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Hello OGR.  After about a year of reading your posts and lurking your threads and posting only once or twice, I'm finally starting my own thread, and it's in my favorite forum, the layout building forum.  I'm a 26 year old Penn State grad who never grew up with an electric train but has lived blocks from the Downingtown station on the Pennsy main my whole life.  I still to this day have my wooden trains that I started collecting before I was born though, and have always liked trains but they fell behind girls and sports and school and many other things along the way. The train bug really started to bite about two or so years ago on a trip over the abandoned PRR Trestle Bridge in Downingtown.  I've been on it before but this time after biking through the deep cuts in the hill approaching this massive span, the questions started to come out and I began to do internet research on the P&T branch, then the PRR and it snowballed into all things trains, especially O gauge and now I'm here.

 

 I've convinced my family that the only thing I want for Christmas this year is the Lionchief Plus PRR RS-3, and I've negotiated a 52x80 space in the smaller living room on the first floor for my "temporary Christmas layout".  I'm using 2'' green Lowes foam board as a base, with a little added on one end, and SuperSnap/ShadowRail track that I've gotten from semi-local Nicholas Smith Trains (THANKS!) for what I feel like have been good deals including six 031 supersnap switches.  The foam will lay on a solid wood table with leaves so I don't have to worry about benchwork. Eventually it will have green felt for a finished look. Like i said, I've done alot of lurking/research on this forum, so I've got a pretty good idea of what I'm doing, though it is all new to me. Just this week I've gotten started, I extended my foam 4' from 48' to 52', and have started piecing together my track, with my first attempt cut pieces working perfect for me tonight.  The reason that I am adding the extra inches is because my layout is displacing the area where the TV sits, so it is going to be between the two parallel rear tracks, and I'm planning extra clearance to be safe cause I really don't know what I need.  I'm thinking of using some extra foam to create a grade (and maybe some tunnel portals) on the rear track behind the screen. Pics show how far I've gotten, I'm working in my garage until after Thanksgiving.  I have a refurbished KW for track and separate switch power, but I still need to order my TVS diode and (5 or 7???) amp breakers and everything else for my wiring.  I'll attach pics of the track plan and SCARM file for you to have fun with.

 

As far as rolling stock I have been acquiring a few pieces along the way from a few forum members (THANKS to GunRunnerJohn who I met at his house), and also at the Allentown meet this weekend which I attended by myself on a last minute whim with almost no money in my pocket. I've been working the last two nights on this and typing away my sleep right now so I think i'll leave it at that for now, but I plan to drop back regularly with updates and questions, because I know I'll be making some classic rookie mistakes along the way.  Feel free to drop in with comments of advice.  

 

-David Walton

 

-DWbaseball

 

Also, Is there a way to wire my switch pairs to operate on one controller? 

 

scarm image

3dlayout

IMG_20151119_210154150_HDR

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Last edited by DWBaseball
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Nice work. You can certainly connect the switch controller wires together for route control. Just be careful to connect similar wires thru and thru, etc.

 

What does the switch controller look like?

 

I am not sure what you should use for breakers. I would be tempted to suggest that you use a 2, 3 or 4amp. Most of them break at 200% of hold. The train may only draw 2-3 amps.

 

If you get a 5A, the train will melt before the breaker kicks out.

 

One item you absolutely need to play with electric trains is a meter. get the small clamp meter at harbor Freight. That will let you do tests with probes and clamp around your wires from the transformer and check the current draw.

Ok, I cleaned up the track plan for you. I don't think you have half straight in Snap Track.

 

Select a track, it will turn red, then right-click it and select length of section. That will help you know where the length should be. Double check with an actual measurement while you build. It should be very close.

 

I bumped the inner loop wider with a half straight to lengthen the sidings.

 

You don't need terminal tracks if you can solder. Just solder the hot to the bottom of the center rail and to the outside rail. Pick a few tracks and solder a jumper across both outside rails to make sure both carry the common or neutral current.

 

The KW is a unique beast. Do you have the instruction manual for the connections?

 

SCARM attached.

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Moonman, 

 

Thanks for your responses, I'm going to try to cover a few things that you mentioned and that I missed last night. 

 

As far as the switch controller, I plan to use the ones that came with the switches, they actually say Lionel in the mounding of the plastic, and have a metal bar coming up with two lights. which makes sense because they are NOS from the k-line by Lionel period.  I'm thinking what I will do is just wire up one, then add jumper wires to the second in the pair, except reverse the sides that I connect because the way I have them set-up one switch the diverging path is Main, the other the straight path is Main.  Is this correct?  I still plan to triple check the instructions before I start my wiring.

 

Speaking of wiring, I plan to drill holes trough the foam for this so I can hide the wires from view underneath, That will be ok and not a crazy fire hazard or anything right? 

 

As far as Terminal Tracks go I have two designated terminal 10' straight pieces, I am going to use one at the very top of the Larger loop and the other on the bottom of the smaller loop right after the siding switches, I think this will be enough, also I am using track pins for every connection not simply relying on the SuperSnap Jumpers, this will add extra conductivity. 

 

Yes I have read the instruction manual for my KW.  I plan to use A-U as track power/commom, and then wire the B connection at a lower voltage for Aux switch power.  The common connection for switch power in this case is outside rail common.  and the U posts inside the transformer are connected, so I wont have a wire connected to the U post on the B side.  Correct?

 

And yes I have been loosely following the threads on the situation at RMT and the curious inventory that  has appeared on the market.  For $8 a cirlce of 072 i think I cannot pass up buying one even though they wont nearly fit my space, and I still need two track bumpers too so I think Pat's trains is going to shipping some items to me soon. I am sorry to hear that RMT may be on their way out, I was hoping that their products would be available for future expansion, though I wouldn't have chosen this track in the first place  if I hadn't known that It mates perfectly with traditional O tubular, so Menards might be my focus for expansion track pieces.  

 

Lastly, I have two K-line uncoupling tracks that I will use on each of my sidings, and my loco will have electro-couplers, so I should be able to do switching without reaching for coupler tabs.  However, I think It would be a good thing to place another uncoupling section at the top of the smaller loop, in order to cut off the caboose before I bring the train around the smaller loop counterclockwise to work the siding, at which point I can do switching with the caboose attached to the front of the Loco.  Does this sound like a good plan?  I have thought about leaving the Caboose on the outside track, but I kinda consider this as fouling the main even though there aren't any other trains in the picture. My plan for operations is to do a watered down version of the 223 Inglenook, where I pull cards or something to determine the order of cars in the train, then  make it up, though I might not bother with the yard lead length requirement at first.  Does anyone have any other ideas for fun operations?  I wish I could have incorporated a reversing loop but I decided on the siding tracks instead, my thinking is that I can run the RS-3 diesel long hood forward or backward to mix up the direction, which is more interesting anyway.  Will this work? And will I have major difficulties with the getting the Loco and caboose in the right places with my limited runaround ability.  

 

I appreciate all the help you've given me so far, this is all very exciting and I cant wait to see it all come together December 25th!

 

-Dave

Originally Posted by DWBaseball:

Moonman, 

 

Thanks for your responses, I'm going to try to cover a few things that you mentioned and that I missed last night. 

 

As far as the switch controller, I plan to use the ones that came with the switches, they actually say Lionel in the mounding of the plastic, and have a metal bar coming up with two lights. which makes sense because they are NOS from the k-line by Lionel period.  I'm thinking what I will do is just wire up one, then add jumper wires to the second in the pair, except reverse the sides that I connect because the way I have them set-up one switch the diverging path is Main, the other the straight path is Main.  Is this correct?  I still plan to triple check the instructions before I start my wiring.

 yes, you have the crossover on the curve.

Speaking of wiring, I plan to drill holes trough the foam for this so I can hide the wires from view underneath, That will be ok and not a crazy fire hazard or anything right? 

 No problem

As far as Terminal Tracks go I have two designated terminal 10' straight pieces, I am going to use one at the very top of the Larger loop and the other on the bottom of the smaller loop right after the siding switches, I think this will be enough, also I am using track pins for every connection not simply relying on the SuperSnap Jumpers, this will add extra conductivity. 

The trains will tell you. I you get slow downs and such add two more to the opposite sides

 

Yes I have read the instruction manual for my KW.  I plan to use A-U as track power/commom, and then wire the B connection at a lower voltage for Aux switch power.  The common connection for switch power in this case is outside rail common.  and the U posts inside the transformer are connected, so I wont have a wire connected to the U post on the B side.  Correct?

You'll be good as long as you have the manual for the correct posts. Check with a meter to be certain.

 

And yes I have been loosely following the threads on the situation at RMT and the curious inventory that  has appeared on the market.  For $8 a cirlce of 072 i think I cannot pass up buying one even though they wont nearly fit my space, and I still need two track bumpers too so I think Pat's trains is going to shipping some items to me soon. I am sorry to hear that RMT may be on their way out, I was hoping that their products would be available for future expansion, though I wouldn't have chosen this track in the first place  if I hadn't known that It mates perfectly with traditional O tubular, so Menards might be my focus for expansion track pieces.  

 

Lastly, I have two K-line uncoupling tracks that I will use on each of my sidings, and my loco will have electro-couplers, so I should be able to do switching without reaching for coupler tabs.  However, I think It would be a good thing to place another uncoupling section at the top of the smaller loop, in order to cut off the caboose before I bring the train around the smaller loop counterclockwise to work the siding, at which point I can do switching with the caboose attached to the front of the Loco.  Does this sound like a good plan?  

yes, it does.

I have thought about leaving the Caboose on the outside track, but I kinda consider this as fouling the main even though there aren't any other trains in the picture. My plan for operations is to do a watered down version of the 223 Inglenook, where I pull cards or something to determine the order of cars in the train, then  make it up, though I might not bother with the yard lead length requirement at first.  Does anyone have any other ideas for fun operations?  I wish I could have incorporated a reversing loop but I decided on the siding tracks instead, my thinking is that I can run the RS-3 diesel long hood forward or backward to mix up the direction, which is more interesting anyway.  Will this work? And will I have major difficulties with the getting the Loco and caboose in the right places with my limited runaround ability.

The operations will add fun Do it.

 

I appreciate all the help you've given me so far, this is all very exciting and I cant wait to see it all come together December 25th!

Have fun! Lots of good folks here to help and enjoy your efforts.

 

-Dave

 

Hello everyone!  Just wanted to share a bit of the progress I've been making on my train board.   I've been trying to to get a little bit done after work each night, because I understand it is a tedious process and I want it to be as far along for family to see at Christmas as possible.  

 

All of my interchange section is tightly pieced together and I have laid out exactly where they will lay.  You can see where I have started to use my knife to dig out some of the foam in areas where i will have the terminal connections for the switches.  I decided to quit halfway through and share my progress with all the good folks on here   

 

 

IMG_20151130_205754119

 

What I have done with a bunch of the track pieces is use little four inch zip ties to bind the track connections via the plastic ties.  You can see if you look closely at this picture the zip tie heads are sometimes raised above tie height but still below the railhead. Even with the wheel flanges i cant see these ever giving my trains a problem. Do you?

 

 

 IMG_20151129_135227169 

 

List of things to do.

 

1. Finish foam work leaving spaces for all wiring and spots to zip tie the track down to the foam board.   Also need to determine how I'm going to build the grade of the rear track up to about 2in and back down.  I think I need to do this before #2.   

 

2. Lay the green felt and make cuts for wires. 

 

3. Wire everything up, break out the KW and use newly acquired multi-meter to test voltage levels throughout.  Hope nothing blows up.

 

4. I want to build a derailment fence around the edge using something like chopsticks as fence posts and use fishing line between them.  I really don't wanna derail this thing onto the floor 

 

5. scenic elements

 

6. have fun playing trains.

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Images (2)
  • IMG_20151130_205754119
  • IMG_20151129_135227169
Last edited by DWBaseball

Coming along nicely!

1. Cut blocks of foam for the risers for the grade at the track joints. Starting at the curve just past the switch it's a 2.1% slope. You can bevel the tops at 2°. A big knife will work.

(see attached SCARM with the elevations marked)

 

I left two straights at the center (20") for a bridge. You should be able to find an old #317 for $20. Ask Chris at Nicholas Smith.

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Last edited by Moonman

Here are some new pictures where you can see where the TV is going to sit on the layout.  I think there is going to be just about enough space that I'm going to be good on my clearance.  I've spent alot of time in SCARM with the measuring tape and it seems like I was successful.

IMG_20151205_113719719

Right now I think the foam Inclined outside track is my biggest struggle, what i think I am going to go is pull the pins on that Oval and put it aside while I lay the Green Felt around the inner track and switches area.  I am going to Run Zip ties through the board over some Ties to hold it all in place, because I am going to have to rotate the whole thing in order to get it inside. Also, my plan as of now is to Hot glue the foams before I felt over them (which wont work when its this cold in PA), and this way I can get a feel of what the whole thing will look like where It's eventually going.  

IMG_20151205_113640402

I've also drawn up the schematic for my layout, and the my TVS and breakers came in the mail today.  I'm also going to post it in the electronics thread.  I'm using a KW and I plan on using one of those terminal blocks to distribute my power.  One thing that I've been working on is wiring prep work like cutting stripping and crimping. Im using spade and the eyelets crimp connectors, and what I did was screw a bunch of the eyelet connectors together with a machine screw, one for each switch and then i will run one to my Terminal strip.  Anyone see anything wrong with that.  All my wire is 14 GA, IMG_20151208_211644403all they had at the mom and pop hardware, but i managed red(hot), white(common), and blue(accessory)

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Images (3)
  • IMG_20151205_113640402
  • IMG_20151208_211644403
  • IMG_20151205_113719719

Scarm shows the elevation for the blocks at the track joints. They need to be as wide as the ties and the given height. Place them and trace the location. Then glue the blocks to the table.

If you want the to look like piers of block or stone, use a pencil to make the grout line and the pattern of block or stone. Then, pain them with acrylic artist's paint (WalMart) or latex.

Don't let it give you a hard time.  It may be easier, as you are thinking, to make them and put them in place after relocating the table.

A large chef's knife or machete cuts the foam nicely.

Last edited by Moonman

Almost forgot, liquid nails will hold the foam securely. The label will tell you if it's suitable for foam. There different types. Smalls dots will do the trick.

The other technique for the zip ties is to drill through the foam and table where you want to tie down the track. Let the head sit on the tie. On the underside, slide the locking head of another tie onto the part sticking through and pull snug, but not real tight. Don't want to flex the track.

I hope that helps.

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