Custom throw bar for code 55 turnouts

While I've been happy with how smoothly the hand laid code 55 turnouts operate I have noticed that they are a bit delicate where the point rails contact the throw bar and have had several break on an Asia themed module while running the layout at  shows.  Not too hard to fix but I have been looking for ways to improve the durability.




Checking on the internet I learned that other people have had this problem on turnouts with smaller sized rail. It was suggested that the tension on the Tortoise motors be checked and I did that but have not been able to completely solve this issue.

I had worked around this problem In my home layout's staging yards by using HO scale ties to match the height of the ties on the Atlas code 80 flex track I was using.  The extra width of the throw bar seems to provide a stronger bond to the point rail.  With 16 turnouts in use there have not been any broken points so far.

The areas of the layout with scenery and code 55 track were going to need a different solution.

The PC board code 55 ties that come from Fast Tracks are .31" thick.  I purchased these PC ties from Clover House that are the same thickness but are wider.

My idea was start with this material, cut it to the length needed, then file down the areas that would be exposed to the same width as the Fast Tracks ties.  Leaving a section that would be under each point rail the full width.

I made up this crude little fixture from brass stock to help create the shape I wanted with a file.  The length of .110 PC board ties is placed into the slot that runs lengthwise.

The three shaped sections show in this photo is the results of only a few minutes of working with a file with the tie section in the fixture.  The two wider areas on the right are for contact to the point rails and the one on the left is for a reinforcement for the wire from the Tortoise motor.

Here is one of these customized tie sections installed in a turnout.  The idea is to have a bigger area of soldered contact with the point rail while maintaining an appearance of something close to the width of the rest of the ties.

Of course the real test is going to be getting a few of these  turnouts installed on the layout.  The double cross over / junction at Wesso will get the first 4 of these turnouts and will receive lots of use.

Train Board January weathering contest

It's 2016 already !, well happy new year !

In December my entry in the N scale weathering contest that was held on TrainBoard.com won by membership vote.  I got my prize in the mail yesterday.  It's this Great Northern weathered box car.

The requirement last month was any 40 ft box car that had at least some Micro-Trains part on it.  I entered this Micro-Trains car that I had weathered.  Another view of it is on this December post.

They are doing it again in January and this month it's got to include graffiti and can be any type of car, as long as it has at least some Micro-Trains product on it.  My entry is going to be this Atlas 50 ft ACF Centerflow covered hopper car.

Here is a view of the other side.  Voting is going to be during the 3rd week of January on the N Scale board at TrainBoard.com.  Any TrainBoard member can vote.

Check it out.

New territory for the new year

After 5 turns and 14.5 inches of climbing from the lower section of the staging yard the helix is nearing completion.  The last section for the helix is a special transition section that will connect it to the Wesso section.  In this section the Atlas code 80 track will be connected to the Micro Engineering code 55 track and part of it will have scenery representing the edge of Winnemucca, Nevada so this small section will be referred to as the Winnemucca section.

To cut out this section I first made a cardboard template.  Once I was satisfied with the fit of the template I traced it's shape onto a sheet of plywood and cut this out with a saber saw.  There were still some minor adjustments to be made to get the fit just right.

To install this section it had to be put in over the all thread rods, then slide the end into the last pair of splicing blocks.  To do this I made slots for the rods instead of holes as seen in this photo.

Besides being supported by the rods and the helix splicing blocks there is also a 3/4 inch ledger along the wall where that end of the section is secured.

This end of this small section of bench work will connect to the Wesso section which I have already started to cut the parts for and will post on soon.  The holes shown in this photo are to accommodate any wiring between the two sections.






So as 2015 ends and the new year begins the layout is enter a new and exciting phase.  The most complicated bench work for the layout is now complete and section by section it can now progress around the train room.

Thank you everyone who has been following my slow progress on this layout. May you all have a safe and happy 2016.

The weathering contest

Work on the layout has been slowly progressing and I'll be posting more on that soon hopefully.  One side project I have undertaken during December is weathering a couple of my Micro-Trains 40 ft box cars for entry in a Micro-Trains sponsored contest on Trainboard.com.

This is the one I entered.  If you are a member of Trainboard.com all of the entries can be seen and voted on at:

www.trainboard.com 




If your are not a member, it's worth looking into.  There is no cost and they have quite a few separate boards for each modeling scale plus rail-fanning and other railroad related topics.  This months weathering contest is going to be the first of several with each month being a different type of car.

This is another car that I weathered at the same time but did not enter.  These photos were taken on one of my Ntrak modules.

Hopefully before too long both of these will be running through the Palisade Canyon.

Happy Holidays to all !  

The work train

After cleaning up the area around the helix which had gotten rather messy I am determined to be more organized in my work.

I decided to have some fun with it and made up a work train of gondolas and flat cars to bring some of  track laying materials and tools to within my reach then send it back down to the safety of the yard.




Work on the helix is moving along with a repeating  pattern of adding a section or two to the structure, then adding cork roadbed, and then the track.  Getting close to the height it needs to be.

Helix progress

Work has been progressing on the helix.  This photo shows the helix as it currently is.  Both yards are tied in now with the outer loop from the upper yard climbing a little more than one turn and the inner loop from the lower yard climbing two full turns.

The inner loop from the lower yard and the outer loop from the upper yard each have there own power district.  Each turn of each loop will have a feeder.

I picked up a roll of 16 gauge paired wire from Powerwerx.com to use as the main bus that will connect the inputs of all the PSX modules in the layout to the DCC system.  That is the black and red wire shown in this photo.  The outputs from the PSX power district modules are 18 gauge.





One of the reasons I am using the threaded rod design is to have the ability to experiment with the performance of equipment in pulling a given train up the grades and make adjustments if needed.  The last layout had 4 % grades which worked fine but those were short and the trains I ran on that layout were normally only 8 or 9 cars long.  I knew the grade would have to be less than that on the helix.

I started out with a rise between turns on the helix of 3 inches.  This calculated out to being 2.5 % on the outer loop and 2.8 % on the inner loop.  Then I began to run trains up the helix with various types of cars and locomotive.  I plan to run locomotives in pairs on most trains and most of the sidings will hold about 20 or so fifty foot cars.  With the 3 inch rise the 6 axle units did fine but the 4 axle units would start to loose traction about the time the full train was on the grade.  So I began to adjust the levels of the helix downward.

What I settled on was 2 - 3/4 inches between the levels.  That 1/4 inch seem to make a big difference.  Both 4 and 6 axle pairs of  locomotives can now pull trains longer than the staging sidings up the helix.  With 1/2 inch thickness of the decks, there is 2 - 1/4 inch of clearance which is plenty for the highest cars and my small hands still easily reach between for cleaning track for re-railing a car.  So far, with all my testing not a single car or loco has derailed within the helix.  So the final grade on the helix is going to be 2.3 % on the outer loop and 2.5 % on the inner loop.

Once I decided on the space between levels, I cut a piece of scrap material to use as a height gauge.  Adding the 1/2 inch thickness of the plywood structure to the 2-1/4 inch space make each turn lift 2 - 3/4 inches.

Another tool I made was a double ended guide with a stop that rest at the inner edge of the deck and lengths for the inner and outer loops.  Once the lines are drawn, the installation of the cork road bed and track goes easily, two sections for half a loop at a time.



I have noticed that the helix sections seem to have a little twist in them after being installed which makes the spacing vary a bit between some levels.  While this does not seem to affect the operation in any way I would still like to keep the spacing consistent so I may add some thin spacers between the threaded rods.

A simple voltage regulator

In my recent post Powering panel LED's from DCC signal I showed how I used the fact that DCC power was being switched on and off on the staging tracks to activate the track selected LED's on the control panel.  I also have LED's on the control panel to show the position of the turnout that creates the reverse loop.  I did try out connecting to the DCC signal and switching one side through the contacts on the Tortoise switch motor but the LED's did not turn on and off reliably for some reason.  So a DC power source was going to be needed for these and other LED indicators around the layout.  I already had an unregulated 12 volt DC power bus set up to operate some of the electronics around the layout but for LED indicators so I made up a small regulator board for this purpose.

This photo shows the 5 volt DC voltage regulator mounted inside the control center.   This small PC board measures 1.875 x 2.875 inches.  The heat sink may not be needed for light duty applications but I had it in my stash of parts so included it.

Here is the schematic for the circuit.  The .1 uf capacitor may not be necessary if the circuit is just powering LED's.  I have found in the past these regulators can have some noise on the output that can create problems for logic circuits and by habit always include it in my regulator circuits.

Parts List

• 7805 voltage regulator (Radio Shack 2761170)
• (2) T3 LED's
• 1.8 K ohm, 1/4 watt resistor
• 470 ohm, 1/4 watt resistor
• PC board (Radio Shack 2760150)
• (2) 2 position terminal blocks (Mouser 158-P02ELK508V2-E)
• .1uf, 15 volt tantalum capacitor (Jameco 33486)

The parts I used were all items from my parts stash.  The vendors and part numbers are shown as an example, these are common parts available from many sources.

Here is a close up of the control panel for the upper section of the west staging yard showing the LED's for the return loop turnout being activated.

On my panel pushing any track selection switch to the right sets the turnout to the aligned route shown here.  Pushing them to the left sets the turnout to the diverging route.

1 year since construction started

It's been just about one year since construction started on the layout.  Here's what got done on the layout in that one year.

• Staging yard bench work built, track laid, wiring done, and yard installed.
• 15 feet of LED layout lighting installed.
• Yard control panels started and one completed.
• Started the helix.

Today I built the little bridge section seen in this photo that connects the upper level staging yard to the outer loop of the helix.  This section will support the turnout that creates the reverse loop for the upper yard.  Helix progress has been stalled until this is done.  It will be the last of 16 code 80 turnouts associated with the staging yards.

The helix design has been working out really well so far.  The lower level yard is fully installed and various types of trains that been run up and down the helix to iron things out.  Turnouts on the lower yard have to be moved by hand as the control system for that part is not done yet.

So what will I accomplish during the second year ?  Well, I'm looking forward to finishing the helix and building the bench work Wesso Junction and Carlin sections.  I'm also looking forward to working with the code 55 track that will be used after the helix is done and of course starting some scenery.

Powering panel LED's from DCC signal

When I was checking the yard ladders for power I was using an LED wired in series with a resistor.  It occurred to me that were a track circuit was being switched on or off the indicator light could also be powered from the track.

This is the control panel for the upper or WP yard.  The LED for track 3 is lighted indicating that is the track that is energized and the turnouts aligned for.  The indicators for the turnout on the lower left are not yet connected.



The occupied LED's were put on the panel with the plan to do something with occupancy detection later.   Those will most likely not be powered by the DCC signal.

Here is the back side of the control panel showing the connection.  The track selected LED signals are the wires connected to the green terminal strip.  The current limiting resistors on the PC board are 330 ohms.

The other end of those wires are simply connected to the terminals for track power.  To keep things straight I color coded the wiring for the tracks on this yard as follows 1 = Red, 2 = Yellow, 3 = Green, and 4 = Blue.   This photo shows the connections for tracks 3 and 4.