New Train layout 6-1-23

[Smudge617]

It's hard for me to believe I got all the electrical hooked up & working. This layout has a lot of wiring installed under the layout. The yards alone took me about 2 weeks to do w/turnout Blocks, regular mainline blocks & then drilling all those holes in the facia for a mess of Toggles & all are marked. On past layouts I always had quite a bit of help. None on this one. Some more pictures. The 1st 3 pictures is some new Lego Bricks that I got in to see how they would work out for a Vintage Hotel, then theres 2 pictures of my reworked Work Bench. Got that little bench storage Bins from Harbor Freight. Ive got to add back the Test Track that was against the wall & 8ft long. Going to put it in front of the little cabinet this time. I also finally made a board for the Volt & Ammeter & screwed it to the end of the layout & it's wired to the CM-20 Walkaround throttle.

Great work as always, I love your ingenuity.

 

[Larry Creel]

Couple of New Buildings for the layout. Creel Hi-Performance Garage for cars & trucks 20" long by 5 " deep by 3" high. next is an Observation Tower. 15" high by 4" wide by 3" deep. Next are Houses & Apartments for RR workers. Most are built on a 5" square. 5-31-24

 

[Larry Creel]

I didn't like the size of the RR Observation Tower, so I changed the looks last night. It's still 15" high, but the rest of it I changed. Now, it's 15&1/2" high & the bottom part has been changed to 2&1/2" square & the roof is flat & I added an entrance flat to it. 6-3-24

 

[Larry Creel]

I've built 5 more buildings for the layout in the last 3 days & about running out of Lego's & space to put anymore structures. So, got to get back to work on some electrical so I can run trains for awhile. Made a 4 story Hospital, a Movie Theater & a Church. 6-12-24

 

[Larry Creel]

Took a bunch of pictures of the layout today. Nort, south, east & west.

 

[PMW]

That's really cool

 

[Smudge617]

I never realised how big an empire you had, fantastic.

 

[Larry Creel]

Structures I've built for the Layout in the last 10 days out of Lego's. The 1st 4 pictures is a Coal generated Power Plant 12 by 9 by 5". Next is a 2 story Movie Theatre, next is a 3 story Church, next is a Hi-Performance garage that I decided to put next to the gas station in town.

 

[Larry Creel]

Have you ever spent about 6 days trying to find a direct short on your Freight mainline & still haven't found it yet. I'm almost ready to take it all apart & start over. Have had an electrician that says he can find any kind of a short instantly & finally gave up. I've been taking apart wires to Toggles, wires to the mainline that I have added in the last month or so & also tried another Transformer. There's a 10 Volt short. I took every engine off the mainline & every freight car off the mainline & still have a bad short. I can usually find wiring problems w/a volt/Ohm meter, not this time. Any Idea's?

 

[PMW]

Have you ever spent about 6 days trying to find a direct short on your Freight mainline & still haven't found it yet. I'm almost ready to take it all apart & start over. Have had an electrician that says he can find any kind of a short instantly & finally gave up. I've been taking apart wires to Toggles, wires to the mainline that I have added in the last month or so & also tried another Transformer. There's a 10 Volt short. I took every engine off the mainline & every freight car off the mainline & still have a bad short. I can usually find wiring problems w/a volt/Ohm meter, not this time. Any Idea's?

I feel your pain. I haven't had to search for 6 days but maybe 3.

It sounds like your looking at everything under the layout, have you gave topside a good look? The last time I had a short I couldn't find it turned out to be a Peco turnout that I had placed over the mainline to see where I should put it. The Pecos have that wire beneath to the frog and that was bridging both rails . I had totally forgotten about putting it there and didn't know where the short was

Maybe a long shot but fingers crossed for ya!

 

[kjd]

Taking all rolling stock of the RR is a good start. Next, I would look at all the track switches, especially at the point movement and in the frog area. Next I would disconnect the power supply/commmand station and check with the ohm meter. If still a short, I'd divide the layout in half by pulling a couple rail joiners and putting a break in the bus wires. (A good reason to keep some blocks, even with DCC). Hopefully, only one side will show a short. Keep dividing to conquer.

If that doesn't work, get a few fire extiinguishers and a car battery. Hook the battery up in place of your power supply/command station. Look for smoke as whatever is shorting melts or bursts into flame. Disconnect the battery and put out the fire.

Ok, maybe don't do the last one. That sounds like a really bad idea.

Good luck

 

[Smudge617]

Taking all rolling stock of the RR is a good start. Next, I would look at all the track switches, especially at the point movement and in the frog area. Next I would disconnect the power supply/commmand station and check with the ohm meter. If still a short, I'd divide the layout in half by pulling a couple rail joiners and putting a break in the bus wires. (A good reason to keep some blocks, even with DCC). Hopefully, only one side will show a short. Keep dividing to conquer.

If that doesn't work, get a few fire extiinguishers and a car battery. Hook the battery up in place of your power supply/command station. Look for smoke as whatever is shorting melts or bursts into flame. Disconnect the battery and put out the fire.

Ok, maybe don't do the last one. That sounds like a really bad idea.

Good luck

I think the last idea is a little extreme.

 

[santafewillie]

Any Idea's?

Did everything work at one time??? If so, look first for tools or other objects that may have been carelessly laid or accidentally pushed over the track creating the short. I assume that you have looked at your most recent wiring efforts already. I use many DC blocks, so I can turn sections of track off or on to isolate any shorts.

I took every engine off the mainline & every freight car off the mainline & still have a bad short.

Maybe it's not the mainline?

 

[Larry Creel]

Did everything work at one time??? If so, look first for tools or other objects that may have been carelessly laid or accidentally pushed over the track creating the short. I assume that you have looked at your most recent wiring efforts already. I use many DC blocks, so I can turn sections of track off or on to isolate any shorts.

Maybe it's not the mainline?

IT'S GOT TO be something that is connected to the mainline. I'm still disconnecting stuff, but probably not enough. I'll find it sooner or later. I hope sooner before I go Nuts.

 

[Larry Creel]

IT'S GOT TO be something that is connected to the mainline. I'm still disconnecting stuff, but probably not enough. I'll find it sooner or later. I hope sooner before I go Nuts.

I found the Big Problem. It's the CM 20 walk around. It's shorted out. This is the 2nd one for me since 1992. I guess you can say that's pretty good odds for me. Now, I'll have to stop using these CM20's & go to another MRC 9000 or a MRC 9500. Anything else in MRC that's as good or better than either one of these? Any of you guys & gals got anything you want to get rid of for my DC layout. I have some older MRC stuff that I'll have to use until I get something better. I had just added 12 more telephone hookups for the CM20 last year. I have 2 of these CM20's that don't work. I wonder if I could just try to bypass the walk around & use it as a regular power supply?

 

[kjd]

Can you open the controller to find the short? I'm glad you found it.

 

[Larry Creel]

Can you open the controller to find the short? I'm glad you found it.

I had a good electronics shop check it out yesterday & they couldn't figure it out either. He said it had to be something blown out in the memory board. The 1st one I had did the same thing as this one, the memory board had a direct short. last year I called Horizon Hobbies trying to get the 1st one rebuilt & they told me they don't have those parts anymore. TV & computer guys have told me over the years to do something else. It's like trying to repair a Board in a DCC engine. I had asked some people that have tried to get them repaired or get them changed over to a regular transformer & they told me it can't be done. I went thru all my junk transformers & found 2 that work real good & they are from the early 70's. No walk arounds though. I'm going to change a lot on the layout wiring to use a standard transformer. I have a real nice MRC 9000 & I'll use that for the Freight Line & the older one for the passenger line. I've been using a MRC-CM20 (2) since about 1995, but I'm not going to buy another one I'll use what I have now. I'll let you all know what I'm going to do as I make changes to the wiring for the 2 yards & all the tons of other sidings I have> I may do away w/some of the short sidings. I've also got to get rid of about 30 engines, 50 or 60 freight cars or more & a mess of 1/87th buildings(since I now use Lego structures).

 

[Larry Creel]

I dug out 1 of my old MRC 9000 transformers the other day & hooked it up to the Freight Line & hooked up an older MRC Trans. on the passenger line. They both work fine. I'm going to do away w/a lot of the siding toggles & some of the other ones too. I had unhooked all the Toggles from the sidings trying to find the short & i'll hook up most of the main ones & forget the rest. 7-9-24

 

[Larry Creel]

I made some more lego Buildings for the layout in the last 3 days. This scene is a large Votech Campus behind 1 of the Yards. I took out a large section of the yard that had 2 big buildings w/curved track. This scene is 68" long & 28" wide. Still have some more to do on it. making parking lots & finishing up the scenery. I also made sidewalks for the buildings. I use 1/16th plastic blinds w/the curved edge. The wide ones are 2" wide & the narrow ones are 3/4" wide. I also did some grass/gravel mix between the rails. Got to grade out a bag of cat litter before I can finish the rest of the track scenery & Votech area. 7-9-24

 

[Larry Creel]

Just finished Building an Executive Airport on top of 1 of my mountains today. Lego Buildings & 1/87th scale planes. The Airport is 89" long by 10&1/2" wide. 7-20-24