Changes for the Western Pacific staging yard

The west end Western Pacific staging yard had been in limited operation as being just a return loop since March.  I had replaced the wye control function of the non-operating DS64 with my own circuit but still could not use 3 of the 4 tracks.  Recently I built and installed the circuit to control the yard ladder.

With the new controls, the control panel also got some changes.  In the old scheme the track selected LEDs used a common return.  With this new scheme each LED is connected to its own track on both rails so additional connections were needed.  Removing the unused occupied LEDs freed up those connections in the control panel.

As I always run the trains in the same direction in the staging yard, I replaced the toggle switches which had controlled both the yard ladder and wye turnout with push buttons.  Then push buttons were added for independent control of the wye.  Those changes are pointed out in blue in the photo below.

So now this staging yard works the same way as the lower level staging yard but without the automatic function.

Controls for Carlin - Part 2

The turnout controls for the 13 turnouts within the Carlin section and a display panel showing the position of all 15 turnouts in this part of the layout are done.  The idea is to have the knobs along the front edge for each turnout and with LED's on the panel showing the route alignment.

Here is a close up of the panel itself.  The turnouts that can create a route through the yard are labeled E1 to E5 (east end) and W1 to W5 (west end).  Those use a pair of 2mm green LED's to show the point position.  The spur tracks are labeled S1 to S5 and use a bi-color LED with green indicating aligned and red indicating diverging.  Notice in the photo below that W4 and W5 are dark.  That is because these are going to be on an adjoining section and are not yet fully connected.  W5 on the panel has a toggle switch as it is the only one that is using a motor because of it's location.

The connections for the W4 and W5 turnouts have been wired to some plugs that will make it easier to connect things after both sections are installed in the layout.

 

Controls for Carlin - part 1

The track work and mechanical controls for the 13 turnouts that are on the 8 foot Carlin section have now been completed and it's time to get serious about the control / display.  This panel will show point position for all 15 turnouts on both sections and have 1 toggle switch to move the points at W5 on the small section.

As I mentioned in a previous post, All of the turnouts in Carlin are going to be manually controlled.  My usual rule regarding the use of manual or electric control are whenever 2 or more turnouts are to be controlled together then go electric.  In the case of Carlin I went through all the scenarios of operation and could not find any situation where I did not want to have individual control of each turnout.  There will be one turnout on the far side of the river that will be electric because of difficulty of getting a manual control to work properly.

The panel drawing shown in a previous post has been modified just a bit, the new version shown below.  The spur track for the chemical transfer got turned around to allow for enough open space along the front edge to mount the panel as the edge of the 8ft section is going to have 13 push-pull control knobs.  Also the numbering has been rearranged so that the knobs will be in sequence from left to right.  A copy of this graphic will be used as a pattern to drill all of the holes in the panel then another copy will be used for the actual display.

The turnouts for the 5 spur tracks (S1-S5) will use bi-color LED's with green indicating aligned and red indicating diverging.  For all of the other turnouts that are part of a route, a pair of green LED's will be used to show point position.  The negative side of the regulated 12 volt DC bus will be the common for all of the LED's.  The positive of the 12 volt supply is run to the center position on all of the turnout control switches.  Then wires from each side of each switch are run to an LED on the panel.  Each of these LED's gets a resistor so I made the tempoary setup shown below to test which values would be needed to get the best balance of brightness and have ordered what is needed.

Right now I am running all the wires from the turnout contacts to a terminal strip near where the panel will be.  The panel will be built on the bench with wires coming out the back that will connect to the corresponding wire on this terminal strip.  To be continued...

 

Sparks Yard rebuild - general update # 2

The work on the rebuilding of the lower staging yard, also known as Sparks is entering it's second month. All of the track work has now been completed.  The turnout motors have been installed, wired and tested for correct connections to the frogs, and the control panel has been completed.

The control circuits need to be finished for that control panel to do much.  It was originally intended to reuse the Digitrax DS64 decoders but I discovered that the MP5 turnout motors draw too much current for them so I am needing to build control circuits to replace it.  A new control circuit has now been finished for the siding that is on the return track.  This will allow momentary push button switches to control the route selection.

Below is the schematic diagram of the circuit I am working on now.   This includes the diode matrix and Set / Reset logic circuits to latch relays that control the polarity of the voltage applied to the turnout motors.  This will also allow for single push button route selection of 4 tracks in the yard.

Updated control panel

As explained in the recent post Rebuilding of Sparks yard, a new control panel will be needed.   This is  the procedure I follow to make my control panels.

Below is a preliminary design drawn with Microsoft Visio.   Having a drawing available now would also be a good time to go over the operating scheme of this yard.  

The original momentary center off toggle switches that could route in either direction have been replaced with 6 red push button switches to select the route.  The green LED's show track selection or turnout position as they did on the old panel.  All traffic will enter through the first turnout in the closed position and pass through the yard track selected.  After going around the loop there is one more siding along the return track.  The siding turnouts are also controlled with the red push buttons. The control of that first switch is automatic using sensors just like it was before so will align itself when a train approaches to exit the yard.  The sensors can be over ridden by a pair of red push buttons.   The toggle switches will be used to control which tracks will be in use for the automatic sequencer I am planning to include using Infrared sensors.

The original control panel was made from a pattern which I kept.  This pattern was made from a scrap of hard board is seen in the photo below.  Using this ensures proper size and alignment of the mounting holes.  The new panel is made from this same pattern.

Once a design is finalized, a printout of the drawing is stuck to the acrylic sheet and taped around the edges.   After drilling, the printout is removed and the acrylic sheet is cleaned up and polished with a product that removes any small scratches.

A sheet of .030 white styrene sheet is cut to match the size of the acrylic sheet.  Using the acrylic sheet as a pattern holes are made in the styrene sheet to match the ones in the acrylic sheet. Then another copy of the drawing without the switches and LED's is used as the actual display.  Using the acrylic sheet again as a pattern two or three of the switch holes are cut out from the drawing using a hobby knife.  The drawing is then sandwiched between the acrylic and white sheets and switches are installed in these holes so that everything stays aligned and then all the other holes can be cut out.

Since this panel was made the same size as the original, it will fit right into the original housing.  Almost all of the control wiring can also be reused with a few more added.   The red and white bottle shown in this photo is the product I use to polish out any small scratches on the acrylic sheet.