Essex branch HO v4

[wazzou]

I'd paint the other side red with the word "Duck" on it.   

[nuno81291]

Not a bad idea at all! Maybe a flashing crossbuck style tied into the aux power circuit. There is 2 steps down to the layout room height so luckily I can easily pass if need be, the section pops in and out in about 10 seconds. Hope the rerailer over the gap trick works as well as the last layout. I am undecided on how I will get track power to it or to staging, I planned to make a 1/4 instrument cable as I have lots of that hardware and cable from my day job. Overkill but sturdy non the less.

[nuno81291]

Got the rest of the fascia I needed up to proceed to wiring the remaining switch machines. Have 1 tortoise left to install, did 5 yesterday and all the feeders for the new peninsula branchline. Hopefully get to finish wiring up the remaining tortoises and should be ready to begin powered testing of trackage tomorrow. Roughed in the waters river trestle area, a couple of backdrop pieces to cut and I should be in good shape to progress to scenery. JFRTM soon for me!

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[nuno81291]

At 4:44 today I plugged in the ol’ DCC system. Heard all my sound engines awaken in staging (really need to set the default to off on start...), no shorts. Huzzah! Back in business. 31 switches later and my largest layout yet is ready for powered testing. My throttle battery is dead so I only checked out the yard and the reworked side of the peninsula so far.

There are a couple of things to fix already, I accidentally put an on/off/on switch for one of the tortoise controls, going to swap that. As well as I put a non 1/8 inch switch which I can’t find the nut too... swap that out tomorrow as well. My bridge section is all fitted but I need to finish wiring that. Going to make a 1/4” daisy chain that plugs into the layout side and staging side. My overall thoughts are that I underestimated the amount of work it would be to wire all of this. It was a long haul many hours of getting it to this point. After I test everything I will need to wire up the turntable and install the roundhouse trackage. My industrial spurs in the peninsula aren’t glued yet, left them loose but wired such that depending on building footprints I can adjust their relative placement.

Here is the layout as it stands:

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[nuno81291]

A local makes its way over S. Canal street.

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[nuno81291]

Today I finished installing the  turntable, roundhouse tracks and tested. Found some tracks I forgot to add feeders to, as well as fixed one bad turnout that was causing some engines to derail. Cleaned some more track and programmed a couple of locos I haven’t gotten around to yet. Here’s an obligatory lineup of my roster so far:

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Tomorrow I hope to resume testing, installing the few pieces of backdrop I have not cut yet. I am going to check segment by segment to make sure there aren’t any more missing feeders. Found a few I dropped but didn’t connect to the bus 

Upon reading my manual it says my system is good for 3.5 amps, with 10 sound engines am I at risk of overloading? I don’t run more than 2 at a time but the others are in staging idling. I also need to look at additional throttles for gues operators, preferably limited ones so they can’t program on the main   

Nowhere close to advancing scenery but I hope to get there shortly. Atleast the track configuration is relatively set.