9.N Scale garage layout

[fanie kleynhans]

These N scale diesels dont have ditch lights so after searching around on the web I found that you can easily make some using fibre optics. So here is how I did it... After taking the shell off make 2 small holes in the front where you want the lights using a hot needle, it goes through quite easily. Now the tricky part...When you bend the fibre to much they break and the one end have to be right at the LED otherwise the light on the other end is very weak. So after trying various ways to do it in the end it was quite easy. I glued a small piece of straw over the LED, push the 2 fibres then through the gap between the 2 frames into the straw. And cut a small gap in the bottom of that black plastic in front of the LED. The other 2 ends at the bottom is then pushed through the 2 holes in the nose, carefully fit the shell over the frame again, cut off the extra fibre sticking out in front and using a soldering iron melt the tip of the fibres till it looks like a little mushroom. I did this melting with the other end as well. The only problem doing it this way is that if there is a problem with the loco and you have to take it apart you will have to cut the fibres but that is easy to replace again.

[John Ashworth]

That's really clever, Fanie, and the photo of the loco with the lights on is very impressive.

[Niel Wilson]

Nice work and in N Scale as well! I've used fibre optics for the red lights on a HO scale Class 34 (the lights on the back of the hood and front of the cab) and it's a neat trick.

Where did you get your fibre optics from? I normally raid the Christmas tree (much to the disgust of certain people in the family), that has fibre optics that gives pretty colours

[fanie kleynhans]

Niel I got the fibres from a plastic toy thingy, a friend got it for me from a chinese shop..

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

Clever - well done!

[Fidel Naidoo]

Fanie, neat !!

As a beginner, I have a question for the people here.....

I have Peco N scale points. Now that I've tacked some sections of rail down onto my baseboard, I used my finger and pushed my lightest Atlas truck around the track to check that the truck would handle the rail joins. It semmed to handle them fine, but did derail at all the points. It seems to have a deeper flange on it's wheels than the Peco points allow for on the plastic v-shape. You can actually feel it bump up as it goes over if you have your finger resting on the truck.

Is this a known issue between Atlas and Peco?

[fanie kleynhans]

Fidel everything on my track is Atlas so hopefully someone else have Peco stuff, but I have noticed sometimes when running a train the empty gondolas tend to derail over a switch because of how light they are. When I add a bit of weight the seem to run without problem. Maybe try a heavier wagon and see how it goes.

What I have done with all my box/grain cars is add 2 nuts inside them, one above each truck. I must still make some loads for the gondolas though and it must be something that can hide the weight below it..

[Fidel Naidoo]

Fanie, howzit !!!

Thanks for your answer. I looked around the net and found that others had the same problem as me. The solution is to take a sharp knife or a Dremel ( which I have ), and deepen the plastic frogs ( now I know what they're called ). Obviously, this has to be done very carefully.

I agree with you on the weight. I bought some smaller sinkers, which I'm going to hammer flat / square, and hide them away under the trucks.

The beginning of this thread you made is very informative to me, as I have 2 diesels very similar to the one you featured ( Bachmann make ), that I have in pieces now to become a class 34 and 33 SAR. I have been toying with idea of replacing the globes inside them to LEDs, and to take advantage of the nature of LEDs to get directional headlights. Do you have any ideas on this subject ?

Thanks.

[Niel Wilson]

The weights that are used for wheel balancing on your car are also ideal to add weight to troublesome rolling stock. These come in different weights 10g, 20g, 50g etc.

LEDs generally give better lighting in my opinion so go for it. I'm guessing you're running on an analogue (normal DC) system rather than DCC. Remember that LEDs generally operate at a lower voltage than bulbs so you will need to add a resistor else you will blow them. The normal resistor value is around 1k Ohms (lower values will give a brighter light). After that its just a case of wiring them so that the rear one comes on according to the direction.

HTH

[Fidel Naidoo]

Niel, thanks for the answer....

Ya, I'm using normal DC. I live close to an electronics shop, and having very little electronic knowledge myself, I hoped that I could buy very small 12V LEDs. Somewhere in the fuzzy recess of my mind I knew that I would have to put a resistor into the circuit if I couldn't get them, but I sort of shelved that for seeing to when the time came.

OK, I just stepped back to writing this, with a great site for others wishing to do this :

http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz

( I just have to find out what diode forward current is )

[fanie kleynhans]

Hi Fidel that is quite a nice calculator!

You can go here:

www.fort777.co.za

They have info for the components, just search for 3mm LED or the one that you want.

[Steve Appleton]

Fidel,
LEDs behave similarly to ordinary diodes. Thery let current flow through them in one direction only. If the supply polarity is reversed, then essentially no current will flow. The current that flows through the LED is known as "forward current". Like diodes, LEDs are designed to accept a certain maximum amount current before they will overheat and die. The spec sheet for the particular LED type will specify the maximum permitted forward current. When the current is flowing there will be a small voltage drop across the LED. This is the forward voltage drop, also specified for each type of LED.

NB, LEDs also have a maximum voltage they can tolerate across them in the reverse direction (opposite polarity) before they break down. This may be as low as 5 volts. Be careful not to exceed that too. Note that the series current-limiting resuistor will be useless at limiting the voltage across the LED in the reverse direction because the very low reverse current draw (generally less than 100 microamps) will prevent the resistor from creating a sufficiently large voltage drop across it.

Also like diodes, LEDs have a very low internal resistance which means that when connected to a reasonable power source voltage such as 12 volts, almost unlimited current will flow and destroy the LED. To prevent this, a resistor must be placed in series in one wire to the LED to cause a voltage drop and restrict the current flow to less than the maximum specified. The value required for such a resistor varies depending on the supply voltage, the maximum forward current desired and the voltage drop across the LED.

For a better explanation take a look at:
http://www.theledlight.com/LED101.html

[Derek Walker]

I had the problem of one of my el cheapo life-like diesels that would always derail on my uncoupler, it turned out that diesel had a piece underneath that would scrape the top of the uncoupler. It solved itself by derailing as it went around the track and fell onto the floor, breaking the one bogie. Now I have no more problems with that diesel :-). I also had a Minitrix steam engine that had protruding valve gear that would wack the one point motor each time it came around the track and then fall over. I ended up having to remove the points motor and cut away as much plastic as I could to prevent the problem.

[Fidel Naidoo]

Steve, howzit !!

Thanks for the info. I reckon I could now feel confident enough to tackle directional lighting.