August 2019 Construction Journal

Benchwork Construction

8/5/2019 - I glued down the cork on the last lap of plywood in the helix. I'll let it dry before adding the cork.

8/13/2019 - I got the track secured to the cork on the last lap of plywood. The next pieces will go across the connector to the wall. I also found that I'll need to continue the grade up to the wall so that trains can get underneath the last piece of plywood.

8/22/2019 - I got module L10 installed, which is the lower deck section that connects to the east wall yard sections. I had to add a backdrop to it and adjust the supports so that it fits nicely on the shelving brackets. I also cut wiring holes through the crosspieces and bolted it to section L9. I also found that the short sections I cut to finish the benchwork to the helix room are about an inch short, so I need to rebuild those.

8/25/2019 - I got the lower two modules in the main room and completed the benchwork in the helix. Once I got that done, I laid caulk and put down the roadbed. While there will be a peninsula extending from south wall prior to the helix room, I can always pull the track up at that point.

8/26/2019 - I added the mainline track extending from L9 into L10, and then prepped additional track pieces for the next round of tracklaying.

8/27/2019 - I finished the track connecting to the helix, plus finished the west-end yard lead. I was going to add a double crossover near the tunnel into the helix room, but once I laid it out, there was not going to be enough room. The track coming out of the tunnel will eventually be curving down the peninsula and there wouldn't have been enough room to fit both turnouts in. I will likely have some sort of switching district on the adjoining side of the peninsula and it can incorporate a pair of crossovers.

8/28/2019 - I added a set of feeders to the track on the south wall and was able to successfully run the two trains out of the helix back to the rest of the railroad. I also took a full-length freight train (16 cars, 1 engine) from the lower staging yard all the way up the helix. It only had one engine (Proto SD60) and did pretty well. I'm not sure if it was spinning its wheels or if I was getting some power dropout on one part of the loop, though. I'm planning to run dual engines to make it easier to turn power, but it's good to see that the 2% grade isn't too daunting. Once I get the peninsula underway, I'll rewire the feeders to enable detection on this block of track, but for now, it's fine to be able to run trains on.

8/31/2019 - I completed the plywood subroadbed around the layout, including the connectors to the helix. I also laid cork for track installation but ran short of cork roadbed.

DCC/Electronics

8/28/2019 - Since I figured out that I was going to need five sets of feeders for the helix, I replaced the two four-gang blocks with a single ten-gang block. I started by cutting jumper wires to connect each terminal to the next one, and the result was a bit of a mess.

I found some purpose-built terminal block jumpers and the result has a much cleaner (and probably more reliable) appearance.