Some fond rememberances of the JJJ&E Here some of my best photographic views of the now dismantled JJJ&E.... I give thanks for the many hours of enjoyment that this layout provided me during the past nine years.
I took a few B/W photos of action in the Easy Yard and MOW siding at Sweethome tonight. Happy modelling everyone, Jon
Thanks. It is based on the Passamaquoddy light house from the movie Pete's Dragon. In that photo you can see two of the movie characters painting the lighthouse. Here is another view of it. I used a lot of Gold Metal Models etched brass parts from various sheets.
SNFF 2/13/09 Hi, all, I recently had an issue with my Precision Craft E7's sound. This week, I thought I'd just post a few photos of repairing a broken speaker on this loco with the help of some on this forum and PCM's service department, as it might be of help to some. ------------------------------------------------------------- In mid-Jan 2009, my N scale Precision Craft Models E7 with the factory LokSound 3.5 installed, which worked perfectly all last year 2008.... I put the loco on the track (DCC with NCE PowerCab), and the sound didn't come on. Otherwise, the loco runs as it always did. Forward, reverse are fine, lighting functions including Mars light work as they should. Changing direction from forward to reverse while loco moving works as it always has.... loco slows to a stop then reverses, under control of the decoder. Just no sound. So, here's the normal problem resolution steps, all without success, the sound is still off: a) Pressed F8 many times, trying to turn the volume up and make sure audio mute is off. No sound. b) Tried it on both DC and DCC. No sound. c) Reset CVs to factory settings by programming CV8 to 08. No sound. d) Removed shell, looking for loose wires or unseated connectors. No luck there. Carefully unscrewed circuit board and looking for loose wires. No luck. Still no sound. e) Used Decoder Pro to check the CVs. All appear to be OK, as far as I can tell (sound volume is up all the way). ---------------------------------- After several emails to PCM that probably got lost in an over-flowing in-basket, I managed to get thru to their Service Department (Larry I think his name is?), just before closing time on Fri 1/23/09. He believed that a speaker failed. He offered me two choices - send it in and they'd repair it, but he did say it would take several weeks due to workload ... he also offered to send me replacement speakers to see if that would fix the problem. I opted for this second choice. Mark at PCM Service also sent me an email, suggesting that I use my multimeter (volt-ohm meter) to read the impedance across the speaker to see if the speaker had an open circuit or not, being sure to unplug the speaker wires from the decoder first. Bingo. When I did that, it showed that one of the two speakers had an open circuit. As the two speakers are wired in series, when the one speaker failed, no more sound. ---------------------------------- The replacement speaker set arrived from Precision Craft on Friday 2/6/09, I installed them and the N scale PCM E7 is back to working normally. Replacing the speaker set was easy to do.... I've been inside of N scale locomotives a fair amount so just working carefully, it was straightforward to unscrew the printed circuit board, carefully unseat the front light mounts and thus gently allow prying the old speakers out, and allowing the wiring to come away easily so that I could access the plugs where the speakers connect to the circuit board. Here's some photos: Thx, PCM, for the warranty support and the replacing of the broken speakers. I appreciate it very much. Thx, all, for the several other generous offers of help that I received and tried, they helped me arrive at the above sooner. I hope the above is useful and saves someone some time, some day, in some way.
Here's my part, running the grain unit train and working the scrap yard. The tail track is only long enough for this engine and one car! Wolfgang
Well the layout party has ended. I posted a recap of my progress in that thread. I might as well add some photo's to this one. Started with two plain art boards: With elevation and terrain: Painted: Rocks painted:
Wolfgang, I love your last photo. Well done. And Jon, it is a pleasure to see you submitting period photos in B&W...nice effect. I have been playing with water. I decided I'd had enough of my flat shiny epoxy that was clear through to the gravel. So, I mixed another batch of epoxy, added two drops of "Hauder Medium Green" and a teaspoon of Plaster of Paris to generate some opacity. It didn't look promising while I was stirring it, and it looked worrying as I poured it. But after helping to spread the mess, and letting it set up, I found it looked quite good, about what I had hoped. I added a gel acrylic gloss medium stippled top layer to it, and here is what I got. I could have played around and gotten better lighting, I suppose, but this will have to do.
What I like most about this is that simple rule of thumb that I see overlooked time and time again when I see model rivers... though they may be muddy and murky with a color of their own, water still reflects the color of it's surroundings. Your river looks perfect! In fact, it looks so good that it makes the top of the concrete base for the bridge pillars actually stand out a bit.. I feel like it should be weathered or dulled a bit more on top. Very nicely done though. I'll have to remember this if I ever make a river on a layout.
Thanks for the observation, Mystere. The concrete footings began to look more like mistakes or needing something as I went along. It's worse in person and close to them. So, thanks very much for the observation...I will have to tackle that right away. Another observer on another forum commented about the tall grass in the foreground. His observation wasn't positive, but his intent sure was. I have gotten used to those tufts and have forgotten that they need some grooming. Better yet, I need Silfor tufts. Thanks, again. :tb-biggrin:
BTW, guys, I am very happy with your positive feedback about the water looking right. The more I return to the photo the giddier I get because it looks amazingly close to the water in the South Thompson and Fraser Rivers in southern British Columbia. Water in nature is seldom very clear. Some freshwater lakes are extemely clear, and so are some parts of the oceans. But running water generally has suspended stuff in it, and it is harder to see through for that reason, plus because of the multifaceted surface that roils and boils. Thanks a bunch fellas. Remember, 3/4 cup of mixed epoxy, two drops of Hauder Medium Green acrylic(Wal Mart craft paints), and a solid, heaping teaspoon of Plaster of Paris. And that was placed over an existing 1/4" thick pour of clear level epoxy showing the gravel and rocks below.
SAMRA Structures This weekend I have two posts woth SAMRA structures. This first one is an old one. It is the scratchbuilt hardware store by Sandy Barnes. New overpass. I'm not sure who made this. Paul Steves, I think. Al Boos is working this section of the layout. Pearl Brewry by Doyle Bond. This is very large...about six feet long in total. It is entirely scratchbuilt. The main building coupolas are really something; there is a lot of detail there. The big red "Pearl Beer" logo on the right is a very large decal made by Orphie Neathery. John Lowrance applied it without any wrinkles. I didn't ask him how many times he applied it to get it on there. (That last was a joke. Heh, heh...)