Thanks Mike. I always enjoy your night scenes. Mike
Great work again this week guys. Keep them coming.
A little something to break up the monotony. I built this little tow plane for a thread on another site and placed it above my layout. So far it has been a real hit with the grandsons.
Another more conventional picture from the BRVRR. A trainman relaxing on the rear platform of a Pennsylvania freight train as it passes under the Route 32 Overpass on the layout.
Thanks to all of you out there who make WPF the best thread of the week, every week!
Excellent work everyone! Doing some switching at GL Mills, home of Grandma Ginger’s Frozen Foods and Bakery.
Now that switching work is done, I’m jumpin in the pick-up, and gettin in line for that car wash I seen a few post back !
Mike.
Continue to enjoy weekly all the fine photos and modeling on WPF. Christened my fascia control panel this afternoon.
Regards, Peter
Mike Lehman:
Those yard lights look really good. The level of illumination is spot on. (Great photography too I might add). I’m currently trying to come up with a design for the same thing (yard lights).
Can you possibly post a daylight close up shot and maybe some hints at how you made them? Also, can you tell us what size of LED you used?
Thanks
Dave
Keep them coming, guys!
Panaramic shots of the peninsula ends:
There’s another 15x15’ area to the upper left.
Terry in NW Wisconsin
Mike,
Thanks, your comment is much appreciated[:D]
Terry,
Really nice layout environment. My operators would be jealous[;)]
Peter,
Nice craftsmanship on the control board.
Dave,
I can only credit Canon for the cool stuff they put on cameras and reading the manual a little for the pics.[:)]
I build power supplies for my building lighting using LM317 as a volateg regualtor, usually powered by a wall wart. The goal is to get a supply that puts out around 3.2V, but variable so you can adjust as needed. This provides a good way to power the LEDs without a lot of calculating resistors, etc, I still throw into more complex buildings with multiple lights to provide variance in illumination levels, but these lights just hooked right up to the supply without a resistor.
Remember that these lights are in my engine service area, so they’re hard to reach at 3’+ away, so hard to photograph, too. Best I could do. I also didn’t worry so much about looks, since they so far away, but more attention to detail could make them stand out. Thus, these are a little crude and made sturdy…plus I was hustling to get 'em ready yesterday for today’s ops session[C]
Both use a different type of lampshade. By the coaling tower, it’s a styrene shade from somewhere I found in my parts box. The talled one on the other side of the tracks is one from the Walthers Billboard kit. They’re just fake in it, so I drill them out for the LED.
The posts are just tapered dowels with a little stain. The brackets and braces are small brass stock and wire, which I s
Thanks Mike L.!
I spent much of the day on the roof starting to put the cedar shakes on it. The little HO scale roofing nails are a real pain though…[:-^] Kidding! They are held in place with plain old white glue. Once finished the shingles/shakes will be stained to make them look old…
73
Ray,
An inspirational joy watching your hex building coming together, great work! Your attention to interior detail is fantastic. Really like your belt driven machine shop, especially the lathe with the shaft between centers, chips scattered about, I can almost smell the cutting oil.
thanks and regards, Peter
Mike!
Thank you for the detailed explanation of how you make and power the yard lights. I happen to think they look pretty good close up as they are right now.
I am curious about your 3.2 V power supply. How many LEDs can you power from each one? I am in the habit of wiring all my LEDs with resistors so I can use 12V power supplies, but eliminating the resistors sounds like an interesting idea.
Dave
Dave,
It all depends on the size of the power supply for each one. Since these are throw-away wallwarts, it’s kind of luck of the draw on that, but most of them can supply a bunch. Most LEDs are in the 15 to 20 milliamp range, so a half amp (500 milliamp) supply could power a couple of dozen LEDs. Since my lighting is scattered around the layout, I just use multiple sources and group the wiring to the lighting at each one.
If you Google LM317 circuit design, you’ll get a lot of options and simpler is better in this application. The key thing is setting the voltage low. The dimmer they are, usually the better for layout lighting. This also helps extend LED life. And by going low on the voltage, you can actually squeeze in more LEDs on each power supply, since that also cuts the milliamp draw.
Not sure if this holds true for many railroads of the era you recreate, but I think wooden shakes would be a big hazard around a railroad and especially on the blacksmiths shop! Example of the Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern: "The main line consisted of approximately 190 miles (306 km) of track extending fromBrockway, Pennsylvania to Wayland, New York with several branches, particularlyOlean, New York and
The switcher shed for Mueller Yard… or what will soon be Mueller Yard. It was my first Kitbash/scratchbuild, it’s not done yet as I need to add a couple more details internally and exteriorially(guess it is a real word…). #50 was the test engine and clears the shed with about 3-5 scale feet to spare. due to it’s nature as a switcher shed only switchers will occupy it.
LOL, probably would have been a better choice way back in the day… I am modeling 1925 and this is a building that the prototype was built in 1832 using completely local materials. Checking with some people in the know they said the roof in 1925 would have been either asphalt shinges or cedar shake… I decided to make “cedar Shakes”. [:-^] Since the roof supports are 2 x 4s spaced at 4’ just like my home, I doubt slate was ever used on the roof.
The forge was on the ground floor so fire would have taken out the wood floor above quite quickly I would think if one broke out… It is an amazing old structure. Now used as a storage place for a local farmer. Here it is in 1908 on a postcard…
https://www.playle.com/listing.php?i=NYPOSTCARDS13066&PHPSESSID=gs
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