I’ve disassembled an LGB Santa Fe steam locomotive I own with a plan to convert it to remote control operation. There’s room inside the front of the boiler (it’s got to have a more technical name than that right?) for a lithium ion battery and the receiver circuitry, and the loco has a handy decoder interface. Although it doesn’t seem to be well documented, I’m tracking down what functions the interface terminals are for.
I figured that remote control would be more versatile than trailing electric leads across the garden, working out where to put track controllers and so on. I look forward to sharing the results in due course!
When my wife and I went for a walk along the river Wye a few weeks ago, we came across this pair of abandoned railway bridges near Monmouth.
Both bridges date back to the 19th century. The iron bridge (known as the Duke of Beaufort bridge) was the first to cross our path and was built for the Ross and Monmouth Railway, later subsumed formally into the Great Western Railway, and rail movements over the bridge eventually ceased around 1964.
This didn’t mark the end of the bridge’s utility though. It remains in use as a footpath and we ventured up onto it to get a better view of the Wye.
From the higher vantage point that the bridge provided, I spotted the remains of the second bridge further down the river. Tops of arches peeked above the tree line but seemed to disappear as they reached the bank of the river. As we descended and continued our walk along the river bank, we got a better view of the impressive structure and its mysterious ending on the other side of the river.
It’s known as the Monmouth Viaduct (or Chippenham Meadow Viaduct) and is 183 metres long, with 20 spans. The structure does indeed stop right at the riverbank, as the bridge originally crossed the river with two 23 metre steel spans which now no longer exist.
The path ahead of us lead under a span of the bridge on our side of the river. The path narrowed and the ground to the side sloped towards the riverbank, and as I passed under the span I felt a sense of awe of the remains of the bridge and the powerful framing of the view beyond.
As we continued our walk, we came across a field of sheep. Although initially shy, this chap couldn’t help but come back to check up on us after we passed!
I’ve blogged before about my small collection of Sammy the Shunter books and since then I’ve wanted to experiment with applying the vintage cartoon style of those books to Japanese trains. So, here’s my first doodle of a D51 SL! I don’t feel I’ve hit the mark with it but I’m no artist and it’s a first attempt.
During a review of fine secondhand items available from Mandarake’s online shop (if you’ve never heard of Mandarake and are a fan of contemporary Japanese culture, you’re in for a treat!) I came across some ‘Railway Fan Vol.2 SL Scene Figure’ items which looked like model railway dioramas. They only had boxed photos of them but as they were a bargain ¥500 each, I decided to make a speculative purchase to investigate!
The one that I bought was of an SL at a coal loading stop. I wasn’t sure what scale it would be and hoped it would be N gauge, so I could use it with my other models.
It turns out that it’s actually Z scale and to demonstrate that, I’ve included my Z Shorty train in the photos (not included with the diorama set!).
Because N scale is the main scale I model I won’t buy another of these dioramas, but if you model Z scale then these sets would make a cheap and excellent way of setting up a diorama for your trains!
Here’s my design for a 3D printed enclosure to use with my PWM motor driver as a model railway controller. No extra hardware required - the PCB will be held in by rails incorporated in the case design and the top/bottom use an interference fit to stay together.
After testing the use of a USB power bank as a power source for a Rokuhan RC-02 model railway controller, I decided to follow Welshbloke’s lead and try the power bank with a cheap PWM motor controller from eBay.
Again I used the cable which takes the 5V USB output and steps up the voltage to 9V. This time I tested the setup with a small N scale locomotive made by Tsugawa. It’s designed for low voltage running, so 9V was plenty, but other trains may require a higher step-up voltage.
This combination worked fine whilst the train was moving, but as soon as it was brought to a stop the power bank switched off. This would need to be overcome to make the setup usable - either by changing the power bank or having the controller circuit constantly drawing current.
I was inspired by Welshbloke on JNS Forum to try using a USB power bank as a power source for a model railway controller, instead of a mains power supply.
I’ve tested this by hooking up an Anker power bank to a Rokuhan RC-02 controller and my Z gauge shorty loop. The Rokuhan controller expects a 10V input so I ordered a special cable which takes the 5V USB output and steps up the voltage to 9V, terminating in a 2.1mm barrel jack compatible with the controller.
I found this combination worked well, and that the power bank didn’t switch off when the train was brought to a stop. I suspect this is due to the ‘constant lighting’ feature of the controller, which keeps a high frequency AC current applied to the track so that train lighting continues to remain on when trains are stopped.
If you’re familiar with the Rokuhan controller, you’ll likely know it actually has a battery compartment. Whilst this might make a seperate power bank seem unnecessary, the controller takes 8 AAA batteries and it would (in theory) be easier to swap/recharge a power bank instead.
I’ve come up with some different T-Trak corner module designs using the original 210mm module depth. Which do you prefer the look of? I’m currently debating between the left and middle modules, as they allow more background scenery than the right-hand one.
Sakura Monden is here to teach us about railway safety and making sure to stay on the right side of the barriers at level crossings when a train is approaching. (That’s the first photo, not the second!)
