Greetings From The Philippines
- Thread starter Timbo
- Start date
PhilP
G Scale, 7/8th's, Electronics
You'll have the environ-mental police after you for that one Jon..
A bit like 'GPO Telephones' using old engine oil and creosote to soak telegraph poles in..
GAP
G Scale Model Trains, 1:1 Sugar Cane Trains
You got that right.
The Greenies and the Environmental Protection Agency down here would be all over you like a rash.
Thanks for the kind words.
The trackbeds are 1 m above the ground. They are made entirely of scrap metal. Ballast is gravel used in building the houses round here. The edges of the trackbeds have clear mastic with some gravel embedded. This is to stop the ballast (gravel) from falling off the trackbeds. Seems to work. None of the track is pinned down. The fishplate connectors have no conductive grease on them. So far this has not been a problem. It becomes a problem then I have some appropriate paste. I run mostly LGB products without many issues. The longer, Chinese origin carriages are less happy on the R1 curves which I am intending to replace with R3s.
The track gets filthy sooooo very quickly. Solved with a track rubber and elbow grease.
I am also considering buying some kits that will run on 45mm track. Not G-Scale (http://www.eagleassist.com/hglw/index.html) but they look interesting and fun to build and battery powered. I am considering adding radio control to these kits as an extension of the project and more things to learn about.
OK. That's it.
Cheers,
Tim
Ha!! Coffee stirrers!! I'll have you know that they are professional, high quality popsicle sticks!! Ha! Ha!
Fun to build and paint. Good way of learning. But .... .... not really practical as the weather gets the upper hand quite quickly. Heat-gun glue is no use as it melts in the heat we have here. PVA glue is good but slowly dissolves in any rain.
So .... .... moving to plastic "desk" storage boxes covered with vinyl floor tiles and scrap metal sheet for the roof. We have made a signal box in this way and the principle appears to work.
I want to experiment further with the tiles.
I am intending to score rows of bricks with a Dremel tool and try to simulate walls with the use op appropriate paints. Should be interesting at least.
Cheers,
Tim
merlin
Model (all scales) & 12":1'
I can appreciate the problem with the heat-gun glue. At one place on our line there is a large flowering plant, don't know what it's called but has pale green furry leaves and developes large yellow flower heads. These flower heads get heavy as they develop and end up bent over the track. The head gardener didn't want them chopped off, so some form of retaining wall was called for. Having recently had some roof insulation work carried out in the house I had seen the potential of the 2" thick high desity foam blocks that were removed from an eaves area and moved them to the come-in-handy store before they found their way into the back of the contractors van. Using this material I made a sloping 'retaining wall' which I covered with a plastic sheet material in the form of bare rock. I attached this using the hot glue gun which had the adavantage at the time of softening the plastic sheet so that it could be pressed into shape over the contours, however, one warm day the week before last (not hot, even by UK standards) was enough to cause the bond to fail. I had run out of "Grip and Fill" which I had used to stick the foam together, but found a tube of "No More Nails" in the garage which was probably well past its shelf life, but seems to have done the trick. I'll know for sure when I get back to the UK in 2 weeks time.
Keep us posted with vinyl tile experiment - that sounds like an interesting possibility for other material substrates as well as plastic.
Keep us posted with vinyl tile experiment - that sounds like an interesting possibility for other material substrates as well as plastic.
Tried scoring a tile with a view to simulate brick walling. Hmmm. Possible but very tedious and needs a steady hand. I will not experiment further in this way. The tiles are good as a surface for painting or with some other covering.
I find "No more nails" a good adhesive, but not the "clear" version.
GAP
G Scale Model Trains, 1:1 Sugar Cane Trains
Timbo
As a resident of North Queensland in Aust with a similar climate to the Philippines (Hot/Humid), I used water resistant PVA as used by cabinet makers for kitchen benches to some success but I now use Silicone Gutter sealer (mastic?) for my outside projects. That stuff is nuclear proof.
I found construction adhesives (No More Nails / Liquid Nails) vary vastly, builders use different types depending on situation eg interior v exterior.
As for simulated brick walls and buildings in Aust we have a product called "HEBEL" its a light weight concrete type product that can be carved quite easily it comes in various thickness.
This is an example of its use http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/satr/hebel.htm
Don't know if you have a similar product available but it may be worth a look around.
For the track cleaning issue try putting a piece of "Masonite" under a wagon and run it around frequently to clean the track.
This is for HO but why not upscale for G it might just work and give a good excuse to run a train.
http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/6034
A bit of biased advice is that, in your climate I would serious look at battery power to save one hell of a lot of cleaning, I ran track power on a HO layout under a house exposed to the tropical temp and humidity and I was always cleaning the track so when I made the move to G I decided on battery almost straight away and when I move back up North soon I will be glad I made the decision after talking to friends who are still in the tropics who still rate track cleaning as their biggest bug bear.
As a resident of North Queensland in Aust with a similar climate to the Philippines (Hot/Humid), I used water resistant PVA as used by cabinet makers for kitchen benches to some success but I now use Silicone Gutter sealer (mastic?) for my outside projects. That stuff is nuclear proof.
I found construction adhesives (No More Nails / Liquid Nails) vary vastly, builders use different types depending on situation eg interior v exterior.
As for simulated brick walls and buildings in Aust we have a product called "HEBEL" its a light weight concrete type product that can be carved quite easily it comes in various thickness.
This is an example of its use http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/satr/hebel.htm
Don't know if you have a similar product available but it may be worth a look around.
For the track cleaning issue try putting a piece of "Masonite" under a wagon and run it around frequently to clean the track.
This is for HO but why not upscale for G it might just work and give a good excuse to run a train.
http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/6034
A bit of biased advice is that, in your climate I would serious look at battery power to save one hell of a lot of cleaning, I ran track power on a HO layout under a house exposed to the tropical temp and humidity and I was always cleaning the track so when I made the move to G I decided on battery almost straight away and when I move back up North soon I will be glad I made the decision after talking to friends who are still in the tropics who still rate track cleaning as their biggest bug bear.
I am considering buying a transmitter and a couple of receivers for my Garden Railway but I have a couple of questions.
Currently I have a track powered end-to-end layout. As pointed out by GAP living in the Philippines, the climate makes the track tarnish quite rapidly so a move to battery power/ radio control makes sense. I run a couple of LGB locos and I am considering buying a kit that is entirely battery-based.
1. I use a "shuttle" control from Gaugemaster. Without track power I will lose this facility. I was wondering if a "track magnet", or other "trigger", could be used to activate the control channel in the transmitter associated with reversing the train travel direction. That would mean that one train can be set up to run backwards and forwards while I drive a different train elsewhere.
2. Batteries. I have several LiPo batteries available to me from a RC Car. I would like, if possible, to use these as I have them already and not an unlimited budget. Typically they are 7.4 volt 5200mA. They are physically quite large which may make them prohibitive. There are also the connections to be considered. The wiring is really quite heavy which makes me fearful that they could simply be too powerful and I could risk burning something out. What could be an alternative?
Comments?
Currently I have a track powered end-to-end layout. As pointed out by GAP living in the Philippines, the climate makes the track tarnish quite rapidly so a move to battery power/ radio control makes sense. I run a couple of LGB locos and I am considering buying a kit that is entirely battery-based.
1. I use a "shuttle" control from Gaugemaster. Without track power I will lose this facility. I was wondering if a "track magnet", or other "trigger", could be used to activate the control channel in the transmitter associated with reversing the train travel direction. That would mean that one train can be set up to run backwards and forwards while I drive a different train elsewhere.
2. Batteries. I have several LiPo batteries available to me from a RC Car. I would like, if possible, to use these as I have them already and not an unlimited budget. Typically they are 7.4 volt 5200mA. They are physically quite large which may make them prohibitive. There are also the connections to be considered. The wiring is really quite heavy which makes me fearful that they could simply be too powerful and I could risk burning something out. What could be an alternative?
Comments?
Following further investigation I have found that RC Trains can supply all that I need to move to Radio Control. Indeed the receiver involved is programmable and can be made to operate the shuttle. Will need a reed switch and a couple of magnets to achieve this.
As regard my LiPo batteries. Their heavy wiring is associated with their use in RC Cars where high current needs to be drawn very quickly.