Re-post of my Indiana Layout

[John B]

I've sat the eBay trestle in place between the track. It is almost like this trestle was custom made for my layout. It fit the curve radius almost to a tee.

[John B]

I've added a third plywood mountain support in this picture.

[John B]

I moved from SoCal to the Portland area 1993 and lived there for eleven years until my work transfered me to Indiana in 2004. One of the last things that I did as we were leaving Oregon for good was to swing by Whistle Stop Trains in Portland. Up until that time I was the typical Southern Pacific fan. My dad was a boilermaker for the SP and my favorite steamer is the GS4 in full Daylight colors. I place all the cabforwards in a close 2nd spot. Joan got a T-shirt and we were getting ready to buy it when Joan spotted a "Special Run" of Athearn F3As in full SP&S colors. I picked the box up a looked at, saw the price and was putting it back when Joan said, if I wanted it I should get it now, cause we were traveling a couple of thousand miles away and would probably never come back. Well, I bought it and the rest is history. From a staunch SP fan to the SP&S. I should have started collecting when I lived in Portland, not when I was leaving. Oh well.Now that I have a track plan and the start of a layout; I need some sort of electrical control. I was going to go with conventional control; but starting looking over this website and noticed everyone mentioning DCC. I decided to go DCC and bought a MRC Prodigy. I read nothing but bad reviews on the Prodigy and started reading about Digitrax. I bought the Super Empire Builder set.. I wanted to be able to cut the power to the layout with a push of button. So I put the 120-volt feed into a terminal strip and sent a "hot" black wire off to the entrance into the layout and I will install an emergency off button on the fascia there. For now, the wire just doubles back into the terminal. I put a cover over this terminal strip and the other 120 volt strip at the other end of the layout. I put a cover over the strip because you just can't be to careful.

[John B]

I saw a pretty neat setup on this forum featuring a nice looking cabinet. I had some extra pine and a piece of plywood left over so I made this cabinet, installing it under the layout on the wall. Just the Digitrax stuff in there for here.

[John B]

I have crammed in some of the various different power supplies necessary for the various layout things, i.e. switch machines, electro-uncoupler, lighting, etc. Later I will put one of my older MRC power-pack inside for different voltages. I cleaned up the mess and tidied up the wiring after this shot.

[John B]

I built a cover for the junk inside complete with 5-amp circuit breakers. It might be overkill; but I can cut the power to the switch machines and leave everything else on by the flip of a switch. The circuit breakers are going to be used for track power, lighting, switch machines, electro-uncouplers, and 1 left over possibly for another lighting circuit. The ivory switch on the bottom right corner turns the power on to the cabinet, the red light coming on when it does. This way I can still have 120 volts at the layout; but off at the cabinet.

[John B]

A little bit of heat is developing inside the cabinet so I used a hole saw and cut a hole on the two sides. I installed a fan on one side drawing the hot air out of the cabinet; while the fan on the other side pushing air inside. The fan is wired in to come on as soon as I power up the layout.

[John B]

This is the start of the DCC. I am using color coded numbered wire. The red and black is DCC. Above the cabinet are the Auto-Reversers. I have a dual main track plan with return loops at both ends meaning I have 4 Auto-Reversers.

[John B]

Here you see the other power wires leaving the cabinet and the different colors being used on the layout. I printed some wire color charts and have then placed in strategic places under the layout (My memory isn't that good anymore). You can see one of the charts in the third picture.

[John B]

I have three of these Dream Players by Pricom. I have four of the Scale Magic CD's. I bought three Creative Labs SBS 2.1s placed on the layout. Each of the 2.1s have separate volume controls.

The wiring is by no means done. It is very tedious as you all know. There has been a couple of years gone by from the beginning of the pictures in this thread until now. I have uploaded some (If not all of these shots at one time or another on the forum; but not all in one place)

[Zephyrus52246]

Very neat wiring, but I hope you have a "map" of it all for trouble shooting.   


Jeff

[S&S RR]

That is some very neat wiring - labels and a wiring diagram are critical for future changes and trouble shooting. I have trouble remembering what I did last week let alone years ago.


Your layout is looking great - thanks again for re-posting.

[jbvb]

Your 'time-lapse view' is interesting.  I don't know much about the MRC Prodigy, but my Prodigy Advance has given good service for about 10 years.

[John B]

It's time to install some fascia board for now so that I can make more sense out of the mountain area. I clamped a half sheet of tempered quarter-inch hardboard around the layout. I used the installation aid that you can find in the last three shots of this insertion to hold up the other end. I placed one end on the tool and started clamping the hardboard around the layout.

[John B]

I marked the fascia with a magic marker and cut the hardboard with my battery powered saw(Can't beat those battery powered tools). I don't have the trestle glued in place yet, it's just kind of sitting there for effect. I didn't like the way it looked; Joan agreed with me. The cutout was a little high. It took away from the view. Joan said, what view? She couldn't see anything from the side except the fascia.You can see the power supply cabinet from the last post in this shot.