New Minimalistic portable battery op layout


A

arealgijoe

Member
Well I finished my newest layout. I will list the highlights and maybe take and post a picture of it later.

Main Features:
-1- DC/DCC compatible
-2- Bachman EZ DCC controller (powered with 2x 9v batteries)
-3- 3 grade crossings
-4- Double main-line, (max 2 trains)
-5- Scenery, including grass, trees, structure, a few people
-6- a couple block signals
-7- Very small, light, portable with integrated carry handle.
-8- Fully self contained ( currently)
-9- Low cost, made completely from parts & scrap on hand, but expandable.

How BIG do you think this portable layout, complete with DC/DCC control, track, scenery etc is??? (hint think SMALL)
 
Not too many willing to venture a guess...........

Here is a photo of it;

The DD40 is on track #2 which is extendable (both ends). Track #1 has just one crossing and bumpers at both ends. The right bumper also has a LED power indicator. To the right of the Track #1 crossing and left of the shanty w/workers, along the back of the DCC unit is the normal track power connector. Along the left side of the DCC I added a DC bipolar power jack. The battery cable plug rests in the cable clam, just below the lower left corner of the DCC unit. I am using two 9v rechargeable batteries (hidden under the black Velcro strap between the DCC unit and tracks to power it. The 200mah batteries I have last quite a while, but I have some 500mah ordered.

SIZE is aprox 8 x 10 inches, just a little smaller than a common sheet of paper.
 

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  • EZ DCC MiniLayout WebA P248a.jpg
    EZ DCC MiniLayout WebA P248a.jpg
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Hi old guy from another old guy.............

I have thought about tinkering a little in Z.

WHY........... that was a dumb stupid question, that is till you ASKED IT. (all questions, including my own, are dumb & stupid until they are asked, another, IMO more tech correct way of saying there is no such things as a dumb stupid question) )

This project started out as a quest for a way to show-off my DCC sound projects etc. I was just looking for a way to power the track and make NOISE, like horn/whistle/bell etc. Broadway makes a unit that works, but ONLY with THEIR stuff. So, I picked up a little used Bachmann Ez unit, found I could battery power it and BINGO! I also changed the RED forward LED to GREEN, that makes it consistent with the old DC controllers (w/momentum) I used to make and still use.

I used it just last Tuesday to show a friend a sound car I made (no DCC available, he has just DC). Last night grocery shopping, I came across a nice plastic storage box suitable to hold it, instead of stuffing it in a plastic bag. One RR signal got broken doing that. Since the box is just a little bigger, I found another piece of scrap wood large enough to make a slightly larger portable mini. (about 10x11 inches), so I am making a wood base to fit for version-2. There will also be space to hold a couple cars, or a loco and a car or one long DD40 or steamer.

Sometimes I start a project and it just GROWS, long before its done.

JD
 
Murphy is alive and well... up to his usual.

Tonight DISASTER struck #2 before I even got the track down. I dropped the completed wood frame, all cut, sanded & stained, and it BROKE into 2 pieces. Then to add insult to injury, when putting it together with its back-board............I put the back on the top instead of the bottom!

Dropping and forgetting things sad to say is not unusual for me. I even drop myself, resulting in a few surgeries, broken bones and one time acute kidney failure that bought me a week on nurse Ratchet's training ward. One time a few years ago one of my doctors came up to me at Sam's club and started talking to me. I could not figure out who she was, and she was not telling. A little over a week later I saw here again at the local VA clinic......... boy did I apologize profusely! She is one of my bests docs ever, and after decades of VA run-around she was THE doc that ordered the MS workup. (that connected many decades of previously unconnected dots).

Tomorrow is another day.........I think?
 
Stuff happens and judging by your skills there is not much you can't repair.

Take good care of yourself, everything else can be rebuilt, repaired or replaced.

Thanks for sharing your project!
 
Model railroading is what got me into electrical/electronic stuff in the first place. When I was about 11 my dad asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up. I told him I wanted to join the Air Force and work on aircraft electronics. The day I went to join, the Air Force recruiter was out, but the Navy made me an offer I could not refuse. (I had been in Civil Air Patrol, and could have gone in (USAF) with a one strip advantage, at least back then.


I ended up working on chopper ASE while waiting A school. I was doing the flight controls check crew at HT-8 while waiting for school. A few weeks into A-school they said I did not have enough HS math, but since I had been doing the job of a E5 w/o schooling, they let me stay in school as a probationary student. Graduated top of my class, not to bad or a "probationary student".

After A-school I worked on autonetics aerospace avionics. I was the Go TO guy for BASE/SATE. I loved what I did and was good at it. Being the Go TO guy also meant pressure.

One day they had a black box (actually gray) NO ONE could even get to test, let alone find the problem. I walked in and they said, Joe's here, he'll fix it.(I felt like Mikie in a cereal commercial). They told me all the tings they tried, I stored it all away for future reference. I started from scratch, the test equipment was fine.

I looked the box over, then headed for my tool box and grabed my ball-peen hammer. The chief LOUDLY opened his steel desk draw and said if I too that hammer to it, it was off to see the Captain for destruction of Govt property.

Well I just kept on keeping on and gave it a few good solid whacks on a corner. Everyone, chief included, was in shock! You see, the box had been dropped and one front corner was bent, preventing the box from making electrical connections along the row of canon plugs in the back. Sometimes its the little things that get ya! BTW that was the one and ONLY time I ever used a hammer in the canoe club.

I have done more than most, actually lived my childhood dream. Even had an inside track to work on the Apollo series, but back then Titusville was a dump IMO. Front yards were little more than sand with a sparse scattering of palm trees and the like, and NOTHING to do back then. It's changed a lot over the years, not so shabby these days.

There is a lot I can no longer do, but I am still playing with TRAINS............
 
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