The JACALAR RR

Thanks Rick - I wish my model building skills were a bit better, I'm still rather clumsy-fingered (hence, the two broken doors). When we were cleaning out my parent's home, we came across a box of my model planes and rockets from when I was a kid; suffice it to say, my kids couldn't stop laughing at how poorly I put things together in those days.

Of cours, didn't have the patience I'm finally learning, so that this layout looks good.

 

Thanks Mike - Felt good to make truly visible progress on something, after a couple of weeks of wiring and underbench work. Now I feel like I can see some operating time.

Hate to tell you, the decoder in that loco I got from you became a casualty of my first wiring of the AR loop (my attempts to get a PM42 to control the AR were unsuccessful). Going to try to get a new decoder in next week, now that my electrical problems are resolved with the PSX and PSX-AR modules.

 

Roundhouse is done!

The roundhouse is done, and the approach tracks to the turntable are all wired and working. Will still add a few more outdoors parking tracks around the turntable, before ballasting the area. Also, as can be seen in the last picture of this post, have tentatively placed the base of the machine shop (as seen by the smokestack). Question: do most folks keep the Walther's machine shop doors open, to allow a loco to pull in, or just closed? If closed, I just might rotate this a bit, and use the dead-zone from the turntable for its lead-in track.

This is currently my entire roster of locomotives. The GP20, outside, is the only non-DCC.

 

Closeups

 

The GS4

The GS4 has a micoTsunami installed - absolutely love it







Won't make any additional progress this weekend.... Off to help chaperon a high school band trip: 267 member marching band, defending their Western Bands marching title.

 

The JACALAR is Operational!

Yesterday morning, prior to leaving for our traditional Thanksgiving feast of fresh Dungeness Crab, Ceaser Salad and Neuveaux Beaujoulais (followed, of course, by apple and pumpkin pies), I completed the preliminary wiring of the layout. While not every section of Unitrack has feeders dropped from it, no point on the layout is further than 3 feet from a feeder drop. Voltage checked, using a RRampMeter.

I ran a single loco around the entire layout, traversing each switch (turnout, whatchamacallit, thingamijiggie), both thrown and closed. Found a few rough spots which need adjusting this morning, plus a general track cleaning. The one section which consistently caused a stall was recovered quickly by cleaning with IPA and the yellow scrubby pad used to clean the flat/ceramic cooktops.

I plan to post some pictures of the Morning Daylight and CZ consists making their maiden runs around the layout, later today.

 

Thanks Nick - and following are the first pictures of trains running on the layout

 

Maiden Runs on the JACALAR of the Calif Zephyr and Morning Daylight

Here are the pictures of the first runs. The GS4 and Morning Daylight consist had no problems around the layout. The PA1 derailed on a couple of switches, including a thrown double-crossover. Will need to investigate further. Otherwise, a very satisfying outcome to finally have trains moving!

(The paper flags you see are so that I remember what the number of each switch is, until I get the control panel built)

Here's SP GS-4 # 4453, pulling a 10 car Morning Daylight consist, meeting up with D&RGW PA1 #6003, pulling a 10 car CZ consist


View from the "mountains"


The observation car of the CZ, making its way down from the Sierras



The MD, seen in the background behind the industrial area

 

Here we see the MD taking the "low road", while the CZ begins to climb the mountains. Note - all "staging" was able to be done by running the trains, naturally, around the track - never had to use a 5-pronged sky-claw to reverse directions







The observation cars


Next up: finish the Machine Shop, then control panels, then start on scenery and ballasting (weathering the unitrack while I go)

 

I've been looking for those, especially since the layout is in California

 

Thanks Mike and Jerry. You've both been following this thread for a while, and your interest and support are appreciated.

I actually have 38 turnouts, including the 5 double crossovers and 6 single crossovers (matching opposite turnouts), for a total of 32 logical turnouts. I'm using 8 Digitrax DS64s, which can handle 4 logical turnouts each, so decided to number them in a way which tells me which DS64 and connection they are. I numbered the units 10, 20, ... 80. Then, the turnouts are x2, x4, x6, x8, where the x is the tens digit from the DS64. I used the even numbers, so that I could use the odd numbers for "phantom" numbers at the top of routes. Haven't figured them all out, yet, since I wanted to see what routes would be routinely selected.

As for the dead decoder... I dropped a new one in and the unit is fine. Wish I could say the same for one of my two PA1s. #6001 has a bad motor. At first I thought it was the decoder, then, when taking it back to DC mode still couldn't get the unit to run, I took the whole assembly apart, and found that the motor itself has a bad dead spot. If I manually move the coil, I can get it to run, but it tends to stop at the dead spot, of course. Will need to put a new motor in (already coming from Kato USA).

 

Thanks Bob - that's my main plan: Run Trains! I took this week off, so spent about 6 hours each day, dropping feeders, to make this progress. I knew it was now, or spring, as work will become quite busy as we approach year end and the early part of 2010. The control panels can be weekend projects. I have 4 Team Digital SRC16s to program and hook into the panels, controlling the switches, routes and even the PSXs and ARs (LEDs to show status, and turn on/off districts).

Also, by running, I will be able to tell if there are any "I really don't like what I've done here" areas of the layout, and adjust those prior to adding scenery details (let's hear it for Unitrack).