As 2023 wrapped up, I took the opportunity to look back on all of the progress I've made on the railroad. I would call it 'significant'. Unfortunately, I didn't realize my goal of having trains running by the end of 2023. For me, that means having all levels complete and operational. The 2024 goal is to have trains running by the end of March. Probably a bit ambitious, but I think it's doable. I'll definitely host a session on the LA Division during this year's Desert Ops event in October.
Much of December was consumed with wiring the Harbor and Valley staging yards. In my last update, I shared the 'apparatus' for managing the wire spools and twisting the bus wire pairs. Once the wire was pulled, it had to be connected to the feeders.
In order to organize all of the electronics, I decided to build control boards. A board will be used for each booster and one for the command station.
To begin the process, we started with the control board for the new peninsula. This is the most complicated panel. It will serve the Harbor and Valley staging on the lower level, Burbank, Gemco and Van Nuys on the main level, and Moorpark, Somis, and Camarillo on the upper level.
The panel will be mounted vertically at the base of the peninsula. The top of the panel will be just below the main level. This will provide relatively easy access for maintenance.
The picture to the left includes the access hole where the control panel will be mounted. The hole provides access to the helix from the main level to the upper level too.
There are a number of components mounted to the panel. Below is a description of each. As this panel serves both the Harbor and Valley staging yards, some components are doubled. On the duplicates, think of Harbor staging on the left and Valley staging on the right. Thanks to my helper Jason for building out the panels.
The components are as follows:
1) Surge protected power supply which includes 3 USB plugs and multiple 110v plugs on the top and sides.
2) Arduino Mega Board to control all the turnouts in the matrix.
3) Terminal block connecting push buttons (mounted on the fascia) to the Arduino board and the relay timer boards.
4) Turnout control relays that provide control of the turnout matrix via the Arduino board. To control each Tortoise, a pair of relays are required. The board comes with eight relays. Thus, a pair of boards are required to control the eight Tortoises for the eight turnouts and routing to the nine staging tracks.
5) Terminal blocks connecting the relays to the Tortoises.
6) PSX-AR Auto Reverser for the reversing section of staging.
7) Timer Relay Boards to provide power control for each track when activated by a push button. An individual board will be used to power each staging track. The board will time out and turn off track power after a set interval. This will provide better power management than depending on operators to throw a toggle to turn on/off track power.
8) PSX circuit breakers. For this panel, I will have 6 power districts supporting the section of the layout served by this panel.
9) NCE PB105 booster supplying the track power.
Missing in the picture are the 'wall wart' power supplies for the staging Tortoise turnout motors and the wires to the push buttons. Once the first board was mostly complete, less a few parts on order, the board for the Taylor peninsula and East Staging was started. Time to order more terminal blocks too.
The remaining three control boards to be constructed will be smaller. Two with boosters and one with the command station. For those keeping track, that will be 4 boosters plus the command station. I'm confident that will be enough power for the layout and support of the 25 power districts. Actually, it's probably much more than I need, but I don't want to have power issues. There will be a lot of locomotives operating on the track at the same time. The railroad will consume well over one hundred locos.
As all of the wires for the new peninsula were pulled, it was time to get them hooked up to the feeders. Which meant more time on my creeper rolling around under the railroad. I connected each of individual track buses to the feeders for each of the 18 tracks. Those are all the 14g wires. I pulled an additional bus of 12g wire for the yard ladders which require separate power.
What a wire menagerie!
Jason suggested using hot glue to affix the wires to the benchwork. I thought that might work well. And it did. Using hot glue allowed me to mount the wires quickly, simplifying the process of attachment. Since I'm not using wood (except splice plates), I knew it was going to be more of a challenge to attach the wires using conventional methods. Running the wires through the steel wasn't going to be effective either. Mounting wire clips to the drywall may prove troublesome as I'm unable to use screws effectively. The hot glue solution is the way to go.
To the right is the result from hot gluing the wires in place. I'm pretty happy with the result. There are two downsides to using hot glue. First is the strings that inevitably happen when using hot glue. Second are the occasional burns to the hands. I've tried to keep the burns to a minimum, but they happen as all the work is done on my back and reaching up. I am always making sure my face isn't directly under the glue. Only burns to the fingers thus far.
Holding up the wires while the hot glue cools down is a bit of a pain as well and gets tiring. Interestingly, the glue cures much faster on the steel versus the bottom of the drywall. Obviously, the heat dissipates much faster with steel.
To the left is the tool I'm getting a lot of use from. I use a 'Coke' flat to rest the hot glue gun when not in my hand. All the dried glue bits are either from my fingers or what I pulled off of the gun.
I've been using the same pair of wire strippers for most of my life. They were may father's, which makes them old enough to be living in a retirement community somewhere. They still work great, but max out with 14g wire. For the 12g bus, I had to get new strippers capable of stripping 12g. Pictured left to right are the original wire strippers, the 12g compatible strippers, and the new Milwaukee strippers.
The broken strippers in the middle are Southwire brand. I do not recommend those. As you can see in the picture, the handle is broken. It literally snapped in my hand while I was stripping a wire. Those belonged to Jason, so it was off to Home Depot to buy new strippers. The choice was the Milwaukee strippers on the right. Of course I purchased 2. One for me and one to replace Jason's broken tool. Thus far the Milwaukee has been fantastic. I'll be retiring original strippers as the Milwaukee strippers are so much sharper.
I'm continually seeking ways to make things easier for my operators. Since I will have hidden staging yards on each peninsula, I will be using security cameras to monitor staging. The cameras will be displayed on a TV located in the corner of the room. The camera system I'm planning to use will allow the four cameras to be actively displayed simultaneously on the TV screen.
In order to make it obvious as to which track is 'active', I have installed green 0402 LEDs. This will be an obvious indicator of not only which track is selected, but when the LED is on, the track has power. Again, each track will have a relay timer that will terminate power after a set interval. I've yet to determine what that interval will be, but I'm guessing somewhere between 3 and 5 minutes. In the picture, I've lit two LEDs to get an idea of placement. As you can see, they are pretty bright and should be obvious on camera.
I purchased the LEDs on Ebay. They are pre-wired and have a resistor attached. Installation was a matter of drilling the hole and connecting the wire. Using LEDs this small, the challenge was ensuring the LED was pointed toward the camera location. If I were to do it again, I'd order ones that are a bit bigger for ease of manipulation.
I'd also like to point out that I've learned that Ebay isn't always the best option. I was on Amazon looking for LEDs for another reason and found the same LEDs I purchased on Ebay. Same seller, same photos, not the same price. They were less expensive on Amazon. Note to self, check Amazon in the future before purchasing.
Next up was testing the staging tracks. I had done continuity testing with my ohm meter and all looked good. Now was time to put power to the wires to make sure everything worked well.
I used my PowerCab for testing. The old MRC throttle pictured wasn't used. It had been used previously for Tortoise testing. I selected a pair of wires for a track in each of the two staging yards, and ran the train from yard to yard from the access space in the peninsula.
The spring clamps hold the wire in place and I clip the alligator clips to the wires. After each test is complete, I label the wires for the specific track. This will help when the control board is installed. The control board will stretch across the opening from post on the left to the post on the right (not pictured). Basically where the green spring clamps are.
With the green LEDs installed, it is easy to validate that the tracks are connected for testing. And that I've identified the correct track. I think it looks cool too.
My test train consisted of a Triple 57 flat, 2 auto racks, a reefer, a covered hopper and a caboose. The locomotive was in the middle. Originally the WP covered hopper wasn't on the train, but I picked it up somewhere!
Talk about monotonous... run from the connecting loop to the end of Harbor staging track 1. Return, cross the connecting loop, and run to the end of Valley staging track 1, and back again to the connecting loop. Climb out of the 'hole', manually move the turnouts for both ends of each yard, climb back into the hole and run the train on track 2. After connecting and labeling the track 2 wires.
It is amazing how slow the train looks to be moving as my perspective is much different with a larger layout and space.
Here is what the entry end of staging looked like when testing.
In Ventura where the 101 freeway bridge will be, I sourced and readied a piece of aluminum bar stock that will be the interim bridge. I'll likely make it permanent and build a superstructure representing the truss bridge around it. I found it necessary to relocate the plywood platform that will become the freeway below the bridge. I determined I didn't need as much depth as I had previously identified. So, time to move the platform. Of course, the screws attaching it were on top and underneath the drywall sub-roadbed. So creative tools were used to remove the screws. When reinstalled, the screws will be from the bottom up. The sub-roadbed on each side will be modified as well and I'll be changing the footprint of the benchwork a bit.
The modifications of the benchwork and installation of the aluminum bar will be done in January.
I have completed the designs in Excel for the car cards and waybills that I'll be using. It is a modified version of the designs used by Tony Thompson and Steve Bechtold.
For the car cards, I'll be printing a card which will be inserted inside of a baseball card sleeve. My original sample sleeves were too slippery. I could image a bundle of 30 cards slipping out of the operator's hand and all over the floor. The new sleeves I sourced, are a matte and textured surface. I think they will work much better.
Matte sleeve is to the left and the shiny sleeve is to the right. The matte sleeve also has a colored back. I chose dark gray, a close match to Lark Dark Gray.
The car cards are organized as follows:
1) Reporting Mark and Car Number
2) AAR code
3) The billboard name on the side of the car
4) Car type and length. I'm not expecting my my crews to memorize AAR codes.
5) Car color to help in locating the car.
6) Return Empty to locale
7) Car card number at the bottom. This matches the index number in the Excel spreadsheet, making it easier to reprint a damaged car card.
The waybills are a modified version of the prototype that will fit into the sleeve in front of the car card. I think this will work well. They will be single side waybills. I'm developing a different method of staging the railroad than what I have been using on the Exeter Branch. I'll elaborate more on that in the future.
Currently, my area of concern is whether to highlight the station and destination on the waybills or not. If I do go with highlighting, I'll probably never be able to move away from it. If I don't highlight, there will be a slower familiarization process for new operators as the waybills look daunting. On the Exeter Branch, I simplified my waybills based on feedback.
In the examples to the right, the waybills have been inserted into the car card sleeve. The values filling in the boxes are test data. I used the test data to validate I have all the cell mappings correct. You can see the difference between the highlights and the non-highlight version. I'm sure there will be a learning curve to use them.
To be completely honest, waybills aren't appropriate for my 1979-1984 era. Computerization and switch lists are. However, I prefer the process of using waybills, so I'm making that compromise.
One last thing to share are some fun facts about the Exeter Branch. I know a number of my readers have operated on the layout and may find this interesting. The fourteenth anniversary operating session was held on December 9, 2023. The statistics below are as of the completion of that session.
Completed Years of Operation: 14
Sessions hosted: 327
Individual operators: 149
Jobs completed: 1531
Jobs: 12 different jobs (some stayed, some went the way of the Dodo)
Desert Ops sessions: 16
Equipment change out: 1 moving from 1980 to 1964
Railroad Expansions: 2
Track plan changes: 1 - added one spur
DCC system reboots: 1
The top 3 folks with the most sessions completed:
1) 90 sessions - David Doiron
2) 86 sessions - Rick Watson (go figure)
3) 77 sessions - Tie: Chris Callaway, Carey Johnson, Dan Thompson
Operators are active as of the first session: David Doiron, Dan Thompson
Operator who has attended the most anniversary sessions: Dan Thompson (13 of 14)
Operators who have gone to the big roundhouse in the sky: 10
That wraps up the last update for 2023. I'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy New Year!
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