Blackwater Canyon Line - September 8, 2024 - Town and Scratchbuild Planning

Mark the backside of your wiring has calmed me down a bit. I’ll still be lucky if mine turns out like that! LoL.

I’m now thinking about the few tight areas under my layout that I’m going to try to avoid wires. The layout I’m building has definitely gained a lot more wire compared to the last. I’ve picked up different types of wire holders, zip ties, etc. I’ve recently seen the pipe holders idea for wiring and I’m going to pick a few of them up. It’s a work in progress with some excellent learning experiences!

Thank you, Mike and Rich.

Mike, I can believe you when you say it is getting harder for you too.

Rich, I decided to use pipe clamps for the latest wiring instead of wire holders.  I would have bought plastic, but my local hardware store only had very large plastic clamps and metal conduit clamps.  Plastic is probably better in case a wire gets nicked, but since they are right in easy view, I decided to use the metal.  I only used one screw so it was easy to put the wires in the holder.

Morning Mark, I am just wondering what you are using the phone wire for?

That’s exactly what I’m aiming for Mark! I didn’t even consider the plastic over the metal but will now. Thanks!

Congrats!

Peter

Thank you, Mike, Rich, Peter!

Mike, that is 3 conductor stranded wire I used for the DZ1000s.  I used it all up and have 2 additional DZ1000s to wire.  One is a short run.  I may use three single strands of wire instead of buying the 3 conductor, which wasn’t cheap.

Hi Mark, I have a bunch of 8 conductor phone wire I use to reach my buildings with LED's Works great!

I have phone wire as well.  Wiring lights!  That’s another item!  I have never wired lights on a layout before.  Should be easy after the DCS wiring.

Mark we run a series of terminal strips around the layout for LED lights. Each building is wired and two wires are used to go to the terminal strips. Our building LEDs are divided into day and night, day only, night only, floodlights, Miller signs, and misc (vehicles, smoke collector, burn barrel, inspection pits, are examples).

They are controlled by the DCS remote. We used wall worts for power and used a relay like we did on the track power to make sure that there are no AIU problems.

We light all our buildings and often use different colors for different times like red in a control tower at night for visibility.

They have been easy to connect and work great.

We are discussing controlling the roundhouse and passenger station separately but so far have not seen the need. Computer control would be fun to do but that is beyond us. We need to find someone who knows how to handle this. Many of our buildings are divided into sections and would be easy to control.

Have fun.

Wiring look nice Mark.  Good job.

Tom

Thank you, Bill and Tom!

Bill, that is a good plan so that not all lighting is the same, that is all on or all off.  Yes, controlling them with the DCS remote would make it desirable to run the circuits through the relays in case of problems.  Thank you!

Tom, thank you for commenting!  I don’t recall seeing you post for a while, but have thought of your long distance layout building from time to time.

Hi guys, I love the idea of running the lights threw the AIU, but for now that is still out of my realm! LOL I still have to get to the point where I am hooking up the AIU for the switches! LOL

Mike, I have no idea if I will use the AIUs for lights or not.  At this point, I’ll just plan for wires and see what happens!  I do have a WIFI TIU on order.  If I like the wifi control, I’ll see if I want to control them that way too.😄

I will be watching as I have a lot to learn about a AIU!

Mark and Mike,

Within the past 2-3 years Bill Barrett wrote an article in OGR with regards to how to do this. Not using this technology I thought it was interesting but beyond me at this time.

Jay

Mike and Jay, I think the lighting circuits Bill did would be set up the same as we did for the track power routing.  They would just use a different power source.  How many LEDs go on each power source would need to be calculated.

Jay, I will have to look up Bill’s article.  Thank you

Jay, it took me a week, but I finally looked up Jim Barrett's article.  It is in Run 315, December 2020 January 2021.  I see it is the last of Jim's article.  The next issue is the tribute article by Rich Melvin.  Thank you for pointing it out.  I had totally forgotten about it.

Thanks Jay, like Mark, I’ll review that article too.

Andy

For the last couple weeks, I have been setting up all the track blocks in the DCS remote, running trains to test track and engines, and documenting the wiring.

The high line and 'water level' line are all working well, as is the long passing track and grades connecting the two loops.  I have used some pretty heavy trains with different engines and consists.  This has been far from exhaustive, but all seems to be working well, except for an occasional slight derailment, usually caused by me forgetting to throw a switch.    I have corrected a few places on the track for more consistent running.  I have not really checked out the new yard other than checking for power.

Besides naming each track block in the remote, I made up 'scenes' to select a group of blocks at a time.  Those include 'High Line', 'Low Line', yards, engine facility, passing track.  They work nicely.

I also made my rough draft documentation.  I printed out the top and bottom layers from SCARM and labeled each section and where the power gaps are with pen.  I still need to make a track correction in SCARM and add the track block numbers.  I also made a list showing each section, the number and name of each in the remote, and the terminal numbers on the terminal blocks, relay boards, and AIUs.  I will make a spreadsheet with this information on the computer, print it out, and also save it for posterity.

Thank you for taking a look see!!

Looks great Mark! Another in person visit to be planned when you have an open house.  Jeff

You can’t deny you didn’t enjoy running those trains, LoL.
Glad everything is running smoothly for you. Very nicely organized and documented too. Thanks for sharing Mark!

Looks like you got things coming along nicely Mark. Running sessions are in the near future with just a bit more elbow grease(and a couple of squirts of oil).

Mark your layout is looking so good! I am also glad things are running smoothly and things are working good! As you know I have a lot of wiring to do and just thinking about it makes my head hurt! LOL

@Mark Boyce posted:

Thank you, Mike, Rich, Peter!

Mike, that is 3 conductor stranded wire I used for the DZ1000s.  I used it all up and have 2 additional DZ1000s to wire.  One is a short run.  I may use three single strands of wire instead of buying the 3 conductor, which wasn’t cheap.

Mark - if you have extra 4 conductor phone line, maybe just use three of the wires to connect your DZ's and snip the ends of the 4th wire off. It's not stranded, but still probably easier than running 3 individual wires.

@Richie C. posted:

Mark - if you have extra 4 conductor phone line, maybe just use three of the wires to connect your DZ's and snip the ends of the 4th wire off. It's not stranded, but still probably easier than running 3 individual wires.

No, bend back and insulate it; it will ba a spare in case one of the other ones gets broken somehow.

Thank you, Jeff, Rich, Dave P, Mike, Richie, Dave!

Jeff, open house!  Oh my!  Remember how small the room is!  One or two at a time, and beware of the bouncer, Bentley!  🐶  Kidding aside, it would be nice to share it with someone.  My wife looks in the door or the window from the laundry.  No one else has seen it except our younger daughter and son-in-law, and they don’t want to watch trains, she just likes the bridges that go up and down.  😄

Rich, it is nice when the derailments or unplanned engine stops lessen!

Dave, I need some squirts of oil in my joints!  😄

Mike, yes thinking about the wiring can be daunting.  For me, thinking about getting the track smooth was daunting!

Richie and Dave, I have phone wire.  When I worked at the phone company, there were always lots of scraps.  Yes, we always wrapped the spares back over the outer jacket.  At the power company, spares were left hanging straight down.  Of course that was #10 thick jacket outdoor wire.  We don’t need that  😄

Next up are a couple little projects for Mike.

Several of you have mentioned Golden Spike videos and even live streams.  Both ideas sounded great, but I finally determined I wasn't going to be able to pull off the logistics of that anytime soon.  It's not a technical issue, but physical mobility issue on my part.  I hope to do something in the future.

Instead, I decided to take some still photographs of the Golden Spike, so I can move along.  This photograph shows the general location of the true Golden Spike on the track below my official Golden Spike.

I think this photograph depicts a more interesting perspective.  How did P&LE get in there anyway??   I need some paint.  Actually, I have been thinking of making the lower bridge a deck girder bridge to cover up the wood board the track is fastened to.

When I set the Golden Spike on the bridge, I thought there was a good chance I would forget it when I raised the bridge.  I was correct.  It surprised me as it slid and then make a clunk sound.  Sure enough, a corner broke off, and I have yet to find the small shard. 

Here is one last photograph with an overall view of the two grades.

I have realized I am coming back to a side theme that was a major theme on my N-scale WM-B&O layout from 30+ years ago.  Both railroads followed and crossed each other, so the high and low lines can sort of remind me of that from days gone by.

Congratulation Mark! Your layout looks great! Now your almost ready to start the stuff the brings it to life! A lot of folks feel your next step is the best part! Either way I wish you luck and will keep watching!

Congratulations Mark. I actually enjoy building benchwork and laying track. Not so much wiring. Nothing is more rewarding in a layout build than doing scenery. You then start to see the layout really come together. Looking forward to your next chapter of the build in getting it sceniced.

Congrats on hitting this milestone Mark. I went back to your first post on the topic....6 years and counting. You have been on quite a journey.

Sit back and enjoy the moment 'cause there's more work to do......

Bob

Congratulations Mark, and as Bob mentioned “… 6 years and counting “. This has been an educational journey for us as well as you graciously shared what worked and didn’t. We look forward to what comes next.

Jay

Congrats Mark!! That's such an awesome milestone and it looks great!!

@Mark Boyce posted:

Here is one last photograph with an overall view of the two grades.

I just have to ask; Just how do you get those cars off of the upper shelf?

Congratulations Mark!  Great work.  Thanks again for sharing your progress with us.  The Golden Spike is very cool too.

Looks great Mark! Congratulations! Can’t wait to see the scenery starting soon! As others have said, 6 years is quite the journey. Keep up the great work!

Great Job Mark!

@Mark Boyce posted:

Several of you have mentioned Golden Spike videos and even live streams.  Both ideas sounded great, but I finally determined I wasn't going to be able to pull off the logistics of that anytime soon.  It's not a technical issue, but physical mobility issue on my part.  I hope to do something in the future.

Instead, I decided to take some still photographs of the Golden Spike, so I can move along.  This photograph shows the general location of the true Golden Spike on the track below my official Golden Spike.

I think this photograph depicts a more interesting perspective.  How did P&LE get in there anyway??   I need some paint.  Actually, I have been thinking of making the lower bridge a deck girder bridge to cover up the wood board the track is fastened to.

When I set the Golden Spike on the bridge, I thought there was a good chance I would forget it when I raised the bridge.  I was correct.  It surprised me as it slid and then make a clunk sound.  Sure enough, a corner broke off, and I have yet to find the small shard. 

Here is one last photograph with an overall view of the two grades.

I have realized I am coming back to a side theme that was a major theme on my N-scale WM-B&O layout from 30+ years ago.  Both railroads followed and crossed each other, so the high and low lines can sort of remind me of that from days gone by.

Looks great, congratulations.

Excellent job on the organizing wiring and your meticulous documentation. Congratulations on the Golden Spike! It's been fun to follow along. I look forward to future progress.

Andy

Thank you, Mike, Dave C, Bob, Jay, Bill, Dave, Steve, Rich, John, Eric, Andy!!!!

I do look forward to building scenery.  That is my favorite part of the hobby; besides running trains and building buildings.  It almost makes me sick it has taken me 6 years to get to this point! 

Dave, here is how I get to the shelf above the layout.  My dad bought it a number of years ago, and when I was cleaning out his shop, I brought it home along with some tools.  It is soooo much better than the 3-step step ladder!!

The last couple days I have been working on a schematic for Mike.  It just shows one AIU and connections to a couple tracks and a couple switches.  I meant to do it last year, but Mike's request made it a priority for me. 

Mark, the stool looks nice and sturdy. The schematic is terrific, detailed and professional.

Andy