Latest Industrial Area - Harrisburg...

Over the last week I have been planning and constructing two more Industrial Areas for the layout.  The two new areas are located at Harrisburg & Columbia.

The two areas represent a major part of the switching operations for the layout and have two or more separate industries within each of them.

The Harrisburg area serves a few purposes, the first being a view block as you walk into the layout so that you cannot see the western portion or the layout, and also a "given" that I wanted to model a "street running scene in at least portion of the layout.

Below photo shows the structure as the view block:

The first step was to set out the buildings and the road network around the installed track work...

I'm using the Walthers - Modular Kit system to build these two industries.  When finished they will view block this corner off from the western portion of layout (in the background).

Below is the work table setup to make the Walthers - Modular Kits into structures...

The above photos show one of the completed industries which is a three (3) storey warehouse building with side loading/unloading dock which will also have a paved rear unloading area too.  This will support two 50' boxcars.

  

Scene below is the Harrisburg area looking back east, also with another industry in the background in place.

Next step will be to add the other structures, and begin working on adding the road network and paved areas around the structures...

Signal Placement Schematic...

As we roll on with the signal install I realised quite quickly I needed a schematic that showed the layout in full so that I could work out the signal placement of the bridges & masts.

The ideal solution was right in front of me on the layout.  The fascia panels that I had made in Excel for the switch machine push buttons were ideal.

Over the last couple of days I have been sticking them together and working out the placement of the signal bridges relating to interlocking locations and the placement of the signal bridges, masts and dwarfs.

The diagram is perfect as I can reference the whole layout and even begin to figure out the programming of the signal logic as we go.

Even this schematic surprised me about how many signals are actually required to control the movement of traffic.  The system we will be using on the layout is mostly ABS through JMRI.  It will have the ability to hold aspects and manually set routes too.

Next step once I have the placement and number of signals finalised is to begin building the bridges, bracket masts, masts & dwarf signals.

Jas...

Triple Head Signal Mast on a Signal Bridge...

So in the last week I have begun installing the new signal head masts.  To start I have decided to incorporate more signal bridges on the layout than just a standalone mast.

As in the previous posts I have used the IHC Signal Bridge kit for this.

First step of the Triple Head installation was to convert a Tomar - H876sl into a Signal Bridge Mast.  This involved cutting off the bottom section & base.

The next stage was to feed the twelve (12) wires into the mast for the three (3) searchlight heads.  Luckily the bottom head didn't need to be fed through with the middle & upper head, although all twelve do fit into the mast.

Once the wires were threaded through it was onto soldering on the wires for the LED's, this involves checking each LED as it is finished.

When the LED is fitted I add a clear domed light pipe to act as the sense and hide the physical LED.  It also helps spread the light evenly out through the whole aspect opening.

When the three heads are connected and installed it was time to install the mast onto the signal bridge.  This was fairly straight forward actually and surprised me how well it looked when completed, the mast is actually secured to the bridge by black wrapping wire and is quite sturdy.

As you can see the aspect color from these RRCirKits LED's are superb!  Once the signal bridge is painted and weathered the wires will virtually disappear.

Here is a short video showing the signal aspects programmed for the triple head...