November Update

Progress in the month of November hasn't been terribly impressive from a 'what you can see' standpoint. A lot of wiring was completed for staging. The use of Arduino processors was developed and tested. Of course we celebrated Thanksgiving and I went Elk hunting the week after. Some track was laid in Ventura and the Valley and Harbor staging yards are complete.

I shared a portion of the Ventura the track plan in the last update, below is a more complete version including the leads to Coast Staging. 

To the right is the Ventura 101 bridge approach. The challenge is getting around the 90 degree wall corner and aligning with the corresponding side while maintaining a 39" radius. In the diagram above, the bridge is the rectangle near the wall corner with the 101 freeway going underneath. 

You can see the wall corner in the upper part of the picture. The roadbed is being installed for the main and the siding. 

At the opposite end of the wall is the transition to the staging yards. Coast Staging is comprised of two yards. One along the wall and the other above Taylor Yard. Each of which is five tracks. 

In the picture below, you can see the roadbed for the run around on Olive Street. This and the section to the right will have street running as per the prototype. 

Note the curved turnouts on the benchwork. I am choosing to maximize the length of the staging tracks to accept an increase in train length. To do so, I have compressed the ladder design. This requires the use of curved turnouts. 

The window on the right is the emergency exit onto the roof. The section of upper level benchwork in front of the window must be quickly and easily removable to access to the window in an emergency. I'm still working on the design for this pull out section. And I need to finalize it soon. Using curved turnouts will help keep the yard ladder turnouts off of the removable section.

More progress on the roadbed installation for turnouts to serve the industries, etc.

A late decision was to install a helper pocket. That is the roadbed to the right of the window. It goes back along the wall to the corner.

This track will store locomotives to be used for restaging. As the upper level 'Coast Staging' is stub ended, I'll need to have a way to move the trains for restaging. The locos stored in the helper pocket will pull the trains out of staging track less the road power. Once pulled back, the road power will be moved and the train pushed back onto the track by the helper pocket locos. The helper pocket will eventually be hidden behind the backdrop. 

With all the roadbed down, it was time to lay some track. 

A view of the end headed to the 101 bridge.

One thing I noticed is that I'll need more lighting over this section of Ventura. Ugh! I'll be working on a solution. I have no attic access as the room has a flat roof above. There is only a 2' gap above the ceiling and it's filled with insulation. I'll likely fish wires thru to make all connections. 

Track laying came to a halt shortly thereafter. I need to get the removable window section installed and had to purchase the curved turnouts. Unfortunately, when I did my original big order, I did not order any #7 right had curved turnouts. Oh well...

I wrapped up track laying for the Valley and Harbor staging yard ladders by finishing the ladders on the helix side. I also laid out the helix pieces in preparation for installation.

It was time to get the Tortoises mounted. I use hot glue to attach the them to the benchwork. This is especially effective for mounting them under the benchwork. It works very well expect for the inevitable glue strings.

To the right, the tools of the trade. The hot glue gun for Tortoise mounting and the ancient Throttlepack to test each Tortoise after installation. 

My goal is to ensure the Tortoises run smoothly and move the points with the appropriate amount of force.

To the right is the staging bypass track that will be used to move and turn trains in restaging. This is an auto-reversing section. The track is to the right of the post. All Tortoises are now glued in place.

And of course, more feeders!.

The tools of my feeder installation are the Weller soldering iron, small diameter solder (0.020), and the wire soldering iron tip cleaner. I started using that cleaner on the recommendation of Eric Hall and now use it 100% verses the wet sponge for tip cleaning.

 

 

There was plenty of wiring to do, and that was the next task. 

With all of my feeders installed, it was time to start running the buses. Each staging track will be electrically isolated. This will allow me to only power the track when a train arrives or departs. That means 20 wire runs: 

- 9 runs for Harbor Staging

- 9 runs for Valley Staging

- 1 run to power the Harbor Staging ladders

- 1 run to power the Valley Staging ladders

I will be using timer boards to provide the power management. The turnouts will be controlled via an Arduino processor. 

I will be using 14 gauge wire for the staging tracks. My standard for the main and upper level buses is 12 gauge as the wire runs will be significantly longer. Having decided to use 14 gauge, I had to buy more wire. I ordered two 1000' roles from my favorite supplier of stranded and tinned marine wire. I chose colors of yellow and purple which are different from the blue and white 12 gauge wire rolls. Despite having 9 tracks in each staging yard, I decided against having a different color for each track. Time will tell whether that was a good decision or not. 

First up was wiring the new staging yard. I always twist my bus wires at roughly one twist per foot. With two 1000' rolls of wire, that wasn't going to be an easy task. Fortunately, I have scrap metal and a welder. I thought 'I can build a apparatus!' And I did. 

As I pulled the wired under the railroad, Jason would spin the roll holder which resulted in a good twist. The apparatus isn't pretty, but is very functional. 

To aid in control of the wire as the reels are being spun for twisting, a piece of scrap PVC was clamped to a leg. The wire passes through the PVC and guides the twisted wire. 

To pull the wires around the underside of the peninsula I used my version of a 'Speeder', my trusty mechanic's creeper. 

20 runs were pulled and clamped up to the benchwork. Once the runs were pulled, I went back and attached the feeders to the bus wire. Another pass to solder all of the bus/feeder connections followed. 

In December I will do the wiring of the two East staging yards on the main peninsula. Those will be much easier to do as they are straight pulls versus a U shaped peninsula of the Harbor/Valley Staging. 

Next was to get the Tortoises wired. Two rolls of Cat6 cable were used. I chose Cat6 as it is 23 gauge solid wire versus the 24 gauge stranded of Cat5. Any extra will be spare feeder wire.

As each cable comes with four pairs of wire, I needed two cables for each yard. I have eight Tortoises at each end of the staging yards, so two cables were perfect. I bought two colors to make the distinction between Tortoises 1-4 and 5-8. 

I had a supply of connector boards for the Tortoises, so I opted to use them for the wire connections versus soldering directly to the Tortoise.

A panel was added under the benchwork to manage the Tortoise wiring on the end of the peninsula. All wiring is routed from the source to this board and from the board to the Tortoises. The terminal strips help to keep the wiring organized. Jason got everything connect up and tested. 

Next will be to finish the wire management. That will be accomplished when the wire management is done for the staging buses.

The few Tortoises needed for Taylor Yard were mounted under the benchwork. I really didn't want to use them as I prefer hand throws, but due to reach issues, that was my only option. 

You will notice that I still have more feeders to connect. 

On the list for December are the installation of the main level above Valley and Harbor Staging, completing the staging helix, and building more spline. Ventura will be finished as well. I'll also provide an update on the Arduino uses. 

There is still a lot to do, but I'm making good progress!

October Construction Update

October was the month of staging construction. The tracks in the staging yards keep getting longer as I'm installing them. After some thought, I am increasing the maximum train length from 25 to 30 cars. The length is based on a train of thirty 50' cars, plus locos and caboose. 

Work on the Harbor and Valley staging yards continued. As I mentioned previously, a lot of work was put into making the back end of staging perfect. Trains will be turned in the staging yard via the connecting and bypass tracks between the two yards. The entire section is electrically isolated to enable moving trains during the staging process.

The staging tracks will use Tortoise switch machines to align the turnouts. Turnout control will come from a panel and will align both ends of the staging yard. As I develop the panels in the next couple of months, I'll post more information as to my method. I have a few cool things planned.

As referred to in the last blog update, all turnout motors use a sprung phosphor bronze wire to move the turnout throw bars. 

To the right is a view of the completed Harbor staging yard 'staging end' and body tracks. The start of the Valley staging yard 'staging end' is on the right side of the centerline. I have been pretty impressed with the consistency of the radius for each track. The fixtures I mentioned in my last update made making the tracks parallel very easy. The result is a consistent radius. And, it looks good!

The Harbor tracks laid out nicely. It was critical to lay the interior (closest to the fascia) track first. All other tracks are offset from the radius of the first track. Again, the track alignment tools were critical to aligning the tracks efficiently and consistently. 

In order to access the staging level, I decided that helix would be the best way to go. I had a local CNC cutting business do the work for me with their CNC Router. Thanks to my friend Kevin Looff for his suggestions and creation of the CAD drawings. As a result, I have a workable and usable solution for my helices. 

In preparation for the installation of the first helix, I built out the benchwork to support the helix and provide access to the staging yards. The next series of photos are of the benchwork construction. All was fabricated in the train room. Legs for the main and upper levels were added too. 

I opted to build out a structure that would provide a solid base for the helix. Meaning, it was off to my local big box store to buy plywood. After working through a very large stack of plywood, two reasonably good 4'x8' sheets were found. It is disgusting that today's plywood is of such poor quality. It warps quickly. Lesson learned: buy it, cut it, and install it as quickly as possible. 

The two track helix at the freestanding end of the peninsula is planned to be 1 2/3 turns. The spline(s) will connect to the upper end of the helix and the bottom will connect to the Valley and Harbor staging yards independently.

In the view to the right, you can see the CNC cut masonite pieces of helix laid out. Each 360 degree circle is composed of 6 segments. Each is a 60 degree piece of the circle. The access hole in the center will be used for helix construction and internal helix access once complete. 

I'll go more into the helix design in a next month's update when I have construction photos. In summary, the helix shelves will be 1/8" thick allowing me to minimize the grade percentage. 

As noted above, a bypass track was added to facilitate the reset process for the staging yards. In the picture to the right, where the Tortoise is located, is the bypass track directed to the lower left. I will be adding an auto reverser, and have insulated the entire loop at the end of the peninsula (behind in this picture).

In the picture below, you can see the bypass track in the distance. It is on the right side of the centerline and beyond the 3 Tortoises oriented diagonally. 

Below is also the beginning of the Valley staging yard. The single completed track near the centerline is the reference base for all of the other staging tracks. Some additional maneuvering is required to navigate the main and upper level legs. The good news is that my radii continue to be very broad. The tightest is 39".

The next series of photos are of Valley yard construction. The tracks ended up longer than originally anticipated. They are 25' to 31' depending on the location in the yard. My maximum train length has now expanded. I've moved from 25 to 30 cars per train. It's looking like the TankTrain will be a minimum of 36 cars. Maybe even 48!

At one point, I was a bit too enthusiastic and laid too many sections of flex track next to the aisle. As it turned out, I had to pull up two sections of track. The good news is that since I use latex caulk to install the track, I was able to easily remove and reuse the track with no damage to the track. Just a bit of clean up. This allowed me to install a smoother radius for the outer staging tracks. Again, maneuvering around the legs. 

After adding more drywall and painting, I was able to get most of the Valley yard ladder completed. This is the end closest to the helix. The Harbor yard end was started. Both yards will be completed in November. And wired too.

In the picture to the right, the Harbor yard is on the left and the Valley yard is on the right. 

You can see Jason has the Tortoises ready to be installed. The phosphor bronze wire is bent, including the spring, and ready to have the length adjusted for the installation. So far this is working out very well. 

In between getting the staging yards constructed, I continued installing feeders and sub-bus wires. While time consuming, there isn't really anything visible to show for it! 

More benchwork for Ventura was installed as well. As noted previously, the key sticking point and challenge is the truss bridge that crosses over the 101 freeway. Again, this is an iconic bridge with portals which aren't perpendicular to the track. I wanted to provide myself enough space to create a reasonable representation of the bridge. With the benchwork in place, the bridge will be 22" long. I am confident that this will be a good representation of the prototype. I will include the 101 freeway below as well. 

Locating the bridge was a bit of a challenge due to it being at a wall corner.

The bridge location has moved closer to the corner of the wall which will allow the longer length. My challenge was aligning the main while keeping a broad radius. I'm pretty happy with the results thus far. While I'm still getting the roadbed installed, I'll be moving to trackwork in November. 

Below is a series on this area. I'll likely modify and trim the benchwork a bit more for continuity. 

After getting the electro-magnets installed in the Violet Alley area, I re-installed track on the south end, and finished laying the north end track. The wye was completed as well. 

The Tortoise motors will be hidden behind the backdrop and inside of buildings. The prototype Violet Alley is 80+ car spots that were 'hidden' in an alley. On the prototype, all the cars in the alley were pulled out, the outbound cars were pulled from the cut, the inbound cars were inserted into the cut based on the industry location, and then shoved into place. My representation of this job will be quite challenging!

For reference, the track diagram is below. The green tracks paralleling the wall are the Violet Alley tracks. In the pictures above, things will get a bit more isolated once I add the backdrops and buildings. I'm holding off on backdrops until I've completed construction, and wiring, and testing! 

I'm continuing to plow forward trying to get the layout completed. There is no doubt that the LA Division will be hosting at least one operating session for Desert Ops 2024. Of course, the Exeter Branch will host two or more sessions as always. My push is to get the LA Division done. I continue with my goal of having trains running by the end of the year. I still have a lot of work to do, but I'm moving forward. 

For what I call 'cool new stuff', I had SP Los Angeles Division stickers/decals made. I created the logo over 15 years ago. I've had shirts, hats, and jackets embroidered with my logo. I decided to get some 2.5" stickers made and am very happy with the result. They have already made their way onto the back window of two vehicles in the Watson household!

That wraps it up for this update. For November, I'm planning to get the upper level to about 60% complete and the main level to about 90% complete. Again, the push is to have trains running by the end of the year. Fingers crossed!!