Gibbon, Cozad & Western - "The 100th Meridian Line"

[C855B]

With layout construction imminent... and the earth will shift on its axis, no doubt... I have returned to the template software to start working on signalling. I appear to have most of Phase I transferred from mind to electrons, so here's a snapshot of my thinking around Daggett:



Starting from the left, there are single heads for each track as intermediates at Oro Grande. The northbound (south-facing) heads are approach signals for the control points at west Daggett, the southbound signals are approach for the crossover at Victorville. I will probably move these signals south, closer to the bridges. The three-head on the eastbound main at west Daggett indicates the double crossover and the entry into the Yermo siding/yard lead/drill track. There is a two-head control signal on the westbound main (top track) to indicate the crossover, and is an intermediate to the second crossover at east Daggett (Yermo entry to either main or siding/yard lead). Next is a dwarf for westbounds to enter the eastbound main. There are double-head signals on the top two tracks controlling westbounds at the double crossover.

The "interlocking" into Yermo gets a little funky. The signals for eastbounds (from the top) are an intermediate for running on the westbound main; three heads indicating respectively eastbound "Santa Fe" main, diverging into Yermo on the "UP" main, and diverging into Yermo on the siding/yard lead; and then a single head for the siding/yard lead/drill against the second crossover. I figure these three will be on a signal bridge. Next is a two-head dwarf controlling westbound entry from the siding, indicating whether entry to the eastbound main is ahead of the crossover or down the drill track. The westbound signals on the top right (probably on a cantilever bridge) is an approach to the crossover signals, and an absolute protecting entry/exit from Yermo. The rightmost signal controls westbound entry from the "UP" main at Yermo, and more often than not will indicate "approach" for the red-over-green at the west Daggett crossovers unless the DS decides to cross him over at Victorville.

That's 24 heads in just this one area, but who's counting?

Obviously there's been some progress on the layout room this week if I'm talking about layout construction. More ceiling and insulation is up, though not completed in time for tonight's surprise 20°F (you folks up in Chicago have my sympathy). I am momentarily fussing with the distribution wiring for the theater light system since it has to be in place, or nearly so, before the next row of ceiling tile goes up. That will take most of the day tomorrow, and then we can get back to finishing the ceiling.

Layout benchwork should commence the first or second week of December once we clean up the remaining stacks of supplies after the ceiling is done and we take a break to setup and run the club layout for our biggest local train show over T-day weekend.

[mcjaco]

So much for 3-6 inches of snow.....we got over 16.  And now its all iced over.  Neighbors lost huge tree branches, and I'm praying that getting out and knocking off snow from the arbor vitae help them resume upwards....although we already have broken parts on just about all of them.

I've never shoveled such heavy stuff. 

[C855B]

Yeah, you guys were hit hard. A friend of Robyn's in Fox Lake said it was up to her knees. Early and late snows are really wet and a complete b*tch to shovel.

Working on the lights wiring up on the catwalk today reinforced the notion I'd better get this ceiling stuff over and done with. Above the workshop (finished insulation) was cool, as it should be. On the catwalk above the unfinished area... nope, it was room temperature. So I'm losing boatloads of heat in the quarter of the drop ceiling that isn't paneled yet. Amazing how that works.

[C855B]

More significant progress on the layout room. Just a couple of more rows of grid to go, plus we're already to the point where I can start hanging Unistrut for the lighting system. Here's the start of the first track of support structure, plus a light temporarily mounted on a hanger to test the newly-installed power and network distribution.



I am so close to benchwork construction I can taste it.

[GaryHinshaw]

Something extra to be thankful for.   

[mcjaco]

Yeah, you guys were hit hard. A friend of Robyn's in Fox Lake said it was up to her knees. Early and late snows are really wet and a complete b*tch to shovel.

Working on the lights wiring up on the catwalk today reinforced the notion I'd better get this ceiling stuff over and done with. Above the workshop (finished insulation) was cool, as it should be. On the catwalk above the unfinished area... nope, it was room temperature. So I'm losing boatloads of heat in the quarter of the drop ceiling that isn't paneled yet. Amazing how that works.

I had our attic reinsulated last spring, after a winter of finding the sheathing covered in ice on the underside.  When it hit 10 degrees earlier this week I poked my head up there.  Not one bit of ice anywhere.  And it was freezing!  Amazing how a building lives and breathes. 

Great looking lighting, well worth the efforts.

[C855B]

Thanks, Matt. Yeah, when everything is up it's going to look cool. Or it'll look like a disco, minus the mirror ball.

Now that it's almost done, I run into this at Super Bright LEDs - a full RGB system in a 2x2 drop ceiling panel. Adding insult is the pricing - same as the LED theater heads. Bottom line? For what is invested in general room lighting plus the theater lights, the entire space could have been illuminated in these RGB panels. There's timing, and then there's timing. 

Seriously, this is quite a development for effects lighting - RGB for the price of a regular white grid drop-in. Now I don't know the overall brightness; my edu-guess is they're likely insufficient for general lighting alone. I was for a while toying with the idea of opening-up the LED troffers I'm using now and sticking RGBA strips alongside the white (they're just reflective boxes with LED strips in them), but there comes a point where the make-versus-buy decision has to shift in favor of already-built systems. However, considering the effort put into designing and constructing the hanger system for the theater lights, hindsight is still debating the point.

I'll keep on keeping on with the disco version.

[Scottl]

LED lighting is a fast moving area these days, so this was inevitable, I suppose.  Still, your system looks great, and you know the ins and outs of it so maintaining it will be easier. 

Hoping to see benchwork in the new year- this has been an epic "build" so far.

[marklin]

   The Fd & my self have just returned from a holiday in Europe which included a few train  layouts .  We visited the new  Hans-Peter Porsche display which includes a museum of tinplate models but the rail layout is awesome .  It is broken up into 3 sections which include Austria , Germany & Switzerland , apart from the layout room being enormous & having viewing windows  on the floor above equipped with  binoculars for close up views  there is a full cyclorama of sky right to the ceiling which has 36 Laser projectors displaying various scenes including a full on electrical storm which lasts for about 4 minutes . While the storm is in progress  some of the projectors also light up parts of the layout while other parts are still in darkness  .

 This display I think will be the new level of display layouts & is a better working layout  than Miniature Wonderland in Hamburg . HPP is a member of the Porsche Family of motor car  fame & this is his  " boyhood " dream . A classy restaurant is also on the premises  .    The museum is situated in the small town of Anger near the Austrian  border in the south east  of Germany. No expense has been  spared presenting this boys dream , we spent 2 days there just taking it all in .


   Cheers   Tom in Oz

[C855B]

Thanks for the info, Tom. Here is a link to the Porsche layout web page: http://www.hanspeterporsche.com/traumwerk/modellbahnwelt/

Apparently there are no English pages on the site, so my high school German was put to the test. Layout is certainly impressive. I did notice that it differs substantially from Miniatur Wunderland in emphasizing the scenery artistry rather than the trains. For that matter, the entire presentation seems to be more "museum" in orientation rather than a fanciful train-layout-on-steroids. If I had my choice , I'd probably still take MW.

The projectors for lighting effects are an interesting approach, also an extension of systems frequently seen in high-end U.S. museums. The design and execution overall is definitely professionally curated... I would even go so far as to say the curator probably toned-down the model railroady stuff Hans-Peter originally had in mind.

Alas, I'm not going to be able meet the high bar as far as "fine dining" on the premises. Will you (and the others) settle for a modest little coffee shop in the old storefront on campus?

[rodsup9000]

  Wow Mike, you have come along way in the last few months. You're almost to the finish line with the building and I know you can't wait to get started on the railroad.

 I've been working a lot more lately to get ready for semi retirement in Dec of 2017. Need to get everything paid off but the house to make it work though. Back in July, Kristi had to go up to Mayo and on the way we took a mini vacation. We spent a day each in St Louis, Springfield, and Chicago, then on over to Rochester Mn to Mayo.  Time was short or we would of stopped by for a day. We will get there one of these days though.

[C855B]

Thanks, Rodney. Homing in fast on getting the room done. We'll be making a run for benchwork supplies tomorrow or Tuesday.

Had a bit of a pause in the action this week as I finished hanging the first row of Unistrut for the lighting. I slightly mis-measured the hanger placements and had about two feet of strut hanging in mid-air. Fortunately I hadn't finished buttoning the ceiling yet (prescience?), so there was opportunity to correct it without dismantling too much. After debating whether just to cut the excess or move a support, with the help of the layout planning software I realized that this one run would benefit from being two feet longer than the others. A serendipitous error, so the support was moved, with a note to myself to trim the others before mounting them to the ceiling - cutting heavy steel strut 12 feet up standing on the lift is asking for trouble.

Took a break tonight from construction and mounted a couple of lights to test the network and console addressing, and measure the illumination cones with and without diffusers. Mostly good results, although I need to work on angled positions for better spreads.

It's entirely possible we may put up "the golden ceiling tile" tomorrow. The last row is the most difficult since you no longer have "the next empty row" for working room to place tiles, supports and insulation.

There are two more items on the punchlist which are not going to get in the way of initial benchwork. First is the spotlighting system, from auxiliary tracks mounted to the Unistrut. The wiring is in, I just haven't bit the bullet on buying track since the supplier channels for reasonably-priced track are in disarray at the moment (thank you, Home Depot and Lowes ). For the tracks I'll still need to keep the space clear for the lift, so any peninsula portions will have to be built in loose sections and permanently attached later. Second issue is painting the floor, followed by base molding. Floor painting has to wait until the major lift work is done since it'll tear-up anything not 100% cured.

[C855B]

Done. The ceiling, that is:



You can see that the first bank of theater lights are installed. I still have work to do on beam spreads and maybe diffusers for more even coverage. Here's a bit of fooling around with the lighting controller:



While it is technically possible to address each light separately, the controller panel is limited to twelve "fixtures". I've doubled this by subdividing a "fixture" channel group, but by the time I get the other color banks and the white spot tracks up, there still won't be enough controller channels. Fortunately, if I want to get insane about controlling each light, all it takes is fancy software plugged into the same network.

Maybe later, 'cause it's time to start building a model railroad.

[marklin]

   Oh Boy   that looks  good . At last the hard part of the road is almost finished , now  for the fun stuff building the layout . Well done & a nice Xmas present to both of you .

[Blazeman]

 I still have work to do on beam spreads and maybe diffusers for more even coverage. While it is technically possible to address each light separately, the controller panel is limited to twelve "fixtures". I've doubled this by subdividing a "fixture" channel group, but by the time I get the other color banks and the white spot tracks up, there still won't be enough controller channels. Fortunately, if I want to get insane about controlling each light, all it takes is fancy software plugged into the same network.

Maybe you can get a DCC system for your lighting regimen.