DalaGStanator's Customs, Mods and Experiments

After the first button battery holder I showed two posts ago, I've been designing compartments and looking for support methods for other battery types and varying voltages; mainly for cases where I feel AA, AAA or other 1.5V types would be too big, overpowered or not as efficient (depending on voltage and purpose).



Having found out that mass produced devices with button/coin cells (typically) have the positive terminal touch the rim of the battery and not the top/bottom, I made a second CR2025 holder from a plastic cap and used two screws for the terminals (after trying other conductive metal bits that didn't quite work with the design). The battery stays in fairly well even when turned upside down, yet can be taken out just by pressing it. Soldering the wires to the screws proved a bit difficult and I just left the wires wrapped around them with little to no solder.



For a 9V battery, I thought I'd have no choice but to get an existing connector or make one from an old unit to make it function correctly. Lo and behold, I have three tiny nuts that perfectly match the inner geometry of the negative terminal and can even get stuck in it. For the positive contact, I only had to find a screw with a head that fits in the terminal. They were originally joined using a piece of packaging plastic, but the soldering iron melted it and the remains had to be thrown out. Both of my 9V batteries are nearly dead and I'll have to wait before I could use one for anything. Regardless, I'm glad I won't have to look for a connector now that I've worked this out.



Nearly everything I've seen with LR44s uses three of them to generate 4.5V (normally in a row), so the same goes for my own compartment for them. The contacts are flat, round metal bits from a forgotten source, which were likely made as rings for screws. This compartment could be small enough for lights in one of my vehicles, a signal/traffic light or a very small structure (like another phone box), but likely wouldn't last long trying to power a motor.



The belt drive on the tender drive chassis started malfunctioning all the time, so it had to be reverted to a crown gear with the motor facing the gear train again. For better capacity, the AAA pack was also replaced with the AA one used for the OG loco drive setup. When properly coupled, it successfully pushed the 2-6-0 chassis without derailing it and even the crankpins moved without slipping. It will still need traction tyres even though it did well without them. Sadly, the crown gear makes it much noisier and the batteries could be tricky to handle when the tender body is built (unless I'll make it removable). The on/off switch was hot glued through the slot the pack's OG cover would lock into, but the spring on the front negative terminal is long enough to help insert the battery on that side. While the current drawbar in the images looks eerily similar to a TOMY loop coupling, it actually isn't; it was a wire holder from an old table fan. The loco end will (of course) be further away from the rear wheels to fit under the cab overhang.

The US outline Mogul has been in development limbo for two months, but three major steps have been completed and it should be finished sometime before May.



First off, the boiler is finally here and was made to match the size and shape of the smokebox (rather than being a narrow "arch topped semicylinder" with flat sides). One end is a full circle with a hole for the headlamp LED wires in the middle, while the other end has a cut at the bottom to align the firebox LED with its hole in the cab. The boiler is hollow throughout the bottom to fit all the wiring for both lights, the on/off button and the coin cell compartment (now under the footplate). All that just for two optional light effects powered by a separate battery.



On the topic of the LEDs, the original prewired lights were fitted in a way that the headlamp was at the proper height (level with the bottom of the smokestack) but facing upwards. If I added a lamp in front of the LED in that position, it would've illuminated the back, top or inside rather than going through the lens. Trying to reposition the light facing forwards pulled the firebox light out of the cab because the wires weren't long enough. None of my other lights were compatible with the OG ones (incl. incandescent), so both had to be replaced with separate orange-yellow lights (of the same type as each other). While the new colour looks good for the firebox, it looks too yellow for the headlamp and the old yellowish white was more fitting. I couldn't mount the lamp any higher because the lights themselves have a long protective "sleeve" that individual LEDs don't have.



Second, the boiler, cab and cylinders have been primed white before assembly to make them easier to paint. Two domes were added in the form of four conditioner caps (the same type the orange 0-4-0ST uses) and a hole was prepared for the light button, which will be disguised as the whistle. Black paint was added in areas that couldn't be finished with markers, such as behind the cowcatcher. The bell is an old glue cap painted gold and glued through the D-ring of the metal hanger I used as a coupling for the diesel electric. It will only be glued after the boiler is painted, like all the other separately fitted details. The cowcatcher and cylinder assembly was reglued to the chassis, in a way that the pony truck can still move under the cylinders (though it will hit them most of the time). The coupling rods will have to be shortened because the cylinders are now closer.



Lastly, the tender body and frame have been added to the motorised chassis. I thought it was going to make the battery pack too low and difficult to access, but comparing the height of the walls to the cab sides revealed it was actually correct. Only the switch had to be removed from the battery pack since it was too low and the wires were too short to reach. Couldn't find a good way to extend the old switch since it's not hinged like Plarail/TrackMaster ones. In true Union Express fashion, it uses fake bogies to cover the actual wheelbase. Just wick sustainers glued over cardboard strips with additional cardboard strips on the outer sides. The only problem is the rear ones can't be pushed further in due to the axle's length. I'm not going to trim it again since that was why the loco drive version couldn't move. Traction tyres made the flanges too big, so I only applied the rubber adhesive instead. The planned wooden clerestory coaches would (of course) have real bogies like I've made before.

Yesterday, I got round to painting the cylinders, boiler, cab and tender in the livery I've chosen. I initially wanted a darker green, but it looked too close to the generic black and I wanted to see what I would get from mixing green and gold. If anything, the result ended up looking like if LNER Apple Green had been adopted after Flying Scotsman's tour. I numbered it 226 in reference to February 26, the date of the first post it appeared in. The handwritten digits are inconsistent and don't look good enough, so they will likely be replaced with printed digits when further details are added.



After soldering all the wires for the lights and on/off button to the battery compartment, I was able to cram them into the boiler and glue the whole body to the chassis. While doing so, I had to ensure the wheels would never hit the running board and the light feature would still function; the position of the wires affected the positive terminal's connection, and slight movements interrupted the power. They fit in so well that only two of them can be (barely) seen over the rearmost wheels (when looking really hard). At one point, the negative terminal changed its angle during soldering and the battery couldn't stay in place. Even then, it no longer sits firmly and often causes the headlamp to flicker when moving. Nevertheless, I'm glad it works how I imagined and I could use intentionally loose connections if I'll ever need flickering without a circuit board/special LED.

The not so good part? The whole boiler and smokebox are now leaning to the left and it only looks good facing right. While the powered tender worked fine pushing the 2-6-0 chassis without the body, it was completely unable to do it with the locomotive assembled; it ran well on the black track on its own (as before), but the loco caused it to derail all the time (likely due to the stability problem, the pony truck hitting the cylinders or the loco to tender drawbar design). Rather than trying to fix the problems, it left me disappointed enough to remove the drive unit from the tender and leave it unpowered (with only the lights remaining). Might reuse the high torque DU for another diesel electric, mainly due to its loud gearing.

I might be one of the only people to think there's a (ludicrously superficial) resemblance between clothespins and knuckle couplers, or a possibility they could be modified to function in a similar way. Ever since I built No. 226 (which I've taken apart in hopes of rebuilding), I've been thinking of ways to give US/Canadian designs a more appropriate system than hook and loop, magnets, snap fasteners or even ball joints (the latter being how certain Chuggington toys depict them).



As I thought, one half of each clothespin can lock into the other where the holes are, giving a similar appearance to couplers including the offset. They even take force to separate without opening both at the same time. I brought two of them indoors and conjured basic flatbeds to check their performance on track. Having the posts go through the spring holes ensured they could swivel a bit. Even so, they were still too rigid and the flatbeds inevitably derailed (though a few tries were more successful). There's also the disadvantage of having to access the handles on both to uncouple them. While I did figure out how real knuckle couplers operate, my current techniques wouldn't work for making them in small scales. That, and they'd also have to be identical and made in large quantities. Luckily, there are DIY videos showing multiple ways to make them, mainly due to India using a variant called the Centre Buffer Coupling (CBC). One version I've considered trying to adopt is this H0 scale one by Mr. Mini Gadget. It doesn't have the actual knuckle or the locking pins, so it should be a bit like a sideways version of my paper clip hooks. Also thought about making templates of the main components and printing them, arranged like the "exploded" view/s of this 3D printed design by Raby. I've seen bulk bags of miniature wooden clothespins at multiple shops, and they're even available in silver. Had this method been practical, I would've bought and/or modified them for use on rolling stock.

Prior to my cardboard pieces for the black narrow gauge track, the last time I recall trying to make custom track was in 2018 (when I bought irrigation drippers thinking they looked like rail wheels). All I did was cut some thick wooden skewers for rails and sleepers and mount the rails temporarily with Blu-Tack, and I found the "flanges" were broad enough to keep the wheels on. In hindsight, that alone didn't mean much since I had no idea how to make curves (where the challenge is to ensure the wheelset always reaches the rail on the other side).



With all the different techniques and materials for track used by the YouTubers I showed in my latest thread, I noticed many of them have long strips of cardboard for rails (ranging from one to two layers). I remembered having a bunch of old zip ties I kept with their pawl ends cut off and thought: surely zip ties could be a better, quicker and stronger alternative. After all, they are equally flexible despite being hard nylon and manufactured to the exact shape; saves having to cut a bunch of perfectly drawn lines from a huge sheet. I started out with a smaller gauge than my usual track to see how it would go for me. I initially used cardboard sleepers and followed two spacer designs from Quazar's tutorials, which use angled spacers for curves and give fairly impressive radiuses. No wonder they're not the only one who uses that method.



After the cardboard sleepers proved to be (somewhat) effective, I decided to reuse one of them for a new spacer and use zip ties for the sleepers as well. While I know the cardboard looked more like actual wood, I made the sleepers too wide and using one material gives a better finish (for my liking). Not to mention, it could make them less vulnerable to conditions like damp surfaces. However, the curve radius turned out too tight and I had issues with misaligned sleepers and gauge loss near the ends. Likely due to the angles of the "curve only" spacer being too sharp/inconsistent. The "curve and straight" spacer didn't help either despite the different angle.




I tried a new design for the sleepers by gluing two layers and laying them sideways, rather than one flat strip. The rack sides were glued to each other to make the smooth sides visible (the "plank" effect didn't look the same anymore). Apart from raising the track, it makes them look thick enough but better than two next to each other (laying flat). Having a "half" sleeper at each end could make perfectly seamless joints like LEGO track has, though I have yet to add connectors. Either way, it's quite an improvement and I already love how they're shaping up. Continued below.

I then found a very interesting and helpful way to make (much) better curves: YouTuber Abhilash Arts made a tutorial for homemade H0 scale track (made of sunboard), and they used a large cardboard quarter circle to bend the track by taping one side to it. The exact same process for a straight, but without one rail until the other is taped to the quarter circle. Even the same non angled spacer can be used and it won't mess up the alignment of the sleepers. In part thanks to the hot glue, the zip ties kept their shape very well after being bent. Hoping to use the quarter circle for other track designs after the issues I had with Quazar like spacers. The curve turned out more precise since the wheels barely derail on it, while the straight has slightly buckled rails like the cardboard sleeper version had. Maybe if the rails were made of two layers like the new sleepers, it would've been easier to make them straight enough. In the meantime, I'll repeat the process for more curves like it until I could have an oval before trying to do a set of points. Again, the gauge is too narrow for my current trains and an all new train should be made specifically for it. I'm thinking of a small diesel shunter with two simple trucks, vans or flatbeds. I have other planned uses for zip ties since they're essentially plastic and could be glued together like popsicle sticks. My potential problems with them are the differences in thickness (which would require raising a few sleepers), the way they can get crooked and a bit hard to bend back into shape, the smooth sides being difficult to paint, or sheets made from them warping or breaking when manipulated. For custom track, however, they're showing to be really good so far.



One of my far fetched desires is to build enough parts for an outdoor railway that would span a big portion of the garden; something I already have enough parts to do with Plarail and TrackMaster, which doesn't quite feel the same to me. I would love to run custom trains with all three main types of locomotives, ranging from mundane to whimsical. Preferably with lights and effects like off the shelf toys and models have. Until I could get there, I still have a very long way to go.

I haven't really checked your thread out as much as I should have since I've been relatively on and very long off. This is pretty impressive though.

After I ran out of my first batch of used zip ties, I opened some new ones but found they were shorter, slightly thinner and lower quality (not knowing I still had more of the other type hidden away). Naturally, this meant the curve radius had to be much tighter. Like the first curve, the new ones were bent using Abhilash's quarter circle technique. Likely because I didn't make a smaller jig, it led to the pieces turning out inconsistent with each other; mainly the sleeper spaces being off by one and the angled ends not being at the same angle. Not sure why it happened seeing as they were all spaced equally before bending. Another reason might be the zip tie rails are "too" flexible with only one layer, and as such don't keep their shape as easily as cardboard strips.



In an attempt to fix the inconsistencies, I tried making an entirely different jig using the zip ties' pawl ends to hold the track upside down while gluing the sleepers. Due to the offsets of the grooves the zip ties normally go through, I made sure to glue the "heads" in a way that the grooves are facing inwards on both sides. Also had to ensure the rails wouldn't get stuck in the ratchets so I could free the pieces when done. While (still) not perfect, it did give more helpful results with the new radius in mind. The difference in thickness meant I had to cut new heads from a heat shrink tube and glue them on top (not pictured); the old ties don't fit in the heads from the new ones. Would've made more sense if I replaced the tie heads with them instead due to lack of support underneath, which made the new curves uneven. It would've accepted both thicknesses and still kept them in place.



For the (inevitable) connectors, I initially decided to try a sleeve type that fits over the rails like the track in Inventus' version of BigWR's train set. Not highly recommended since they can be slightly thicker than the rails and stop/derail a train, but my later designs would have sleeper or through-rail connectors. After seeing they worked, I found a flat tube and made new connectors from it. Removing the wire remnants without cutting the tube proved surprisingly difficult, but it was worth it and they were naturally more effective than the cardboard sleeves. Perhaps even a bit too effective...

...they fit over the ends tightly enough that they can often be hard to join/separate, which may risk warping the track after several uses. Just about all the parts have had one or two sleepers break away all the time, especially near the ends. The older, thicker zip ties are even harder to push through the sleeves, but they still fit without much of a difference in height. On the plus side, it means multiple pieces can be picked up and stay together just fine in mid air. Since the connectors are removable, the curves don't have to be flipped over for left/right.



Coincidentally, I just happened to make it the same gauge as the black narrow gauge track. The high speed train from that set will fit on it, but can easily derail due to its short flanges and the lack of grooves between the rails. Might as well redo my custom parts with zip ties to improve their quality. BTW: this train actually fits on "standard" gauge in addition to its own track, but will not reach the outer rails on certain types.



As I thought, the inconsistent geometries led to an incorrect shape when building a full circle. The flat heat shrink tube was too short and I underestimated how many connectors were needed, leaving one piece detached from the rest. Could've used the cardboard sleeves again just for it. At least it revealed that exactly nine curves make up a full oval without straights (roughly 60x60 cm); ten were made, but the last one was too long to fit. Out of disappointment, I didn't even build a new vehicle to test the entire loop.



However, I'm not one to let this crush my hopes of a potential fully homemade railway, whether indoor or outdoor. My fourth design for the track will be the same gauge and reuse the sleepers, only with two layered rails and four layered sleepers and a template for consistent curves.

Until then, my American 2-6-0 is still on the back burner and has yet to be finished.

Progress photos of the improvements to the green Mogul during May-June, before I pushed it aside and focused on trying other ideas.



A new coin cell compartment. It still uses a cut down cap from a tube of two part epoxy putty, albeit from another brand and using nails for the contacts rather than screws. While the old (red cap) one held the battery in place more tightly, the negative terminal being rounded caused the battery to slip and the solder didn't quite "like" the screw contacts.



The conditioner caps originally used for the domes were repurposed for the cylinders after having their paint stripped in case the new coat would be a different shade (or a different livery altogether). Apart from the improved size and shape, it makes them wide enough for the valve rods to go 'behind' the bars without hitting the frontmost drivers. Like the earliest version, the new cylinders and running board were glued to the chassis directly to avoid the stability problem after remounting. The running board previously stretched from the cab to the cylinders without getting thinner at the wheels (which seems more common on UK/European locos), so the sides were cut off and glued closer to the boiler.



Rebuilt the cab with thinner side walls made of one piece each to make it look tidier. Still uses the original roof. With the added impression of front doors, I noticed many of the reference locos I used have ledges under said doors to improve the crew's footing, so I quickly made them and glued them to the sides. The footplate comes off to reveal the coin cell compartment, and has a round bit underneath to hold it and press the battery down. Not sure how the roof will be held since it will have to be removed for access. Could've made the compartment upside down if I wanted to. Supports were eventually added behind the side walls. The firebox light is now held in a round part to represent the backhead.



The old smokebox and boiler were too round and too wide, so I shrunk them and flattened the sides of the boiler. To install the headlamp LED more easily (and a bit higher), I carefully cut off the protective casing that would've forced me to make a hole in the smokestack. The boiler is still hollow and has holes at both ends for the smokebox wires and firebox LED. One glaring omission for me was the iconic spark arrestor, which was going to be made of cardboard or an anti slip mat. However, I had to refresh my memory on how to form a cone (to my embarrassment) and my attempts were incorrectly shaped, so I gave up and used a plastic torch head for the bottom. Only the top is made from an anti slip mat, as well as two bits to fill gaps in the torch head. Despite the boiler being smaller, it can hold all the same wiring as before.



Cab detail. It was largely made up of tiny rolls of paper for valves, with the gauges and other controls being painted on. The throttle is a toothpick, one valve is attached to a skewer and one pipe is an electrical wire. My reference for the backhead detail was Clinchfield Railroad No. 1. Photo by Jeff Terry.



Some unofficial LEGO engines I've seen have the valve rods attached with pegs that slide between the bars (photo by SavaTheAggie), which seems to function OK. Decided to try something similar by adding a small "tab" at the end of each valve rod to restrict its motion. All I'd have to do is add another such tab on the other side so they wouldn't fall out.



The new domes were caps from an old set of glass bottled paints, which had brushes attached like nail polish caps have. Even though I flattened the uppermost part of the boiler and drew a line from its centre, I couldn't position the domes, bell and light button precisely. After gluing the smokebox and boiler in place, I'll make a new drawbar and see if the tender will still derail it.