Operation Multi Purpose

laalratty · Post by **laalratty** » Thu Dec 26, 2013 8:45 pm

Lighting looks very good, hope you haven't been caught up in the problems caused by the weather too much

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Sun Dec 29, 2013 6:04 pm

laalratty:94363 wrote:Lighting looks very good, hope you haven't been caught up in the problems caused by the weather too much

Ta laalratty, we were fine but the same couldn't be said for some of the family!! I'm sure you saw the scenes of the flooding in Maidstone, Tonbridge and Yalding on the National News! They're all places within 10-20mins of here!

Right,
Progress on the Centre Wagon is still moving at a nice steady rate, so should be completed in time! All I have to sort out is the hand rails and steps, plus the roof and add the buffers and bogies! Then of course fit all the electronics!
Everything except the motors were connected up a couple of nights back to check that things worked! And surprisingly (for me) It worked first time! So that was a nice easy stress free job. (I was half expecting a bang and some smoke from my dodgy wiring!)

Here's a couple of photos, sorry for the quality, these were taken on my phone!

Tonight will hopefully see the motors wired up, and preparations carried out for the fitting of the electronics to the centre wagon!

WVLR · Post by **WVLR** » Sun Dec 29, 2013 6:37 pm

I'm in a bad mood following the Liverpool Chelsea match :(
but we'll get the motors wired up come what may

Chris Cairns · Post by **Chris Cairns** » Mon Dec 30, 2013 12:31 pm

Your directional lighting has worked out very well.

Chris Cairns.

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Wed Jan 01, 2014 4:12 pm

Chris Cairns:94540 wrote:Your directional lighting has worked out very well.

Thanks Chris! It certainly looked the part yesterday on her first Maiden Voyage!

Even though 'WVLR' was in a bad mood (See his post above) We managed to connect up the motors correctly that evening so that they matched the directional lighting

The following day everything was wired in correctly, soldered and secured into place ready for the Maiden Powered Voyage. A few problems were noted but this didn't stop testing from continuing as scheduled! This just left the evening and the morning before NYE to get everything else ready: the centre wagon still required a lot of work, bogies needed another coat of paint, the roofs needed sticking back on for the time being, all those little jobs that seem to take up all of your time!

Anyway, I managed to complete everything with just over an hour to spare. So travelled to the Longmead Branch in order to carry out testing. The weather deteriorated on the journey there and stayed with us for the rest of the afternoon. Testing picked up a whole lot of issues (some of which will be resolved in the following weeks) and mixed with wet slippy rails on the gradients and flat the MPV didn't want to play ball at all

. I did run alright (albeit downhill) which made getting absolutely soaked more worthwhile

Here are a couple of pictures:

So its back to the drawing board, there are already ideas in place as to what can be done to Improve it further, all of which will be documented here as and when they occur!

yorkshirerail · Post by **yorkshirerail** » Wed Jan 01, 2014 5:07 pm

Looking absolutely fab... If only that was the scale I used... alas, I shall stick to OO but that really does like brilliant. You should be proud.

MDLR · Post by **MDLR** » Wed Jan 01, 2014 5:58 pm

Looks good - what were the issues? We could all do with learning............

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Wed Jan 01, 2014 7:55 pm

MDLR:94737 wrote:Looks good - what were the issues? We could all do with learning............

Thanks Luke and Brian!

Brian, there seem to be a couple of things wrong.

I only had 2 powered axles within 6 bogies, so now the powered bogies will be fitted with 4WD Equipment. The centre wagon is also quite heavy due to the battery pack and electrics all being in there.

The wires between the units for the motors were too thick and didn't flex at all so once you hit a corner the whole thing came off, this is another area that we have sorted out, and hopefully the solution works.

We are also substituting the Centre Buffer Couplings for a drawbar, so the unit on the rear can push more effectively without having to worry about buffer locking.

However the electrics (motors and directional lighting) all worked as well as they could and I couldn't fault them at all!

WVLR · Post by **WVLR** » Wed Jan 01, 2014 7:59 pm

And I'm in a good mood today as Liverpool actually won

MDLR · Post by **MDLR** » Wed Jan 01, 2014 8:20 pm

Tom:94744 wrote:I only had 2 powered axles within 6 bogies, so now the powered bogies will be fitted with 4WD Equipment. The centre wagon is also quite heavy due to the battery pack and electrics all being in there.

2 axles driven in that unit is certainly not enough, and it'll get worse if you try and run after the steamers have been out!

Tom:94744 wrote:The wires between the units for the motors were too thick and didn't flex at all so once you hit a corner the whole thing came off, this is another area that we have sorted out, and hopefully the solution works.

That can be a problem - I used very thin wires when I built my pair of Mandie railbuses back-to-back and that seemed to solve the problem.

Tom:94744 wrote:We are also substituting the Centre Buffer Couplings for a drawbar, so the unit on the rear can push more effectively without having to worry about buffer locking.

That's almost essential, given the heavy stuff in the middle car..............

Tom:94744 wrote:However the electrics (motors and directional lighting) all worked as well as they could and I couldn't fault them at all!

That's good - wiring like that can be a nightmare (particularly if you can't get at soldered connections).

laalratty · Post by **laalratty** » Wed Jan 01, 2014 8:59 pm

Sounds like a good first run, and problems are ok if you know the way to solve them easily! Sounds like a bit more weight over the driven axles might not be a bad idea as well

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 4:50 pm

MDLR:94746 wrote:
Tom:94744 wrote:I only had 2 powered axles within 6 bogies, so now the powered bogies will be fitted with 4WD Equipment. The centre wagon is also quite heavy due to the battery pack and electrics all being in there.
2 axles driven in that unit is certainly not enough, and it'll get worse if you try and run after the steamers have been out!

Tom:94744 wrote:The wires between the units for the motors were too thick and didn't flex at all so once you hit a corner the whole thing came off, this is another area that we have sorted out, and hopefully the solution works.
That can be a problem - I used very thin wires when I built my pair of Mandie railbuses back-to-back and that seemed to solve the problem.

Tom:94744 wrote:We are also substituting the Centre Buffer Couplings for a drawbar, so the unit on the rear can push more effectively without having to worry about buffer locking.
That's almost essential, given the heavy stuff in the middle car..............

Tom:94744 wrote:However the electrics (motors and directional lighting) all worked as well as they could and I couldn't fault them at all!
That's good - wiring like that can be a nightmare (particularly if you can't get at soldered connections).

Brian,

Well hopefully 2 powered bogies out of 6 will hopefully work, if not then its really back to the drawing board! For the Motor circuits we are now going to use the JST Red 2 Pin Connectors like we have for the LED Wiring, they are easy to connect up and offer the flexibility needed too!

If this doesn't work then we can look at motorising the Centre Wagon and it being a push pull set. however if it doesn't shift its own weight at the moment then I can't see it working at all!

Laalratty,

We tried adding weight above the motorised bogies but this just made it slip even more, maybe after the addition of the 4WD Chains this maybe better!

Out of interest I will weight the whole MPV tonight to see just how much it does weight!

EDIT:

I've just weighed the whole lot and its weighs 1.6kg

Centre Wagon: 500g
Units: 400g each
Battery Pack 300g

MDLR · Post by **MDLR** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 5:15 pm

It's fascinating seeing this "design on the hoof" process - the kit manufacturers have done all this before it goes on sale!

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 5:26 pm

MDLR:94789 wrote:It's fascinating seeing this "design on the hoof" process - the kit manufacturers have done all this before it goes on sale!

Haha, its getting a bit expensive now!, and if it doesn't work after all these mods, then I'll turn it into an un-powered PWay Renewals train with a couple more wagons, or sell the bloody thing all together!

MDLR · Post by **MDLR** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 5:37 pm

How sharp a curve is it intended to go round?

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 6:06 pm

Too big for Flagg Fluorspar!!!

I don't know to be honest, I just made it up to suit WVLR's Laser Cutter!

jim@NAL · Post by **jim@NAL** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 7:19 pm

this is very interesting very good build and good luck sorting out your problems its looking good thou and I love the lights

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 4:28 pm

Hi All,

Thanks Jim!

(Sorry if any of you may have seen some of this on the FB Group already)

Well a week of Annual Leave means that I finally have some time to get on with the Project and put into place some of the modifications that were required, in readiness for further testing this Saturday

Not alot has happened since my last post, however 4WD Chains have now been added to each of the Motorised Bogies in the Cabbed Ends. The wiring has also been sorted out and now uses the Red 2 Pin JST Plugs between the Units and for connecting up the different circuits.

After a few meetings with the Project Engineer it was decided to completely remove the Centre Wagon from the consist, thus removing weight, but also making the stabling of the Unit a little easier. The preferred option is to now have a fixed Module on Unit 1. (This means that I've had to drill an 8mm Dia. Hole in my lovely painted floor, but this can't be seen when the Module is fitted)

As you will see from the pictures below I am currently using the Water Tank Module as the fixed module, however this is only for testing and it is hoped that a module base can be designed so that removable bodies can be placed over it to hide everything as suggested by MDLR

The MPV was wired up properly this morning, just to check everything was still working, and I’m pleased to say it moved under its own power on the Garden Table without being on Rails, so hopefully testing on Saturday will prove successful!

Tom.

WVLR · Post by **WVLR** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 4:43 pm

It's all looking good Tom, I've been following this closely on here and the FB group. Here's to a successful test run on Saturday

MDLR · Post by **MDLR** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 5:46 pm

Not long to Peterborough.....................

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