What a nice video. Attention to detail means so much, specially in O.

I'd never heard of shocvans, until now.

Paul Bartlett's Photographs | BR Standard Shock vans VSV ZDV ZYW (zenfolio.com)

Paul Bartlett's Photographs | BR (GWR design) shocvan (zenfolio.com)


Facinating.



Ed

Great!   

My big layout job for the next couple of weeks is to do wiring maintenance and up grade.  To that end i got some ferrules and a crimper:


The ferrules go over the stripped wire ends and are crimped:


They can then be inserted into the choc blocks with more reliability than previous, or at least that's what I hope:


I got through the first board today:


I should stress that the layout is DCC.

I added a new edge connector to the Tortoise motor in the middle.  This has screw connections and the edge connector is customized to the Tortoise board.  No soldering or packing.  This addition makes the Tortoise exactly equivalent to Cobalt.

Just above and to the right is the Wabbit stationary decoder for the Tortoise.  I actually have the Wabbit driving three Tortoises, the main one for the turnout that you see and two slave Tortoise motor synchronized to operate catch points.

The boards in the top left corner are short protection.  Since I had two in (from probably 20 years ago), I decided to use them.  One is for the main power buss, the other powers a buss for the Wabbit decoders.

Under the boards is the stationary decoder for the Peco signal.  It is not installed for transport.

At the top and bottom, connected by blue and yellow wires, are momentary push buttons.  These are wired to the Wabbit and when pressed once (not continuously) the Wabbit sends 3 secs of 12V DC to the Tortoise.

As I surveyed the wiring, I purged as much of the solid core wire as practicable, replacing it with stranded.

I also went around and used plastic screw clamps to get the wire under control.

I thought it might be useful to provide this info, hope it's not too boring.

Any questions?

John

The ferrules are a very good idea to stop strands and solid wires being cut in standard terminal blocks. Another alternative is to use terminal blocks with a "wire protector" strip built in so the wire is simply compressed without the screw coming into contact with it like these Heyco TB. Unfortunatly most DIY stores I have seen don't stock such things but there are plenty on the dreaded bay!

Those Heyco things look exactly like what I'm using.  I always called them choc blocks.  They don't appear on Amazon either which is weird.

Anyway, I have tons of these on the layout and I'm not about to change now.  They do work well and the ferrules should make things even better.

The club is using the same things for their big layout.

John

I use those ferrules too. When you tighten up with ordinary choc blocks, try not to go too hard as you can squash the ferrules with the screw. I use solder type terminals on a small piece of vero board which I then screw under the board.  I daisy chain these to connect multiple wires with the ferrules. I use a combination of plastic and metal wire clips. Having said all that, my wiring's still a right mess.

I like the idea of mechanical joints throughout the layout wiring Pete.  Makes troubleshooting and repair on the fly easier.

John

You're right, John. I need all the help I can get. The wiring works well, but if I have to trouble shoot, I'm in trouble. I started out determined to make the wiring tidy this time, but the usual thing happened.

Brossard said

As I surveyed the wiring, I purged as much of the solid core wire as practicable, replacing it with stranded.

From “Post #288,584”, 29th August 2023, 6:53 PM

Just wondering why you've removed the solid core wire John.



Ed

One of the faults I had at Exporail, Ed, was piece of solid core wire breaking, not just in one place, but two, at the choc block.  Probably weakened by the wire stripper.  Stranded wire won't do that.  Most of the solid core has been OK but I think as a matter of policy it all needs to be changed to stranded.

This has become a travelling layout and as such needs to extra reliable.

John

Understand, all needs to be a bit more flexible 👍


Ed

peterm said

You're right, John. I need all the help I can get. The wiring works well, but if I have to trouble shoot, I'm in trouble. I started out determined to make the wiring tidy this time, but the usual thing happened.

From “Post #288,598”, 30th August 2023, 7:35 AM

I think it takes perseverance and patience to get the wiring right.

The second board that I started looks awful but I hope to make it a lot better.


Since this was taken even more wiring was added.

Being able to follow the wiring routes will aid troubleshooting.  Some labelling as well.  I trust you have a wire colour convention.

John

Brossard said

peterm said

You're right, John. I need all the help I can get. The wiring works well, but if I have to trouble shoot, I'm in trouble. I started out determined to make the wiring tidy this time, but the usual thing happened.

From “Post #288,598”, 30th August 2023, 7:35 AM

I think it takes perseverance and patience to get the wiring right.

The second board that I started looks awful but I hope to make it a lot better.


Since this was taken even more wiring was added.

Being able to follow the wiring routes will aid troubleshooting.  Some labelling as well.  I trust you have a wire colour convention.

John

From “Post #288,618”, 30th August 2023, 12:49 PM

Yes, I certainly have, it's called anyfing goes. ;)

I finished the rewire of the second board today, well, mostly:


Even more complicated now than before.  I have added lamps since the first picture was taken so that takes a fair bit of wire (red/black).

Next job is to make the interboard connections.

John

That's a lot of wire 😲


Ed

There may be those who say "that's too much wire", but, having gone through this, I can say "there is just the right amount".

Wiring a layout is like a "join the dots" puzzle.

John

Board 3 is complete.  Pretty much the same story as the previous two.


 The thing to note here is the power distribution board below the empty square hole (these holes are a legacy of the track changes that have taken place).  I'm quite impressed with it.  DCC comes in from the right (green/black wires).  There's a 3 position switch which permits the output of 12VDC or 3VDC (I forget the other, probably DCC).  This board powers the LED lamps rated for 3VDC.

I have actually distributed the power this time, trying to keep the number of lamps connected to a single power output to a reasonable amount, 3 or 4.  Therefore there are lots of red/black wires.

Previously I had connected ALL the lamps to a single power output and they were pretty dim.  My thought was that there might be too much line resistance.  I don't know if this arrangement will be any better, just have to try it.

Still have to connect the interboard connectors on the right.  They're done.

John

Got this picture today:


 Credit D. Finch

Good overall view of the layout.  You can see one of the operators using a torch to do some coupling.

John

Nice layout well presented, John.