize. I'm not exactly an expert carpenter. Oh! And let me tell you about the revenue stream from ads... averaging .5 cents a day its not exactly a stream. More like the dry wash near my house. A tumble weed blows through occasionally. Yes sir! This blog is the envy of cyberspacemen everywhere.

But to you, my loyal followers, I hope that you do derive some sort of value from this train wreck of a blog. Even if you are laughing at me rather than with me. If your learning from the stupid mistakes I'm making here, then the world is a better place. I have made a difference.

In all truthfulness, I'm actually having a blast maintaining this blog (and my happiness is whats really important, right? Right). I find that feeding the ferocious appetite of this blog keeps me focused and moving forward on my projects. Which is good, cuz I've got a lot to do if I want to get anywhere near completing this layout to the ridiculous standards I have set for it.
In addition, the fact that, according to Google analytics, the second most common search term that lead people to this site is "painting brass" is encouraging. To those people. I hope you found what you were looking for. I hope to hit on more useful topics in the future.
Finally, ad revenue. I have a couple of ads here and there. I try to prevent them from being overpowering. Hopefully they will compliment the content and provide a link to materials related to my articles. The money from ad revenue (of which I have received ziltch to date) will be put back into this blog to make it bigger, better, stronger, more entertaining and useful. And maybe a swimming pool.
So rest assured that more good stuff is on the way, I don't intend on stopping any time soon. This next year is looking good, the Niles project is well underway and is going well. I have a YouTube account set up so that I can start adding videos to this blog. And I'm learning a ton from they guys at the Southern California Traction Club that I intend to share with you on this site. So here's to a great big beautiful tomorrow! Yes sir! A great big beautiful tomorrow.

Dandy

Niles Project ~ Turning Radius

The Factors That Limit The Turning Radius Of The Suydam Niles Cars.

Previously I mentioned that there were a couple of factors that limit the turning radius of the trucks. Here is an illustration of that:

The side frame of the truck on the left is contacting the motor. Hopefully the new BullAnt motor will eliminate this problem. While the truck on the right, the drive shaft is contacting the wheel (or gear when rotated the other way). There isn't a whole lot I can do about that. Fortunately, this truck has a tighter turning radius than the other.

So with the new turning radius of the left truck and the possibly already sufficient turning radius of the right truck, hopefully this car will get around my curves. I'll have to keep my fingers crossed. Yes sir! Keep my fingers crossed!

Dandy

Niles Project ~ De-PE'd

Re-San Diegoifying Suydam Niles Cars by Removing their Pacific Electric Details

These Suydam cars are a hybrid between the San Diego details and Pacific Electric details. The trolley poll positions are correct for San Diego, but the trucks and a couple of details are PE.

The signboard and retriever are really the only things that need to be removed. The Point Loma car (on the left) had a different pilot, so I removed that too. As you can also see on the Point Loma car, the removal of the signboard left a mounting slot and holes on the roof.

To fill in this slot, I used Squadron white modeling putty. Its readily available, really easy to use, and dries fast. I simply squeezed a small amount out onto a piece of card and applyed with a small screwdriver. After it dried I sanded it down flush.

As for the trucks... In San Diego the cars had a 6 foot wheel base while the model sports the PE 5'4" wheelbase with 30" wheels. I'm afraid that if I go with the longer wheelbase, it might jeopardize the turning radius that the car can make. As-is, the trucks are making contact with the motor on my curves. The new BullAnt motor should eliminate this problem, but the drive shaft from the motor to the truck is what is going to limit its turning ability now. Another factor as to whether or not to change the trucks is if the side frames are available commercially. Because if they're not...

Well, the tearing down of these cars went easy enough, a lot easier than the Birney! Now its time to build them up. So far this project is moving along just fine. Yes sir! Moving along just fine!

Dandy

Niles Project ~ The Grand Plan

The Three Prototype Cars That These Models Will Represent.

Overall the cars will look the same. They will all be painted San Diego Electric Railway mission yellow with mahogany trim (Apparently the SDERy shops did all the painting for the various traction companies around San Diego). The only thing different will be the lettering schemes. Each car will represent the different company names that they ran under in San Diego.

Car #107
San Diego & South Eastern
(Monogram style) :

This model will become SD&SE #107 (I have other plans for #105. See below) with the nice monogram logo on the sides.

Car #109
Point Loma Railroad:

This model volunteered to become the Point Loma car when it lost it pilot! Originally I was going to go with the 402 number, but I have since decided to use its original number to help separate it from the SDERy class 5, 400 series cars that would come later.

Car #105
San Diego & South Eastern
(Wells Fargo style) :

Okay, I'm going to use a little modelers license here. #105 didn't become a combination car until it was in the hands of the PE. But I'm going to do a "what if". SD&SE #101 (non-Niles car pictured above) was involved in an accident and was rebuilt into a combination car. But "what if" it was #105 that was in the accident instead? I'm mean, why not? It became a combo car eventually.

So that's the big plan for these cars. I think its a good plan. Yes sir! It's a good plan!

Dandy