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.

Helix assembly begins

The 8 threaded rods and the first few sections of the helix are now in place and ready for cork roadbed.  The track from the lower yard will enter the helix from the bottom and the track from the upper yard will enter after 1 turn, about where that wrench is in this photo.

To create a smooth transition for the track from the lower yard to start the climb I used my router to carve out a 1/4 inch depression in the 3/4 inch base then glued and stapled a 1/4 inch plywood sub road bed in place.  This will gently start the climb up from the flat surface.

That first single track section of sub road bed meets another 1/4 inch thick sub road bed section that completes the first 1/2 inch of climb and meets the first true helix section.  It also flares out from single track width to double track width.

One of the more tedious parts of using the threaded rod helix design is threading all those nuts onto the rods.  After trying several ideas to make this go easier and faster, I settled on using the attachment for a disk sander without the sand paper.   The rubber backing has enough grip to move the nut around.  This works in both directions by reversing the rotation of the drill motor.

Control center for the staging yard

In last months post Installing the staging yard I had briefly shown a box that I had mounted on the wall under the yard for the purpose of mounting electronic circuits.

Here is another view of the control center before I put anything in it.  The Plexiglas door being closed causes a reflection of things that are across the room.  The top and bottom of the box are left open for air circulation.  There is an AC outlet next to the box that is on a nearby wall switch so this will be where main power for the entire layout will come from.

One of the reasons I wanted a more accessible location for the electronics is that I plan to use the layout to experiment with various control circuits.

Here is another view after I started to install some circuits for the control of the upper (WP) section of the yard.  This photo is clear because the Plexiglas door is opened.

The DS64 is for control of the 7 turnouts that are in that upper section and the circuit boards under that are something of my own design to control power connections to each of the sidings. I will show more detail on that circuit in a future post.

Also since the last post I completed the remaining turnouts needed to complete the entrance into the lower level of the yard, installed the fascia strip along the edge of the helix.  About ready to start laying out the track and actually starting the helix.

Base for the helix

For the Labor Day weekend our local hardware chain was running a "We pay the sales tax event" so I loaded up on some of the supplies to further the layout construction and that motivated me to get started on the helix.  I had already prepared some helix sections but needed to prepare the base that the helix would be mounted on.

The short wall in the corner was already in place from the construction of the layout room and what was needed was a platform on top to mount the all thread rods to.  That platform was made of 3/4 inch plywood.

4 of the helix sections were temporarily assembled into a loop to get an idea of where the rods would be.

The parts of the platform that were not going to be on top of the short wall are supported by shelf brackets.

This small space will allow access to the inside of the helix.  Notice the AC outlet and LP air nipple on the wall, this is also where the compressor is housed but can be easily rolled out of the way when necessary.

Also a few pieces of 3/4 inch plywood were used to tie in the yard to the platform that the helix will sit on.

Next I'll be continuing the tempered hardboard fascia that is on the yard section to this section.

Installing the staging yard

Since my last post about a week ago, I got the staging yard permanently installed in the layout. Prior to installing the yard, I removed the display case and the support brackets for the upper deck so I could spray paint the brackets white.

The yard is secured to the walls and also is supported by two large sturdy support brackets.  A third bracket was planned but after the first two were in I decided a third was not needed.  Spacing is 48 inches between brackets.

Also did some paint touch ups on the wall in this area.

I prefer not to mount all the electronics under the bench work so I used a left over 2 ft square piece of 3/4 inch plywood to make a place for wall mounting of the circuits.  This is at the entry end of the yard and has a hinged Plexiglass door to protect everything.  More on this in a future post.