Modelling the E&N in HO Scale in my basement

Archive for July, 2013

July 27-28, 2013

“All that’s left to do is everything” -Jesse James

Probably the best quote I’ve got from The show ‘Monster Garage’ which aptly describes what we have done, and what’s still needing to be done after he cram sessions over the past couple weeks.

To summarize what has been completed:

Trackage in the staging yard is now complete, spiked down (required a trip to the hobby shop solely for track pins! And then another for more #71 drill bits, both account hard, and unforgiving, birch plywood) and (mostly) fed. I say mostly because there’s probably a dozen feeders still needing to be hooked up to the track bus and about as many needing to feed the microswitches powering the frogs in the staging yard. That aught to be fun…

We have servos installed and running on most turnouts, in fact, all the turnouts which must be electrically controlled, are, though I still have a ton of programming of the Quad-LN’s to do, routes to line, etc. I also changed out the accessory bus power supply with a 6A 12V power supply for the entire layout instead of having two running on the layout. I’ve also got a UP5 connected in the staging area too. To finish that bit off requires finding a spot for the Zephyr to live, wiring it in for the programming track at the end of the wye, and other linked tasks.

And then there’s the cleaning needed. This requires a massive amount of vaccuuming of everything, plenty of testing and generally making the basement hospitable. Did I mention that Jason arrives in a little over 36 hours?


July 17, 2013

Spent an hour and a bit last night hooking up previously dropped feeder wires to the bus.

That is all…


July 13-14, 2013

A brief update…even though there was plenty of work done.

Over the course of the time spent downstairs on Saturday and Sunday, I got feeders dropped and secured to the rail for the entire ICG Nanaimo – Nanaimo depot sub-district. Not wired into the bus, but that will hopefully be completed this week. I also gapped the rails for that power district as well.

Cam was over for Saturday and some of Sunday and worked on getting track laid in the staging yard. Made really good progress too, having completed all but a few tail tracks on the southern end of the yard and half of the runaround track. Sunday saw the last bit of staging yard benchwork completed – that is, the reverse leg of the wye into the programming track, and a lot of that track is fitted, though still needs to be spiked down. We also found that cheap birch plywood has another nasty trait – loves bending the track pins! Coupled with the splintering capabilities, I can’t say I will recommend it for benchwork again.

I’ve also been working to get a servo programmed to become the block for errant rolling stock headed to the abyss. Mostly successful, but not entirely positive I can get the Singlet to function as I need it to – that is, having a microswitch operate as a toggle… More to come on that…

Cheers!


July 7, 2013

So it’s been a little while since my last post but I’m still working hard to get things ready for the end of the month.

Yesterday began with some cleaning of the basement – it’s a real disaster down there – and getting things lined up.

Since making the decision to go with servos instead of much larger and more expensive tortoises, I’ve acquired the Quad-LN’s from Tam Valley Depot, the servos, wiring and microswitches from eBay (servos for about $2.50 each, at my door, microswitches for 17 cents each, wires free due to a sharing deal with Dave Bedard) and after all is said and done, I have a DCC controlled turnout for less than the cost of a tortoise bought in a 12 pack… And that doesn’t include the other bits needed like a DS64 or the wiring involved.

Installation of these servos started yesterday and the Quad-LN’s were installed as well. Sadly, I neglected to order an aligner for the Quad-LN’s and the instructions indicate one is necessary to properly set them up. 🙁 I tried a few programming things but in the end, nothing did as it was supposed to, likely because the power supply I was using couldn’t pump enough juice. The Quad LN says it needs about 750 milliamps of power and the supply I used only provided about 300… So I’ve ordered an aligner and a 5amp power supply from Tam Valley. Hope to see them soon.

Meanwhile, Cam was busily getting turnouts laid in the staging yard. We’ve got a lot of track still to lay and I’ve got even more basement to clean up, track to wire and more to do…will get some more done tomorrow.

Cheers!