This is home brew, using a basic servo connected with piano wire and controlled from an Arduino. I think I'm go ahead and automate one, but with wiring place for the others, and see what happens in regular use.
A Beginner's Journey Pt 2
- Thread starter Jacob Z
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- beginner layout build
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Any ideas on how to add some spring slack? Maybe a z-bend in the middle of the wire? Looking at the Cobalt surface mount motors, they have a "knee" bend right before the connection to the turnout (pic below). I don't know if that is purely to raise the height of the wire to the correct level, or to add a little springiness to the push-pull. Also, they use stepper motors rather than servos, but I don't know if that should make a big difference. ETA: apparently these motors move "prototypically slow" taking three seconds to move, so it probably wasn't my experiment with slow moving that broke the turnout.
Maybe the smart thing to do is to stop trying to McGyver this myself, and instead order some Cobalts. Mind you, at $35 a pop they are not cheap. And if my math is right, they are a scale 4 meters / 14ft long in N. And it looks like there is at least one turnout where I don't have room for one of these things.
I'm beginning to think I need to choose between whether I just want it to work or I want to enjoy building it!
I ordered some more expensive ones from Adafruit, carefully examining the pictures to convince myself they were not the same cheap OEM Chinese switches in a different brand/color. I have soldered up three of them now and so far they are working much better.
The other ones are too cheap to bother returning. I will hang on to the remaining ones, they might be useful for prototyping where I just want to twist a wire on the lugs rather than solder it in place.
L8r
I also now understand (lesson learned) why people lay track first and run it for a while before adding ballast and scenery.
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diesel
Weedy Liver
Is there any spring slack in your system, or does the full force of the servo push/pull on the points? The spring wire on the Tortoise isolates the points from the point motor, so the maximum force can be adjusted. If not for that feature, a Tortoise could also rip up a set of points.
It's just a straight wire, with a little jiggle at each end, that pulls in a straight line as the servo moves through about 10 or 12 degrees. So I guess it's full force. Looking at the Turtle, it looks like it works by rotating a vertical wire - is the natural bend of the wire what creates the springiness? It also looks like they have a remote mount adapter, that rotates a vertical wire, and I'm having a hard time picturing how that works. I could try to emulate that, I guess, but it would take a lot more "engineering" than a simple push-pull.
Any ideas on how to add some spring slack? Maybe a z-bend in the middle of the wire? Looking at the Cobalt surface mount motors, they have a "knee" bend right before the connection to the turnout (pic below). I don't know if that is purely to raise the height of the wire to the correct level, or to add a little springiness to the push-pull. Also, they use stepper motors rather than servos, but I don't know if that should make a big difference. ETA: apparently these motors move "prototypically slow" taking three seconds to move, so it probably wasn't my experiment with slow moving that broke the turnout.
Maybe the smart thing to do is to stop trying to McGyver this myself, and instead order some Cobalts. Mind you, at $35 a pop they are not cheap. And if my math is right, they are a scale 4 meters / 14ft long in N. And it looks like there is at least one turnout where I don't have room for one of these things.
I'm beginning to think I need to choose between whether I just want it to work or I want to enjoy building it!
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The second one I soldered melted the pins right out of the switch. I went back to the Amazon listing and read the one star reviews (lesson learned) and it turns out lots of people were complaining that these switches fall apart at the slightest touch of a soldering iron.
I ordered some more expensive ones from Adafruit, carefully examining the pictures to convince myself they were not the same cheap OEM Chinese switches in a different brand/color. I have soldered up three of them now and so far they are working much better.
The other ones are too cheap to bother returning. I will hang on to the remaining ones, they might be useful for prototyping where I just want to twist a wire on the lugs rather than solder it in place.
So, another mistake, another lesson learned. When I first wired up my DCC bus, I didn't think I would need a DC bus, so I wired the DCC bus with what I had to hand, which was 18 AWG red and black wires. As I get closer to the end [hah!] I now realize I do need a DC bus, and it's going to get really confusing under there if I also wire that one red and black, so it's going to have to be probably red and green. Not ideal, but not a disaster either.
It's been a while since I posted, and that's because I've been fixing my track laying mistakes, and it turned into quite a saga. I knew I had a couple of places where the track connections were a bit iffy, but my existing locos and stock negotiated them OK. Then I bought myself a BLI T1, because they just look amazing.
It did not go well.
I quickly found that the front truck derailed at the worst gap on my tracks. (Yeah, it's pretty bad.) The front truck has essentially zero weight on it, and a very weak spring, so it is essentially floating. So I started a thread here asking for advice. Some people said "tear it up and do it right." Others said "you can fill the cap, e.g. with a tiny piece of track slipped into a connector, or styrene shaped to fit." I decided to try the small piece of track first, as being the least destructive (second picture below). I also eased the curve a little to close the gap on the inside. It looked pretty good, but it still wasn't good enough for the T1.
[The smart thing to do would have been stop at this point and return the T1, recognizing that even if I fixed this one, I would just find another place it derailed, and, frankly, any time I ran it I would be holding my breath waiting for the next derailment. The track was fine with my other locos, so I should have taken the L.]
Continues below the pics.
Since that didn't work, I reconciled myself to having to rip up track and do it over. I decided to tear up everything from the bad join to the next join, basically an entire piece of flextrack, rather than splice in a short piece and introduce another join. Here's the after picture (pins in place waiting for the glue to fully cure.) And yes, I did fix that slight misalignment on the other rail. And the second picture shows the far end of the replacement, which I was quite pleased with.
[Once again I should have stopped here, but ...]
I ran the T1 again and it found another place to derail, on the lower loop almost exactly parallel with the first problem spot. The second problem spot was much smaller, so I thought I could fix it just by pulling up a few inches either side, easing the curve a little inwards, and then gluing it back down. I tested it, and now not only did the T1 derail, but my formerly-reliable Pacific also derailed. After much experimentation including running the loco through "frame by frame" I finally figured out that I had introduced a tiny hump in the track at the join. The Pacific was fine until its second driving wheel reached the crest of the hump, where the leading truck would lift off the track just enough to not come back down in the right place as the loco passed over the hump.
Emboldened by first attempt at relaying track, I decided to bite the bullet on this one too, and relay it. I took out several inches of curve before the join - fortunately that was a piece of settrack that I could clean up and reuse - and several inches after, up to the next join (again, not to introduce another join). I then cut a new piece of track slightly too long, and spent about 30 minutes repeatedly filing the rails and test-fitting until I got an exact fit (pics below). I've very pleased with how that turned out. Overall, I feel like I finally got a handle on track laying, just at the point where I'm finished with it.
Continues below pics.
And then after all that, I decided to return the T1 anyway. I felt like that floating front truck was simply a derailment-in-waiting, and I was always going to be anxious running it. And I didn't pick this hobby to make my anxiety worse.
It did not go well.
I quickly found that the front truck derailed at the worst gap on my tracks. (Yeah, it's pretty bad.) The front truck has essentially zero weight on it, and a very weak spring, so it is essentially floating. So I started a thread here asking for advice. Some people said "tear it up and do it right." Others said "you can fill the cap, e.g. with a tiny piece of track slipped into a connector, or styrene shaped to fit." I decided to try the small piece of track first, as being the least destructive (second picture below). I also eased the curve a little to close the gap on the inside. It looked pretty good, but it still wasn't good enough for the T1.
[The smart thing to do would have been stop at this point and return the T1, recognizing that even if I fixed this one, I would just find another place it derailed, and, frankly, any time I ran it I would be holding my breath waiting for the next derailment. The track was fine with my other locos, so I should have taken the L.]
Continues below the pics.
Since that didn't work, I reconciled myself to having to rip up track and do it over. I decided to tear up everything from the bad join to the next join, basically an entire piece of flextrack, rather than splice in a short piece and introduce another join. Here's the after picture (pins in place waiting for the glue to fully cure.) And yes, I did fix that slight misalignment on the other rail. And the second picture shows the far end of the replacement, which I was quite pleased with.
[Once again I should have stopped here, but ...]
I ran the T1 again and it found another place to derail, on the lower loop almost exactly parallel with the first problem spot. The second problem spot was much smaller, so I thought I could fix it just by pulling up a few inches either side, easing the curve a little inwards, and then gluing it back down. I tested it, and now not only did the T1 derail, but my formerly-reliable Pacific also derailed. After much experimentation including running the loco through "frame by frame" I finally figured out that I had introduced a tiny hump in the track at the join. The Pacific was fine until its second driving wheel reached the crest of the hump, where the leading truck would lift off the track just enough to not come back down in the right place as the loco passed over the hump.
Emboldened by first attempt at relaying track, I decided to bite the bullet on this one too, and relay it. I took out several inches of curve before the join - fortunately that was a piece of settrack that I could clean up and reuse - and several inches after, up to the next join (again, not to introduce another join). I then cut a new piece of track slightly too long, and spent about 30 minutes repeatedly filing the rails and test-fitting until I got an exact fit (pics below). I've very pleased with how that turned out. Overall, I feel like I finally got a handle on track laying, just at the point where I'm finished with it.
Continues below pics.
And then after all that, I decided to return the T1 anyway. I felt like that floating front truck was simply a derailment-in-waiting, and I was always going to be anxious running it. And I didn't pick this hobby to make my anxiety worse.
ctclibby
Well-Known Member
Shoot Jacob, good job on finding problems. I think I would keep the T1 anyway and use her just to find track problems??
L8r
I had a tremendous amount of help and encouragement from other forum members on the thread I posted. And I wish I could afford to keep the T1, even as a shelf queen, but I need the money for a replacement.
I also now understand (lesson learned) why people lay track first and run it for a while before adding ballast and scenery.
I took a break for a while and finally got back to it today. I did as much as I could before my tremor made it impossible to do fine work. I finished up re-ballasting the track that I had to re-lay, so that's out of the way. Then I started adding details to the freight depot. The basic kit is from Faller* (IIRC), the vehicles and freight are from various sources. Now I just need some staff to show up for work (tomorrow!).
I'm worried I might have overdone it, but maybe I just need to get used to after seeing it plain for so long. Close up of the crates and barrels because I'm pleased with how those turned out for such a simple paint job.
*It's not particularly prototypical for an East coast US railroad in the early 1950s, but I think it works OK.
I'm worried I might have overdone it, but maybe I just need to get used to after seeing it plain for so long. Close up of the crates and barrels because I'm pleased with how those turned out for such a simple paint job.
*It's not particularly prototypical for an East coast US railroad in the early 1950s, but I think it works OK.
KB02
Well-Known Member
It's been a while since I posted anything. Here's the pond finally finished. I positioned the boat and pier and then poured one final layer of "water" around them so that they are embedded into the "water". It looks really effective in person, right down to the figure's reflection in the "water"; not sure how clearly it comes out in the photos.
I have to confess, that was a happy accident. I had no idea it would happen.
RhB Michael
RhB Lokführer
That's very nice work. Very realistic in the photos. I've never tried water before other than a few trickles of water seeping from my rock walls.
Time for more track repairs.
I've been running trains for a bit now and accumulating mixed freight wagons (usually when they go on sale - I'm a sucker for a discount) and got my best-looking locomotive (a BLI Pacific) out of its box and... it now routinely derails its leading truck at one specific join. I knew the spot was a bit dodgy (in my defense, it was the first track join I did on a curve) and that particular loco is very fussy about imperfections, but in the past I was "getting away with it". So I don't know, maybe something shifted with the cold weather.
Anyway, I girded my loins, took my courage in both hands, etc. and pulled up few inches of track either side of the join, filed down the inner rail, and relaid it. I felt a bit more confident this time, having done this previously (see upthread). Tomorrow I'll know whether it's fixed. Or at least, better. There are days when I honestly feel like putting this layout into storage and starting over with everything I now know.
Before and In Progress pics below.
Also, the can with the big dent in the side does say Crushed Tomatoes. Seems right.
I've been running trains for a bit now and accumulating mixed freight wagons (usually when they go on sale - I'm a sucker for a discount) and got my best-looking locomotive (a BLI Pacific) out of its box and... it now routinely derails its leading truck at one specific join. I knew the spot was a bit dodgy (in my defense, it was the first track join I did on a curve) and that particular loco is very fussy about imperfections, but in the past I was "getting away with it". So I don't know, maybe something shifted with the cold weather.
Anyway, I girded my loins, took my courage in both hands, etc. and pulled up few inches of track either side of the join, filed down the inner rail, and relaid it. I felt a bit more confident this time, having done this previously (see upthread). Tomorrow I'll know whether it's fixed. Or at least, better. There are days when I honestly feel like putting this layout into storage and starting over with everything I now know.
Before and In Progress pics below.
Also, the can with the big dent in the side does say Crushed Tomatoes. Seems right.
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