Appalachian Southern

I am not sure where all the time has gone since my last post. Just trying to get all the materials ready for my wiring panel has taken some time. I am centrally locating as many of my DCC components as possible to minimize the rats nest of wiring that tends to develop under a layout. This centralized panel gives ready access to DCC bus power, 12 volt DC for power supplies, and 120VAC for other needs.  All of my power districts will be centally managed here on this panel. All of the DS64 tortoise controlers will also be mounted here. As the layout grows, the panel will grow to accomodate the needed devices. I have about five additional feet in which the panel can grow.

In the photos below you can see the red and black terminal strips which distribute the DCC bus lines to the layout. The blue and black terminal blocks house the 12 volt DC power for the AX lines on the DS64 units.  The wiring channels have lids that will cover up all the wiring when I am done. This is the same way I used to wire machines, and it works good for the layout.  This wiring channel is 1″ square, but I likely should have purchased 1″ x 2″ to accommodate all of the wiring. This is going to be a tight fit for the amount of wires that will call these channels home.

The first locomotive will be running in  a few minutes! I am excited!  Oops, can’t run anything without some LocoNet cables. I guess I will go and make those!

DCC Central Control Panel

DS64s Mounted to the Control Panel

8 Conductor CAT3 Cable to the Remote Tortoise Machines

DCC Bus Line Distribution Terminal Blocks

Shelf Holds Power Supply and DCS200 Next to the Control Panel

This week I have been working on installing the tortoise switch machines and installing the drops from the track to the DCC bus lines. Each rail  gets its own feeder to the DCC bus lines. The isolated frog of each switch also gets one drop so the tortoise can control the polarity to the turnout frog. This will allow the motive power to crawl slowly through the turnouts.  All is going well so far.

Tomorrow I will start mounting the two Digitrax DS64 units that will be required to add DCC control to these six turnouts.  At that point I can also add my 12v DC power runs to each DS64 and wire up the Tortoise switch machines.  I use DIN rail mounted terminal blocks with jumper bus bars to tie the rail drops into the bus lines.   Here are couple of pictures of the progress so far.

Wiring Drops to the DCC Bus Lines

In the following picture you can see the wiring drops from each turnout’s isolated frog.

Six Tortoise Switch Machines Installed

Valium is completely overrated… I was looking forward to the calming effects it was supposed to have. It is funny how Benadryl can knock me on my butt, but Valium does nothing….  With a sore mouth,  I spent the morning gluing track and inserting filler cross ties at my track joints. The scene is improving every day. Unless my plans change for some reason, tomorrow will be tortoise switch machines and DCC installation day.

Filler Cross Ties Improve the Looks of Things

Atlas code 55 finally made its way onto the layout today in the staging area. I figured I would do the complicated part first.  I haven’t cut the track at the gate yet. The adhesive is still drying.

First Code 55 Atlas Track Laid on the Layout

Atlas Code 55 N Scale on Drop Gate

#7's Ready for Tortoises

I have good news to report this morning. The wiring in the yard is complete and all the tortoises and DS64 stationary decoders are functional. Even though it seemed the wiring would never end, it concluded this morning. It makes me very happy to be able to move on to something else now.  I was like a kid running the CSX GP38-2 this morning. I even got a little adventurous and pulled MTLX 1048 through the turnouts. I was thrilled to find no problems with the track work!  I haven’t soldered my rail joints yet, but that can happen any time now.

I have attached some photos of the completed wiring and the first locomotive and the MTLX unit.  Overall, I think my background painting is going to work out well. I didn’t have to edit the photo at all.

CSX 2733 GP38-2 & MTLX 1048

Finished Wiring Switches 9, 10, 11

Finished Wiring Switches 5,6,7,8

Today, I spent many hours wiring tortoises and DS64’s. It was a long day of soldering, building LocoNet cables and wiring in general. I managed to get through 10 of the 11 turnouts / stall motors in the yard I have been working on. I will redo #10 tommorow as I got a little sloppy with it. Sometimes you just have to know when to call the day. I pushed myself too hard to get the entire yard wired today, but it was just too much. I am happy about the progress and the realization that I will finish the electrical portion of the yard tomorrow.

On a more positive note,  I was able to run the first locomotive on the layout today. It was a CSX GP38-2. The track work seems to be solid, but only the addition of some lighter weight rolling stock will confirm this. But, it all looks promising.

Stay tuned for tomorrows update, which will include some photos.

Last night I wired my first Digitrax DS64 / Tortoise combination. Nothing really spectacular about it, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind.

Digitrax DS64 / Tortoise Wiring

The first thing you need to do is test the operation once you have it all hooked up.  When testing, you need to see if you got lucky with the polarity on the frog and you need to see if the switch is moving the right way when compared with the command you are giving on the DCC system. Just make sure the thrown command gives a thrown condition and closed gives a closed condition. Use a volt meter to test the two conditions on the switch itself. Measure between the frog and the appropriate rail to make sure you see your DCC track voltage on the selected route. If you see zero on the meter, you have the wires on pins 2 and 3 of the tortoise reversed. Simple enough to reverse them. I had to do the same.

A DS64 should be powered with the AX power inputs and a 12V DC supply, but this is just a temporary setup with rail A and B power.  Nothing wrong with this setup, but with multiple DS64s running on rail power, you will reduce the operating capacity of your layout.

I was happy to get the first one working without too much difficulty. I was also able to get my UR91 module installed last night and operate the switch wirlessly from the DCC throttle. That was cool.

All this isn’t as fun as running trains, but all neccesary steps to a functional DCC layout. All the good fun will come soon.  Here are a couple more pictures of the night’s accomplishments.

One Turnout Controller Wired and Functional

UR91 Radio Receiver Installed

I don’t want to come across as a “how-to” writer. I am just sharing with you guys the discovery process I went through when figuring all of this stuff out. I am not proclaiming to be a DCC expert.  See you all tomorrow for the Friday post.

Just so you guys don’t miss it, I scanned and re-sized several images of the layout plan and placed them all on a new tab at the top of the page. Be sure to check these images out. They are zoomed in and higher quality now.

Last night I mounted my first DS64 stationary decoder on the layout in preparation for wiring.  I also ran the first section of bus lines from the digitrax system to my track drops. Rail A will be my red bus line and Rail B will be the black bus line.  All the wiring I did for the tortoise switch machines turned out to be a bad idea, so I removed all of the solder joints and will be starting over with that today. Some of the connections need to go different places rather than all to the same location.

Here are some photos:

DS64 Stationary Decoder

Bus Lines Attached to Track Drops

Bus Lines Attached to DCS 200

Today I spent most of the afternoon wiring up tortconn connectors for the tortoise switch machines. I used some old CAT3 cable to provide all eight contacts to the Digitrax DS64 stationary decoders. Here is how the tortconn connectors look once they are soldered.

Here are a couple of pics of the connectors installed on the 11 tortoise switch machines in the yard I have been working on. It seems like forever now…

After soldering all the connectors I cleaned up the work bench, and wiped off my working surfaces. It seems over-spray from the airbrush was everywhere. I really need to get a ducted spray booth. I had no idea how much the over-spray traveled around the room.  Anyway, here is a final shot of the three bridges I have been working on. They only need one more touch up  with the airbrush and they will be complete.

n scale

Yes, I am using Tortoise switch machines by Circuitron to control my turnouts. I was somewhat worried that I would have trouble getting them to work through 3.75″ of stuff on top of my benchwork (3/4″ plywood, and 3″ of foam sheathing). But, they work great. It just takes a little more time to adjust them properly and you might want to consider using .039 control wire. Besides, the .025 wire that comes with the Tortoise switch machine is way to short for my application anyway.

Here you can see a couple of the tortoise switch machines mounted below the benchwork. In this yard I have been working on, there are 11 turnouts and a matching number of switch machines. It took me a few days to get these all installed and working, but I should have years of trouble free operation. These things are rock solid.

Now, controlling these from DCC becomes a whole other issue. There are several choices to make and in a future post I will detail how I am going to do it.