Best Part

When you start laying track it is a glorious feeling. This is the point where you think you can tackle the world. Congrats !!!!

Then wiring...

Then comes the wiring, when you'll think the world has tackled you.  

Randy

I enjoy the wiring!

It's the scenery where I hit my self-imposed abilities wall...

With this layout, I plan on tackling that wall with reckless abandon!

Craig

Track is all fitted, but revealed some issues

All of the track and turnouts have been cut and fitted into place.

I was fortunate to be able to piece everything together from my existing track stock.  In fact, the little pieces of track on the shelf are the only pieces I had to trim (other than trimming rail ends to even them out).

However, two issues cropped up during the process:

• The little blocks of wood I cut for under the track at module joints are about .050" too high.  Apparently 3/4" furniture-grade luan/plywood and 3/4" foam insulation are not actually 3/4".
• The tie strips on the Shinohara turnouts are about .015" thinner than the tie strips on the Micro Engineering flex track.  I already knew about this so it actually isn't really an issue.
• The closest module has developed a noticeable sag in the middle.

Three! Three issues cropped up during the process...

For the wood blocks, I can either sand them down to match the foam, or I put down some lightweight spackle to create a gentle transition between the different heights.  The gentle undulations might help give it more of a rolling industrial trackage feel.

As for the sag in the module, I'm not quite sure what to do with that yet.  The shelf brackets are spaced on 32" centers.  I could:

• Do nothing, let the sag enhance the gentle undulations.
• Put another shelf bracket in the middle.
• Put some sort of reinforcing strip under the module between the brackets.
• Add truss rods...

The other module does not have a sagging issue because it rests entirely on a bookshelf.

Has anyone else had issues with hollow core door sections sagging like this?  What did you do to fix it?

Craig

Think housing standards

If you tried to put a floor or deck on 32" centers, you'd end up with a lot of sag too. That's why code specifies 16" centers for studs and joists. 

I doubt that doors are engineered for stiffness in that dimension either - they are designed for vertical mounting after all. Additional support to get closer to the 16" ideal would probably help. 

I'd have to go look, but I'm pretty sure that when I built my shelf-bracket supported layout, I put my brackets on 16" centers - to match the studs in the walls. 

I guess I was hoping that the

I guess I was hoping that the door framing would be strong enough like a framed 2 x 4 module.  I picked up another shelf bracket rail so I can support on 16" centers.

It's good to learn about these things early on!

Craig

Test Lighting

Today I got my goodie package from Precision Design containing an LED light strip starter set.  I spent the evening soldering everything together (and then testing for and fixing bad solder connections), and then powered it up.  WOW!  It's BRIGHT!!!

Putting a valence in front of the lights also helps to frame the scene.

I played around with adjusting the valence to change where the light falls.  The results were interesting when I set it so the light was cut off right at the front edge of the foam. I also tested with the edge of the light at the edge of the shelf, but may stick with the edge of the layout as I think it frames the "stage" better.

I'm so used to looking at the layout under incandescent lighting that this light strip somehow looked weird to me. It might just be because there's so much white and pink at the moment. However I think it's important to get the lighting in place before starting on the scenery. 

Craig

First Train Runs!

Last night I got the track on the first module as well as the staging cassette secured down.  This morning the crew of #2 was itching to get out for a test run on the new trackage.

On to the second module!

Craig

It's been a busy couple of weeks!

Today I ran my first little operating session. It was a big milestone in its' construction.  Since the last post where I hooked up some jumper wires to the track on the first module, I completed gluing down the remaining track, mounting the ground throws, and wiring everything up.

One of the lumber distributor spurs had to be sunk down because the building base is at ground level.

A close-up of the module joint.  To make sure the track alignment at the joint is solid, I added wood blocks under the track and PC board ties to protect the rail ends.

Here's the wiring, all neat and tidy!

I spent some time on the removable staging track.  Since I will need to put it up and take it down frequently, I wanted something that would only take a few seconds to setup or take down.

The leg is attached with a folding leg bracket.

I used table leaf alignment pins to get everything lined up, and a table alignment lock underneath. I'm still looking for some sprung contact pins to replace the connector for the electrical connection.  Setting up or taking down the cassette takes less than 10 seconds.

I cleaned up an Elfa wire drawer unit I had to use for the storage.

It fits quite nicely in the available space. The rolling stock I chosen for use on the layout pretty much fills the drawers.

I had originally placed the cars on their sides on each drawer.  That made them easier to see the car numbers, but I almost broke a few railings picking cars up. When I set them upright I couldn't see the numbers.  To solve that I created tags for each car. They will also help to show where the car goes when it is put back.

And here's the first official train! Being the first train generated by OperationsPro, there wasn't much to do...

The second train has a bit more work. JMRI has a built-in webserver, so I tinkered with using a tablet and the electronically generated switchlist. The "conductor" feature allows for real-time updates of the switch job progress.

I'm looking forward to more operations now that everything is running. I'll spend the next while doing more operating sessions and seeing how it flows, if there are any kinks, etc.

Craig

Looking good!

Dear Craig,

Looks like it's all coming-together beautifully, well done!

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

Craig - Looking really

Craig - Looking really excellent - very nicely done indeed - currently considering low relief buildings

Best

Jack

Sweet!

First Run - exciting for sure!!

If you haven't seen it yet, you might be interested in this resource: CN Winnipeg Terminal Car Control Manual

It includes all the BNML Zones.

Beautiful

That is looking really good. Congrats !!!  I can't wait till i get there on my layout.

Nick

Thanks to all for the kind words!

This is now officially the furthest I have ever got building a layout.  I've built a couple of modules but the scenery for them ends up being done by someone else.  The few that I've built in the past have always been done so that I can easily disassemble everything.  Now that this layout has everything glued down, I have to move forward!

Bill, I've seen that Car Control manual before and it's a great resource.  I somehow stumbled upon it while blog-surfing about a year ago.  I also happen to have a hard copy of that manual as well. I managed to rescue it from the garbage on one of my visits to the Winnipeg Terminals dispatching office in Union Station.  Unfortunately, it got safely packed away during our last move and I haven't been able to figure out which box it's in...

Craig.