Monday, September 04, 2017

I've been working on the railroad....

Not as much as I wish... Lots of things going in life, but in the last week+ I've found a few moments to put some time in. I was able to rig up some temporary wiring and thanks to the acquisition this summer got a DC locomotive up and running on temporary track. Lorenzo loved it. Sub-roadbed has been cut for the next sections and test fitted (as you'll see in the pics). The other big news was that new LED shop lights went up, you'll not the change in color temperature in the pictures ($15 @ Ocean State Job Lot, how can you not take that, even if they die in four years...).

The new sub-roadbed is 15/32" plywood, a bit more rigid which should be good for the curves. I ended up re-enforcing the thinner 3/8" plywood I used originally as I was not satisified it would stay flat. Some scrap pine and maple did the trick with some wood glue.

I also pre-drilled the hole pattern for the Tortoise Switch Machines from the top down, this should make installation much easier later as the holes are started and I don't have to mess with finding center-line over my head under the layout. I don't know if others use this approach, but it just makes sense! The sub-roadbed will be covered over (so who cares about a few holes), so as long as you can mark where the throw rod will be, you're good to go. I'm looking forward to a significantly easier switch machine install in the future. :-)

Lastly I've had to think some about electrical blocking as I will need a reversing section since I have a return loop. Currently it looks like my max train length will be ~6 1/2'. This should be ample given the size of the current layout and I can do thinks like put detection on cabooses with DCC decoders or resistors for signaling, automation and full train detection, etc. in the future.

Till next time; toot, toot!

New sub-roadbed test fit with track.

Reinforcement of sub-roadbed

pre-drilled holes for mounting switch machines underneath.


This straight-away leading into the reverse loop will be the auto-reverse power block.