1-2020, Deck 2 Trackage Complete

Sorry for the delay I haven’t been on hiatus, I’ve been busy in the basement.

More Shakes

The shakedown sessions that begun in May have continued, now on a Monthly basis. The layout now runs almost exclusively on SmartPhone throttles, both Apple and Android. I’m not an expert on radio wave propagation, but from practical experience I can tell you that in *this*  basement, with 10 operators, the frequencies that WiFi throttles use give better performance than my DCC system’s radio frequencies – even after consulting with the DCC manufacturer and making adjustments. The interface between the WiFi throttles and the DCC system is JMRI.

Hall Trackage Completed

Hall interlocking (east of Jamaica) had only enough trackage complete to allow for operations to go through the area. For full flexibility through the 6-track Jamaica Station complex, allowing for all parallel moves and “across the plant” moves Hall needed to be complete. This work began after the May operating session.

Here is the completed layout.

It’s a complicated arrangement, but it will support multiple trains arriving and departing simultaneously as on the prototype.

Below are the MP-5 machines mounted to the underside of the baseboard.Many, many wires needed to be installed to bring these machines to life.

#24 Turnouts

The high-speed turnout project was begun, starting with some prep work in advance of a visit from Monat Track-Laying Enterprises, ltd.

Mt. Albert ties were glued down, stained black, then ballasted.

Here was the state of play after Phil visited to get some track down.

Below is the complete movable point frog, built on site by Phil, without a fixture.

 

Hicksville Secondary

At one time there was an actual Hicksville Secondary Track, The most recent name for the remaining track is “Atlantic Pipe” which is a spur off of Divide-2 interlocking. Today there is an active trans-load yard in Hicksville. Based on these two data points I extrapolated the concept into a secondary track with multiple industries, some of which represent active customers further down the main line in the area inside the helix.

• New Hyde Park Oil Terminal
• Stock Drive Products
• New Castle Building Products
• US Post Office
• Team Yard
  • Atlantic Pipe
  • Monreale Bread
  • Azzil Granite
  • Valle Signs
• Team Dock
  • Atlantic Pipe
  • Bella Produce
  • LI Panelling and Flooring

I wanted the new trackage I laid to look old and worn out. To this end I glued styrene to alternate sides so that cars would rock from side to side as they roll on the tracks

And here’s a quick and dirty “removed siding switch”

 

Pine Aire

Pine Aire was completed before the temporary Deer Park staging tracks were removed, allowing for the RS-50 job to start working the railroad. RS-50 hauls cars to and from RS-60 so part of the job is blocking cars for the ’60 after ’50 makes it back to Pine Aire.

In the last 5 years or so there were some sorting tracks added in Pine Aire just east of the Sagitikos Parkway. Since this takes some of the load off of Fresh Pond Yard and adds interest to the East End Job, I included them in the layout design.

The second deck is supported by strut channel shelving brackets along this wall, and this was a lucky choice. Continuing the level benchwork would have missed the level of the existing helix by about 3/4″. I ran some taut mason twine back to the other end of the room and adjusted the brackets until they followed the twine. This placed the height adjustment evenly over the span of about 30 feet.

Astro Ready Mix (PC Richard)

With Pine Aire done, that area can act as staging for the east end of the layout until the 3rd deck is begun. The next step was replacing the temporary staging tracks beyond Farmingdale with the PC Richard siding area. Since I’m modeling the time before the second track was built through this area, the siding is a westbound facing point located just west of Commack Road crossing. This layout had a sharp s-curve and a rather steep downgrade to get in.

I had to “kerf” the baseboard to get a more even transition:

This trackage is in a sort of valley between the railroad grade up on an embankment, and some large warehouses. I employed a device I’d seen on Rick Fortin’s AT&SF and also Chris Atkins’ NP Layout – the fascia raises up to simulate the buildings existing beyond the edge of the benchwork in the aisle.

CTC Island

The stretch of single track from Farmingdale to Deer Park had been operated under Manual Block rules, and this turned out to be onerous in practice. I decided to install an “island” of CTC to protect this section of single track. At some point this “island” will be part of the system that protects the trackage on the entire second deck.

Two sidings exist within the signaled territory, and as on the prototype these are protected by electric lock circuits.

JMRI 4.18

Had a bit of a panic attack in December, JMRI version 4.18 had a bug that killed WiThrottle (the WiFi throttle server). JMRI has an extremely active user/developer community and by the time I realized I had a problem – six days after release – the problem had been identified and a workaround had been posted online.

 

Until next time, remember “Model Railroading is Fun”

Dave

 

5-2019 Shakedown II (electric bugalloo)

I hosted the Central Suffolk Operations Group for a shakedown session early this month.

Here are some pictures taken by John Freaca – I was running around like crazy since the throttles were misbehaving in a big way. This is the price one pays for adding some radio receivers just two days before an operating session!

Full Mayhem! I’m throwing switches in NY Penn and Jay using the laptop while talking to Yardmaster Ron Engel. Steven Vaughan is about to take a train eastbound out of Penn Station Staging. Mike Ryan is seen behind Ron.

Jay Interlocking, looking east towards Jamaica

“NY Penn Staging”. 2 loop tracks around the outside, and the diamond crossover leads to 8 stub end staging tracks.

British Rail EMU’s were filling in on some of the Electric Runs. Prototype-Shmototype. It’s laid up on “West Side Yard” staging track 1.

 

Howard Dwyer, standing in the blue coat is running the RDC’s westbound through Fresh Pond Queens, while Ron works in the yard. Ben Lederer (behind Ron) is running a train in Hicksville on the second deck.

With a “Can-o-Death” in the foreground, Ward Ruland eases an MP15 into Blissville Yard to pick up Municipal Solid Waste Containers there.

Stephen Vaughan runs the RS-80 working Coastal Distribution in East Farmingdale.

2-2019 Construction Update

East Farmingdale

Coastal and Posillico are operational now and connected to the rest of the middle deck. The bridge over Rt.110 was completed.

I temped in the wiring and played around with it a bit, with the 3:1 clock running. I used the timetable and drove passenger trains through on the intervals of mid day service (hourly each direction). First time out, it took me 3 fast-hours (1 actual hour) to swap empties for loads for both customers. Each had 12 cars each to swap, and things were complicated since the entire train could not be kept off the main tracks during the work.

Posillico on the right, Coastal on the left. The geometry is not precisely what exists in real life, but the layout is essentially the same, including the little pocket track for the ShuttleWagon they use to move cars. The west leg of Farmingdale wye was impossible to include. C’est la guerre!

Posillico Materials, full of Ortner 100-ton aggregate hoppers

Coastal Distribution with some cons filled with construction debris

View north on New Highway

Crews working the siding will have to stop to ensure the crossing protection is active since the siding does not have “approach circuits”. This is a “real-world” consideration and it should relax the pace of operations which is desirable.

Connection between Jamaica and Floral Park

I find this picture amusing. It was less amusing at the time.

Yes, that is sawdust by the leg of the helix.

The walls have gotten a quick coat of blue-grey paint (to be someday covered by a backdrop), and there is strut channel mounted every 32 inches to support the decks:

Strut channel is not the cheapest option, however this is the THIRD layout that I have used these pieces on and the pieces are going to be moving again, if I ever do!

English Kills

The section of the previous layout where the Bushwick Branch crossed English Kills creek is not going to make it in to this basement, unfortunately. I liked the gnarly colored water and the junked cars. Next time! The Bushwick would also make an interesting set of Free-Mo modules come to think of it!

Cheers!

12-2018 R.I.P. Washer and Dryer

Work is complete to install a new washer and dryer someplace else in the house… this removes an obstacle to connecting the various completed pieces of layout to each other.

The boxes represent the appliances’ former location. Now I can build west from Floral Park towards Jamaica:

While this work progressed I completed work on track and switches at JAY and NY interlockings. (Inside the red box)

With the 8 layup staging tracks and 2 loop tracks installed representing NY Penn Station, I can get ready to run some multiple unit equipment eastward.

At this point I am using JMRI and WiThrottle to throw the switches. JMRI is the “middle man” between LCC and the smart phone. This allows me to throw switches before any control panels are built. The panels that were developed a year ago (see previous post) were used successfully to execute Entrance/Exit routing.

Farmingdale

With the work done on NY, located in the central “turn back blob” on level one, I have begun working on level two in that area, which is east of Farmingdale station. Located on an inside curve of the benchwork support, this is the only location on the layout with a shelf width in excess of 24″ – I’m using the 32″ depth to full advantage to place a couple of large (for LIRR) industries. I have the practical track design all planned out now.

Below is FARM-2 on the left, where the main line narrows (narrowed!) down from 2 tracks to 1, then shortly thereafter  is the switch for the Farmingdale Double-End-Freight track. On the right are the three spur tracks where the hoppers are moved over the unloading platform.

I say “narrowed” now above because since I’ve been working with this layout concept for such a long time, that the trackage in the area has been updated… I’ve gone from a “present day” modeler to a “historical” one merely through procrastination!

Posillico west end

Posillico west end

Posillico east end

Now we move further east. The siding bows out around the home signal on the main line in prototypical fashion. The switch marked “pocket” is where the TrackMobile is stored when it’s not being used to move cars. (Why they just don’t drive it into a garage – I do not know!)

Posillico east end

Next on the siding is Coastal Distribution, a company that ships Long Island’s second largest export by rail: Construction Debris.

Rules are meant to be broken: The curved turnout is a 28″ + 24″ radius and my minimum is supposedly 28″. 24″ will do fine for 50′ gondolas, MP15’s and Geep 38’s I’d say. Placing the turnout mid-curve allows for a much better use of the wide benchwork here, and also makes room for the road (New Highway) which runs between the two industries.

 

Google maps reveals that I’ve compressed this area in a fashion similar to folding up a Japanese fan. In real like Coastal is built on the old Farmingdale wye, and heads away from the main line at a 90 degree angle.

One other thing I did was lay some rolling stock on the sidings and spurs, to see how these jobs might be worked in terms of moving cuts of cars around. As a result I moved the east end switch on the double end freight siding back about 18″. This will enable the crews to work Coastal without having a huge amount of extra moves. I’m glad I took time to check that

.

At the moment I’m wrestling with the overpass over Route 110, preliminary planning shows that the roadway is going to have to start at the edge of the benchwork 1 inch lower than the deck level. I’ve cut a special runner for the benchwork here, but that’s about as far as I’ve gotten with it:

 

 

I think the mail goes into that slot…. We’ll see how this turns out in the next post.

 

Cheers! Happy Holidays.

9-2018 LCC Bit by Bit

I returned from the NMRA national convention in Kansas City full of excellent dinners and with my notions about how to execute LCC on my layout firmly in place.

I’ve been working on the junction where the four tracks running west from Jamaica join with the 8 staging tracks and the turn-back loop which represent the function of New York Penn Station  on the layout.

Here’s a section of NY Penn interlocking, a little distorted due to the panorama shot.

Here’s what’s underneath it:

So what is all this stuff, and what does it do? And where is the “LCC”?

Let’s move across the picture above from left to right.

BOD-8 working with SignalLCC

On the right, is a SignalLCC node. This is an LCC node which will drive 4 signals of 4 aspects (lamps) each and also has 8 lines of general-purpose Input/Output lines. The green terminal strips at the bottom are for wiring the signals, four aspects and one common per signal head. Above that is a 10-pin IDC cable which connects the 8-channel I/O port to the device on the left which as a BOD-8 (Block-Occupancy-Detector 8-channel) Both products are from RR-CirKits All of the daughter boards that RR-CirKits manufactured to work with it’s LocoNet products (Tower-64, LNCP) also work with their LCC nodes. The standardization on a 10-pin IDC daughter board architecture was an excellent idea. The BOD-8 has 8 current-sensing coils connected to the terminals strips at the bottom, the round white pots are for adjustment of detector sensitivity. The blue/white twisted pair wire is headed towards the current sensing coils which are located near the power distribution terminal strips. The two RJ45 ports at the top of the SignalLCC has an LCC terminator plugged into the left port, and a plain old Cat-6 cable plugged into the left. This is the “LCC” cable – the “single wire” referred to in some high-level literature. It should be apparent that although there is indeed a “single wire” that forms the backbone of the LCC network, switch machines, track, and signals all require some wiring to *get to* the LCC system, and this wiring cannot be avoided.

Power Distribution Terminal Strip

To the right there is a power distribution strip. This is a product supplied by AutomationDirect.com. The yellow deals in the middle jump adjacent blocks together. The left 2 terminals with the orange wire are DCC “A” which is the wire that I consistently use to break up into different blocks for train detection and signaling. The next two terminals are assigned to track circuit “NY-45T” (I use “track circuit” as on the prototype, as opposed to “detection block” or “detection section”). Note the little u-shaped yellow wire which connects the NY-45T blocks with the DCC “A” blocks: The wire is run through the brown current sensing coil – you can see the blue/white wires attached which run from the coil back to the BOD-8. All of the various smaller black track feeder wires in the switch area are combined at this point, and the current detector is placed so that any current drawn by the engine or resistors in the track circuit (block) is sensed with the single coil. The 4 terminals on the right are the DCC “B” wire for which I use blue. To the upper right is the MP5 switch machine for turnout 45E. I’ve scrawled N and R (for Normal and Reverse) on the cover as a reference, since it varies from switch to switch based on context.

Switch Operating Relays

This is a sixteen channel relay board that’s made in China and available on Amazon.com among others. They are inexpensive, but one needs to be careful when ordering these boards – the board has to have the ability to use a separate power supply for the relays themselves. Note the two blue terminals at the top right. The outputs on the TowerLCC / SignalLCC are 5-volt logic level, so if the board description says that it is compatible with an Arduino or other micro controller, then I have found that it will be compatible with the RR-CirKits LCC nodes. There are a lot of relay boards available online which don’t necessarily meet the above criteria. It looks like a mess of wires, but 2/3 of them are only jumpers used to distribute the +/-12vdc power for the switch machines to each of the 16 relays. Each pair of relays form a Normal and Reverse operating pair (NWR/RWR) as in the circuit previously discussed:

Relay Board Interface

The two rainbow IDC cables connect the two 8-pin IO ports on the TowerLCC on the right with the 16 control lines on the relay board on the left. The TowerLCC uses a 2×5 IDC connector and the relay board uses a 2×10 so I had to “brew my own” interface cables. I found the green plugs on Mouser. You can mash the wires in with a screwdriver, or if you like there is a special tool that Amp makes that basically does the same thing. Note the two MP5 switch machines have the opposite sense – Signal engineering is all about context! The TowerLCC is more generic than the SignalLCC – it simply has 16 lines of Inputs/Outputs in two groups of 8. If you’re wondering about the somewhat, uh, *organic* placement of these items… It’s driven by the constraints of the very narrow baseboard in this area. All of the equipment needed to be installed directly under the double tracks. I try to keep the SignalLCC nodes near the signals they will be controlling to keep the wiring to the signals short.

Terminal Strip and BOB-S

Here’s another power terminal strip. This one has two terminals at the right for the layout’s 12vdc bus. I use #16 2-conductor cable for this. Generally all of my wiring is one color, but I like to keep the busses distinctive in some way. On the right is a BOB-S Break Out Board which is a nifty product. The wires are coming in from the switch machines indicating the normal or reverse positions of each turnout or crossover. They leave on the 10-pin IDC cable headed towards the nearby SignalLCC.

East End SignalLCC

This SignalLCC drives the home signals at the opposite end of the interlocking. It’s partner at the west end is taking in track circuit inputs from a BOD-8, whereas this one is taking turnout position inputs directly from the switch machines via the BOB-S. The wire poking through marked “13EF” is coming through from the frog of switch 13E. the wire runs directly to the MP5 machine “Aux1” switch. The other two contacts on the Aux1 are the DCC “A” and DCC “B” wires with DCC “A” funneled through the block detection. Powering the frog enables block detection throughout the entire length of the turnout.

It’s been a tech heavy post, my apologies!

Cheers for now. Next month there should be an interesting structure for the layout which will make a nice change in blog content!

 

 

5-2018

The Helix is complete!

3 of the six track connections are not built yet, since the 2nd and 3rd deck approaches to them have not been completed at this time. But the helix, which ties all of the decks together, is built up to it’s fullest extent.

Having this done is a real motivation to get other areas of construction moving along.

Speaking of that, the first drop-down bridge is also done!

 

There was a lot of standing and staring at the bridge in progress. In the end it is working very smoothly – but let’s check back in on this after 12 months of seasonal humidity changes!

Some work needs to be done to stop trains headed towards the abyss if the bridge is left open. I’ve already come 10 feet from sending a loco over the brink. I would like to place a microswitch in a position which verifies that the locking plunger (red handle) is all of the way through the hole and holding the bridge closed. I did not plan for this unfortunately, so the installation might involve a lot more standing and staring. Movable bridges on real railroads always employ similar devices (tied into the signal system) that detect that the bridge locks (and wedges, miter rails, etc) are all in proper position for rail traffic.

 

 

 

 

3-2018 The BLOB!

Not the 1958 classic starring Steve McQueen, but it is indeed a thing that has been growing, down in the basement, with not much sign of stopping!

As a general reference this is the turn-back blob located in the center-right of the plan, just above the green dots (columns):

The half wall down the middle of the room has been built out to it’s fullest extent:

 

The two layers of turn-back tracks are test fitted. The next limiting factor was the interlocking at Jay near Jamaica station. I had to plot out the track work at Jay and then work back west from there in order to make sure the switches for staging weren’t too close, resulting in ramps with too steep of a grade. Immediately west of Jay some tracks begin going up and some go down.

 

 

The plywood was slotted then “kerfed” to allow the grades to begin smoothly.

At the top of the ramp the switches for staging were laid out. I take the design from the computer, but the final setup is done by eye. The critical stud spacing where the tracks curve through was done using the xtrakcad software.

Note that only the Lower Montauk track 1 has been cut out at this point. I had to be sure I had clearance for the track to pass under the switches above.

Here are three views from staging east towards Jay all taken from the same location:

Lower Montauk baseboard done

Lower track laid

NY / Staging track board placed above

Here’s a picture of the 1/4″ ply getting added to the curved ply for rigidity. The strut cannel angles are salvaged from other projects and work great as weights.

Cheers for now!

Dave