I am a retired train driver who has 49 years service with QRNational. When I first started there were still steam locomotives running. 1965 saw me qualified as a fireman. Yes. I did fire steam locos. Classification as driver came in 1975 and as a tutor driver in 1995. My retirement came in 2012.
Here is a funny railway story. It is not my story so I will tell it as it was told to me. In the old days when steam ruled the roost and diesels were new contraptions “Queensland Government Railway” had two stations in its network that had smash signals. One was at a place called Makawata. It is on the north coast main line between Bundaberg and Gladstone.
A little background about how smash signals are set up and how they work is in order. Basically Makawata was a crossing station in those days. The setup was that the points at the departure end of each road are always set against any train, both up and down trains. The smash signals were set across the track in a position that a train passing one of these signals at stop would smash the signal. Hence the name smash signal was used. Beyond the smash signals was a derailer. This meant that a train wishing to depart from either direction needed the signal cleared, the derailer set and the points set for the departure of that train. To do this one needed the staff for the section. It had a key attach to it with an anker chain. This key was used to unlock the leaver frame on the points so as to set everything to proceed.
Normally the fireman would take the staff. Go to the leaver frame. Unlock it and set the road. Then bring the staff back to the staff box. Then either write out a ticket for the train or take the staff back onto the loco. The train would proceed. There was a trip lever in the points so that everything would go back the way it was after the train departed.
One day the mail train turned up with a then new English electric loco on it. (1200 class). The driver was one who prided himself on his ability to stop on a threepence. This day he misjudged the stop. When the train stopped he was pinned in his seat by the smash signal arm protruding though his window and in front of his chest. To get out of this predicament the fireman had to take the staff to the leaver frame, unlock it and try to manoeuvre the leaver while the driver was manoeuvring the train. This was an arduous task as the two could not talk to each other. The leaver is heavy to use this way. The frame would lock every time the leaver was put back into normal position and require unlocking again to have another go.
Eventually the signal arm was moved away from the train and it was able to proceed. These smash signals rotated 90 degrees parallel to the train. They didn’t raise and lower like normal semaphore signals. When I was first told this story I couldn’t stop laughing. When trying to tell others I couldn’t stop laughing long enough to finish the story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
You back already. The device in the picture is what is needed for the power units. Basically it consists of a piece of a LED lighting strip cut from the extra ones I bought. After trial and tribulation I found out that these things appear to be connected in sets of three LEDs in series with a resistor. You will notice that there is a scissor mark in the middle of the unit. I choose this section because I know that the two LEDs are not connected to each other. Therefore they can be treated as discrete units. Take a closer look at the unit. Clicking on the picture will give you a close up view. Notice the positive rail marked (+) is closest. The 1000 Ohm resistor has one lead connected to both white LEDs at the anodes. It is then trimmed off. The lead on the top is bent over and cut short. I used the remainder of this pig-tail to connect the two cathodes together. This forms the basics of the circuit. The tail lights are connected directly to the wire joining the two anodes of the white LEDs. Another piece of tinned copper wire was obtained from the rubbish before it got to the bin. It was also a cut off pig-tail. This was soldered between the two cathodes of the red LEDs.
Fig. 1
How did it all get there? Read on. First I tinned one leg of the 1k resistor. Soldered it between the two white LEDs at the anodes. Then I bent the resistor leads into the shape you see and trimmed off the excess from both the furthest LED and the opposite end of the resistor. The longest pig-tail removed was long enough to use as the connection between the two cathodes of the white LEDs. Note the small extension past one end. It is to facilitate connection of the white wire. Next using super glue applied to the base of one the gull-wing LEDs stick it in place on the surface of the unit up against the anode wire with its black line closest to you. Do the same with the other gull-wing LED.
Using a flux pen wipe flux over the two places where the gull-wing LEDs touch the wire. Then solder these. Be careful while doing this. These devices won’t take much heat. Place another piece of pig-tail under the other two gull-wings. It should fit pretty slug. Using the flux pen apply flux to these joints and solder them in the same fashion. Note the length of this pig-tail. It should have a bit of an extension for the yellow wire. Once this is done solder the coloured wires on as per photograph.
Now we need to test the device before sticking it to the power unit. With a 15 volt power supply connect the blue wire to the (+) positive of the power supply. If everything is all right the white wire touched to the (-) negative terminal should light the white lights. Doing the same with the yellow wire should light the red lights. To the loco or power unit as they are called.
Remove the body of the unit. At the front remove the bulb and its wiring. This article assumes that you have already converted the unit to DCC. Behind the bulb there is a black plastic panel. The unit should be trimmed to fit this. Make sure that there is no oil, dust or dirt on the plastic panel. Test fit the device we created on to the panel. Once you are satisfied with the fit take the cover strip from the back of the device and stick it in place. The white LEDs should be at the top and the red ones at the bottom of the power unit. The wires will be to your left as you look at the front of the unit. You shouldn’t have any trouble working out where to connect the wires. After all they are colour coded the same as the DCC chip’s wires.
Place the power unit on a short piece of track. Connect up your DCC controller to the track. Select your power unit. Switch on the head light. If you are in forward gear the white lights should light up. Change to reverse. The lights will change to red. Put the body back on the unit. You are done. Note you may have to advance the throttle a little to get the chip to change direction. There is one more unit to do. I choose to use a second chip in the rear unit to operate the lights on the rear. It does seem to be a bit of a waste though. There is a little trick to remember when wiring the rear unit. Connect the white wire to the yellow one and vice versa otherwise you will have white at both ends in forward and both ends red in reverse. The Hornby “Select” controler doesn’t like two chips with the same address on the layout. It will complain.
Tools used on two projects shown in photo bellow. There are three items missing from the photo. They are a white out pen, a pair of scissors and a roll of electrical insulation tape.
I have a Hornby Inter City 125. It is quite old, may be one of the first ones out. Recently it was updated to DCC operation. I was thinking it would look much better if it was lighted. The decision was made. The parts were ordered from YouChoos. (http://www.youchoos.co.uk/)
What was used? Parts List:-.
5 x 12 Led stick on strip lights.
5 x 680 ohm 1/8th watt resistors.
5 x 2 pin plugs and sockets. YouChoos provided the plugs and sockets pre-wired.
Some 0.5 mm insulated wire in green, blue and black.
The lead and trailing units require coloured wire as well. Colors will be blue, white and green.
I purchased some extra strip lighting to obtain the LEDs for the forward ditch lights and tiny gull-wing SMD red LEDs for tail lights.
HST Coach with lighting strip in position
To start, remove the frame from the body of the coaches. It is not too difficult. The parts are held together by little clips in the end doors. Lay this aside. Take one of the lighting strips. Lay it on the table in front of you with the + sign further away from you. Take one 680 ohm 1/8th watt resistor. With wire cutters trim the pig tails to about 5 mm in length. Using resin core solder and a soldering iron tin both pig tails. Don’t hold the resistor in your fingers during soldering or the heat will burn them. Now solder one end of the resistor to the left side of the (+) rail of the lighting strip. This will be the front of the coach. Solder a piece of blue 0.5 mm insulated wire to the other end of the resistor. On the (-) rail of the lighting strip to the left solder a piece of green 0.5 mm insulated wire. These wires should be about 20 cm long.
Having prepared the lighting strip, take the coach body. Make sure it is clean and free of oil and dust. Peal the cover strip from the back of the lighting strip and stick the strip in the coach body with the wires towards the front marked thus. (*). Note for the Inter City 125 there is no orientation mark. The lighting strip should be in the centre of the roof of the coach as per the photo. Make sure that the strip is pressed down firmly for its entire length. For the purpose of this article the front end of the coach is to the left.
Rear view of HST coach
Next we need to mark out on the rear door of the coach a rectangle that is 2 mm x 4 mm. set it so the bottom of the plug will be 8 mm from the floor of the coach. Using a pin vise with a No. 61 bit fitted. Drill a row of three holes in the rectangle along the bottom edge. Stay inside the rectangle. Use the bit to join the holes up to make a slit. With a small file you need to file out the rectangle so the socket fits snugly. I used a file from a set designed for hobbyists. Mine is square sided to file the 2mm ends and has a pointed flat bit to file the 4mm sides. The file I have is a little bit larger than the slot, but with a bit of care and patience it will make the slot large enough for the file to enter.
Once you have the hole completed insert the socket. With the back of the coach to your right and the body upside down the blue wire should be furthest from you. Leave about 1 mm of the plug sticking out of the coach. Using super glue or hobbyist’s plastic glue fastens the plug to the coach. Take care not to use too much glue. It should be glued on the inside so as not to distract from the external appearance of the coach. These glues seep between the joint to form their bond. Make sure the socket is straight before the glue dries. Otherwise it will be permanently crooked. You will have about 20 seconds to get it right before the glue dries. If you take a close look at the photo of the back of the coach you will notice that I used too much glue. It spoiled the pristine look. That was the second attempt to stick it together.
Front view of the coach with the wire and plug fitted.
Now we go to the front of the coach. The plug has two black wires attached. Measure 3 cm from the face to the plug. (That bit that touches the socket when attached) Mark this position on the wires. I used white out pen so the line could be seen. In the middle of the front door drill two holes with the No. 61 bit. These should be about 2 mm from the floor of the coach and about 1 mm between them. Using the drill bit join these holes together. Pass the ends of the black wires that are attached to the plug through this slot from the outside. You need to tie a knot in these wires. Take the two wires and tie a single knot. Adjust this knot so that the white mark is in line with the outside of the slot. This length will allow you to get your fingers in-between the coaches to attach the plugs.
It is time to wire everything up. First go to the picture of the coach above. It is the one that shows the completed wiring. Now click on the picture. This will give you an enlarged view. You can see how the wires are installed in the roof of the coach. Once you have had a good look click the browser <- back button. You need scissors and some electrical insulation tape. Cut off a small piece and fasten the wires from the socket to the roof of the coach as shown in the photo. Tweezers will help to place the tape. There should be enough of the wires loose to allow you to have the ends sticking up out of the coach by about 3 cm. This allows for soldering.
Strip about 10 mm of the insulation off the ends of these wires. The next step requires that you adjust the length of the remaining wires so that the knot is hard up against the front door of the coach. The wires go to the roof and are threaded in a small piece of heat shrink tubing along with the blue and green ones from the lighting strip. These wires go along the roof to the ones from the rear. Curve them up to meet the rear ones. Allow about 3 cm of wire length sticking out of the coach once more. With the wire cutters, trim them to length. We need to strip about 10 mm of the insulation off the remaining wires. I used a pair of wire cutters. However there is a chance you might cut the wire short.
Twirl ends of the two green wires together. Twirl ends of the two blue wires together. Twirl the end of one black wire to the green ones. Twirl the end of the other black wire to the blue ones. With a soldering iron and resin core solder, solder the ends. You should end up with two joins. One joint has two greens and a black wire. The other joint has two blues and a black wire. If you wish, trim a little bit off the length of the soldered joints. Cut 2 short pieces of heat shrink tube and place one over each of the joints. Here is where it gets a bit tricky. We want to shrink the tube in place over the joints to keep them electrically separated. No burning of wires allowed. No burning of coach body allowed. No burning of fingers allowed. If you don’t feel confident with this you might consider getting help here or find another way to fasten the tubing in place. What is required is that you have one of those little burners that run on lighter gas. They work like a lighter but the flame is different. Just feather the blue tip of the flame over the heat shrink tube for 0.5 to 1 second. This should be enough. Do one joint at a time. Finish off by fastening the wires in the roof as shown.
That completes the soldering. Leave the coach in two pieces. The next job is to fit the people in the coach. You will have to use the wire cutters to cut off the legs of the figures. If you don’t they won’t fit. Just glue them in place one at a time using super glue. Once this task is finished, you will need to test things. If you already have a loco with an outlet for the coach lighting power use this to test the lights. Notice we did not orientate the black wires when we soldered them. We are doing this now. Just using the coach body plug it into the loco and turn the locos DCC F1 on. If there is light you have it plugged in the correct way around. Don’t unplug it just yet. If there is no light you will have to unplug the coach and reverse the connection. This time the coach should light up. With the coach lighted take a white out pen and make a small white dot across the socket and plug at the back of the loco. Now you have the plug marked so you know which way around to plug it in next time. The white dot on the socket will serve to help you locate the socket to plug it in next time.
All being, well put the coach back together again. Take care that there are no arms or shoulders in the way. What’s that? It didn’t work. Are well you are up for some fault-finding. Note. You can use a 15 v DC power supply to test the coach also. The blue wire should be positive. Check your solder joints as well. Check what I said above about the structure of the connections. That is blue, blue and black joint and green, green and black joint. If you got it wrong it will cause trouble at the next coach. Oh! That’s right you have four more coaches to do. When you get back we will have a look at the power units.
Tools used
I decided to split it into two here as this is getting a bit long. The next instalment is called “HST 125 unit ditch and tail lights”
The layout in the photo is my 50 year old “William’s Town” layout. I started building it in my teens. The baseboard is in two parts. 6ft. by 4ft. Setup so the size is 8ft x 6ft. the sections are joined by four loose pin but hinges. The electrical connections are courtesy of Telstra surplus parts.
Basically the layout has a hump yard with five roads. A loco shed with four roads and a station with three platform roads and a dock platform. The Jinty with the three coaches is on the station run around road. The main line is double track. There are three controllers. Two of the controllers operate the main line while the remaining one works the shunting yard.
The fountain you can see is in the town park. There is one street plus another that goes to the station. Rose’s café is on one corner and the local servo on the other. Heading down the street from the servo and past the park on the left is a modern brick house. Next door is the local church. Then on the right is the goods shed and office. On the left is a double story house with a detached shop. Around the corner is the post office.
All the main line has electric points. The yard has hand operated ones. The loco shed has electric points. Signalling is both colour light signals plus the older stile upper quadrant semaphore signals. The track was laid on cork. The tables are pine frame with quarter inch marine ply base. I used this because I was afraid it might get wet. At one time storage was a problem.
Scenery was what I could get my hands on at the time. It really needs a revamp now. All the buildings are lighted as are the station platforms and buildings. The loco shed is also lighted in the yard. Not in the shed itself. The goods yard is lighted.
It was just a quick tour. I could describe how it was built. I choose not to. It has been on display. During this time I made trains up in the shunt yard. The locos were changed out occasionally for variety. Work continued in the shunting yard as the arriving trains were put away. All this activity made it interesting for the visitors as they watched the goings on.
It has been known for a long time that cats possess the ability to communicate telepathically. It is not just cat to cat either. Let me share this experience with you.
When my daughter was very young she was given a female kitten, a tabby cat. This cat took a shine to me. We kept it locked in the garage at night. Being a train driver, I worked night shift. One night about a week after we got the kitten, I had to start work at midnight. At that time work place health and safety was just taking off. So, dressed for work in my new high visibility gear, I opened the garage to get in the car and head to work. The poor little kitten was frightened out of its wits by my appearance. It took off straight through the open gate and across the road never to be seen again.
I chased after it but then realized it was me it was scared of. So I gave up and headed off to work. I still was worried about it. About a week went by. Then I received a telepathic message from it. “I’m ok. Don’t worry about me.” I knew it was the kitten. I also knew the message was meant for me. That’s the way telepathy works. It is Private, Mind to mind. Like most sceptics I dismissed it even though the experience was very real. No doubt about it. It was the kitten. The message was for me. Another week of worry went by. The same thing happened. This time I did take notice. I stopped worrying about the kitten. No more telepathic messages. I can’t prove it to anyone. You will have to accept it on faith. Or reject it out of hand. One thing is sure. If you ever have a similar experience you will be converted as I was.
At 10:10 am on 24/07/1964. I was the fireman on a 1600 class locomotive. We were shunting the fuel siding at Barcaldine. I had
just made morning tea for myself and the driver. It was a lovely brisk winter’s morning. Something caught my intention out of the corner of my eye. I looked up towards the east. In the sky going like a bat out of hell there was an Andromeda machine. The whole sighting lasted about 3 seconds. It was bigger than the Queen Mary and very high, perhaps in low earth orbit. The weather was clear with scattered cloud. Colour was white. No visible windows. No emissions. It had a Sharp clear form. The direction of travel was east to west.
Much the same as all the other eye witness reports I have read. I have not reported it before. The reason it was brought up here was because it was what got me interested in the first place. I remember that my first impression was “Oh! The yanks invented that and they were not telling us.”. I found out later I was wrong. The Nazis did. I still concede that the yanks were probably driving it. Then again may be not. They still maintain they know nothing about it. One thing is for sure. Someone was driving it.
