La Gare d'Ascq: March 2024

Sunday, March 31, 2024

Switch, Rail joiners, Ballast, Weathering ... part 7

A while back I experimented on adding rust weathering to the tracks with the airbrush. Here's the link to the post. Not long after I found this video on Instagram that gives an idea of track rust:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cucajkcoxm4/?igshid=M2MyMzgzODVlNw%3D%3D

L'am96 n°455 entre en gare de Lille Flandres son terminus. Elle est en provenance de Courtrai. La rame auras desservie les gares de Mouscron, Tourcoing, Roubaix et Lille Flandres avec +3 minute à l'arrivée.

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Custom test bench - part 4: Improvements

I was planning to make improvements for my test bench and with my recent issues with the BB 16000, it is now a good time to act!

General switch

A while back, I added a 120V switch to turn on and off the main power to the test bench. The issue is that the switch was dangling on the side and I still had no idea if the power was still on. My goal has been to properly install a main switch with LED indication.

I choose this one on Amazon:

The wiring diagram is pretty straight forward:

I already wired out one side from the power extension; I now have to do the other side, which is the white cable below.

It works great and it's exactly what I was hoping it would look like:

DCC protection

After a bit of research I decided to install several products from DCC Concepts. I reached out to them and confirmed that all three products can be installed together and offer optimal protection:

Intelligent DCC Circuit Breaker - link
DCC Surge Protector - link
Bus Spike Suppressors - link

I will install and test on my test bench, and also plan to install them on the main layout later on. For now, I will connect those into Track 1, but ideally I'd need to find a way to protect Track 2 and the ESU Tester. Here's the wiring diagram:

I did a quick test and it certainly handles shorts. In the iP-CB, there are two available extensions: one for the LED status and one for the reset button. I decided to put those on the front panel of the test bench:

And voilà !

Saturday, March 23, 2024

Autorack Ars Altmann

There are quite a few Ars Altmann trains pulled by Lineas and Roco released what looks like those autorack wagons, or so I thought ...

Formations

A few of the formations I've recorded:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/195041659@N08/52836561893/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnybrauns/52779916109/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wdaelmans/50831839208/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/102645470@N03/50683847262/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pasmartens/50523535203/

A couple of videos:

Prototypical wagon

The company Ars Altmann actually has the exact type of wagons on its website:

https://www.ars-altmann.de/en/services/rail/

Here are the details for those 3 wagons:

https://www.ars-altmann.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Datenblatt_ARS_Hccrrs5.870.pdf

https://www.ars-altmann.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Datenblatt_Hccrrs-5.860.pdf

https://www.ars-altmann.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Datenblatt_Hccrrs-5.833M.pdf

Miniature model

Roco recently (in 2024) released a set of type Hccrrs wagons with the Ars Altmann livery. It is reference 77049:

As it turns out, Roco released similar wagons in the past:

A couple of videos from the models released in 2022:

Conclusion

Unfortunately, it is not exactly the same wagon. The differences are pretty obvious on the roof and the location of the break wheel, just to name a few.

This is not it. Very tempting, but this is not it ...

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Switch, Rail joiners, Ballast, Weathering ... part 6

Another nice day to continue on the ballast ...

At some point, I need to do a short post about the various tools available for ballasting. Somehow, a plastic spoon and a tooth pick are still the best things for me ...