PlanetChristmas Builds a Train Page 2

The battery in place the power strip bar and the switches all have plenty of room.

Now you can see the spacing that has made it perfect for all the parts to work together.

Now you are starting to see all the different wires coming from different parts of the engine and soon the rest of the train. The power bar has enough connections to be able to give each additional car its own spacing on the power bar.

These are the parts for the 2 front ladders for the engine.

This is the completed ladder, one of two needed for the front.

I have built 2 ladders one for each side of the train cab.  They will not be placed where the drawing is until the final painting is done.

This is one of two ladders for the cab.

This is the start of the process for the steam lines for the side of the tank on the engine. Some wire I had around the house and just wood blocks cut to size and super glued.

There will be 5 blocks on each pipe for each side of the tank.

The blocks in place ready to be glued to the tank.

This is the starting of the front point of the snow  plow for the engine all of this work is slow going but necessary to make it look as close to the original photo as possible. The painting will be done on these items separate from the main body of the engine.

Even down to the 2 main ladders have taken some time now the next item to figure out is how I’m going to make the ladders stay put and stand up when I have to open the battery compartment each evening to recharge the battery?

I have added two new windows to the cab for the engineers to see what is up ahead.

An inside the cab view of the new windows, I know that this seems small but I have decided to make my train as realistic as possible to the original photo!

I have now added the beginnings of the snow plow to the front of the engine.

This is another view of the plow looking down at it.

The start of adding the rails to the snow plow all together I added a total of seven of these rails to the front, I found this wood at Wal-Mart in the craft section precut and to a length I could work with and with the help of many tubes of super glue it solves a lot of problems throughout the project.

As you can see the completed plow now due to the fact of creating a hook at the end of each of the rails to hold the in place I needed to cover that area with something to make it look finished.

If you look closely at the top of the rails you will see that I added some of the same wood that I made the rails with to cover the hooks.

Here to I added another piece of wood rounding the corners to give it that finished look.

I had been looking a long time for a light for my train and having no luck, and then the UPS truck came with my answer to my light problem. I want to thank Walter Monkhouse for this wonderful strobe light. I could not believe how perfect it fit in the spot where I wanted the light to be.

I just sanded down the nub end of the screw in plate.

I had already run wires to the spot so I just had to connect them to the strobe.

My “Naked Little Train” was starting to come together! Thanks Chuck!

But not for long was it going to stay “Naked.”

My train has decided to take on some color!

And some more color!

And more color! This is the closest to the real color that I can produce you will see shades that vary but with florescent lights you always get a shift in photographs.

With the new front strobe light in place.

And adding an additional color to the mix.

The back end with its bright red color.

A front view of the two colors.

Looks like the red will get another coat.

CANDY CANE MAKING 101

I want to change gears for a moment and show you something else I have built for this year. This was not my idea but I made some major changes to an idea that I got from a web site

Here is a list of the items I used for these candy canes:

3 inch PVC piping about 40 inches long.

A toilet flange to receive the 3 inch pipe.

A single light bulb fixture with wiring.

A 3 inch to 4 inch step up coupling.

14/2 lamp wire in 100 foot roll with a male vampire plug LPT2

And a clear plastic lamp housing.

And a 2x4 feet piece of hardboard

 I fit the hardboard with the lamp fixture and super glued it to the hardboard. 

I drilled a few holes for moisture to run through.

The plastic globe is placed on top with a red light bulb inside and 3 screws are placed to hold the globe in place.

This is what the lamp housing looks like just before being placed into the 3 inch to 4 inch coupling.

 I used 2 sizes of red tape a 2 inch red plastic and red electrical both found at Home Depot.

I also used about a 4 foot lead for the electrical line.

My plans are now to make between 20 – 30 of these Candy Cane Lights around property.

I spent most of these past 2 weeks making some refinements in the train, after getting some valuable information from others who have gone down this path before. It was suggested that I move my power switches to the outside where I can reach the easier and not have to fight the train as it moves. This involved also moving my power distribution bar; these are things that you find out as you go along.

I had to make 2 moves with this one; I had to move the light farther away from the back wall and brought up the wires for the motors and the lighting for the toggle switches.

Before I had only 4 wires into this area now they seem to have grown too many more that that.

The area where the battery will have some additional space due to less wires.

This is the area where the lights and motor switches will be; the area will be protected from the elements later on

Here is the setup taking place I have added the first toggle for the lighting system.

There is plenty of room for the wiring and the switch the first of two to go in.

I have added the second toggle switch and completed the wiring process so that both work. I found out later on that the toggles were momentary switches so when you let go everything stops. Now time to find a real toggle that switches on and stays on!

I decided to start adding some of the finer refinements as I go along, this are kind of an incentive for me to make like the train is coming along faster.

I had a problem early on and I came up with a pretty neat idea to solve it, I wanted to be able to lift my lid on the engine so I could access the battery each evening to charge it, and yet keep the ladders where they were so all I did with the ladders is to add a metal rod and keep the ladders about ½ inch away from the lid. I painted the rods black but now I think I’m going to paint them green to blend in better with the background.

see above

A view we have not seen before, this is the side where the hinges are. I also goofed on the painting the bottom of the box is supposed to be green not red!

We are now looking at the back side of the engine this is where I will get into detail of how I made the wheels match the motors and line up with the gearboxes.