This winter / spring was not as productive as I had hoped for the layout. Model railroading gets pushed to the bottom of the priority list quite often. Here’s what’s been going on.

Three Rivers OpSig

A few weekends ago I attended the second bi-annual Three Rivers Opsig event in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. This was another great Op til U Drop type weekend. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures this time. I also missed the Friday night session as my band had a show that night. On Saturday I operated on Drake Omstead’s N&OW. I have been at Drake’s a couple times before and it is a fun layout to operate. If you read the Dispatcher’s Office you probably recognize Drake’s name as he has published several articles. Sat afternoon we went to Joe Berger’s NP layout. While only one deck of a multi-deck layout is complete, there was still plenty of activity to keep about 10 operators busy for more than a few hours. This layout is already a great piece of work, and it will just keep getting better. Sunday we went to Gary Evan’s NoWhere Line. This is a small bedroom size layout, but that did not limit the operating fun. Gary has really squeezed a lot of action into a small place, and kept about 5 of us going for the morning.

DS64 Installation

This is just an updated picture of the DS64 installation in the previous posting. This is all wired in now driving 3 tortoises (soon to be 4) with 8 blocks of detection running through it from 2 BD4’s.

This is one of three DS64’s I have installed and running so far.

Track Down to Markham Yard

Picking up where the last post left off, I now have the mainline track laid from the entrance to the helix on the lower level to the North end of Markham Yard. I am stopped on track work until I get 2 #8 double slips in for the North end of the yard. This first pic shows the main line coming out of the helix. What looks like two tracks going into the helix is really one. Here the main line goes from two tracks to one, while the second track (closest to the back drop) goes to the EJ&E staging. Here the main line is elevated with the small yard which will feed the coke oven and blast furnace below in front.

Below is the lower level main going around the corner and you can start to see the beginnings of the yard trackage. The third track closest to the aisle is actually the drill track on the south end of the yard.

Here is the track looking North with the main in the back and the yard in front.

Here’s a close up of the track work at the South end of the yard. Crossovers on the main allow trains from the South to get to the A/D yard, as well as Southbound trains out of the yard to access the mains directly. This configuration allows for yard switchers to pull full cuts from the A/D tracks and then drill them into the classification yard. (For the IC purists out there, this has no resemblence to the real Markham yard. I didn’t have 500+ feet to build duelling north and south humps with their own separate arrival and depature yards. Some day….)

Other Projects – Hare – SwitchIt – SE8C

I have completed a couple other random projects.

I have been using the capbilities of the DS64’s to drive my tortoises, and will use the outputs on the SE8C’s I plan to install as well. I still have a couple instances where I need some random stationary decoders. I was going to use a Digitrax DS52 for these situations, but I needed one and my LHS didn’t have any in stock. A friend is using NCE’s SwithIt’s successfully, so I decided to give one a try.

The lower level main line track will be detected. It is also my intention to implement CTC signalling as well. In order to start the infrastructure for this, I am installing my first SE8C board. If you are on the Digitrax Yahoo group, you may have seen my request for help soldering to this stupid edge connector. Here’s my advise: use flux! Here’s the board all mounted and wired ready for installation.

Lastly is my first Hare installation on one of my two planned runarounds. I still don’t have this thing running correctly yet, so stay tuned. I am off to read the manual once again…

I’m getting closer and closer to my first major milestone which is to be able to run from South staging to Markham yard with all things running properly in between. The exception is signals which will be implemented over time.

I have been able to get a few things accomplished over the past couple months or so. It doesn’t look like much, but I have hit a few significant milestones.

DS64 Installations

I have been playing around with my DS64 installations since the early summer. As of now, I have three installed on the upper level driving 12 tortoises (some with local pushbutton control), and there are 16 detection blocks running through them via BD4’s for occupancy tied into the computer dispatch system. I had one DS64 that would not allow me to program the board ID, so it had to go back to Digitrax for replacement. Other than that one glitch, they have worked as advertised for me (so far).

Here is one of the installed DS64’s. I have them on hinged boards that fold up under the upper deck for easy access and maintenance. This particular board is configured to use all 8 inputs for detection blocks. None on the tortoises controlled by this board will have facia / pushbutton control. They will be controlled either by the dipatcher panel or via a throttle only. These boards are currenlty powered by “wall warts”, but I now have a power supply thanks to Mike Morey that will provide a separate power bus for the DS64’s.

Some of the switches will have local control via pushbuttons on the facia. Since I have not installed the facia yet and have not settled on how or if the track will be represented on a panel, the pushbuttons are hanging below the benchwork for the time being.

Decatur Track

The industrial switching track in Decatur is now in. This will be a heavy switching area with industries represnting ADM, Caterpillar, Sol Tick scrap metal, Mueller Valves, Staley, and an N&W interchange. All of the hand throws are in and I am in the procees of adding additional power feeders to this area.

Loda Grain Track

I have also put in the track for the Loda Grain facility on the North end of Paxton. I am going to kitbash / scratchbuild a representation of this huge facility.

Benchwork

The benchwork, specifically the subroadbed, at the South end of Markham yard is now in. This was pretty challenging and time consuming to do because of the lead track that goes to the Acme Steel facility. This track drops at a pretty steep grade and goes under the main to come out on the aisle side in a small yard that will servcie the blast furnace and coke oven. In this picture you can see the printed out track plan from the 3rdPlanIt software used as a guide.

Lash-up’s Ready to Roll!

Here we see some lash-up’s ready to get rolling and moving some merchandise! These are two SD40’s with a U33C along side.

South Staging

South staging is now in and powered. South staging is meant to represent off-layout destination points south of Champaign, primarily Memphis and New Orleans. The three switches in south staging also have their tortoises installed. The order in which I installed things caused me a little bit of grief with the tortoise installations. I put the switches in, and I even planned ahead and drilled out holes for the tortoise wire under the points before I fixed them in place. I then ran wires to power the south staging tracks. Since this area is detected, each track has its own power supply bus. When I ran the wires, I wasn’t thinking and they went right under the switches thus making it difficult or impossible to install the tortoises right under the points. Moving the wires was out of the question as they were run through holes drilled in the benchwork and they were already tied into feeders into the track- that would have been a mess. So I did a little research on remote tortoise installs, and tried a couple different methods.

Tortoise Installs

There are some commercially available products that allow for remote tortoise instllation, but they are pricey and I wanted to try out a home grown method. The two ideas that I came across which I liked are documented on line. The first is by Wolfgang Dudler, and the other is by Rick Strebendt. I first tried Wolfgang’s idea, and quickly realized that in order to implement this method effectively, you really need some specific tools and abilities. I used 1/8″ brass tube as shown on his site and in my pictures below. Drilling a hole in a tube like this when you don’t have a drill press or any specialized tools is a challenge. I got it done, but it was ugly. The next challenge to this method is the installation itself. Lining up the motor, wire, tube, and eye bolts for the tube to sit in was very frustrating. If you are working on a moveable module that you can put upside down on your workbench like it appears Wolfgang did, it might not be so bad. Doing this under benchwork, even where I did it and have easy access, is still difficult.

Next I tried Rick’s implementation which was much simpler. I won’t go into a lot of detail as to how this works, as he has done a great job of documenting it on his site. Here is my version of this install:

So far both of these installations are working fine. We shall see how they hold up over time.

It has been a while since I have updated the construction journal on actual progress on the layout (since May). Despite being quite busy over the summer and now into the fall, there have been a few things that have gotten done. The Spring ‘07 Midwest Regional convention is going to be held in Muncie this April. My goal is to have the layout running from south staging to Markham Yard by that time. That will allow for some initial operations to begin. So here’s what’s new…

Decatur Track

Track is now in and running on the Decatur branch. At least the branchline itself is in; I am still toying with how to lay out the industries. From an operations perspective, Decatur is a dead end on the layout. In reality it is a big reverse loop allowing me to let trains run the full length of the layout for open houses and such. The PSRev reverser/circuit breaker from Tony’s has worked like a charm. Here are some shots of the track on the Decatur branch.

South Staging

To get from Champaign to South Staging (representing Memphis and points south), the track goes through the drum closet, over the door, up and out of the layout room near the helix and into the back storage / mechanical room. I thought of several ways of bridging the doorway; swing, hinge, lift out… After some experimentation, I decided to go with the lift out concept. Each side of the lift out has four adjustment points using wing nuts to allow for contraction and expansion but hopefully keep the track aligned. There is still some tweaking I need to do, but it looks like it is going to work out well. I may put up some additional details on how I did this on the construction methods page of the main site. Here is a shot of the track coming through the drum closet, then over the door, then back to staging. There is approximately a 1.8% grade through this area.

Here is a shot of South Staging going in. The paint cans you see are holding down the cork while the glue dries. There will be four tracks of staging here.

Lighting

In some of the pictures you can see that I have started on the layout lighting. I am using christmas tree strands with 25 watt candelabra Reveal bulbs. There are two 20 amp circuits feeding through rotary dimmers powering the layout lighting. Here again I am still fiddling with the final installation, but it is coming along. Here is a shot at Paxton where you can see the lighting along with a good shot of the painted valence and backdrop.

Lower Level Sub-roadbed

Some of the lower level subroadbed has been started. It is in from where the helix comes out (although not tied into the helix yet) to the south end of Markham yard. In this area the roadbed will be elevated just like the mainline on the Chicago division of the ICG. In this pic, the area behind the roadbed will have low relief buildings depicting typical suburban scenes. In front of the roadbed will be storage tracks for the Acme Steel coke oven and blast furnace. (If you know the geography of these locations, then you know I am taking some license here.)

Ebow

Here’s Ebow checking things out.

This past weekend I attended the bi-annual AmRail operations weekend in the Chicago area. This is a three day, four operating session event. I think there were approximately 35 attendees and something like 7 layouts participating. Here is my review…

Friday night – Jim Carney’s JRC

After leaving work around lunch time on Friday I rode with Bob up to the hotel base in Arlington Heights. Before our first op session Friday night, we enjoyed some fine Chicago pizza at Lou Malnetti’s. I highly recommend it. We made our way over to Jim Carney’s HO scale Jamestown and Rock City. This is a large mostly double decked layout designed for operations. (I forgot to bring my camera in to this one, sorry.) The JRC is a freelanced railroad that models from Peoria, Il to Danville, Il with lots of opportunities for switching in between. There is staging at either end along with large classification yards. Jim uses the RailOp software program to generate switch lists and manifests, and I really like this sytem. I think it is easier for unfamiliar operators to pick this up than car-cards, especially since everyone seems to have their own nuances on their cards… There were plenty of trains run with few issues. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

Saturday morning – Greg Bedlek’s GNP

Saturday morning we got up nice and early and made our way to Lake Zurich and Greg Bedlek’s “GNP”. We had heard rumors that this layout was called “the monster” and that turned out to be an appropriate name.

Greg’s layout is called the “GNP”, and models four railroads. Essentially Chicago to Seattle is depicted, featuring the CB&Q, Great Northern, and Northern Pacific before they merged. In addition, an intense switching district representing the Belt Railway of Chicago is also on the layout. Here is part of the Wisconsin Steel Works:

At the moment, the GNP is a “Plywood Central”, but the amazing thing is that everything that you see in the photos has been constructed in about one year, by Greg, with essentially no help. Greg says that he is a little hyper, and I guess that appears to be true. Keep in mind this basement is somewhere around 2800 square feet. Greg says the benchwork / track / wiring portion is not what interests him. He is just doing this so he can start on the part of the hobby he really loves – scenery.

Greg uses Lenz for control, and has a separate Digitrax Loconet bus going in to drive signals. He says he likes to leverage the strengths of each system. He will eventually be implementing his own custom programmed computerized dispatching sytem. Car cards are used to move traffic.

Saturday afternoon – Mitch Rossertt’s ATSF

Saturday afternoon we grabbed a Chicago dog and headed on over to Mitch Rossett’s HO scale ATSF. Again, I forgot to bring my camera in. D’oh!! Mitch’s layout depicts the ATSF from Chicago to Iowa, with full operating CTC signals along the way. He is using a custom programmed computerized CTC disptach panel which I got to operate during the session. It worked just like the real thing, and did it very well. He has some neat things implemented like dimmed lighting (not sure if that is the correct term) instead of approach lighting. We did not have a ton of traffic for the session, but there were some harried moments coming from the dispatchers area from time to time. Compared to the other layouts we visited, it was not as large, but it is designed to be able to keep a crew of 12+ busy.

Sunday morning – Ted Schnepf’s Milwaukee

By Sunday morning, I was getting a little worn out. The enjoyment of running trains, meeting and taling to new friends only does so much to distract from the aches caused by standing on concrete basement floors for hours on end. Next we headed to Ted Schnepf’s O scale Milwaukee.

I had operated at Ted’s at AmRail ‘04. This is avery nicely done, large O scale layout with upwards of 4 levels of track in places, including staging in the ceiling!

We had a small crew this morning, but still managed to move some freight around. I was on a switching job that proved to be more than a little challenging, and was not completed before we had to leave.

I always figure if I have a good time at each layout and walk away having learned something, then it was a success. Well, I had a great time and learned a lot- I’ll be back! If you have never been to one of these operations weekends, I would suggest giving it a try. It really changes your perspective on the hobby (for the better in my opinion) and they are just plain fun! That’s what it is all about.

I had some of the USRA guys over a few weeks ago for a work session. It was a painting party! We got the entire upper valence painted in a semi-gloss black. I used a semi-gloss to help with infra-red throttle signals. I think the black really gives it a finished look. We also painted the backdrop a light blue. I am a little concerned that it is too light, but I think that once I get some clouds painted on there it will look OK. I have also got spline running from the South end of Champaign up to Decatur now. The spline ends there because Decatur will be a heavy switching district, so I am just going to deck that area. I like the results that you can get with spline, but I don’t know how best to deal with transitions to yards and switching areas. I have the plywood decking cut out for Decatur and the bottom of it painted in the light blue to help with light reflection. I am going to cover it with ½” homasote. I am leaning towards decking the entire lower level because it is mostly yard and urban switching. There is not a lot of opportunity for vertical scenery anyway.

Last weekend I attended the bi-annual Michigan Proto Operators “Op Ti U Drop” weekend with about 5 other USRA members. I think the total attendance for the weekend was upwards of 90 people. This was the third time I have attended this type of operations weekend event, having gone to one in Chicago (AmRail), and Ft. Wayne. What is an “operations weekend”? In a nutshell, this is when a group of layout owners put on an event to host people from out of town to operate on their layouts. Most of the layouts and participants are interested in “prototype operations”. To learn more about what this is, go to http://www.opsig.org/.

While I am not a die-hard prototype stickler in terms of operations or modeling for that matter, after I “operated” a layout for the first time around 1998, it totally changed my perspective on the hobby- for the better. I am building the ICG to be an operations focused layout.

The point of this post is to talk about the layouts I visited and my experiences this past weekend.

Bruce Ernatt’s HO Union Pacific – Friday Night

After a long drive up to Pontiac, we headed over to Bruce Ernatt’s basement to operate on his HO scale Union Pacific. Bruce also has his own freelanced line, the “Butte Mine & Eastern”. This guy love’s locomotives and has a mindboggling collection of diesels.

His layout is controlled using Dynatrol, which I had never used before, but it worked almost flawlessly. The layout was centrally dispatched with most mainline switches being dispatch controlled, along with two separate yard-masters. Communications were over 5 channel radios. Ample staging at either end of the layout kept the trains coming. Bruce’s car-forwarding / train scheduling method appears to be a homegrown type, where most non-through trains traded cars, it was relatively simple to understand and traffic moved pretty well.

Dave Regittko’s Pennsylvania – Saturday Morning

Saturday morning we headed over to Dave Regittko’s HO scale Pennsy.

This layout is of impressive size and scope with several levels meandering through the basement. I mainly served as a yard switcher, so I did not get to experience much else of the railroad, but people seemed to be kept busy. In the main yard we utilized 4 people! While I ran the A/D yard, there was one person breaking down trains, a hostler, and a fourth person doing local switching and serving as a helper for a steep grade. This was a pretty fun area to work.

The Pennsy ran on car-cards and way-bills which were of standard design so they were easy to follow. Dave has made small boxes for each train to hold the cards that you take with you. The box is small enough that it can fit in an apron pocket, and it has the train instructions right on it- a nice idea. This layout used the CTC-80 control system, which worked well, and had a central dispatcher. All turnouts were thrown locally, most using electric switches. Some of Dave’s electrical work is quite impressive. The indexing turntable is another mind-blowing installation to view.

Chuck Liford’s Conrail

Saturday afternoon we headed over to Chuck Liford’s HO scale Conrail.

The Conrail is a single level, linear, point to poin table top design. Since Chuck is modeling the modern era, traffic is dominated by through trains, including some hot-shot intermodal trains. While there is little scenery at this time, everything that is done so far is of very high quality.

The real treat on this layout is the operating signals and dispatcher panel. The signal system was installed by Mike Burdett, a signalman for the CN. It follows prototype practices and is very impressive.

The layout is run by a Lenz system, and also uses car cards and way-bills, with traffic manged by the fully functional CTC system. Very fun, and very impressive.

Mike Burgett’s C&O – Saturday Night

Saturday night there were a couple of open houses that attendees could visit. We went by Mike Burgett’s to see his in progress C&O layout. Unfortunately I did not bring my camera in with me as I was expecting to see mostly benchwork- boy was I wrong. Mike has most of his upper level in with a short span fully scenicked. Everything he is doing appears to be top-notch and well thought out. This picture was emailed out after the event.

While I believe the layout is going to be a world-class piece of art when it is done, the real draw at Mike’s is his signal system and CTC panel. Mike has dedicated a room on the first floor for his CTC panel, and it is one of a kind. As a full time signalman for the CN, and someone who does model railroad signal installations on the side, this is his showcase. I will try to find a picture, but suffice to say I doubt you have seen anything like it outside a real signal facility. I understand Mike has only been in his house for less than 2 years; at the rate he is going, he could be operational for the next Michigan Op Til U Drop in 2008.

John DePauw’s Elgin, Joliet, & Eastern – Sunday Morning

By Sunday morning my feet were killing me from standing on concrete basement floors for hours on end. But I had heard much about John’s “J” layout, and being a Chicagoland native myself, and a fan of the Chicago belt line, I was really looking forward to this operating session. I was not disappointed.

The size and complexity of this layout is on par with only a handful of privately owned layouts in the country. John models just about the entire J from Gary to Elgin, and has multitudes of staging representing interchange with the many roads the J crosses. At some points there are 4 levels of track from about 24″ up to 60″ +. While the distance to reach some tracks, and the very low clearance to get at others would make me a bit nervous as an owner, things seemed to work well.

The J runs on an NCE system, and uses car cards and way bills. While they are of John’s own design, they are similar to the commonly used type and easy to follow. I ended up running the hot metal bottle train out of US Steel. Due to a problem with the phone system, we ran mostly without a dispatcher, or with no dispatching at all depending on who you asked. This made things a little hectic at times. I missed a switch I was supposed to take and didn’t realize it for literally 20+ minutes later- that is how big the layout is. This little mistake on my part added about another 40 minutes onto my trip! Being a steel modeling fan, I was in heaven on this layout.

I understand that at times there are 30+ operators running this thing, and I can see why. Operating on this layout was a blast. Mike Burdett is installing a signal system here as well, but only a small portion of the layout is signalled. Typically the layout is controlled by dipatch via phones, but as I mentioned, the phone system was on the fritz this day. Still, it was very enjoyable, and I can’t wait to go back.

Trains are running on the ICG!! Well, not very far, but they are running. The helix has power, and there is about 30′ of powered track up on the upper level. This doesn’t sound like much, but it is a huge milestone! Since I plan on having the mainline broken up into detection blocks and reporting back to a computer, wiring is a little bit more challenging that it could be. It isn’t necessarily harder, but it takes a bit more planning and more wire! Here is a picture of one of my flip down panels that will house some of my detection hardware. This one has one BD-4 and one DS64. The BD-4 is a 4 block detector, and the DS64 works with the BD-4 to report detection back to LocoNet. The DS64 will also drive 4 switch machines. All of the connections are not yet hooked up, but power is running through the BD-4.

Here is a look at some trains sitting in Paxton.

Here is a view looking at the installed track going twards Champaign.

Here is a view of the installed track looking from Champaign back to Paxton.

As you can see in these pictures, all of the upper valence is installed, and all of the backdrops have a coat of white paint on them.

Above the layout in a couple locations I have storage areas. I installed some sliding doors made out of 1/4″ masonite which can be seen here.

Tonight we had a USRA work session at my house. Isn’t this an attractive bunch?

We did get a few things done, including a couple that really take more than one person. Stan and Jay were busy putting up the beginnings of the upper valence. Coming into the room, you can see it start in the following picture just after the upper storage area. This storage area will have some sort of door over it which I haven’t figured out yet.

Here are two more shots of the valence, one from the end of the peninsula looking back towards Champaign area and the other from Champaign looking towards Paxton:

John and Rich got in about another 25′ or so of spline:

Bob and I ran a bus for the throttle saver, as well as two power bus sets for the Decatur and Chicago reverse districts. These districts will not have any detection blocks in them. Here you can see part of the throttle saver (yellow wire) and the power bus for the Chicago district:

All in all we got a lot done. Right now I am trying to figure out to wire my districts that will have detection. More on that later….

Overview

I have completed the wiring of what I call my “DCC Board” (well 95% complete). This board is a central location where my power supplies, boosters, and circuit breakers are housed. I’m going to try and describe how and why I did what I did for anyone who may be interested.

I decided to locate my board and all circuit breakers in one location so that I had one place to go if a short occurs to trouble shoot and know which district is shorting. Due to the size of the layout, this is feasible as my longest bus run should not be too much over 30’. Here is a picture of the board sitting above my workbench (which is a serious mess at this point).

Power Needs

In trying to determine how much power the layout was going to need, I did some estimating on the number of trains that I could foresee running at any given time during an operating session. Based on this type of estimate, you can figure out how many amps of power you will need. I decided to buy the 8 amp Super Chief unit. I later came across a DCS100 booster at a steal, so I bought it. So, I will end up with an 8 amp and a 5 amp booster, and this should give me some cushion in terms of power.

Power Districts

My next step was to figure out how to divide the layout up into ‘Power Districts’ and put them on dedicated circuit breakers. (Some people define a Power District as equal to a booster, and any division under it as sub-districts. I’m just calling them Districts.) There are a few reasons to break the layout up like this, but the simplest reason for me is if I have a short in the yard, I don’t want the whole mainline shut down, etc… Based on this concept, and considering the hardware I wanted to use (see below), I ended up with 8 districts as follows (see the track plan for reference):

1) North Staging
2) Lower Level (main line)
3) Markham Yard
4) Chicago (Reverse section)
5) Blast Furnace
6) Helix / South Staging / EJ&E Staging
7) Upper Level
Decatur (Reverse section)

Hardware

When it came down to choose hardware for power management, I quickly narrowed the options down to the Digitrax PM42 and Power Shields from (Tony’s Train Exchange. While I know several people who are using PM42’s and are happy with them, I decided to use Power Shields for a few reasons: they are solid state; they do not require a separate power source; they have some ancillary features that I like (see below); and the reversers serve as circuit breakers as well. Power Shields come designated as PS1, PS2, or PS4 based on the number of districts on the board, and PSRev which is the reverser unit.

Wiring and Features

One reason why I liked the Power Shields is a couple of ancillary features they have. They have the abilty to wire them to have remote switches to allow a hard reset of a short and to turn on or off power all together. I like the idea of having a hard reset to accommodate some of the power hungry sound units out there today. I also like the on/off feature so I can easily turn off power to an area to do some maintenance or if it is not being used. It also has a remote LED status capability which I liked. I got this idea from an article in MR in Jan 2005. As suggested in the article, I also wired an LED in line with the power out to show that a district is on.

Here is an overall shot of the board:

Here is a close up of the PowerShields:

Here is a shot of the SPST switches and LED’s: