What did you do on your layout today?

Literally a case of the kit hitting the fan... 

Mitch

New "Under The Hood" up!  This time, it's adapting a gi-raffe ramp to FastTrack!

https://ogrforum.com/t...raffe-actuating-ramp

Mitch

I bought a recordable sound module and added an 18-second clip of Grandpa Jones singing "That Good Old Mountain Dew" to my hillbilly scene.

love watching Grandpa on Hee Haw, especially when he breaks out the banjo!

and I've been off 5 days, and the only time I've been in the basement was to replace the water heater.....now the Mrs wants to take her VW for a ride...

As promised, today I attended the second Mass at St. Lionels and pancake breakfast. I was pleasantly surprised. Considering the somewhat modest exterior, I had not anticipated an interior of such great opulence...

It was a full house, doubtlessly due to the recently improved access. The pancake breakfast was equally impressive. The pancakes were positively Biblical...

I assured Father Carmine that I'll be returning to St. Lionels.

But did you stole the mar-jar-een? 

Mitch

well if you fit all that into that little church.....then we need to talk about my basement.....

Father Carmine knows how to throw a fundraiser and he is reknowned for his Sunday Pancake breakfasts.  Better not let the Pope see that pic, or Father Carmine's annual kickback to the Vatican will be in question!

-Pete

PS great post, Jon!

I bought a recordable sound module and added an 18-second clip of Grandpa Jones singing "That Good Old Mountain Dew" to my hillbilly scene.

WOW !!!!

YOU got to make a video of that for us to see, It's got to be fantastic.

Larry

Larry, thanks so much for your comments.  I'd love to share videos with the guys and gals, but have not been able to figure out loading them into the PC.  I was able to, back when we had Windows 7, but since 8 and beyond - no luck.  But anyway, the sound out of the module is pretty poor - just a fun, whimsical thing. 

I bet it is a fun thing. I still watch that crazy show on re runs every once and a while.

Probably like a lot of us old country boys here in East TN.

My Dad was also a BIG fan back in the early days of the show with some of the older stars at the time like Minni Pearl,  SO FUNNY

Larry

I spent an hour looking for the reason I had dead tract between two back to back switches.  Finally found that the suitcase connector I used did not make contact with the wires.  I used a fresh connector and that did not work either. Finally I used a cheaper suitcase connect and it worked fine.  That section of the layout uses different wire then the rest of the layout so now I need to check all the connectors to see if they work.  It is always something 

Al

Minnie Pearl was the spitting image of my Grandma.

Rearranged some track work.

Harbor Freight had a close out a couple of weeks ago for the cushioned interlocking floor pads.  I finished putting them down on the concrete floor of the train room today.  It sure makes a very big difference in comfort. Wish I did this a couple of years ago. 

Ed

Hello  Well today I ripped down A couple of pieces of the MDF boards. Now I need to add more riser supports which this is my 1st O gauge layout that I am building from the ground up. You guys are the experts. I can take the advise all you have to do is tell me if I am doing something wrong. I am a big boy. I also know I have started this collection almost 15 years ago. And I started this layout about 2 - 3 years ago after all my medical problems wear getting better.  So let me know what I need to do next.

OK... 128 hoppers... correct?

I drove out to MB Kliens to pick up a repair and drop off a repair yesterday.  Of course I browsed a bit as well.  Nice store!!

Yesterday, I brought three Steamers out of storage and ran a few laps around my layout.  My Lionel 6-8-6 Turbine # 2020;  my PRR 6-8-6 Turbine # 671 and my

PRR  4-6-4 # 2065.  Nothing like post-war Steamers, but man, are they heavy !!

I also brought out a # 2035 with a 6466W tender.....  BUT, it runs and sounds terrible !  Probably has a bad motor or axles.

My Rail-King Cab Forward, SP # 4294, is on the bad order list, sadly!  One of the traction tires came off the driver and somehow, one of the connecting rods runs through the middle of the tire.  Explain that !!

Will be taking the loco to Eastside Trains for repair !  The tender has also been making a loud humming noise when I turn on the power.  'Dustin' at Eastside Trains says it sounds like a bad regulator board.  He'll be going over the whole thing.  Lube and everything!

Cheers.

KRK

Ken,

  You have been on the same wave length as I yesterday and today.  I have a lot of Lionel PW engines, including the 3 mentioned above (more than one of each).  They are what I have from when my Dad and I collected/ran together before he passed at an early age in 1978.  It is good to do so, get the PW and lube them, run the cobwebs out in loops around the main line.  Mind you, keep close to the ZW, as I am in process of making from scratch my first turntable.  Will be taking/posting pics as I proceed with it.  Suggestions and input from others more than welcome.

Is this a kit or scratchbuilt? What'd you use for the roofing?

It's a kit I had built. the roofing shingles are from crescent locomotive works. leaf river models cut the kit out for me.

today I didn't work on the layout I ran passenger services 2 Santa Fe Trains. one MTH Rail King Yellow bonnet pulling MTH Santa Fe Rail king matching passenger cars. the other is a MTH Rail King Santa Fe Red and silver with Lionel Santa Fe Passenger cars.  

Just more of the same...

Still working on that turnout relay panel. I'm almost half way done with the elements that I'm doing on the first panel. Translation: this is going to take a while, as there is still another panel to do.

After that:

• Wires have to be brought in from each Tortoise in the field and connected to each relay
• Temporary control panels have to be made and a single wire has to be brought back to the panel from each toggle switch
• The relay power supply has to be moved to its final location and energized
• +24VDC has to be supplied to the toggle switches
• DC ground will be fed to the relays via a daisy chain from socket to socket

Finish all that, and it's on to phase two. Once CMR/I and JMRI are up and running, it is simply a matter of moving the one wire, from the toggle switch to the lead from the CMR/I output card, and retiring all the temporary control panels. After that, the dispatcher throws all the switches with a mouse.

As an added bonus, because the TMCC codes are published, I should be able to send turnout commands from the Cab-1 through the command base, and back to the computer then on to CMR/I which throws the turnout. It sounds a little convoluted perhaps, but it should work. Still pondering how to address turnouts 100 thru 104. Maybe an AUX command for those.

Elliot,

This is quite an undertaking.  Reminds me too much of my employment over the past 39 years as an electronics technician, field engineers, and telecommunications engineer.  ;-)

i recall reading about CMR/I and JMRI in Model Railroader magazine years ago.  I do not recall you writing about why you are going this route.  Is it because you have too many switches to control?  Please give a brief explanation of the system and why you chose it.

if you have addressed this issue, please excuse my oversight.

Thanks!

Mark, I can't remember if I have answered that question before, so here it is.

I already own all the CMR/I hardware. I bought it back in the early 90's when I had my trains set up at Mall of America. JMRI wasn't even invented back then, but I wish it had been. It would have saved me a lot of money, being that it is free software that can control CMR/I directly.

There are 3 main areas where this technology will be used, turnout control, detection, and signaling. Trying to use Lionel's control devices for a project this large would be insanely expensive. I don't think they even have anything for the detection aspect of the equation.

Use what you already own is the best reason I can think of.  Whether it is lumber, track, or a control system.  You already know it too!  That's another winner.  I have had a DCS for a year and a half, my first command control exposure in over 45 years in the hobby.  I am still a novice; it just doesn't seem to click in my brain.

Thanks for the reply!

Mark, I am the king of "waste not, want not". I have reused all the things you have mentioned, but the big one you missed was wire. I have bought zero wire for this layout and still have trash cans full. I am starting to make a dent in my stash though.

The concept of command control is really pretty simple. By having full power to the rails and a receiver in the engine, you can talk to any engine and tell it what to do. It allows you to have multiple engines on the same track and address them individually.

When I run, I only care about the most basic functions, speed and direction. I occasionally use the whistle/horn and the coupler functions. To me, the rest is fluff.

When it comes to the technical stuff surrounding command control it is a little more mysterious. I kind of understand TMCC because I need to. I will have a better grasp when I finally debug my signal issues.

Sorry but I know nothing about DCS. For a variety of reasons both technical and personal, I have avoided it like the plague. My personal opinion is no reflection on the product as it was intended for the casual user. Most people seem to like it.

I think it's safe to say I've always been a little different.

Elliot,

I like your reasoning.  I just want speed and direction control and sound.  I love to listen to steam engine sounds.  For any small layout I will ever own, I will just use manual turnout control and local control of a handful of accessories.  After 39 years of electronics headaches I follow the KISS method.  The Simple Stupid is the most important part of that in my case.

The need for such complex controls is purely based on the size of the problem. As with most things, theory is the easy part, practice is where the trouble starts.

Part of the beauty of TMCC over DCS is, all you need is one command base, the end. No TIU's. All of a sudden, running the trains is taken care of. Furthermore, because the TMCC codes are published, they are included in JMRI. This will allow total automation in the future, where the computer can run mainline traffic simulations. It also makes it possible to send commands to the computer from the Cab-1. DCS can't do this, because Mike wants his proprietary secrets.

Right now we are looking at 104 "logical turnouts". The actual number is 124, but crossovers only count as one. There will also be well over 200 individual detectors. The final count on that has yet to be determined, but I'm working on it, and should know shortly.

I haven't even looked at the signal situation, but I did purchase 100 searchlight heads and bi-colored LED's to build my own. That project is well on the back burner, and until I get JMRI up and running, I'm not even going to bother trying to count them.

I'm hoping that when I use JMRI Panel Pro to describe the layout to the computer, it will place the appropriate signal heads along the mains. Otherwise, I'm going to have to go read a book on the subject.

To make convenient use of space, and still give access when needed, a forum member mentioned putting any under layout storage on rollers.   That idea triggered a solution to another of my storage conundrums.

The cart holds a fair number of boxes securely and will fit snugly under the future layout....

It's other purpose is to provide easy access to storage behind the hip wall with support for sufficient insulation on the access hatch.   I plan to build one more of these to suit. 

My thanks to whoever mentioned rollers recently.  I couldn't wait to find out if the melding of ideas would produce a practical solution.  It did!

Bruce

Another recordable sound module with horn sounds from an E9 diesel was placed inside a Plasticville building in order to give a blast to the Marx diesels and others which lack horns.

Bruce,

It looks great!  You really did a great job melding the ideas here!!

I've done the same thing last year, only with a K-line whistle...

Mitch

 I've been tired of the "tech" for years.

Basic boards, relay and switch wiring is still fun, and I never shy from relay puzzles.

Personally. and off hand, I'd want "test switch access" left in available at the panel.

(didn't you say you would pull them?)

  A single large multi pin plug on a pig tail from the temporary panel, and a bank of receiving plugs on/near the relay panel (dividing the 100-ish switches) allowing the temporary panel to become a tool. It might be nice for (sorry for swearing here Elliot.) "trouble shooting" .  

I'm not sure if you completely understand the transition process here. Everything will be tested and made functional in stages. There aren't just 104 relays in one place. There will be two relay panels, the north one will have 56 and the south will have 48.

Right now, I have a bunch of small local control panels on the lower level that are working. They are fed with 12VDC and use DPDT toggles to control the Tortoises. I will not build any new panels in that style.

All new panels will use the same toggles, but as an SPST (just don't use the other four contacts). The toggle will energize the relay, and the relay will do the polarity flip for the Tortoise. Next, all old panels will be rewired and converted to the relay type.

Once everything is to that stage, and the CMR/I and JMRI are working, the final conversion can take place. All I have to do is change one wire per switch. The wire coming from the toggle will be changed to a CMR/I output bit. This will remove all local control, and turn the mainlines into full CTC.

Everything will be debugged at each stage and all the relays will be fully tested prior to the final step. I've given this a lot of thought, and I'm feeling pretty confident.

 I see no flaw in your process, I just did my (tiny) wiring job similarly to that.

  I know, I know... more work

   The size of the project made me consider this.

     I "stole" the concept from machines with many relay banks, and electronics with multiple, identical, slave boards. 

   Setting up harnesses for quick checking things was something I liked to do far in advance of "that day".

  I never went home early at work, I made future work easier with ongoing mini-projects like that..

 I assume you have repeating colors of wire. Though labeled now, in five years some might not be. You wont remember which wire is which, just from its battle scars.

 The plug-in test jig/tool would be your best friend that day.

(I found one machine had been wired with 75% red wire)

You would prepare the plugs, and add a (short?) wire, -vs- just moving them.

 A wireless computer network(2-PCs), might make this a waste of effort if you can have one on your lap at the relays. Again, But.... Doing this does allow [partial] activation without the computer, or the controller being needed. If one of them goes down, your not as bad off, and will easily be able to at least run a little no matter the situation if they go down.

   You can also spend all day walking between a relay, and its trigger source, or have a test tool harness ready, and stay in one spot.

Jumping single relays for testing would be the other trouble shooting option. 

 You can spread the variable numbers following as you wished...

 Adding (lets say) groups of female plugs, to each relay panel.

 Jumpers from the relay "trigger" wires to each connector. (R-panel #1, 52-relays(?), =7 total, 8-wire plugs (some blank holes on one). Each group of 8 turtles can be instantly reconnected to a toggle, by moving the tools single male plug & pigtail, to any of the 7 plugs.

 This allows quick activation from the test board while sitting at each relay board.

 Like a bunch of identical test ports on a car.

Edit: a repeated section at the end here was removed.

Adriatic, I understand that you have experience with these things and you're trying to help me avoid potential pitfalls.

I do use 10 colors of wire. Because I am moving the wires that go out into the field, away from the relay sockets, to terminal strips, there won't be any confusion. In spite of the fact that I have 2 large groups of these things, each one is still its own separate entity, so they will always be treated as such. By the time I ready to make the jump to CMR/I, all the relays will have been in service for quite some time. I'll convert one switch at a time and test as I go.

There really isn't much that can go wrong with these things once the install and testing is done. There are only 2 moving parts, the relay and the Tortoise, and both are easily swapped out if there is a problem. The wires will be fine.

Today after catching up with yard work from being gone for the weekend. I got up to the layout to work. Ran trains while doing that. Got some switch wires run through the table. Added a second ground wire to the grade. And while running the trains I found I have to run a few wires to the station area I have been working on. So that will be tomorrow..............Paul