Builder's Railroad Project: in the Beginning...

[Builder 2010]

Out of Chaos, Order

Quality session yesterday and got almost all of the toggles wired with their Red and Green Throttle feeds. Have two more to go and they're all done. Woke up this morning again with the thought that I did something wrong during the last session. As usual, my subconscious was right. I had wired all the outer loop toggles to their red and green sources, but I forgot that block 7 & 8 (along with 4 others on the right side) were to be wired into the interlock relay barrier strips since their power was to be interrupted when the gate latch was opened. So the first thing I did was relocate those two and then connect the other four while I was at it.

And since I was standing while doing some of this and bending at a weird angle, my back decided to go out. I then realized I could roll my desk chair up to the edge of the panel and do it sitting down. If I figured that out ahead of time, I would be a lot happier right now.

So it's not done. There's still a lot to go. I have to wire up all the indicator LEDs which will be soldered to the open terminal posts on the toggles, and then I have to run all 38 blocks of field wiring to the center lead on the other side of the toggle, but you can already see the order that's coming out of the Chaos. I have to be careful to arrange the wires in such a way to enable the panel to close up tightly.



I still have to dress the wires better and use more tie wraps to stabilize the whole thing.



And once again, my waking time was spent constructively with wiring questions (and answers) about how to handle putting in all the LEDs. I realized two things... first, I only need one current limiter resistor feeding each DPDT switch since only one LED can be illuminated at a time (red or green) and therefore only pulling current from the center wire. So the resistor will go between the DC source and the center tap on the switch, and second, I can handle getting the DC- back to that terminal strip in whatever way makes the least mess and minimal quantities of wire as long as I maintain the parallel alignment. I also started thinking about bringing in the field wiring to the DPDTs and wiring up 26 track switch controllers. In the German scheme, they ran to a long barrier strip so I could remove the control panel for shipment. Now, I don't need this additional step and can wire each switch controller to it's final destination. I will still use a small terminal strip under the platform so the switch can be removed for maintenance or whatever without cutting a wire. It just seems to make sense.

[Builder 2010]

LED Wiring Commencing

Before going any further I decided I better check that I wired everything correctly. I'm glad I did. My digital multi-meter, like most of them, acts as continuity checker when you select the lowest Ohms setting. Out of 74 circuits, two were wired improperly. In one, I had mis-marked the leads themselves so the green throttle leads were marked as red and vice versa. In the other, I had just screwed the leads to the wrong buss. If I hadn't rung out each side, those track blocks would have been dead or a different voltage than their neighbors and would have been a pain in the butt to troubleshoot. Now they're all correct. I also checked those circuits that would be controlled by the interlock and they too were in good shape.

So with that out of the way, I started wiring the hot side to all the LED indicators. I'm installing the single current-limiting resistor in this line which feeds either the red or green LED. I then joined five of them with one other lead into a larger ferrule. This lead will ultimately be joined with a few more going into the DC+ distribution block. Since the block only has 17 positions so combining them is a good idea. The wire is 26 AWG which can handle 2.5 amps. The LEDs only draw .02 amps so there's no change of overloading anything.

Here's the latest wiring diagram modified from the incandescent version. I must say that LED did add a level of complexity. If I had enough of the incandescents, I would have used them. They worked on AC from the 10 volt tap on the transformer. But the LEDs are going to look very good once they're all installed. Not shown is the LED voltage = 12 fed through a Laptop power supply.



I had started bundling groups of wires with tie wraps, but when I ran into the first toggle's problem, I clipped all of them off. I'll wait until all the wires are correct and powered up before making everything pretty(ier).



I'm using heat shrink tubing as much as possible to insulate all the splices. In one of the first ones I did, I picked a size that was too small and had to resort to electrical tape.



In my last iterations, I took great pains to adhere the wiring to the panel so it would stay in place when the panel was open for service. In this case, the panel opened upwards. In this version, the panel opens downwards and the wire naturally lays in place. In this case, I'm more concerned about shaping the cables so they don't foul the hinge when the panel is raised.

[Builder 2010]

LED Wiring Ongoing

I continued installing resistors on the hot side of the LED circuit, and started running out of the correct-sized heat shrink tubing so I began to install some of the LEDs to see how that would go. I needed to glue the LEDs into their 5 mm holes since the red ones fit pretty loosely. The greens are a different manufacture and fit more tightly. I first tried CA, but it quickly soaked into the paper graphic and looks poorly from the front. This happened at the interlock LEDs so I'm going to put a finished plate on the front with the words "Interlock" which will cover up the blemish. Next I tried using RC Canopy Cement, but it didn't grip the epoxy that the LEDs are made of. Finally, I tried clear Gorilla Glue and this seems to be working well.

I applied DC to all the installed sets and they worked as prescribed.

Here's a shot showing the complexity of the wiring even when it's all installed correctly.



Great Depth of field thanks to the focus stacking software. It sometimes creates aberrations like the halo around the black wire in the foreground, but all in all it does make great closeups possible.

I almost blew it. Originally I was going to have the hot lines running individually to each LED. This was when I was soldering the wrong resistors to all those LEDs (several posts ago). And the black wire was on the LED's negative side. This was to be wired to the switch which would go to ground. But the other day I realize that I only need one resistor to each switch if wired to the + side. But I didn't revise my thinking about the black and red wires. I actually soldered the first LED backwards. I caught my mistake very quickly and hadn't applied any power to it. The circuit in the foreground was the one where this happened.

I ordered a bunch more heat shrink from Jameco. Since I made my first order with them, they gave me a free shipping coupon. They sell it in four foot lengths. I really don't want to go the electrical tape route. In a pinch it works, but it's a much better installation with shrink tubing.

So four toggles are done and only 33 to go.

[USSWisconsin]

Great Depth of field thanks to the focus stacking software. It sometimes creates aberrations like the halo around the black wire in the foreground, but all in all it does make great closeups possible.

Just another reason this presentation is so fantastic. These extra efforts you put into the work. Thank you, I know the trains would work just as well without the great presentation of the build, but with this level of documentation, the work is all the more impressive.

[Builder 2010]

Thanks, as always, Jay! As I've said many times before, documenting the build is almost as much fun as building it in the first place. I sometimes find myself re-reading the whole thing and being amazed that I've actually put it all together. It helps me plan what I'm doing next and actually improves the build. Having worked in an industrial instrumentation company where they assembled control panels for power plants etc., I'm compelled to try to make the wiring as professional looking as possible. There's a lot of wires in this panel!

All of heat-shrink arrived the other day and I'm back in production. I've now completed installing 17 LEDs and only 23 more to go...ugh! It's painstaking work since I want to make sure that every joint is perfect and every exposed area is covered with heat shrink tubing. I'm also having to glue in the red LEDs since they're slightly smaller than 5 mm so the Gorilla glue has to dry overnight to make a strong joint. I'm off tomorrow and will install some more. After the LEDs I'll start tying the hot and common feeds to the individual pigtails attached to each track block. There'll be a small junction block under the platform where the two will join and then it will run straight back to the center leads on each toggle for the hots and the common buss barrier strips. I found out today that having the hot a foot or so longer than the commons will not affect the DCS signal strength or data transfer. That's good because I didn't want to strip the twisted pair wire back two feet or so to expose the additional length of black wire to compensate for the extra red wires running to and from the toggle switches.

[Builder 2010]

Mass Producing LED Sets

I decided I didn't like how I was working with the LEDs using the laid-open control panel acrylic as a work surface. I also didn't like putting the leads on the LEDs one a time. It was slow and very inefficient. So I re-engineered my approach and made a fixture with 7, 5 mm holes for the LEDs and started a mini-assembly line. In this fashion I was able to produce the rest of them in one sitting. I ran out of the 1/16" heat shrink tubing... I didn't order enough... so I used the 3/32" of which I ordered 4, 40" packages.

Here's the bare LEDS in the fixture. The jig kept them nice and still while I soldered them. My hands shake enough where I don't need a lousy holding device to add to the fun.



Here's a gaggle of LEDs with the heat shrink applied, but before shrinking.



I also sped up the shrinking process. I was using the soldering iron's sleeve to heat the tubing to shrink it, but decided to use the heat gun since they were now so conveniently held in place. It took only a minute or so to shrink all 14 leads at one time. I held the board with a big spring clamp so I didn't risk burning myself.

And here's the result of about 3.5 hours of work. Lots of additional well-soldered and insulated red and green LEDs. I'm careful to use red leads for the LED's + side and black for the – side. This avoids problems when I go to solder the +s into the toggle and the –s to the ground leads. I sincerely hope that none of those LEDs are faulty since I have not individually tested them. I did power up the first batch that I installed in the panel and they were all okay. The Gorilla glue holds pretty tightly so removing them to put in a new one will not be that easy.



After dinner, I installed all 23 sets (46 LEDs) into the remaining holes next to the toggles. I again used Gorilla glue to hold them in place and they all have to dry overnight to be fully cured and strong. I'll solder them to the switches and hook up all the remaining ground leads next session. Then I'll get back to installing the remaining hot leads with the current limiting resistors.



It still isn't pretty, but's it's getting there. Should be done in a week or so.

I decided on a way to lift the mass of wires to facilitate closing the panel without smashing the wires between the panel and the wood that lies just above the hinge. I going to thread a piece of string or wire underneath the bundle, have the kids lift each side of the string so the wires are now suspended above the hinge area, and then fasten the panel. When it's right, pull the string out. It should work, it's simple and once this thing is fully wired, it will be very rare to reopen it unless I'm adding something or there's a problem.

As you're able to gather by this time, model railroading, if you build your own system, involves a vast amount of knowledge and skills, the least of which is making models. You've got design, layout planning, project management, carpentry and painting, circuitry, electronics, electrical assembly skills, scenery design and building (arts and crafts), and then there's the purchase and collecting of trains and engines, building structures and rolling stock, switch logic and systems integration, and finally, running model trains. It's a good hobby.

[USSWisconsin]

Would hot glue be a viable alternative to gorilla glue? Faster dry time, but perhaps it isn't strong enough?

[Builder 2010]

LEDs on-and-on

Hot Glue! Why didn't I think of that? I have a hot glue gun and the glue to go with it. But it just didn't register this time. Jay... keep coming up with the ideas. The problem is I'm writing about stuff AFTER I do it so the suggestions only work for the next time...and I really don't want to do this again for a long time.

All of the LEDs are wired. All of the feeder resistors are in place and all of the DC+ leads are now bunched, combined and terminated at the DC+ power strip. Tomorrow, I'll terminate all of the DC- leads and then we'll see if all 38 red and green LEDs actually light up. I tested the very first batch that I wired and they worked. I'm combining 5 individual LED+ feeds and a long lead to reach the power strip in a single crimped ferrule. I cover the exposed end of the ferrule with some heat shrink to avoid any shorts. At the power strip I then combined two DC+ into their own crimped ferrule which is then terminated at the power strip. I'm using 26AWG wire and it's a little fine to use in a ferrule singly so combined two ensures that the crimp is nice and tight.

Here's the Termination of the DC+ feeds.


And here's what the panel looks like now. It's still a mess, but it's actually a completely, in-control mess. The only wires that remain un-terminated are the 38 hot and common track block feed wires. That means only 76 terminations left to go. Well actually that's not quite right. I still have to attach and wire up 26 track switch controllers. Each has three wires so this will actually get worse... much worse. Once the panel is closed and checked out, we'll never see it again.


Once all are terminated I'll go back and try to tidy it up a bit with some more cable ties. In the previous iteration, I ran the cables around the panel and tied them to the panel with adhesive cable management devices. That panel was painted so there was a good surface for the adhesive to adhere. In the instance, the back of the panel is paper, so any stress on it imposed by the cables would delaminate the graphic. So I'm letting all the cables float free thus leading to the mayhem... or at least the mayhem-ness.

And today I bought a tool that I wished I had bought long ago. It's a small heat gun with a reflector specifically designed to shrink heat shrink tubing. It was sooo much more effective than using the soldering iron and did the job in seconds. I was able to add the resistors and terminate the DC hot wires on 13 circuits tonight which was about twice my normal speed.

I went into Radio Shack to find some smaller-than-#4 wood screws for the Euro style barrier strips that are going under the layout. Home Depot had nothing smaller than #4s and they won't fit in the holes. It was a new item at Radio Shack and the sales lady showed it to me after I complained that I was unable to buy heat shrink at a price or quantity at any local stores, and resorted to making multiple orders from Jameco in L.A. They sell four foot lengths for less than 2 bucks. She showed me their supply of tubing and then said that a new product arrived that I might be interested in. As it turns out, I was, and it's great!



I've used tons of heat shrink so far and will use quite a bit more. In the past this all would have been electrical tape which is a pain in the butt to apply and isn't the most secure either. But buying quantities of electrical tape has been much easier than finding the equivalent lengths of heat shrink tubing. But then there's always Jameco.

[Ken_NJ]

If you spliced or soldered wires and forgot to put the heat shrink tubing on, or if you want to protect something that is odd shaped, you can use liquid liquid electrical tape. I bought my bottle from Lowe's which was actually cheaper than the $7+ on Amazon. I'm using it to prevent water infiltration into wiring exposed to water in my Marlin.

Liquid tape that I bought from Lowe's: Gardner Bender LTB-400 4-Ounce Black Liquid Electrical Tape - Amazon.com

Amazon liquid tape listing: Amazon.com: liquid tape

[Builder 2010]

I have it, and have used it in several places. It's not my first choice since it has to dry, it's a bit messy and often times needs a second coat. That being said, I've used it at least five times to solve those exact problems. It's also good for protecting T splices where you can't slide a piece of tubing on. I bought mine at Lowe's too.

[Builder 2010]

It's Alive!

Tonight I hooked up the DC-. It went very fast and turned it all on. I found one entire switch where the lights weren't on, and after closer inspection, found that I missed putting a resistor on one feeder wire so it was receiving no power. A few minutes later that circuit was working. Then I found one red LED that wasn't lit. I checked voltages coming out of the switch and there was power on both sides. I pulled off the shrink tubing to see if the solder joints were okay. They were. I don't ever blow solder joints! So I pulled that LED. I attempted to put the ohmmeter across the LED, but the readings were ambiguous and I wouldn't know what they meant anyway. So I need to replace it. Unfortunately, I used every last one so I have to buy some more. Perhaps I'll get enough so I have spares and can use them for kid's projects. I have a ton of resistors left since I chose to put the resistor on the center tap of the DPDT switch so I only used 38 of them instead of 76 if I would have fed the power in the other way and having the switch go to ground.

Here are all the green ones lit:


And here's all the red ones lit. If you look really closely, you can see one of the tracks in the yard is not showing a red light. I can run the trains without that light. First of all it's a yard track so will spend most of its time in the "off" mode, and then the lights are not in series with the power to the track. They're powered separately and just serve to show which throttle is driving.


In hindsight, I should have set up a test rig and tested each LED before and after installation. But considering the number of connections and splices, missing one line and having one bum bulb isn't too bad.

With this out of the way, I started the real wiring... the power wires to each block. I started with Block 16, which is an inner track on the far end of the layout. I used the 14 gauge for this. I tied it all off, threw my 2500HP Center-cab engine on the track and tested it. It worked, but the green throttle was showing a short or a common problem. Since I had that before when I jerry-rigged the outer loop I quickly realized that the outer loop commons and the one I just put up weren't in agreement. I disconnected the temporary outer loop from the transformer and the power problem was fixed. This loop is coming down anyway since I need all the two-position barrier strips to connect the main lines to the track feeders. The grandkids will be a bit disappointed that no trains can run, but it's only a temporary inconvenience leading to a much bigger goal.

Since block 16 is also one of the interlock circuits I was able to test that too by lifting the latch on the swing gate. The engine instantly powered down. So the relays are doing their thing. Sweet!

So one down and 37 more blocks to wire. It will take some time, but in a couple of weeks, we should have a running layout. And that includes getting all the switch machines under power. Since they're such low power devices, I don't have to manhandle that 14 gauge stuff. It's a pain to strip.

Today, I also located a source for #2 wood screws that I need to fasten the Euro-style barrier strips. I have screws that I used when the RR was built in Germany, but since they been in and out a couple of times, the Phillips head slots are cammed out and they're shot. Since Radio Shack didn't have them, I tried the hobby shop thinking that servo screws might work. They're the right diameter, but a tad too short. They suggested Fastenal, an industrial supply house that specializes on screws. I had never heard of them. Believe or not, they have 16 locations around Louisville and one was a half mile from where I was working today. They don't stock the #2s x 5/8s, but they'll have them for me on Monday and I ordered 100 for six bucks. Details, Details.

[Builder 2010]

Track Wiring Progress

While I haven't been posting, I have been working on the railroad (all the whole day long, tra la). What I have been doing is attaching the field wiring to the control panel. It's slow, painstaking work that's not very photogenic, but essential none the same. The outer loop is completely wired except for block #2, which is directly adjacent to the control station. The inner loop is half wire and everything on the back side of the layout is now live also including the first powered spur.

As I was moving down the front side, I kept looking for the pigtail for block 18, but couldn't find it, meaning this block had no feeder between the insulated pins. So I had to get out the Dremel to polish off the oxide and then get out the resistance solderer to fasten a pigtail. I thought I was done this phase. I will have to drill another hole to pass the wires down below, and then another junction block to tie in the panel feed. All this occurred right at the end of the session today.

Here's the wiring progress so far. All completed runs are in Red and to-be-done are in blue.



I thought I bought enough O'Gauge Railroading twisted pair wire to finish the job. I bought 500 feet (250 of 14 AWG and 250 of 16 AWG), but I'm going to run out with a number of blocks yet to wire. I don't want to switch to untwisted wire at this point so I'm going to have to buy more. In RRTrack, you can measure the total length of each wire run, so I added them up and came to another 190 feet (yikes!) so I just ordered another 250 since I'll consume the leftover when wiring for the lights, etc. That's 750 feet of wire just for track power.

As you can see by the diagram, all of the the rear wiring passes under the bridge since the open spaces are remaining open. This has led to a fairly large mass of wiring passing under there. This picture only shows track power wiring. There's still some wiring from the three track switches on the back side that has yet to be run. And there will also be signal wiring and lighting wires for any structures on the back side.



Here's another view of the cables under the back platform.



Lastly, here's the wiring that feeds the swing-out door. It passes around the hinge line so it can flex without any strains. I made sure that I didn't pull the wiring too tight when stapling it to the platform. I use an Arrow staple gun with the wiring shoe and curved staples. While they work well, you still need to be careful not to shoot the staple through the wire which either severs it or makes an instant short that's often hard to find.



And my wife made it clear she doesn't want the house to be smelled up with melting styrofoam so I'm going to go back to more traditional hardshell with plaster, paper towels and cardboard strips.

[USSWisconsin]

http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/nav...tml#post907449

I didn't know if you saw this, they were talking about steam trains in the naval tread (in conjuction/comparison with steam engines in ships).

[Builder 2010]

Of course I had to stick my two cents into the discussion. Thanks for steering me to it. I have a new bit of footage for the railroad which I'll post once I get it up on Facebook.

[Builder 2010]

Two main Lines Running

No layout building occurred yesterday or today, but I did do some train stuff. Tonight I repaired the loose rear coupler pocket on my Allegheny's tender. I tried pulling a long passenger train up the grade and the coupler let go behind the engine. When I examined it I found that the solder connection was gone where the couple bracket joined to the tender frame. It looked like it was never really soldered well and the paint hid the defect. Big problem!

I had a chance to test the limits of my resistance soldering unit. It was NOT able to heat this large joint sufficiently to re-solder it. I started by using a rubber abrasive wheel on the Dremel to remove the paint throughout the joint so the solder would have new metal for adhesion and for electrical conductivity for the RSU. While it got hot, it just wasn't hot enough. So I brought out the big gun, my butane-powered pencil torch.

After what seemed like a very long time, the joint was hot enough and I got good solder flow on both sides. It isn't going to break again. I also didn't damage anything else. While I should probably repaint the area, you can't see it and I'm selling the engine anytime soon. I did remove the rosin flux I used.

To do the repair I had to remove the frame from the tender body which was complicated by the four handrails at the corners that are attached to both the tender frame and body. I also removed the speaker so it wouldn't get cooked.

On Sunday, I ran two trains at once for the first time on both main lines with full control from the panel. None of the switch machines are yet wired so it was a bit dicey scrambling around to make sure the little triggers that control switch direction were flipped the way I wanted. And a couple of times they weren't, but nothing more than a minor derailment ensued.

Here's videos of two trains running. This is starting to get exciting.
Two Live Tracks 1 - YouTube

The middle track between the two mainlines on the front of the layout is also now under cab control as is the passing siding and spur on the back of the layout. So the engines that are parked there can be brought in and out under their own power.

Here's a track level shot showing the MTH Norfolk-Southern A-B-B-A F7s pulling a long passenger train made up of those beautiful Lionel El Capitan scale-like streamliners plus some cars from my MTH Rock Island passenger set. I have a lot of those cars including the super-dome, plus the E-8 A-B-A engine, most are still in their boxes. Trains pulling up the grade are only pulling a little over 3 amps. Each throttle has a 10 amp limit so I could pull every passenger car plus multiple engines are not exceed that limit. Keeping the grade at 2% or less works well and I'm not having any tracking or control problems.

Two Live Tracks 2 - YouTube

I'm waiting for my additional cable to arrive from OGRR so I can finish up the power wiring. I'm also waiting for the #2 wood screws from Fastenal so I can attach all the Euro-style connectors which are going to support all the switch machine wiring.