06.27.09
Posted in Design at 11:30 pm by Edward Ford
I’ve been working through a layout design for the past few months, trying to get something that took the best advantage of my very small space (apartment living), with thought about the future — I know I will move at least once, possibly several times, in the next 5 years. Before I commence on building this, I’d love to get some construcive criticism about what I could do better, keeping in mind my overall goals (which are stated below).
This layout takes some inspiration from the “Beer Line” modular design published in recent issues of Model Railroader. In the configuration shown below, designed around my current apartment, there is a module which forms the stem of a “T”; the track locations at the ends of the modules are designed to be “plug n play” — the center module can move all the way over to the left side, to form an “L”, or can plug in to the right side’s short end to form one long straight bench. To facilitate a quick and dirty staging area, I plan to build some cassette modules which can be plugged in to the areas where the track extends to the layout edge.
The main module will break down into 2 parts of about equal size for moving. Each module (2 middle plus moveable extension) are sized to fit inside the back of my vehicle. This division is not shown for clarity with the trackplan.
I’m aware that the curves are considered tight, especially for modern rolling stock. I have a small chainsaw layout right now which uses 11.25″ curves, and I have modern passenger rolling stock running on it. I know what the overhang for long rolling stock looks like, and I’m ok with the astetics of the overhang.
I’m not intrested in operations very much — I like to occasionally move some traffic in and out of sidings, but mostly, I like to set things on auto-pilot and just sit back and watch.
Goals:
* Continuous running
* Large passenger station is anchor / layout focus
* Moveable / reconfigurable
* One or 2 small on-line industries that see a few cars a week of traffic (Suggestions on the industry type?)
Tech Specs:
Scale: N
Era: Present
Prototype: Freelance
Grid: 12″ squares
Minimum radius: 11.25″
Turnout frogs: #7
Track spacing: 1.5″
Main area: 80″ x 30″
Moveable extension: 36″ x 27″
With all that said, what could I improve?
I’ve been busy the last few months looking hard trying to come up with a track plan that takes better advantage of the space I have available. Since I live in an apartment, space is very limited, and reconfiguration of the furniture just isn’t possible due to the location of various items, like where the in-wall air conditioning unit is located. (For more info, please see an earlier post about my space plan.) While I proceeded in earnest with the layout plan published earlier on this blog, several problems became noticeable, leading me to christen that layout design as a chainsaw design.
Reflection on the old
The largest driving factor in considering is the amount of wasted space I currently have. With a table based layout, I give up a lot of useful room for the ability to walk around on all sides. A shelf layout seemed like a better way to use the space.
I have a love of passenger trains, so this drove the idea of having a downtown station in the previous plan, but with the train buried underground to reach the station, much like New York Penn Station or Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station. While in the real world, a train reaching an urban hub by going under parts of the city is realistic, the reality of building a model representation of this looked more like a city on stilts rather than a train going underground. (And credit must go to the author of the Interacting with Miniature Railroading blog for pointing this out.)
The final large issue with the old plan: It’s a closed loop. While I want to have continuous running, as that is something I enjoy, I was trying hard to cover up that fact as well: the idea of the train going under the city was to hide the fact that the train was stuck perpetually chasing its tail. No connections to a larger off-layout rail network were present.
The New Attempt
This new layout plan takes some inspiration from the “Beer Line” modular design, which first appeared in the January 2009 issue of Model Railroader. When I started reading about the modular and reconfigurable nature of that layout, I knew instantly that such a layout was the answer to my mobility and space needs. Since I know I will move at least once, and possibly several times in the next few years, the layout must be easy to transport. This is one reason why I originally chose the table based design for my initial layout plan — the table fit nicely in the back of my vehicle. What if I had a layout made of modules that individually fit in my car, but could be arranged in different ways to accommodate for different space configurations? Sounds a bit like the Model Railroader “Beer Line”, doesn’t it?
In the configuration shown below, designed around my current apartment’s available space, I have 3 modules connected together to form a “T” shape. The two modules forming the top part of the “T” are designed to always be used together in that fixed configuration; only the stem of the “T” can move. (The division between the top two modules is not shown.) With some careful planning, I was able to design the tracks to line up uniformly as an “L”; take the center module and attach it to the very left side of the layout. The movable module actually becomes a reversing loop, and the tracks on the right side of the movable module will connect to the passenger station tracks. The third configuration is to make one long bench by attaching the movable module to the right end; once again, the movable module becomes a reversing loop. (In addition, the movable module can rotate 180 degrees and connect backwards to any of the 3 configurations. This is a nice artifact of the design, but not an intended consequence.)
Design Evolution
As I mentioned in my opening, getting to this design took me many months and countless revisions. And guess what: I don’t consider this the final design. I’m absolutely certain there is something about this design that will need to change based on feedback from modelers more experienced than me. To facilitate this, I’m cross-posting this design on the layout design forum over at Model Railroad Hobbyist.
Some Additional Commentary:
I’m aware that the curves are considered tight, especially for modern rolling stock. The loop on my current (now chainsaw-bound) layout uses 11.25″ curves, and I run modern passenger rolling stock over those curves. I know what the overhang for long rolling stock looks like, and I’m ok with the aesthetics of the overhang. This is one of the concessions I make to get continuous running.
I’m not interested in operations very much — I like to occasionally move some traffic in and out of sidings, but mostly, I like to set things on auto-pilot and just sit back and watch.
Design Goals:
- Continuous running
- Large passenger station is anchor / layout focus
- Movable / reconfigurable
- One or 2 small on-line industries that see a few cars a week of traffic (Suggestions on the industry type?)
Tech Specs:
Scale: N
Era: Present
Prototype: Freelance
Grid: 12″ squares
Minimum radius: 11.25″
Turnout frogs: #7
Track spacing: 1.5″
Main area: 80″ x 30″
Movable extension: 36″ x 27″
The Layout Plan: Version 1
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02.21.09
Posted in Track at 11:31 pm by Edward Ford
I recently was installing Tortoise turnout motors for two switches near the edge of my layout, and found that the Tortoise motors didn’t fit right below the throw bar due to benchwork bracing getting in the way. To solve this bind, I installed one Remote Tortoise Mount, which is a small footprint mount that allows installation of Tortoise turnout motors in many different configurations up to 18″ away from the turnouts location. Perfect for a tight jam like mine!
The instructions for the Remote Tortoise Mount are long, and confusing in places. To help others understand how some of the parts fit together, I’m reprinting the instructions in their entirety here (minus diagrams), adding some annotations based on my installation mistakes.
Installing a Tortoise Remote Mount
Getting Started
1. Drill a 1/16″ hole down through the roadbed and sub-roadbed at one of the two locations shown [diagram omitted].
Warning: This hole must be drilled perpendicular to the layout surface.
Use a drill guide if you have one. Check to make certain that there are no obstructions on the underside of the layout. There must be at least 1/4″ clearance between the center of the hole you just drilled and the nearest obstruction. You will also need adequate clearance below the underside of the layout to drill pilot holes and drive the screws through the Actuator Mounting Plate up into the underside of the layout.
Annotation: The diagram shows drilling the hole between the rails, because the hole on the throw arm is also between the rails. For N scalers using Atlas code 55 turnouts, the hole should be drilled outside of the tracks, as the hole on the throwbar is on the outside. See pictures below.
2. Insert the Guide Tube into the hole and push down until the end of the tube is flush with the tie tops. If the tube wants to drop out of the hole, fix in place with a drop of ACC. Do not get glue in the tube!
3. Place the Actuator Mounting Plate over the Guide Tube on the underside of the layout. The tube should be extending out of the pivot hole in the center of the raised section. Center the tube in the hole and mark the two mounting hole locations with a sharp pencil. Without moving the plate, trace the outline of the cut out area in the mounting plate onto the underside of the layout surface. Now, remove the plate and make a mark halfway between the two corners of the tracing you just made. Finally draw a line between the center of the guide tube and extending through and 1″ beyond the mark you just made. When you are finished, your pattern on the underside of the layout should look like this: [diagram omitted].
Annotation: I didn’t find it necessary to draw the outline of the Actuator Mounting Plate on the underside of the benchwork (except for marking the screw holes). Your milage may vary.
4. Drill two 3/32″ pilot holes 3/8″ deep at the two locations.
5. Using the cutoff wheel, cut off the Guide Tube below the layout so that only about 1/8″ remains extended. File the end square, if necessary, and remove any burrs from the inside of the tube with the hobby knife.
Annotation: I attempted to leave 1/8″ of the tube sticking out below the layout, but found that it pushed the lever arm to be too low, such that the lever arm wouldn’t fit through the Actuator Mounting Plate. I simply cut off the tube right at the base of the layout to solve the problem.
6. Grasp the end of the piece of music wire with your pliers so that about 1/4″ is in the jaws and make a sharp right angle bend. Use the cut off tool to trim this end to about 1/16″. If you have good pliers, you may be able to male this short, tight bend without having to cut off any material. Your wire should now look like this: [diagram omitted].
Now be careful these next 2 steps!
7. Lay the wire on the ties with the cutoff bent end exactly centered over the hole in the throw bar and the long length extending down the track over the guide tube. What’s that? Your throw bar doesn’t have a hole in the center? You’ll have to drill one. 1/16″ should do fine.
8. Using a pencil or fine tip marker, make a thin mark on the wire directly across the centerline of the guide tube hole. Grasp the wire with your pliers so that the mark you made is visible just outside the jaws. Rotate the wire in the jaws so that when you make a second bend at this point, the resulting shape of the wire will be a squared “C” shape. Finally, bend the wire to a very tight 90 degree bend. If you did this right, your wire should like flat on the bench and should now look like this: [diagram omitted].
Adjust the bends with the pliers so that they are as close to 90 degrees as you can make them and adjust the short leg so that is lies in the same plane as the longest one.
9. If you have bent the wire correctly, you can now insert the long leg of the wire into the top of the guide tube. It should drop into place with no resistance, and the short bent end should line up with and drop into the center of the throw bar hole. Manually moving the points back and forth to their extremes should move the wire easily with no binds. If you detect any resistance to the smooth motion at this time, you should probably try to make another wire. If it fits in the center of the throw, but binds at the sides, enlarging the throw bar hole a little bit should help. 0.025″ music wire is available at most hobby shops or you can order 5 pieces from [Circuitron] for $3.00 postpaid.
Annotation: You should test the freedom of all the moving parts at every step. Having to go back a few steps because something doesn’t move freely isn’t fun!
10. Block the turnout points at their mid-position by placing toothpicks or shims between the points and the stock rails. Making sire the bent music wire is still in the throw bar hole, fasten it down to the ties with a piece of masking or duct tape to keep it from popping up.
11. From under the layout, apply mild downward force on the music wire while bending it to 90 degrees in the direction of the line you drew in step 3. You may want to use pliers for this bend, but do not bend it so tightly against the bottom of the guide tube that it binds. Check that the wire follows the line exactly, and twist it as necessary to achieve perfect alignment. Remove the shims from the points and check the action from underneath. Rotating the wire back and forth should smoothly move the points above.
Annotation: If you took my suggestion to cut off the tube right at the bottom of the layout, you will now be able to bend the wire closer to the bottom of the layout. I found the small distance gained from bending the wire closer to the layout was the difference between success and failure.
12. Using the cutoff wheel, trim the must wire under the layout to 1/4″ long (3/16″ – 5/16″ will work fine).
13. Prepare the stainless steel wire by cutting 1/4″ off of one end. Caution: This wire is quite hard and will destroy delicate cutters. Use good quality hardened cutters or use the abrasive cutoff wheel. Run the cut end through you fingers and make sure there are no burrs or hooks on the end.
Annotation: I don’t understand why cutting the 1/4″ off the stainless steel wire is necessary. I skipped it and had no problems. Also, there is one point of caution they omitted: the stainless steel wire is sharp. I accidently lanced my finger with it, drawing blood. Be careful!
Locating The Drive Mechanism
It is desirable to locate the Drive Mechanism with the Tortoise attached as physically close to the Actuator as possible. Shorter cable lengths result in smoother action and more positive throws. Although the cable can be up to 18″ long, you should shorten it if space permits. Select a location for the Drive Mechanism Base Plate near the actuator and temporarily tape or screw it in place. Tape on end of the Teflon Tube in the Actuator Clamp groove and then place the tube in the Base Plate Clamp groove. The goal is to find a location for the Drive mechanism where the Teflon tube will have a minimum of bends and also the shortest overall length (short and as straight as possible is what we’re after here). No bend should have less than a 2″ radius (4″ minimum preferred).
Annotation: I found it necessary to curve the wire for one of my installations (the anchors for the DCC bus wires prevented a straight line install and would have been difficult to move). I found a 3″ lid in my kitchen to use as a template for the proper radius to prevent kinking. I traced the lid’s outline on the bottom of the layout, and added a few spare screws I had around on either side of the line to act as a trough, guiding the wire around the curve.
14. After finding the best location, make a mark on the Teflon Tube with a permanent felt tip marker at the center of the Base Plate Clamp groove. Caution: Handle the Teflon tune with care. Do Not Kink! Also mark the locations of the four corner mounting holes.
Completing the Actuator
15. Using the sharp hobby knife or a single edge razor blade, cut the Teflon tube to a length 2″ longer than the mark on the tube you made above.
16. Carefully thread the previously cut end of the stainless steel wire into one of the cut Teflon Tube. Thread it through until it extends a few inches out the other end.
17. Make a 90 degree bend in the stainless steel wire about 1/4″ in from the trimmed end.
18. Locate the small hole near the end of the Actuator Lever Arm and note that the hole is tapered. Feed the wire through the arm from the large side so that it exits the tiny opening on the other side. (If it doesn’t want to go through it may be necessary to enlarge the hole slightly with a #75-80 drill bit in a pin vise.) Bend the wire into a “Z” shape, capturing it in the arm.
19. Feed the large end of the arm through the large opening in the Actuator Mounting Plate. Rotate the arm to seat the pin into the molded hole in the plate. The Teflon Tube should line up with the molded groove in the Actuator Mounting Plate clamp block.
20. Lay the Teflon Tube in the clamp block groove so that the end of the tube is flush with the inside edge of the clamp block. Place the Clamp Plate on top and making sure that the tube is fully seated in the groove, press it down in place. Use a #4 x 3/8″ Phillips Truss Head Screw to clamp the plate tightly to the block.
21. Put the Actuator Plate/Lever Arm assembly in position under your turnout. The hole in the Lever Arm should fit cleanly over the projecting stub of the guide tube and the molded groove in the Lever Arm should engage the piece of music wire. If everything seems to fit smoothly together, attach the plate to the layout with 2 Tress Head Screws in the previously drilled pilot holes. Hold the Teflon Tube in tone hand and move the stainless wire in and out with the other. The points should move smoothly and without binds.
Annotation: I had a difficult time keeping the lever arm upright and engaged with the music wire while screwing the Actuator Plate to the layout. I used some ACC to attach the lever arm to the music wire to solve this. Invoking the help of a second person may eliminate the need for gluing those parts together.
Assembling The Drive Mechanism
The Drive Mechanism can be set for 5 different total travel lengths. The pivot holes are numbers 1 through 5 with number 1 being closet to the Slide.
- 1st Pivot Hole: 0.125″ Total Travel
- 2nd Pivot Hole: 0.150″ Total Travel
- 3rd Pivot Hole: 0.275″ Total Travel
- 4th Pivot Hole: 0.490″ Total Travel
- 5th Pivot Hole: 0.675″ Total Travel
We recommend providing a small amount of over travel to develop some spring tension on the points. Use of the 4th pivot hole as shown in the exploded diagram is recommended for this application. In certain applications and scale, use of the 3rd pivot hole will reduce over-travel and thereby reduce the tension on the points.
Annotation: I found the 4th hole to be appropriate for a straight line installation, but was insufficient for the installation where the wire was curved. I found the 5th hole to be more appropriate with the curved wire.
22. Drill 4 pilot holes 1/2″ deep at the locations you marked in step 14. Use a 3/32″ drill bit.
23. Place the Slide in the recessed area of the Base Plate so that the raised Clamp Block on the Slide is next to the raised Clamp Block on the Base Plate.
24. Place the end of the Drive Mechanism Arm with the longest slot over the molded pin on the Slide so that the 5 pivot holes in the arm line up with the molded holes in the Base Plate.
25. Place on of the #4 Shoulder Screws in the 4th hole and screw it into the base. Tighten gently, then back out 1/8 turn. The Arm (and Slide) should move easily back and forth.
26. Partially thread 2 Truss Head Screws into the holes indicated.
27. Slip the mounting flanges on the Tortoise mounting plate under the two screw heads. The smooth side of the Plate faces away from the slide.
28. Screw 2 more Truss Head Screws through the remaining two slots in the Mounting Plate into the Base and tighten all four screws securely.
29. Attach the Tortoise to the smooth side of the Mounting Plate with 4 additional Truss Head Screws.
30. Align the Drive Mechanism Arm with the Tortoise arm projecting through the case. Insert the final #4 Shoulder Screw into the molded hole in the Tortoise arm. Do not over-tighten!
31. Test the operation by applying power (9-12 VDC) to the #1 and #8 terminals on the Tortoise circuit board. Then reverse your connections to make the Tortoise run the other way. There should be no binds and the Slide should move smoothly hack and forth. Remove power.
Connecting The Cable
32. Once again, block your turnout points at their mid-position using toothpicks or shim stock between the points and the stock rails.
Annotation: While the throw for an N scale turnout is very small, it’s still important to align the turnout to the middle while attaching the cable!
33. Examine the Slide Clamp Plate and the Base Clamp Plate. Notice the Slide Clamp Plate has very fine grooves in its bottom surface whereas the Base Clamp Plates grooves are much deeper.
Caution: These two parts are not interchangeable and are keyed to fit only the proper location. Forcing the parts in the wrong location will likely damage them and void your warranty.
Annotation: Make sure that you are able to tell the difference in bright light. I made the mistake of selecting the wrong one while under the layout because of the dim lighting. The parts are keyed with different sized plastic tabs, but that doesn’t help when you insert the small plastic tab into the larger plastic notch. Suggestion to Circuitron: Instead of having all of the keys be plastic rectangles, may use different shapes, like a rectangle and a half circle.
34. Gently move the Tortoise arm to the very center of its travel. Be careful! Applying too much force too fast may damage the gears.
35. Lay the Teflon Tube in one of the two slots in the raised Base Clamp Block closest to the center screw hole. The Stainless Steel Wire should be laying across the corresponding slot in the Slide and expending out over the Drive Mechanism Arm.
36. Place the Base Clamp Plate over the Teflon Tube and being very careful to keep the tube straight in the slots, press the Clamp Plate down. Insert a Truss Head Screw through the Clamp Plate and into the Base. The end of the tube should be barely visible projecting toward the Slide. Tighten the screw.
37. Follow the same procedure with the Wire in the slide, making certain that it is aligned with the proper fine groove before fully tightening the screw.
38. Cut off the excess wire projecting past the Slide Clamp with your diagonal cutters or cutoff wheel.
39. Test the operating under power and check that the points are at the mid-point of their throw when the Tortoise is at the mid point of its throw. If the throw appears off-center, you can adjust it by loosening the Base Clamp Plate slightly and moving the Teflon Tube one way or the other a small amount. Mount the assembly with four #4 x 5/8″ Phillips Pan Head Screws.
40. [Optional] Once you are satisfied with the operation, you can place a tiny drop of ACC adhesive where the Teflon Tube enters the Base Clamp. Do the same for the Actuator Clamp. Do not get any glue near the ends of the Teflon Tube. The adhesive will wick into the clamp and prevent the tube from ever moving, but can be removed by disassembling.
Annotation: I did not do this step, because I did not want to take the chance of the stainless steel wire binding up in the Teflon tube due to glue in the tube.
All Photos
Permalink
01.31.09
Posted in Track, Wiring at 10:21 pm by Edward Ford
A few months ago, I wrote about an experiment with Tortoise switch machines, testing how I could power the frog with one of the auxiliary switches available on the Tortoise. A lot of the traffic to this site comes from people arriving via Google looking for info on that topic, so I’ve put together a wiring diagram as further assistance. I hope this is helpful for someone! As always, leave feedback if you think the diagram can be improved.
Download Wiring a Frog Using DCC and Tortoise Switch Machines (PDF, 60k)
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01.21.09
Posted in Layout Visit at 12:34 am by Edward Ford
Over the holidays, I visited Northlandz, an extremely large HO model railroad in northern New Jersey. Northlandz is a spectacle that holds true to the idea of “if you build it, they will come” due to its sheer size. According to their website, there is 50,000 feet of track, which equates to ~824 scale miles. There are mountains that are over 1 scale mile tall. Yet, I walked away only mildly impressed.
The scenery at Northlandz is on a whimsical grand scale, but the actual trains running in this spectacle left much to be desired. The longest train I saw was 8 cars long, with each car a 40 foot boxcar that had the Northlandz logo on it. Aside from that, the trains were all 4 cars long, pulled by F units of various road names. Only 4 cars? Only 1 locomotive type? I wanted to see longer trains (including those with multiple locomotives), as well as a variety of engine types. The only steam engine I saw was a non-working engine in a scene representing the connection of the trans-contientonal railroad. I also wanted to see more variety in the rolling stock cars too — nary did I see a stack train, or really anything beyond vanilla 40 to 50 foot box cars, tank cars, and flat cars. I didn’t see any running passenger trains. I suspect the short trains are to minimize any chance of derailments, but even so, I was expecting more. In spite of all the grand mountain scenes, none of the trains actually traverse any sort of grade, apparently as a measure to save electricity (trains going uphill increase their current draw). Again, I was expecting more.
Note that my critique here is from the eye of a serious model railroader. If I take off my “serious modeler” hat and take a light hearted look at Northlandz, it does have many humorous tongue-in-cheek scenes — a toothpick farm, an outhouse factory, and jokes about Grandma getting revenge throughout the mile long tour. Artistic license is used by the gallon, but makes for a trip that the entire family can enjoy.
I took many photos, but I struggled with the lighting conditions, hence many of my photos are of poor quality. Included below is a smattering of the better photos I took.
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12.11.08
Posted in Layout Visit at 12:55 am by Edward Ford
I recently attended the open house for the Carquinez Model Railroad Society. This group of HO scale modelers is in the very early stages of building a new model railroad that will be quite large when complete.
This society was formally known as the Vallejo Model Railroad Club, but was forced to find a new location after their previous landlord decided to redevelop their former space without including space for the club in the redevelopment plan. Due to this, the club moved to nearby Crockett, California, on the opposite (southern) shore of the Carquinez Strait, and renamed themselves to reflect their move out of Vallejo. While it is sad that their old model railroad had to be demolished, it is also exciting to find a club that is in the midst of a huge new project — if I lived closer, this is a club I would join, to be in on the action of building a large new model railroad from scratch.
As I keep hinting at, this club is only getting started with their new model, even though they have been working on it for about 2 years now. All of the benchwork is done, but there is almost zero scenry currently, and about 25% of the planned track still needs to be laid.
What impressed me most is the sheer size of what this club aspires to create. Working within their space limitations, they are building a 3 level model, which will reflect the Southern Pacific line between Oakland, California, and Sparks, Nevada, in the 1950 – 1970 era. The levels are connected by two seperate helix loops on opposite ends of the room. According to their broceure, they will have nearly 34 scale miles of mainline track! Because of this, the club has the ability to run lengthy trains, a luxury most HO scale clubs (and even some N scale clubs) don’t have — I actually witnessed a train that was about 50 cars long, powered by a 6 locomotive lash up. How often do you see that on a model railroad? (Pictures below)
I would encourage anyone in the San Francisco area to visit this club when they have an open house to check on their progress — while there isn’t much in the form of visuals right now, with a bit of imangination, you can mentally paint in grand scenery yourself. (One word of warning: the aisles are long and incredibly narrow, so it only takes a few people to make it difficult to manuaever around the layout.)
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11.28.08
Posted in Design, Technology, Tools at 11:52 pm by Edward Ford
Any hobbyist who has spent more than one year in model railroading has probably encountered common mass produced products, like Merchants Row II or Geo. Roberts Printing from Walthers, or the Instant Horizons series of backdrops, also from Walthers. These products, and many more like them, fill an important need for modeling common buildings and scenery seen throughout the United States. But what if those products are too common for your taste? You see them on your friends’ layouts, you see them in use at the local model railroad club, and you are seeking to model scenes that are unique to your model railroad, or authentic to the region you’re modeling? This is where some of the offerings from Google come in handy, and have uses for everyone from the basic modeler looking for a unique back scene to the serious scratch builder.
Unique Backdrops For Everyone
If you need a backdrop, and you find the backdrops in the Instant Horizons series don’t meet your needs, take a look at Panoramio. Say you’re modeling “the crookedest railroad in the country,” the famous Virginia & Truckee short line in Nevada, and you want to have a great background that epitomizes the bare and arid Nevada hills. Why not use a real photo from the area? Head to Panoramio and search for photos of the area, like this one. You can save these pictures and send them to your local camera shop for printing at any size you want, including poster sized prints. Of course, having a photo printed to poster size assumes the photo is of high enough resolution to look good at such large sizes. Panoramio has some photos that are large enough, but not all of them are (and sadly, my example above is not an image that can be enlarged very much).
Why Panoramio over Flickr?
First, images on Flickr are tiny — you can’t print them much larger than they appear on your screen. If full size versions are available on Flickr, I can’t figure out how to get to them. Second, you always have to be aware of the legal usage terms with online content. Images on Flickr vary in their license terms — some photos are copyrighted, some can be freely used for personal and commercial purposes, with other photos under license terms somewhere between the two extremes. Images on Panoramio are all free for personal use (but are explicitly prohibited for use in commercial applications).
Here’s an example from Flickr that highlights both points: the image is under copyright (see the bottom of the right column), and the biggest version available is this one, which still isn’t very big at all.
For Scratch Builders and Kit Bashers: SketchUp
Google SketchUp is a great 3D modeling tool. Google has given the application the tag line 3D for everyone, since it has a very low learning curve, and avoids using the term “CAD” because of how CAD programs are perceived to be complicated and hard to use. SketchUp has both a free and a paid version, and is available for Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X. SketchUp makes it extremely simple for anyone to build are reasonably detailed model — information about using it to do so is widely available with a quick Google search, so instead, I want to focus on it’s practicality in prototyping structures of model railroading.
The centerpiece of my model railroad will be an urban passenger station in the middle of a large city, similar to the Amtrak stations found along the Northeast Corrider in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, etc. These stations are massive in stature, and have lasting arcetururial significance; some people consider such structures members of the “Golden Age of Rail Stations“. I’ve looked through all of the passenger stations in the Walthers catalog, and the only one that fits the bill is the Union Station by Walthers. However, I need a building that is L-shaped (see the track plan), and the Walthers building has a rectangular footprint. In order to get the building I need, I will need to either scratch build the station, or kit bash several different structures together. Either way, I want to plan the building before I attempt to build it, and this is how I found out about SketchUp, and more importantly, the 3D Warehouse.
The 3D Warehouse is where you can go to share your SketchUp creations with others. I just entered in “train station” to the search box, and was stunned at the amount of results returned, ranging from small town “whistle stop” train stations, to the urban city center stations I’m interested in. Just look at some of these examples:
The Santa Fe depot in San Diego (SketchUp source)
30th Street Station, Philadelphia (SketchUp source)
Union Station in Denver (SketchUp source)
This one really blew me away. Look at the detail!
The free version of SketchUp does have some restrictions on what you can build in it; including the level of detail achieved in the Philadelphia and Denver models requires the professional version. However, the free version of SketchUp can open drawings from the professional version in their fully detailed glory, as seen above.
With these resources, one could create a faithful reproduction of famous sites in the locale of the railroad you are modeling. I plan to take the “best of” and kit bash a few of the station models I found in the 3D Warehouse to create the perfect and unique passenger station I want for my railroad.
It doesn’t matter the industry or the type of building — if you’re thinking about scratch building something, I encourage you to peruse the 3D warehouse. It’s a real treasure trove of ideas. Some people are designing their benchwork with it, and others are creating models of various rolling stock equipment, including street cars, locomotives, and passenger cars, among others.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how I found out about Google SketchUp. See how other model railroaders are using Google Earth and Google SketchUp!
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11.25.08
Posted in Shopping at 12:59 am by Edward Ford
I recently ordered a 12pk of Tortoise switches from http://internettrains.com, and was very unhappy with the speed in which my order was filled and shipped. Typically, I tend to buy my hobby supplies locally (I’m lucky to have a nearby hobby shop that has very aggressive prices), but there’s only one hobby shop within a one hour drive that caries the Tortoise switch machines, and they tend to never have more than one or two on hand, and never the larger 6 or 12 bulk packs. I was after a 12pk because of the discount offered over buying 12 of these switch machines individually (MSRP difference is about a 10% savings by buying bulk). This is why I turned to ordering this item online.
Since I was already in prusuit of savings on this item, I was lured into buying from internettrains.com by a coupon: 15% off the single most expensive item on my order. Their inital asking price for the 12pk of Tortoise switch machines is $166, which is 20% under the MSRP of $210. Add in the coupon, the price drops to $141 (before shipping) for the 12pk, or 33% less than the MSRP. On an expensive item, the raw economic savings by ordering from internettrains.com was uncontested.
I initially placed the order on November 5, and chose the slowest shipping option (let them choose the shipping carrier). I received a confirmation email for the order, which included the line “Please allow 3-6 business days (some orders may take longer) for us to process and ship your order at this time.” The email also contained a link to their order tracking website — following that link revealed a site with my order status, and a line stating “Most orders are leaving our warehouse in 3-6 business days or sooner at this time.” So far, so good — I was willing to wait 6 days for the item to ship.
After 2 days, my order status progressed from the initial “order received” state to “items allocated / processing order”, and stayed in this state for 8 more business days. With no communication from internettrains.com explaining the hold up, I was getting nervous by the 8th day. After all, my credit card had been promptly charged the full amount when I ordered. With no communication so far, I was starting to consider opening a dispute with the credit card company over the order if I didn’t hear something soon. On November 17 (the 8th day), I contacted internettrains.com demanding an explanation for the hold up — it was now past their stated turnaround time, it seemed like they had the contents of my order allocated, so what’s the hold up? Here’s the message I sent them:
I’m inquiring about why order [number redacted] has not yet progressed beyond the “Items Allocated” stage, according to your tracking system. You state that orders leave your warehouse 3 – 6 days after ordering. Since it has now been 8 business days, and my credit card was promptly charged, I’m demanding a reason for this delay in shipping the order.
I received a response the next day, November 18:
We apologize for the delay with your order. We have lost personnel due to serious illness and are training new staff. This has set us back temporarily in our shipping department and we are making every effort to remedy this issue quickly. We have your order, but are temporarily backed up with our shipments. We are making progress and will get you order out to you as quickly as possible. We will email all tracking information as soon as it is available. Please bear with us though this transition. We apologize for the delay and thank you for your order
Please make sure to include your order number in the subject line when you are responding to this email.
Yours Truly,
[name redacted]
Internet Trains, Inc.
Ok, that’s the reason for the delay, but the key item missing is no mention of when to expect my order be shipped (in fairness, I didn’t explicly ask for that info in my first message).
My order finally shipped via FedEx on November 19, ten business days after I placed the order. Is this a hidious turnaround time? In absolute terms, no. What matters is that it is far beyond their stated target of shipping orders out in 3 – 6 days. I would be mildly sympathetic to their explanation for the delay if I didn’t have to ask for it. Lack of good communication is why I will not do business with internettrains.com again.
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11.23.08
Posted in Layout Visit at 10:57 pm by Edward Ford
I had a wonderful time visiting the Diablo Valley Lines recently, a large model railroad in Walnut Creek, California. If you live in the Bay Area or are visiting the area, I highly recommend a visit. Check the Walnut Creek Model Railroad Society website for their show schedule. I’ve been making the rounds of various model railroad open houses the past few weekends, and while they all have their merits, this is the first one where I feel compelled to share my experience.
The Diablo Valley Lines is an HO scale model that includes standard HO track for the mainline, a HOn3 area, an electric streetcar route with some impressive and complex switches, and a cog railway that hugs the side of a steep mountain incline. Scenry includes just about everything one could dream of:
- A port with a naval base
- A circus and amusement park scene
- The burning embers of a California wildfire
- A deep canyon with 6 railroad bridges spanning it (picture below)
- A scale plane in flight over the railroad (it actually flies in a circle)
- Mountains that soar over 1,300 scale feet
- Densely packed “hump” switching yard
- A 10 minute night scene every hour, complete with thunder, lighting, and real water falling lightly in part of the aisle (this effect really blew me away)
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11.19.08
Posted in Wiring at 10:36 pm by Edward Ford
Update (1/31/2009): A wiring diagram is now available.
Knowing I wanted to hide the switch machines under the table led me to choosing the very popular Tortoise slow motion switch machines by Circuitron. At this point, I also knew I was going the DCC route, so I wanted to understand how to wire the Tortoise machines, and if there were any wiring complications (or simplifications) by using DCC. I couldn’t find a one stop guide to wiring in this specific situation on the Internet, so I’m detailing what I learned through experimentation.
Getting a DC power source
The first major point is that DCC provides AC power, while the switch motors require DC power. On my last railroad, this was trivial because I was using DC cabs, so it was a simple matter of hooking up the switches to the auxiliary terminals on the power pack. This is no longer possible with DCC power — you need a separate DC power source to drive the switch motors (some DCC systems might provide auxiliary DC terminals — all I know is that the Digitrax Zephyr does not). Thankfully, DC power supplies are super easy to come by now thanks to consumer technology. I went to my local computer/electronics store and found a AC to DC converter for digital cameras for $18. The one I purchased is a variable output converter — it has a knob on the front to select DC output voltages from 3.0V to 8.4V (all at 2500 mA). I cut off the end connector to get to the bare wires, and voilà — a cheap DC power source that meets our needs.
Why did I choose this particular power supply? The Tortoise switch machines can handle up to 12V of continuous DC input. I choose that particular DC power supply because there is no danger of accidentally bumping the voltage beyond the 12V maximum. Further, the Tortoise machines apply voltage to the motors continuously (as opposed to the momentary ”power burst” machines sold by Atlas). With these switch machines always drawing power, considering the sum total of all the switch machines I’ll eventually have is important. According to Circuitron, the Tortoise machines draw 16 mA continuously, so 16 mA multiplied by many switch machines needs to not exceed what the power supply is capable of. The one I found can handle a load up to 2500 mA, so there’s no way I’ll ever come close to exceeding that.
Experimentation Time
For ease of experimentation, I soldered some lead wires on to the Tortoise’s printed circuit board and ran them to a terminal block. I then took the bare wires from the DC power supply and applied them to the DC terminals that run the Tortoise motor (pins 1 and 8) — the drawbar onthe motor moved, as expected, and reversing the wires from the DC power supply (now to pins 8 and 1) moved the drawbar in the reverse direction. I also tried different voltages from the DC power supply to observe the speed and noise difference.
Test Setup
Powering a Turnout’s Frog
Since I’m using Atlas code 55 track, the turnout frogs are electrically isolated — the rails are gapped around the frog to prevent a short circuit. Atlas provides a small metal loop off to the side of the turnout ties as a wire connection to provide power to the frog. There’s nothing outthere saying you need to power the frog — I’ve seen several clubs leave the frogs unpowered, and rely on the engine’s momentum to power itself over the electrical dead spot. However, it is these same layouts where the engines momentarily stutter when they hit a switch because of that loss of electrical pickup. I find that unsatisfactory, because it prevents low speed locomotive operations. But, how do I switch the polarity of the electricity going through the frog based on the direction of turnout?
DCC Ready Switch
The first thought that jumped to mind was that I would need to have two electrical switches to control the turnout — one wired for DC power to move the turnout motor and the other wired for AC power to flip the electrical polarity of the frog. Note that this is the first thought that came to mind, and it seemed like an utterly preposterous solution — both switches would have to be thrown in tandem or else you’d have a short circuit. As it turns out, this is only partly preposterous. I was initially balking at the idea of having to flip two electrical switches myself. In reality, the core idea of needing two electrical switches is correct, but I only need to provide the switch controlling DC power, as the Tortoise has two single pole-double throw (SPDT) auxiliary switches built in for powering the frog and other turnout accessories (like indicator lights) for exactly this reason!
However, I was still a little confused about something: Since the switch I would provide would control the direction of DC current, would the auxiliary switches still operate when wired to the AC being output to the tracks? Turns out, it does. This is easy to verify with a digital multimeter — connect pins 1 and 8 from the Tortoise to DC power, and wire pins 2, 3, and 4 for the AC power coming from the DCC command station. Set the multimeter to AC power, connect one lead to the common wire in the SPDT circuit (pin 4 on the Tortoise) and use the other lead to see which way power was being routed (which one of the other two wires had a higher output value?). Reverse the wires on pins 1 and 8, and repeat the same test. The result should be that power was being router over Tortoise pin 3 one time, and over pin 4 the other time. And indeed, this is true. Alternating the DC power will drive the Tortoise SPDT auxiliary switches, even when those switches are wired for AC power.
The above may seem like an obvious conclusion to some, but without finding any other sources that explicitly made that clear, I had to verify it myself.
To retreat back to the original problem of switching the polarity of the turnout’s frog, this means that AC power from DCC power bus should be wired to pins 2 and 3 on the Tortoise, and pin 4 should run to the frog.
What Type of Electrical Switch?
The wiring requirements for the Tortoise turnout motors was clearer now, but one last important question remained: what type of electrical switch do I need to wire to actually throw the turnout (i.e. reverse the DC power)? A two position double pole, double throw (DPDT) switch is the right solution. There are three position DPDT switches that use the third position (usually the center one) as “off”. Since the Tortoise needs to always have power applied to it to keep the turnout points firmly against the diverging rail, the two position DPDT switch is the better choice. Wiring these switches is a simple cross-over pattern: connect A to F, B to E, and apply one DC wire to C and the other DC wire to D (see photo).
DPDT Toggle Switch
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11.18.08
Posted in Wiring at 12:16 am by Edward Ford
Start with DC or DCC?
Ever since I started planning for a new model railroad, I’ve been on the fence about controlling it with DC or DCC. I knew that in the long run, I was going to go with DCC, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to invest in it right away due to cost. I recently went to a model railroad fair, and found two Atlas locomotives equipped with DCC decoders for an incredible price (almost half of MSRP), including an Amtrak California locomotive, which tend to be very hard to find. Now equipped with two locomotives and no track wired to run them on, I had to make a decision about how to wire this railroad.
Still concerned about the initial financial outlay to go with DCC, I googled for information about potentially running a DCC enabled locomotive on a layout running on DC. The various sources of information I found contradicted each other, with some saying engines with DCC decoders will run fine on DC powered layouts, and others saying to never do that because it could burn out the decoder. So, if you find yourself reading this because you’re searching for the same information, I still don’t know the right answer. I do know that DCC model railroads run AC power through the rails, while DC powered layouts run on DC power. AC and DC power are very different, so if a DCC decoder is expecting AC power (which it then filters and turns it into DC power to drive the locomotive’s motor), how does it react when DC power is run through the same circuitry? I was not about to burn out a brand new locomotive to resolve the conflicting information on the internet, so that wound up driving the decision to build this layout with DCC from the start.
Choosing A DCC System
My timing for needing to choose a DCC system couldn’t have been better, because the November 2008 issue of Model Railroader contains an article titled A buyer’s guide to DCC systems. The best part of this article is the table comparing what each DCC system offers. I zeroed in on two specific systems, the Zephyr by Digitrax, and MRC Prodigy Express. Both of these are “starter” DCC systems, meaning they have everything needed in the box so you can get started, including a command station, the booster, and a cab control. Both of these systems are priced under $200 MSRP.
Both the Zephyr and the Prodigy Express support issuing commands to 9,999 locomotives. According to the table in the magazine, the Prodigy Express has several advantages, including a handheld throttle (the Zephyr is about the size of a thick book), the ability to have 99 cabs issuing commands (the Zephyr only supports 10), and support for 16 different DCC decoder functions (the Zephyr supports 10). However, with a layout as small as this one, I don’t need support for 99 different cabs. I also don’t need many DCC functions — give me a directional headlight control and the ability to add ditch lights, and I’m satisfied. So, this leave the Prodigy Express with only one distinct advantage so far, which is its handheld form factor. Finally, the handheld factor of the Prodigy Express is nice, but I need a control panel with switches to control the turnouts anyway, so I don’t gain much in saved facade space with a handheld throttle.
The Zephyr has one huge advantage over the Prodigy Express, which is that the Zephyr delivers 2.5A of power, while the Prodigy Express only delivers 1.6A. Even on a small layout, having enough reserve power is an important consideration. Also influencing my decision to go with the Zephyr system was some “shop talk” I overheard in a local hobby shop about the expandability of the Zephyr system once a layout gets sufficiently large, in addition to several local modeling clubs using the Digitrax Loconet system (buy a handheld throttle, and use it with the Zephyr at home, or at the club on the larger system). These arguments were convincing enough to persuade me to go with the Zephyr.
I also want to note that Atlas, Bachmann, and NCE all make DCC systems in the sub $200 range, but they all had huge issues that instantly removed them from consideration. I couldn’t find a lot of good information on the Atlas system, but it seemed like the Atlas system was a “cheap and quick” way to get DCC, but that it was fairly low powered and not expandable at all. Info about the Bachmann E-Z Command system is published in the magazine article referenced above, but the same root problems apply: low power (only 1 amp!), and almost no expandability. The NCE Power Cab system has reasonable power, but also suffers from lack of expandability.
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