Hey all. There’s been some interest and questions about a model I’m building so I figured it might help people to see the process.
The base model is a 3D printed N scale Jordan Spreader from Shapeways which I don’t have a picture of, but I can post a pic of the same model, finished, which inspired me to build it.
@BCR 570 ’s completed model…
…which he’s posted here before. This and more can be seen on his Dawson Creek Subdivision website:
https://bcrdawsonsub.ca/And YouTube channel:
https://youtube.com/@bcrdawsonsub7772?si=77zPZspBoUd5VmYO
When I received my model it was broken. Shapeways sent me a replacement, but man, these things are BRITTLE. I swear they are made of melted sugar.
Upon inspection of my model, I could see that there was a cavity below the floor of the cab which would maybe be used to hide electronics. I happened to have a Digitrax 4 function decoder on hand and wouldn’t you know, once the cab floor was removed it fit perfectly. So it was decided that if I was to build a spreader, it should probably have lights. The enablers in my circle of course agreed whole heartedly. More on this later.
The prototype that I’m using as inspiration for my model is a later version of Tim’s…
What I like about it is that it has lots of lights, which many of you know……is my thing. Four headlights? Yes please. Spot lights on the roof and handrails? If I have to. Walkway lighting under the canopy? Oh I guess so.
I wasn’t sure how to do it so the model was shelved and forgotten about for a couple of years. Recently I was doing a clean up and I found the box and a look. I decided it was time to give it a go.
Here’s what I’ve done so far.
My first course of action was to sort out electronics and how I plan to power this thing. The model is full of open space and I wanted to keep it that way. So to do it right, I wanted no, or very few visible wires. This meant cramming everything I could into the tiny cab and getting creative about how to move electricity around.
My initial thoughts were:
Replace the handrails with brass and use them to both mount and bring current to the LEDs.
Fashion a roof from brass, or glue brass strips to styrene and do the same.
Keep alive if some kind would be nice as flickering lights ruins the fun.
A means to turn lights on and off, and I already knew the DCC decoder would fit.
Power pick up would be through home made phrosphor bronze pickups and Fox Valley metal wheel sets in Micro-Trains trucks, one truck left rail, the other truck right rail. A scheme I’ve used a few times before, which has worked.
Finally some weight, any weight, would be ideal as this thing is LIGHT.
I decided working from the bottom up would be wise so I started with the trucks.
I soldered a Tee out of .008” phosphor bronze wire.
Drilled a hole through the MT truck pin,
inserted the wire in the pin, and assembled the truck. The wires get bent in a curve around the axles.
And voila, a low friction truck pick up.
On the cab end the wire sticks up in the middle which will need to be dealt with. But first a weight.
I trimmed a 1/4 oz weight until it dropped into the cab and drilled a hole in the middle. I made a styrene bushing for the hole so the wire couldn’t contact it. Not necessary as it turned out but seemed like a good idea at the time.
A quick test for shows still plenty of room for a decoder on top.
Next I bent the wire flat over the weight down to the side, tucked the end under what remained of the edge of the cab floor, and then put a layer of Kapton tape down to insulate it.
Moving to the rear truck, I cut the wires short, just above the truck pin.
I used ESU super flexible decoder wire and treaded it down through the back of the model through the truck pin hole, and down the side of the centre sill through a hole I drilled there
With the truck installed the pick up is nicely hidden in the centre of the model.
To get the wire to the cab I opted to hide it in plain site on the outside of the sill. It will look like a conduit or air line. This leaves the hollow sill for a little bit of weight.
I used magnet wire threaded through holes to see the wire into place along the sill.
The wire got distorted with all of my tweezer handling as the insulation is so soft but it’ll do. On a side note I have Micro-mark titanium tweezers and they are very pointy and sharp. Press to hard and they will penetrate the insulation and leave bare conductor. And you don’t have to press very hard.
At this point we have pick up for both trucks in the cab!
The next stage I wanted to tackle was electronics. I got out the bread board and started playing with caps and resistors and such to come to a final decision on what sizes of resistors I wanted to use and where to put them.
I have a thread on this in the DCC/electronics section.
https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=58847.0Ultimately it was discovered that for a yet undetermined reason, keep alive doesn’t work with the Digitrax 4 function decoder. So i switched to adding a constant lighting circuit on one of the function outputs so it would do just the head light. At the end of this cascade of compromise I ended up with scenario that had most of the fun lights flickering, a mass of wires in the cab, and a maintenance nightmare should something stop working.
So, no more DCC. Really all
I’m trying to accomplish is constant lighting that I can turn off/on. I can do that with a simple constant lighting circuit provided by
@peteski , which I’ve used many times and is very small.
And micro switches.
They were still too big though and I couldn’t find micro MICRO switches. So I decided I could make my own.
I envisioned it working like a safety pin. I would hide one on either side of the sill under the cab behind the front truck. Contacts go up through the floor and the big wings on the plow completely conceal everything.
Here’s the finished product.
And two sets of contacts in the cab.
Notice here that the model is in more pieces than it was. This was not on purpose. Remember it’s made of sugar and this is what a trip to the floor results in. Thankfully it breaks clean. I break it so many times in various places through out the build. In this photo you also see Gold Medal Models etched handrail stanchions both on the model and not. I think here I was onto handrails. I started with .022” brass as it matched the rear handrail size which didn’t need to be brass. I glued those to the stock printed stanchions. That lasted like a day. Somehow just sitting in the project box those broke. So I decided to do all brass stanchions and a new rear handrail, all with .0125 phosphor bronze handrails. Smaller and stronger right? Well, not when it falls off your desk. But I digress. I’m not going to talk about it anymore cause it makes me sad but you’ll see getting constantly more broken in the following photos. It can be like an Easter egg hunt for you.
Moving on.
We were talking about the safety pin switches. So to work them I have to flip the model over and engage them then put it on the track. Not elegant, and I’ll likely break it. Ok so I will still talk about it but it’s a sore spot so just bear with me. This thing is so fragile I’ll likely just pose it for photos and never run it.
Then it occurred to me. Wait. All of the work lights are never on when it’s in transit. Maybe the head light if it’s leading as a plow. All of the work lights would only be on if the wings are out. These wings don’t go out. So I have no reason to use the lights and this whole operation is pointless.
In a panic I text
@CNR5529 , my CEO (Chief Enabler Officer) and share my woes. His answer was a very simple, you’ll have to animate it. Anima-what? WTH man. You’re supposed to tell me the lights will be awesome as is. I should know better. Every chat with the CEO results in a new challenge.
Well challenge accepted, and so I embarked on a side mission. Measuring…. Researching….LHSing, Amazoning… cutting….filing….. band-aids.
I found telescoping tubing and wires, square tubing and then something called “German Wire” at Michaels which is square wire that perfectly fit my square tubing, and really great YouTube video of a Jordan spreader in action so I could see all the rams and such. Turns out a couple are missing from the model.
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