There has been some modelling activities in the first quarter of 2021 and progress made on recommissioning the layout after the flooding and installation of the new booster. I made a couple of portable speedometers, am working on a grade crossing project for Dazzy Jay, I attended an Ops Session at Wayne's and updated part of my website.
Recommissioning
There is so much to do. The last operating session was on 1July 2019 when the control system failed. Whist still waiting for the new booster to address the control system failure the house was flooded. A lot of stuff was stacked up in the layout room which has mainly been removed now.
So a dark room with only someone entering occasionally has let to spider webs, dried out CRC 2-26 on the rails and the dust has settled everywhere.
Significant rearrangement of the control system wiring was required (see New Booster below).
Peter R assisted me with backbone cabling changes.
Peter J assisted me with replacing some of the faulty backbone wiring and has been a dynamo helping manually clean trackwork and scenery. The upper and lower decks have been cleaned and I have recoated all the track with CRC 2-26.
Loco LeMaistre and Huntington are still to be cleaned in the same manner as the decks before operations can be considered.
Most of the locos in the control system booster area that failed seem to either not run or have some strange issues. So the following Locos are heading to the workshop:
● Athearn Genesis MT-4 4349
● Athearn Genesis MT-4 4350
● Proto 2000 5600 GP9e fitted with Tsumani TSU-AT-1000
● Athearn Genesis SDP45 326
● Athearn Genesis MP15AC 2745
There are also a number of turnout issues mainly around solenoids that have not operated for over 18 months so they need to be freed up and some silicon lubricant applied and tested.
A significant amount of physical work remains before the next operating session let alone recreating all the paperwork that seems to be AWOL.
New Booster
The new Lenz LV103 Booster arrived whilst we were in temporary accommodation awaiting our house being fixed up. It has been installed and following testing directly connected to the command station then as part of the control network it has been debugged and issues addressed. To integrate with the existing system a Roco Z21-Booster Adapter was required.
The following changes had to be made:
Command Station moved to other end of Booster Network
Booster 4 becomes Booster 1 change Booster IN to Booster OUT and connect Booster IN to Command Station booster OUT.
Booster 3 becomes Booster 2 swap Booster IN and Booster OUT connections.
Booster 2 becomes Booster 4 and Booster network bridged to go direct to new Booster 3 from new Booster 2.
Booster 1 becomes Booster 3 swap Booster IN and Booster OUT connections.
Booster 4 connected to Z21-Booster Adapter and Booster IN from Booster 3 also need Throttle LAN connection to Adapter.
Install new Power cable to Command Station from Power Supplies centrally located in the helix.
Booster 4 Power connections to higher capacity Power Supply previously installed.
I still need to stress test the Booster with around a dozen active locos all running simultaneously.
Portable Speedometer
I assembled two of these one for Wayne and one for me.
Thanks to Uncle Larry (Lawrence Eggering) from Creaky Chair Models for the basic code and inspiration after seeing the many versions he has produced which can be found on his YouTube Channel.
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| Arduino Nano with Pins soldered above board. |
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| Buck Voltage Board set to 5V Output |
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| 20 x 4 Line LCD display |
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| I2C two wire connection on rear |
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| 3mm Infra Red detectors |
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| All the bits |
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| IR Detectors Mounted through back |
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| Inside view |
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| LCD display mounted in front |
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| Power Supply set for Buck Converter adjustment |
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| Before adjustment |
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| After adjustment |
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| All components mounted |
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| Powered up from the track |
A quick test run
New Freight Cars
Nineteen freight cars that I built when we were in temporary accommodation last February/March had their waybills placed in the car card covers and they have been placed on the layout ready for the next operating session.
Dazzy's Grade Crossing
I offered to put an Arduino project together for Dazzy (I was thinking I have done this before however, it was using the Ti Launchpad with a totally different approach!) - oh well, a new project for me to do....
There a four tracks and he would like two sets of crossing lights (LED illumination) and sound. We will utilise IR technology to trigger operation based on train movement from either side.
I will use code from Geoff Bunza's December 2016 MRH article and various other ideas from which I will develop the final Sketch.
Here is the wiring design as developed so far prior to breadboarding to prove the configuration.
Any bits I needed that were not on hand have been ordered and I will develop the code and breadboard in the coming weeks.
Ops Session
I attended along with Darren (Dazzy Jay), Des and Peter S at Wayne's on 25 March. I was placed in charge of Lowood Crossing to manage traffic and all shunting requirements. I was kept reasonably busy for the majority of the time and I really enjoyed getting back to operating.
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| Dazzy, Des and Peter S |
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| Wayne Instructing Dazzy on Shunting Techniques |
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| Peter S |
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| Checking the Selected Route at Dunkleigh Towers! |
Watch some action from the run...
Website Update
Peter J has been working on his Eureka Valley Narrow Gauge Railroad and over the last 12 months or so have extended it to include Glenbrook and Oilville. It is featured on my website here.
That's it for now so until next time.....
-ooOOOoo-
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