Updated plans and now moving ahead

[user=1120]peterm[/user] wrote:

….
I had a large layout under our previous house and built a cdu hefty enough to throw eight points in one go. Needless to say I had to put resistors in for single point motors.

Thx Peter,

Tell me more about the resistors you used. I'd thought of that route but was worried the high instantaneous current would be an issue.

What resistance (ohms) and current rating if you an remember. That would be of interest!

I did some resistors for a mate using a mix of solenoids _ Peco & Atlas  & found 5 ohms 10w are OK.

Exactly as Ron said. Ceramic resistors.

Thx guys :doublethumb

A quick reminder why I'm so grateful for the advice I received on  baseboard structure. This picture shows 5 of the 6 turnout motors which  sit between 1200 and 1800mm on the layout and the relative simplicity of  installation when you you use the L-Girder support.



I've temporarily joined two separate panels as some of the turnouts and track  overlap the central cut. In this design all solenoid feeds are three  wire lead so I settled on JST 3-pin plugs and sockets. They work very  well, are easy to assemble and make testing and changes very easy work.
 
As ever, precise alignment of the turnout tie bar with the motor pin is  the most tricky but even this was made easier with the hole alignment  tool referred to earlier.

Cork Underlay

Recently, I posted this elsewhere on YMRC but was not killed by a tsunami of answers, so here goes with try #2.

Having cork higher on the main (1.5mm) than in sidings  (none) is what I finally chose for Upper Hembury. So it's the same 1.5mm  transition as favoured by at least one respondent to my poll.

Now I'm into laying track, how do I best "fade" from the 1.5mm elevation down?
I was thinking perhaps a progressively thinning layer of card but that's quite some work as I'll have 6 lines in total.

Also over what distance to make the transition?
All suggestions welcomed please!

If all else fails, I'll put it down all using the same underlay, I have appropriate trap turnouts in the design.

 Colin

I suspect the lack of answers is simply because we don't know !
Cork simply refuses to accept sanding (with domestic sanders at least) and 1.5mm only requires a small gradient ………

My thoughts would be cardboard packing at mid point then, when the time comes, infill the voids with ballast.

As for the length of the grade - as ever, as long as possible ………..

Hello Colin.  Faced with a similar problem I did exactly as you suggested - stepped down the height with thinner card (cereal packet).  It appeared to work quite well and once ballasted looked fine. The transition was only over a length of about six inches.  Plastic flexible track can take the height difference in its stride with no problem.
Terry

Thanks Peter / Terry.

Others' solutions remain of interest as I've a little time yet until I get to sidings. Next up is testing all the main track which I've laid.

Just a thought Colin on the depth of the ballast.  According to my copy of 'Requirements For Passenger Lines And Recommendations For Goods Lines' published by HMSO 1950, on important lines there should be not less than 6 inches of ballast below sleeper beds. So, strictly speaking, your cork or whatever should be at least 2mm thick if you are modelling in 4mm scale.


 For some reason which I can't fathom, I have always wrongly assumed that the ballast should be 1ft (or 4mm in 4mm scale) deep.

Terry

[user=711]col.stephens[/user] wrote:

Just a thought Colin on the depth of the ballast.  According to my copy of 'Requirements For Passenger Lines And Recommendations For Goods Lines' published by HMSO 1950, on important lines there should be not less than 6 inches of ballast below sleeper beds. So, strictly speaking, your cork or whatever should be at least 2mm thick if you are modelling in 4mm scale.


For some reason which I can't fathom, I have always wrongly assumed that the ballast should be 1ft (or 4mm in 4mm scale) deep.

Terry

Thanks Terry,

fortunately plenty of wriggle room for me in the above, viz.

1950 - ( I'm much earlier)
important line - hardly
very little of the passenger line tracks will be visible from the viewing side, obscured by station, signal box, sidings etc

and finally in the setting I can hopefully give the impression of greater depth than my cork permits

Hello Colin.  I'm not sure that the 1950 date is important.  The required depth of the ballast would have been established probably at least a century before.  When the publication speaks of 'important' lines, I think that it is actually referring any running line other than goods lines.  After the 'important' lines it goes on to give the requirements for goods lines, using ash instead of chippings, etc.
Of course, half a millimetre difference in the thickness of the cork trackbed is going to make no difference at all.  And anyway, it's your layout and Rule 1 applies!

Terry

I'm a little behind with updates as there's been a lot going on in these parts.

Firstly; how to moderate the action of an overly forceful solenoid in three easy steps.
 
1) regulate the voltage; in my case I dialed down to the voltage which worked fine over my longest line.
Ceramic  Resistors inserted in line have been used by others when there are  significantly different needs at different solenoids in a set up.
 
2) add a PL-13 beneath (Its normal purpose is to enable frog power switching but here purely acts as a resistance brake preventing blade recoil)
thanks to helpful input I've taken to pulling the PL-13 apart and lubricating the contact surfaces with graphite powder to give me consistent operation
 
3) add a shock absorber inside the PL-9 mounting Plate
This is shown in the photo below.
 
It is a strip of the second toughest material (after Kryptonite) known to man, viz, an old credit card!
Cut into a strip with a narrow slot about 2.5mm -3mm long in the  centre. This to restrict the solenoid wire travel too far to each side.
Shock absorbance comes from a pea sized blob of Black tack at each side  under the plastic card. The strip absorbs the shock of excess power  from the solenoid remarkably well and quickly self- centres for  continuing effective action.

I've been working thru the various installs involved in the busy  section between 1200 and 2400mm of the station approaches. This included  final additions of exit rails to turnouts, finding best locations for  their droppers etc. etc.. In addition the two Cobalt stall motors have  been fitted to the slip, resolving the issue of firmly locking switch  blades.
       
      Droppers for all components and associated track are now in place, and  not trusting that some gremlin won't pop up, I've used choc blocks to  consolidate 2 or 3 sets of leads so that any necessary raising of the  top boards will only involve a few main connections. Beginner's caution,  no hard soldering here!
       
      This shows how busy / central these 1200mm of board are to the whole,  seven solenoids and 1 Cobalt (half the Single Slip). The benefits of  consolidating the droppers are clearly visible WRT tidiness. Leads are  not labelled but the sources are, that might be something to come back  to do later.




The topside view is little changed except that all the relevant track is here together.



 

Looking good.  Glad to see I'm not the only one who uses miles of wire!!!

Loving the traverser - 7 tracks for a good range of trains.

Barry

The last week or so has been spent getting all the various sets of  connections finalised and checked. This shows the end result for the  three boards spanning 1200mm to 3200mm. Switching directions and frog  polarities all checked as correct.




 
In this post the original base-plate to the Control panel is shown.  More of this later, for now suffice to say that my 4 Cobalts have been  installed on the most critical turnouts, Slip *2 + one on the approach  road to the traverser and another on the Goods Yard / Runaround main  entrance. All work very well.
       
      What you see is mostly recycled wiring.
       
      The cobalts require three lines, I chose 15V DC +/-( to match my  Solenoid feed) and a line bisecting this voltage, designated for  feedback / LEDs on the Control panel. There is a minor point to note  here; DCC Concepts helpful guide shows you how can insert opposed LEDs  directly in the DC feed to provide direction indication back at the  switch. This is true and would avoid the need for a third line; there is  a BIG "however" lurking in this for the unaware!
       
      The Cobalt Omega Classic has a maximum operating current of 20mA, this  (I believe) regulating the flow thru the LEDs. I powered up the Cobalt  and recoiled from the "Chernobyl" like flash of light surging from my  indicator LED. Outshining my other tailored LED indicators like a  Supernova over a Red Dwarf, I needed plan B. Here the feedback line is  useful, unlike the power supply lines, this can have a resistor in line  so popping in a 1KOhm my paired LEDs shone at the desired level.
       
      For the connections I needed 3 line cable and here some recovered 4  stand Comms. cable, 16m of it which I'd carefully kept for that rainy  day came handy. You can see the bundled cream cables that keep wiring  very tidy. A combination of alternatively using the yellow and green as  the feedback line and choice of 4 pin JST connector endings gave me  unique wiring connections for each Cobalt back to Control.
       
      Most of the other short dropper and connection leads were recovered  from my final desktop PC. The various PS feeds there are a productive  source of suitable lengths in Red, Black, Yellow and Orange cable of  good weight.



A test run has not yet been tried as other matters drew me  away, again. The Control Panel work will follow soon.
 

I've made reasonable progress on various fronts, most importantly a  loco travelled end-to-end and back on the track laid so far, testing out  my frog wiring for real over various routes.
       
      The Control panel gave me some headaches, mainly because my mental  image of how it would go together was somewhat deficient! There is a lot  going on under the hood / bonnet and to cut a long story short a major  rethink or two of the plan was needed to get it all together in a form  that is accessible. The photo shows it in its current state but I  suspect I'll be rebuilding it at some point down the track.



Other progress can also be seen here. Cork underlay has been put down  for all the station lines and the runaround while the four lines exiting  into the Goods area have card ramps to bring them down 1.5mm to  baseboard level.



 
      Finally, the track plan has been partially relaid, now on top of the cork, the earlier version  having been too long in service as a workbench top / toolbox, drinks  coaster and dumping ground etc. to its general detriment.



 

The station building is temporary, a hand me down from Westown-Heathfield and while  the setting sits at the edge presently, the plan is to have a secondary  board coming forward a short way. This will need to be removable to  allow for access to the rear corner. The same will apply in front of the  controls panel which is shown here pushed back, it slides out for use

Coming on nicely Colin.  I'm a great planner but there are always things that get changed - some things just look better on paper than they do in the flesh (as my wife often says  :oops:)

Barry

A couple of test runs on the track and turnouts laid (temporarily) so far. All frogs have switchable power now.

The first video goes onto the traverser and then returns via the other access road.

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Good to see you making progress, Colin.