Putting on some weight

The Jigger was turning out to be a rather lightweight model and was having trouble going through a slightly uneven switch. It didn't have enough momentum at low speeds to just power through.

To fix this I stuck small weights, each about 7g, to the chassis, just above each pair of wheels. I picked up that strip of weights many years ago at George's Trains, and they've come in handy on a variety of projects. Looks like I'm now down to my last four. I need to get some more. 

The weights are visible through the windows, but my plan is to use some smoked plastic for window glass so the interior is obscured.

The model runs much better now, and it's onto finishing the front and back ends of the chassis.

Hacking Kato's Unitram track, Part 2

Compared to the last hack, this one is not for the faint hearted. I used a cut-off wheel in my Dremel to round the track corners on the observatory end of the layout, and to cut a standard piece of 4-7/8" straight track in half to square off the layout end on Carling Avenue. Sanding sticks were used to cleanup the cuts. I think the round corners are going to need a little underneath support to keep the track flat once it's laid on the sheet foam base.

One other thing: the layout's dimensions are now pretty close to 100 cm long by 50 cm wide, which seems a good size for this thing.

And one last thing: it should be clear that any and all warranties are now well and truly voided :-)

Loonar Module scheduled to appear in Voie Libre #112

From Voie Libre #111, Oct/Nov/Dec 2022

Some shameless self-promotion: The Loonar Module is planned to appear in issue #112, Jan/Feb/Mar 2023, of Voie Libre. Never seen before photos! New text full of startling revelations! Don't be disappointed, reserve yours today!

Whew! Being shameless takes a lot out of a guy. But seriously, if you go to the note indicated by the * in "Coming soon* in #112" you'll see it reads "*Subject to change". Hopefully, there aren't any lineup changes. I've got my fingers crossed.

Updating the Jigger's truck frames

The Jigger's external truck frames look a lot like ladders so the next step was to build up a pair of those ladders from styrene strips for attaching to either side of the Kato power truck.

My frame ladders aren't superdetailed. They're just meant to give an impression of the truck's frame. I was rather surprised by how much this simple addition did to change the look of the vehicle. 

I also added a strip of styrene to the bottom of each side of the body to close the visual gap between the body's lower edge and the top of the power truck. This addition deviates from the prototype, but eliminates an unsightly gap between the body and truck.

Hacking Kato's Unitram track, Part 1

'Cut' indicates where the track corners need to be sliced off

This is a trivial one: a slice had to be cut off the left and right curves on the inner loop track in order to connect the outer loop track to the switches.

A nice thing about these switches is they can be configured for either routing power in the direction of the switch setting or not. They come from the factory set to power routing. With power routing enabled and both switches set to run a trolley around the outer loop, the inner loop isn't powered and vice versa. No extra wiring is required to disable power to those loops to create 'parking spots'.

One drawback though is that a Unitram switch's manual control switches both tracks at the same time. I don't know if there's a modification to somehow control each track switch individually. Another drawback is that the switches on both ends need to be properly set to cut power to a desired loop - setting just one doesn't do the job. These things need more investigation.