The D&J Railroad -- From Scratch

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What a freaking mess!!!!!! Sort of looks what I have behind my surround sound and DierecTV receivers.


Rotsa ruck partner. I would keep some sort of adult beverages close by.
 


I had to move everything one slot to the right because the ribbon cables from the signal lights wouldn't reach all the way over to the SE8C. Of course, the ribbon cable running off to the left to some signal lights wouldn't reach either so I had to completely replace that one.
It's starting to come back together. Command station is powered and the PM42 is partially hooked up. As I start connecting the PM42 to the block detection board, the rats nest of wires will start to go away.
I'm done for the night and will resume this work tomorrow afternoon after I get some resumes sent out.
 
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Allready a big improvement!!!

With all my wiring projects, which includes several houses and a church, my work has progressively improved. Then I got in a hurry on hooking up my DTDP switches and created something of a monster. I think I will just put a box around it this time.

Looks great, Ken!
 
Actually, this isn't Kens wiring ... it's probably a picture he found, and posted, just to make us wiring challenged guys feels better about our own efforts. :)
 
The wiring diagram is actually with the instruction manuals for each of the boards. It's all just simple connect tab A to Tab B etc. The thing that I did record was the signal lamp connections, but now, after going through several iterations, i.e. over 100 connections, its pretty easy to trouble shoot by just tracing the wires.
Been working on it this morning after sending out a couple resumes. I'm half way done connecting the outputs from the PM42 to the BDL168 (bottom right). I'm pretty confident its all going together correctly as I haven't applied power to the system to op check it. Yeah, I know I should be doing that, but I'll probably wait till I'm done with the rest of the links.
That cluster of red and white wires behind the booster are the turnout power and control wires. Those will be clipped away, one at a time and connected along the bottom edge of the SE8C board (on the left).
When this is completed, a homasote panel will cover the whole thing to keep inquisitive fingers from messing with it.
 
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It looks like you have everything under control. I worked in electronics in the Navy and also worked for Summit Electronic here in Bozeman and always kept a roll of tape handy to label everything when tearing into something. Sure save hours of troubleshooting.
 
I guess I am referring to the extra lengths seen, and differrent types of connections. What I thought he was going for was the neat appearance, consistant wire connection techniques, and removal of excess wire.

Like if you look into your home service entrance, you can tell how particular the installer was by the neatness in the box, no extra lengths, labelled circuits, etc.

I know it doesn't mean much to everyone, but to a particular person neatness is important. Also, more efficient. lasm
 


The tidy up is going great Ken and will look even better when completed.

lasm, I don't know why but the more I try to neaten up wiring (even with two or three wires) I always seem to get into a mess. My wiring always looks like a nightmare, but it's under the layout where it can't be seen :)
 
Neatness in wiring really counts at the point were it makes connections. The runs to their termination points can get kinda messy when ya have to route around obstacles or through panels or walls. When I was originally putting this together, I left additional length in the wires for this very purpose. It originally was an experiment that I wasn't to sure of. Now that I have the process down pretty well pat, I can tighten things up and trim away excess wire.
You can see the four types of wire in here:
First, the ribbon wire which carries the signal power out from the SE8C board to the track side signals.
Second, the black and white track power from the command station to the rails via the PM42 and the BDL168.
Third, the red and white turnout power and control wires that run from the SE8C to the turnouts.
Fourth, power wires to the PM42 and the BDL168 from the wall warts.
So with that differentiation, I can trace wires quite easily around the empire.
 
I think you have posted this before as it looks very familiar. I know how much wire I used on my layout, without signals or turnouts and it is amazing how fast you can use up spools of wire. I wouldn't doubt that you could easily exceed an actual mile of wire plus.
 
I know how much I have used (some wasted) on my small layout. Using a real mile plus on yours would not be surprising at all.
 
Ken I always thought only celebrity's had massive layouts such as yours, this is amazing. Real nice job on cleaning up the spaghetti , looks so much better.
 


I may have had my 15 seconds of fame sometime, when I wasn't aware of it.

I would have gotten more done on the wiring last night but I had to go pickup a trailer then do some repairs to it to help some folks move today. I might be able to do some work later this afternoon after I thaw out. It's in the low 20s out there now and won't get into the 40s till this afternoon.
 
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