Electrical Wiring…Arrghhh!

Let me start by stating that I don’t consider myself electrically inept.  In fact, I have formal training in the electronics field.  But sometimes you can let a project get the best of you.

Let me back up a bit.  The Louisiana Central will have four staging areas.  On the west end of the layout, there will be a hidden staging track for an Illinois Central train and another for a Texas and Pacific train.  Over on the east side, there will be four staging tracks, two for the Illinois Central and two for the Louisiana Central.  Since the tracks will be hidden from normal viewing angles, I decided to install an optical detection system which will light up LED indicators on panels showing when a train is nearing the end of a track, and also the clearance point at the entrance to the track.  Simple enough.  In researching the task, I found a fellow up in Canada who offers nice, tidy, little circuit boards that will fill the bill perfectly.  All one has to do is install the phototransistors (hereinafter referred to as P.T.s), the infrared LED light sources, and the LED panel indicators.  Bring all the wiring from these devices to the little circuit boards, hook up a wall-wart power supply, and you’re done.

I have procrastinated for months starting this installation.  It wasn’t because I was intimidated by the wiring, rather it was because I just didn’t feel up to the tedium of the task…running all the wire, making the hundreds of wiring connections, fabricating mounting brackets for the devices, making the panels, etc.  The time to do the task is while the staging track is visible and easily accessible.  I don’t want to install any sub-road in front of the staging until that is complete.  Well, that time has come.  Further progress cannot be made at Monterey (the west end of the line) or to the LC mainline, or the Spencer logging operation between Whitcomb and Maynard until this work is done.  So I resolved myself to installing the system at Monterey this past weekend.

Things started out well enough.  I bored holes at the appropriate locations in the track to receive the P.T.s.  They slipped right in and held firm just by the friction in the hole…great!  I planned to use a recycled 25 pair telephone cable (donated by a friend), so I unrolled the cable and stretched it out along the top of the joists adjacent to the staging tracks.  The only way I could think of to splice into the cable at various points was to go ahead and pull open the outer jacket for much of the length of the cable, a task made easy by the little ripping string provided within the cable bundle.  I figured I would wrap electrical tape around the cable every 8 inches or so to keep things together.  So far, so good.

This is where things started going south.  I decided to use the black/white striped wire along with the white/black striped wire in parallel as the common negative wire (using two wires for less resistance and for a margin of “backup safety”).  I selected those and one other cable and soldered them to the pigtail leads from the first P.T.  To insulate the joint I had planned to use small wire nuts which I thought were made for this light gauge wire.  They didn’t work…wouldn’t bite onto the wire.  So I pulled out my Scotch 33+ electrical tape and proceeded to wrap it around the wire nut and wire to hold it all together.  After using what seemed like a yard of tape, I had the joint secure and insulated.  It looked like something from a Chevy Chase movie.  I did the next couple P.T.s like this and finally decided that this was ridiculous.  So I went searching and found an old stash of heat shrink tubing.  I clipped off an inch, slipped it on my next joint and shrunk it down.  Finally, a decent looking insulated joint!

As I progressed, I found that removing about a foot of the outer jacket at the spot where I wanted to make a connection, then forming a loop in the cable, allowed me to easily grab a wire, clip it and solder it to the P.T. pigtail.  When I got to the 7th P.T. down, I noticed my next mistake.  Despite writing all the wire colors down as I used them, out of the 50 wires available to me, I had managed to use the same color twice for two P.T.s.  Rats!  Since I had severed the twice used cable at the 7th connection, I had to go back to the 1st (where the color had initially been used) and select another wire to re-do that connection.  Plus, the pigtail was now a tad too short, so I had to make an extension for it to reach the bundle.

OK, now I have all the P.T.s connected and I have to anchor the cable down.  I performed that task without incident.  But the joy wasn’t to last long.  As I began inserting the P.T.s into their respective holes, when I got down to number 7, I found that the leads weren’t near long enough for it to reach it’s hole.  While connecting the P.T.s the entire cable had shifted on me without my knowledge since I hadn’t anchored it at the beginning.  Arrghhh!  About then, two other realizations hit me.  One, I had attached the cable to the top of the joists.  But now I realized that once the sub-roadbed for the Monterey yard was installed, those cable mounts would be forever inaccessible.  This means that the cable would automatically be in the way of every future thing that would have to be done under the layout and there would be no way to move it.  Realization number two: I had forgotten to run the cable to the indicator panel location.  Aw, geez!  I put the tools down, killed the lights and retired to the house for the night.

Sunday morning I mulled over the entire fiasco while consuming a couple cups of coffee.  I analyzed all that had gone wrong, what was needed to correct the mistakes and what course of action I should take.  I finally decided that the only reasonable thing to do to fix everything was to simply tear out what I had done and start over from scratch.  Painful, yes.  But not nearly as painful as the potential headaches I would face later if I simply tried to patch what I’d already done.  So armed with the knowledge gained, and a renewed hope of success, I headed back out there later that afternoon (after watching the sweet Saints victory over the Texans).

I started where I should have in the beginning…at the indicator panel, then routed the cable over to the back by the staging tracks.  This time I routed the cable below the joists and supported it by the hangers (simple EMT conduit clamps) screwed to the bottom of each joist (screwed is key to easy shifting or removal of the clamp later if need be).  I taped the opened outer jack at each hanger and also between hangers and that has worked nicely to keep things orderly.  I stopped when I reached the first P.T. location; this is where I’ll pick-up at the next work session.  I plan to attach new longer leads to the P.T.s and simply coil the excess length so I have it if I need it later.  The loops I make in the cable will be directly at joists so they may be supported properly rather than drooping down between the joists as they were initially.  And the cable will be anchored as I go so it will stay in place.

I feel much more confident in this latest approach, as I’m trying to think this through much more thoroughly and apply what I’ve learned from the mistakes I’ve already made.

But just in case, wish me luck!

-Jack

Lenz Equipment – SOLD

I’ve got some surplus Lenz DCC equipment that I’ve decided to sell.  I could use the cash for some of the other things that I need for the new railroad.  For sale is an LZ100 Command Station and an LV101 Power Station (booster).

 

Photo of Lenz LZ100 Command Station This LZ100 Command Station has been upgraded to version 3.6, which is the current Lenz software.  It has all the features of the current Lenz product except Railcom.

 

 

Photo of Lenz LV101 Power Station (booster)The LV101 Power Station (booster) is fully opto-isolated and produces 4-5 amps of power, depending on the power supply voltage.

 

 

 

These items are in absolutely perfect condition…no scratches or dents, they have all the connection plugs, and are in the original box.  They have very little time on them as I only used them for testing locomotives on a test track after decoder installs. The only thing you have to add for a complete system is a power supply and a throttle. And for those of you wondering, I remain a committed Lenz user…these are merely surplus items.

I’ll let the pair go for $199.00 (plus shipping if not local).  If you’re hunting for an inexpensive full-featured DCC system, don’t let this one get by you!  If interested, just leave a comment and I’ll get back to you via email.  Or you can go to the Louisiana Central website and click the email link on the home page.

-Jack

The First Anniversary

This week marks the first anniversary since the start of my layout construction.  On July 10th of 2012 I completed the backdrop sky and cloud painting, and on July 15th I installed the first section of L-girder benchwork.  This past weekend I stood back and surveyed the state of this 645 square foot layout and pondered the progress.

The entire basic structure for the benchwork was completed.  All of the staging roadbed and structure is complete, along with that of Willis (Willis is the long area to the right of the trackplan, and is where the Louisiana Central and the Illinois Central railroads enter the visible portion of the layout from staging).

The staging track has been laid and the Illinois Central visible trackage is about 70% complete.  The Louisiana Central track from staging has reached the crossing with the IC and will soon be entering the LC’s Willis yard.

The two electrical track buses for this area are in, the track feeders have been installed and the DCC system is complete for these areas.

Much of the sub-roadbed for the Willis yard (located on one of the peninsulas), and the heavy industrial area at Monterey, has been cut out (but not yet installed).

All-in-all, not too bad for a years worth of weekends.

But at the same time it is a bit discouraging to think that this is all that has been accomplished over the course of a year.  I’d estimate that I’m only about 20% done with sub-roadbed and about 13% with track.  That means I have a loooong way to go!

But one bright realization is becoming apparent.  The longer I work at this thing, the less time it takes to do many of the tasks as I begin to hone in on the best way (for me) to do things.

My goal for this next year is to get the entire mainline installed and operational.  A bit ambitious you say?

No hill for a stepper!

-Jack

Disclaimer:  Even with the completed mainline, I will only be at 43% of the total trackage.

More Track Going Down

Layout progress continues at a slow, but indeed at a steady pace.  As you’ve read in previous posts, I’m starting with all of the (mostly) hidden staging track as it’s the furthest away from the aisle and the most difficult to work with.  The Louisiana Central trackage is complete, including wiring, and is operational, sans a switch machine at the entry to the area.  This past weekend saw the start of trackage for the Illinois Central staging area.  I’ve got enough roadbed completed to do all of the staging track at that end of the layout.

I’ve run the power bus along with the track I’ve been installing, and tapping the bus along the way to feed the track as I progress.  I have the bus temporarily connected to the command station/booster for testing purposes.  Last week I installed a backboard and shelf for one of the three planned booster districts.  I’ll be using DCC Specialties PSX circuit breakers to further sub-divide each power district, and I’ve installed the three C/Bs for the district I’m working in.  I still have to run the interconnecting wiring between the booster and the C/Bs, and then connect the power buses.  When that is done, the wiring for the entire sub-district will be complete, and the other sub-districts can be connected as they’re run.

I don’t generally get any work done on the layout during the work week, however I thought maybe I could devote a bit of time in the evenings to working simple projects, like building car kits and such.  I have an old roll-top desk in my living room that is unused, in fact it was my hobby workbench before my permanent bench was completed out in the train building.  I’ve decided to reactivate the old desk as a secondary workbench, and have recently started to restock it with common tools and supplies….whatever is needed for the “simple” projects.  I have read several times that doing small tasks like that can have a significant impact on overall progress, so I’m going to give it a shot.

As I’ve mentioned before, I operate regularly on Lou Schultz’s C&O Railroad over in Covington.  I’m sure most of you know that Lou has been going through quite an ordeal with a health issue for the past month or so.  Please keep him in your prayers to help get him through this.

-Jack

Track Going In

Well January and early February were just chock full of railroading events.  I think there are a couple more things coming, the Louisiana Rail Run for one.  Now that things are slowing down a bit, I’ve had more time to put in on the layout.

I have installed the hidden staging track for the Louisiana Central.  Last week it became apparent that I was short on rail joiners for the Atlas code 83 track that I’m using in the staging areas.  Due to production problems in China, Atlas track and accessories are extremely hard to come by presently.  Art Houston stepped up to the plate and mailed a bunch of joiners to me so that track laying can continue unimpeded.  Thanks Art!

I also soldered the electrical feeders to the installed track and pulled the track bus wiring below the area.  I’ll be hooking up the feeders to the track bus this weekend.  I’m going to sub-divide my booster districts into several smaller districts fed through DCC Specialties PSX series circuit breakers.  I have three on hand presently, so I can complete the wiring to this track.  I hope to do that this weekend so that I can actually run a train!

Next trackwork will be the Illinois Central hidden staging track.  The sub-roadbed is already done, so track laying will come soon.

-Jack

January – It’s Been a Busy Month

January has been a great month for railroading.  I’ve been attending events for the past three weekends, and have yet another this Saturday coming.

The Crescent City Model Railroad Club in New Orleans held their annual open house early in the month.  They’re in the process of converting their layout to DCC operation, and since the layout would be down, they decided to remodel several major sections.  Wayne Robichaux and I went down to inspect their progress and also to hit the few remaining hobby shops in the area.  Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a single decent model railroad shop left in south Louisiana.  A few shops we hit had nice selections of Lionel and similar, but us “scale” guys are left in the cold.

The following weekend Ron Findley and I drove over to Hattiesburg, Mississippi to attend the annual banquet of the Mississippi Great Southern Chapter of the NRHS.  Those folks put on a fine get-together.  There were several vendors displaying their wares, the dinner was good, and the guest speaker was quite interesting.  It was good seeing old friends and acquaintances over there.

This past Saturday several of us drove over to Covington to operate on Lou Schultz’s C&O layout.  Overall the session went well, there were plenty of snacks to chow down on, and as usual, it was good to meet with fellow model railroaders.

And finally, this Saturday, January 26th, there will be the Train Day at the Library event at one of the local libraries here in Baton Rouge.  There will be numerous displays about railroading (prototype and modeling), possibly a display layout, and many slide presentations by Forrest Becht, a noted railfan and photographer.

Oh, BTW . . . I actually managed to get a bit of track laid on the Louisiana Central.  I’ve been struggling back in the corner of the room it seems forever, but we’re finally getting rail down.  I’m using Atlas code 83 track and switches for my hidden track (which is what I’m laying presently), and I’m not too impressed with the construction of the switches with regards to soldering jumper wires to them.  Soldering rail feeders isn’t too big a deal, but soldering jumpers to the points is!  They’re just formed sheet metal and I found it quite difficult to tack a wire to the lower portion of the point so it would clear wheel flanges.  Despite my efforts, I had to do considerable filing afterwards to clear the NMRA gauge nubs.  And the frog . . . what a pain!  The frog doesn’t accept solder well, but there is a small tab with a hole sticking out to one side of the frog.  I couldn’t find my taps, so drove to a friend’s house for him to tap the holes for me.  Then I screwed a 1-72 screw to each and added a nut to the bottom.  I placed a dab of solder below the nut so it will never come loose, then soldered a jumper to the screw.  Despite the precautions I took (good hot iron with freshly tinned tip, and a fast in and out technique) the thin plastic surrounding the tab melted away and the cast frog on one switch came loose from its mounting in the switch.  Now I need to figure out what kind of adhesive I need to use to adhere metal to slippery plastic so as to permanently reattach the frog on that switch.

That’s about it for now.  My main focus on the layout will be to get track laid, hopefully at a steady rate.  Leave a comment if you have any questions or suggestions.

-Jack

Another Progress Report

Benchwork construction is making slow, but steady progress.  I manage to get more done each weekend.  I’m still working the corner of the room that I wrote about in my last post, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I have the risers and roadbed complete along a 35′ length of layout now, and that will contain about 120 lineal feet of track.  About two-thirds of that will be hidden staging track, and that track is ready to be laid.  This past weekend saw the completion of the roadbed for that, and I’ve drawn the track centerlines out.  I spent Sunday afternoon (after watching the Giants crush the Saints…ouch!) studying the wiring diagrams for the Atlas code 83 switches that I’ll be using in the staging areas.  My intention is to solder a jumper onto every single piece of rail, not depending on rail joiners or pressed joints for electrical continuity.  That will probably be a PITA, but not nearly as much as trying to find open circuits a few years down the road when mechanical connections begin to fail.

I’ve had a couple folks comment about my slow progress.  Well, it’s been quite a few years since I did any layout construction, and even though I know generally what to do, I still feel like (and make the mistakes of) a rookie.  Since I haven’t established myself as a famous model railroading guru, I find that I don’t have legions of volunteers begging for the chance to assist in the construction of the next great model railroad.  Therefore I’m mostly stuck with doing this virtually alone, save for some occasional help from my friend Wayne (he provides those extra hands for ripping lumber and things of that nature).  The result of my inexperience and generally slow nature, and lack of experienced help, is somewhat tepid progress.

But, progress is being made!

After I get some track down, I’ll file another report, and probably post a couple photos on the website.

Merry Christmas to all…

-Jack

Sub-roadbed Work Started

I haven’t posted in over a month so I thought I’d post a short update on the layout progress.  As I mentioned last month, I had slowed a bit to take a breather from the intensity of benchwork construction.  Doing so gave me the opportunity to step back and think though the next steps.  As I started looking carefully at where to start roadbed and track, it became obvious that I needed to begin at the point in Willis where the Louisiana Central and Illinois Central tracks leave the layout and go into hidden staging.  As I evaluated the design, I came to realize that from a track plotting perspective, this was going to be a complicated lay out.  I have several tracks in the area all going into curves at various points and also starting down grades, again, at various points.  I finally decided that this area may work best using the “cookie cutter” method of sub-roadbed construction.  I’ve plotted and cut out some of the plywood sub-base.  Next, I’ll use that as a template to mark and cut out the Homasote for the sub-roadbed topping.  I still have to build and install all the risers for this sub-roadbed (about 22′ so far).

It also occurred to me that if I want to install the wiring as I go along (which is what I planned to do), that I needed to start drawing up a wiring diagram.  The layout will be powered and controlled with a Lenz DCC system.  I will have three booster districts; each of those divided into two or three sub-districts; each of which will utilize a DCC Specialties PSX circuit breaker for protection.  My wiring diagram will show these components with associated wiring, as well as tie points for the wiring.  Actual connections will be a mixture of direct wire-to-wire soldered joints, and screw type terminal (barrier) strips, the latter being to aid diagnostics when it becomes necessary to troubleshoot things.  The single most important thing I want to do as I lay track is to solder the feeders to the track and drop them through the roadbed as I progress.  I want to connect the track to the electrical bus as soon as each small section is done so it can be verified and debugged if necessary.

Anyway, I’ve spent a good bit of time working through the electrical aspects of the project, at the same time compiling a list of the supplies that I’ll be needing.  I need to order my terminal strips and a few other things, and admit that I had a case of “sticker shock” when I started pricing things.  Man!, prices have soared since the last time I bought any of this stuff.  I’ve checked the prices at Mouser, Newark and All Electronics.  Anyone have a favorite supplier that they recommend?

So that’s about it for now.  I’ll likely try to get some risers done this coming weekend.  I haven’t taken any photos since the basic benchwork was put up . . . I’m waiting until I actually spike down some track, even if it’s just a few feet.  I’m excited about the next few months because I have several weeks of vacation time coming, and I hope to utilize a good chunk of it for layout construction.

-Jack

The Cost of Model Railroading

I’ve been in the model railroad hobby for over 50 years now.  The first piece of equipment that I actually purchased myself was a rubber band drive Athearn GP9.  I don’t recall what I paid for that engine, but to a 13 year old kid, it was a small fortune.  I do remember buying Athearn “blue box” and Roundhouse freight cars for as little as $1.19.  My first brass locomotive was a PFM/United model of a U.P. 0-6-0 switcher.  Cost then was $34.50.  Jerry at Hub Hobby Shop in New Orleans allowed me to put that engine on layaway until the fortune was amassed.  By then I was working part-time jobs, and a mere year later I sprung for my second brass engine, another United model of a U.P. 2-8-0.  This baby set me back $44.50.  I still have those engines, and they are in running order (though neither has set driver to rail in over 15 years).

Over the years I’ve watched as prices increased on equipment and supplies, and even though I was dismayed to see things go up, when I put it into perspective of the overall marketplace for things, I realized that the prices for the most part weren’t really out of line.

Back in the early 2000’s, I made the decision to go with the Lenz brand for my DCC power and control system.  That decision was based in part on the knowledge that Lenz was developing a new radio control throttle utilizing a knob (which I prefer) for the speed control.  That throttle did not come to fruition, as Lenz abandoned the project quoting the difficulty and expense in making an international throttle that could meet all the various requirements of broadcasting both in Europe and the U.S.  Major disappointment!  But anyway, I had already purchased their Set01 which uses the LH100 tethered throttle, and decided to stick with their system.

Over the years I have added components to the system: a couple of the LH90 throttles with the big knob for speed control, a computer interface component so I could use DecoderPro with the system, and a few other odds and ends.  During these years, I had noted that the prices of the Lenz equipment essentially remained steady…so steady in fact, that I had wondered how they were able to do it.  Recently that all came to an end.  The U.S. distributor for Lenz products (Debbie Ames of Tried and True Trains) announced her retirement from the business.  Later it was announced that American Hobby Distributors (the wholesale arm of Tony’s Train Exchange) would become the new Lenz distributor.  In reading all this news, I suddenly became aware that the prices had taken a dramatic increase, with street prices rising between 40 and 50 percent!  Now I don’t fault AHD for this, and it’s hard to get angry even at the Lenz folks.  I’d bet that between the ridiculously long time that Lenz prices held the line and the instability in the financial markets, they really had no choice but to implement the increases.

This has caused a sudden shift in my financial priorities for the new layout.  I’ve started a search for the remaining components that I will eventually need, and luckily, I’ve found several vendors who are still selling at the older prices.  The most significant find was a new Set90, which gave me a new command station, 5 amp booster, and knob throttle.  I will use my old command station at the workbench now for programming (and it will also serve as a backup should the new CS fail).  I’m still hoping to get another throttle, one more booster, and a passel of the throttle plug-ins to go around the layout benchwork.

While it is painful delaying the layout construction for a brief period due to this diversion of funds, ultimately I think it will be a wiser use of my limited hobby dollars.

I hadn’t intended to get into such a long-winded dissertation about my DCC system purchases, but it kind of punched me in the face when I saw the huge price increase with Lenz.  As I look at the other equipment out there, pretty much all of it has dramatically increased in price.  Most of the prices have followed the traditional model of small, but steady increases over the years, so they don’t carry the “shock value” of the Lenz increase.  But even companies such as Athearn are no longer “cheap”.  It amazes me that so many huge layouts are being built these days; the costs have to be staggering!  But the upside to all this is that IMHO, the hobby industry is bigger and better than ever.  It is amazing to see the sheer dearth of products available now.  Despite the ever-rising prices, we’ve never had it this good.

For what it’s worth, I still think trains are cheaper than boats 🙂

Regards, Jack