This is what 4.5 hours of wiring looks like...

Today I continued on with installing the push buttons for the Tortoise Motors on the Fascia Control Panels along with a few more power feeds to some of the Tortoise Motors that needed to be rewired from other SE8C's.

One of the things I need to accomplish is wiring that is tucked away and not hanging down underneath the layout benchwork, as the area is going to be used as storage I don't want anything catching and breaking delicate detection and signaling wires.

The below photo shows the "York" - Fascia Panel with the push buttons installed, with the exception of two push buttons (located on the panel to the right) all the wiring in the shot is associated with the Digitrax SE8C on the right.

The area directly above the SE8C has no less five (5) crossovers, these can be seen by the small black cable ties denoting twin pairs of Tortie connected to a common turnout position in the SE8C.

So the moral of the story is, if you don't like wiring don't install detection, signaling or Tortoise Motors...

Jas.

Crew Lounge Facilities - Operational...

Well this week after getting the electrical connections ran and connected the Crew Lounge Facilities are all installed and operational.

There is a small bar fridge, kettle & coffee maker installed to make visiting that little bit more enjoyable and refreshing.  There will be room later on for a microwave.

Still requires finishing off the surrounds and a small LED light above the kettle area.  And of course some operators to test it all out...

Jas.

More Fascia Control Panels completed...

During this week I have begun a big push to complete the layouts Tortoise Fascia Control Panels.

On the 8th of December I am hoping to have a few of the guys over to give the layout a good test ops session.

So the first two panels complete are Carlisle Junction & Shippensburg.

The Carlisle Junction - Panel is the busiest as far as track work & Tortoise switch machine density is concerned.

The first step is to punch out the centres for the Tortoise Push Buttons.

Both panels service the area taken up predominately by the York Haven - Pulp & Paper Mill.  

There are another three panels to go before finishing.

Jas...

Crew Lounge Area takes shape...

So yesterday I started to install the shelving and setting out the configuration for the Crew Lounge beverages & snack area.

The main task was to get the shelf in that supports the small bar fridge & coffee making facilities.

 



This will be located underneath the Rutherford Yard extension, there will eventually be a microwave also to heat up food if needed.  This will make the layout self sufficient for ops sessions and save the walk back up to the house.

 

Next step is to get power to the little nook for the fridge, and then I can enjoy a cold beverage at the end of day...

 

Jas.

Last of the main layout area fascia installed...

Today I worked on finishing off the remainder of the fascia in the main layout room, with the fascia control panels ready to be installed this was the last step before that could occur.

The fascia is 10" (250mm) high and houses the Fascia Control Panels, PTP mini panels for the NCE throttles as well as storage boxes for ops sessions.

Next stage will be to install the turnout fascia control panels.

Jas...

Last of the Fascia Panels completed...

Today I worked on creating the last of the Fascia Panels for the layout.

This panel is the Carlisle Junction panel and is the major interchange between Conrail/Reading & Chessie System/D&H railroads.

This panel is one of the busiest for push button switches too, it is also has the most signals in an any of the areas too.

Jas...

Last section of Bench Work for the JL&T...

So for a little change of pace and to have a quick break from wiring and signaling installs I decided to make a start on the extension to the Harrisburg Yard & the Crew Lounge Kitchenette.

This area actually forms the new entry to the entire layout, it is the new crew lounge area and also the main staging yard.  The opening to the new extension of the layout shed has a small roller door for the opening which is about 8' (2.5m) in width.

The opening is great for moving large items in and out, but I'm now at the stage that this doesn't need to occur anymore.  The other issue is that it allows the dust and dirt in, and hot air during summer and cold during winter.

So yesterday I started by framing up the new wall and small nib wall.  The kitchenette will sit behind this wall and will have a small bar fridge, microwave, coffee machine and storage for everything required to keep operators and guests happy.

The section extending from the left to the right will be the addition to Harrisburg Yard, I will be adding a internal corner piece on the right to allow for the curved yard to extend another 4' (1.2m).

Today I finished up the entrance wall and wrapped it ready for cladding, the cladding will be 5/16" (8mm) MDF board.  This will stop the elements and hopefully most of the dust and dirt from getting in as well as adding to the security of the layout.  

In the shot below you can see the extra storage space we have above the crew lounge area.

The photo below is looking back towards the shed opening from the original/main layout room.  The space will hold a couple of operators for the Harrisburg Yard, and another two operators waiting to be called from the crew lounge.

As a value add for the layout I've recently had the security system upgraded and also had smoke detectors added to it too.  In the next stage this will have a 4G auto dialler added so that I can be alerted anywhere.

The new opening into the main entrance/crew lounge will also be getting a very special makeover that is purely inline with our layout and one of it's fallen railroads too...  More on that soon.

It's article time again...

You know when its article time again when your work bench looks like this...

And to give you an idea of what its all about this time...

The time taken to photograph the individual steps, and get the composition right is huge.  This sequence took about two hours to get right...

And when there is twenty (20) odd pages of content, and 2000 odd words in the article that adds up to a fair chunk of time to complete.

Stay tuned for it hopefully in a publication soon.

Another fine example of great planning & attention to detail...

A truly great friend of mine is Alan Bailey, many of you will have seen his LK&O Railroad taking shape on his website.
Alan and I have struck up a great friendship even though we are some 16000 odd kilometres away from each other, it's amazing how much we have in common in our lives including our layouts!  I hope one day we actually get to meet in person...

Alan's next module "Module 5" is another fine example of great planning, astounding wiring skills, and a fine level of detail for installing wiring that is rarely seen on a layout, it is a work of art in itself, in fact I would spend hours just looking at the wiring...

Check out Alan's latest post:

LK&O Railroad - Module 5...

More Signals masts...

A few more masts have been added to the Harrisburg area, this set protects the track towards Rutherford Yard and the westbound traffic heading into Harrisburg from Rutherford.

All of these signals are Tomar H865 - Double Head "G" Type masts.

On the left is the inbound signal towards Rutherford (main) and the diverging route to Rutherford Yard.  The right signal is from Rutherford heading into Harrisburg.

All working and "clear"...

More soon...

Signal Mast Install - Progress...

So this week I managed to get a few more signal masts and dwarfs installed.

The first pair (a mast & dwarf) have been installed on the Harrisburg Main (protecting westbound to Lebanon) and Siding #2.

The mast is a Tomar H-865 G Type 3 Light - Signal, it is connected to a Digitrax TSMK board and to SE8C Board No7. 

The dwarf is a Tomar H-876bl Double Head - Searchlight Dwarf Signal, these have modified with RR CirKits - Tri Coloured LED's.

The combination of the RRCirKits Tri-Coloured LED's and the Tomar case are a real winner, I'm that impressed with the colour and operation that I will be converting all of my dwarf & searchlight signals to these.

The last install for the day was another two (2) H-865 masts to protect the start of the Harrisburg Line heading westbound and the Southbound section coming from Chessie Interchange at Shippensburg/York Haven.

More soon...

SE8C Driver Aspect - Switch List...

As I've been installing the physical signals onto the layout I also have to program them into JMRI to check the wiring install & the subsequent SE8C.

In the Digitrax manual they have a table that lists the ranges of switches for the driver aspects of each SE8C for board number one.

I needed the switch lists for the driver aspects for eight SE8C's, so to ease the install in JMRI and for visual reference I made up the tables up to eight SE8C's.

Although very time consuming it will make programming a lot easier...

For those wanting the complete series for eight (8) SE8C boards the link to the page is here:

http://jlandtrailroad.blogspot.com.au/p/digitrax-se8c-driver.html

Jas.

Revised 2015 - Signal Plan

With the installation of more signals I needed to update my Signal Plan.

The next step is to wire in the masts & dwarf signals from Harrisburg to Manheim Jct.  

This section is the first to have a completed BDL168 wired in with all the blocks, this section takes up the entire centre peninsula and is wired to a PSX-AR as the peninsula is a reversing section.

Updated Panel Pro - Panel

So as part of the consolidation work on the the block wiring I needed to redesign the JMRI Panel Pro - Panel.  The existing layout panel was fairly cluttered and wasn't really going to work well.

Now that installation of all 28 blocks to the centre peninsula BDL are just about complete I spent the last two nights and a few hours yesterday redoing the panel.  There were several issues that needed to be ironed out, and I also wanted to add town names and mile post markers too.

The new panel flows much better is easier to understand and visually works well and I'm happy with it.  It still needs a few things added like the actual signal masts & dwarfs along with some more labels.

I have to do some tweaking to the section split between the two screens so that it basically just straight track and its ready for ops.

Jas...

Block Wiring Progression...

So yesterday sore another day of finishing up the detection & block wiring for the centre peninsula.  At this stage there are another 5 - 6 blocks to be wired back to the BDL168 and its completed.

In the photo above & below you can see the naming convention that I've adopted, so as I install the block power feeds to the BDL they each get labelled once checked and operating correctly.  The "LS" is a Digitrax naming convention for a block, as can be seen the Digitrax LT5 block testers are attached to the A & B zones and are detecting the four blocks associated with each zone.

Another solution that I needed to overcome was the common wire return, I wanted to use a brass or copper bus bar for this but couldn't find one locally.  I didn't want to use the screwed type block connecters so instead adopted a PCB type block bar and fitted it to a small plastic junction box.

It is much easier making multiple connections this way than the previous version I was using.  This method makes the removal and/or addition much easier.  As you can see in the below photo the feeder wires are also labelled with the block that is powering them too.

This should make fault finding or changes a lot easier in the future.

 In the above shot you can also see one of the "undetected" block buses too.  These are for powering any section of track (usually small sidings & spurs) that are not detected via the BDL168.

More soon.

Jas...

You know your doing blocks, turnouts & signals when your layout looks like this...

One of the critical tasks when installing a detection & signaling system is to record all of your blocks, turnouts & signal masts.  Luckily I have few people who have tread this path before and have helped out with some great advice and spreadsheets to record it all.

Today was a consolidation day of ensuring that I had all the blocks in the right place, the insulators in the right positions and all the turnouts that are going to be individual blocks both wired and isolated too.

So to start I printed off the spread sheets for the BDL168's and got several packets of white stick on labels.  Special thanks has to go to Brendan Dennis who designed these sheets in Excel and has shared them with us, they contain sheets for the BDL168, SE8C & Signal Heads/Masts.

The labelling convention that I am using is to place a label sticker on the boundary between blocks and label both sides with the common JMRI/Digitrax naming/address convention.  For blocks it is LS & for Turnouts (Switch Machines) it is LT.

In the photo above you can see the RH turnout labelled LS114 on the approach, straight through & diverging routes.  It also has a sticker in the middle for the turnout address and to signify that it is a detected block.

Here is the junction a Harrisburg leading off to White Oak, and as you can see the crossover is it's own detected block, incorporating two turnouts.  Any track leaving a detected section or turnout that is not going to be detected via JMRI is labelled as either "undetected" or U/D.

This should make wiring the blocks underneath the layout and for fault finding later much easier.

Jas...

More Block Wiring & Bullet Proofing PECO Turnouts...

So yesterday was a full day on the layout, and the progression of the detection wiring needed to be progressed yet again.  Its amazing how much is involved once you actually get going and start doing instead of planning...

One of the future proofing items that needed addressing was the powering of all of the mainline & detected track turnouts.  Not really a big tack in respect to the wiring of them, but a big task in pulling them out of the already installed track work.

Seeing that 95% of all of track & turnouts are PECO Code83 its actually quite easy.  There are two reasons for actually doing this, the first is I have decided that each turnout will be its own detected block.  This way when a caboose or locomotive is blocking either the straight through or diverging route it will show on the panel.  This saves an entire section of a block from being show as occupied when it may only be the turnout itself.

The other flip side is it makes the PECO turnouts virtually bullet proof.  The "Insufrog" range I use feeds power to the turnout via the point end on the point rails, if they become dirty or don't quite make contact with the stock rail it will give a poor power supply.

To overcome this I have wired power to corresponding stock rail and point rail, this ensures that the turnout always power, and if isolated for detection purposes for signaling it can be powered through a Digitrax BDL 168 as a separate block.

Its pretty simple and quick to wire them up...

The gaps are already there from the PECO factory, you just have to be careful with the heat time not melting the plastic, I use a pencil soldering iron.

Jas...

Thursday Theatre on the JL&T...

On a sunny day the afternoon shift and local MOW crew, in the Reading/White Oak Interlocking Tower are being entertained by their very own carpark version of C.O.P.S, 1973 style.

The local RMP has pulled over a dodgy looking vehicle and is running their details through 

SCMODS (Blues Brothers joke!)...

First signal programmed and placed onto the JL&T Panel...

Well last night as well as doing more track work I also programmed the first of the double head dwarf signals into JMRI and installed it on the Panel Pro - Panel.

First step is installing the signal heads into the "Signal Head Table" each head requires two of the turnout ports from the SE8C (not its not actually a physical turnout, just a port) so there are four consecutive ports for this on head, 577, 578, 579 & 580.

This is how the SE8C has the ability to drive all three appearances on each aspect including flashing too.

Next step is to create a signal mast in the Signal Mast Table, when you select a double head dwarf you add each of the signal heads as above and this then allows JMRI to drive both aspects (high & low) together to give the correct signal aspect.

And once completed I then loaded the signal mast which in this case has a user mane of RDG25W onto the Panel Pro - Panel and I was able to operate the signal from the panel by clicking on the icon.

JMRI is such a powerful tool, you can right click on the icon and bring up the list of aspects and change to any of them, or just left click on the icon and it will scroll through each on each mouse click.

More soon...

Jas.

Work continues on the Interchange - Classification Yard...

So last night I began work on the yard lead to the Classification area for the Interchange.

Firstly I had a great win with the crossing at York Haven where the Chessie System and D&H crossover the RDG/CR main.  The old crossing was an Atlas crossing that had lots of plastic within the diamond section that caused a lot of stalling and bumpy crossings.

So whilst out picking up some more flextrack & turnouts for the classification yard I spotted a PECO Code 75 crossing diamond that just might work.

You can see the old alignment of the sub roadbed, the new angle makes the approach to the classification yard flow much better.

Below is the PECO #7 Curved turnout that leads into the classification yard lead (left diverging route) and it flows much better than the previous version that can be seen in the previous post.

The bare plaster area will be the interlocking tower for the Interchange - Classification Yard along with a small parking lot.  As mentioned above the yard lead flows much better into the Classification Yard now.

Next step will be to connect the yard lead to the arrival track, continue on the track work from the #5 RH turnout to form the runaround/caboose siding.

Jas...