Module Show This Weekend

[D&J RailRoad]

I started building a large module system over a year ago but haven't been able to display them due to the COVID lockdowns.
We have a show coming up this weekend, 7&8 Aug in Fredericksburg, VA and this will be the first running of them with the whole module club.
The system consists of 56 feet of modules. The theme of the modules is a mainline yard, two tracks on the viewer side of the mainline and four tracks to the rear. The modules are expanded toward the viewers by a few inches to make room for the two tracks.
Turnouts coming onto or off of the mainline are number 10s. The rest are number 8 turnouts, all powered by Tortoise machines and a momentary push button next to each turnout. The Tortoise machines are powered by Digitrax DS64s so the turnouts can be operated by throttle as well.
An additional feature to this system is a large corner section. All other corners in the club are 24" radius. The corner system on this is 90" radius with super elevation on the mainline. The 90 degree turn is made up with three sections so they would be able to fit in the transport box.
Members will be able to set up their trains on this yard system. The yard itself is powered off a local DCC booster while the mainline is powered by the primary DCC command station. All track buss wires are connected using Power Pole connectors. Another feature I built into some of the modules are the adjustable legs. Instead of the little cap that fits into the bottom of a 2X2 leg that ya have to get down on your hands and knees to adjust, I built these out of PVC pipe with 5/8" bolts and nuts secured inside and mounted near the top so the leg can be turned while still standing. I never liked getting on the floor at the Maryland Fair grounds because they also do cattle shows there.
The weather proof transport box footprint is 9' X 5 1/2' and weighs close to 800lbs fully loaded. It sits on a roll away table in my garage for storage. I'll transport it on a flat utility trailer. In order to move it from the table to the trailer, I use 1" PVC pipes placed under the box to roll it on or off the trailer. Amazingly easy. Once it's on the trailer, I fulcrum the box up and remove the PVC pipes.
The trailer will have to be wheeled into the venue to be unloaded or loaded. All additional plastic tubs can be carried in the bed of the truck.
I'll post some pictures during the weekend show.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Damaged a module this morning while adding a UP5 panel to it.
I had it leaning up against some wood when it suddenly slipped and tipped over more. The wood snagged one of the rails and tore it from the ties.

After wiping the tears from my eyes, I gathered the tools I needed to effect repairs.
A small drill, a few track spikes, a small hammer, pliers and needle nose pliers.
A little bending of the rail back to near its correct shape then drilled out a few holes for the spikes. All is good again.

 

[Iron Horseman]

Damaged a module this morning while adding a UP5 panel to it.

Sorry to see that. I think in about 10 years of doing module shows there was only one time I went to an event and did not damage at least one of the modules in some way or another. Regardless of how careful one is something always seems to just jump in there.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Got the transport box loaded onto the trailer. Quite a few more issues to deal with than I had to deal with in the design. I had a feeling this was not going to be the least of the problems. The yellow straps going over the top keep the tarp from ballooning up and blowing off.

Sure enough. Got to the show venue and quite a few vehicles parked into the expo center, taking up room where people were supposed to be unloading their stuff. Seems a lot of these folks wanted to have their vehicle near by in case they wanted to sit down for a bit. One clown, pulls his car with trailer into the doorway and stops. Gets outa his car then wanders off into the building. Line of vehicles behind him. He didn't know where his setup point was so about 20 people have to wait for him to find out. Turns out, he spotted an old buddy of his and was standing there shooting the breeze with him. Talk about pissed off people.
Got my stuff unloaded but couldn't start setting up because there were vehicles still unloading that had to come through our setup area to get back out. Had to get the show manager to tell them to unload and move their vehicle instead of setting up their area first. Finally got to setting up my modules. Right away I started finding the results of storing these out in the garage. Humidity had swollen the wood and the tracks, which I designed to come right up to the edge of the modules extended to far now. I had to Dremel tool each rail down so the modules could be clamped together. Yeah, next winter it will shrink back and the gaps will be to big for the track joiners to hold them together. Length wise, side to side wise and vertical. Some tracks were off by over 1/4" in alignment. Four hours of that nonsense and they were finally fitted together.
OK, track polarity test. First connection to the command station and a shut down short. Started the trouble shooting steps when the announcement came over the PA that we had 15 to clear out for the evening. I disconnected from the command station and did a continuity check and the short was still in my unpowered tracks somehow. The short is in the mainline. The yard part of the modules are completely isolated from the mainline. I checked all the turnouts and they are working and being driven by DS64s. The frogs of each turnout are powered through the Tortoise Machine built in switches.
What I think may be the problem is the Ford trailer connector that we use between the modules. I have Anderson Power Pole connectors between my sets of modules but I have the Ford connectors on my interfacing module. I may have wired that incorrectly to the track bus. I'll start out tomorrow morning with disconnecting the Ford connector and apply some Alligator jumper wires between the modules.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Doors opened for the vendors and exhibitors at 7am. I set right to work disconnecting the Ford connectors from my module to realign it. Didn't seem to matter, any combination of connections still resulted in a shorting condition. It suddenly occurred to me, maybe it was in the module that the command station is connected to. I isolated that module and took a reading with the VOM. Yep, short there too. It was in the command station module the whole time and I had tore the wiring apart on my modules in error. We had just tested the command station module the weekend before and it was fine. Ended up clipping quite a few wires to eliminate the shorting problem then started connecting modules down the line, one at a time and checking polarity of the tracks. I found that the Anderson Power Pole connectors that I had on my modules got disoriented somehow since I built the modules a year ago. I was lucky I had only super glued two of them together but the rest I was able to slip apart and realign the connectors so they would plug together correctly. Finally, had the whole two track mainline operating. Show was going to open in 45 minutes. Got the booster station together with a power supply and mounted it near its plug in point on the end module. Polarity was correct for the siding coming off the mainline. Went through, (actually crawled through) the length of the yard modules, 56 feet plugging each of the yard Anderson Power Pole connectors together while another member kept check of the track power with the VOM. Finished that then went through and started cleaning track then passed that off to another member who was available. Found some more track join points that had buckled overnight with the humidity. Slid the track joiner over to one rail then pulled the rails apart and took the Dremel tool to it to shorten the rail then reconnect things. This process went on during the show as humidity set in and the wood expanded and buckled the tracks. Finally it settled down and trains were running fine.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

The full yard setup. My yard modules are the light colored surface modules that extend down and around the curve to the far corner.
I'm working on a video of a few of the trains running on the layout. Should have it posted tomorrow evening.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Video of the trains show.

 

[Iron Horseman]

Got to the show venue and quite a few vehicles parked taking up room where people were supposed to be unloading their stuff. .... He didn't know where his setup point was so about 20 people have to wait for him to find out. ...
t couldn't start setting up because there were vehicles still unloading that had to come through our setup area to get back out. Had to get the show manager to tell them to unload and move their vehicle instead of setting up their area first.

This is where experienced show hosts come into play. The old GATS people and Denver's TCA folks have a routine down that got people into and out of the venues efficiently. They also have some bouncers that dealt with people trying to do their own thing instead of following the rules.

Four hours of that nonsense and they were finally fitted together.

Been there.

Started the trouble shooting steps when the announcement came over the PA that we had 15 to clear out for the evening.

The window corollary to Murphy's Law. The most difficult issue will be discovered near the end of the available time window in which to fix.

I've worked up through show opening before I got things running.