Katzhagen - Archive - January 2013
On his way into a new year of garden railroading
Unscheduled augmentations
You sure will know it... Actually one had decided to not enlarge the rolling stock by further train compositions since one already has more than plenty and the storage space is somewhat limited as well... but then, then ... some manufacturer dares to come up with a model you can't resist - no matter how hard you try !
In short, the LGB E10 will make its way into this garden - but not without a metamorphosis turning it into a E40. Since both of the machines' housings are almost identical regarding their appearance, the metamorphosis will need not much more than a green paint and a related new lettering - which should be feasible without much ado.
And what's the deal with the guy on the left in this regard ?
Mr. Preiser of the University Team is a passenger on one of the Piko Silberling cars which were obtained to compose a commuter train with the E40 (which will be converted from the E10). Such trains ran on the line between Langenfeld (near the city of Duesseldorf) and Essen in the 70s - a reminiscence to my years at school and the reason for failing to resist.
Unfortunately, No.67 had to undergo an artificially enforced anchondroplasia of his lower extremities first - otherwise he weren't able to walk beneath the light-band in the Silbeling's interior. Say the legs were shortened by approximately 4mm.
Building an illumination in form of a light-band with seven warm-white LEDs sitting on a stripe of polystyrene for the Piko Silberling coaches was easily done since the coaches provide related holding fixtures ex factory. There was nothing more to do than cutting a stripe of polystyrene and adding the LEDs to it. The light-band and the LEDs' power supply was implemented like shown with the VT98's illu. The following pictures show the implementation with one of the Silberling cars:
Let there be light...
The car's interior
The white polystyrene stripe with embedded LEDs and current control was cut to length and width to fit the existing holding fixtires.
Current control
The LEDs' buffered current control provides for a constant brightness of the illumination at already 4V. Each of the LEDs has its own current control since series or parallel circuitries will show significant or even disastrous disadvantages in case of a defect...
First test - this car features a tail light
A first test shows that the place chosen for the light-band by Piko is not the best choice. A bit higher, right beneath the roof probably would have been a plus for a better illumination uniformity.
From a different angle
Different angle - different appearance.
The darker the better
As soon as the passengers have taken their seats inside the reassembled coach, the light distribution makes a good impression.
A single augmentation were... unusual
A completely different scenario
A nice coincidence resulted in getting hold of a third Bernina ragtop - which needed a minor electrical upgrade before it could be added to the existing ragtop composition. The vehicle was disassembled to add a cable for the tail light's power supply:
Ribbon cable and SIL socket used as a plug
A ribbon cable equipped with SIL sockets as plugs and SIL sockets used as outlets turned out to be a perfect solution for an electrical connection.
Quite black...
The vehicle was disassembled to hide the wiring inside the frame. Hardly recognizable: The cable runs along the frame's edge close to the bogie's cut-out.
Peekaboo - hardly recognizable outlet
Outlet made of a two pin SIL socket - mounted on the frame, hardly catches an eye.
Does not even interfere with the optical appearance
Here one can see the interconnect cable beyond the buffers and below the tread plates between two of the cars.
Cable connection on the tractive unit
The required power supply of 5V for the tail light is provided by the tractive unit's outlet - the only reason why ...
Light provided by the tractive unit
... why a cable running along all of the cars was prefered over axles featuring a power pickup: There is no space on the ragtops for accomodating a buffered 5V power supply.
