Best Of UP's N Scale Canyon Division Layout Build....

[Stolen Moment]

Thanks!  I have been wondering how all the scenes you've been showing us fit together.

[Sumner]

Upper Level Track -- Pt. 1

With all of the major scenery in place it is time to lay the upper level track. After that will move to the lower level.

 

I felt from the beginning that the section of track show above was going to be the hardest track to lay due to it being on the upper level with a long reach in. Further complicating this is that two turnouts need to be installed near the middle of the scene. I didn't see an easy way around it if I wanted the scene to look like it does so got with it. It took about 2 1/2 days to get this track and the two turnouts in (not full days...4 hrs. per day).

 

Making one's turnouts and using servos can go a long ways to decreasing cost, especially if you need a lot. I can have a turnout and turnout control for about half of what a commercial turnout costs alone. More info on the low cost, easy to do, (no Arduino) turnout control ( HERE ).

 

One section of scenery was removed above to help with the mounting of the servos for the two turnouts. The tunnel sections were also remove to make track laying easier.

 

I came up with a new servo bracket this past year and use it almost all of the time now. It is very easy to install. Put the turnout in place (temporarily) .... drill a small diameter hole down into the layout through the throwbar hole.....enlarge that hole from the bottom to 3/8 inch.....put the servo mount up in that hole......and drive one screw to hold the bracket/servo. You can do most of this from the side of the layout. In this case I only went under to drive the screw in.

The wire to the throwbar will be perfectly centered in the throwbar hole. A huge plus if you have ever tried to install servos.

More info on these brackets and a video to show how easy it is to use them....

Self-centering servo mounts....... https://1fatgmc.com/RailRoad/Trackwork/page-46b.html

Servo mount install video...........

I had a ladder on each side of the layout and was on one or the other for most of this. I could also kneel on the layout top, bottom right above.

 

I caulked the track down with a very small bead of DAP Dynaflex 230 and spread that flat with my finger. Put the ME code 55 in place and pinned it down. Micro Engineering flex track is very easy to work with and will hold any curvature you put in it with the simple tool ( HERE ).

The track here will cross the trestle ..... run to and past the sawmill on the other side of the divider and then recross the trestle. Appears to be a two track mainline on the trestle but is actually a 'dog-bone' run of track with the trestle representing two different scenes.

 

Got the track laid and turned out to not be as bad a job as I thought it would be.

 

Still need to solder some track drops to the track and take them to the perimeter bus on the side of the layout.

 

The layout will have 8 power districts all powered by a DCC-EX command station with 8 track outputs. Any of them can be switched at any time with the throttle to be DCC Main, DCC program, DCC Auto-reversing and/or DC and DC reverse polarity. There will be one district than will be DCC only most all of the time. I'll be able to switch the other 7 to DCC or DC at any time so I can run both types of engines on the layout.


 

There will be a short section of track (siding) where helper engines can cut off the train and sit until they are needed or return to the lower level.

To be continued and a link to this whole build ( HERE ).

Sumner

[John]

The hills turned out really nice .. I was wondering how you would tone down the red .. i think it mixed nicely with the other colors

[Sumner]

Ed has been coming in 4-5 days a week for months now helping with the layout. He wanted to try making turnouts as all the turnouts on the layout up to this point I've made and we need a lot more so I was more than happy this. I got him started with a ....

 

.... #6 Fast Tracks code 55 fixture. It didn't take too long for him to get the hang of it using the fixture. Next he wanted to move on to making a turnout using a paper template. There are going to be two cross-overs on the main that are a fair ways apart and the decision was made to make some #8's for the cross-overs (bottom above). I had made some 8's, 10's and 12 curved turnouts but never straight. I can't believe how much prettier these are vs. the #6's. If I had know this I might of tried to work them in more places on the track plan. They are pretty but use up more real estate.

I have a fair amount of info on building turnouts, cutting your own PCB ties and other info ( HERE ).

To be continued and a link to this whole build ( HERE ) .

Sumner

[Sumner]

A District (DCC or DC) Control Panel....

I'm using an 8 district DCC-EX command station (Districts A to H) that was under $200 to build. It allows any district to be DCC, DCC Program or DC at any time. There is a 2 track main that circles the whole layout (24' X 6'). One half of the main (2 tracks) is District A. The control box below allows either the inner main track or the outer track to be turned on or off at any time.

District A's two tracks can be DCC or DC at any time. I could run a DCC loco on one of the tracks (inner or outer) and a DC loco on the other but not at the same time. I can run a DCC loco on one of the tracks and then turn the power to that track off. Turn the power to the other track on and change that track to DC and run a DC train on that track with the same throttle. DCC-EX has no problem doing any of this using your throttle.

This control panel does two things. One is that it controls the power to either track (on/off). The second is that if a DC or DCC engine is on one of the tracks and the power is turned off you can throw a switch for that track that will turn on a LED to indicate if there is a DCC or DC loco parked on that track (ask if you have questions about this).

The following images will show the build of the panel and where it will be placed. The build time was probably about 6-8 hours which includes the design time using Fusion. Cost about $10.

 

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If you see this on a forum ask questions or email me at contactsumner1 (at) gmail (dot) com.

To be continued and a link to this whole build ( HERE ) .

Sumner