Main deck and upper deck signal installs

 Progress being made.

Over the last week or so during Melbournes Stage 4 lock down of Covid 19 I have been busy installing signals.

Here are a few progress pictures.

The top deck signals are installed and complete.

North bound on the upper deck heading to Copperville.

South bound on the upper deck heading out of Copperville.

North bound at the intermediate on the way to North staging.

Entering north staging. Is a intermediate signal but ran out of absolute signals. Will make one and replace eventually.

Here are signal adapter boards lined up and ready to install under the layout that then plug into the TC64

South bound on the upper deck heading to Copperville.

South bound on the branch heading into Fairhaven

This is the approach to south staging protecting the hidden track.

North bound on the branch heading out of Fairhaven

More installs to go. Stay tuned.

South Staging Signal visibility challenge

 South Staging Dwarfs

Due to the location of south staging and the fact that it is set at 1200mm from the floor and behind fascia, I needed / wanted to install departure signals in South staging and the visibility of a traditional signal was going to be a challenge as they just could not be seen. I also had some new pre wired LED's that I wanted to try. 

I decided to come up with a dwarf signal that while is not prototypical, it has a look like it is a dwarf but can also be seen. Basically, per the pictures below, it is a brass tube with a hood, but the top of the tube has a lense in it so the colour can be seen from the top.

Follow along with a series of pictures with the progress of the build.

To order to create a lense in the top of the brass tube, I cut the lense of a 2mm LED I use for my other signals. The LED will be used in another signal.

The tube in this picture is 2mm in diameter next to the pre wired Red / Yellow / Green pre wired LED I plan to use.

here is the 2.2mm tube that will be the main post for the dwarf signal.

I then file a round grove in the tube to enable the light to come from the signal and for a hood to be soldered to the post.

In this picture I clean the hole in the tube.

I then get a second piece of 2.2mm tube and file another 1/2 circle into the tube and clean the hole.

I then place a smaller piece of tube in the center of the 2.2mm tube and then with a sharp #11 knife I cut in the middle of the filed cut. As to the tube wall is so thin, the tube is cut by just rolling the tub under the sharp knife. The smaller piece of tube stops the small part going flying.

Then the second half is cut off to for 2 hoods. Obviously each signal only needs one hood. So the second piece will be used for another signal

The main vertical tube is now ready to have the hood soldered over the hole.

Here the hood is attached and the lense is about to be inserted from the top.

Another view of the vertical tube with the soldering being cleaned up.

Here the lense is installed in the top of the tube.

As the wires on the LED are bare where they connect to the LED, I wanted to be sure that there would be no short and I also wanted to ensure that the LED was not crushed at the top of the tube.

I devised a way to add a dob of solder to a 1.8mm brass tube and measure it so that I can install the LED from the top of the 1.8mm tube and then push the tube up inside the 2.2mm tube. This also enables easy access and removal of the LED if things dont work out.

Here is the LED at the top of the 1.8mm tube.

I then cut a small plastic wedge that I can place in the top of the 1.8mm tube and behind the LED to ensure that the LED is held in place in the top of the 1.8mm tube and does not short against the top of the tube.

Here is the wedge placed behind the LED in the top of the tube.

Then the smaller tube including LED is inserted in the wider vertical mast tube.

The solder blob 1/2 way down the smaller tube will stop it going in too far.

The tube is now fully inserted.

Here is the mast all assembled showing that the light can be see like a normal signal

here is a view from the top.

The signal is now painted Black. the mast is then painted silver later.

Here is the Red and then the yellow follows.

The yellow is a little dim from the front, but will never be seen by a engineer, other than a N scale sized one.!

Here is the view from the isle where south staging is located.

As this picture shows, access to the front of any signal is not possible.

Here is a view of the signals installed.

The colours of the signals can be seen from the top.

The N scale engineer view of the signals.

The signals have just been painted silver with black hoods. They were later pushed down into the hole to be at about track height or just above.

This is the end of the build of the South staging signals.

The north staging signals are normal dwarf signals as they can be seen and are at eye height.

Next the install of the rest of the signals on the layout.

Signal install progress

Board builds and testing.

This weekend, as part of covid 2.0 lock down in Victoria, I spent building sub boards with resistors for my signal install. I also re tested the 28 signal masts that I had previously built. Fortunately they have stood the test of time with only a few minor repairs that had to be carried out.

I have a number of dwarf signals that I need to build for Whitehall and staging. The main 3 head masts are all built as taken from the old D&H V2 layout some years ago.

Here are the sub boards that I have built. There are different configurations for the boards depending on the main driver board that they connect to. Such as the TC64, SE8C, SRC16 and LocoHDL boards. As some signals are driven from the same 10 pin cable, and are not near each other for the wires to reach the 1 board, I was able to design the boards in a way that if I splice into the 10 pin cable with a male splice plug, then a female plug on the end of the main cable and the splice cable, I can then make wiring simpler.

The other main change is the use of the small screw terminals. On the old layout I simple soldered the enamel coated armature wire to pin headers and this was a real pain. Fortunately, I was able to source the small screw terminals from ebay for the job.

Here is a rather messy work bench. I have a few more to make for the SE8C''s once my parts arrive this week.

Hare are the sub boards that have been built thus far

Sub boards ready for install

Post signal testing and repair, the signals are laid out around the layout to make sure I have enough 

More to follow on the signal install process.

New LED's for Signals

New 3 Colour pre wired LED's for Signals.

Some time ago Vic sent me some new LED's that he obtained from RR-Cirkits in the US. These LED's are 3 colour, pre wired LED's that are 1mm x 2mm. I am going to test fit them into my signals to see how they go.

Here is a close up of the LED's. This is the LED next to an N scale microtrains coupler and spring

Now for some testing.

Life Like C-424 sub frame improvement

A bit H beam goes a long way

As the upper level of the layout is at eye height, the space between the body and the trucks on the LifeLike Alco C424 is larger than most other locos, I decided it was time to do something about it.

After some experimentation with various size Evergreen H beam, I found just the right size with some basic modifications.

Looking at pictures of the actual loco, the main sill is fairly high compared to the trucks. So the model is fairly accurate, the only think missing is the sub frame.

Here is a picture of what I was aiming for.

Here is a picture of one of my 4 Life Like C-424's with no work done on it from a frame point of view. Ie, out of the box.

Here is a modified loco with a sub frame to fill the gap. There is enough space for the trucks to rotate a pivot forward and back. Once installed, I simply painted them black and added a bit of mud brown to simulate a bit of weathering. I completed this modification on 3 of the 4 that I have and will now complete testing before I do the last one.

This is the great thing about this hobby. If I get  bored doing scenery, I can move to JMRI, building brass signals, to electronics to setting up car cards and schedules.. So different things we can do.

JMRI Panel videos

NX Routes and APB.

Here are a few short videos showing how the JMRI panel works in NX Route mode where a dispacther needs to set the route for each train for the signals to work. The second panel, is the same base file with the NX routes removed and the NX route icons removed so that the panel will operate automatically. The signals will auto set to the right colour depending on the occupancy infront of the train and the orientation of the turnout infornt of it.

Here is the NX route panel.

 

Note: The size and video quality is much better if you play the Video in Youtube rather than this small box. Click on play and then click on the Youtube icon in the box to open a new browser window in Youtube.

Here is the same panel with the NX routes removed so it effectively works in APB (Absolute Permissive Block) mode. This is so I can run the layout by my self and have the signals operate automatically.

Note: The size and video quality is much better if you play the Video in Youtube rather than this small box. Click on play and then click on the Youtube icon in the box to open a new browser window in Youtube.

Let me know of any feedback..