It has been a little over a month since my last update and these videos will bring you up to date with the construction of the Union Station passenger and freight yards.  

The following video shows the first train, running with DCC, thru the Union Station Passenger Yard.  The passenger yard has 5 cut-off switches (SPDT) that turn off power to those tracks.  For the time being, the switches are loosely mounted in the opening slated for their final installation when the fright yard is completed.  Once the track is cleaned, especially on the helixes, trains will be able to run from the staging level up either the east or west helix onto the main level and make a complete run and then go back to the staging level.  It took 2 years (20 December 2013 to 24 December 2015)  from the time that the staging level was completed to get to this point. It took until New Year's Eve to get it running under DCC.  

The second video shows the Santa Fe Blue Goose (30 year old Con-Cor with DCC sound installed) pulling the "Chief" into Union Station while going thru some of the turnouts that are now being controlled by Peco PL-11 switch machines.  I had to use them since I cannot (my fault) get under the table in that area to install either Tortoise or Blue Point switch machines.  Thus I had to opt for the top-of-the-table style.  These turnouts are too far from the edge of the table for me to reach for manual control so that is the second reason for their use. I also installed an NCE Q-Snap accessory decoder to control the turnouts (a second one is now on order).  The rest of the yard (passenger & freight) turnouts will be finger controlled except for the two 3-way turnouts which will be controlled either by slide switches or the Caboose Hobbies version that has the electrical contacts since the 3-way turnouts have to have their polarity set by whatever you use to throw the points.

This video is a continuation of the previous video and shows the construction of the Union Station Freight Yard.   A key tool that I used for the overall design was Railmodeller (Mac) software. It really helped in making sure all of the turnouts fit correctly especially in the Union Station Yard.  Since I am always tweaking the plan, here and there, the software really helped make sure that any changes also fit properly.

Finally, this two-part video shows the current construction status of the Union Station Freight Yard. A couple of mods have been made (using RailModeller) to the original track plan, namely, the addition of the Union Station Freight Depot & 2-track siding and another 2-track siding for coal deliveries to the two power plants that serve Union Station. Additionally, DCC wiring of this section is now underway.  Throughout the first of the videos, you can see the codes that I use to identify each set of track feeders.  In the second portion of the video, we go under the main level to see how the codes on the top correspond to the codes at the terminal strips.  I use this method to ensure that I will be able to identify and/or troubleshoot any electrical issues that might arise. Once again, thanks for watching.

My YouTube Channel is -  https://www.youtube.com/user/tanzj