River City 3 Railers has several modular layouts. One of our smaller layouts is a 6x11 Postwar themed layout. During our "off season", a lot of work was planned. The Governor says groups of 10 or less, but the majority of our club members are adhering to 1 or less (certainly no more than two). Because of resource limitations, we have focused on getting the 6x11 work done first.
Many guests have reminisced about how they had a 4x8 just like this when they were a kid. It was originally built with only one lock-on per loop. Trains would slow down and speed up as they went around. Some folks liked the "feature", some really didn't like it. We were driving it with a Z4000. The wires to the original two lock-ons were "toasty".
We just added (not shown) 4 additional lock-ons for a total of 6; two per module. All lock-ons got new 18ga drop wires. There is a 4 conductor 18ga bus wiring on all three modules now. The modules are now interconnected with 4 pin trailer plugs.
This is the last of the layouts to receive plexiglass barriers. It was built intentionally lower so children can see better. But that has it's issues with grabby little hands. Jack has completed the installation of the plexiglass barriers. We made them so that any barrier will fit in any position all the way around the layout (hence the intentional gaps you see).
Last year, a gentleman donated his trains to our club. One of the items he donated was his KW transformer. Prior to giving it to us, he completely refurbished it. It operates perfectly. We had been using a Z4000 transformer for this layout. But, the "spare" Z4K is now in the large power cart. Given the Postwar theme, the KW is a perfect fit for this layout.
To ease in setup/teardown, the KW is prewired with banana plugs. I found these flush-mount sockets on eBay. We have also wired a 4 pin socket prewired so this layout can be plugged into the small power cart if we choose (in-leu of the KW). The small power cart is equipped with DCS, Legacy/TMCC and WiFi.
The KW transformer has mounting slots on the bottom. A couple of screws on this module will allow us to lock-down the KW when it is operation (one of the screws is covered with my wire stripper).
We run everything from prewar to the latest command control engines shipped just last week. To provide protection, we have added two DCC Specialties PSX1-AC circuit breaker boards. They are mounted in a 6x6 plastic junction box below the transformer. The trip current is selectable using jumpers on the board. Ours is setup for 4.8a. Should be prefect for use with the KW.
Left to be done: the area around the transformer is going to be repainted. My wife is hemming the skirts by 4" (to accommodate the plexiglass barriers). One of the members brought a helicopter car to play with on the big layout. It was a hit with the kids. We're going to add a section of operating track. Finally, buildings previously used on the 12x15 layout will be repurposed. In addition we have numerous Plasticville and Lionel kits to build to fill-out the postwar theme for this layout.
I worked for Vepco in Richmond from 1976-'78 and in Fredericksburg from 1985-'93. I do remember going to train shows at the wonderful train station/museum.
