JR-Chiisai: Storage yard modules

[Martijn Meerts]

The uncoupled cars are the last several cars of the 16 car sets. The yard isn't done yet, so the tracks aren't quite long enough for the full trains =)

[Densha]

Ah, right.

Just a random thought: the funny thing is that if you have two 400 series or E3 series Shinkansen that they are still not as long a a 16 car Shinkansen.

[Martijn Meerts]

Well, not much progress recently, a combination of a busy schedule at work and a parrot meant I didn't have a lot of time. I did manage to lay all the track on the 2nd of the 4 modules and started on the 3rd one. Also started hooking up a few wires here and there, but I need to get some more digital components to really hook everything up.

 

Bought a bunch more track and did some tests with regards to the curves on my helix. Ended up figuring out the standard Peco track spacing is too tight for the curves, so I needed to redesign much of the helix. After that was done I made a schematic of how to cut the boards in the most optimal way, just need to get them cut now. Of course, with the yard not done yet, there's no hurry getting to work on the helix, apart from being able to work on something different :)

 

 

Oh, and I also drew up some schematics for getting some wood cut for T-Trak modules, just haven't gotten around to getting it done. Hopefully next weekend :)

[Martijn Meerts]

Progress has been really slow lately, but I did get some work in the past 2-3 weeks.. Don't have any new pictures yet, but I've finished laying all the track, including a super elevated curve section (which needs a little tweaking ;)). The next step is to start wiring everything, which will be done in stages because buying all the required turnout decoders, servos and occupancy detectors would be a bit expensive :)

 

There are a TON of wires that need to be hooked up and looking at it you really don't know where to start.. I've printed out the track plan and drew in all the isolated sections, that way I can figure out how many occupancy detectors I need, and where the optimal placement for them would be. 

 

I'm also wondering if I should add some simple lighting (using LED strips for example) considering the yard will be under the layout. On the other hand, I'm sort of building it so there's a possibility of taking it to shows (I'm planning on eventually ballasting the whole thing), so LED strip lighting might look out of place. Of course, whether they'll ever go to a show remains to be seen :)

[Densha]

No wonder you've been slow, with converting the forum and all. ;)

 

It doesn't sound look a job I would like to do, a few wires is fun but that much isn't.

How do you want to do those LED strips? The only I can think of is placing the strips underneath the module above it if it's a hidden yard. Or did you mean something else?

[Martijn Meerts]

The idea is to make the hidden yard separate from the rest of the layout, so it can function on it's own (which means it's own power supply/booster, etc.), so that means the LED strips would have to be mounted on the yard somehow. I haven't really thought about it that much, as I might not even need it at all ;)

[KenS]

If it's under the layout, the LED strips could be mounted to the underside of the layout, allowing the yard to be removed for a show without them.

 

LED strips throw a lot of light in a small space.  A few strips 12-18" (30-50cm) above the tracks should be enough to see the cars clearly, not necessarily enough for seeing details well though.  Experiment to see how you like the light level.

 

They do take a lot of power though.  You'll probably need a dedicated power suppy for the yard module lights, and if you use several strips you could need a couple. On the ones I used, each 2" (5cm) segment draws about 15-25mA, and that adds up.  My subway station lighting uses a pair of 20" strips (meaning there are 20 of the small segments) and draws about 300-500 mA.  That's a small wall-wart power supply, or half a large one.

[Martijn Meerts]

It's really just to have a little light there in case something goes wrong, but a flashlight or just a simple battery driven light that I can clip on the underside of the layout itself will probably be plenty.

 

As for power, the yard will get its own 4 amp booster, and since most trains won't be moving on the yard, there's quite a bit of power to go around :)

[shiniji]

Oh my God, this is so BIG

 

that is the dream of model railroaders absolutely, especially as many complete Shinkansen. I find it great and I am curious how it goes, especially if it is designed to maybe?

 

 

[Martijn Meerts]

Shiniji, it's actually turned out bigger than I expected.. Or at least, more complicated than I expected. I've got pretty much all the wiring challenges figured out though, and I've started wiring some of the turnouts and occupancy detectors. The general idea is to get a couple of tracks wired up so I can set up a temporary loop and start test running trains. Once those few tracks work well, I'll continue with the rest of the tracks.

 

I should hopefully have some more pictures soon, which show the jungle of wires which all need to be connected to something or the other :)

[Martijn Meerts]

Finally some images again.. Nothing spectacular though, just some servos, terminal blocks and wires... Lots of wires :)

 

(I should really use the gallery for this and move all the previous images to the gallery as well.. Some day I will.. Yes, some day .. :D )

 

 

Image 042:

Overview shot of the first of 4 modules/sections. Several servos installed but not yet connected. Pretty much all blue wires can go directly to the (not installed yet) main power bus. Most of the red ones need to go to an occupancy detector, with the exception of those soldered to the turnouts, those go directly to the main power bus as well. The green wires go to relays to switch the power on the frogs of the turnouts.

 

 

Image 043:

Close up of the servos installed so far. As you can see, every turnout has a total of 6 wires. 3 for the servo, 2 for power, and 1 for alternating frog power. Note that this is NOT actually necessary, and the additional wires don't have anything to do with the layout being DCC, but I went with this to make sure turnouts get optimal power at all times.

 

 

Image 044:

Overview of the second module/section. This one basically just has straight track, no turnouts. And of course, it has a ton of wires =) In this case, all blue wires except one will go straight to the main power bus. All red except one will go to occupancy detectors. The 2 exceptions are wires that go to the return loop electronics.

 

[KenS]

Yep, that's a lot of wires.

 

Image 043:

Close up of the servos installed so far. As you can see, every turnout has a total of 6 wires. 3 for the servo, 2 for power, and 1 for alternating frog power. Note that this is NOT actually necessary, and the additional wires don't have anything to do with the layout being DCC, but I went with this to make sure turnouts get optimal power at all times.

 

While not required, getting turnouts right, including a powered frog, can be very important.  When I added sound to my old HO layout, which was built before DCC came along and converted later, the decoders would reboot on every turnout because the frog was unpowered.  It had never mattered before, since the trains had sufficient momentum to carry them through the dead spot at even slow speeds.

 

But once I added sound, I got to hear the couplers crash and the compressor spin up, every time a train went across a switch.  Needless to say, it was a little annoying. I'm very careful about my wiring now, even though I don't use sound, because I figure someday I might.

 

Locos with all-wheel pickup help avoid that problem too, but not all locos are built that way.

[Martijn Meerts]

Ken, I used to have a lot of trains stalling on turnouts on the old layout that used Minitrix turnouts. It got so bad that smaller loco's and a lot of steamers would basically always stall when running slow-ish. It was one of the things that annoyed me the most with that layout, so I'm spending a little extra time on the wiring now to make sure that doesn't happen again :)

 

I just thought I'd mention it's not required for those who think DCC requires a lot more wiring than regular DC, which really isn't the case :)

[Densha]

Wire hell!

 

Ken, I used to have a lot of trains stalling on turnouts on the old layout that used Minitrix turnouts. It got so bad that smaller loco's and a lot of steamers would basically always stall when running slow-ish. It was one of the things that annoyed me the most with that layout, so I'm spending a little extra time on the wiring now to make sure that doesn't happen again :)

I have had that experience with Fleischmann H0 model track, really awful turnouts and it was in bad condition too. Minitrix seems a bit better, but not even close to Unitrack and even Fleischmann's Profi track is better.

[Martijn Meerts]

A new milestone has been reached this weekend. The first 4 turnouts have been completely wired and confirmed to function. It took a while because I was getting all sorts of shorts and whatnot, but hey, that's why they're the first 4 right ;)

 

Next step is another 4 turnouts as well as the first couple occupancy detectors, which would mean I can actually start test running some trains, albeit only back and forth on a short piece of track.

[Martijn Meerts]

Not much happening recently. I've been really busy with other things (mainly work) so hardly had any time to do much with trains.

 

I did manage to wire up 11 of the 22 turnouts on the first section, as well as 2 occupancy detectors. Everything is tested and is working just fine. I've also added the turnouts and occupancy detectors to the ECoS and made a quick diagram on it. The nice thing now is that I can just tap on a track I want a train to go to, and the ECoS will switch all necessary turnouts to get there.

 

I've also ordered 8 more servos which I was lacking to finish the first section. Those should arrive today or tomorrow. After that I still need to order 3 servo decoders + add-ons for frog polarisation. I've also started working on the connectors that hook up the occupancy detectors across the modules considering many of the tracks have 1 occupancy detection point that needs to span 3 of the 4 sections.

 

I really hope things calm down a bit soon, because it sucks not being able to get anything done :)

[Martijn Meerts]

I was beginning to think it'd never happen, but .... 

 

All wiring on the first section of the storage yard is done, and most of it is tested. All 22 turnouts function, and function well. 2 occupancy detectors have also been tested and also function well. The next step is to finish the 25-pin connector which connects occupancy detection sections between the first and second section. Most of that is prepared and wired already, just need to solder the 25 wires to the connector itself.

 

I really hope the second section isn't going to take another 2 years to complete ;)

 

 

Some pictures of the wiring coming soon.

[Martijn Meerts]

Picture time :)

 

 

The right side looks a little messy, but whatever. There's only so many terminal blocks and hooks and whatnot I can screw on the underside of the thing...

 

[Ochanomizu]

I purchased some of those terminal strips on Ebay.  I have had a lot of trouble with poorly threaded components.

[cteno4]

Martijn,

 

Nice work, very clean wiring job!

 

Jeff

[Densha]

How many hours do you guess you spent on this whole thing?

Edited September 24, 2013 by Densha

[Martijn Meerts]

I haven't a clue.. Not sure I really want to know either ;)

[Martijn Meerts]

Just a little progress the past days. I wired up and soldered the couple to things still missing, and made 1 of the 25-pin connection cables that will connect the 2 sections. Also built 2 more occupancy detectors so I had something to test the connection cable with. After temporarily hooking everything up, it all seems to work. Next step now is to wire up the long center section, which is basically just straight track, so should be fairly quick to wire. It will require quite a few occupancy detectors though considering there's quite a few blocks on it.

 

 

Also, I found someone to guard the trains when I'm out of the house, although I'm fairly certain he'll be chewing on them rather than guard them the moment I'm out of sight ;)

 

 

[cteno4]

something tells me that pantographs will be fun chew toys to rip off trains for your new guard. The new guard is looking quite handsome in his full colors! you will need to make him a set of little white gloves though!

 

cheers

 

jeff

Edited October 8, 2013 by cteno4

[Martijn Meerts]

He'll need gloves for his beak, that's his most used 'tool' ;)

 

Actually, he's afraid of the trains for the moment, especially once they start moving around. He refuses to get close to them, and he's usually perched on my shoulder when I'm up in the train room. The closer I get to the trains, the more he starts hugging my face, looking for protection. Don't think he's realised how destructive and impressive his beak is yet ..