Oh nooooooooooo...I am hardwired right into a 30amp breaker on the main power box I have a rooftop AC unit. I honestly have to turn the dang thing down a notch...it gets so cool in there I will only be running THE RV motor in the winter...early in the morning...to 'prewarmn' the place up. Then I will turn on THE RV heater and be comfy all day
Hottest summer we've had here in 10 years. It does cycle out, just about every ten years. It's just that I'ma not in charge of what, when and how. LOL yep, it can be a bit*h (a bit hot) at times. These mountains are cooler then the Mojave Desert to the North of us, Palm Springs to the southeast of us and San Bernardino, Ca., to the south of us. Most folks like to come up here to get away from the heat. You need to know you can have heat kinks with Unitrack sectional track. I will be removing a piece that I hadn't secured well because it decided, (I did say "It Decided") I needed a hump yard. $#%!@&(^ grrrrrrrr! If I wanted a hump yard... I'd of put in a hump yard. Keep in mind it's the toaster of a hot tin shed that is the culprit here. Perhaps more about environment then the track. Downside or upside or roller coaster effect the track needs to expand when warmed up and needs a place to go. I suggested it could all go to ...well...you know! These heat kinks are non-biased, non-discriminating knowing no difference in track or construction. I think next time I will build a model of a water park with slides and little people getting all wet and giddy. Yep! Got to get back to the layout. Sigh! I found a new heat kink where I've replaced the track twice...already. Do I need to say more? Oh, and in case no one here has figured it out the weakest link in the track is the rail joiners. I don't care how you solder them, darn, I don't care if you weld them. Not grinning. Where are those N scale rail spikes. Why the ...well...are they so small and flimsy. This isn't going to help. Sigh! The weather, if it wasn't for the rain the temperature would be in the 90's as opposed to 83 and my shed even with the A.C. the interior of the shed would breech 90 degrees HOT! Envious of your fine, first class, creature comfort... environment. Salute!
Rick, if you keep having problems in one spot, have you thought about putting in an expansion track there? Adjust it so that the "normal" position is about mid-way. Then, with heat expansion, there is room for the expansion track to shrink, while the rest expand.
Ok...I know I said I was gonna take a few days rest and just run trains. WEEeeeeeeelllll ya all know how that goes. As I was sitting there...trains running....I thought about how much still needed to be done. One of those things was the cabinet doors on the rear cabinet...the one that is gonna house all my DCC stuff. I want to make sure there is plenty of ventilation....I dont want the possibilty of components overheating. Soooooo...I took the doors off the cabinet. I cut out the center panels. I had bought a damaged flouresent light fixture defissure panel from Lowes awhile back for $1.00. It was just big enough I knew I could get 2 pieces the size of the door panels. I snipped them little divider pieces a little at a time all afternoon till they fit !! I wanted the panels to fit INSIDE the door frame openings....NOt behind them. About drove me crazy !!! I dont think it came out bad at all. I also extended the half shelf all the way to the front...so everything will fit up front and get more air. I have one of the AC vents pointing down and the air moves right into this cabinet just fine Maybe tommorrow I will just run trains........ YEA....RIGHT !!! LOL
Looks great George! Given the confines of an enclosed base cabinet you have made a wise decision to add ventilation. This will also provide you with a visual of the led status lights. Cool, Jerry
George, your DCC cabinet conversion is well done, though I'd like to suggest one modification to improve air flow within the cabinet. If you remove one or two inches from the back of the upper shelf, it would allow the warm air from the rear of the equipment on the lower shelf to flow up and combine with the warm air from the equipment on the upper shelf. This would give a stronger draft for the cool air entering the bottom of the cabinet to force the warm air out the top of the cabinet. As it is now you run the risk of having warm air from the equipment on each shelf becoming trapped at the rear of each space.
Rick, I'm not sure that what I'ma about to say is the same thing but yes I have expansion gaps in place to allow the track to slide one direction or the other. If I use a rail joiner it can blow out either in the direction of the curve or straight up. So, I don't like using sliding rail joiners. I'd rather cut a gap, CA it so the gap can't close completely but the track can still move. Problem is, once winter gets here and the shed's ambient temperature drops to just above freezing those heat gaps can become wide and vast canyons the likes of the Grand Canyon. I just can't get my trains to jump across them. I'd appreciate your sharing your technique, perhaps I should start another thread...no wait...I already did. Maybe we could revisit it and you could illustrate your ideas. Got an appointment I need to keep, in of all places Victorville. I will get back to this later today. Thanks for the idea.
Since, the frickin edit feature has been kaboshed, (dag nab it $0be's Ad's) here is a add on to the above post. You can find Rick B's., very well illustrated response to this post regarding heat kinks at: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine...nd-Metal-Sheds&p=871012&highlight=#post871012 So George, where were we at... with your layout? What's happening?
1)Did a temp hookup with the Digitrax DCC. Ran some trains 2)Playing with different yard designs. One of the pluses of Unitrack...move stuff around till tya find what pleases ya 3)Gonna go out today and finish the rest of the drop down panels on the top/front of the cabinets. 4)Gotta get some more barrier terminal strips. 5)Gotta figure out my yard control panel and get that wired in. (see#2 above) ;-) 6) Gotta tear into everything in every cabinet and find my NEW dbl xover. It's vanished somewhere...grrrrrrrrrrrrr !! 7) Run some trains. Have a cup of coffee or tall glass of ice tea...and a smoke or 2. Then this afternoon I need to............
In the last few days I managed to get a lot done...even if it doesnt look like it. I finished the drop down panels on the drivers side of THERR RV. Some of these where drawers that took some 'diasassembly' to get where they are now. Each drop down panel is hinged...chained...and has a magnet latch to hold it closed. Each panel will have at least (1) terminal barrier strip on it. All the track feeders in a panel section will go to the terminal barrier strip on the drop down panel for that section. Then a buss line will be run from each terminal barrier strip to the MAIN buss...which runs down the center...just under the plywood. There are four power management "districts" running from the cabinet in the back. I also gorilla glued a seperate piece of 1/2 inch plywood to the underside of the outer edge of the layout that hangs out past the front of the cabinets. Gives it stability and added strength (should some lean on it). I then attached my 'fascia'...if you will...to the plywood edge. It is 1 in. x 1/8 in x 8 foot trim pieces. I may go against the 'norm' and leave em white. I ran out of the trim...as you can see on the right...so need to go to Lowes and get one more piece. It's odd...but nice...where the 'fascia' ends (center right) you can see a small wire draped over the edge. This is the only power line running the whole layout for now. There are no feeders yet...as I still have to get more track (second main and yard) and glue it all down !! I am still playing with different ideas for the yard too. Final decisions on a lot of things are coming up soon so I better flip a coin and decide...LOL
And the adventure continues. :happy: Making the drawers into fold down panels to facilitate wiring was a great flash of genius. :wink:
Thnxs Ken... Not genius...just well thought out for years...LOL. I still have the ones on the left to do. But its one thing after another when modeling trains eh ? ;-)
Thnxs Bendtracker. Ya know how we all have the "BIG Master Plan" for our own "Ultimate Layout" ? Well....after the heart attack and congestive heart failure last year...I decided its time to get in gear. I dusted off the old "Dream Layout" notebook and really didnt have much to change. Using kitchen cabinets was ALWAYS in the plan. My layouts have always been at about 36 inch height. I like to 'hover' over my trains...LOL. DCC and using Unitrack where the major overhauls...LOL. They actually have made things easier Been retired and disabled for 8 years now. Playin with trains is a lifesaver !!! The accident settlement we received this May and a VERY understanding and loving wife put things in motion. I hurt like hell daily...but...the NEW T.H.E.R.R. has renewed my whole outlook on life. I'll "Git-R-Done"... I promised myself that ;-) Thnxs all for checking it out. It's gonna be AWESOME when done.
I, for one, am EAGERLY following your progress. In my mind, there is nothing cooler than a layout you could sleep in if you wanted!!.......... Best of luck, and keep the updates comin'...............Jim J.
In refrence to an earlier question I posed to George, my response to his answer. George, That's all you had to do for the morning duties? KOC Geez, you need to come and help me. That was a weeks worth of projects...for me...sigh! Heading out the door to open up the lead to the coal district, then demolition a section of track for the THIRD time...not grinning. Then I'm going to see if there's a football game on. Nurse a pulled tooth. Check on momma cat and her six new arrivals. Clean out the kitty....aw...heck this wouldn't interest any model railroaders. Mr. Murphy, he's still up to his old tricks in the train shed. Now it smells like something died either in the room or under it. The retired mortician in me doesn't want to be called back into active duty. Hurrrumph!
Not much to update... Waiting on some more track so I can finish the other mainline. Took all the track off the layout...again...and got it painted (sealed). I used whatever leftover paint I could find. I didnt care if it was pink !!! LOL. Lucky enough I had some tan...which I used on the yard side. I used the rest of the green from the backdrop painting for the other side...since it will be mostly town and subburbs anyways. I think tomorrow I will start adding the rock face for the inclines and raised track areas. Then I am gonna run some trains till I get the track
If the edit feature was still on................ I'd go back and correct two things. "KOC" should most likely be COL. I don't think I was planning on camping out at KOA. "Refrence" should be reference...I think. And, if there's any english teachers out there you can correct the rest of it but do me a favor......I don't want to know. School was a disaster for me, a place where I was "Never Good Enough". Now that there is something to chew on for awhile. You mentioned waiting for more track? Kato can be expensive and I'ma learning the hard way, it can heat kink just as easily as anyother track. Sorry, nothing in my archives...worth sending. You can't beat the environment your model pike is in. Best of luck with the layout.
LOL...wellllllllllll...that 'environment' its in is nice...once the AC or Heater is running. If I dont go out there till past noon...its hotter then Hades in there !! I expect the opposite come winter...freezing cold inside THE RV untill I kick the heaters on. I dont have any of the track permanently affixed to the layout yet....as I am still fiddling with it and changing a few things around. But once its the way I want it and glued down...I am hoping Unitrack isnt near as finicky with temperature changes as that flimsy flextrack and cork track bed. Time will tell I guess.
