December 2018 Construction Journal

Week of December 2, 2018

Using the LED strip lights I got from Amazon and some foam core board, I installed the first set of lights above sections L5 and L6. The double-sided tape on the light strips works well for securing the lights to the foam core. I'm not currently securing the foam core to the shelves, as there's no need.

You can see the photos of the layout with the lights turned off and then turned on.

I'm considering putting a strip of lights above the upper deck based on how well the strip lights work down below. It'll be nice to have these lights while I start laying the track on those sections of the layout. Each strip pulls 60 watts, so the power supply can support 6 strips. Based on my estimates, I'll need 7-8 strips, so I will end up with two of these power supplies.

Product Listing:

• 360 watt power supply - Amazon - $18.96
• LED strip light using SMD2835 LEDs - Amazon - $14.99

I also got the mainline track laid to the end of section L8 running behind the main yard. The mainline blocks are going to have detection, as will the two arrival/departure tracks. The crossovers leading into either end of the yard and the turnouts to the arrival/departure tracks will be powered and remote controlled to allow the dispatcher to route trains into those tracks.

There is a manual turnout leading from the westbound main into what will be an industrial area in section L5, but I don't have a design for it.

Finally, I've started laying out the yard ladder and cutting the tracks to fit the runaround and the connection to the yard lead. The Peco turnouts don't have holes predrilled all the way through, so I need to do that before securing those turnouts to the Homasote. I don't want to glue them down for now, just in case I run into an issue. Eventually, they'll get ballasted which will act as glue, to a point.

Week of December 9, 2018

This week has been focused on getting the main yard completed. I got the bulk of the main yard track laid over the past few nights. I added the backdrop to the final benchwork section and got it placed. After that, I started roughing out the track plan based on my original design. The final step will be to finish the mains down the section and around the corner, as well as to finish the "west" yard ladder. I also have plans for an engine facility in the space between the west yard ladder and the curves.

The mainline turnouts and the turnouts into the arrival/departure tracks are Atlas #8 that will be local and remote controlled. All the rest of the turnouts are Peco #6 Insulfrog turnouts. I'm really liking the "locking" feature of these turnouts and plan to use them on the rest of the layout.

The picture above shows the yard looking westbound. You can see the beginnings of the west end ladder that I need to finish. 

This is the west end of the yard looking east. It will be almost an identical mirror to the east end, with the exception that the yard lead will curve around following the main lines. The engine facility will go in the open space towards the front of this module. 

This is another picture of the last section with the backdrops in place. You can see how the mainline track curves around towards the next section, which will connect to the right hand edge of this benchwork section.

I finished the tracklaying in the main yard and started installing feeders. With the exception of the east end yard lead being a bit shorter than I would have liked, I think this yard design is going to work really well.

I need to design the engine facility as the next tracklaying step. Having the kill switches per track is going to be helpful to keep the sound engines quiet until they're needed. I think I'm going to have a two track "fueling" area near the edge of the layout, with the tracks separated enough to fit in fueling equipment. The tracks will be long enough to accommodate engine pairs (or trios), which I've measured at less than 2' long. I may make the sections 30" long, based on the length of the space available.

Week of December 16, 2018

This week has been a bit slow, but I finished the feeders at the "east" end of the yard. I have all the feeder holes drilled and cleaned up the drill debris so that I can use the yard now. I also started laying out the first two tracks of the engine facility, which make up the fueling/sanding facility. In reality, the two tracks are broken into two sections about 30" long that can be powered down.

The other part of the engine facility space will be accessed from a separate turnout and have 3-4 tracks, depending on how things get laid out. I've got lots of pictures of people's scratchbuilt engine facilities, which are really boring buildings in reality.

Week of December 23, 2018

I've been focusing on getting things done prior to family coming for Christmas day. The back room has been emptied of the LEGO collection and all the spare lumber has been moved in there. This was more a safety thing because I didn't want my nieces and nephews getting splinters or walking over the somewhat fragile Masonite pieces.

I got the first two tracks of the engine facility wired up with kill switches and built a small switch panel. I'm not happy with the Masonite as a control panel material, I may need to get some plexiglass or something else that is thinner but more rigid. However, it works fine for temporary use. The switches connect into a Molex terminal strip, which then connects to the track feeder wire that is connected to the other side of the strip. I'll add three more switches for the other engine facility tracks when I get that part of the area built.

I have room to park plenty of engines on these tracks and they stay quiet until I'm ready to use them. I need to get into the DCC programmer and tell them not to autostart when the power comes on, but I haven't had time to do that yet. 

I also got the guard rails added to the track going through the sump pump room to prevent any engines or cars making their final journey to the concrete floor below. This is 1/8" Masonite cut into 2.5" strips and screwed into the benchwork, it gets the job done quickly and safely. 

October-November 2018 Construction Journal

October 1, 2018

This layout will focus on operations and have lots of industries and car spots where cars can be picked up and delivered. The first industrial/switching district is in front of the lower staging yard. It's approximately 18" deep and 18 feet long. It parallels the mainline coming into and out of staging, but is not directly connected. There will be crossover turnouts on the mainline to let trains into this area.

With some assistance from Dan Hinel, owner of the Rail Xpress Railroad, I came up with what I think will be an interesting design.

Trains coming into this area will be locals delivering cars from the main yard, and thus won't be overly long. There is a runaround track allowing the engine to get to the back of the train, as well as to access the sidings towards the front/aisle of the layout.

In the video, I show a three track section that I had intended to be some sort of grain handling facility, but I may cut that back to two tracks. The "criss cross" industry sidings will likely be warehouse-style buildings with room for 3 cars each. There is room for two additional industries on the front/aisle track, each with room for two tracks.

The turnouts in this area will all be manual turnouts with ground throws, as I'm using up my stock of Atlas turnouts before switching to PECO turnouts, which have the built-in spring to hold the track in place.


Week of October 28, 2018

I was gone the first few weekends of October at operating session events in both Chicago and Lansing, so I haven't had much time to work on the layout. I also spent several weekends working on CIRROPS 2018 planning and logistics. The bulk of that work was done in advance of the event, so I finally found some time to work on the layout.

I started by getting backdrops trimmed and attached to the modules on the lower deck. These had to be in place in order to attach the modules to each other and to the shelving brackets.

Once the modules were secured to each other, I got wire holes drilled into the supports and between the sections. I also got the terminal blocks installed to secure the bus wires.

On the larger modules, I'm doing parallel bus wires to cut down the length of the feeder wires to the tracks. The parallel wires connect at the terminal strip and I'm using part of a "cheap" terminal strip at the distal end to secure those wires.

Week of November 4, 2018

It's far easier to stay motivated to work on the layout when you're actually making progress towards having trains moving. With the bus wires in place, I could start connecting the staging yard to the bus and getting it powered up. I finally found my groove, so to speak, on soldering feeders without completely destroying the track underneath. The trick is the pencil-tip soldering iron and heatsinks, like alligator clips or hemostats, on the track on either side of the solder location. This helps create a nice solder "tent" and minimizes heat damage to the track itself.

I've also secured the roadbed for the staging yard/mainline through the sump room. The DAP Alex Plus caulk is so easy to use as long as you don't have extreme curves. I measured out the 2.5" gaps on the curve, put the caulk down, laid out the cork, and it stuck in place without so much as a clamp on it.

I also had gotten some LED light strips a while back but didn't realize how different the surface mount LEDs were, in terms of light output. After finding an article here about the different LED strip options, I ordered a new 12 volt/30 amp power supply and one of the light strips from Amazon. Here's what the layout looked like before adding the lights:

And here's after, with the lights taped up temporarily:

This greatly improves the look of the section, these strips will work nicely on the rest of the layout. Each strip pulls 60 watts of power.  Based on my rough dimensions, I'll need 7 strips to light up the lower deck of the layout. I'm running 14 gauge lighting bus wires around the layout and will end up needing to split that bus to accommodate two power supplies eventually. Each strip is $10.99 and the power supply is $18.96, not counting a cord to plug it in. That's pretty cheap and while the strips get warm, they're producing way less heat than other options would.

Over the weekend, I also got a few more pieces of track cut and test fit for the industrial district in sections L1-L3 by the staging yard. I also finished adding a second set of feeder wires and a parallel set of bus wires for the staging yard.

The good thing about getting the staging yard wired is that I can now start moving the shelving units from the back room where the helix will go. I will have to test fit them, but I should be able to put the bottom two shelf sections under the layout. This will provide some storage for the train items in the back room, which will need to be emptied before I can build the helix.

Week of November 11, 2018

I made lots of progress over the past week. The lower staging yard is completely wired, and the industrial district in front is all glued down. I'm in the process of adding feeder wires, but it was fun being able to switch the district with some of my 6 axle diesels.

This picture shows an overall view of the switching district before everything was glued down. 

The first set of industry sidings can accommodate 6 cars (towards the staging yard side) and 12 cars (towards the aisle) respectively. 

This shows the run around track for incoming trains, as well as the crossover arrangement supporting two warehouse-type building spurs. 

You can see one of my CP Genset switchers pulling an odd string of cars towards the sump pump room/tunnel. Access to the staging yard is unhindered by trains working the switching district. 

Another view of the two leads heading towards the sump pump room tunnel.

The two tracks are now secured to the lower deck of benchwork. Because it was significantly lower than the circuit breaker panel, I didn't need to make this have a liftout section, as I did up above.

The rear track is the lead into staging, the front track is the lead into the switching district. 

I would have preferred, for space reasons, to use a double crossover here, but they simply aren't available, so I made this one out of Atlas #8 turnouts. This allows trains coming out of staging to get on the right hand main. 

Trains heading east (towards the sump room) can crossover to the staging yard lead, or locals can head into the switching district. The turnouts on the main will have both dispatcher control and local panel control to allow dispatcher-less operations. 

I'm currently adding feeders and detection blocks on the rear mainline blocks. The lead into the switching district will not be detected, but once trains hit the westbound main, they'll be in detected territory again. 

Week of November 18, 2018

I finished the feeders into the L1-L3 industrial district, as well as feeders on the track running through the sump room. The L4 mainline section feeders are routed through a block detector (which still needs to be connected to a board) but the L4 industry lead feeders are connected directly to the power bus. 

I ran out of cork roadbed but my order arrived before my few vacation days over Thanksgiving, so I was able to continue laying roadbed through the back of the main yard area. 

I also got out the PECO turnouts to see how they would fit the yard plan I had designed/adapted from several yards I'd seen. Based on some measurements, I decided to order some 3" code 83 track sections to save myself some time, since the PECO turnout is just about 3" shorter than the corresponding Atlas code 83 #6 turnout. In the picture above, you can see how the turnouts are spaced to get the track alignment correct. I decided to put the two arrival/departure tracks on cork and to have a ramp down to the Homasote surface where the rest of the yard will be. I also decided to use #8 turnouts for connecting the A/D tracks to the main to make it a smoother transition for trains coming in and out. The rest of the yard will be PECO #6 turnouts. 

I've also started playing with designs for the industrial district in section L5, just east of the main yard. Other than putting in a turnout off the main, I don't have a design I'm happy with yet, but that's OK at this point. 

I ordered the rest of the turnouts for the "west" end of the yard and the engine facility and the next step will be to lay the yard tracks, engine facility tracks, after placing the curves going from the east wall to the south wall. 

August-September 2018 Construction Journal

August 24, 2018

After some time away from construction, I got started again on the roadbed running through the sump room. This involves drilling into the concrete to put up shelving brackets, which is always fun, especially when the drill hits something that it can't get through -- probably some rebar or something. I've got the hole between the lower staging yard cut and have started cutting the 3/4" birch that makes up the supporting framework. I'm using thicker plywood because of the changes in temperature and humidity in this unfinished part of the basement.

August 26, 2018

I got a lot done this afternoon, it just doesn't look like it. I got the remaining two brackets installed into the concrete but it looks like one will need just a little bit of a shim under the plywood. I was going to put a fourth bracket in but decided that it really wasn't necessary based on the distances involved.

I also rewired the upper section through the sump room so that all the track is detected. This involved moving the positive feeders so they all routed through the detection coil. In addition, I had to install the Anderson Powerpole connectors for the removable section. These took a little bit of work but I'm happy with the results. There are YouTube videos showing exactly how these go together, I used this one and found it immensely helpful.

The connectors are designed to only fit together one way. The metal clip is designed to crimp onto your wire, and then you push the metal clip into the end of the plastic connector. You need to be careful when crimping the wire or you can malform the metal connector and it won't fit.

Once you have the wires crimped and installed, you can slide the plastic connectors together to make a single connector.

They stay together with friction and there's a small snap when the connectors make contact. This is the standard connector being used with Free-Mo modules, as well.

I also prepped the #6 Atlas turnouts for the lower staging yard by trimming the throw bars and surrounding ties, as well as removing the ties where the rail joiners will go. For the upper yard, I laid out the tracks first and then tried to fit them to the turnout ladder, which was a mistake. This time, I'm starting with the ladder and working towards the end of the yard.

September 22, 2018

With some help from a model railroader friend, we got the benchwork completed for the sump room on the lower deck.

The birch plywood is below the level of the Homasote on the other side to make it simple to transition to the cork roadbed. 

I was going to make the lower section removable, as well, but since it's below the level of the circuit breaker panel, it turns out there was no need to do this. 

The curved piece has an outside radius of 33 5/8" and inside radius of 27 5/8", so the track will not quite make the 30" minimum radius, but it's pretty close, even for long 85' passenger cars. 

The metal shelving bracket had to be cantilevered a bit to reach the curve, but it's only a few inches of extension. 

The support within the studs is secured with 3" deck screws on either side, so it's not going anywhere. 

September 23, 2018

I wired up the detection coils on the upper deck of the sump room track, which is known as block 201 in the system. Instead of wiring the CAT5 cable directly to the coils, I made use of some 12 gang plastic barrier strips that I found on Amazon that can be cut to length. 

Once I got the wires connect here and to the RR-Cirkits Watchman board, I got the two new blocks configured in JMRI. My control panel now looks like this:

It's amazingly satisfying to see the occupancy lights turn on and off as I drive my train through the layout, such as it is. I got a second Watchman board to take care of the lower level blocks, I'll be installing those coils as I start laying the lower deck track.

September 24, 2018

After doing some layout work for the turnouts at the yard throat, we drilled holes for the Tortoise control wire and then laid the first staging yard siding. Instead of nailing the track, I'm using DAP Alex clear caulk. You only need a thin layer of caulk to hold the track down, and it dries clear. I used it on the upper modules and was happy with the results.

I also ran more wire for the Tortoise bus on the upper level and tried my hand at wiring up the DPDT switches to control the local Tortoises. Those wires are really, really small... having to use 24 gauge wire to connect these switches up.

September 29, 2018

I finished building the lower deck staging yard. The minimum track length is 12', several are almost 15' long because of how the ladder was laid out. The upper staging yard was done using track nails, which took forever and the results were less than optimal. For the lower yard, I used the DAP Alex clear caulk as an adhesive. I laid out a bead of caulk, spread it with a putty knife, and then had time to lay out the track. I used my 6' aluminum ruler as a straightedge, starting at the turnout. I used track nails on the turnouts instead of the caulk, just to avoid any unnecessary caulk getting into the turnout. This worked quite well and it took longer to trim the rail joiners than it did to put down each track. The results are shown here:

I am going to put dual bus wires on this section, since it's 36" wide. I drilled holes through the crosspieces and installed my terminal strips. I painted the rest of my backdrop material before running the bus wires.


Next steps:

• Install backdrops on modules L6-L9
• Secure modules to each other
• Install terminal strip on each section
• Cut wire holes through crosspieces
• Run bus wires (track power, Tortoise bus)
• Wire feeders to staging yard
• Layout industrial district in L1-L2 and L5

Lots to do, lots to do. 

May 2018 Construction Journal

May 1st

After last night's work session, I've got a bunch of things to finish before the next week's session arrives. Part of the fun/challenge of having people coming to help is that you have to plan out what those people are going to work on. I did OK for yesterday, but need to keep doing that.



May 2nd

I now have five blocks connected to my RR-Cirkits Watchman board, so the next thing to do was to try out the features in JMRI dealing with block detection and signaling. I used some of the pre-supplied images with JMRI to build a CTC-style panel to represent my tiny little layout, so far.

With a little bit of fumbling, I was able to get three virtual signals hooked up. This picture shows the panel when the train was in block 202-eastbound.

The virtual signal at the lower left corner of the picture protects block 202E. In the next photo, I moved the train forward into block 203E and the signals changed accordingly. 

In the final picture, the train had pulled forward into block 204 and the signals behind it changed accordingly.

The amazing thing is how relatively easy it was to set these virtual signals up. The one that I couldn't quite get working would be the signal protecting blocks 203W and 203E from 204. This requires the use of what appears to be called a signal mast. The upper signal would control the main track (essentially block 203E) and the lower signal would control the diverging track (block 203W). However, I need to read more of the documentation to understand how that works.

May 7th

I hosted a small work session and the two of us finished up module L7, which is the transition from the 12" section to the main classification yard, which will be 30" wide. The other four sections on the wall are all 8' long, this is the missing puzzle piece, so to speak, so it had to be adjusted to fit the rest of the sections. During the week I also picked up the remaining shelving hardware to do the south wall and enough shelving brackets to mount all the modules. As I said before, ClosetMaid brackets are a bit more expensive than doing it by hand with wood, but they're also simple to install and remove.

May 25th

Because the lower level modules are much wider than the shelves (20" maximum) I am adding extra legs for support. I trimmed the legs to length and cut additional pieces to make leg pockets. Over the past couple of weeks, I've finished the lower level modules and gotten them temporarily installed on the wall.

The first module (L5) will have a mainline towards the back wall and some sort of industry near the front. I'm considering building the tank car rack for a refinery here so that the oil tankers will have a destination. 

This module (L6) is mainline and the "east" yard lead. 

Compared to the other four modules, module L7 is the funny puzzle piece that connects the two ends of the wall layout. The angle follows the throat of the main yard, plus it helps transition from the 12" section on the wall to the 30" main yard sections. 

Module L7 installed on the wall. 

Module L8 will hold the main body of the classification yard. 

Module L9 will be the end of the yard and the mainlines will curve towards the south wall. In addition, the engine facility will be at this end of the yard. 

The next steps to complete are:

• Paint more backdrop material for sections L5-L9 and install them
• Complete the benchwork through the sump room to connect the north and east walls
• Build the south wall benchwork towards where the helix will go
• Build the helix
• Start planning out the industrial areas. 

The big purchase will be turnouts for the main yard... I need more than 30, not counting all the turnouts for the industrial areas.

April 2018 Construction Journal

After a break related to my full time job change, I've slowly started building again. The goal is to have the upper and lower decks done before the CIRROPS event in November. I'd also like to get the helix done by then, but I'd be ok with being able to operate the lower deck.

April 1st

I got the backdrops attached to modules L1 and L2 and got them mounted to the shelving brackets. Unfortunately, I see the results of how uneven the shelving brackets were when I installed them, so I had to add a number of shims under the brackets. However, the entire unit is really solid. Each section is 8' long and 36" deep. The back half is going to be a 8 track staging yard, similar to the one on the upper deck. The front half will be an industrial/switching district. 

April 9th
Bob Vila was right... measure twice, cut once. I had to adjust the connector section that goes between L2 and the wall because I measured it incorrectly the first time. It's in there temporarily because I still need to cut the hole into the sump room.

April 30th

I had my first group work session tonight. Between the six people plus me, we got section L5 and L6 completed, and U9 is ready to assemble. We also had a good discussion about how to build the peninsula that will run down through the middle of the room. 

I've also been connecting up RR-Cirkits block detection coils to my Watchman board. At this point, I have three blocks being properly detected and have four more to connect on the upper level. 

Here's the construction plan to get the upper and lower decks connected:

• Temporarily install L5 on the east wall to determine vertical location of sump room hole
• Build L4 section through sump room, including removable "bridge". 
• Permanently install L5-L9 on east wall
• Build/install upper and lower sections on south wall to connect between east wall and back room where helix will go. Part of this section where the peninsula will eventually connect will be temporary track that can be reconfigured later. 
• Empty out back storage room
• Design helix and connector tracks on top and bottom. If possible, I want to investigate putting in a reverse loop as part of the top and bottom of the helix. I also want to determine whether an extra set of storage tracks can fit above where the dispatcher desk will go. 
• Build helix/connector/reverse loop tracks in back room

The helix is probably the biggest task, but I'm planning to cut quarter circle curves from plywood to build the grade between the two decks. 

January 2018 Construction Journal

January 6, 2018

To get ready for the next steps in construction, I've been moving stuff around under the layout. When I had the basement finished, I had them put in two separate 15 amp circuits in the center of the east wall. The intention was that would be my main control area, since it's about halfway down. I moved my command station and the JMRI PC over there in order to clear the space under the staging yard on the north end of the room. The PC will eventually move into the backroom where it can act as the dispatcher's desk.

With the electrical components moved, the space under the staging yard is empty and ready for the big modules to be reinstalled that I started with last year.