{"id":3220,"date":"2009-06-01T22:31:29","date_gmt":"2009-06-02T03:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bronx-terminal.com\/?p=3220"},"modified":"2009-06-02T22:37:46","modified_gmt":"2009-06-03T03:37:46","slug":"progress-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bronx-terminal.com\/?p=3220","title":{"rendered":"Progress Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tortoises installed, feeders being added.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"dsc_5091\"<\/p>\n

On the left is one half of the layout with all the switch machines installed.\u00a0\u00a0 Its amazing how much of a mess gets made installing a few switch machines.\u00a0 The right side of the layout is also complete.\u00a0 28 in total.\u00a0 There are two more to add, one under a turnout I still have to build, and one on the float bridge I still have to build.<\/p>\n

I think I have set a SMDL (switch machine density level) record, 17 machines in about 3 square feet.<\/p>\n

\"dsc_5094\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nothing important about this picture, just showing a mess.<\/p>\n

\"dsc_5098\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I cobbled together some feeders and took an engine for a short spin on what sections of track I would get operable.\u00a0 It was very thrilling.\u00a0 Neither of these engines belong on the terminal, they are all I have on hand at the moment.<\/p>\n

\"dsc_5097\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This nifty little unit is going to same me a ton of time and headaches.\u00a0 What it does is take over the switching of the frog polarity on complex track.\u00a0 A single feeder is run to an isolated frog and the board is connected to the track feeders.\u00a0 When a train comes in contact with the frog, it will switch the frog polarity to the correct direction, instantly.\u00a0 Using this really helps with crossings, which can be difficult to control when using switch machines, especially the kind of crossings I am using.\u00a0 With this, I simply run a feeder to the frogs in the crossing.\u00a0 One unit will operate 6 frogs.<\/p>\n

Its called a Hex Frog Juicer, by Tam Valley Railway.<\/a><\/p>\n

When I have it operating I will post a video of it.\u00a0 Would be great for anyone using ground throws.<\/p>\n

\"dsc_5096\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I made a road trip to lay in some supplies.\u00a0 Starting with some wire for feeders.\u00a0 Shown here is some 22GA solid wire for the frogs and track feeders.\u00a0 Also some 2 conductor 22GA wire for switch machine power.<\/p>\n

\"dsc_5095\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I also\u00a0paid a\u00a0visit to Bob Scott<\/a> at \u00a0Credit Valley Railway<\/a> and picked up a DT400IR throttle and receiver.\u00a0 Grabbed a power supply for the DCC system while I was there as well.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"dsc_5099b\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The initial plan for the layout was to use stationary decoders to control the switch machines.\u00a0 After a bit of thought I decided to go with simple toggle switches and control panels instead to keep it simple.\u00a0 After more thought, I went back to the original idea of using stationary decoders.\u00a0 I really didn’t design the layout for control panels, and adding them in now would be a hack.\u00a0 After playing with the DT400 a bit it seems that is will work well enough to operate the layout using it with stationary decoders.<\/p>\n

I have been asked why I didn’t just use simple ground throws.\u00a0 The answer is easy, they are damn ugly.\u00a0 Also, reaching into the layout to operate them is hazardous.\u00a0 Although I am considering Sergent Couplers for the cars, so I am contradicting myself a bit.\u00a0 If there was a good looking, durable ground throw with contacts for frog switching, I would have considered it, and since I don’t have time to develop one myself, I will stick to the tried and true Tortoises with DS-64 stationary decoders.<\/p>\n

BTW, does anyone<\/em> know how many routes are possible if using multiple DS-64’s for turnout control?\u00a0 I have asked everyone, looked online and even called Digitrax.\u00a0 No one seems to know, even the tech support guy at Digitrax!\u00a0 Am I the only person in the model railroading universe that is doing this?<\/p>\n

Above are the 8 DS-64’s I need for the layout.\u00a0 Actually, I only have 5 at the moment, Bob has three more on order for me.\u00a0 3 of the DS-64’s in the picture above were added in using Photoshop.\u00a0 Bob, if you’re reading this, I still need three more.\u00a0 Don’t let the picture fool you.<\/p>\n

\"dsc_5111\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"dsc_5110\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Today, I added all the feeders from the switch machines to the frogs.\u00a0 This evening, I installed the main bus line, using 12GA wire (in black and white near the bottom of the layout section.\u00a0 Using suitcase connectors I have started adding the feeders to the rails and also to the switch machines.\u00a0 One half is almost complete, will try to get the other side done tomorrow, then start with the DS-64 installations.\u00a0 After that, a test run!<\/p>\n

-T.<\/p>\n

On to Next Section…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tortoises installed, feeders being added. On the left is one half of the layout with all the switch machines installed.\u00a0\u00a0 Its amazing how much of a mess gets made installing a few switch machines.\u00a0 The right side of the layout is also complete.\u00a0 28 in total.\u00a0 There are two more to add, one under a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8,90],"tags":[27,86,97,98,99,100,28,92,31,141],"class_list":["post-3220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-front-page","category-track-construction","category-wiring","tag-cnj-bronx-terminal","tag-digitrax","tag-ds-64","tag-ds64","tag-dt400","tag-dt400ir","tag-tim-warris","tag-tortoise","tag-trackwork","tag-wiring"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bronx-terminal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bronx-terminal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bronx-terminal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bronx-terminal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bronx-terminal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3220"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.bronx-terminal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3266,"href":"https:\/\/www.bronx-terminal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3220\/revisions\/3266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bronx-terminal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bronx-terminal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bronx-terminal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}