Great Northern railway

Cleveland visit:

Took daughter for a visit to where I grew up.  She was born in Cincinnati.

They have a light rail system (RTA) that runs from the airport to down town and continues to the east side.

it runs along the main corridor for heavy train traffic from New York to Chicago.

Down town flats have a lot of really nice bridges.

Down town terminal square.

Where passenger trains once arrived.

Couldn't leave out where Ralphie saw his red rider BB gun in the store window

and the Lionel train display!  Sadly, it's now a casino.

No, that's not Jodi Foster, that's my daughter!

1/3 scale railroad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...amp;feature=youtu.be

3rd Saturday night GNRW operating session.

Had a good time.

Joe had his 3 diesels: two pulling and one pushing.  A first on my layout.

Rick brought a N&W Y6b and a class A.

Mike brought a C&O allegheny.

Using DCC allowed 4 long trains on the mainline at one time, some following just a few 100 scale feet behind each other: couldn't have done that with my old DC setup.  That kept me busy where trains passed each other at two key sidings.

The use of the 3 track return loop/staging got a lot of use by not stopping at the St Paul yard and going, instead to the 'loop'.

Of course, the two pizza's went quickly along with the junk food and beverage!

After a few 'war stories', we finished up around 11:30.

Sam, sure looked like a fun night! I hope everything went smooth!

This has been the heaviest use of the DCC since it's installation as there were several trains/engines moving at once.

One problem that occurred was when one train was shorting, then the entire GNRW was shorted.  I thought it would be easy just to turn off block toggles to locate it but the engineer usually knew if it was his train but it was annoying that the entire layout was shut down.  Usually, only for a matter of 15-60 seconds but still annoying.

I'm looking at getting circuit breakers for the layout.

I found a video saying auto bulbs 1156 in series will act as a circuit breaker.

I put one in series for one block and it didn't work for me.  The video claimed he's been using them for 15 years with no problems.  I'm guessing my latest digitrax isn't compatible with the 'bulb' method. 

Two districts set up.

The 2nd CB board was installed for Blocks B-5,6 and all worked great.

I had several DCC engines on the layout including one in District 2. 

An induced short in district 1 had no affect on district 2 or the other DCC engines and the command station did not 'beep', which indicates a short, thus the CB is "doing it's job".

The reverse was done shorting out district 2 with the same results.

I can now order 6 more onguard CB's to cover the remaining districts.

I soldered some LED's to the CB to indicate power/short status.

Forgot to mention that I spoke to the tech man on running DC through the CB's and no problem: they just won't recognize a short.

GN W-1 electric (custom brass) decoder install.

With no electric sounds, I used the TCS 1485 KAM4 with keep alive for the electric.

GN P-2 4-8-2 decoder install.

The usual TCS 1517 Wow 101-KA steam for this engine.

Drilled out the marker lights and installed LED's for marker, head light (engine and tender), running board lights and fire box.

GN Y-1 electric (tenshodo) converted to DCC.

As with the W-1, a TCS 1485 KAM4 with keep alive decoder was used.

The motor is a huge open frame motor.  I left it in and will see if the decoder can handle the amps.  Fortunately, both ground and hot had insulated tabs so no insulation of the motor from the frame was necessary. 

Surprising, this engine is very quiet, even with an open frame motor.

The W-1 electric with two can motors is very noisy.

samparfitt posted:

GN Y-1 electric converted to DCC.

As with the W-1, a TCS 1485 KAM4 with keep alive decoder was used.

The motor is a huge open frame motor.  I left it in and will see if the decoder can handle the amps.  Fortunately, both ground and hot had insulated tabs so no insulation of the motor from the frame was necessary. 

Surprising, this engine is very quiet, even with an open frame motor.

The W-1 electric with two can motors is very noisy.

That's a beauty

Thanks, Jim.

=========

GN P-2 4-8-2 mountain (tenshodo) decoder install.

Wire connector pin made for headlight, marker lights and running board lights.

8 pin connector made for engine to tender.

A lot of short pieces of heat shrink tubing keeps the wires flexible, together as well as makes them look like piping.

Wiring complete.

Two electrics plus the mountain recently converted to DCC.

Train show at Springfield, Ohio.

One day show covering 2 buildings and a connection building on county fairgrounds.

Some nicely built up walthers buildings selling for what the kits cost.

Two modular layouts: HO and N.  A lot of work for a one day show.

This guy always has the corner spot and mint pre war and post war lionel.

Had one of these Gilbert sets when I was around 7 or 8.

Rob and I went to the same collage: this year is our 50th anniversary reunion: long time ago!

Picked up a few items.  

2 bucks each for some power packs for layout lights, etc.

Can always use 1/16" diameter heat shrink tubing and terminal strips.

Some torx heads and a hot wheels for grandson's birthday.

Americana.

Took the back roads to the event.  More relaxing and can actually see stuff versus highway!

County court house.

Farmers ready for spring.

Kind of houses that railroaders want, with full basements.

Went over to Ric Case's house who only lives several miles away.

He models EBT (East Broad Top, narrow gauge) in a 1700' space and about a 400' mainline.

He also likes D&RG narrow gauge so I 'chased' a K-27 along it's route.

Good use of an O gauge signal bridge!

Interface with the Pennsy.

EBT (cont)

Some 1/32 scale auto racing located below 'track level'.

Americana:

Left from  my daughter's house in Middletown, Ohio and took the back roads.

Some nice modeling buildings!

A couple heavily used main lines through town.

A lot of nice houses along, what else, Main street: probably the most popular street name in america!

A lot of houses still have slate roofs which would cost 50-100 grand to duplicate, today, just for the roof!

PSX circuit breakers (CB) arrived yesterday.

They have to be re-programmed for digitrax: which is easy and only requires moving a program connector and powering on/off the system.

I tested them, as the instructions say, by shorting out the 2 output terminals.  

Momentary shorts no problem but a 3 second short causes the command station to short and the command station then shuts down voltage which shuts down the CB's.  The tech man says the short was too long and normal and 'under normal shorts' they will operate correctly.  Doesn't seem normal to me as it seems this will shut down the entire layout.  He gave me Larry's email, who developed the circuitry so I emailed him about it and awaiting a reply.  See below for train test.

Since I had the CB's, I installed them (right side, 8 total) and will conduct a 'on going' test of them.

One can route just one set of hot/ground wires to all the inputs to the CB's but I wanted to still be able to run DC so the block toggles were grouped into 8 districts and routed, via new terminal strips, into each of the CB's.  

The tech man says I can run DC through the CB's; the CB's just won't detect shorts in DC mode. 

I used green tape to indicate districts and, since multiple blocks now go through 

one CB, all related district block toggle wires were bundled into one wire and routed through its respective CB.  

Only one block toggle is needed to activate that district so it was also marked green.  This reduces any DCC toggles to be turned off, in case of isolating a short, to only 8 toggles.  Not counting the 3 track reverse loop which is controlled by a PSX-AR.

So far, one train has been run from Seattle to the return loop.  

All 8 district toggles were turned off to test isolation of each district, so as the train entered the next district, the train stopped until the next district toggle was activated. 

I did have a couple derailments and the engine kept running.  I'm guessing no short resulted from the derailment.

I'll have to run some cars through a closed turnout and watch what happens to a train on the mainline.

Lots of testing to be done, yet.

Got a reply from Larry.

Need to buy some spst normally closed.

The problem is that the 210 does not like the auto reset function of the PSX. This is easy to fix. Install a jumper J7-1 to J7-2 with a normally closed push button in series with the jumper. The PSX will trip but will not try to reset. Once the fault is fixed, you can reset the PSX by pressing the button (opening the jumper). You can also reset the PSX by sending a SWCH command to address 997 and hitting c. To use this address, you will first need to remove power, install the Digitrax configuration jumper (J7-3 to J7-4), move the program jumper to the program position, apply power, and wait for D6 to stop flashing. Remove power and restore the jumper to the operate position. This will set the default address to 997. Use SWCH, 997, then c to turn the PSX on. A t will turn it off.

I now wished I would have put all the CB's along the top of the control panel, exposed so I can see them.  I'm going to have to relocated them all.

New delivery.

Got 12 terminal strips for 19 bucks, shipped.  

If you're building a  layout, one can go through these like pop corn.

CB's moved to above the main control panel.

First, two green wires were soldered to J7-1,2 for the spst toggles 'normal closed' buttons that will arrive in a few days.

Both '4 sets' of CB's were moved to above the main control panel for ease of identifying which CB is shorting plus able to push the reset button (SPST) after the short is cleared.

Took about 3 hours to move and rewire the CB's.

Probably a narrow 1/4" thick piece of ply will be mounted along the left side of each bank of CB's for the spst buttons.

All eight districts were marked D-1 to D-8 on the main control panel and also the CB's.

Except of D-8 (off to the far left), the remaining district labels are sequential and aligned with each other.

Re-test after moving CB's above main panel:

Was wondering why the chuffing was so 'soft' but realized that, with only a 17 car train, there's not much voltage needed by the motor so the decoder keeps the chuffing low.

Made up some narrow 'panels' to hold the spst button toggles when they arrive.

Always something!

Once in awhile a car or two would derail coming from the 3 track return loop onto the mainline.  There's two turnouts and a curved crossing and I thought that was the problem but two rail ends were miss aligned and causing it.

I needed the above creeper and had to move a large building to get to it, just barely!

Lucked out on the creeper as it is at its max height and just cleared the upper yard lead tracks.

Sam, I am happy you were able to fix your problem!

The CB area looks nice.  It will be nice to be able to see the shorted one and reset it.

I'm going to have to get one of those top creepers also.

Gene Anstine

Fellow modeler's SF F7 A-B-B-A set:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...amp;feature=youtu.be

Also, his SP freight engines:  2 up front and one pushing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...amp;feature=youtu.be

SAMPARFITT, what dcc system do you use? As I understand it is Digitrax, correct?

Nice videos Sam! Thanks for sharing!

NSfan: 

Correct: digitrax.

====

Thanks, Mike,

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CB's for each district.

The spst normally closed toggle buttons arrived and installed.

I had to push all of them to engage them, properly.

District 3 tested (middle CB).  Output LED off and center LED on.

Push button resets it.

I think I'm going to like this method as, once it's off, one has to push the button to reset it, thus eliminating any possible severe damage happening to the command station or decoders instead of the old method where the command station kept beeping due to a short.

Going back to the 'lionel' days

A BLI working water tower.

Still needs a little weathering.

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...amp;feature=youtu.be

A few engine terminal pictures.

samparfitt posted:

 

Dang, and I thoughtI had too many hats! Interesting place to hang them...

New delivery.

My backup turntable arrived that I ordered a few weeks ago.  I asked them to test it first to make sure there were no 'bugs' in it and they wrote on the outside box, tested.  I'll test it, just to make sure, and store it for parts, etc in case one of the two on the layout ever 'goes south' on me.

pictures getting errors.

O gauge layout visit after last Sunday's NMRA Div 7 meeting.

900 degree helix.

Tested the new turntable from walthers that they said they tested before shipping.

This one also has the defective circuit board.

Someone didn't get the 'word' on how to test them!

On well: it's my 'backup'. Will wait for the new circuit board to be delivered.

Local railroad visit.

Visited another NMRA member's , Bob Chapman, SF and WP layout.

DCC digitrax.

6' bridge

Bob with a duplicate of John Allen's 'original' layout.

Some nice railroad bridges crossing the Ohio river in Louisville, Ky.

Last GN operating session until Fall.

Took a few pictures of engines brought over to run on the GNRW.

          GREAT PICTURES  !!!!!

NMRA Div 7's MCR regional meet.

Registration started this morning and the meet runs from Thursday through Sunday.  (5-17 to 5-20).

360 pre-registered and, so far, 7 'walk ins'.

registration desk:

A few of us telling 'war stories'

George minding the hotel layout.

Overhead trolley wires for another hotel layout.

Went over to Bob's layout that was open this afternoon.

Tomorrow starts all the clinics, white elephant sale, etc.

NMRA Div 7's MCR regional meet (cont)

There were several bus tours to steel plants, etc.

An interesting N scale module representing a steel mill using novel items for structures. 

Contest room.

A lot of nice structures that I would like to see on my layout!

White elephant sale.

Items that railroaders were selling.

I bought a Walther's 3 stall add on roundhouse kit.

I was able to visit two of the 60-some layouts that were open for visiting.

Don Leedy's UP layout.

Bob Lawson's layout.

There were lots of clinics and all were well attended.

I managed to attend 9 of them.

On Sunday morning, my GNRW was open for visitors.