progress so far

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Anton, you need to teach the cat how to measure and bite out pieces of foam for you. :) She's sure a pretty one. Since that "S" curve transistions from a curve to a straight track, I don't think it will give you any problems at reasonable speeds. Now, "S" curves that go from one curve to another are not a good thing. :eek:
 
Heh, i have little hope to that. she is pretty allright but for her second name we called her 'the blond'. she carries that name well - not a very bright cat). but at least she is not clawing the foam, lol.



not to much done. with enough (for now) switch machines at hand i started excavating "ground" to install them. before assembling i made a carton cutout plate and inserted in between turnout and the machine so ballast will not fall into the hole. the solenoid itself needed a drop of oil to move freely. even though the packages were sealed there is some age and corrosion on those.
i will be painting the roadbed grey before i do install the turnout.

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yesterday i got the micro-switches i ordered. adding them underneath the switch machine so to have independent turnout position read-out. perhaps i could get by with one per machine. but i have a bunch of them and did not make final decision on how i'm going to wire them. so for flexibility i decided to install 2 - now i have a "DPDT" on each turnout. was thinking to make a custom brackets and bolt them on but superglue seems to hold really well.
i like the fact i don't need to enlarge the hole in the roadbed to house those

DSC_8919-vi.jpg


while i'm waiting for the rest of the parts to arrive i had some nice progress on small display stand i'm going to be gifting to the friend of mine who gave me all of his railroading stuff. he seemed bit sentimental about that little docksider so he will get it back on a nice stand (hopefully nice one).

at the moment it has 'red oak' stain drying on it (took the pic beforehand).

DSC_8907-vi.jpg
 
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Anton, that's a great way to install a switch machine. I like the micoswitches too, since you will now have a positive display on the switch route. I'm sure your friend will appreciate the little diorama you're doing for him. Nice gesture.
 


recent progress is mostly of non apparent kind.
i was showing of my contraption to family we had over for thanksgiving (felt ambisious and hosted 20 people party. crazy.) and thats meant a lot of cleaning beforehand in the garage .

"dug" 7 access holes for the switch machines. seemed like fast task but somehow got dragged. cutting and fitting the card stock to the holes also seemed fast, but then "fast" X 7 turnouts really took some considerable time.
made wire holders from wire hangers and installed them underneath. pulled pair of CAT3 (phone) wires for each turnout, one for the twin coils, one for the 2 micro-switches. since each wire is 8 leads and coils need only 4 i doubled up, 2 #22 gage wires will be plenty.
earlier i developed and made a printout of a color code.
soldered the first turnout.
first "oh sh#t!" moment was when i tried to test the connection, stripped the CL1 wire and got nothing on my multimeter. after scratching my had i realized i actually was working on turnout 2 :laugh:
but that one didn't test out either. pulling it out i noticed that my clumsiness managed to swap colors on one side of the coils :o . well made a note of it and will connect it to distribution board accordingly.

and then for several minutes i was sitting there, and like a child clicking that turnout back and forth :laugh:. 6 more to go



wire management
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wired turnout
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paperwork.
Layoutdiagram-vi.jpg
 
the progress is rather not picturesque. it looks pretty much the same but with one difference - all my turnouts are wired now :D. soldering 14 leads each (or 10 if you will as i doubled up on some) sure took some time. now there are however bunches of cables hanging from below the table. i will be folding the table to work on connection to boards.
replaced the section track of the underpass line with flex, soldered power leads to all blocks, soldered some rail joints and glued in lots of missing sleepers.

well, at least i don't have wires sticking out of solenoid wells and can run trains again...
 
That's a much neater job of wire managment and soldering than I have. Mine is mostly held up with wire ties. :)
 
Say Anton,
About the little o-4-0 actually it's proper classifcation and name is 0-4-0T Dockside and was origionally brought out by Varney who has long since gone out of business. A famous MRR & Photographer John Allen did advertising photography for them.

The 'T' in the designation means it had it's own tender attached which is a tank behind the cab area that held Oil and the little engine was used for Dockside work, hence how it got it's name as well as a yard Goat to shuffel a few cars around.

The current ones are made who knows where, Jim's explination is probably correct as far as the current models available.

I just remembered I bought one off of eBay a while back, let me see what it says, Made in China and it a Life Like with the AT&SF markings. It runs pretty good and better after
I put a finger in front of it and ran it in place for awhile and then a finger behind it allowing the reverse to get broke in a bit.

*>>
Also Anton and this is very important DO NOT Solder every joint!! First off if your layout is going to be in an area where the temperature varies, to much of an extent, between Winter and the Summer months you will get a fair amount of expansion and contraction of the rail! So it would my suggestion to not even solder any track if that is the case and rather solder rail conection jumper wires in the shape of a wide U to connect rails together electrically. Other wise you can wind up with track that has kinks in it due to expansion or is pulled tightly due to the cold!!

Also, in relation to the above, it a good idea to leave a slight bit of a gap between rail conections to allow for expansion. As an added point if the rail joints are left unsoldered other than the jumpers the rail can expand and contract at their own pace and not cause any problems. It's best to lightly tin the jumper wires as well as the rail web. Bend the wire into shape to be soldered to the rail web and be sure not to use to big of a tip on the soldering iron so as not to melt the ties but you need to get the rail hot enogh so the solder joint is smooth and shiny. A dull pimply looking solder joint is is a poor connection. You may already know this but I felt I should mention these things in case you didn't as well as for others.

Looks as though you making good progress though which is great!

Either case is bad news from an operation standpoint!
 
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Jim, with the amount of wires, now even more then pictured earlier (update soon) i don't think it is possible to manage without something :rolleyes:
i eneded up dividing the bundle into 2, solenoid leads and position switch leads. as soon as i have all power leads from layout installed and soldered i will just fold the table to have better access for the termination job. finaly the fact i built it foldable is going to pay off :D

David, i appreciate your advice. there are still joints that made with isolated plastic joiners, those i will obviously not solder. i believe these should take care of the expansion as the layout is broken into number of isolated blocks (for future block detection if i ever get to do it)



tonight i got into "shwoong".
with bottom track all laid i'm extending upward. did the climb section including the removable bridge span. bought long drill bit, drilled all the way through and inserted thin drinking straws as "ducts" for the lead wires. soldered power leads to top and bottom "ground" tracks, bridge span is yet to be electrified .

i'm pretty happy with clearances, perhaps i could make the gaps smaller but it is still much better then some that i've seen on other layouts (and those were perfectly functional as well). so not to fight the always straight last inch of flex track i cut a R22 section and made that for this "flying joint". now it will keep its shape no matter what. clearance on the upper end of the bridge span is even tighter and grade change is even better then on other places, almost made it into continuous grade:)

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perhaps a better angle - there is actually no kink :D
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"bridge span can be removed if needed". i will use this feature extencivley while working on bridge details. "access hole" that will house some sort of quick disconnect of power lead wire is visible as well.
DSC_8958-vi.jpg


and thats how my climb line looks complete
DSC_8957-vi.jpg




sheesh, i need to get some sleep, up to work in 3 hours :eek:
 
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Thanks Drew :)

level42 said:
Looks fantastic, How long has it taken you to get this far?
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Thank you :) i started in July. i'm not working on it all the time however. brakes of several weeks are not uncommon :rolleyes:







with the small distraction of those displays (really wanted to try balasting and scenery work) behind, i'm continuing with main layout.

laid out and wired the descending line. for the electrification of bridges, instead of fancy quick disconnect plugs i decided to just use the usual rail joiners. for removal of the span the not connected end lifts and the entire piece slides out. simple.

DSC89591-vi.jpg
 
the cold weather kept me from the garage mostly, but i really wanted to make some progress at last.

built a power distribution terminal block and reversing terminal block. desided to not do breakout contacts for current detectors since in near future i'm not going to implement block detection. i will add them in new version of the board.

the wire terminals i ordered have different leg pitch then proto-board so i super glued them to the boards and to a common plank (popsicle stick). i also started on capacitor discharge units (not pictured), 3 boards driving 3 turnouts each.



crude, but working

CIMG1343-vi.jpg



CIMG1344-vi.jpg
 
Looks like a neater and effective way to handle terminal strips and wire distribution. I like using the PC board to handle the wiring on the terminal blocks themselves.
 
thanks Jim. can you show off your solution?



well not a progress but i was in garage with camera already so
just another picture i wanted to share. 16 grey cables: 8 for coil switch machines, 8 for independent turnout position detection. the twisted small cables hanging everywhere are power leads to the isolated blocks.

DSC_3298-vi.jpg
 
i guess the most important work so far was the lighting upgrde. hung a florescent lighting fixture above the layout and what a difference! this is not a good light to take pictures under but it will do.



started working on my temporary control panel. printed out layout diagram, glued it to piece of plywood and screwed sheet of plexiglas. drilled through holes for tactile micro buttons. i got the ones with longer shank so about millimeter is protruding. the holes for indication diodes are through plywood only. since drilling i did ended up being somewhat messy i lined them with beverage stirrer straws (same i used as conduit when pulling power leads to the rails through foam.). these straws hold the 3mm LED exactly.

here is the results (the DPDT switches one of the stabs to be programming track "on demand")

DSC_3311-vi.jpg



DSC_3313-vi.jpg



somewhat sloppy but i will dress it up a bit later. :rolleyes:
 
Still new here and have been following your progress and I can't help but think your thread would become a sticky for instruction for guys like me who need tons of visuals. Keep the pics coming and congrats on great work.

Dennis
 
Denis, thanks for the kind word. i'm glad i managed to help somebody but the purpose of 'sticking' threads is really not this. besides, while i am quite happy about the the quality i achieved, "museum grade" level i came short of. maybe in next layout, lol







needed to add: lesson learned from this panel attempt is next time to use plexiglass instead of plywood for underside backing as well. drilling was messy and not precise due to the chipping of thin plywood. even though i used pointed bits, they still drifted, you can see the irregularity of holes. i also should have glued the paper better, as visible in pictures some places got ripped up a bit with the drill bit. although that is not hard to fix, i'll print another one
 


with layout powered after several loops around the oval i started testing and regulating tracks on both inclines.

at this point that the shape of layout is pretty much finalized, fixing the abrupt grade change on the start of the "long climb" section took some effort to fix. after lots of shimming and gluing under pressing weight i'm quite happy that the lowest plow no longer scrapes. single GP50 took 7 cars (bulk car with weight edded at the end to simulate more) up the grade on 25-30% power setting without stumbles or wheel slips. more then that is not possible length wise since it is a reversing section. what seemed as very light grade changes at the bridge ends is actually near critical - the couplers were on the verge of disconnecting. will be solved raising the lower bridge end (as a part of Culvert underpass installation)

the "crescent plunge" descent section besides being extremely steep has curve as tight as R18 (eased in, but still 18). but careful grade change from the beginning provided no scrape operation. while mostly ok several locos tended to throw the outside wheels over the rail in some situations (ie only climbing short hood forward). re-soldering a less then perfect rail joint and raising he outside rail removed those. raising the rail revealed that the bridge plank deformed and sagged in the middle. made a new plank. this time i will not superglue the rail directly but rather mount it on a bead of caulk (it is suspended on risers for now). the plank is also shaped to accommodate the bridge sides i received from a forum member (thanks again Trey!). and I was pleasant surprised to find out that GP50 will pull the same 7 cars up the grade. and without running start - i stopped the train in the middle of climb and managed to start it going up again with minimal slip.
 
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