More Track Laying With points and rerailers pinned down, it only remained to trim some flextrack to fit and glue it in place. One thing I have learned to be valuable is to have a "fussy" engine handy while laying flex-track in particular. A fussy engine will find flaws and faults very quickly, and what's more it will indicate it's displeasure with the trackwork by simply derailing. My favourite fussy engines are the Kato SD40 in SF yellow-bonnet from my signature, and the Athearn SD70M in SP grey (it's got a red nose, but no bonnets). Both are 6-axle engines which are fairly long, tending to pick points, derail on kinks, and generally show off the quality of the trackwork Since the engine refused to derail, I left the glue for 24hr to "cure" and give Murphy time to move the track around. /\ In place upon the framework this time, still no derailments All the wires for the points have been pulled under the layout for connection to a stationary decoder; when it arrives in several weeks. I've not soldered the track feeders yet, so power is provided by the little blue and brown wires which lead down to the track bus below.
Since I now actually have rails that I could power, I dug out my serial cable and wired the command station to my PC for the first time since July 2005. A new version of JMRI quickly remembered my "roster" from that year, so it's entirely possible for me to now have computer controlled trains running around behind the monitor Since I've finished (except track feeders and points controller) the first staging yard ladder, I decided for the next step, the only thing better than one yard ladder would be two yard ladders | (click to enlarge) | (click to enlarge) Cut and glued cork, just waiting for the glue to dry so I can start laying track there too. There's actually two modules there, bolted together; as the ladder stretches across both (with due care that nothing fragile such as a point is across the join!)
Progress for 30 March 2008 Gluing and cutting and filing and gluing and pinning... aah, Progress. Before: During: After: 3mm thick cork is trimmed to the right size for the space (well, approximately), and then glued down as shown - pressed into a thin bead of glue laid in a zig-zag pattern. Blank copper-clad PCB sheet is glued down across the module ends. Flextrack will be soldered to this, hopefully providing a reliable mechanical structure that can keep everything aligned as / when it is moved about.
Progress for 2 April 2008 Flex-track is carefully trimmed to fit the space available. Cut ends are filed to help the joiners slip on more easily. Run a thin bead of glue down the centre-line, and spread the bead flat - I'm using the little block of wood seen in the background; it's about the same width as the ties. Press the track into the glue, fitting it to adjoining tracks. If the track won't stay put (typically on a curve or incline), pin it for at least 24hr to allow time for the glue to cure. In this weather, I've got about 5 minutes of working time before the glue starts to set and the track won't stick. It might have been easier to fit feeders before gluing the track down - but I'll likely 'cheat' and use the copper module-end-alignment plates as track feeders - they will conduct, after all. Looking out from the helix one more time, the landscape has changed a little: I swear those tracks were straight on the trackplan! I'm blaming the monitor - if it wasn't in the way, I could have slid the two ladder end modules together and drawn lines across them that what line up straight-like; and there would have been no need for the little zig-zags. The right end ladder, last piece of track laid is closest in the foreground:
Aerial Shot And, finding something to stand on: Helix-end ladder to the left, currently holding one Southern Pacific SD70M, which is being used by the track gang to check their work. On the curve leading off the right-end ladder tracks have been laid across module joins. Some pieces of flextrack actually start on one module, cross a second completely and finish on a third! After I solder the ends down so they can't move, I'll have to cut each rail carefully... Or I could use my dremel. With all this track, it's too awkward to power it all off one temporary feeder; so I'm going to need to wire up each module before I can run any more test trains So, from here, the next few steps will likely be: Solder tracks to copper-clad PCB Trim tracks across module boundaries and copper-clad PCB to isolate each rail Pull each module down and dress the rail ends to ease module disassembly Drill holes, solder feeders to rails Loom up each module Run Trains :tb-biggrin: . . . . . consider ballast and scenery for the staging deck
Update for 7 April 2008 No photos tonight. Used the weekend to work on the todo list; soldering (melted ties and warm fingers), cutting (dremel is so quick!) and dressing (file, rasp, sand, burr). Started soldering track feeders - it's actually easier to get to the rails than the huge sheet of copper on the end of the module (because of the framing for the module, I can't drill a hole down within about 1" of the end of the module - so I'd have nearly 1/2" of wire "above ground". It's tidier to solder to the rail) Today my new toys arrived - Stationary Decoders Took all of about fourteen days to get here, all the way from America. Using Team Digital SMD82 things, 8 outputs snap (or stall) with route support, so I'm merrily drawing a table of which point is Closed and which is Thrown to get through the ladder to a given track in the yard. I'm wiring one decoder up right before/after/during this post. I want to see how well they work! :tb-biggrin:
Mmm... Route controlled ladder. Just feed the throttle with something like "Select Accessory -> 33 -> Throw" and watch all the correct points flick left or right. Service mode works, Ops mode works. JMRI doesn't work. So I use JMRI to work out the right CV value and then use the actual throttle to program it :tb-biggrin: I'm going to have to sit down and fine tune the matrix so it's more intuitive which route to throw to get which track lined up. At the moment it's faster to flick the little above-ground switches than mentally work it all out. But it is seriously cool, and that's what matters :tb-cute:
Found some photos I took and left on the camera 'for a rainy day' (looks outside at rain clouds) Soldering Down Track: When soldering down track it helps to have a Good soldering iron.. This one is not only Good, but also Goot - it says so! Temperature controlled 55W set to about 360 deg C. Once soldered down, the track can be trimmed. A manual razor saw would do the job eventually, but a Dremel is faster.. Cutting track doesn't destroy as many cutting disks as aluminium channel, but you still don't want any of this in your eyes - safety glasses not optional. I Can't get the Dremel to actually cut vertically - I have to slice on a slight angle, so the cut gets dressed some afterwards - leaving a larger gap than the razor saw would have; but in a fraction of the time (and less issues with the sideways forces breaking the little plastic bits that hold the rails down) Stationary Decoder: ('e' for envelope. Right.) Using an 8-output SMD82 from Team Digital - but I might have mentioned that earlier. Here it is screwed to the underside of Module 2 (Helix end Ladder), but not wired up yet And from a different angle. Note that each point has a little number beside it, so I can tell them apart. Green wire is Straight, Red wire is Diverging.
Just for completeness, here's a photo of what the decoder looks like wired up. In an effort to be tidy, I've tucked all the overly long wires under the decoder board to hide them Black pins at the bottom of the decoder is where the "local control" buttons attach. I've got a little bag of bits (switches, etc) to do that - but probably not until I put a fascia on. Moving on to some actual progress, I warmed up the soldering iron and finished soldering wires to Module #3. Just for fun, I've soldered to the track, but crimped the underside wires to little plugs, which then fit on some solder lugs. Meaning it is easier to trace short circuits, by unplugging wires that offend until the short is isolated. It looks pretty tidy too. It's a good thing it was easy to chase shorts, as I spent three quarters of an hour chasing one. See that little screw marked with the bent arrow? The one in a straight (blue) line from Rail #3 red wire? The one that's electrically connected to all the white wires? That screw had apparently penetrated all the way through the roadbed and touched the red rail! Meaning it shorts, but not to a neighbouring rail, only to the tag strip! Yeah, that was good for 45 minutes. I've switched to using shorter screws so they don't short so much; but not so short that they fall out. To make a long story short, the module is wired and has shorts where it should and none where it should not. :thumbs_up: I should now go and solder up another module (probably the helix end ladder, #2, so I can run trains through my nifty semi-automated ladder)
Module #2 is now wired up, meaning I have the helix ladder and half of the yard body alive. Since I still don't have any US quarters, I used a pair of pliers for the "quarter test". Annoyingly the command station responds before the circuit breaker in seeing the short; however, the breaker then isolates the short so every other section comes back up. In practice, a short will cause every engine on this (my only) booster to stutter, then every engine not in the same district will carry on going while the short district shuts down. Since I have a total of three districts, I don't think I'm too worried yet. Staging Deck Main Deck Stationary Decoders (so a short over a point doesn't stop the point throwing to clear the short) I don't think I need to photograph the underside of any more modules - they all look alike. If I'm industrious tomorrow, I might even get the other half of the staging deck wired, before I have to leave the city for the week(/end) - back next Monday. At the worst, I should be done by the end of April, and can start eyeing up The Helix.
First Train on the Duck River Sub, 14 April 2008 To misquote Arthur C Clarke, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a Rigged Demo" With that in mind, I sat down to deliberately put an engine and some wagons on the layout Since I'm planning a DCC layout modelling The Atkinson Topeka Santa Fe between 1979 and 1995, I have picked the most appropriate engine and wagons... A (DC) Burlington Northern SD70MAC hauling five Bethgon Coalveyors while a (DC) Southern Pacific SD70MAC watches on.. | . The front track can hold 21 Coalveyors, but that's not the shortest track. According to RTS, the yard tracks are: Front 2402mm, ~94.5" 2340mm, ~92" 2519mm, ~99" (longest, 8'3" ) 2340mm, ~92" 2292mm, ~90" 2270mm, ~89" (shortest, 7'5" ) 2366mm, ~93" Back
After much cutting, soldering, melting, crimping and testing for shorts, I've finished wiring the second half of the yard. Better still, it all works Not flawlessly, of course. For example, I've had to fix track #3 on the module 3-4 join because it was derailing (feeder wire was too tall and lifting the back of the bogey up just as the front of the bogey hits the module join - derail) No doubt I'll find a few more places that need a bit of tuning, but for now I actually have somewhere to run trains. Tempted to fill the yard and post a "roster shot" From here I'll probably fiddle with the stationary decoders to make the ladders operate more-or-less correctly, and then start eyeing up the Helix - so my Staged Yard full of trains have somewhere to go! :tb-biggrin:
Okay, I've decided on directions for the layout, just so I have some way to tell all the turnouts apart. Staging Deck expansion past the closet will be Timetable West, California, if it ever occurs Staging Deck ladder furthest from the helix is now the "California Ladder" Staging Deck ladder closest to the helix is now the "Duck End Ladder" Up Helix is now Timetable East towards Duck River Down Helix is now Timetable West towards Staging / California Main deck is the Duck River Interchange, Arizona Main Deck expansion past the closet will be Timetable East, New Mexico, when I get there Put another way, my staging deck is actually correct - Timetable West is Room West; and the main deck is backwards. With names for all the turnouts, my next step was to get DCC working. I think I've got it all worked out correctly; with JMRI talking to the decoders properly - "program on main" doesn't always work, so I've made a flying "programming track" cable that I can plug into a turnout-equipped module instead of the normal main bus and thus reprogram the decoder - without disturbing any engines on the rails Select Accy -> 43 -> Throw Select Accy -> 63 -> Throw both ends of the yard are now set to Track 3, and I can roll that train on or off. :tb-cute:
Since there haven't been enough pictures lately, I dug into the drawers and pulled out every piece of rolling stock I own / could find: With everything on the layout, the yard is slightly less than half full. The lighting isn't the best; I started unpacking the boxes with ambient light, but it took so long the sun fled. Might see what it looks like tomorrow when the sun comes back!
During the daylit hours my yard looks a little more impressive More pictures in my Album So the next step, I guess, is a Helix. Re-read ppuinn's handy weblog on making a spiral helix; and it reminded me of two things I haven't put enough thought to yet: What am I going to make the supports out of? I've got base (17mm ply) and I've got subroadbed (7mm ply). But supports? Will my longest cars swipe the supports on the way past? To figure out the latter, first I need my longest car. I've got 48' container well cars at about 72' over the couplers, but actually the longest is my Tourist Train, the pretty silver "Santa Fe Super Chief" set that was lurking in the background of the yard shots, at about 86' over the couplers. As I first learned from one of my first train books in the 1980's, model train wagons overhang worse on corners than their 1:1 counterparts. for 40' wagons (did I mention the book was British?) this is less of a problem than for >70' cars. Wagons overhang in two places: Inside of the curve, middle of the wagon (centre of photo) Outside of the curve, end of the wagon (right in photo) So to test your clearances, you really want two very long cars coupled together, and push them around and see what they swipe! In this case, I put the four longest cars from the Tourist Train on neighbouring tracks and pushed them past one another. For the yard, with a track spacing centre to centre of about 37mm, I've got 4-5mm of clearance. Checking with a ruler suggests the passenger car hangs 15mm inside the curve and 15mm outside the curve, for 30mm (about 1 1/4") total width. Since my helix has only 25mm wide roadbed, This Could Be A Problem!
Found a post from January when I was thinking about helices: Now I've wandered out the the garage where the 7mm ply, the 12mm mdf and the 17mm ply have been sitting since January, and I'm wondering how well 7mm ply will handle being unframed with just supports every 4-12". I suspect it will warp amusingly leaving me with a wave-shaped helix incline The good news is that the minimum inter-deck height in the helix plan is 47mm, which is larger than the 43mm offered by the NMRA gauge. What this means is I can cut a notch into the support for one track, and the next higher track is not in the side-swipe zone; but rather is above it. All I have to do is have enough notch to avoid a side-swipe, but not so much notch that nothing is holding up the next higher track! Oooh... I just had an evil thought - ppuinn's tables will work perfectly well in mm, just change the input values, so I can work this purely in metric, and avoid any possible problems from converting units (refer NASA and the space probe they lost by converting units incorrectly at some critical moment...) I can probably still convert for my forum posts though Work out precise height from Helix Base on Staging Deck to Main Deck Tweak values in excel to get all the measurements Draw supports and work out notches Draw spiral Power Tools Dust everything off, drag it inside and drop it in place Tweak, tune, fiddle Fix everything down - screws are less permanent than Glue so more adjustable Lay Track Play "runaway train" while letting some very cheap cars roll down the helix to see where they fall off, and thusly where the padded safety rail has to be tallest That should be enough to take me most of the way into May
Progress for 26 April 2008 Apparently it takes me 27 photos and about 3 hours to cut out the subroadbed for a spiral helix. And another half hour to edit all the photos and upload them to rail images. I've created a new Helix Album for those who are overly interested in the details. I basically followed the details from ppuinn's blog, although I discovered halfway through that the biggest problem with a spiral helix is having to draw freehand curves Since I'm not overly artistically inclined, I quickly found the only way to do this was to divide the sheet into 16 sectors, not 8. 32 sectors would probably have led to even more accurate arcs; at the cost of trying to do even more math.. Starting from a blank slate, Drawing pencil lines and going over them in ink - red lines are track centres, And yet more ink lines. Black lines are cut out lines. As well as a jig saw sitting expectantly by... Before cutting, it is very very important to check your colour scheme closely. I'm cutting the black lines, not the red ones!
Mmm... power tools.... Cutting from the centre outwards makes it easier to support the work while cutting. Although I still sliced chunks out of my scrap wood supports at times. And in almost no time (probably 1.5-2 hours), it's all cut out. Top left is the entrance track, bottom left is the 6'th loop exit for the reverse loop, and bottom right is the main deck exit. The backdrop will be to the right and the door to the left. And now I admit that I cheated. Since I didn't trust the 7mm thick ply to hold the incline without buckling / warping, I actually cut out two helices! The second one is 12mm MDF, as seen here: (I think my jigsaw hates me now) Unfortunately the sun went away while I was working (that seems to be happening more often lately; Winter must be coming at last) and all the standing has upset my back; so there are no supports cut yet, and probably won't be until next weekend. I wonder if I can make some fake supports out of cardboard . . .
Nice work, add some supports, a base to hold it all, stick some track on it. and... Bob's your uncle. Building a helix isn't as hard as it sounds, Dave H really did a great job of working out the maths. It's great to see your layout taking shape, keep up the good work.
