Micro LED's

I have recently installed some LED's in my new GP15-1, for which I'm also making a video. I hope to complete that video by next weekend, and  will post it next week.

Just prior to doing this install, I ordered some micro LED's to see if I could make up a couple of ready wired LED's for my own use. I'm thinking of using these in headlights of model cars etc.

However what I haven't found is a thin enough insulated wire that I can use to solder these to, not to mention a solder tip for my solder station that is thin enough to handle this..
Have a look at this picture, those two yellow dots on my finger are two LED's. VERY TINY indeed.

I am going to struggle making these up, and I'm going to take my time in figuring out how to do it without burning them.  In the meantime, if you don't want to give yourself a headache, have a look at the mini and micro LEDs at Express models, from the UK. While 4 of them will cost you about 5 GBP, they do come with additional resistors, and what's more, you won't need to solder them :-)

ESU LOKSOUND SELECT DIRECT Installation

Here's a video I put up on my latest installation, I'm hopefull you'll find it useful.

ESU Lokprogrammer

Today I received an ESU Lokprogrammer, which I had ordered.  I now own a total of 2 locomotives that use an ESU Loksound decoder. While these were shipped to me with sounds pre-loaded, they can be updated with new or more custom sounds. This is what you need the Lokprogrammer for.
I've already made use of it to change the sounds in the decoder that I installed in my CP Rail GP38-2 locomotive. The new sound file is clearer and sounds a lot more like a non turbo 645 engine than the old file.

ESU also has some of the finest motor control in the business. Low speed performance is flawless, and that's important for use on switching layout, smooth acceleration from stand still etc. Nothing spoils the 'illusion' than a loco that 'yerks and stutters'.
Obviously, it also helps to have clean wheels, and a good mechanism. You can't make a bad loco perform fantastic, but the ESU electronics can certainly make it a bit better than others that I've tried so far.
If you're not into sound, but would like to upgrade your decoders, try their Lokpilot series decoders.

Enhancing the realism of track

In another post a little while ago, I showed you how you could make Peco (and probably other manufacturers too) turnouts more reliable.
This time, I'll share with you a simple technique that will help in making your factory made track look more realistic.
It takes a little time and patience, but it isn't difficult. 
If you turn a piece of track upside down, you'll see small pieces of plastic that hold the ties together.
These are there to make the track a bit more strong, but they also make it look more solid and unrealistic, there is no such support on real track. If you have a large layout then the following might take a lot of time, but if your layout is smaller, or if you have no problems in spending more time, then the following is a good thing to do.

Take a sharp knife (be careful obviously), and cut away these small interconnecting pieces of plastic.

The ties now are all loosely connected to the rail.  Do this on a stable underground, as you don't want to break the plastic 'spikes' that hold the ties to the rail.






If you then look at it from the top you'll notice that this gives the track a more realistic appearance, there is 'air' below the rail and between two ties.

Left: track after cutting , Right: Original track

The picture to the left  illustrates the effect well.



Now depending on what kind of track you model, on a piece of flex track you could remove a few ties, and be able to slide the ties a bit more uneven, with some larger gaps in between some of them, giving the impression of older, less maintained secondary trackage.

Obviously that's not something you'd see on a well maintained mainline, but an industrial area, or rail yard could see this quite easily.

California Northern in HO

Below a few scenes that 'could have been' on the old SP trackage which was franchised to the California Northern starting 1993. It's 1994, at Napa Jct , and we see SD9 203 and GP15-1 107 on the service track at the loco maintenance facilities.  They're flanked by a variety of SP power that could still be seen in the area at the time.

The other shot could have been made in the same year, but also as recent as 2010, when the GP15-1's were still in regular service on the trackage of the CFNR. (They have since been replaced by Genset locomotives, and the GP15-1's have been leased out to many other short lines, and can be found in various different areas, including Texas). Here we see 107 approaching Cordelia tunnel on way to Napa Jct.

The GP15-1 is an Athearn Genesis model, that I've just received a few days ago. I'm hoping to get another one as they are iconic locomotives for the CFNR and have been for many years, and fit in the time frame that I'm modeling on my home layout.

I've now ordered a Loksound Select Direct for this locomotive, to replace the build in PCB and leave room for a speaker etc. I've seen how little space there is in this small engine, and I fear that using a plug in decoder on top of the existing PCB will not leave enough space for much, and not enough 'air' for the speaker to operate reasonably well, as far as that can be expected from such a small unit.

Weathering to improve realism

As you might know, weathering is the act of treating a model to make it look it has been exposed to the elements, both natural and man made.
There are some fantastic examples out there, but it is also something that puts people off, being afraid to over do  it and ruin a model.

However it doesn't need to be like that, and a few simple treatments can make the appearance of a model less 'toy' like, and isn't complicated or 'scary'.

See the below Before and After pictures.
All that was done to this hopper is apply a light weathering as follows:
- Using tempera pigment powders (any weathering powder or chalks will work just as well or perhaps better, it's just what I had on hand) and apply these with a soft brush and Qtips to the model. I only used three colours: Black, Burnt Umber and Raw Siena.
-Painting of the wheels in a rust brown colour (Humbrol RC402 in this case)
Dry brushing the trucks with the same paint (dry brushing is done as follows: dip the brush in the paint, wipe this brush off on a piece of paper until it almost doesn't let off any paint, and 'brush' the trucks. It is enough to accent some details ).

After I was happy with the results of the powders I sprayed a light coat of Testor's Dullcote over the model to fix the powders in place. (spray from about 8" away so you don't blow the powders off the model again).
Total time spend on this model, less than 15 minutes.
I could do a lot more, and I will in the future, but my initial plans are to treat every car on a basic level like just described, to make them look a bit less 'plastic', and more real, and then come back to them to add more intricate weathering etc.

Give it a try.

BEFORE

AFTER

Improving Peco Insulfrog reliability

You might have found similar tips around the web, but I thought I'd share this anyway.

Peco Insulfrog turnouts are a great product, and their US style code 83 track is fairly easily obtainable.
As with their (british) code 75 products, they come both as insulfrogs , and electrofrogs.
Electrofrogs can be used if you want to electrically connect the frog of the turnout, but it's not always needed, particularly with the bigger locos many US railroaders use (exceptions being track-mobiles etc).
Insulfrogs can still be improved upon. They normally rely on the moving blades to touch the stock rail , in order to supply power, but paint, ballast and other dirt can make this less reliable over time, and then your loco stalls.
The solution is simple however, and that is to solder small wire bridges to the BOTTOM of the turnout, prior to installing them on your layout.
I won't go into explaining how it works here, but rather show you a picture on how they are fitted.
It's easy to do, asuming you have a soldering iron and have some basic skills:
Step 1: get a small thin wire, strip it and tin it using some solder.
Step 2: add a tiny drop of flux to the bottom of the two rails between which the wire is placed.
Step 3: Tin the tip of your soldering iron
Step 4: place the wire in the right spot and touch both areas briefly until the solder melts (this goes pretty quick).
Step 5: cut of the excess, and optionally paint the wire to make it less visible.

That's it. The result looks like this (seen from the bottom , where you would solder it) . The arrow indicates the jumper.