Hi Everybody,
I've been tinkering some more. Since my last posting, I found that the steel wire I am using to move the points with the switch motor wasn't stiff enough. This meant that the motor was rotating more than it should. I can't use a thicker wire because of the size of the head bar. The biggest I found I could go without breaking threw the side of a hole is .032". I needed to find a way to fix this.
The idea I came up with was to slip a piece of tubing over the wire in hopes that it would restrain the wire enough and keep it from bending too much. So I started looking threw my scrap pile to see if I had any tubing small enough. The smallest I found was some styrene tubing. I didn't think the styrene would be able to stop the wire but tried any way. And I was right about the styrene. It would take a trip to the hobby shop to get what I needed. Some brass tubing.
I was able to go to the hobby store yesterday to get some brass tubing. Lucky me. 1/16 brass tubing slips right over a piece of .032 wire. On the drive home I started to figure out how I was going to do this. I was still thinking about slipping the tubing over the wire, but the weak spot would be between the end of the tubing and the side of the motor shaft. By the time I got home I had it all figured out.
Instead of using the tube to keep the wire from bending, I decided to use the tubing as the rod up threw the roadbed. I flattened one end, about a .25" long. From the end of the flat to the open end of the tube is the same length as the piece of styrene tubing that I first tried. This puts the end of the tube just above the roadbed. In the open end, I ACC'd a piece of .032 wire which is the part that goes threw the head bar and the connecting plate on the point. This is how the throw rod looks when installed on the motor.
Before fully installing the motor, the steel wire needs to be trimmed. Using foam sticky tape, I can position the motor and mark the wire where it comes threw the head bar. Cut it with the Dremel, stick back in place and anchor in place with a metal clamp made from flashing sheet metal.
Funny thing happened when I was putting up the layout lighting. Well it wasn't funny then. I'm using Hollow Wall Anchors to hang the mounting bases to the ceiling. Got the first three up and was working on putting in the anchors for the forth one when one of the anchors, as it was tightening up, the dry sheeting let go and right up into the ceiling went my drill. What happened was it was cutting into the sheeting with the two anchor hooks making a very nice circle just big enough for the drill to punch on threw. I tried relocating the base block but that only made things worse. So the only thing to do was cut it out.
You can see it at the top of the photo. I also got the fifth one up which is located above the picture. That was the last thing I did in the basement last night. When I went down to the train room this morning I found the mud still wet. It doesn't dry very well in the cold. My oil filled heater was warm so I cranked it up , moved it under the patch and let the warm raising air do its thing.
One more thing has to be built before scenery goes in. The coal trestle. When I was breaking down the mill, I made sure to be careful removing the trestle bents as I'm using them to build the new coal trestle.
It'll be 18" long, long enough for two hoppers. The two bent at the left are glued back together. Those two and the two to the right had to be cut down a little. It'll be built on that piece of foam. There will be a low wall around the trestle like the abutment at the far right. The idea behind the placement of the coal trestle at the power house is there is an Archimedes screw in a trench under the trestle that feeds the coal into the power house.
The next big obstacle in my modeling effort is my workbench. Half of the bench top is covered with stuff from the On2 and even HO and that was from when I first moved into the house. It has to be made O Scale friendly. So I've begun cleaning the bench. It's going slowly but I've already got more room open so that I can start working on some rolling stock.
See ya next time.
