NP Lester WA T-Trak Z Module Set Project

A couple days of distraction later, and I can get back to my project today. On Thursday, I turned on the garage heater, then went to the bathroom while the garage warmed up. At that time my dad decided to go out to the garage fridge and get some chocolate milk. Then he forgot what he was doing, set down his bowl of Cheerios on my workbench, and opened the big garage door and decided to walk out and get the mail or something. He's 85, and is starting to forget stuff all the time, like leaving the stove on, or forgetting he's baking muffins and the smoke alarm goes off, or leaving the kitchen sink water running and walking away.

On his trip out there, he slipped on the black ice on the driveway and clocked his noggin. This must have happened at 11am, because at 11:15 am, I jumped in the shower, then I heard a notification from my phone. A text message from my smart thermostat said that the garage has failed to reach temperature, either the gas is off or a door is opened. As i finished my shower at about 11:20am, I heard a lady screaming in my kitchen, "IS ANYBODY HERE?" I yelled I am in the bathroom, I'll be right out. I quickly threw on my clothes and ran out to see what was going on, and a neighbor was escorting my dad in, and said she found him laying on the driveway in a pool of blood. The whole back of his head was covered in blood, but it was no longer bleeding, and he seemed coherent, was able to answer questions like how many fingers do you see, and was not dizzy or sleepy, so I took him to the emergency room. On the way, I asked him what he was doing, and he totally forgot. He did not know why his clothes were wet, or why he went outside anyway.

Anyways I did not stay at the hospital, because my dad and I are both recovering from a case of RSV, and I don't want to hang around and catch covid, or the flu next, so I waited for them to call me back, and I was able to go pick him up around 7:30pm. He was OK, no concussion, so side effects, he was just lucky he slipped and knocked himself out. He was OK on Friday, and just has a big sore bump on his head, so I let him sleep and spent the hobby day working on a friend's O Scale passenger car doors and windows, laser cutting parts.

It's 1:30pm and is snowing outside right now. It's 70 degrees in the garage, and my heater is keeping the chill mostly off, but I keep feeling waves of cold raining down my back and shoulders, so I am going in for the day now, and going to get into a Youtube Coma or other such couch potato activity

Today I was able to assemble the Tortoise and Hare mounts for my module. I made a few drawing tweeks, and cut parts for 4 switch machines, and a 4 button holder for manual turnout actuation. Here is how they go together, I slide the first piece of plywood on the Tortoise switch machine up to the middle of the wire slider part, then snap in the Hare turnout decoder:



Next I slide other side of the mount on, over the end of the Tortoise and Hare to hold them captive:


Then I glue on the mounting base to complete the assembly. This mount will hold the Tortoise and Hare together in a compact package that can be adjusted after mounting by loosening mounting screws and sliding around as needed, all while hanging only 2.4" or 60mm under a T-Trak-Z module. TTZ modules are 70mm tall, so by using a 6mm plywood module top, I still have 4mm of clearance underneath between the switch machine and the table top:


I made 4 of them for this module, as well as the manual activation 4 button holder and the screw hole actuator wire hole mounting template:


Here is the underside of the mounting template sitting on the base of a switch machine assembly, showing how it works. You bend the actuator wire up 90 degrees and drill a throw slot where you marked on the template, as well as the mounting screw holes. I will probably skip screw mounting and just glue the base on and hold it in alignment for a few seconds till the glue sets, as I am going to make tabletop linkages and hide them with small shed type structures:

 

Good question, for those that are not familiar with the "Hare" turnout decoder, as well as all the normal DCC functions, they have terminals to input a "Toggle" switch to throw the turnout. Press once for through route, press again to switch to the siding. They also have the terminals to add a bi-color LED so you can see the current state of the turnout.

So I do not want to have buttons showing on the front of the module in case someone bumps them and throws a mainline through route switch, but I want to be able to manually set the turnouts by button instead of a combination of a dozen buttons on the DCC Throttle. So this button holder will have 4 push buttons that sit just under the module, where you can slide a finger to throw the turnout covertly:


I did the same thing on the Lester Coal Dock module, and I placed the button panel directly underneath the track diagram sticker that is applied to the module facia. The track diagram has Orange and Green bi-colored LED's to show the state of the turnouts, and you just secretly slide your finger underneath the module just below the left of the sticker for the first switch, and slide your finger to the right counting buttons till your finger touches the one you want to press. Sort of a "Braille" blind button access. I number the modules left to right, and the turnouts left to right, so for module 2, turnout 1, it's DCC number is 21:


Thanks for the kind words about my dad, he is doing ok, just still has a cough from his RSV and a bump on the noggin. Hello? Mc Fly?

 

These steps took a few days, lots of researching first version Hare decoder programming, fiddling with tortoise mechanism throws and placement, wiring, soldering, gluing with hot glue, super glue, clear parts cement, and wood glue, crimping Anderson Powerpole connectors, etc.

Once the decoders were programmed, each tortoise was placed to throw through the bottom of the module. and tested under DCC control as well as manual activation button control OK. There will be a track schematic overlay over the LED's which toggle between Green and Yellow to show the turnout state:



Next was to complete the basic wiring with track feeders, frog power routing, tortoise power connections, etc.:


And now I am starting on the turnout linkages. Each has to be custom formed from phosphor bronze spring wire from the topside of the module because there is not adjustments possible from underneath. Once they are all functional they will have to be covered with something to prevent any debris from fouling the adjustments. I got one of them sort of functional, it doesn't seem to throw all the way in one of the directions, but the mainline through route throws perfect:

 

I finished up the turnout linkages today. Tomorrow I will figure out how to cover them. I formed some spring linkages from .015" Phosphor Bronze wire, and cut the Tortoise spring steel wire height down:


For the top left linkage, turnout #21, for module 2 turnout 1, I made a straight long linkage because I needed to place the Tortoise/Hare module several inches away from the turnout to fit underneath. I painted the point throw area with PBL Neolube which is a graphite in alcohol substance and forms a dry slippery lubricant for the points that should last some time:


Here is the operational test video:

 

Oh yes, always! My stuff is never flawless, my trackwork derails as much as the next guy, and there is always a smoother switch than the other. But hey, it looks cool don't it?

Switches 21 and 22 need to snap into the through route with authority, and 24 needs to hold the points tighter in the through route too, because they are the mainline where trains will run the most. If I switch into the yard or service areas, I will go it slow, and check the points by eye before going in.

Now for automatic show operation I have a staging yard on the other side of the module set, and all that is Rokuhan track and switches, where beauty is sacrificed for reliability. I want to be able to stage 2 trains and run 2 trains, automatically switching between them.

With the Atlas turnouts, and under the table Tortoises and the unseen crazy linkage bends needed to make them work, they could never be as reliable and repeatable as an all in one switch machine turnout.

I hate to say it too, but to be honest the Atlas turnouts I got, 80 of them from the first production run, are all each and every one of them, really junky. The frog castings are rough, lumpy, and vary in height enough to cause rail cars to bounce into derailments. The points are just sitting in place with a poor attempt at a snap ring to hold them in place, which falls out of most of them just taking the turnouts off the blister pack, and the throwbar although it snaps good, breaks very easily.

These are not Peter Wright quality turnouts, but they look good though.

 

Nothing eventful, decided to start on the hotel drawings instead of the parts to cover the turnout linkages. Sometimes you got to do what's fun and keeps you interested first. I got the basic floor and walls drawn up today while watching the snow accumulate outside:


Reference:

 

The snap of those N Peco switches was very good, they were my favorite when I modeled in N. The Atlas ones are for the most part a scaled down version, however their precision manufacture was not scaled down.

I am using the magnetic base on everything these days, and the latest version have the spring loaded pogo pin electrical connectors, the drawings on the left are for those components.

 

The people with the best track results use high quality roadbed track and never paint, glue, solder, or ballast it. They also tend to just have track on plywood with no grades, and enjoy watching trains run. It's all in what you want from the hobby. I happen to be an Eye Candy guy, so things are often sketchy as far as running trains goes, but that's exactly like the prototypes always were too!

 

Started the construction today. This is my stop point, as nothing further is designed yet:

I did the best I could to extrapolate the size, window and door placement, and other design elements from the photos previously posted:



There is a view from behind up on the hill that you can barely make out the rear of the hotel, so it's probably different, but will not be seen anyways due to it butting up to the backdrop. At least the shed like bumpout is represented:


Also, there will be a raised porch:



Inside you can see the electronics that will control random room lighting:



And underneath you can see the pogo pins for electrical pickup, as well as the magnets to hold it in place:

 

I want to get to some modeling today, but I have to deal with this because my HOA is on us to keep the sidewalks clear by 9am, and I have not got to the sidewalks yet.




Look what happened to my rain chain:

 

I did manage to get a bit done today. I designed the interior with rooms and a a place for a ceiling fan. Going to have to use the ATTiny88 because there will be 16 LED's and 1 stepper motor for the ceiling fan.


All the partitions are spaces so light from one room does not go into another room:


The common room is up front on the bottom floor and will have a ceiling fan stepper motor above it. That room will not have a light, but the upstairs rooms to the right and left of the center room will have lights:


And here you can see how it looks with the rooms insert placed. I will be painting the insert white to get best effect, but you get the gist of it: