Hallett Cove Southern

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

March Update

Not sure why last months update disappeared - I have put it back up....

During March shakedown activities continued with two operating sessions with 6 & 7 people and some further lessons were learnt. One was a wiring issue where turnouts are operated from more than one location and another was the acceleration and deceleration rates of the locomotives to ensure smooth operations.

Work on a prototype for my proposed signal system has commenced. I have also weighted some of my blue box Cabooses so I have enough available and operating reliably for the Grand Opening. I have fitted the extra magnets Ore loads.

I still have some other outstanding task of completing of the U50 decoder install.

Shakedown Activities on 3 & 17 March

Well we tried some separate yard, loco and mainline operations and I continued to learn how people interpret instructions and just how long it takes to do some things.

Sample Schedule

What actually happened

Sample Instructions

3 March Activities

The roster was:

Controller & Loco Hostler - Jim
Tower Man (Master Control Panel) - Andre
Hornertown Yardmaster - Barry
Flintston Yardmaster - Rossco
Mainline Crew 1 - Ross
Mainline Crew 2 - Dave

Main Lessons were:

If you want an incoming train left on the arrival road and not broken up and cars shunted you need to be very explicit or Yardmasters will just take the next step.
Yardmaster in the main yard does not have time to do any local industry shunting as he is tied up classifying and putting consists on the arrival departure tracks and receiving trains and the associated caboose activities.
Operators learning yards need 4 - 5 minutes to shunt each car!
The Tower man needs to have easy access to scheduled movements without asking others.
I let a train run early which caused some timing issues.

17 March Activities

The roster was:

Controller, Tower Man & Loco Hostler - Jim
Hornertown Yardmaster - Barry
Flintston Yardmaster - Rossco
Mainline Crew 1 - Bill-1 & Pierre
Mainline Crew 2 - Chris & Pam

Main Lessons were:

The mainline Locos need the Acceleration & Deceleration rates increased - too slow
There is a need for pockets for the folders with instructions - people need to put the folders down when shunting. One Yardmasters folder stopped a mainline train operated by a crew after putting his folder down....
The ballast on the meat works spur (which was shunted for the first time) was too high in a couple of spots causing wheels to lift off rails!
Complex yards need some info to explain functions e.g. arrival/departure & classification Vs local storage and industry tracks (see below).

Signal Logic Trial

You may be aware that I intend to install three colour bidirectional signals on the layout.

I will be using Rob Paisley's 3 colour Signal Driver printed circuit boards. I will be using BLMA single and dual head searchlight block signals which employ common anode configuration. Rob's site has indicative configuration for incorporation of Block Occupancy Detectors (BOD's) and simple bidirectional configuration (albeit in common cathode configuration shown) for a simple loop.

I need to develop the more complex controls for Branch, Passing Loop & Junction operations. To that end I have developed a sample track plan which will allow me to represent turnout states and BOD's states by using toggle switches.

Sample Trackplan

Developing the track plan into a logic diagram showing nomenclature of BOD's, Turnout relationships, East and West Block Signals

Nomenclature

The relationships of all turnout states to BOD's & Basic Signal States were charted.

Relationships Chart

Signal driver board - set out

The four groups of signal driver PCB's mounted on some MDF

One 3 colour Signal Driver PCB with LED's fitted for signal trail

6 of the 27 Signal Driver PCB's under construction

The production line...

27 Signal Driver PCB's mounted ready for wiring

BOD & Turnout Toggle Switches and terminal strips

Basic Power Wiring done to check all boards are operating correctly 27 modules drawing 0.2 Amps 12 V Regulated power supply in bottom right, it also includes a 5 V regulated supply for the Launchpads, to be added later.
(I did find a couple of "cold" solder joints - they are all fixed now!)

Below is the logic wiring test - the X-acto blade simulates the BOD operating showing block is occupied

Red => Yellow => Green => Green

Green => Red => Yellow => Green

Green => Green => Red => Yellow

Yellow => Green => Green => Red

Remote Operation of Turnouts

Turnouts in Hornertown can be operated from one, two or three control panels. This has led to some "feedback" issues in the wiring which resulted in a number of toggle switches having to be "set" to the same turnout direction in order for the solenoids to operate.

I have isolated each of the solenoid feeds by including a power diodes into each feed to the solenoid coils. Once installed in each control panels feeders things work as desired.

Ore Loads

A couple of months back I reported on how I used epoxy to fix two 3 mm cylindrical magnets to the underside of the load supplied with the Athearn ore trucks and after testing I said I will go back and add two more magnets per load to get a better result.

Before the update

After

Production line...

Now to see what the operators think the next time the Ore Train is run!

Grand Opening

Well I have people local and interstate attending, they are coming from Sydney, Traralgon,, Geelong. I have asked some Model Rail Radio folks from the US and Sweden but no commitment to attend has been received from them yet!

Currently there are 17 people attending!

That's it for this month.

Thanks again to those that continue to help me achieve my ambitions and hello to all my followers!

Till the end of April.

-ooOOOoo-

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

February Update - reposted

Sorry it is a bit late - Dad's 99th birthday celebrations disrupted this a bit. Following a very challenging month with the loss of my very dear fried BJ in January the discussions in the Round Robin Group has firstly centered on our loss but secondly that BJ would want us to continue to complete what we had started to show off his great achievements.

Maintenance tasks have started as a result of the shakedown activities and these uncovered some heat stress related problems.

But I have started doing some things - I finally got all of my additional DCC items from China (Cheaper but a lot of hassle as some were damaged in transit).. I must say, if you use the PayPal dispute resolution process, they seem to be very fair and it resulted in much quicker action by the supplier who by the way could not speak or write hardly any English.

Testing of the Ore loading process showed a need to refine some aspects to improve reliability.

Progress on the U50 decoder and lighting install just did not happen - three months in a row when I sat down to complete it it was just too hard.... - sorry Nigel G.

Turnout Motor Maintenance Jimtown

It was noticed during shakedown running that two turnouts were not functioning 100% so it was time to have a closer look now the train room has cooled down.

Both turnouts are on the top level so maintenance is a pain.... One was the mounting screws were a tad tight so when loosened just a little it operated ok. The other was not that simple....

The offending turnout motor

In order to get at the motor I had to remove the flower mill on the lower level to gain good access. This was a design feature so not too difficult. But it revealed that the heatwave had caused some problems see below. Looks like the problem is a sticky accessory switch.

Thanks must go to Chris for helping me re-install the turnout motors - a two person job!

Local Heatwave - Buckled Track

Well now I know why some of the cars were off the track the other day - I was baffled as it was straight track! We have had a lot of days between 35 & 45 degrees Celsius since the start of the new year.

Temperature graph for Wednesday 12 February.

Where did that kink come from?

Approach to Fleets Loop

And these kinks as well?

Double track main around Fleets Loop

View of Both tracks

Well I will need to remove some track pins get the Dremel cutoff disc to work and rejoin with some additional gaps - oh that means I will have to put in some additional droppers or wires to jump the new joiners too...

Went down after the heat had subsided and look...

The "S's" have just about gone & gaps between rails back.... and I did not do a thing!

Command Control System

I finally got my spare command station.and now have 4 wireless and 9 tethered throttles installed and operating.

Ore Loads

Last month I reported on how I used epoxy to fix two 3 mm cylindrical magnets to the underside of the load supplied with the Athearn ore trucks.

When the guys used the some of the new Rix uncouplers to remove the loads at the Steel Works the magnetic flux was a bit "light" on a few loads so I will go back and add two more magnets per load to get a better result.

Grand Opening Rescheduled

Well I have decided that the deferred event must happen albeit a year late! So invites are out for a June 2nd event! 15 acceptances to date consisting of 8 modelers and 7 VIP's.

A few more shakedown runs are planned to test operations and provide some familiarity for operators.

Abrupt halt

Well thinks were tracking pretty well and things starting to be achieved again then Dad was admitted to hospital and that derailed what was planned for the rest of the month. Luckily he has recovered and was home for his 99th birthday celebration at my place.

That's it for this month.

Thanks again to those that continue to help me achieve my ambitions and hello to all my followers!

Till the end of March.

-ooOOOoo-

Monday, January 27, 2014

RIP BJ

I will miss your friendship and company - A void that will be impossible to fill.

Your legend will continue through all your fine scenery work on all our model railways.

Your final wish that Le Maistre Loco on the Hallett Cove Southern be renamed Loco Le Maistre in memory of your eccentric approaches to life and many areas of modeling, which has lead to such a quality of outcomes, will be implemented.

You will be sadly missed by family, friends and especially by your model railway mates.

Below is a few photos of great times shared with us and your exquisite work.