We had the honor to participate in this year train fair organized by AFM (Amics del Ferrocarril de Martorell) and FCAF (Federació Catalana d'Amics del Ferrocarril), held in Martorell during the weekend on 28th and 29th of April.
We mounted our current layout during Friday afternoon, it took just a few hours to have the 16 meters long layout running:
Leveling control of the layout....
They had to bring some birds of prey to chase pigeons away
This time we tried an idea to put trains on rail easily, which consists in a T shapped module in the main track that allows to add several modules used to prepare trains and take them out.
We had the pleasure to ride long trains, I specially liked very much Train Suite Shikishima (from Kato) and Series 500 7000 "Type EVA" (from Tomix). It's not strange that these two train won this year the best trains price from the Japanese fans and media.
Other trains running in our layout:
There were also huge layouts from friend clubs in almost all scales and different countries (France and Portugal also came), including LGB and an amazing Lego layout. There were also many stands, shops and second hand market.
Thanks from Club N Caldes to all visitors, clubs, colleagues, organizers and public bodies to let us have so much fun!!!
Finally, some videos. You can find more in the playlists of ClubNCaldes in Youtube:
Some time ago I bought a second hand Kato 10-286 885系 White Sonic. This is a beautiful train from JR Kyushu, that reminds me IronMan mask when you look it from the front, specially in other colors than white.
I'll skip the part of the motor car digitalization, as it is exactly the same like any other standard Kato motor car. I'm just showing how I managed to digitalize the cab and end cars.
My first surprise was to find all cars were already illuminated. Looks like a manual work, not any standard or commercial illumination set. It is using what seems a pvc stick with one led in one end, so similar to the Kato led sets. The one who did it (thanks so much!!!!) had the patience to stick aluminium tape under the roof (to reflect the light) and under the pvc stick so all the light is indirect. Even more, floor and seats are painted carefully and with all detail. The final result is awesome, you can check it in the photos at the end of this entry.
I'm using a LaisDCC decoder for the light board digitalization. LaisDCC decoders can invert the polarity of the motor wires (gray and orange wires) assigned to the lights F0 key function and depending on the train direction. And you can also adjust the intensity. All this for less than 10€ in their official web shop.
In this way there is no need to flip one of the leds to have the anodes and cathodes together, or to cut any of the led legs to solder there the decoder wire. If you use decoders able to switch the polarity of the outputs you can connect it directly to the light board in the place where light board picks up the track current.
To adapt the light board I only cut the track current plates. I solder the red and black wires (to pick up track current for the decoder) to these plates, and the motor wires to the place where these current plates were fixed in the light board:
To set up LaisDCC decoders to use the motor wires as a function output, with polarity depending on the direction of travel and F0, these are the CV that you have to set:
CV61=68 and write in CV133 the desired intensity (value from 0 to 255). Normally a value between 20 and 50 is enough so you don't have to change the existing resistor of the light board.
This is the final result, with a spectacular interior lighting, of course it's not my merit:
Club N Caldes organized last weekend, 7th and 8th October, a train fair at the Würth Museum in Logroño, a Modern and Contemporary Art Museum part of the Würth museums network across all Europe. Apart from the fixed and temporary exhibitions, they also provide the needed space for those who want to do any activity (exhibitions, talks, events...), provided that this activity is related to art, didactic, or strengthens the company's business.
As this didactic and altruistic philosophy (Museum is always free of charge) is close to our club philosophy also, 4 associations that have close contact decided to organize a modular exhibition event focused to children and to the most didactic part, showing how Open hardware and software platforms can be used for railroad modelling. And who said what we do is not art?? Of course it is!!! ;)
The first association is "Amigos del Ferrocarril de La Rioja" ("La Rioja friends of rails"?). They exhibited an static H0 layout recreating many sceneries from this region well known by its wines.
Second association to present is "Creaciones Ferroviarias". My friend Jose Manuel León creates awesome models in 1 Scale (1:32) completelly from scratch. He uses also Arduino to manage many of this locomotives and it is an unbelievable artisan work:
"Anden 5" is how this group of five friends is named. They make modular T-Track layouts. Arduino is also present in their layouts to manage their roundabout or add sounds, and they also showed some independent little dioramas or "theaters", like they like to name it, showing how Arduino is used to manage switches, servos, lights..... Children can literally touch it and play with sensors to make trains inside this little theaters move.
And last but not least, our Club N Caldes layout. Now it is a 16 meters long (no curves yet) digital anarchic layout, fully based on open hardware and software systems. Apart from Rocrail to manage it, the rest of software and/or firmware is developed by our own following the Loconet specifications. I say anarchic in the good sense of the word, as not all of us model Japanese landscapes, but we love to have this diversity of environments and people reacted marvelously to it.
Therefore a train can depart from the Hokkaido Coal Mine, cross the rice fields and a Japanese temple, make a brief stop in Hamburg station which is after the container depot, continue through Spanish landscapes like Toledo, the ZooFarm, Jerte Valley, a Catalonian station "Martorell", then go back to Japan to cross the Terayama bridge and end up in the middle of Hoth battle from Star Wars. The only restriction for decoration is to bring something with "soul", something this member admires and arouses emotions and/or memories.
The Coal Mine:
Rice fields and Temple:
Industrial zone:
Hamburg Station:
Social Club and ZooFarm (with Tomitec moving bus system):
Highway in Toledo:
Martorell station:
Terayama bridge:
Hoth Battle (with animations and sound activated by The Force proximity sensor):
As we can drive in manual, automatic and semiautomatic mode, we changed to manual operated trains and let children to drive. This was one of the best experiences ever:
And no more things to show! It was a very successful exhibition with more than 2100 visitants in just one and a half day!! And even local press came to make and article about all us!!
Finally, we wish to express our sincere gratitude to the Würth Museum, Würth Spain and the fantastic people working there who attended us and made us feel like at home. Thanks in the same way to all associations and clubs who supported the idea in a disinterested manner, we hope to make it better and bigger next year!!
You can check many videos in our youtube channel and playlist clicking here.
