When last I wrote I was rebuilding benchwork.
Since that time I have completed building the benchwork, started on laying cork and track, discovering a bow in a long piece of benchwork, building a leg to correct that bow, and starting the build of control panels.
And cataract surgery. Let us not forget that. My eye doctor tells me it's a sign of gaining wisdom. I told him it's a sign of impending geezerhood. My daughter informs me that "impending" no longer applies as I am already well down that path.
At any rate, when I left off I was letting the plywood relax before painting. The paint was applied, new foam put down, and track planning started soon after. I eliminated the hill past the turnaround tunnel, leaving it on a 1/2" rise around the back corner, and pulling it forward enough to allow for scenery behind the track.
I then put some cork down, relocating the coal plant further back to allow more room for the narrow gauge. This allowed for the location of a passenger station, as I mentioned in my last post, between the narrow and standard gauge rails.
Once the cork was down the standard gauge track laying began. Instead of putting switch machines on each turnout, this time I opted to leave the electrofrog turnouts untouched and use only large radius on all the mainline tracks. This eliminated a lot of wiring.
The downside to this is that as the layout ages, the contacts at the turnouts are going to suffer. This can result in electrically dead frogs and point rails. The fix will be to institute a rigorous electrical cleaning program at the point rail contacts from the very beginning using contact cleaner and mechanical cleaners.
Since most of the turnouts are easily reached from the aisles this shouldn't be a big problem, and the three turnouts that are not easily reached are still thrown by Tortoise and wired appropriately for good lasting frog power switching.
The troublesome curved turnout at the west yard entrance was the next issue to be addressed, The curves were relaid to allow for short stretches of straight track entering and leaving the turnout at all three points. Hopefully this should end the issues of derailing at that turnout. When I get power back on the track I'll run a Northern through that turnout in both directions at various speeds to test it.
I was also able to carefully prepare the vertical transitions at each end of the hill, as well as the transition from vertical change to 1/2" riser just before the south loop tunnel portal. Once again, the magic of Bachmann steam will reveal any issues with the transitions in plenty of time to correct them prior to scenic work.
Another issue that was dealt with was the benchwork for the coal plant. I relaid the track for the coal plant and much to my dismay I found the cars I put on the tracks rolled towards the center. I got out my levels and straight-edges and found there was a bow in the middle of that piece of benchwork.
This piece of bench is six feet in length, supported on each end by a leg. Obviously this has proved to be insufficient, so a third leg positioned right about the middle of the bench was built and installed. This has leveled the bench out along its length, and the cars no longer roll towards the center of the bench when placed at the end of the yard tracks.
Of course, this means that the eight foot length of the yard on the opposite side of the room will also likely need a leg or two in the middle... but that is a problem for another day. That area is still "here be dragons" territory.
All the track except the double main on the hill is laid out and the control panel construction has begun. I decided I wanted to get the control panels at least laid out before wiring the track, so that is why I have veered off in that direction.
I laid out my control panels and planned the switch work for each section, drilled the holes, and installed the switches and LEDs. Each Tortoise controlled turnout will have LEDs indicating which route is selected since they are far enough away that they will not be easily verified just by looking at them.
I am also wiring the layout for DC block controls even though I will usually be running DCC. I did this with the previous layout as well, but in the early version there were only 4 blocks. The new layout has 13. Most of the block switches are easily seen from the area where the operator will be standing, but there are two places on the hill where the siding turnouts are far enough away from each other that some sort of signal will be needed.
The dual track section over the hill is arranged in such a way that each turnout is a right hand turnout. That means that the straight route from each turnout comes to the diverging side of the opposite turnout. The cab selector switch adjacent to each turnout control switch controls the straight route, which means that the cab control for the diverging route is co-located with the opposite turnout switch. These switches are on opposite ends of the layout, so it is not a simple matter to select the diverging route cab.
So, in order to prevent switching to the diverging route when the opposite cab is selected, a pair of LEDs are located near each turnout switch to indicate which cab is selected for the diverging route. Most of the time trains in each direction will exit the turnouts on the straight route, and the length of the dual track section is long enough to allow the operator to get to the other end to select the proper cab to enter the diverging route of the opposite turnout. Of course, when the layout is being operated as DCC this is not going to be an issue.
I have ordered all the wire I am going to need, and laid out all of the switches in their proper arrangements. The next step will be to remove all of the switches, paint the panels, and lay out the track arrangements on the panels with colored tape before sealing it all in a clear coat to keep the tape from peeling up. After that the switches can be reinstalled and the wiring completed.
Back to work tomorrow, so this will take a while to accomplish. I'm sure there will be snags and pitfalls along the way, and I will deal with them as they come.
