Weekend Update 5/21/23

[Ed Kapuscinski]

This was a good weekend!

First, I got to run trains on Jeff Mutter's awesome EL Scranton Division with our own @Maletrain and his wife (Femaletrain??).

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Then I got to do some work on my new SW7: handrail painting and removing the footboards on the pilot. I think I like this little thing.

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After doing some work TO it, I did some work WITH it switching some cars in Windsor St. One of the things that kept driving me nuts was that the slide switch in the K Mount for the important turnout between the yard runner and and the drill track into the classification tracks wasn't making positive contact. That meant the frog wasn't powered in one direction. I was afraid I was going to have to replace it but, while playing around with it, I made a MINOR adjustment in the position (it's why I build adjustability into the design) and everything started working perfectly. Hell yes.

[ns737]

ED did that railing work for you on your gp38?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

ED did that railing work for you on your gp38?

Yessir! It's waiting some yellow paint and then has broken the logjam on that project.

Thank you!!!

[btrain]

Had a great time running my Hiles doughnut layout and Lakeshore Central Free-moN modules at Ohio N Scale Weekend. If you live within a several hours drive of the Columbus area, I highly recommend you come next year to see all the great layouts and vendors. Here are some random photos from it, more on the respective layout threads.

[Slim Rail Mike]

Weekend update.

Bounced between three projects this weekend.

1 Worked on the bays water. What I want is a bearing grease green for the water. I don’t know how to get there, so it’s just keep trying different color combinations.

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2 Created and installed the lagging on the pier. Made a mistake when the first section was installed. I’ll live with it.

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3 Continuing to work on the ladder tracks.

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[craigolio1]

Weekend update.

Bounced between three projects this weekend.

1 Worked on the bays water. What I want is a bearing grease green for the water. I don’t know how to get there, so it’s just keep trying different color combinations.

Have a look at Vallejo 71.021 Oily Black. It’s got a greasy green look to it.

[cec209]

Most of my last week was consumed finishing these T-TRAK modules for the Ohio N Scale Weekend this past weekend.



More pics of the Ohio N Scale weekend in the Upcoming Events section of N & Z scale.

Charlie

[oakcreekco]

@peteski

I've been testing light appearance with resistors in series like you suggested.

I still have the 1k in the first GP35.

In my second GP35, I started out with three 2k resistors, and they did dim considerably. Too much to my liking.

Went with two 2k resistors, and while a little brighter, still just didn't look right to my eyes.

The single 2k resistor looks pretty darn good, with just a little edge off the brightness compared to the 1k in the other engine.

These sunny white LEDs have no hint of any blue, and are close to looking more like an incandescent lamp than a LED.

At this point, I'm going to spend time running both for while and see if I really end up with a preference.

I'm sure that each style of loco may vary, based on light tube type and length, and how well the face of the LED is directed at the light tube end.

Fun little project, great results, and notes to keep. Looks like I'm set for now with my batch of 1k and 2k resistors, and putting some time on these two units to see if one brightness is preferred over the other.

Thanks for your input.

[SirTainly]

I'm away from home this week but I hadn't posted an update on the progress on the T-scale H24-66 over the last few weeks, and since I'm in SP commuter country (SF Bay area) this seems appropriate.

The Train Master design was modified with SP details and I finalized the design of the Pullman bi-level gallery car.  I made up some decals but only got around to testing them on the gallery car.  Flush-fitting windows and extended couplers remain to be applied. The bi-level is riding on a commercial TGauge adjustable chassis and trucks, and I'm going to compare this setup vs. with the more scale-sized/appearance CCE coupler and GSC-41 trucks to see how they compare in performance and durability.

(Attachment Link)
The TM was printed with DMD-21 resin.  I'm trying this resin to eliminate handrail distortion with some success, but I have more tests to do when I return.  The DMD-21 is rather brittle.  I want to try out an 80/20 mix of Phrozen Aqua 8K and Phrozen Onyx which should be stronger and was recommended by another modeler.  I also tried spot-curing the handrails with a UV LED (from the JB Weld UV glue).  Now, this seems promising but I need to work out the process better as I need to hold them plumb while curing using tweezers.. I need a third hand.   

Anyway, with all this SP equipment it looks like I'll eventually have to do an SP module of some sort.  The San Francisco 4th Street Tower looks like it would be fun to model, and maybe the station at 3rd/Townsend, but that would be a bigger scope of work. 

-Jesse

Those are awesome, fantastic work. If those bi levels would work scaled up to N, I'd be interested in purchasing some.

[peteski]

@peteski
I've been testing light appearance with resistors in series like you suggested.
I still have the 1k in the first GP35.
In my second GP35, I started out with three 2k resistors, and they did dim considerably. Too much to my liking.
Went with two 2k resistors, and while a little brighter, still just didn't look right to my eyes.
The single 2k resistor looks pretty darn good, with just a little edge off the brightness compared to the 1k in the other engine.
These sunny white LEDs have no hint of any blue, and are close to looking more like an incandescent lamp than a LED.
At this point, I'm going to spend time running both for while and see if I really end up with a preference.
I'm sure that each style of loco may vary, based on light tube type and length, and how well the face of the LED is directed at the light tube end.

Fun little project, great results, and notes to keep. Looks like I'm set for now with my batch of 1k and 2k resistors, and putting some time on these two units to see if one brightness is preferred over the other.

Thanks for your input.

You're welcome.  I agree that the resistor values are best selected for each install (and also for the specific type of white LEDs).

Pretty much all the white LEDs we use are constructed of a blue LED die (the chip that emits light), coated with a a phosphor which when excited with blue ligth produces light in the yellow spectrum.  With come of the blue light from the die passing through the phosphor, the combination of blue and yellow light are perceived by the human eye as white.  There are also different types of phosphor used some more orange than yellow). The "warmth" of the light is determined by the balance of the blue and yellow/orange light.

For more info on white LEDs look over https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode#White, specifically the "Phosphor-based LEDs" section.

White LED lamps are sometimes rated by their color temperature in degrees Kelvin.  2700K is a warm white light, similar to standard incandescent bulbs. 3000K is less yellow, similar to Halogen bulbs.  5000K and higher is more of a daylight sun white color.

The sunny white LEDs are likely in the 3000K range.   Warm white LEDs are usually less efficient than the more bluish white since more of the blue light is filtered out, so they might need more current flowing through them to give you satisfactory brightness. Then as you mentioned, if light conduits (pipes) are used, then more light is lost in those. And if you get another type or brand of LED, you will likely have to experiment again for the best resistor value.

There are kits available with all the standard resistor values from one ohm to 10M ohms, but in this application most of those resistors would not be usable. It would be nice if there were kits sold of certain ranges of values (like 100-10,000 ohms).  that would come in handy for this task.

[oakcreekco]

FWIW, the LEDs that I used are from Soundtraxx. #810133 Sunny White. Not sure who actually makes them, but ordered these when I ordered some decals., and thought let's see how these are.

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The only goofy thing that I spotted was the advertised diameter on the package. Decimal error! 😂

[peteski]

FWIW, the LEDs that I used are from Soundtraxx. #810133 Sunny White. Not sure who actually makes them, but ordered these when I ordered some decals., and thought let's see how these are.
The only goofy thing that I spotted was the advertised diameter on the package. Decimal error! 😂

Yeah, 3mm is about 0.120".

I usually buy my LEDs from industrial electronic suppliers (like Digikey or Mouser Electronics), where detailed electrical specs are provided.
Model RR manufacturers buy those LEDs in bulk, and resell them to modelers.  Instead of giving technical specs (like color temperature), they give them cute names like "sunny white". They provide very few specs. They usually give the forward voltage (which for white LEDs is around 3.0V), and maybe typical operating current (for 3mm LEDs, usually around 20mA.  But they do not provide specs like luminous intensity (at a typical current rating).  That is not a big problem as modelers use their eyeballs for figuring out how bright the headlight should be.

[oakcreekco]

That's what I figured, and I originally looked at those two suppliers to get a small stash. Unfortunately I got frustrated trying to figure out which ones were like the model railroad "sunny whites."

Didn't want to end up with a batch of LEDs plus shipping to find out that I screwed up. 😂

All that I can say so far is that I'm liking these, and if I can figure out what they're using, I would buy bulk.

[peteski]

That's what I figured, and I originally looked at those two suppliers to get a small stash. Unfortunately I got frustrated trying to figure out which ones were like the model railroad "sunny whites."

Didn't want to end up with a batch of LEDs plus shipping to find out that I screwed up. 😂

All that I can say so far is that I'm liking these, and if I can figure out what they're using, I would buy bulk.

Buying LEDs from a model RR manufacturer is not a bad thing.  Electronics is also my hobby, and I worked as a computer tech for years, so I'm familiar with all that stuff.  If you buy your "sunny white" LEDs from Soundtraxx, they already did all the research for you, so you pay a bit extra. Not like you need to buy LEDs by the thousand.  It's all good.

[oakcreekco]

That's what I was thinking too.

I needed some decals for patch jobs, and saw the Soundtraxx LEDs in stock for my handful of lighting projects. I figured that they did the homework, have a good rep, and were in stock.

Save the research time, and save shipping on a separate order from another vendor. Some of the electrical houses have a $20 minimum order plus shipping.

I understand that, but didn't want to "guess" and pay $30 for a batch of LEDs that weren't what I needed.

These turned out perfect.