The Atlantic and Southern Build, Part 1

[ACL1504]

Gman,
I plan on being fully retired @ the first of the year. I've already advised the State Attorney that my last work day will be the first week of January 2015. Time to work on this project more than a few hours a week.  Tom  

I'll be watchin' the news - the crimeenals are gonna declare 2015 as 'Free Rein in Floridy'!! 

Gman,

The "crimeenals" can have it as then it will be someone else's problem!


Tom

[deemery]

... The 45 degree angle came to me when I was cutting the track. So far it is working perfectly. I've made the 90 degree cut in the past and always seemed to have a little bump when the train crosses the gap, but not on the 45 angle.

Tom

If nothing else, this "distributes" the bump across the truck/wheelbase of the loco, so it's a sideward motion rather than a vertical bump.  When I was a brand new 2LT, my jeep driver took me out and taught me how to drive that thing (M151A2), including teaching me to never hit a bump straight on if I could avoid it.


dave

[ACL1504]

... The 45 degree angle came to me when I was cutting the track. So far it is working perfectly. I've made the 90 degree cut in the past and always seemed to have a little bump when the train crosses the gap, but not on the 45 angle.

Tom

If nothing else, this "distributes" the bump across the truck/wheelbase of the loco, so it's a sideward motion rather than a vertical bump.  When I was a brand new 2LT, my jeep driver took me out and taught me how to drive that thing (M151A2), including teaching me to never hit a bump straight on if I could avoid it.


dave

Dave,

That makes perfect sense. Of course I must add that I wasn't thinking of that. The trains do in fact run much smoother across the angle rather than the vertical bump. It was just blind luck for me to come up with the idea. Seems like your 2LT driver has been in the jeep many a time over the bumps.

Tom

[ACL1504]

On the lower level single track liftout, I mentioned I wanted to have something simple to attach and remove. I came up with the following idea for the liftout.

I marked on the bottom of the 1X4 where the electrical connection would be and then cut a short section of brass stock the with of the 1X4 which was actually 3.5 inches.



I didn't have enough of the same thickness brass stock so I had to notch the one end, east end, of the 1X4. You can see this in the above photo. I also counter sunk two holes in the board under the brass stock. The feeder wires will fit through the holes to the track side. NOTE: I cut the brass stock into two pieces, this represents the rails on the opposite side of the board.



I used doorbell wire from ACE Hardware for the electrical wires.
NOTE:  I also use this wire for all my track feeder wires as well. As you can see its brass and solders very well. It sells for .25 a ft. but I buy the whole roll of 500 ft. for $79.99. This saves me $45.00 by buying the roll.

The two black lines on the pieces of brass correspond with the counter sunk holes for the wire.



The wires were then soldered to the brass pieces.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

I then placed the wires in the holes and soldered the wire to the corresponding track rails.



I cut two equal pieces of brass and "edge" soldered the wires to the brass. I then glued the brass pieces to the top of the block support.



The wires were then connected to the buss wires under the layout.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

I repeated the process on the West end of the liftout.





Remember I said "level is a good thing"!



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

Okay, I have to tell a story on myself here. After the liftout was wired and placed in position, I made the initial testing of the train running across the bridge. It ran fine until it crossed the gap and then stopped DRT. I used the five finger crane and pushed the loco back a few inches, it ran forward to the gap, crossed the gap and was DRT. A short, where in the He-- is the short? I cut a short piece of wire and used it to bypass the gap. The loco ran over the gap and kept going. Okay, it works. I started over with the loco and it crossed the gap and was DRT! I'll spare you the details of my audible comments but after an hour I finally figured out the problem. The brass stock was coated with a thin layer of lacquer to keep the brass form tarnishing. I used Acetone and a Q-tip to remove the coating and the loco ran fine after that.

Oh, DRT is a law enforcement term we used in the Crime Scene Unit for "Dead Right There"!

Continued later this evening.

[deemery]

You may have a bit of a challenge keeping the brass from tarnishing.  Wonder if you could use conductive paint to prevent that?


dave

[cuse]

Looking good. Solid infrastructure for this monster layout!


John

[ACL1504]

You may have a bit of a challenge keeping the brass from tarnishing.  Wonder if you could use conductive paint to prevent that?


dave

Dave,

The tarnishing isn't an issue for me as long as I get a good electrical connection. I guess they coat the brass as who wants to buy tarnished brass stock in the hobby shop.

The electrical paint certainly is an option worth considering. Thank you for the input.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Looking good. Solid infrastructure for this monster layout!


John

John,

Thanks for stopping by. The lower level is solid as it has to also support the middle level. I was actually sitting on it yesterday during one of the BS'ing after lunch.

Tom

[ACL1504]

After building the bridge and getting the trains to run correctly, I moved on to the track around the computer desk.





QUESTION:  Why does it take so many tools to do one simple job?




Continued later this afternoon.

[gnatshop]

Here's the tools answer:

Every Tim Allen grunt from Home Improvement!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQwYNca4iog

[ACL1504]

Here's the tools answer:

Every Tim Allen grunt from Home Improvement!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQwYNca4iog

The first three minutes was plenty enough!

Tom

[gnatshop]

Temporarily Delayed - Due to HONEY-DO painting project!!