The Trouble with Digitrax, PT III

 In two of my previous posts, I detailed some issues I had with Digitrax DCC systems.

To sum up, I prefer my NCE PowerCab for daily operations due to its simplicity and intuitive ease of operations. The problems I run into with my NCE are that it doesn't play nice with TCS decoders (which I use exclusively in my older Atlas locomotives) and when I program on the programming track I lose some cab parameters and have to set the cab back up. These issues are annoying, but minor, so I've decided to live with them, although one of these days I will likely send it in to have the cab parameter problem looked at.

The Digitrax Zephyr starter system is likewise easy to operate, especially for someone just transitioning from DC. I own the oldest of the sets, the DCS50, which has since been replaced by first the DCS51 and then the DCS52. They all have a single knob that you turn for engine speed, and a lever for forward and reverse, just like a DC throttle pack would have. The only difference is the keypad, which is used to enter the locomotive address and operate the functions as well as programming locomotives.

The problem is that the DCS50 doesn't show throttle settings in steps or percentages, so it's nearly impossible to set two locomotives to the exact same speed setting for speed matching. Also, the Digitrax systems as a whole don't seem to be as user friendly when programming locomotives as the NCE system is. The Zephyr is somewhat easier, but it's not easy to program advanced features since it is, after all, a basic starter set, as well as being very old. I'm sure that the newer versions are better; the DCS52, for example, has a larger liquid crystal display screen that shows much more information than the DCS50's sectional LED display.

However, since my club runs Digitrax, I have to program my show locomotives on that system due to the difference in track voltages between the two systems. Locomotives speed matched on NCE aren't necessarily going to be speed matched on Digitrax, which causes operational difficulties on show layouts. Therefore, I needed a more capable Digitrax system for programming, and to that end I purchased a Super Empire Builder Xtra, or rather had one purchased for me.

I had been using it successfully to program my locomotives, but one day I decided I wanted to run cordless operations. To that end I purchased some used throttles and interface panels, none of which have worked the way I wanted them to. To further complicate things, I hooked the Digitrax up to a loop of track to program my newest locomotives and, due probably to operator errors on an unfamiliar system, failed miserably, and had to program them with the NCE system (which, for reasons I have already extensively detailed, won't work so well on the club layout).

That brings me to this; a set of locomotives I couldn't program properly, a set of throttles that are virtually useless, and no way to run wireless if the cell phone setup doesn't work for whatever reason. So, finally, in desperation, I have made a purchase of a complete new Evolution Express Duplex Radio Starter Set, which should include all that I need for wireless operations as well as providing the proper throttle to run at the club shows.

I have almost decided that my new layout, which will be about 3 times bigger than my existing one, will use the Digitrax system because I now own so much Digitrax equipment. Digitrax did do one thing right in that all of their systems will work together with Loconet, so I can set both the original Zephyr and the DB150 from my Super Empire Builder starter sets to be boosters. 

I can use the Zephyr exclusively in the yard as the hostler's throttle and put the DB150 over on the mountain turn-around loop, sprinkling the various control panels around the layout and installing the LNWI module for cell phone ops. That should give me plenty of operational flexibility, and I should be able to use all of my throttles on IR if nothing else (I would have to purchase a UR91 interface panel to use the radio function on the 401R throttle).

I will then keep the NCE system for the Christmas layout and for various smaller projects that I may decide to get into. I have also almost convinced myself to build an HO layout on a shelf above the N, so that would be a perfect use for the NCE system. I would have to use a stepladder to get to the rear of the HO scale layout if I decide to build it, but that's a minor concern. It would also give me a nice place to mount some lighting for the N scale.

But first, I have to get the train room ready to build benchwork, so I'm off to do that now. 

Scheduled Delivery

Three more modern locomotives, an AC4400CW, an SD70Ace, and an SD90/45MAC, all in Union Pacific paint, are scheduled to arrive today.

I don't know why I'm doing this to myself. At this rate my modern diesel roster will soon outnumber my steam roster. 

Observation

 Drywall finishing work is a lot like modeling. You spend a lot of time waiting for things to dry.

Where the closet wall came out there is a lot of variation at the joints where the old closet wall meets the old room wall. On one side the door frame occupies much of that joint, so the variation is not as pronounced. Just above the door is worse, but not really so bad.

On the other side of the room, however, the surface of the room wall stands about a quarter inch proud of the surface of the closet wall. To make things worse, the drywall on the room side is crumbling along that edge, so it isn't firm against the wall studs in that joint area.

To remedy (but not really correct) it I am sanding the room wall down into the plaster about an eighth of an inch at the edge, feathering out six inches or so. I will then build the closet wall out about an eighth with drywall mud to match the sanded surface, feathering that out six inches or so as well. When I am done I should have a 12 inch surface, six inches on each side of the seam, that gently transitions from one surface to the other. 

The wall will never be straight all the way from corner to corner, so my goal is to simply smooth the transition and then I can disguise it with benchwork and scenery. In order to get it done, however, I am having to drive or pull nails and sand about 2 vertical feet of the wall at a time along the seam and then fill with drywall mud. Because the mud is so thick it takes a long time to dry. I will then have to sand that down, fill in the low spots, let that dry, sand it smooth again, and repeat as necessary to get that smooth transition. 

I expect this will take a few weeks on the days that I am not working. Fortunately there is still much to do while the wall dries, so that time is not lost completely. Perhaps by this fall I will have the room walls finished enough to paint, then I can start building the layout.

If it was easy everyone would do it. 

How It Begins

So far I have torn down the closet wall and expanded the room. I have decided not to close in the door between the rooms because it really isn't necessary. The door is in a wide wall, so it won't be in the way. I'll just build my new benchwork over the opening.

Today I got the last of the demo materials removed and pulled up the tack strips. I got the hole in the ceiling patched, and then made a dump run to empty the trailer. This is what I have so far. 

This is the view from the door looking to the left. Along this wall will run my staging yard. I'm still finalizing plans on this yard, but it will contain engine and car repair facilities, including a 12 stall roundhouse and turntable.

This is the view to the right. Along this wall will be the main part of the layout. My current plans, subject to change, is to have an expanded version of my current layout in this area.

Let's take a look inside, shall we? 

This is the door coming in, the one we were just looking through. The staging yard will start in the gray area to the right of the door as we are looking at it now and extend along the wall to our right. To the left of this door will likely be the narrow gauge portion of the layout, built on the Woodland Scenics Scenic Ridge layout with some slight modifications. I have right at 8 feet of wall from the corner to the door.

This is the wall to the right, which as you can see contains the old closet door for the room next door. My initial plans were to close this door in on both sides, but Mrs Hades has convinced me it's more trouble than it's worth. I'll just build the benchwork over the top of it, and as a bonus if I ever want to expand into that room all I have to do is open the door.

This wall is 10 feet 10 inches long. The yard will extend almost 8 feet along this wall from the left side, and there will be a 15' radius turnaround loop in the corner on the right for the main part of the layout, extending along the wall to the right. I haven't yet made a final determination how that yard will tie into the main part of the layout, but there will likely be a Y involved, so there will be some fancy wiring needed.

This wall is 13 feet in length. The main part of the layout will be along this wall. So far as current plans go, it will be an extended version of my current switching layout. There will be a 15' radius turning loop on the left, and then the mainline will extend along the wall to the right. (Note the patch in the ceiling right above the ladder. When the room was used for storage a critter of undetermined nature got in there. I think it was a squirrel looking for building materials.)

This is another 10' 10" wall. The mainline will extend along this wall to another turnaround loop in the corner by the window. This turnaround loop will be almost totally disguised by a tunnel mimicking the CSX mainline at Point of Rocks, MD. A branch line will come out from the main here going to an interchange to the narrow gauge portion of the layout, which will be located on the wall to the right.

This is the tunnel at Point of Rocks. It originally contained a dual main line when the B&O built it, but since then trains have gotten taller with longer cars. The C&O Canal ran along the side of the cliff between it and the Potomac River. Eventually the canal closed, and sometime later the railroad center-lined one track in the tunnel and filled in the canal to build a bypass around the river side for the other main. I first saw this tunnel from the Highway 15 bridge above, and thought it was the perfect disguise for a turnaround loop. The link takes you to the page where I found the photo. But I digress.

 I have two options for positioning the narrow gauge layout. As I said before, there is right at 8 feet from the corner to the door. If I butt the roadbed of the lower narrow gauge track loop on the Scenic Ridge layout right up to the roadbed of the standard gauge track on the turnaround loop, I will be able to build a single mountain for the two and run the narrow gauge 6 feet lengthwise along the wall. However, that leaves a problem with accessing the tunnel when the inevitable stall or train wreck occurs.

I can cut an access in the bottom, along with the access that will be needed for the turnaround loop, but that means climbing under the layout to get to it. Alternately, I can cut access holes in the top for both standard and narrow gauge loops, but since both will be on a 3 foot wide bench that is probably going to be too long a stretch to reach from the top. The advantage to this arrangement is there would be a single mountain in the corner which ties the standard and narrow gauge portions of the layout together and gives it some continuity.

Another option is to put the turnaround loop in the corner, extend 2 feet along the wall, and finish off with the 3 foot mountain end of the Scenic Ridge narrow gauge against the wall with the 6 foot portion sticking out into the room. I can then cut my access holes in the back, beside the entry door, for the narrow gauge and I won't have to crawl underneath to get to the track. I would still have to have a hole under the standard gauge loop because 3 feet into the corner is still a long stretch. The advantage here is two more feet of branch line, which gives some separation between the mainline and the narrow gauge, suggesting more distance between the two. 

Mrs Hades asked me if I was going to build a 2 level layout, and I replied in the negative because it's really too much for a single modeler to deal with. However, I have since considered building an HO shelf layout above the N scale. I would lower the N scale a bit, perhaps making it comfortable to operate while seated, and put the HO scale at a comfortable level to operate while standing.

I have also considered moving the switching portion of the layout to the front of the yard extension, pushing the yard to the back side of that extension, and putting the dual mainline ending in Point of Rocks along the long wall. This would allow me to put the narrow gauge on the wall with the window and put the HO on the wall by the entry door.

That's the thing about an empty room. It's not really empty at all, it's filled with possibilities. 

And So It Begins

Saturday began the destruction.

The carpet and padding was pulled up and a start was made on pulling up the staples and tack strips. Mrs Hades helped me at this task, I cut the carpet into strips and she pulled it up. The carpet and padding was then rolled up and put into trash bags for disposal.

Today the wall came down.

First the drywall on the new layout side was taken down to expose the wall studs. Next the wall between the closets was taken down. Finally, the drywall on the closet side was taken down. That piece came out unbroken, so it can be used to close in the closet door on the old train room side. Last but not least, the framing was taken out, and the new layout room is now at its full size.

Next up is the finishing work.

The building debris needs to be cleared out and disposed of, then the new layout room walls need to be refinished so they can be painted. The ceiling also has a hole in it that needs to be patched, and the texture on the ceiling is falling down, so it needs to come the rest of the way down. After that the rest of the staples from the carpet and padding needs to be pulled out, then the new flooring can go down. The last step will be to put up new baseboards and crown molding, and then the room will be complete.

And then, at long last, the work on the layout can begin.

Some Work Was Done

 Yesterday I cleaned out the closet of the room that my layout, such as it is, currently resides. This is hopefully the beginning of the new train room renovations. The idea is that I will have one room for the layout, and the current room will be a workshop.

The closet of the current train room shares a front and back wall with the closet of the next door room, which is where the new train room will be. The intent is that I am going to tear out the back wall (front wall of the new train room closet) to expand the space in the new train room. This will make the two rooms roughly the same size (10' 9" x 13').

When the wall is gone the next step will be to close off the old train room closet door opening, and then some sort of drywall work will be needed. The closet wall drywall has a vinyl wallpaper on it (to prevent mold perhaps, the same drywall was used in the kitchen and bathrooms) that doesn't blend in well with regular drywall.

Mrs Hades has had some success in peeling off the vinyl wallpaper and sanding the remaining paper smooth enough to take paint and blend in well with the regular drywall, so we are going to try that first. The seams will need to be taped and filled, then the paint can go on.

Before doing the drywall and paint work, however, the carpet will have to come up. We are going to install some sort of rolled flooring when the carpet, padding and staples are all out and any patchwork needed is complete. My hopes is that none will be needed and then this work can go quickly.

So, the sequence of events will be: tear out the closet walls to expand the new train room; fill the closet door hole between the rooms; pull up the carpet, padding, and any staples; prepare and paint the walls; and then, finally, install new flooring.

All of this is tentatively scheduled for next weekend.* Friday we will get the flooring, 2x4's for the door framing, and drywall to patch the door opening along with drywall tape and filler. We have paint, so that is covered. We will then have Saturday and Sunday to get the work done, or at least as much as possible.

And then... the construction can begin!

*I wrote this post several days ago. Yesterday was Friday, we got the flooring but the wall that is being taken out will supply the framing 2x4's, and we will have to get the drywall materials later. Let the fun begin!

Heritage Units

 For reasons still unknown to me, I have acquired yet another Norfolk Southern heritage unit. This one is a duplicate, sort of; an SD70Ace in Erie paint. This one, however, is a Kato where my other is made by Fox Valley Models. It was a good price, and I just couldn't resist the urge.

I haven't taken any pictures to show the comparisons, but the differences between the two brands are well known. The Kato has molded in details where the FVM has a bag of yet uninstalled detail parts, the Kato locomotive colors are a lot brighter than the FVM unit, (a comparison of pictures online suggests the FVM is closer to prototype) and the Kato is capable of the expected rocket ship-like top speed while the FVM had a more reasonable top speed from the factory. 

Other than the excessively high top speed, the Kato runs with the quietness and precision otherwise expected from the brand. Installing DCC allows for the top speed to be reduced to a more reasonable level, and it has been speed-matched on the Digitrax system to the others. 

I have decided that, given the troubles I had with obtaining parts for my FVM locomotive, the Kato will replace the FVM unit on the show circuit and the FVM model will go on display. I will likewise replace any other FVM locos that I can find Kato substitutes for, but I don't expect that will be any time soon.