Division Seven Roles

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1 The NEW extra From the Editor... A er numerous requests we are running the Decoder Pro Clinic again. IT will be held in Berowra same place as the conven on a few years ago. It will take most of Saturday so bring some refreshments with you. See page 5 for details of the clinic and what you will need to bring. There is no charge for the clinic but you will have to Register ASAP as there will only be room for 30 people working in pairs. The CCWN (Central Coast Wednesday Nighters) will be holding another Op Till You Drop weekend at the end of August. There will be layout available for your pleasure. Each op session will take 2 hours and you will have 1 hour to move to the next layout. Make sure you register for Decoder Pro Clinic me at - gerrymmr177@gmail.com Volume 6, Issue 5 1 May 2018 May 2018 Meeting This month we journeyed to the Southern Highlands to visit three totally different layouts. Division Seven Roles Superintendent Les Fowler Treasurer Graham Wo on AP Assistant Manager John F Parker MMR Hospitality Manager Greg Morris Editor (Temp) Presenta on Manager TBA Division Seven Newsle er Next Few Meetings June Mee ng Saturday 16th Today out west to the home of Steve Chapman MMR at 138 Railway Road, Marayong. Start at 2.00 pm. July Mee ng - Saturday 14th Another visit to the western suburbs to the home of the new Pacific Director Rob Peterson at Meckiff Avenue, North Rocks. CLINIC Decoder Pro 28th July at Berowra Library from 10.00am to 3.00pm. There is room for 30 modellers to a end but Registra on is required. August Mee ng Saturday 18th The Hills Club at Balcombe Heights Community Building, Seven Hills Road, Baulkham Hills - Building 8, at the rear. OP ll you Drop Sat 25th and Sun 26th August hosted by the CCWN MRC an NMRA 100% Club. First session starts at 10.00am to noon there an hour to get to the next layout. Next session 1.00pm to 3.00pm then another hour to get to the last layout,.running from 4.00pm to 6.00pm. The same ming on the Sunday. There will layouts to choose from with a number of different opera ng systems.

2 Mee ng 12 th May 2018 With onset of winter we made our way to the Southern Highlands Bowral. The weather was wet and windy but the trip was good not too many cars on the motorways. First stop was the home of Garry Glazebrook in Burradoo for the Newcastle & Fassifern Railway an Australian HO DCC layout. The area modelled was the last in Australia to succumb to the diesel. As late as 1970 there were s ll 100 or more government-owned steam locomo ves based at the twin roundhouses at Broadmeadow and the picturesque full-circle roundhouse at nearby Port Waratah. In addi on, there were privately owned steam locomo ves on some of the coal mine branches. Plenty of opera on on this layout looks like fun. Upon re rement, the Banbury Connec ons we operate today is simply the development of a world which simulates the trials and tribula ons of Bri sh Railways throughout his childhood in the early 1960s. The final stop was at the home of the McGuire family and the Kansas City Subdivision of the Milwaukee Road Railroad an American HO DCC layout. The next stop was at the home of Richard Day and the Banbury Connec on a Bri sh OO DC layout. Dick has always had a fascina on with transport. From early childhood, he enjoyed designing towns and their evolving transport networks. When he eventually realised you could get paid for playing trains, this interest transformed itself into a job as a railway planner responsible for the metabling, infrastructure development and direc on of Sydney s metropolitan railway. One of the main features of the railroad is a fully opera onal CTC (Centralized Traffic Control) panel, interlocking signals and switches. The Dispatcher has full control over main line traffic and co-ordinates with the Yardmaster in determining what trains need to be run. The Yardmaster is the controller of the Coburg Yard, and this does not appear on the Dispatchers control panel, as he is not concerned with what goes on inside yard limits. The CTC system was built using 4 SMINI nodes and 9 block detectors from Bruce Chubb MMR. Kelly Loyd programmed the system on the computer. There is full logic in the program to provide all of the features of the CTC systems used in the 1970's. He did not want a 'modern' control system, but rather the familiar old 1940's style Union Switch & Signal CTC panel. For example, a signal cannot be cleared unless the switches are set correctly, and there is no opposing movement and there is no train in the block. Page Two

3 Mee ng May.. Con nued A er a great BBQ we adjourned to the house and the regular mee ng was held. Les Fowler made the usual announcements about future mee ngs and the Regional Conven on on the Gold Coast in September. Men on was also made of the New England Conven on in November. Do You Have The Tools? I o en visit a layout and get asked to adjust or fix something. This is perfectly OK in most cases BUT there it is again, that word when I ask for a simple tool In my opinion, modellers should have a basic tool set, but what is that tool set? A jewel s screw driver set flat blade and Phillips. $3.50 Tweezers NOT the plas c ones in the Coles first aid kit but nice stainless steel ones that have been well looked a er. $3.50 Wire cu ers two sizes, one for small wires like those on decoders and a larger one for buss wire and droppers. $3.50 Needles nose pliers. $3.00 A few small brushes. $3.00 Some micro brushes. $5.00 per 100 Solder 0.7mm 60/40 is plenty big enough for N, HO, OO, O scales.$16.00 Page Three

4 Liquid Flux the paste type normally requires you wash off the residue when you have finished. $6.00 Self-closing tweezers. $8.00 A good light LEDs preferred. $50.00 Soldering Iron 40 wa minimum with fine p. Temp control would also be good. You would need to set it at 280 C. $60.00 NMRA Track Gauge $10.00 The above is the basic list, there are a few other tools to make life much easier. Assorted Pin Vices with a few small drills. $17.00 Dremel style motor tool NOT mains powered. $60.00 Assorted fine files. $6.00 A good light LEDs preferred. $50.00 A foam cradle for holding locos and rolling stock upside down. $12.50 Digital Meter $15.00 Plas c cu ng ma (dark green) A2 size is best$20.00 Xacto type cra knife $6.00 OR Scalpel $3.00 Metal Scale Rule $13,00 There are other personal things like OptoVisa $30.00, Digital calliper $20.00, Metal square. I hope the above list help you get things together. Many of the prices were obtained at the $2 shop at Wyoming or at other local shops with web sites. Page Four

5 Decoder Pro Clinic. The clinic will take you through the basics of decoder programming without the need to know ANY CV (Configura on Variables). It will be hands on clinic so you will be required to bring a few things of your own to play with for the clinic. Requirements Laptop or desktop computer. Programming device Sprog, PR3, PR4, Power Cab are ideal but any command sta on with computer connec vity. Short piece of test track for programming with connector for the programmer A non-sound loco and a sound loco. The Clinic The clinic will start at am and run un l noon then stop for a break. The clinic will then con nue from 1.00 pm un l 3.00 pm. ideally those a ending will be working in pairs you can help one and other. You will be shown how to check which version of JMRI you are running and how to update to the latest version without any loss of data. Next will be se ng up your preferences how YOU want to run your system. With a non-sound loco on your programming track you will be shown how to iden fy the decoder and enter the first details in the roster. The do all the basic decoder se ngs. Also covered will be fine tuning to get the best performance without knowing any CVs. A er the break we will do the same with a sound decoder will not have me to cover the Loksound decoder, it takes minutes to read all 1200 cvs. We will cover the soundtrax and TCS decoders. We will look at using Decoder Pro to speed match your locos. Locos do vary an LMS loco has been med on my layout at 232mph. In prac ce, this means you would only use the % of the available speed so se ng top speed down to mph gives you much finer control of the loco. We should all learn something from the clinic.