Weekend Update 1/21/18

[jmlaboda - RIP]

I had the good fortune as a young teenager of finding a book on Espee's various Cab Forward locomotives in, of all places, a school library, which sparked a bit of an interest in me... absolutely love your models!!!

[Tom L]

PBQ service has come to my layout. Atlas Trainman car with piggyback mods to match the prototype, body mount couplers, brass brake wheel, BLMA trucks for a lower ride. Can't see it, but I removed the oversized under carriage on the trailer and replaced it with something a little less crude. Had to move the dolly wheels back to clear the hitch mount. The trailers are a little crude but the paint is nice.

Tom L.
Wellington CO

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[SP-Wolf]

Wolf, those are SWEET! My favorite SP power.
I got to find time to come visit, if you'll have me
Otto K.

Howdy Otto,

Thank you!! And, yes -- you are more than welcome to come visit!!

Wolf

[BCR 570]

Chris:

Your logging railway is a superb piece of work and an excellent example of what can be achieved in a small space - congratulations.

Tim

[BCR 570]

Yes, Tim, congrats, nice to see so much progress, above and below. Very neat, in more ways than one!

I'm particularly impressed with your power management panel. I have a bunch of temporary connections between the boosters and the layout, see pic below, and want to do something similar, and intend to put manual on/off switches to isolate each individual power district, in my case eight of them. Id like to learn a little more about your approach. Why the two separate LED's for "track power" and "DCC power"? Is it power in/power out?

I also really like the built in Rampmeter (although its useful to have one to walk around with to check voltage drops). Are the Amp readings cumulative or separable by district? And where do you measure Voltage, at source?

Very impressive work.
Otto K.

Otto:

Happy to share my approach, but I am no wiring expert.

My eight circuit breakers are arranged underneath the layout in a fashion similar to yours:



Power Management Panel
Each circuit breaker has LEDs to signal Power In, Power Out, and Shorts.  The function of my Power Management Panel is to repeat these LEDs out on the fascia where they can easily be seen.
- The amber DCC Power lights confirm that DCC power from the command station is going into each circuit breaker.
- The green Track Power lights confirm that DCC power is coming out of each circuit breaker and into the bus wires.
- The red Block Short lights indicate a short somewhere on the track within that power district.
- The Reset toggle switches kill power to each district.  This was a recommendation from my friend Brian Pate.  They have proved useful on occasion.

RampMeter
The RampMeter is connected inline between the command station and the circuit breakers.  It therefore indicates what is coming out of the command station in terms of voltage.  This has proved useful when restting or changing the track output voltage.  The current reflects what is currently being drawn by the layout.

As you suggest, I do have a second portable RampMeter which can be used to measure current and voltage anywhere on the layout:




This arrangement has worked well for me so far.  There are additional photographs and further explanation on the Construction-Wiring Page of my website.  I hope I have answered your questions.

Tim

[Cajonpassfan]

Yes Tim, thank you, a very clear explanation; pretty much what I thought. But dang, your wiring is inspirational 
I'll get right on it, maybe, but think I will skip the individual "power in" LED's in favor of just one, but otherwise shamelessly copy your schematic approach. Nice work.
Thank you again for taking the time to answer my questions.
Regards, Otto K.

[Teditor]

Streamlined K4, Outstanding!

[unittrain]

Started a bridge scratch build this will be a fish belly deck plate, to complete my abandoned LE&P span on my Bradylake module. The wiring and track laying is done so more updates will be a foot finally, as work on the parts of the hobby I enjoy most.

[bnsfdash8]

Here's NS 1072 that I did before Kato and FVM did their versions.

[mmagliaro]

Chris Broughton - most excellent logging scene.  It could be in a museum!  I really like the look of the fallen leaves under the trees.

Tim Horton - Beautifully engineered and very neat wiring and power distribution, and your layout is coming along great.  It looks like it will be fun and exciting to operate.

I have been working on getting nice "beauty" shots of my 0-6-0 on black plexiglas with nice reflections, because I am actually starting to anticipate that it is going to really get finished this year!  I still need more practice eliminating errant reflections and white dust specks that have to be "photoshopped" out, but I'm starting to figure it out.

[Cajonpassfan]

Dang it Max
Still speechless
Otto

[mu26aeh]

Warp speed on cutting styrene this weekend for the Challenge.

[btrain]

Wow, just wow. The caliber of work in this weekend update is suburb! Great work Chris and Lemosteam with the streamlined K4, and hats off to mmagliro on the SP&S switcher. If I didn't know better, I'd swear that's an O scale model!

Went to the Vermilion, Ohio train show today and picked up Centralia Shops NYC sleeper "Lorain County," which had me geeking out since it's the county where I grew up. After that I went back home to work on putting track together on the roundhouse portion of the layout. Here's a berk checking the space underneath the coal dock in my Bellevue yard scene. The back and white does a nice job of hiding the pink foam and a few of the T pins. 

[narrowminded]

Lots of REALLY nice stuff here.  Max?  WOW!

My efforts this weekend were spent on additional planning for a scratch built engine house in the style of eastern roads.  I'm using detail information from Thurmond WV for some prototype style help and working with cardboard mock ups printed from my drawing program and colored with Sharpies for visual assurance that it's what I want.  Plenty of opportunity for edits.    It's true to size and helps me see what my imagination doesn't.    For those who care, there is a build thread here. https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=43486.msg560265#new

[unittrain]

Got most of the bracing done, next is stiffeners and a few other details.