Town and country - automated N-scale layout


Finally figured out how to get a Tortoise mounted under the Gatorboard. A few observations:

I had to glue a small square of 1/8" plywood to the underside of the gator board and then I was able to use small brass screws to fix the Tortoise to the plywood. Getting the Tortoise aligned was not easy when doing it alone. Would have been a lot easier if I had a helper.

I also cut out shims for the turnouts from 0.030" sheet styrene and spray painted it black. This is needed to bring the Peco turnouts to the same height as the Atlas code 80 track.

I am using 0.020 music wire to connect the tortoise to the turnout. This is N scale so you don't want a lot of force on the points.

I attached chocolate block connectors to the wires. I will be using both contacts on the Tortoise. One for feedback and one for switching polarity.

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Finished laying track for one of the passing sidings. I have to say that this was one of the most difficult jobs I've done in a while. Getting everything aligned took a lot of patience! The tolerances are so fine that I had to slightly adjust everything around many times until it all fit. The track is now held down with Atlas track nails - which I find to be just right for the job. Once I ballast the track, I can remove the nails.

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Matagami said:
Very good work ! Sorry to derail this topic but what's this layout ?

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[Editing it as I did not see which thread I was typing this into] This thread is for my previous layout which is still fully operational :)

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Woodlawn Industrial Park (was Northeastern HO scale switching layout)

After four long months of home renovation, my new train room is finally ready for action. I plan to kick thing off by building an HO scale switching layout. This layout is going to be roughly contemporary so I can run modern equipment. It will be set somewhere in the northeast, perhaps...
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Wasted a lot of time wrestling with this turnout yesterday before I realized that the lower point in this picture needed a gentle curve to make it contact the stock rail. Even when the throwbar was all the way over to the bottom, the point was not quite making contact with the stock rail.


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Woohoo - got all the track down. The turnout and spur on the right was a last minute decision. I discovered that I had an extra Peco code 80 electrofrog turnout that I had completely forgotten about. So I decided to create a small industrial spur - which will mainly be for visual interest since this layout is not intended for switching operations. The turnout to the the spur will not have a switch motor for that reason.

Now have to install the Tortoise machine for two turnouts - this is one of my least favorite chores!

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JeffH said:
Looking great! Is that a spare truck I see this side of the lower right turnout? I use a spare boxcar for the same purpose.
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Yes - that's a spare truck from a broken freight car. I use it to verify that the track flows freely and there is enough clearance. Wow, do you have sharp eyes! :)
 
It caught my eye! I created an 8' long piece of test track so I could stack-rank my rolling stock from best to worst. It's just a scrap piece of 2" foam board I had left over. The pieces I got from Lowes or Home Depot (can't remember which) were pre-scored at 8" on one side, and that just happened to be perfect place to trim down a piece for my layout. So I had an 8' spare piece of 2" foam that was 8" wide.

I used 2 pieces of Woodland Scenics 2% risers on top of each other to create a 4% grade for the first 2 feet. I let each piece of rolling stock go down the hill, and then I judge which ones roll the farthest. The worst performers get new wheels or trucks. I then try to rehab the trucks I take off the poor performers, by letting the trucks go down the test track by themselves.

So, I have a visual burned into my brain of spare trucks on a track.
 
Spent the morning soldering wires to Tortoise machines. The smell of rosin core flux always brings back happy memories for me. My grandpa taught me soldering when I was a kid. He was a self-taught electronics hobbyist and he built an an amazing five tube stereo audio amplifier that he used to listen to his collection of Lawrence Welk records :)

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Busy day: Installed the last Tortoise, soldered feeder wires to the layout and finally ran a train around the layout!

I will definitely need shorter cars and locomotives for this layout due to the tight curves. Some of my longer cars with body mounted couplers were not able to make it around the layout.

Spent the afternoon programming a couple of Rabbit stationary decoders from DCC Specialities. I bought these decoders over ten years ago for an old layout that I dismantled long ago. Thankfully, I had saved a PDF copy of the manual so I was able to figure out how to set the addresses. I will be using a separate address for each turnout since this gives the maximum flexibility in operations. The SPROG is able to drive the turnouts with no problem.

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One big advantage of building a portable layout with detachable legs is that its super easy to work on the underside of the layout! I have to do a lot of wiring and, for a change, I don't want it to look like a rats nest underneath the layout :)

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Started wiring up the layout. Instead of chocolate block connectors, I am using Wago 221-412 connectors directly glued on to the layout. They conduct better and are so much easier to use. I can recommend them very highly.

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Next few days are just going to be a lot of wiring so I won't be posting much - its like watching grass grow :)

The only good thing is that since I have the whole layout on my workbench on its side, the work is moving much faster than if I had to do the work under the table.

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Here is a nifty gadget that makes the Raspberry Pis much safer for model railroad applications. The main problem with the Raspberry Pi is that you can't just shut off power when you want to turn it off - you must do an orderly shutdown. Otherwise, you run the risk of corrupting the SD card with the operating system.

This gadget is called the UPS hat. It functions as a micro-sized UPS which can send the shutdown command to the Raspberry Pi when power is removed. You can see it here in its operational configuration . I also have another hat stacked on top of the UPS hat called the Pi-EZConnect which will be used to connect the track occupancy sensors.

I just tested it out and it works very nicely. I reduced the timeout to 15 seconds from the default 1 minute.

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Done with about half the wiring! As I mentioned on @logandsawman 's thread, I am a pack rat when it comes to model train stuff. I found a few Atlas switch controls from some old powered turnouts. Used those as auxiliary controls for the Tortoises! The Wabbit decoders have a nice feature by which you can use a single pole double throw momentary contact switch to trigger the decoder (in addition the the DCC signal).

I know from experience that you really need auxiliary manual controls for the turnouts so the Atlas switches worked out perfectly for this purpose. It will be easy to reach under the layout to push these switches.

The other wide of the layout will be wired in a way very similar to this side. After that, the final step in the wiring will be to install the sensor wires. TBH, I am not looking forward to this. There are six track blocks with two sensors for each block. Also, I will be using the Tortoise contact points as sensors for the turnouts so that's 16 sensor wires in all.

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Having the layout that you can set on its side sure has its advantages, I cant imagine doing that wiring on your back looking up.

You sure know what you are doing with that stuff. The biggest problem I have with wiring is I forget it within a month of doing it, so when I have to go back and trouble shoot something from months earlier often results in retracing everything, almost a total re do.

Super neat job, looks great!
 
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