Weekend Update 12/8/24

[dem34]

Don't shy away from the Atlas #5s.  The turnouts in the ladder shown below are all #5s.  Purchased used no less.  The ladder works flawlessly.  Same era car length as yours.  Good operation has more to do with car weight, coupler type and mounts, truck and wheel sets than #5 vs. #7.  Just my two cents, based on actual operating experience mind you.

True. My weekend Update was swapping the handlaid turnouts on my 2x4 with Atlas #7s. I was about to swap to Kato Unitrak before I cooled off and realized the 40yr old Kato SD40 I was using as a tester had a truck where every wheel was badly out of gauge. The other was fine weirdly enough.

[craigolio1]

Very nice Craig! You even have a home-brewed PC board, Neat. But I wonder why you keep using those barrel resistors with leads? If you used some SMD resistors instead, you could make the circuit even more compact.

Thanks @peteski 

I should have taken a pic of the circuit board. I’m very pleased with it as I made it with a 1/64” cutoff wheel in a Dremal.

I have used SMD resistors for many projects. In this case I used the larger resistors as they have legs. They are not visible from the side windows of the cab and I can position the legs to hold wires in certain places. And in this case easier to work with this legs when installed in the cab.

[craigolio1]

Craig,

I am loving this! Would you mind drawing up a wiring diagram so I can try to replicate this?

I used this circuit that @peteski designed for us a while ago.



C1 is two 430uF tantalum caps wired in parallel to equal 860uF. The lights stay on for like 15 seconds after disconnecting power when tested with four LEDs. This model will have a total of 12 LEDs so I crammed as much as I could in there. 

R2 is three 15k resistors. I always go bigger with my resistors as I don’t like the lights to be like little suns. And as it turns out I only need two resistors as I only made two little circuits in the model. One for the head lights and one for work lights. I can turn them on and off with little safety pin type switches I made from brass wire, hidden on the bottom.

Craig

Edit:

Here’s the actual circuit.

[Dwight in Toronto]

Craig - curious to see your “safety pin”-type switches you made … can you post a pic?
Also, I’m guessing this is a DC model, otherwise you’d be controlling those led’s with a decoder, rather than switches?

[SAH]

SAH:  Nice looking set of boxcars!

But, no MILW horizontal-ribbed car?  Those things were everywhere in the 40s and 50s, and common in the 60s and into the 70s.  It's good to see an SP&S car, but the MILW were much more numerous.

Thanks.  I agree and have a half dozen MILW rib sides in the fleet.  None in this batch however.

[Angus Shops]

Regards the #5 vs. #7 in the yard ladders - is there any particular reason you can’t compromise on a #6? I’ve used #7’s in my Field, BC yard (I’ve got 19 feet on this wall) and #6’s in Golden where space is more limited. I don’t really understand the geometry of the switches, but it seems to me that there is a big jump in overall length of the switch between the #6 and the #7, as compared to the difference between a #5 and #6, and between a #7 and #8. I suggest you print out some paper templates of your various options (from FT for example) and lay them out and see what works.

[nickelplate759]

Regards the #5 vs. #7 in the yard ladders - is there any particular reason you can’t compromise on a #6? I’ve used #7’s in my Field, BC yard (I’ve got 19 feet on this wall) and #6’s in Golden where space is more limited. I don’t really understand the geometry of the switches, but it seems to me that there is a big jump in overall length of the switch between the #6 and the #7, as compared to the difference between a #5 and #6, and between a #7 and #8. I suggest you print out some paper templates of your various options (from FT for example) and lay them out and see what works.

Good suggestion - I tried substituting ME #6 instead of Atlas #5 and that only loses about 1" off of each yard track, which is acceptable.
The main issue there is that ME code 55 #6 are made of Unobtaininum right now (they've been on backorder for quite some time).  They are also quite expensive (circa $40 each), but as I don't need a lot of them that's not a showstopper.

[craigolio1]

Craig - curious to see your “safety pin”-type switches you made … can you post a pic?
Also, I’m guessing this is a DC model, otherwise you’d be controlling those led’s with a decoder, rather than switches?

I decided to start a build thread. They are described in there.

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=58909.msg811252#msg811252

But basically I bent a brass wire in a hook. Another one can be bent to rest in that hook. The ends go up through the floor where the circuit is. By closing the hooks on the under side of the model I can turn lights on and off.

I run DCC.  The circuit that Peteski designed has a bridge rectifier so it’s good for DC or DCC.

[peteski]

I run DCC.  The circuit that Peteski designed has a bridge rectifier so it’s good for DC or DCC.

And as I recall, you originally tried using a function-only decoder, but after having problems adding keep-alive circuit to your Digitrax decoder, you decoded to go old-school. 

[jpwisc]

Thanks for the elaboration Craig! I appreciate it!

On my bench I wrapped up BN 631020, one of two 8 axle depressed center flats the BN owned. I think it was built in 1977. I modified an NScaleKits.com kit to match some prototype photos I found.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[crrcoal]

Hi Steve, what is the length and width of the yard here?

Don't shy away from the Atlas #5s.  The turnouts in the ladder shown below are all #5s.  Purchased used no less.  The ladder works flawlessly.  Same era car length as yours.  Good operation has more to do with car weight, coupler type and mounts, truck and wheel sets than #5 vs. #7.  Just my two cents, based on actual operating experience mind you.

[mu26aeh]

I second the notion of not staying away from #5s.  Lincoln yard (nee Windsor, nee Hagerstown) turnouts are mostly 5s and very few issues arise directly because of the turnout.

[craigolio1]

And as I recall, you originally tried using a function-only decoder, but after having problems adding keep-alive circuit to your Digitrax decoder, you decoded to go old-school. 

Exactly.

[jpwisc]

Wrapped up another easy one, I built a mow truck for a friend’s Havre Yard layout.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
Proto photo that inspired this build by Andy Tucker
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[SAH]

Hi Steve, what is the length and width of the yard here?

From the turnout at the start of the ladder to the turnout at the beginning of the complex ladder at the other end is 10' 6".
The width is 14"
The longest yard track is approx. 5' 8".  Most of the other are within a few inches of that.