One crazy busy week but I met my modest goals. After a day with the, Lay Design / Operations SIG, in Santa Clara, I think I need to conceder my track plan more closely. So this segment of layout will be what I'll work on until issues pointed out with my design are resolved. Better now that later. And a great first ever time, operating on someone else's layout. VB
Great stuff Hemi, impressive work:thumbs_up: Looking good Flash:shade: All going to plan Grey One & Rrrr, a glass of wine or two and the world's greatest hobby:teeth: (still can't believe your layout is in the living room ) The real estate prices in Peoria Heights look set to rise Dave, Nice work:shade: Great party so far. My own progress has been on target the coalmine track is in and wiring done. I've stalled on the signal bridges as I am not 100% happy with the way the first one turned out. So I have put that project on the backburner for the moment. This weeks push is weather and ballast trackwork on the layout. Happy Modelling to all, Ken.
I have run into some wiring gremlins, since connecting the 2 ends of the main this week--this week will be correcting those,a nd dropping dozens of feeders from staging, and on every peice of mainline track longer than 4". I have 16-ga bus line, stranded--I also have 12-ga. Is 12-ga overkill? I plan on running the bus from the helix area out to South Draw,a nd drop feeders from the mains, and staging to the bus. Will this be adequate? Total run for the bus is about 30 feet total.
Over kill will not hurt you; it is the wire that is too small that is a problem. It may be wasteful, but I don't think it will hurt. I'm not completely clear on this. With 12 or 16 gauge wire, 30 feet (distance) is not a problem. If possible, I would drop a feeder from every piece of track that you can as I think it promotes reliability. Some do not agree with dropping from every piece of track. They may be right, but it can't hurt to do so. [edit]I know you have a lot of help on this on the DCC forum; they know a lot more about it than I do. But, there is a chart that shows voltage drop by wire gauge vs. distance. I don't know if that is an engineering type thing or just for model railroaders. I can't find it right now.
Not quite as much progress as planed. We don't heat that room directly so it stays cold even when the outside temps warm up. I did some cleaning, returned tools that should be in the shed to their spots and general made things tidy. A good part of the weekend was spent in the yard, getting the garden ready and letting our oet pig get outside some.
I made some more good progress so far. I got my programming track (one of the servicing tracks) wired up in my engine facility with a DPDT center-off switch so I can toggle between programming, off (analog storage) and regular DCC operation. Tonight I pulled the bus wires from the Zephyr location to the eventual area where the PM42 short-circut manager will sit. I hooked all the power districts up together temporarily and everything gets a good signal along with passing the "quarter" test with flying colors. For the first time, I had my test transfer freight make it from SP's Brooklyn Yard to UP's Albina yard under DCC power. Yahoo!! Next steps will be to wire up the PM42, the TTX RRampmeter, and get all the throttle panels installed. Peter
Not if you are going to jump start a car from your layout. As far as my progress - nada, nothing, zero. I did get a couple of chances to roll some trains for about 5 minutes a pop. But thats it. It was a pretty busy week for me. I had four exams all in the same week. I also had to do a lot of child proofing of the house since my daughter decided this week would be good to learn how to get out of her crib and wander the house without supervision. I will get some stuff done this week, hopefully. Eric
I started carving the rock faces west of Ozark last night. I was goint to post a pic this morning but I forgot my USB cable for the camera. I'll have to wait and post something tonight when I get home.
Central Warehouse, street side view. Truck shipping docks on the right; office on the left. Roof work is next. Hemi: I told you that 12 gauge wire was big enough!
Hemi: Here is a link to a (PC) freeware download that will calculate voltage drop, amps, costs, etc. for various gauge wires and lengths.
I forgot to add that the coathanger stand works with the soldering iron too so I get double duty out of it. As promised here is a quick pic of the rockwork I carved last night This is a small part of what I started last night. I might get a little more done tonight.
A major setback this afternoon on my layout plans. The fire department came by for the annual safety inspection. I was not home at the time and my better half let them in to check the smoke detectors and our extinguishers. They some how got to the furnace room and well darn it. I just finished a nice shelf layout with 2 inches of foam laid over a 1/2 inch sheet of plywood. It seems they took exception to that and gave me 24 hours to remove said infraction since it went around the back of the furnace and within 12 inches of the water heater.. It appears I have exceeded the minimum clearances between the wall and the furnace and oh by the way extruded foam needs needs to be covered by fire rated drywall within 16 inches of the furnace. I also have to add a fire extinguisher in the furnace room to comply with new municipal fire regulations. So I am out of luck, the loop has been removed, the fire extinguisher installed and it's back to the drawing board, looking for a way to get that loop in.
Owen: mg: :sad: Was it just the foam that they objected to, or was it shelving of any flammable substance (including wood or plywood)? What about eliminating the offending yard and/or industries, but mounting the double-track mainline on extruded aluminum angles? To negotiate the corners, you cut triangular shaped pieces out of one of the sides of the angle to bend it into a curve. Is it possible to raise the elevation of the shelf enough to obtain 16 inches from the outside top edge of the furnace by going above it instead of 16 inches horizontally away from it. If the shelf holding the track is 4 inches wide and 10 inches above the top outside edge of the furnace, then mounting the shelf on a wall that is 16 inches from the side of the furnace will still leave the front edge of the 4" shelf 16 inches from the outside top edge of the furnace.
Bad Guests okane: We shouldn't have invited those guys to the party. How did we know they would do that? Seems to me that something removable would be the solution. Something like that? Or put the layout in a different location? It is a major rework of the whole plan. Your project is getting bigger than Hemi's and Doug A.!
Dave, I ripped it all out already. They should be back sometime today, so I will ask about the extruded aluminum angles. Flash, they are definite Party Crashers . No issues, not a major rework other than the yard, and 1 loop, I have a work around in mind. Yea I think I broke the original rules on size. Hey I'll get the benchwork finished and track in that will be a feat by itself.
