Joe Daddy

Index

2011-09-16T08:20:00.001-06:00

Model Railroading - Lessons learned

My old Model A Street Rod - 33 seconds

Five minutes of my Layout

< style="text-align: left;">Layout Planning
A Pox on Hidden Staging?

Tunnels

Layout Planning

Train Cadd

Train Cadd assessment
Train Cadd Selection Criteria
( POLL)

Bench work

Building the layout

Scenery and Finishing

Miscellaneous

Computer control

Train Tracking
Automation Software, painful! Updated 10/2008
Block detection selection
(Poll)
Dual Monitors
Naming conventions
(Poll)
Train Automation - the Goal
(Poll)
Train Automation - Sensor and program logic
Train Automation - Windows 7 COMM Ports

DCC

Product Evaluations

Tools

Opinion

NMRA - time to renew, or not?

Craigslist

One Second After

Shop lighting

What is important to you, Opinion Poll

Commentary

MRR
Urban Legends

Windows COMM Port mischief

2011-09-14T17:59:00.000-06:00

First, a few facts about COMM ports on Windows 7 machines:

Windows 7 Device Manager is used to manage and keep track of COMM Port use and assignments.
Windows device manager only shows 'active' devices with a few 'unexplainable exceptions', after all we are talking about Microsoft here.
Every time you use a different port (including hub ports) for a device, Windows loads a new driver and if a COMM port is required, assigns a different port number. This means your DCC USB device could have several different COMM ports assigned to the same device. The only visible one will be the active one.
Many software programs that use COMM Ports are limited to ports 1-10 only.
The net result is that your Windows system can accumulate a dozen or more com ports but only 3 or 4 may be visible in the Device Manager.

To display these and other hidden devices in the manger,

Click windows key R and type cmd (the old DOS window pops up) issue the following command into the Command prompt. "set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1" (without the ") Open Device Manager
Click View -> Show Hidden Devices
Now when you expand the section on COM ports, the non present COM ports will be in grey. You can now easily remove any unwanted devices that are tying up COM ports by Right Clicking then selecting Uninstall.
After you are done, should you wish to hide these devices again you can do so by entering set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=0 in Command Prompt.

XOOM vs IPAD

2011-07-08T15:55:00.007-06:00

I just returned my Xoom, I found there was little to be gained by changing, in fact I found the entire Xoom experience to be a waste of precious time. In a nut shell, the hardware and physicals are better than the iPad and Google applications are more mature and robust in the Xoom. Even with those positives, the real negatives were in the complexity of making the Xoom do its thing and the APPS portfolio for the Xoom is pitifully inadequate. Sure they got numbers but the quality and maturity of most of the apps is laughable.

I spent about 25 hours on my Xoom the first week, just trying to figure out how to make it do stuff. Unfortunately the efforts for the second week were similar and I decided to retreat to the iPad which just works. The Xoom was not any faster than my iPad 1 on WIFI or 3G, in fact I found that frequently the iPad was faster and more responsive. I don't like Safari, but what ever they include on the Xoom was worse. Yes, I could have added fire fox, but that is more to the point, the Xoom out of the box is not much until you spend a huge amount of time and effort figuring out what doesn't work, finding a solution and making it work.

Bottom line I decided my time was better spent using my tablet and less time tweaking and customizing it. With the iPad it doesn't do some important things like flash, but you know what, I find I get along fine without it.

And for those keeping score, I really don't like MAC or Apple at all, and I find the iPhone to be a mess.

MY ASSESSMENT - as I see it.

Attribute	Xoom	iPad (1)	Delta	Comment
Physicals
Cost	4.0	3.0	1
Storage (Max GB)	3.0	5.0	-2	32 vs 64 GB
Size	4.0	3.0	1	Xoom ~1” narrow
Weight	3.0	4.0	-1	Xoom +3 Oz
Case	1.0	3.0	-2	Xoom case is DOOM!
Ergonomics	3.0	5.0	-2	XOOM Button placement, charger location
Sound management	4.0	4.0	0
Bluetooth	4.0	1.0	3
Cameras	4.0	1.0	3
3g Cost	4.0	2.0	2	Verizon 1GB $20, AT&T 250 MB $15
4G	2.0	1.0	1	Neither has it, Xoom promises it
SD Card	3.0	1.0	2	Xoom has hardware not yet supported
PC conect HW	5.0	1.0	4	Xoom uses standard micro usb, iPad proprietary
Charger	1.0	3.0	-2	Xoom Charger separate from micro usb and not compat with the case
hardware apps summary	3.2	2.6		Xoom hardware more features and power than the iPad.
Application base
Flash	5.0	1.0	4
Word/Excel	2.0	2.0	0	Both lousy
Audio	5.0	5.0	0
Video	3.0	3.0	0	Ipad just works except flash and some WMV, Xoom requires an applicatoin
Google Apps	5.0	3.0	2	iPad’s version of Google Apps less robust, wonder why?
Email	4.0	4.0	0
Sync software	1.0	5.0	-4	Cannot believe I am voting FOR iTues!
base apps summary	3.6	3.3		Email and GOOGLE apps work better on the Xoom
My Apps			0
Netflix	1.0	5.0	-4	NO NETFLIX for XOOM!
Olive Tree Bible	4.0	5.0	-1	iPad easier to figure out, simpler but as powerful
FreeCell HD	2.0	5.0	-3	My card game in iPad superior to Xoom
WiThrottle	3.0	4.0	-1	iPad version more polished, easier to use
CraigsList	1.0	4.0	-3	iPad superior, Xoom's difficult to even use
Fox News	1.0	5.0	-4	iPad, no contest
Google Nav	4.0	2.0	2	Google stuff superior on the Xoom
Weather Bug	3.0	5.0	-2	iPad's version easier to use
Slingbox	3.0	3.0	0	Did not buy it for Xoom, too expensive just to test
Learning curve	1.0	5.0	-4	MUCH more difficult to master the Xoom navigation, too many confusing features that are difficult to figure out.
my apps summary	2.3	4.3		Summary, iPad apps more mature and polished.

	3.0	3.4	-10

My 29 Model A Coupe

2011-06-11T08:05:00.004-06:00

Just a couple of seconds of pure fun with one of the best toys a guy could have. Do I miss it, nope, but it was an amazing thing for the time!

Joe Daddy's Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad Video

2011-06-04T21:54:00.002-06:00

Here is a recent Video of my Colorado & Santa Fe. I hope you like it, there are a lot of trains running in this short video.

Kinj etic Trainer 10 miles

2011-02-28T22:56:00.002-07:00

Kinetic Trainer 10 miles by joedaddyo at Garmin Connect - Details

Riding the indoor bike keeps me out of the train room as well as the doctor's office!

NMRA, renew or not?

2010-10-17T07:19:00.017-06:00

It is that time of year again, you know, when you get a message from the NMRA to renew your membership. Just checked NMRA.org to see what it will cost me. 58 bucks, up 3 from the last time as I recall, and it is ONLY 39 bucks if I drop Scale Rails, er NMRA something or other. . .

First, let me take a quick audit of what Model Railroad organizations & subscriptions I belong and their costs:
Boulder Model Railroad Club (BMRC)- dues $24
Northern Colorado Model Railroad Club (NCMRC)- dues $24
NMRA - dues $58
Model Railroader Magazine - Cost $43
Model Railroad Hobbyist - Cost nada, zip

According to the NMRA's own website, the principal reasons for being a member of their organization include 1)Fellowship, 2)Member Services, 3)Standards and the 4)Achievement Program. I'll throw in their 5)NMRA Magazine, formerly Scale Rails as an advantage. I'll take each one of these five advantages and contrast the value I receive from my other hobby sources.

1) Fellowship
I belonged to the NMRA three years before I joined my local club. This is interesting in that my principal reason for joining the BMRC was to meet more modelers face to face. During the three years of NMRA membership, I never met a fellow member through the club. After two years as a member of the BMRC and a year with the NCMRC, I can boast of having met literally dozens of local modelers. Winner - Local Club, Looser NMRA

2) Member Benefits
According to the NMRA website, the unique member benefits include the Library, Annual Trainshow, Insurance for member clubs, member Aid program, local clinics, layout tours and the Pike Registry. They list other services but since they are already listed individually as reasons to join, I ignored the redundancy. The NMRA library charges 5 bucks to rent a tape. One club (one with the largest library) lets us have tapes for a month free, up to 6 at a time and same arrangement for the extensive book library. I've never traveled to the national train show because of the costs, but my local club has an annual local train show. The regional NMRA had a regional convention in 2009 and I had to work! (Bummer). In 5 years of modeling I've been invited to one layout tour weekend offered by the NMRA, but that invitation came through my local club, not the NMRA. My local clubs average a layout tour every month. As for assistance, I have a long list of club members I can call who will not only answer questions via email or phone, but they will also come by and help me one on one. The NMRA local org may have some clinics, but my local clinics have one every month. The insurance is inconsequential for me because both my clubs are no longer NMRA sanctioned clubs, too many members refused to pay the NMRA's fee. So who wins this category, the Local club wins hands down.

3) Standards
So far, the ONLY standards the NMRA have provided me can be summed up in their NMRA gauge which is, I think way over priced. talk about NMRA standards and DCC quickly comes to the table. After about 15 years of standards oversight in the area of DCC, let me provide my view of their success:
a - Function key standards: What a crock and what a failure! F0 (head lights), F1 (Bell), F2 (Horn/Whistle) and F8 (sound on|off) are defacto standards adopted by most manufactures, MRC and MTH being the two major violators of this simple need. The NMRA has sat idly by. Why is it important, because any kind of user training or automation becomes needlessly complex. I am particularly offended by this state of our hobby because of the 'complex efforts' by the NMRA on other issues when they could have claimed some good ground on this, a rather simple need.
b - Throttle interface: The throttle interface facilitate throttle portability. 70% of all manufacturers refuse to share or adopt throttle interface standards, each requiring one to purchase and use 'their' proprietary throttle. Only Lenz users can benefit from other throttle manufacturer products. Where is the NMRA on this?
c - Feedback interface: 100% of DCC manufacturers are proprietary. There are at least two efforts to standardize these, one led by the NMRA the other by an independent group. These efforts are over a decade late. Most, if not all DCC manufacturers are deeply entrenched in their own solutions.
d - PC compatibility: Among DCC vendors, most if not all USB and serial port interfaces operate and function very differently and require vendor specific adaptions.
Net these four separate DCC issues and it makes layout automation, signaling and use more complex and difficult. As one who continues to work on automating his layout, I deal with this myriad of issues on a regular basis. In most cases the solutions are more costly than if the NMRA had been more diligent and determined in this cause. It is particularly disheartening because only the NMRA was positioned early on to solve these issues. Read the minutes of a couple of their big meetings of the players and it is clear that the vendors have easily 'managed' and manipulated the NMRA to keep the status quo.
Clearly it is my observation that DCC is overly complex and more expensive singularly because of the failure of the NMRA to manage standards. This is particularly concerning because most of us have the 'notion' that the NMRA is advocating for us and protecting our hobby with standards. Looser - NMRA

4) Achievement Program:
I like the notion of the NMRA achievement program. I personally know 3 Master Model Railroaders and they are excellent modelers. While I have not personally used the program, I have reviewed the criteria and the process. It is a worthwhile endeavor, and someday when I get my layout more completed, I may take it on. Winner - NMRA

5) NMRA Magazine:
Up until the advent of the NMRA Magazine which replaced Scale Rails several months ago, I would have equated Stephen Priest's work with Scale Rails with any publication out there. However, with the advent of the new magazine, the work, IMHO has lost its edge. In the past i have rationalized that Sale Rails justified the $58 cost of membership. I can't continue to make that justification. Looser - NMRA

Summation
Here is the bottom line, today I'm retired on a fixed income. Discretionary income I can allocate to my hobby is limited. Simply put, I can be a member in not one but TWO local clubs, gain more benefits and save 10 bucks over being a member of the NMRA. You know what my decision is.

Just my two cents

Joe Daddy

My new IPAD

2010-06-30T08:38:00.008-06:00

I bought 2 new 64GB 3G IPADS last Thursday, June 24. Will I return them or keep them? So far wifey is saying keep your fingerlicking paws off my IPAD!

I gave up on Apple in 1985 when the PC came out because business refused to even talk about them. I'd started into PCs with an Apple ][e. Bet you have not seen that set of characters in a LONG time!

So far, I am way impressed.

Cons

NO NESTED PICTURE FOLDERS
Getting pictures on the thing is a PITA
NO USB for Thumb Drives
Setting up email is funky
I'm thinking they rushed this sucker to the market place, lots of things to come like deleting pictures and arranging them with iPhoto not there today.

Pros

Amazing graphics
Pictures are wonderful
Great set of applications.

More to come,

Got to go ride my bike!

Joe Daddy

Tunnels redux

2010-04-25T07:50:00.003-06:00

Well, there just seems to be no end to the learning when you are a model railroader. I've built a passel of them, and I seem to want to repeat the same mistakes each time. Maybe, if I take the time to write a few thoughts down, I'll remember next time.

Here are a few basic lessons learned:

Keep a gallon of flat black paint around when you start a tunnel.
Paint the roadbed and anything inside the thing with a good coat of flat black, two if you were cheap and bought the thin stuff like I did. Failure to do this step will upset you later.
Solder any track joints that might be inside or withn 2 inches of the portal(s).
File any track joints and make sure there are no humps or bumps.
Fasten the track to the roadbed with nails or glue before you close it up.
Please, Joe, at least keep the kinks in the track on the visible part of the layout, preferably in the front where you can see it.
Ballast the track at least a foot into the tunnel before it becomes a tunnel.
Make sure the ballast is cleaned off the rails.
Don't put any track feeders on any track within the tunnel unless you have complete access to the track from behind or below, and I mean complete access here.
You really do need tunnel liners at least a foot into the tunnel. And of course make sure they are painted flat black before you install them. I like the Woodland Scenics tunnel liner mold C1250.
When constructing the tunnel, make sure the track is protected from hot glue, plaster, paint and other scenic materials used in the construction of the mountain above. A recent renovation of a tunnel revealed a huge blob of hot glue affixed to the outside of the rails. Why I was not getting derailments there is one of those unknowns in life.

Craigslist Tools

2010-04-16T16:39:00.001-06:00

Click here for the Craigslist article on my website.

Shop Lights

2010-04-04T03:53:00.003-06:00

I must have dozed off longer than I realized, or our buddies at the ECO store have done another number on us. I need a couple of those cheap two tube florescent light fixtures. You know the ones on the end cap at HD|Lowes that are 5-7 bucks. Well, I Lowes has them but they are 12.95 each. Tilt, said my brain, these are end cap sales items that never cost more than 8 bucks. Go to HD and pick them up. Well, just left the HD website, and am still in shock! Model 1242ZG RE $19.97

This just can't be right, I'm having a bad dream.

DCC equipment drawer

2009-08-20T17:08:00.001-06:00

DCC Equipment Drawer

DCC equipment drawer components

Original Configuration
Qty	Manuf.	Descriptoin
1	Lenz	Set SI
2	Lenz	LR101 Digital Feedback module
8	Lenz	LB101 Block Occupancy Detector
2	Lenz	LS150 Turnout Decoder for DCC
1	DCC Specialties	RRamp Meter V2 (Portable)
1	AT&T	48 Port RJ45 Patch Panel

My experience with the LR101/LB101 shows they work reliably with wire lengths of 30-50 feet. I have the LR101 and the LB101 within 3 feet of the LZV100.

Since this is an area of great interest, let me elaborate on what I have done. There are a number of significant differences with using feedback vs. regular DCC. Some that I have discovered include:

The wiring for DCC with feedback is perhaps even more complicated that DC with elaborate block control.
Using a standard two wire buss (JK) for distribution all DCC is possible ONLY you:
1. distribute your feedback hardware (LR101/LB101) around the layout
2. provide distributed RS wiring around the layout as well. RS is used to digitally control the LR101
3. a series of wires are then required to be connected between the LR101 and the LB101 and the DCC wiring buss (JK)
Distributing the Feedback Hardware around the layout caused me a lot of problems troubleshooting and getting it to work correctly.
Moving or relocating a layout with distributed feedback hardware would be a real challenge.

I speak only from personal experience, as I have not yet seen or visited anyone who is using feedback except one very large layout using Bruce Chubb's stuff, and it is complicated certainly as much or more than what I am talking about here.

My first attempt at block detection was with the distributed hardware mounted close to the block. It kept bothering me that almost all of us use 18-24 gauge wire from the DCC Buss to the track. While the wire lengths are typically short, small wire-size is still small wire size. The numbers of wires for each block detector quickly becomes a bird's next, something I try to avoid. All of this and not even started signaling!

To overcome these issues, I wondered if Cat 3/5 24 gauge wire was sufficient to run my railroad so after a few tests with the wire and my RRamp meter I decided that it was worth a shot. What I did was to put all my DCC electronics in a drawer on slides with a 48 port patch panel out the back. This means I only have the cat 3/5 wires which plug into my panel plus a couple of AC wires to power supplies and my equipment bay is portable. This fact was reinforces when I abandoned my first railroad shortly after finishing the rewiring. Actually the fact that I could leverage that work on the new layout helped me make the decision to start over with an around the wall layout instead of a middle of the room configuration.

Concern over the current carrying capability of Cat 3/5 (.5 amps for 24 gauge) bothered me so I decided to use 4 sets of parallel wires to drive each segment of track. I solder most of my track as the temperature control of my layout is quite good, 70 +/- 3 degrees so I am not concerned much about expansion.

In testing current requirements, I ran 8 DCC sound equipped locomotives at the same time, with two pulling 20+ cars and found the current load to stay under 1 amp. With 16 or more blocks in my railroad, overloading the circuits does not seem to be an issue for me. Using O or G might well be a problem but not for my type of railroad.

Current Configuration
Qty	Manufacturer	Description
1	NCE	ProCab R
2	CTI Electronics	TB014 Sentry feedback modules
2	CTI Electronics	SM001-CC/CA Signalman signal light module
1	DCC Specialties	PSX-2 PowerShield X™ intelligent circuit breaker
2	DCC Specialties	RRamp Meter V1 (Panel Mount)
1	AT&T	48 Port RJ45 Patch Panel
4	Amphenol	110 distribution block (12 port)
8	DCC Specialties	Wabbit™ Dual DCC Stationary Decoder
14	DCC Specialties	Hare™ DCC Stationary Decoder

Computer Control - Train Tracking

2009-08-06T19:34:00.006-06:00

Under construction

Key to long term, legitimate computer control is some method of Train Tracking. By train tracking I mean being able to sense for a certainty exactly which locomotive is at a given point at a given time. There are at least three general approaches floating around that could be a solution for this problem. They are:

Ultrasonic sound, as represented by a product called RPS.
Bar codes affixed to the bottom of the locomotive.
RFID - small radio frequency id chips

My chosen automation software (CTI Electronics) uses a 'register' called a Beacon. There is a beacon for each location (block) on the railroad. The software 'passes' the number of the Locomotive from beacon to beacon as it moves around the layout. One knows where a particular train is by the contents of these registers.

And yes, loading or initializing beacons is a PITA. I've asked Tim the maestro behind CTI for an RFID capability and am willing to invest and test as required to make it work. Stay tuned, Tim is a great listener!

You all might find the current status of the RPS system long touted as the Model Railroad GPS system. So I don't misquote, you can read about it at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RPS-mrr/

Personally I think the RFID system has a much better chance of success, especially if we limit our expectations.

At the very minimum, we need the ability to read a spot on the mainline, know for a certainty what locomotive is at that point, then check the contents of our beacons either loading or validating the contents.

Understanding beacon programming and management is key to the successful use of CTI in multi-train operations. (Least that is the way I see it.)

So far as CTI goes, I don't care if Tim wants to resell the stuff and support only what he can sell with enhancements to TrainBrain, or specify one or two suppliers. Mox nix to me! I just want RFID, the chips are small, inexpensive, have a reliable radius of 3-5 inches, work on standard USB what more could we want? Keep the chips under $5-10 bucks a locomotive with CTI support and my visa # is standing by! A 100 bucks for a station reader works too!

My vision of exactly how it could work:
The RFID reader need only do one thing, "Report the contents of the last RFID
chip read when polled." (RFIDreaderA)

I would have a sensor (IR/Photo SensorRFIDa) placed at the same spot as the RFID
reader so that I know when a loco arrives at the sensor.

I see the code something like this:

When SensorRFIDa = true do
If Beacon[1] <> RFIDreaderA then
Beacon[1] = RFIDreaderA
endif

That simple code, with an operating RFID system would ensure my beacons self load when a loco comes by, or verifies the correct loco is known to my layout. Two critical pieces from my way of thinking.

More As I learn it

One Second After

2009-08-06T19:03:00.007-06:00

Read One Second After. It is a well written, fast book on what happens to America after our enemies strike with an EMP strike. http://onesecondafter.com/

Don't know what EMP stands for? You ought to find out.

My wife found it to be a good book as well.

2009-04-03T20:54:00.001-06:00

It has been a while since I have updated my blog. Chief among reasons is the time I am spending serving my club, the Boulder Model Railroad Club. I volunteered to take an officer position this year and the impact on my free time has been significant. I also too a new job last fall and wow, that has really taken its toll. And finally, I've been spending what free time I have in the train room which is where a model railroader is suppose to be.

Writing and reporting about being the treasurer of the club or about my new job would be no fun, but I think we can all agree that writing about model railroading is more fun.

So I thought it would be fun to take a specific scene and and show what it looks like now then step back and see the different looks that same view has had over the past two years of on the Colorado & Santa Fe.

SANTA FE

This area is supposed to be Santa Fe, New Mexico. Here is the current view:

Progress is seeing the differences

2009-04-01T20:37:00.000-06:00

LL Scratchbuilding auto overpasses

2009-03-31T20:46:00.008-06:00

This is where we are going, but it took me a few tries to get there.

Rix Products makes a great overpass. Many layouts have them, they are truly ubiquitous. The more I saw them, the more I became sure I wanted one. I purchased one of their 50's style overpass kits and put it in my project box. I needed one about 3 feet long which meant that I'd need several kits. As I continued to evolve my city scenes, more overpasses went on my todo list. All told, I needed about 12 feet of them. at about 20 bucks a foot, the price kinda started to worry me and I put the project off.

I had an open house last August and had a place where I really wanted an overpass. One of the pre-open house tasks was to install new valences. Among the scrap masonite (hard board to you youngsters) was a piece about 4 inches wide and about 3 feet long, just precisely the size and shape of what I expected for my overpass needs. I whacked off a couple of 1x4X4 blocks and presto, there was my overpass conceptual model.

Yep, with a little imagination, and it was the look the scene needed. I grabbed a ruler and measured the width of the Rix road bed, adjusted the fence on my band saw and had a 3.5 inch x 3 foot overpass. A shot of shake and shoot gray and it looked pretty good. A quick look in the junk box and I found a couple of 1 foot pieces of broom stick. A few feet of 1 x 1 and some yellow glue and I had a set of piers that looked ok. I took 4 of the old style Rix railings, grabbed my silicone caulk and the thing started to look like something.

So for the next couple of months, I had an overpass. I was pretty proud of it, but I knew it was a far cry from what I wanted. Then I started looking at other peoples overpasses, taking pictures of them, really examining what people do. Everyone except Howard Zane seemed to be content with the Rix product. At Christmas, my daughter's boy friend (a fellow model railroader, it does not get better than that) said I should put an overpass across my yard on my peninsula. A quick measure and that bridge would be 5 feet long. I always kept coming back to the Rix product, and finally decided that the Rix would not only be expensive, but would also take some work to get it straight.

Back to the scrap masonite pile and I found a 6 ft piece about the right size. Set the bandsaw, and I'm in business again. But this one was so long it was really floppy and hard to keep straight, so I set the band saw fence to 3/8 " and ripped some long ribs (girders). A little glue and I had a straight overpass that looked much better than the version 1 but since I used the smooth on only one side kind of masonite, the ends looked ragged and I made a few other little mistakes. And I learned that cutting masonite with my 10" band saw was murder on the blade. Talk about crooked! How can you get crooked with a fence? Chew the set off the teeth on the blade and watch it wander is how. I decided to make this one a modern bridge and glued a piece of simple molding on each side of the bridge. This was the right set of concepts, but the look, well you can see for your self in the picture that it is ugly, only a mother could love it.

And the broomstick piers did not look right at all. The Rix design is adjustable to deal with the inevitable uneven surface. I looked around the materials drawer and found a piece of 1/2" dowel, grabbed some of the 1x1 I had cut up when I had the table saw out and headed for the drill press. I grabbed my new 1/2" forestner bit and went to work on the 1x1. Soon I had some better looking and fully adjustable piers.

A little gray paint and victory. Boy this sucker is looking good. No, sorry, the piers just don't look good. Version 2 was a real disappointment, neither the railings nor the piers looked right and the masonite was a crooked disaster.

Back to the scrap pile an there it was, a nice piece of smooth on both sides hardboard (masonite for us old guys). This time I went into the garage to dig out the table saw. What a difference! Smooth, straight and clean. I cut enough parts to build about 15' of bridges all straight and smooth. A little yellow glue and some clamps and now it is starting to look right.

For the piers, I decided a 1x2 would look better on the base than the 1x1. By now, I had found my dowel jig and headed for the drill press. I replaced the forestner bit for a regular 1/2 twist and whacked out the holes in a few minutes. The forestner bit would clog and have to be cleaned 3 or 4 times for each hole, a real pain in the neck, and the holes were, well holes.

DCC Equipment Drawer

2009-03-02T16:41:00.007-07:00

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DCC equipment drawer components

Original Configuration
Qty	Manuf.	Descriptoin
1	Lenz	Set SI
2	Lenz	LR101 Digital Feedback module
8	Lenz	LB101 Block Occupancy Detector
2	Lenz	LS150 Turnout Decoder for DCC
1	DCC Specialties	RRamp Meter V2 (Portable)
1	AT&T	48 Port RJ45 Patch Panel

My experience with the LR101/LB101 shows they work reliably with wire lengths of 30-50 feet. I have the LR101 and the LB101 within 3 feet of the LZV100.

Since this is an area of great interest, let me elaborate on what I have done. There are a number of significant differences with using feedback vs. regular DCC. Some that I have discovered include:

The wiring for DCC with feedback is perhaps even more complicated that DC with elaborate block control.
Using a standard two wire buss (JK) for distribution all DCC is possible ONLY you:
1. distribute your feedback hardware (LR101/LB101) around the layout
2. provide distributed RS wiring around the layout as well. RS is used to digitally control the LR101
3. a series of wires are then required to be connected between the LR101 and the LB101 and the DCC wiring buss (JK)
Distributing the Feedback Hardware around the layout caused me a lot of problems troubleshooting and getting it to work correctly.
Moving or relocating a layout with distributed feedback hardware would be a real challenge.

Current Configuration
Qty	Manufacturer	Description
1	NCE	ProCab R
2	CTI Electronics	TB014 Sentry feedback modules
2	CTI Electronics	SM001-CC/CA Signalman signal light module
1	DCC Specialties	PSX-2 PowerShield X™ intelligent circuit breaker
2	DCC Specialties	RRamp Meter V1 (Panel Mount)
1	AT&T	48 Port RJ45 Patch Panel
4	Amphenol	110 distribution block (12 port)


8	DCC Specialties	Wabbit™ Dual DCC Stationary Decoder
14	DCC Specialties	Hare™ DCC Stationary Decoder

Your feedback is appreciate.

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2008-12-01T22:05:00.000-07:00

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DCC - Managing Power off Lenz vs NCE

2008-11-11T07:48:00.003-07:00

Power management
The following is a post I recently made to the CTI & NCE yahoo forums.

Two years ago, I would have told you that CTI's unwillingness to power off my Lenz system in favor of dropping into emergency stop (ES) mode was a mistake. Today, I see it as genius.

Here is why. When one is operating the layout via automated software such as CTI, and especially when using current detection, keeping the sensors energized while sorting out irregularities such as a derailment is a wise thing to do. If the sensors loose power, the logic will time out and effectively do a power on reset, which, if you have followed the consequences of power cycling and layout synchronization, you'd quickly know how difficult that scenario can be.

Let us examine differences between ES for Lenz & NCE.

With Lenz, Press the red button on the Lenz controller and the system defaults to emergency stop. Press the button again and the layout resumes its last set of operations; or one can manually press F0 on a throttle and the layout powers down.

For NCE, pressing emergency stop once and it stops only the operating locomotive controlled by that throttle, press two more times and the layout powers down. Pressing the enter key restores layout power. Unfortunately all locos remains stopped until you restart them individually. All of these situations are problematic for automatic operation.

Lenz & NCE have programmable options regarding power. Lenz allows for one to go directly to power off with the red button pushed. (Interestingly, changing this option does NOT affect how CTI treats the system, which is a wonderfully good thing.)

NCE allows one to do away with powering off the layout entirely, an option for which a logical reason completely escapes me.

Summary
CTI power control works well with Lenz and NCE and at first blush, one would prefer the NCE, however, upon deeper analysis of the problem my conclusions are:

The Lenz solution is a far better scenario for computer controlled layouts. Using the Lenz system, one can easily and reliably suspend the layout for indefinite amounts of time by pressing emergency stop.

With the NCE, using the emergency power (off) can produce unpredictable results, hardly a reliable situation.

The Lenz system continues to sound like the better solution for CTI automatic operation. With JMRI, the impact of these circumstances is not clear to me.

The Lenz system responds to the ES (Red) button by freezing or suspending the entire layout and resuming operation with another depression of the ES button. Further, the Lenz will allow one to reconfigure the ES button to 'power off' the layout, if so desired. I'd like to see NCE make that change to their product so the two worked identically. It certainly would benefit those of us who want to run from the computer.

Joe Daddy 11-2008

Layout Facias and Valences Lessons learned

2008-11-05T20:06:00.009-07:00

My newest addition to my train library is Tony Koester's new book Designing & Building Multi-Deck Model Railroads. This book is excellent and has some of the most enjoyable pictures of model railroading I've ever seen in one place. So why have I started a blog entry about layout valence and fascia additions to a model railroad with a book endorsement. Simply because Tony does a pretty nice job of covering the topic. But I've learned a few lessons that Tony didn't mention. Now some of these lessons I read about, saw on an other's layout or simply figured them out myself. So here goes:

Valences
The location of lights used with valences is very important. Locate the lights as close to the front edge of the layout as possible. This makes it harder to 'see' the bulbs either while looking at the layout or taking pictures.

I had spent a LOT of money installing modular track lighting for my layout and that was money poorly spent. I've found that cheap 48" shop lights with 1 t-8 bright or daylight florescent (never soft or cool lamps) have turned out to be a better choice. Without a valence, the track lighting certainly looked better than a bunch of shop lights would. But of course, the fascia hides the lights from view, and more importantly, it keeps the lights from glaring right into your eyes or the camera lens. If the lights are at the back of the facia cavity, it is all to easy to see and look directly into the lights. Another problem with the track lights is the shadows they create and the difficulty in obtaining even lighting over the layout.

Backdrop height
I wish I had made my backdrops go from the layout all the way to the ceiling. Instead, my 24" back drops sitting on top of a 52" layout shelf leaves about a foot of white wall showing. This spoils the look. See what I mean in the picture at the right?

When I visited a friend's layout recently, he had just finished installing his valences. He avoided the light issues by using translucent panels suspended in drop ceiling frames. I chose to do this on my peninsula where it is very easy to see the lights from the end, no matter where you put them. The big drawback with this method is the price. All of the parts are pretty cheap,but you wind up using a lot more of them than you think. Just doing the Peninsula which is about 1/4th of my layout cost more than $150.

Fascia
Originally, my facia was 6" wide and was 'smooth and straight" along the edges of my layout tables. All along, I had planned to have an uneven, sort of undulating edge with the scenery raising up to the top edge. Why I' did not do it that way to start is anyone's guess, but I ripped out the current fascia and replaced it with 12" high masonite pieces. At the bottom on the rough inside surface, I used liquid nails to attach clothes pins about every foot or so. These pins hang down below the table edge and are to be used to hold landscaping black 'fine mesh' as a curtain. his tip courtesy of NMRA Scale Rails and a friend's layout.

My new NCE Radio System Observations

2008-10-31T20:23:00.024-06:00

Well, I made the decision today, I'm having some interoperability problems with my Lenz system talking to my CTI system. The North Coast System has had my attention for a long time so I thought I'd give it a try and see what all the fuss is about. Right out of the box, I've started seeing little things that catch my attention so I thought I'd keep track of them here for all to see.

I've no intent to bash the product, but I will be sharing those things that bug me.

1 - The documentation is not as crisp as I'd expected. For example, page 82/83 shows the system connections, however it does not show the connections to the antenna. Reading the book, I'm at a loss to know where it connects.

2 - Purchased the USB adapter and went to the NCE website to get the driver. What a mess that was, Go to a different site, then the instructions do not match the directions on the website. Why not post the driver or the correct link? I did eventually find the right driver on the NCE website, but it was quite by accident, and there are two drivers there. The other one is for a Serial/USB adapter, not the NCE USB adapter. U think they were labeled so you would no that, naa, had to down load them and see what was inside them to figure it out.

3 - The LEDs on the USB adapter only light up with traffic, which is important to know as the Lenz USB adapter LEDs light up all the time the appropriate end is connected and powered.

4 - The USB adapter would not work in Decoder Pro when set to 19,200 baud, even though the adapter jumper and the driver setting were set to 19,200 baud. I found a note on the JMRI site that suggests the adapter only works at 9600 baud. I spent about an hour figuring this out.

5 - Decoder Pro works differently using the COM port (Serial) vs the USB. Using the USB, the power control buttons would not toggle the power on and off, yet those two buttons work as expected using the Serial Port.

6 - If they would have used a 5 pin connector for the track and transformer connections (added GND) the connections between the Lenz and the Pro Cab would have been a plug and play swap. I plugged the antenna into my former Lenz cabling and everything seems to be working. We'll see if that holds true.

7 - This is such a simple question, but I really need to ask. And I assure you that I have been diligent in RTFM, even to searching the files section and reading Mark Gurries Radio Hackers Guide.

Pressing the red Emergency Stop (ES) button 3 times turns my command
station off. SO, how do I turn it back on? Press the Enter key from the cab that powered down. (a big thanks to Marcus for his help on this)

I have been doing it in these ways:

and it never works the same way twice in a row.
1. Unplug the command station and plug it back in.
2. Press the ES button a number of 1 second or longer presses.
3. Press Prog/Esc + ES
4. Press Shift + ES
5. Using Decoder Pro or CTI (serial only) connections and it works
perfectly and predictably.

Mark Gurrie says something about Power On difficulties and offers a few
tips, all things I'm pretty sure would void my warranty. Quoting from
his guide (2003) version:
Hard to Power On (even when pressing 3:00 position)
– Problem: Insufficient power up interlock drive.
– Fix#3: One resistor change on Radio Board.
– Problem: LCD Backlight draws to much power.
– Fix#4: One resistor change on Cab Board.
– Fix#5: Check back of LCD Board for Resistors. If exist,

8 - None of my Hare/Wrabit turnout decoders are addressing properly. No idea what that problem will be. From the throttles, turnout decoders work the same, but from a computer interface, NCE chose to be different from the Lenz addressing scheme. Lenz addresses the first decoder (with 8 outputs) with a zero, while NCE addresses same with a 1. The wreaks havoc when using a computer interface.

Things I like so far:

Having the LH100 buttons AND the thumb wheel is nice. Best of both worlds.
I like the automatic cab power off feature and I like the fact that the wait time is adjustable.
Selecting turnouts is simpler and more straight forward, and it returns to the locomotive after you select the action. Maybe, it turns out to be a little more cerebral on the NCE that at first blush. On the NCE you have to know which direction to throw the turnout, and if you choose wrong, you must go through a new keyboard sequence, with the Lenz, you select the turnout, then use the + & - keys until it points the way you want.

Things I don't like so far:

Having to press Emergency Stop three times to shut down the layout.
The Escape key is not convenient, I am use to it being at the top, not the bottom.
Loosing Emergency Power Off by shorting two pins on the command station is a real loss of functionality.
The USB adapter is not yet supported by the applications I use.
Lack of a protective cover for the USB adapter.
Lenz has an emergency stop mode that does NOT remove power from the tracks, but stops all the trains. NCE removes power from the tracks. Current detectors like to have constant power on the tracks so this is another liability for the NCE.
I'm liking the Lenz turnout controls better all the time.

Power management
The following is a post I just made to the CTI forum.

Two years ago, I would have told you that CTI's unwillingness to power off my Lenz system in favor of dropping into emergency stop (ES) mode was a mistake. Today, I see it as genius.

Here is why. When one is operating the layout via automated software such as CTI, and especially when using current detection, keeping the sensors energized while sorting out irregularities such as a derailment is a wise thing to do. If the sensors loose power, the logic will time out and effectively do a power on reset, which, if you have followed the consequences of power cycling and layout synchronization, you'd quickly know how difficult that scenario can be.

Let us examine differences between ES for Lenz & NCE.

With Lenz, Press the red button on the Lenz controller and the system defaults to emergency stop. Press the button again and the layout resumes its last set of operations; or one can manually press F0 on a throttle and the layout powers down.

For NCE, pressing emergency stop once and it stops only the operating locomotive controlled by that throttle, press two more times and the layout powers down. Pressing the enter key restores layout power. Unfortunately all locos remains stopped until you restart them individually. All of these situations are problematic for automatic operation.

Lenz & NCE have programmable options regarding power. Lenz allows for one to go directly to power off with the red button pushed. (Interestingly, changing this option does NOT affect how CTI treats the system, which is a wonderfully good thing.)

NCE allows one to do away with powering off the layout entirely, an option for which a logical reason completely escapes me.

Summary
CTI power control works well with Lenz and NCE and at first blush, one would prefer the NCE, however, upon deeper analysis of the problem, the Lenz solution is a far better scenario for computer controlled layouts. Using the Lenz system, one can easily and reliably suspend the layout for indefinite amounts of time by pressing emergency stop.

I see no ill effects from that. However, with the NCE, using the emergency power can produce unpredictable results, hardly a reliable situation.

The Lenz system continues to sound like the better solution for CTI automatic operation. With JMRI, the impact of these circumstances is not clear to me.

Check back in a few days as I continue to add to my list of experiences. And thanks for stopping by my Blog.

Lenz Throttle experiences

2008-10-30T14:50:00.009-06:00

Some asked for recommendations on which PDA to use for his new Lenz Set LI. Here is my response.

Like you I opted for the Set LI initially using the KAM Train Priority software suite.
I'll share my experiences with throttles.

I've used Four different computer interface throttles:

1. Desktop PC
2. Tablet PC (Motion Computing M1300)
3. HP IPAQ 2055
4. Samsung I730

A thumbnail of results with these devices:

I use the Desktop throttle today when running my automated layout with CTI and JMRI software. I loved the KAM network concept but the rest of the suite left me wanting. My KAM experience is dated by 3 years.
The Tablet works well with KAM throttles because of the network concept and the larger screen on the tablet allows multiple throttles. It is analogous to a large PDA. Does not work with CTI or JMRI unless you tether it with USB or Serial cables.
The IPAQ was really pretty nice and worked well, but at $400, I felt I could use that money for real throttles and sent it back.
The Samsung was just too slow (I suppose memory & / or CPU constrained) and was just too slow.

To do a PDA throttle you must have software that will allow you to run over wireless TCPIP and KAM is the only one that I ma sure will do it. (RR & CO leads me to believe it too will work but the software option is pretty expensive.) The PDA must have built in Wireless.

I also have 3 hardware throttles:

1. 3 LH100's
2. 1 LH90
3. 1 T9000E
A thumbnail of my hardware throttle experiences.

The LH100 is hands down best. After using it for a few hours, I've grown to dislike the knobs a lot.
The LH90 is just too clunky and I find it hard to use, if you need to do anything more than go slow and fast and forward/reverse and limit myself to 4 function keys. Others will rant about how wonderful it is, but it was a waste of my money.
The t9000E is even more clunky than the LH90 AND the infernal reverse switch is mounted on the throttle knob (you push it in to reverse the locomotive). And the buttons and their sequence is, well I'll sell it one of these days.

If you would like to read more about my experiences with automation
software, see Software Automation, Painful.

HTH,

Joe Daddy

Ebay Pet Peeves

2008-08-03T05:10:00.003-06:00

Oh, how I wish we had the old eBay back. You remember, the one where the sellers were like you and me. We had too much stuff and wanted to lighten the load or empty the shelves under the bench. But that eBay is long gone, replaced by something that is so ugly.

Few are the eBay sellers like you and me, today we have the ebay entrepreneur which in too many ways can mean Shyster. Some of their tactics include:

Quantity on Hand is meaningless to the Shyster. He takes your order, then places an order from his or her supplier and fills your order when he gets his. Oh, burried in the two pages of BS is a statement that most orders are filled within 30 days. grrrrr

No PayPal - This jerk runs a cash only business, requiring only certain types and even colors of money orders! This of course means an expensive and time consuming trip to the post office to stand in line and purchase a money order! Naturally, I never seem to catch these Shysters until after I have won the auction. Yes, you can search for pay pal only, but then your buddy sends you a link for something you have been looking for and it is one of these clowns. GRRRRRR!

Shipping Scammers - Buy it now for $1 and I hope you did not notice that the Shyster's shipping cost is $90 bucks. Money back guaranteed, shipping costs excepted. Actually happened buddy. You are probably ok IF the product works (mine did not), and you noticed the shipping scam before you bid. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Retaliation Feedback - Just watch what happens when you give one of these Shysters negative feedback. They retaliate with the most outrageous crap. I have finally decided that is OK, and I now wear it as a badge of honor, I caught you you sniviling Shyster! Under the new rules, the seller can only give you good feedback, but they CAN and DO say nasty things about you. I wear those nasty comments as my eBay purple heart!

Just a few of the more nasty things I hate about Shysters. More to come!

Joe Daddy

The Athearn F7 A&B unit ATSF Freight

2008-06-17T23:18:00.005-06:00

The Athearn F7 A&B unit ATSF Freight

Description	F7 AB
Category	Locomotive
Manufacturer	Athearn
Website	Http://www Athearn. com
Purchased at	Mark Twain Hobby
MF List	$420
Street price	$225
Date of purchase	04/27/2007
Value		4
Quality		6
Instructions		5
Packaging		7
Availability		7
Compatibility		5
DCC / Electrical		3
Service		3
Serviceability		4
Overall Score		4.8

Pros:	Finely detailed, both A & B units powered and with sound
Cons:	Very poor slow speed operation, DCC and Sound system defects and short comings
	I was indeed excited to see Athearn release this product.
	My road name and freight colors are all the options I value in DCC and Sound and the huge benefit of both units powered with sound. The honeymoon was very short though.

	I must add that this is only the second Athearn locomotive I have purchased since returning to the hobby in 2005. 80% of my freight rolling stock is Athearn and I'm quite happy with it, however, Athearn still does not have it right when it comes to locomotives. They can blame it on their selection of MRC as a decoder provider.

	The units are closely matched and do not pull against each other, like my P1K F3's do even after a lot of Speed Curve work.
	Like QSI, the sound system can put out very loud and hgh quality sound.
	The unit includes a radio controlled remote to allow for control of sound on DC layouts. (I wonder if including this functionality included the downside loss of low speed operation.)
	The dual sounds are kinda neat, but frankly it is not something I'd require in my decision process going forward. They do have a Doppler effect that is quite genuine but it is not pronounced.
	Strong pulling power, pulled 25 40' & 50' box cars and caboose on my long 2% grades. Unit easily stopped and started on grade, lurching at the start though.
	The B unit was silent due to a defective speaker, yes they sent me a new speaker but I had to replace it. The service from Athearn was about the same I received from BLI, poor. I wanted a replacement which they refused. They would only send me parts. After the speaker was replaced, well more disappointment.
	Slow speed operation on this unit is 7-9 mph measured by my trusty Accutrack speed-o-meter. My BLI E6 & Proto 1000 F3's will run under 2 mph.
	These locomotives rather lurch at start!
	The MRC decoder has the fn keys mapped differently from QSI and Soundtrax, namely 0, 0 is sound off/sound on and turning the headlights on and off use fn 0. Figure that out!

Will I buy another one?	Yes, I conditionally recommend this unit due to the MRC decoder which is the root cause of all the issues I have with this locomotive.
Will I use this supplier again?	Yes, this is a great locomotive, just needs a better decoder.

Joe Daddy Product Evaluation

2008-06-17T21:57:00.003-06:00

The Athearn F7 A&B unit ATSF Freight

Description	F7 AB
Category	Locomotive
Manufacturer	Athearn
Website	Http://www Athearn. com
Purchased at	Mark Twain Hobby
MF List	420
Street price	225
Date of purchase	04/27/2007
Value		4
Quality		6
Instructions		5
Packaging		7
Availability		7
Compatibility		5
DCC / Electrical		4
Service		4
Serviceability		4
Overall Score		5.1

Pros:	Finely detailed, both A & B units powered and with sound
Cons:	Very poor slow speed operation, DCC and Sound system defects and short comings
	I was indeed excited to see Athearn release this product.
	My road name and freight colors are all the options I value in DCC and Sound and the huge benefit of both units powered with sound. The honeymoon was very short though.

	I must add that this is only the second Athearn locomotive I have purchased since returning to the hobby in 2005. 80% of my freight rolling stock is Athearn and I'm quite happy with it, however, Athearn still does not have it right when it comes to locomotives. They can blame it on their selection of MRC as a decoder provider.

	The units are closely matched and do not pull against each other, like my P1K F3's do even after a lot of Speed Curve work.
	Like QSI, the sound system can put out very loud and hgh quality sound.
	The unit includes a radio controlled remote to allow for control of sound on DC layouts. (I wonder if including this functionality included the downside loss of low speed operation.)
	The dual sounds are kinda neat, but frankly it is not something I'd require in my decision process going forward. They do have a Doppler effect that is quite genuine but it is not pronounced.
	Strong pulling power, pulled 25 40' & 50' box cars and caboose on my long 2% grades. Unit easily stopped and started on grade, lurching at the start though.
	The B unit was silent due to a defective speaker, yes they sent me a new speaker but I had to replace it. The service from Athearn was about the same I received from BLI, poor. I wanted a replacement which they refused. They would only send me parts. After the speaker was replaced, well more disappointment.
	Slow speed operation on this unit is 7-9 mph measured by my trusty Accutrack speed-o-meter. My BLI E6 & Proto 1000 F3's will run under 2 mph.
	These locomotives rather lurch at start!
	The MRC decoder has the fn keys mapped differently from QSI and Soundtrax, namely 0, 0 is sound off/sound on and turning the headlights on and off use fn 0. Figure that out!

Will I buy another one?	Yes, I conditionally recommend this unit due to the MRC decoder which is the root cause of all the issues I have with this locomotive.
Will I use this supplier again?	Yes, this is a great locomotive, just needs a better decoder.

Train Auto - Sensor Processing Logic

2008-06-08T21:03:00.017-06:00

I've been working with my train automation for some time. There have been a large number of successes in the process and I've learned a lot about not only what I want to do, but how to accomplish things within the software I have. As you may know, I'm using the CTI-Electronics equipment for about a year and a half or perhaps even a bit longer. Their TrainBrain software uses the Train Control Language, TCL to control trains. The language is much like programing in BASIC and while appearing to be deceptively simple, things can become very complex in a hurry.

One of the main reasons is that with train automation, things happen asynchronously meaning independently and in real, or very near real time. For example you must close or open a turnout before the train gets there and keep in in position while said train in passing through.

Layout designed for Automation
My layout is primarily designed for computer automation. To be ready for automated computer operations I incorporated these features:

The layout is made for continuous running.
Most of the sidings on the layout are passing sidings. A train can pull in and back out without backing up.
The trains only go in one direction.
The mainline has choke points meaning I cannot run two trains parallel and just let them go.
When trains meet, in certain parts of the layout, they are going different directions.
Trains can pass each other on the sidings.

My layout has 29 blocks, 5 are photocell and 24 are current detection blocks. Plans call for at least a dozen more. All of the current detection blocks have passive torrid style detectors and are mounted behind the facia in a wiring channel near the physical location of the block. I use #14 gauge wire for my DCC bus and #20 wire for feeders. Feeders are typically no more than 2.5 feet long. The layout is set up for two power districts with my DCC drawer located directly under the #11 signal indicator on the CTC panel. I use two DCC Specialties RRamp meters to independently monitor the current and voltage in each of the districts. Using a third RRamp meter with a lightbulb cliped to it, I have measured my current drops which in all cases are less than .75 volts with a 1/2 amp load.

I purchase most of my materials for my railroad locally at either Caboose Hobbies (Dave 502 is their Mr. DCC) or Mizel's Trains. When I need to purchase something over the internet, my favorite place for DCC is Bruce at Litchfield Station.

Sensor Logic
Programming sensor logic seems pretty straight forward. IN CTI's TCL, the syntax goes something like this:
When SensorA = True do
LocoA.Speed = 15
Wait 15
LocoA.F2 = pulse 2

or when Sensor A is true, set locomotive A to speed 15, wait 15 seconds and press f2 (Whistle/Horn) for 2 seconds. Certainly this is simple enough but there are lots of other things we need to do, like manage the locomotive assigned to which block using CTI's Beacon logic, and things get even more complicated when managing the CTC panel indications.

The sneaky snake in all this is that sensor logic typically becomes so involved that it can takes a lot of time for it to execute. The worst sitatuation with sensors is when you have a second locomotive enter a block whle the previous locomotive is still processing. In these situations the second and any subsequent sensor actions is lost which of course screws up the program logic. These sitations become common when you start adding 2, 3 or more locomotives.

To help overcome these type issues I have incorpoated the following logical scheme to deal with sensors.

I have a couple of rules for sensor programming.

Only one set of code for each sensor which does all logic for that sensor.
Use the same logical flow and style for all sensors. (Simplifies troubleshooting later)
Reduce and eliminate hard coding of locomotives as much as possible.
When hard coding of a locomotive address is required, use an alias with only one place where the Alias must be changes when the locomotive changes.
Always make sure there are two empty blocks between trains.
Use a sequencing scheme for sensor logic. Use a variable to clock through the steps of the sensor logic.
All CTC panel addressing is done by a reference variable that contains the address of the panel object; this is because many CTC panel objects can be used multiple times in the logic. This makes the program MUCH easier to maintain when things change.

The logical flow for sensors is:

CTC panel logic - update the coloring of signals and routes plus adding locomotive symbols as desired.
Beacon management - movement of the locomotive address through the route as required. Sensitivity to direction and route is required.
Clock the train - move and position the locomotive into the block as required, especially necessary when you are stopping in this block.
Hold the train - On sidings, an Icon of a lock allows one to hold a train in a passing siding indefinitely until released by the CTC panel operator. My three color passing sidings have this capability.
Block exit logic - keep the train stopped in the current block until you have a clear route ahead. I test for a minimum of two empty blocks.
Set Loco & TurnOut Controls - after the locomotive has been cleared for release, set locomotive speed, momentum, whistle/bell and set turnouts for correct path.
Update CTC & Cleanup - as the train leaves the CTC panel, set signals, colors and variables as necessary.

I use the following variables for each block. Yes, this means each block, all 29 of them, have these variables. You quickly fall in line with using indexing. ie. BlockNOKOCC[3] = the Occupancy variable for Block 3 of NOK (Norman Oklahoma)

Occ - Occupancy - Is this block occupied? Set and reset by the relative sensor for the block, this variable is also used as the block sequencer. As the logic moves from one setion to the next, this variable is changed.
Loc - Location used for two purposes. 1 - Mark the spot where the code colors a block, 2 - Location where the Train indicator Sprite will reside.
ID - Place where the Locomotive ID is written on the CTC panel.
Hold - Tells the logic the locomotive is to be held in the block until the variable is false.

Each of these section sis a separate When statement. This means that all when statements in my code have very small and controlled amounts of code to be executed. This has greatly reduced the problems I had with sensor timeouts. I also post the sequence number directly on the CTC panel so that I can see which logical step a block is in when the troubleshooting the layout. I keep all blocks to the same sequence so that I have a clear knowledge of what is happening. For example When a block is setting at 15, I know that block is on hold and the train should sit there indefinitely until released.

More to come, I hope this is helpful.

Joe

LL Passenger Cars

2008-05-12T07:18:00.000-06:00

I've 3 sets of passenger cars, Walthers Santa Fe streamliners (11.75",) Bachman Santa Fe Heavyweight set (11") and the Rivorossi Santa Fe set (8.75").

Subjective observations:

The Walthers look nice, but are by far the most PIA cars I own.

The Rivorossi's roll and ride the smoothest and have the best detailed look overall.

The Bachmanns are lighted, look pretty good, work well,

Trucks

Walthers - comes with metal wheels that squeak and the cars pull very hard, lub at your own risk. . . Hard to rail.

Bachmann - roll smooth, came with metal wheels. They just work.

Rivorossi - cannot remember if I changed the wheels from plastic to metal, just too long ago, but trucks and wheels are not a problem.

Couplers

Walthers - PIA - MUST replace with Kadees, and the cars overall are temperamental from a coupler standpoint.

Bachmann a #5/148 coupler is too long and makes the gap between the cars too wide.

Rivorossi works and look great with #5s

Lighting

Walthers lighting kit is expensive and tricky to install and the lights flicker and flash.

Bachmanns come with lights that are already installed but flicker and flash.

Rivorossi no light kit option I've found.

Consists

Walthers pulled with BLI E-6 A-B both are powered and it is required to go up my 2% grades.

Bachmans pulled with a BLI 4-8-4, nice train, but my 4-8-4 is my most nitpicky locomotive.

Rivorossi set pulled with a Bachmann 2-8-0 and love the 'local' effect, a very sweet little train. Sometimes I pull it with my MTH K-4 and while not as 'cute' a train, a very nice package too.

Regarding Athearn - I purchased an Athearn streamliner kit 30 years ago and was never able to make it look or work right so I have shunned that brand eversince. Probably not fair to them, but shows the impact of bad experiences on our outlook.

Joe Daddy

2008-05-09T17:26:00.002-06:00

I like mountains. I've about 25 linear feet of them most with tunnels and all open inside. Originally I started using aluminum screen wire with hydrocal, and it just took too many coats or the use of paper towels in the mix, which makes it messy. Now I use Woodland scenics cloth which is SO EASY to use. Now I must tell you that I DO USE FOAM as a profile board upon which I fasten the screen wire to. Originally I used drywall screws to hold the screen wire until the plaster dries, but now I actually cut the profile out of lightweight foam, then trace scraps of 3/4 plywood with the shape about 2 inches wide and glue and screw it to the fram so I have something to staple the foam to.

I've also used foam as a flat base for scenery only because it is lightweight.

Stacked foam typically looks like stacked foam unless they put plaster cloth or ALOT of sculptamold on top of it.

I do want to give credit to those very talented people who can and do make nice looking layouts with foam and little or no plaster, but for every one I see that is nice, there are 8-10 that look like stacked foam or worse.

One side of a set of my mountains

Other side of the first set of mountains using cardboard framework on foam profile

Plaster cloth

Finishing up the plaster cloth with plaster castings.

This entire set of mountains are built so they can be totally removed from the train table and without cardiac assistance.

Just my 2 cents, trying to learn to be a model railroader.

Course there is more of my views on scenery and foam on my blog.

Joe

Safety Inspection program

2008-05-01T09:12:00.002-06:00

There was a tremendously interesting thread on Trains.Com yesterday about whether foam on our railroads constituted a 'illegal' safety situation. Why it was locked so quickly baffles me.

But the larger topic of safety issues on our railroads is, I think a very important one. Something we should take seriously and make sure that we minimize any risks our layouts may pose to our family and of course ourselves.

What are some of the ares where we could or should be paying close attention, as we build and expand our hobby presence in our homes?

Street rodders have annual automobile inspection programs where their street rods are checked to make sure you are not driving a suicide ride.

Perhaps the NMRA or our local clubs cold implement a program where a team of railroaders visits a fellow's layout and gives things a good once over looking for safety and fire hazards.

Personally, I've been surprised when my Rod failed inspection only to find out that I had missed some critical item.

I'd welcome an objective look at my railroad and train room from a safety and fire perspective.

Thoughts?

Joe

Here is my response to someone minimalizing the need for layout inspection under the disguise that there really is no problem.

John Doe wrote:

SNIP

You'd have to have some sort of ignition source for the layout to catch fire, and unless you've done something really stupid like using 26 gauge phone wire as the feeder buss for your 10 amp DCC system, you'll not have a problem. SNIP

John,

I have been thinking about your comments for several days. Your words stimulated these thoughts. "Yesterday, my life changed forever because:"

the 35 watt pencil soldering iron, I left idling on the ash tray on my layout (homasote, not foam) while I finished the honey dew fell off the tray and burned through. The new smoke detector I bought for the layout room is still in the utility room. . .

the extension cord we used to connect the lighting valences was only 18 gauge. I only had a 'few' 60 watt bulbs in the valence. . .

my cigarette lighter I was using to shrink some heat-shrink caught the skirting on fire and the whole place went up like a bomb. I was lucky to escape alive. . .

the ballast I'd installed with liquid nails to the bottom of my foam staging yard caught fire. I never knew ballasts got hot. . .

the string of CFL lamps I mounted behind the valence had their bases touching the wood frame to keep the bulbs straight. I did not know that a CFL had a ballast and could get so hot that it would set wood on fire. . .

the new outlet I wired for my workbench had the polarity mixed up and I got an arm to arm shock when I turned the light on. Doctor says I am lucky to be alive, but I do have permanent heart damage now. . .

our beloved poodle was electrocuted when she stepped on the layout room carpet. Seems some water that had spilled on the extension cord that ran under the carpet. I did not know that wire insulation will break down if you step on it a bunch of times. My grandson will not keep his shoes on and he loves to play in the train room while I . . .

our home burned down because I had connected my layout and the under the shelf lighting to an extension cord that was too small for the load. In fact the insurance man tells me that they are probably going to deny my claims for the $32,000 for my layout because it caused the fire. He kinda laughed when I tried to show him the receipts that had survived in the filing cabinet. Unfortunately, our home was under-insured so we are only getting $99,000 for our new home and all its contents.

my layout caught on fire while I was sweating some copper on the hot water tank next to the layout. I was not worried because I had a fire extinguisher handy. I never knew that fire extinguishers have to be tested periodically. . .

my son's room caught on fire when he plugged in that old TV set. I did not realize that the little change I did to the wiring had put my layout and all its electronics on his bedroom circuit which had undersized wiring from when we remodeled. Interestingly, my buddy who did all that wiring was fired from his job last month because they said he lied about his electrician's license. Guess they were right, huh!

Each of these imagined situations can easily happen. I know, because several of them have happened to me, fortunately without serious consequences.

In today's world, catastrophic events are a regular part of our lives, not just someone else problem. The building which housed the branch office I worked in 1972 was also blown apart when Timothy McVeigh blew up the Murrah building. (Fact). The house that I lived in 1972 while working at the branch office was wiped off the face of the earth in a class 5 tornado about 5 years after McVeigh. (Fact) Many of us have been in the World Trade center and the Pentagon. I worked in New Orleans the summer before Katrina.

Some things we can prevent, some things we can't. Trouble is we don't know the difference until it is too late. Minimalizing real and potential dangers that may, or may not exist in a layout room, well that just doesn't make sense to me.

While having a buddy come look at your layout might help prevent a problem, having a friendly, voluntary inspection by another model railroader trained to look for specific criteria applicable to model railroading is, in my opinion, a far better and wiser solution. When I have my inspection on my layout, I hope the modeler is a 'rivit counter'!

Just my 2 cents

Joe Daddy

LL - Track weathering

2008-04-29T09:20:00.006-06:00

Some, including myself have noticed and lamented that Atlas code 83 flex track is
more flexible and tends to return kinda straight more easily than other brands, namely ME which seems to hold a bend pretty nicely.

I've found that if I weather my Atlas Flex using Krylon flat brown (camouflage), it has more pros than cons:

Pro
1. Now the Atlas Track holds a set(bend) like other track.
2. Track weathering is completed.
3. Over spray is easier to control
4. Cleaning rail tops is easer
5. I can use my paint booth to control fumes

Con
1. Removing the paint for installing rail joiners is a pain
2. Removing the paint to install a feeder can be a pain.

I've started using this technique, but not painting the ends and masking a spot on each side for feeder attachment. Touch up is easy after the track is laid in place.

PS,
No, I don't remember reading or seeing this anywhere, but if this is really your idea and I just never saw it, or I forgot you told me about it, well, thanks for pointing that out. JD

DCC Automation Error Detection

2008-03-10T08:23:00.003-06:00

updated 4-16-2008

This entry and language is based around the CTI-Electronics solution. It may apply to other product solutions as well.

For those unaware of a CTI beacon, it is a set of pointers that one 'loads' with a locomotive number that then follows the physical location of the loco. (we are required to write explicit code to move the loco.)

I'm focused on how to detect error conditions on my layout, stuff that makes trains go bump in the night. A few ideas I am pursuing:

Train looses its beacon - if a detector fires and there is no beacon value on either side of that block, out of sync, stop the railroad.
Collision possible - when a detector fires and the beacon for that block is not clear and the beacon on either or both sides is loaded with a locomotive value, either out of sync or a collision is forth coming. Stop the railroad.
Maintaining an accurate indicator of the direction the train is traveling is important. Two options, a test to see which side of the block contains the beacon will give direction. Place it in a variable and test to confirm at least once each lap.
After a train leaves a block, a new block signal must be received with so many seconds or a loss of sync condition exists, due to station stop which can be programmed around, however this would certainly catch a derailment, the bane of current automated operations.
Know how many trains are running and signal an error whenever the number of beacons with values is less, or more than the number of trains you have running. I do this by having a continuous loop that counts the beacons and checks against the total every 10 to 20 seconds. No need to do it continuously. Not yet sure of the optimum timing.
Essential to troubleshooting inevitable problems, I have implemented a relay operated by the CTI system that will force Emergency Power Off (EPO) of my DCC system. This 'drastic' action will freeze the layout at the time my code detects the anomaly. This is very useful in deciphering the clues of what is not working properly.

I am not saying these things are easy to do, but I'm convinced that to get the kind of smooth reliable running trains I want, these kinds of event management details must be worked out in my design.

Thoughts? Ideas? Solutions?

Joe Daddy his self

copyright Joe Daddy 2008

Tools - Clean Air

2008-02-24T10:43:00.008-07:00

As I have aged, one of the side effects has been a growing intolerance to dirty air. In fact, my doctor started talking about asthma! Well that got my attention. My train room, nice as it is, gets pretty dusty when I do a little sawing with my sabre saw or I crank up my portable bandsaw.

For a few months I have been thinking about getting some kind of air filtration for my train room. After looking at a lot of systems, I've decided on the Jet system. Pros - The unit comes with a built in remote control, 3 speeds and a 2,4 or 8 hour timer. The unit is well constructed and made of painted or powder coated sheet metal. The large squirrel cage fan pushes a lot of air through the machine. Cons - The unit makes a lot of noise which is tolerable while using power tools, but it is definitely not something I want to keep running all the time. The unit is about a foot tall and I had originally intended to hang it from the ceiling using chains, but with my low 7'5" ceilings, I have it sitting under the layout on a table where it does not get in the way.

Overall the unit does what I want it to, scrub the air in the shop after a session of power tools, and I am glad I got it.

I bought mine at http://www.toolzone.com

Jet AFS-10009 Price $229.00 Mine came with a $25.00 rebate making the cost $204.00

Joe

LL - Making Trees

2008-02-17T21:05:00.002-07:00

Making Scenery

My layout is at that awkward point where I'm sick and tired of working on track and anything that has to do with a hammer or screwdriver! Bless our hobby, when we are burned out on one thing, there are dozens of other things to move on to.

One of the things that has become so clear to me is that scenery is what I actually like to build. Scenery makes our layouts real, not just electric trains running in a big circle.

After a clinic on making trees at our club last week, I got busy and started making them. What a good time I have had making them. Here is a link to the Selkirk Foliage website.

DCC Drawer

2008-02-09T16:22:00.005-07:00

My experience with the LR101/LB101 shows they work reliably with wire lengths of 30-50 feet. I have the LR101 and the LB101 within 3 feet of the LZV100.

Since this is an area of great interest, let me elaborate on what I have done. There are a number of significant differences with using feedback vs. regular DCC. Some that I have discovered include:

1. The wiring for DCC with feedback is perhaps even more complicated that DC with elaborate block control.

2. Using a standard two wire buss (JK) for distribution all DCC is possible ONLY you:

o distribute your feedback hardware (LR101/LB101) around the layout

o provide distributed RS wiring around the layout as well. RS is used to digitally control the LR101

o a series of wires are then required to be connected between the LR101 and the LB101 and the DCC wiring buss (JK)

3. Distributing the Feedback Hardware around the layout caused me a lot of problems troubleshooting and getting it to work correctly.

4. Moving or relocating a layout with distributed feedback hardware would be a real challenge.

I speak only from personal experience, as I have not yet seen or visited anyone who is using feedback except one very large layout using Bruce Chubb’s stuff, and it is complicated certainly as much or more than what I am talking about here.

My first attempt at block detection was with the distributed hardware mounted close to the block. It kept bothering me that almost all of us use 18-24 gauge wire from the DCC Buss to the track. While the wire lengths are typically short, small wire-size is still small wire size. The numbers of wires for each block detector quickly becomes a bird’s next, something I try to avoid. All of this and not even started signaling!

On my website is a copy of this write up along with a number of pictures of the DCC wiring drawer.

Your feedback is appreciated.

Dear Diary

2008-01-18T20:05:00.006-07:00

3-16-2008
Finished the wiring of the Wrabbits on turnouts6,7,8 & 20, all in the Denver south yard.
Installing the tortoise switch machines and Wrabbits for the north end of the Denver Yard.
3-15-2008
Back doing some much needed tweaking to problematic track, worked on the vertical kink on the approach from Raton to Santa Fe.

3-4-2006
Worked all weekend on getting all mountains under plaster and plaster cloth. Plaster Rocks applied.

2-22-2008
Making trees is fun, and is my current obsession. Also have made some real progress on the mountains too. It is so much fun to start building scenery. I'm really amazed at how adding the trees makes such a big improvement on things.

2-10-2007
Dropped by Mizell's trains in Westminster today, first time in a while. Looking around, I saw they had several dozen pre-cast plaster rocks, each unique, well detailed and rather large. The price was right, less than $1.50 EACH. I purchased three to see how they worked out. I really like them, they are the largest of the rocks in the picture on the right. Also used Sculptamold for the first time today. This is a really nice product that I'm sure to use a lot more of in the future.

1-19-2008
When I build mountains, I like to use aluminum screen wire whereupon I paint hydrocal plaster. Gaps and tweaking I do with Western Scenics plaster cloth. Because of the lightweight and because I had some, I began using 1/2 foam board as the framework. Certainly staples will not secure the screen to the foam, so I've used drywall screws to hold the screen in place. After the plaster drys, the screws come out. Works well.

This time, I have again been using foam as the profile namely because of the light weight. However this time, I've had alot of places where the screen was meeting wood, not foam. A T50 staple gun works well to secure the screen. Fact is I now really like the way the screen staples to the wood, so I'm now taking scrap plywood and outlining the foam with wood held in place with caulking and drywall screws. Now I have a secure place to staple.

1-18-2008
Painted a few feet of track with brown Rustoleum. I really like the look. I want to see what it looks like in a day or two after it dries well and cures.

1-17 2008
My new Walthers oil pump was really loud when I turned it on. Took it apart and greased the gears and it seems to have quietened down quite a bit. Originally I used a wall wart to power it, but today, I installed a new NCE locomotive decoder to it so I can use my software and my DCC controller to control the speed (noise) and effect of the pump. Worked like a champ. I am also adding the derrick to the layout and putting the pump inside it. I remember the derricks all over Oklahoma when I grew up. Will use the decoder to also control the LED I put at the top of the derrick too.

1-16-2008
It is amazing how a sinus cold can knock me my fanny like it does. I'd planned to get a lot done over the Christmas holidays, but illness and emergency assignments at work reduced me to only slipping into the train room about 1/5 the time I had planned. And then I found myself falling to sleep at my work desk chair! But I have made some progress in spite of the time. About 2/3 of the planned mountains now have screen wire over wood and foam forms so I am starting to see how the layout will block out. Nice to see some contours here and there. Still have 2 tortoise units and 4 Wabbit decoders to install. Turned out that the problem I was having with the Wabbits was I had gotten a bad batch that DCC Specialties quickly replaced.

1-8-2008
Replaced some of the straight angled facia with curved boards, boy did that soften and spruce up the place!

12-3-2007
Built a bridge, cut out a section of table top and put a road under the track. I was pleased with how it turned out. Also installed 3 tortoise turnouts and 1 DCC Specialties Wabbit decoder. I have installed 16 hares and love them, the Wabbit has left me stone cold upset with it. I'm writing a comparison entry, but not quite finished.

12-1-2007
Was invited to Dave Cochrun's Castle Rock and Pacfic railroad (Http://www.craprail.com) to operate. My first time actually doing operations. What a kick! Dave's railroad is simply amazing. And it is all super reliable code 100 with Peco turnouts.

11-24-2007
Lots of progress this week, the Doodlebug works great, added a new SW9SR decoder to one of my SW1200 switchers and that is a nice installation in a very difficult locomotive. Certainly there is no sound in this decoder, but even so, it certainly it is a smooth unit.

I've been so bummed by the track work, so sick of trying to get those handmade wrecks of a turnout to work so I've just left them alone for awhile and have been working on buildings to put something on the plywood expanses. My good friend Dan gave me a paper sack full of DPM modular pieces. I've made three different background buildings, good change of pace! This flexibility of interests and needs is something I really enjoy about Model Railroading.

11-22-2007
A couple of the boys joined me in the train room after a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner. We had a good time for an hour or so before we were summoned back upstairs. Then Brandon, the youngest grandson insisted we go see granpa's trains. As he is now just over three, his attention span is not too long and soon, he was running around my office and re-parking all the Corvettes in the book case.

11-19-2007
Piddled in the train room tonight, needed to do some cleaning and putting away! Got my Doodlebug out and tried to see if I could make the sound system make more noise. Decided to try a different speaker, one of those little round plastic mylar types. WoW! I can hear it. Guess I'll try to install it later. Have a problem with one of my handlaid turnouts. The Doodlebug binds when you try to go through the frog. Looks like the frog is out of specification.

11-18-2007
Working on the new yard on the north end, the passenger yard. Got the track laid back to the south turnout and disaster struck. Just could not make the table level. One of those deals where everything I touch just goes deeper.
Well it is back together, I lowered the upper leve some 1.5 inches and boy did that help, I ha 3/4 inch plywood that was sagging and no real way to straighten it with risers. It was a 12 foot section 6 inches wide so I put 1X2 boards along the bottom an made them into little L girders, straight as a fiddle now there is no sag and my track work is straight. Got the yard connected back and ran some trains.

11-17-2007
Started laying the double track around the North loop. Installed the new Walthers #8 turnout and installed my last Hare decoder. Ordered two Wabbits from Litchfield Station today. Also found a couple of decoders for my pair of SW1200 yard switchers, NEC made just for my P2K locomotives.

11-16-2007
Off to Caboose, they were out of Walthers #8 right hand, so I got a couple of Atlas #8 rh.

11-15-2007
Ok, I've made up my mind, no more hand laid turnouts! After 8, I'm done. I'm back to my old reliable way of thinking, Atlas code 83 all the way! Made a list of what I need and will drop off to Caboose tomorrow. I hav a couple of my hand laids that are driving me crazy.

11-14-2007
Connecting Hares to the Torti that I installed this week. Connecting the diodes and the push buttons. I've decided to mount a push button beside each Turnout LED so I'll never get confused with which button does which turnout.

11-10-2007
Denver Train Show!

Here are the pictures I took at Denver's Train Show!

11-1-2007
Purchased a Walthers curved turnout to start the north end of the freight yard earlier. Boy to I like the quality of these turnouts. The closure rails are solid rail, not stamped like Atlas and Peco.

Summer 2007
Framing and arranging the new room

Spring 2007
Demolition of the old train room

Stuff For Sale or Trade

2007-12-22T23:49:00.002-07:00

Updated 12-18-2008

Like most, I've accumulated some excess train stuff in the past couple of years that I no longer need. Check back frequently, as I have alot more stuff to add.

If you have some stuff you'd like to sell, post it as a comment and I'll accept your listing, No non-Model Railroad stuff will be approved.

If you are interested, simply post a comment to this post with your email address and I'll get in touch with you to sort out any details. Certainly I'll keep your ID and information confidential.

For Sale or Trade
Turnouts
Peco PL-10 turnout motors qty 12 price $6.00 each

Walthers 130' Built up turntable, NIB, $250

Walthers Union station
19-3/4 x 8-1/4 x 7" 49.3 x 20.6 x 17.5cm
Walthers Part # 933-3094, p. 435 Walthers 2009 HO Scale Reference
HO scale, $64.98, currently in stock at Walthers
This product is on-sale today for $39.98

Stuff on my wish list:

Vehicles, buses up to 1959

LL- Turnout Selection Methodology

2007-12-19T09:51:00.001-07:00

Turnout Selection Methodology

Selecting the turnout vendor/supplier best for your railroad is not a trivial exercise. Joe Daddy has spent a lot of money and time seeking the answer for his pike. His choice for his Colorado and Santa Fe is Atlas and Walthers coupled to Atlas Flex Track. Oh, by the way, the code is 83. So how did he get to this conclusion? Here is the methodology used to make the choice.

Click here to download the Excel Spreadsheet to do your own assessment.

Whether you agree or disagree with my conclusions is irrelevant. The purpose here is to share with you HOW I came to that conclusion.

Copyright 2007 Http://www.Joe-daddy.com

Joe Daddy

LL - Choosing a mentor

2007-11-30T10:27:00.000-07:00

> --- In ldsig@yahoogroups.com, "Ryan"> . . .
Here is my question: As a younger and less experienced modeler, I would be thrilled to work through the design process with one (or a few) of the more experienced members. So, is there anyone that would be willing to give of themselves to help me gain experience and pass on what I have learned to someone else someday?

> Ryan,

As a 3rd year newbie myself, I'd like to chime in on this. So far as mentors, I've got to say the ones I can buy a cup of coffee for are the ones I most listen to. When a fellow seems to have all the answers on the web I follow these rules:

First thing I do is see if I can find his or her railroad and see how much I can respect and appreciate that. Some guy's layouts, IF they have one are near impossible to find. They say a picture is worth a thousand or even ten thousand words. On the web, discernment of the value of the opine or fact base can be difficult. I was surprised at how little I could appreciate the work of some of the most noisy fellows. And I have been fascinated at how much I respect the work of some of those who I have the most difficulty with what they say online. To me, their work trumps their words.

Second, I try to find out if the person has a business interest in model railroading. Often, the input is heavily biased towards a particular vendor or supplier only to find out the opinionator has a vested interest in the success of some specific venue. I've even caught some of these rascals unfairly condemning their competition in the name of enlightenment.

Third, Just how much experience does the person have? Often I find that those with the most have the least value to me because of these reasons:
1 - They are frequently deeply invested and biased towards a particular niche in our hobby. Examples: they may be obsessed with track work or operations while at the same time may have contempt for computerized operations or even DCC and oft consider my desire for continuous running as heresy.
2 - Their income can heavily influence their opine, consider the extreme example of the fellow living on a very tight fixed income will be heavily biased toward the cheapest possible way to do anything regardless of how much time & skill it might take. While I can respect the need for fiscal responsibility toward my RR, time & skill are issues as well. RTR rolling stock, track work, buildings and electronics has a place in my current budget and time line.
3 - Skills; persons with extraordinary experience typically have well refined skills and abilities. They'll tell you straight faced that building your own turnouts is EASY when in fact it is anything but easy for some. Or their level of acceptability of homemade may be very different from mine. Works both ways doesn't it?
4 - Prototype fidelity is a bias that cannot be easily reconciled. For example the demand for scale fidelity will drive a person to condemn one's choice for choosing code 100 track because it is ~.013 inches too high. But also advocate the use of hidden staging which is totally un-prototypical. I say you can't have it both ways.

Wrapping it up, Ryan, unless you live in the hinterlands and have absolutely no access to local clubs and other individuals, local faces would be my opine.

Only my 2 cents, never worth another penny.

Joe Daddy

LL Roadbed Joints

2007-10-11T21:37:00.002-06:00

Joints in roadbed are a trivial affair until one needs to move it, or chooses to reuse the wood. The culprit is loose joints when you don't use glue, and impossible to separate joints whenever you do use glue!

Biscuits and the Biscuit Joiner.

I got a jointer but have hardly ever used it. I have thought it would be a good idea for along time but until tonight, I never got around to trying it. As for reasons why I think biscuits might be good, here are a few that come to mind as to why I would want to use splices (butt joints) using technology like biscuits.

1. Wood joints in particular; we have all fought the nasties of sub-roadbed misalignment. One of the things I see with experienced modelers is a focus on certain details that are preventative in nature. I want my trains to run smooth and like everyone, I hate derailments! Biscuit joint benefits include
- Additional strength of a joint is always valuable
- Surface alignment perfection, biscuits force proper alignment and ensure a smooth joint for roadbed.
2. Maximizing vertical clearances between tracks
- Building a helix where clearances are a problem
- So many times a splice appears right were tracks need to criscross each other, making proper clearances problematic.
3. Least importantly, I have had a high quality biscuit joiner for five years and have never really had a need to use it.

My first layout, the Atlas Midland Central was built following the 'plans' provided in the Atlas book. I followed their direction using 1 X 6 & 1 X 8 #2 pine. What a disaster! The boards warped and getting smooth joints was extremely difficult. The main reason I abandoned the project was the inherent difficulties I had built into the foundation of my layout.

I believe there is a very good reason why most modelers use plywood or spline roadbed.

I have also considered using 45 minute epoxy glue instead of tight bond to make the joints. I have read in several articles where the master builders have used epoxy glued sub-roadbed to ensure alignment of critical areas like bridge abutments etc.

LL - A Pox on hidden staging!

2007-08-25T20:14:00.000-06:00

I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted in my layout before I ever started my version 2. Even visited some guy's layouts, most of which have multiple levels including a Helix and a Nolix configuration. The Helix was too complicated and just takes too much room so I designed and built a nice around the room Nolix. Yes, it worked as planned and I wound up with a two level layout.

It was complicated, but it was real neat to look at. I thought it was just what I needed and what I wanted. Then I started running trains. Lots of them and I was really pleased with how I could have such long trains (25 cars) parked in the basement as it was and all I had to do was set the turnouts and let them roll. Sounds easy, but it just turned out to be a lot more complicated than i'd ever imagined. Everything was connected but I just didn't like the flow or the difficulty. Then there were the little problems of getting cars back on the track down in the lower recesses. And maintaining the track down there with only 12" of clearance was just tough. Every problem I had with turnouts was always on the lower level in the rear recesses.

As I have been considering expanding my layout into the next room, (see Bigger layout or biger sho p) I started thinking about putting the lower level staging in the next room and keep everything at eye level. One of my buddies has a very large yard on his 33' x 24' HO empire. I spent a lot of time looking at his big yard and pretty well convinced me that I wanted the same. In fact I want two, one for passenger trains, the other for freight.

A trip to Laramie last year reminded me of what western prototypes do when they need to store cars, the build a big yard. I hear tell UP yard in western Nebraska is simply immense. So I am actually using the prototype as my guide. Now I suppose that there are some hidden yards of some kind in the bowels of the NY subway or some other subterranean place but my Santa Fe and the other western railroads did not bury their yards!

So, I've made the leap, the lower level yard and the Nolix are history. The yard moves to the next room, which actually is now the other side of the same room. So, as I seek to achieve what ever it is I am destined to achieve with my railroad, I wonder secretly how long it will be before I build another level.

Update, the first new yard is now operational, and I can get to every track easily and see what I am doing too!

Joe

Hand Laid Turnouts, No way.

2007-08-19T07:23:00.003-06:00

Few things can send a shiver down my spine as much as hand-laying track. The epitome of stress would then be building my own turnout. Let us face it, turnouts are a pain in the biscuits. We buy ready made to make things easy and more reliable, right? We throw money at the problem and expect results and quality. Quality being proportional to the investment. Basic model railroading theory, right? It is kind of like if you want the most reliable, smooth running locomotive, buy the most expensive brass?

Actually if you spend any time on the forums, pretty soon you come to an inescapable conclusion. If you don't build your own turnouts, well, let us fact the facts, we just are not a man. Exaggeration, myth, no not at all. It seems that the expert guys build their own; you know the the ones I mean. They make you feel like you saw your first Lionel yesterday.

Then they talk about how smooth these hand laid turnouts are. Like glass they say.

My Fast Tracks jigs arrived last month. I got a #8 double crossover which will also function as a regular #8 and a #6 turnout. http://www.handlaidtrack.com/index.php I can tell you that they ain't cheap. So what pushed me over the top? Couple of things did,

First my utter disappointment with Peco which I've talked about in my Track entry on this blog.
Second, while the Atlas turnout works ok, they just don't have the look I wanted.
Third, but the really big reason was not so obvious and is NOT on their website. They make jigs that work with ATLAS rail! This means I would NOT have to scrap some 600 feet of Atlas flex track! I get great turnouts that are 100% compatible with my flex track.

So I plunked down my money and waited for the jigs to arrive.

To date, I've built 8 turnouts,

# 8 7 each
# 6 1 each

Lessons learned

It takes time to build a turnout, first one was over 3 hours, next was just under 2, the 3rd was about an hour and 10. The last two were just under an hour a piece.
Not all bastards are the same. Mill bastards, that is, you quickly learn that a good file, and a big one at that, is your friend. One of the reasons the first two took so long is that I was using a small 6" mill bastard file, today, I use my big bastard, the 12" job and I bought the right handle for it!
Making the closure points is the hardest part of the job. Getting them right seems easy with the jig, but knowing when they are done is the tricky part.
Cut the groves in the ties BEFORE you start soldering rail.
Acid core solder is very hard on your soldering iron tip.
Hand built turnouts frequently put an excessive strain on the switch motor/machine.
Laying your own ties, even if they are pre-made is not trivial.
Troubleshooting problems with hand laid turnouts consumes horrendous amounts of time.
I'll forgo building my own turnouts in favor of commercial turnouts.

Hand Laid Turnouts summation
I've wasted a lot of time building 8 turnouts that had more flaky weird problems than I care to deal with. I've removed every one of the turnouts, replacing them with Atlas and Walthers code 83 turnouts. Not one of the 8 turnouts I built proved to be reliable and usable. Each one of them had one or more serious problems. Typical problems included failure to work in both directions through both paths. Some would work excellently in one direction or the other, but none would work in both directions. At this point, I just cannot see any advantage to them for my needs.

Turnout Assessment Methodology
Determining which brand and or type of turnout for my model railroad has turned out to be a much more difficult problem than I ever imagined. Certainly looking back is easy. I use Walthers or Atlas, thank you, next issue. So, how did I come to that conclusion? Well, here is my methodology for evaluating Turnouts.

More to come, got to make a living today!

Joe Daddy hisself

copyright 2007 Joe-Daddy.com

Sound board as roadbed

2007-08-07T22:22:00.002-06:00

Well, I have some sound board installed. I glued it to 3/4 plywood and given it three coats of latex paint. It is a brown color naturally. When you cut it you get a 'fuzz' that simply blew away. I cut it outside using my skil saw. Not bad actually, plywood makes more mess. It also cuts almost as easy as foam board with a utility knife.

Used a 16 oz bottle of titebond ($6) to secure it to the plywood. It took 4 oz per 2 * 8 sheet. THe first coat of paint simply disappeared before my eyes! The third coat dried and it looks like all the pictures of Homasote I ever saw. I've NEVER actually seen Homasote, not sure it really exists, cause I've never been able to find it, I think it might be an urban legend.

Ok, it looks good, it is solid, it feels good when I touch it. Now comes the acid test. Layout a piece of flex track on it and grab some track nails and a pair of needle nose pliers. You always hear guys say that Homasote is worth it. When that nail slid into the Sound board, I knew I'd done good. I'll give you that Homasote might hold the nails even better, but oh, was I pleased with how it went together. I'm confident that wnen I glue and balast the track, it will be just what I always wanted in a road bed.

I'll post again as I get more experience with it. So far, I' really pleased.

Thanks to those who encouraged me to try it.

Joe

PS, $9 a sheet at Home Depot AND Lowes in the N. Denver area.

Model Railroading's Urban Legends

2007-04-15T06:04:00.000-06:00

Perhaps it is in my DNA. Maybe it is because I have a low IQ, really I don't know. When some genius makes a statement I don't agree with, I just have to say something. In the past 18 months, I've certainly fallen for Model Railroading. Along the way a few things fall into a category I call Model Railroading's Urban Legends. You know, stuff that someone says and others repeat until everyone believes it. Here is my list. It is sure to grow, maybe even shrink. If you disagree with something on my list and some of you CERTAINLY will, post a comment and unless you dishonor my Momma, I'll likely post it. IF you are able to change my mind, I'll even remove it from the list. Want to adds something to my list, go ahead, and if I agree, I'll put it on.

As time permits, I'll comment on them individually.

To be clear, Joe Daddy believes each of these statements to be ether totally false or unsupported, not proven or simply an absurd opinion.

The Urban Legends of Model Railroading

Real model railroaders don't use Code 100, it is like Lionel Tinplate
Absurd, some of the finest model railroads in the country use code 100 rail, which, from what Joe Daddy understands is most prototypical when modeling the current modern era.
DCC wiring is much more difficult than DC ever was, for many technical reasons.
Untrue - Some DCC experts have be working diligently to make us believe that DCC is much harder to wire and less tolerant of problems than DC. That is just untrue. DCC without block detection is very simple. Add block detection and it becomes somewhat more complex but never approaches the difficulties one has with DC in switching CABs, poliarity etc. And signaling is signaling with or without DCC. Update To claim that DCC is harder to wire than DC seems a terrible slight to those who created elegant and elaborate methods to allow DC to control complex model railroads. A complex DCC implementation is not nearly so difficult as doing the same with DC.
We recommend you twist your DCC bus wires.
Unproven, unlikely - DCC experts tell us that twisting will fix DCC bus wires that are installed inches apart. But they also said, and the testing of Joe Daddy and others proves that Keeping (or returning) the wires back close together provides the fix. So, why twist, just don't split the wires apart in the first place? Here is a good question, what genius recommended the wires be separated two or three inches in the first place? As far as interference goes, model railroad track is an incredible dipole antenna. Any radiated signals are more likely to come from the track than the wiring. So, how do you twist the track? Twisted DCC bus wire makes it much more difficult to connect track feeders. Workmanship being the chief cause of wiring related problems.
Hot off the web from Digitrax

Digitrax Web site

Twisted Feeders?

Some internet experts INSIST that DCC bus wires must be twisted, presumably to prevent crosstalk and interference. Is this required by Digitrax?

Digitrax does not require twisted wires on feeders etc, but suggests appropriate wire sizes and keeping feeder run lengths to a minimum because of resistance/power loss issues.

http://www.digitrax.com/kb/index.php?a=863&r=1&v=5
We recommend you put terminators on you DCC bus wires.
Unproven - DCC experts tell us that on wires longer than ~30 feet, we need to put terminators on them. The Digitrax website says they are unnecessary. One of these experts is wrong, we either need them, or we don't. Which is it? I'll go with Digitrax until there is better proof.

Digitrax Website
Termination:
What's not clear to me from this article, the Digitrax book, etc, etc. is whether or not the layout track wire bus needs to be terminated somehow.

The wire bus is there to distribute the electricity and DCC signal to the track, which is, in turn, transmitted to the decoders which use that track. That bus does not need to be terminated, since it acts like the electrical receptacles in your home.

Now the schematics all show two independent bus wires, "hanging loose in thin air" at either end, with the feed in the middle. I understand that the feed location isn't that sensitive. But at the same time I'm wondering about crosstalk, etc if the bus wires do 'hang in mid-air'.

Experience has shown that this is not an issue.

http://www.digitrax.com/kb/index.php?a=358
Use the biggest wire for your DCC bus that you can, preferably 12 gauge twisted.
Absurd - DCC experts tell us we should avoid problems by using larger wire. Joe Daddy advises you use the charts on the DCC Dealers web page or use an ampacity chart to determine the actual wire size needed. If the calculations call for #16, use it, if you need #10, go for it, but don't follow some silly rule of thumb. I have never met real engineer who did not need to calculate the exact requirement for something. It is in their DNA.

If you suspect your wire size is too small, before you rewire your layout, go to the farthest piece of track from your DCC booster and short the track. If the DCC system powers down you have adequate wire. Better yet, use an RRamp gauge to monitor the health of your layout. If your layout fails the short test, you are more likely to have a cold solder joint or a poor connection than wrong size wire. Most layouts with runs shorter than 50 feet can easily get by with 16 gauge wire. Workmanship, especially cold solder joints are the chief cause of DCC related wiring issues.
Bonding small feeder wire to large #12 sized DCC bus wire can be a problem with workmanship.
You cannot have too many feeders, at least one every section of track is best.
Not true - Too many feeders can needlessly complicate the DCC bus. If you have sectional track, solder 3-5 sections together at the rail joiners and solder a set of feeders to that 3-5 section piece. For flex track, solder 2 or 3 sections together and connect feeders to them. Use color coding, make sure you do not have any cold solder joints and organize your wiring so it can be traced later. Wiring and connections that make perfect sense today are confusing and seem unnecessarily complicated several months or a year later. For complex layouts with signaling, block detection and lots of lighting, it helps to make drawings of your systems and organize, organize, organize your wiring.
Foam scenery is cheaper than other form of scenery.
Not true - Foam is actually more expensive than many other alternative forms of scenery. Why, you might ask, the Styrofoam we all relate to as foam is not the blue or pink foam we have to purchase at the local big box store for almost the same price as 3/4 plywood. And foam is NOT a renewable resource, if you are interested in things like that.
Foam scenery is faster and cleaner than other forms of scenery.
Maybe - Scenery speed is more a function of skill than types of materials. Shaping and carving foam is every bit or more labor and time intensive as alternative forms like screenwire/cardboard lattice and plaster cloth. As for cleaner, I'd rather clean up a few drops of plaster splat than to be cleaning foam flummers out of my clothes, hair, computer and . . .
Foam makes better layout roadbed than plywood.
Maybe - One thing we can all agree on, foam is lighter than wood, it is also more dimensionally stable, however, it is still foam and without wood or steel supports it just does not work. A shelf layout is one of the few reasonable uses of a foam 'only' roadbed.
Drywall mud is not plaster it is gypsum
Oh please, use the dictionary, look it up.

plas·ter plas-ter, plah-ster] Pronunciation –noun
1. a composition, as of lime or gypsum, sand, water, and sometimes hair or other fiber, applied in a pasty form to walls, ceilings, etc., and allowed to harden and dry.

2. powdered gypsum.

3. plaster of Paris.

4. a solid or semisolid preparation spread upon cloth, plastic, or other material and applied to the body, esp. for some healing purpose.
–verb (used with object)
5. to cover (walls, ceilings, etc.) with plaster.

6. to treat with gypsum or plaster of Paris.

Still not convinced, go to plaster.com and notice it it is owned and operated by the US GYPSUM Company one of the country's largest producers of drywall mud.
Xuron rail nippers wear out too fast
Oh, how I love this one, it goes something like this:

Please where can I find some music wire, and BTW, what is it? Thanks.

Well, I found the music wire yesterday at the LHS, seems I couldn't have found it on the web except at Guitars R Us. Anyway, thanks. Oh, BTW, I have been trying to cut the music wire with Xuron rail nippers that are suppose to be so darn sharp, which BTW they don't cut rail very good either. . . LMAO

Rail nippers are for cutting HO and N gauge rail and soft things like soft plastic, small copper wire (under 16 gauge) and toenails. But for the life of me, I've even read where someone claimed that cutting plastic sprues ruined his Xurons. I wonder if it was our music wire genius.

Ballasting - Status report Poll

2007-04-01T08:31:00.001-06:00

Ballasting track is a major milestone to me. Today, it means I have committed to the track's location, believe the track physical construction is completed and the surrounding landscape is ready to accept ballasting.

This Poll allows us to communicate where we are today with our ballasting project. Are most of us just getting started, or are more of us finished with ballasting than I imagine?

Lessons Learned - Track Polls

2007-03-29T09:22:00.001-06:00

This post contains all the track related polls. Certainly my polls are unscientific, but they are interesting and provide us some notion of how we, as well as others are approaching our magnificent hobby.

Lessons learned Tunnels

2007-03-07T08:19:00.004-07:00

Updated 4-28-2007

This entry was in response to an interesting thread on Trains.Com.

Whew, I built the mountains, really liked them, used some paper rock homemade portals and stopped cold. Why? I realized I need to 'line my tunnels'. OK, so I built some 'paper and cardboard' liners. I fitted them in from the back. Yuk, the paper portals looked awful. And the liners were only a bit better.

So I purchased some plaster portals and fitted them to my paper liners. Even more yuk! So I built some styrene liners and started installing them and the plaster portals. Ready to glue it down and stopped cold again. I needed to paint the styrene tunnels which turned out to be no trivial task as the acrylic paint bubbles on dirty plastic. (First time I tried to paint any styrene with acrylic paints you know). OK, painted lets glue. Oh no! The track needs to be balasted but the roadbed needs to be painted first.

At that point, I was glad my mountains were light and removable, so off they came, and I started ground up.

widen roadbed so tunnel liners have no gaps. I use 3/4 masonite strips glued to the sub road bed edges like they do in spline roadbeds to fix narrow places on the roadbed.
Paint roadbed very dark gray
Align track one more time and replace missing ties.
Ballast track all the way past the liner and outside the portals
Check liner paint job
Trimed liners to fit with retaining walls
Paint and weather the portals and retaining walls. What a kick that was!
Glue liner to portals
Glue portals to roadbed
Installed retaining walls
Reinstalled mountains
Plaster cloth repairs to mountain shells
Now ready to so some scenicing.

Never did I realize it was so involved in making mountains and portals and such. But boy do I like the results.

Update 4-28-2007

I took the plunge over the last week and moved ahead with the scenery work. Overall, things went about like I had hoped with a few little exceptions here and there. It is simply amazing how much you tend to learn by doing this stuff. One of the biggest lessons I learned this past week is the difference in landscaping with evergreens vs deciduous trees. Next time you see a group of model railroad scenery, examine the differences. The Evergreens are harder, taking many more trees to achieve a decent look, plus they require you do something with the 'ground' where as with the other trees you could do a canopy of the area, totally blocking out the ground. Anyway, here is the current status picture.

Joe Daddy

The health of our hobby

2007-03-07T08:19:00.001-07:00

This blog entry as a response to a thread I started on Trains.com.

My gratitude to the serious responses thus far, and a 'chuckle' to those less serious, but more predictable! [:)]

I don't seek to be flame bait here, nor are my thougts intended to be trivial, but to engage in some serious dialogue.

There are some facts and data that could help assess the state of the hobby's size and assumed health.

Are overall sales $$ of model railroad related items growing or shrinking? What are key economic health indicators of related suppliers and manufacturers?

Bankrupcy rate of current leaders U/D/S (up/down/static)
Number of new suppliers and manufacturers each (U/D/S)
Mergers and buyouts of existing suppliers and manufacturers (U/D/S)

Internet presence

Forums that are growing with new members and postings
Forums that are stagnant, dying or died in the past year
New forums this year
Same data on train blogs

Local, National and regional club health

Train shows per year, attendance and demographics

These are just a few of the metrics that I'd think would give some legitimate response to my question. The state of the hobby is not an abstract construct. It seems to me that instead of relying upon antedotal information gleaned from pundits and members of the OFC, real facts can be collected to better understand the issue.

So, Joe Daddy, who is responsible for doing this, well, I'd say no one is actually responsible, which is why we don't have clear or supportable data. But there are those who's best interests are served by knowing this. Large, leading magazines, national organizations and manufacturers themselves all need and would value this data as legitimate marketing information. Actually I would be very surprised if none or all of these people do not have some hard data on this subject. They may consider it to be highly secret or priviledged internal data; a part of their competitive advantage.

Personally, I think the known facts support the idea the hobby is enjoying at least a moderate amount of growth. Here is why I would say that, meaning these are the facts that support my conclusion.

Recently the evening news announced the hobby of trains is making a comeback with younger people, citing the reentry of some retailers into the business. Antedotal for sure.
We see what appears to be an increasing number of new and finely detailed models in all scales being offered.
Young faces are appearing in the pages of leading magazines, suggesting their data suggests a youthful appearance will have an appeal to their audience. (these people look at the angles trying to make it all work to their advantage)
Global competition works to keep prices in check. Look at the price of flex track over the past 40 years and compare it to wages. I'd say that price is muc flatter than my wages have been.
The baby boomers are retiring, looking for mentally and physically challenging activities that don't require further abuse to their already jog ruined knees.

This brings me back to us. It is my recommendation, based upon my conclusions drawn from the known facts, that we are best served by thinking about our hobby more in the eyes of newbies than the OFC. This means it is valueable to help newbies be successful at making their trains operate well, look reasonable and have some fun, before we insist they have 9 rivits on each handrail, 4 bolts on each timber of a trestle bent and have a fully indexed card system before they turn the DCC controller on.

A growing, healthy hobby attracts better products, research and keeps the prices low while choices go up. A real advantage to everyone in the hobby, especially the OFC who mostly rely upon fixed incomes.

For those who don't know, OFC (Old Fuddyduddy Club)

And yes, I agree, a Poll would be completely useless for this purpose.

I just got my NMRA membership card yesterday #137808 00. It seems to me that one of the missions of the NMRA should be to know the health of the Model Railroading hobby.

Model Trains & Model Railroading Help: Power Supply And Oiling Model Trains

2007-03-06T03:14:00.000-07:00

Model Trains & Model Railroading Help: Power Supply And Oiling Model Trains

Our Railroad's focus, what is important

2007-02-04T20:54:00.001-07:00

Ok, being involved in a long running discussion on one of the forums got Joe Daddy to thinking it would be fun to have a poll on what is important in our model railroading. I've tried to make the list pretty long and inclusive, but I am sure I've missed one of your important subjects. Once the poll starts I cannot change it, as changes retart the thing and it throws all the previous votes away.

As with other polls, I am asking for ONLY Five (5)(v) responses so we can see what is the MOST important. For those who insist upon voting for more than 4, I have a delete key that works very well.

Leave a comment if you have something to say, and Have a great day!

Poll and contents copyright Joe-Daddy.com 2007 All rights reserved

Dual Monitors

2007-02-04T20:44:00.000-07:00

One of the realities of working with a computer is that your view quickly becomes tied to the monitor. I remember when a 15" monitor the large size. Today, 19" is common place.
Trouble is bigger is better. Much of today's model railroad software likes to spreadout on the screen. Get a couple of throttles, a CTC panel and all of a sudden, even a 19" gets crowded.

Today, dual monitors can provide a useful approach to helping us be more efficient and productive while using our train software. Click on this picture to see a larger view of this technique.

Most laptops running XP are already for you to add the second monitor. Implementation is pretty straight forward. If you do not already have a monitor attached to your computer, plug one in to the vga jack on the back and power it up.

Right click on your desktop and select properties. A dialogue box like this should pop up. Select the settings tab and do the following:
Select monitor 2 with the mouse
Click on the box 'extend my desktop onto this monitor
Click ok and your desktop is now on two monitors.

You can now drag objects to the second monitor, or even extend a single window across both windows. In the first picture, I am running CTI's train brain with the CTC panel and a couple of reference windows on one screen with the throttles and programming screen on the other. The use of dual monitors is really good for doing programming and troubleshooting when you need to have a lot of windows open.

Good computing!

Joe Daddy

Adventures in Layout planning

2007-01-24T20:11:00.006-07:00

Stimulation to write this entry came from a post from Pilot on Trains.com.
I returned to model railroading after a 30 year Hiatus about 15 months ago (Nov 2005). Your desires sound alot like my original wish list. I'd always been impressed with the Atlas plan books and thought the Midland Central was the neatest layout ever. I decided to build it exactly like the plan except with 24" curves to accomodate some cars I had already purchased that did not like the 22" of the original design. Now the Midland Central was an original John Armstrong plan so it is a sound layout and Atlas did a good job providing the how too. I started Nov 15, 2005 and was running a train by Christmas. I learned a ton of good stuff during that intense time, invaluable lessons learned if you will.

By March I had all the track down and the Midland Central was moving close to scenery time. My Lenz DCC system worked perfectly, and I even had working block detection. FULL computer control was my ultimate goal. As I learned, I learned. And am still learning. By May, 2006, the Midland Central was quickly bugging the crap out of me. It just wasn't right. A bowl of spagetti comes to mind. Everywhere I looked, I could see the wall and the house as well as my railroad. It is kind of hard to explain, but all of a sudden my neat railroad became too toy like for me. The original plan called for a couple of backdrops along the edges which in effect made the railroad seem like an around the room affair. But it wasn't. Never did I get the backdrops up before I decided to move the thing into a different room. Monstrosity comes to mind. The move was uneventful but having the layout apart was a good opportunity me to fix a couple of things.

This meant I was taking the time to think about what I really want in my railroad. As a Colorado resident, many trips to the Caboose and Mizells were made. I had read everything Atlas ever wrote, reviewed all of my Wescott and Armstrong materials and came to the startling conclusion that around the walls is the best and most optimum way to build a permanent home layout.

The Midland Central was a pile of lumber and a huge pile of salvaged track and turnouts in only 2 days. Mainly because I had nailed the track down instead of gluing it, and I had not ballasted any of it so the track came up nice and easy.

My new list of givens looked something like this:

* Double mainline
* No spagetti
* Not flat anywhere but the yard
* Two levels
* No helix
* 30" curves on the mainline, minimum
* Number 6 turnouts, PECO/Peco solenoid please (that later changed back to Atlas/Tortoise)
* Double ended staging yard
* Constant running and movement are the theme

By the way, this is the first time I ever wrote them down, but they are vivid in my mind!

Version 2
By Labor Day, (2006) trains were running again on two levels. Version 2 is around the room, what I call a cockpit railroad. My biggest consession was to have a narrow isle in favor of keeping the 30" rule. What I did not figure is that a double mainline with a 30" inside is not 30" on the outter mainline. The isle choke is tolerable at about 20" but I so wish it was 36".

Within weeks of getting the trains moving, my good friends Dan and Jeff told me how I could expand my 12 X 16 into the next room and double it's size. By the time we stopped talking and laid down the white board markers, I'd firm plans for something like a 35 x 16. Wow, now that is a railroad. My wife had some serious frown as I assured her that the holes I was going to cut in the walls were easily patched. As the gentile and sweet person she is, I knew that she would ultimately yeild to what ever I wanted and the additional real estate is my own work shop. But her hesitancy caused me to think. She said you should finish what you have started so far, Joe then you can talk about expansion. Yes, but I want to get all the construction behind me. That makes sense she said.

Stone cold, I stopped. For about a day I just thought, then I drew a new track plan, yes, the expansion would be perfect. It is the right thing to do. Yes, after a year, I still love model railroading. Yes it is growing on me, yes I really do like it. The track plan is on the wall in the shop, blue masking tape went down on the carpet to declare the space where the new layout would go, and I even stacked tools, tables and stuff where the new layout will go, a live mock up if you will. This was all before Thanksgiving. Over Christmas, I'll blow the benchwork into the next room. Over Christmas, I finally peeled the tape off the floor and put the room back into some sort of peace. By now, I was building a mountain and starting to make my plywood jungle look like Colorado.

Then I discovered CTI and ramped up the automation work. I have a couple of little areas on the layout that are starting to look semi-realistic. My standards are more demanding these days, mistakes means rework, rework means do it again Joe, get it right. Don't settle, don't compromise. By now I had decided I was really tired of building benchwork. After a year of it, running the trains in a more realistic setting became more important.

I have pretty much decided it is important to refine some of what I have done. There is so much to learn, so much to do. And I am amazed at how many of our friends, especially my Wife's friends love to see my trains and the progress. I have a two year old grandson who's absolutely nuts about the railroad too. He is completely intent to stare holes in the trains! Granpa Train, he says.

Build that 4X8. Just start! And follow your dream. I like what one of the fellows on Trains.com has on his signature, "It is never too late to have a happy childhood!"

Update,
About two months after I wrote this, I again changed my mind and version 2 is gone! It has been replaced by the 40 X 15 Colorado and Santa Fe, a single level, sectional/modular design that could be moved without loosing all of the hard work. See A POX on hidden staging for more details. Click here to see pictures of the C&SF.

Joe Daddy

All rights reserved, copyright, 2007, Http://www.joe-daddy.com

Computer Operations Naming Conventions

2007-01-24T20:11:00.003-07:00

Under construction!

An interesting thread on the CTI forum caught my interest. It was a new user talking about how to name things in CTI. As I thought about the topic, it became pretty clear to me that in IMHO, naming conventions of your layout can be one of the more strategic and important decisions one can make. The impact of poor planning in this regard can have a bigger impact than many might realize.

There are a number of strategies for naming sensors, turnouts and signals. Each has it's own set of pro's and con's. I use a matrix to organize my thoughts around a topic. Here is my current thinking on this topic. Certainly there needs to be more thought put into this, but I've captured my initial thinking. Please, feel free to comment.

Layout Grid Locations
Since I use the grid layout method to identify objects on my layout, I needed to establish the grid for my Parkdale RR v2. Here is the simple Excel grid I used to identify sections of my layout.

As I use CTI's Trainbrain software to automate the Parkdale RR, a CTC panel has been part of the deliverables one gets from CTI. To help me know the actual locations of different objects (Signals, Sensors & Turnouts) on the railroad, I have put their unique identifiers on the CTC panel. Since CTI will allow for multiple CTC panels, one of my next tasks will be to develop a CTC panel that is designed around the LOGIC of the railroad program and not necessarily around the CTC panel or the physical layout. This panel will be used for troubleshooting program logic, which by the very definition of what we are doing here, gets somewhat complicated. I think this necessary complication is the reason why it is so important to think the naming convention through long before you have a lot of spaghetti code to maintain. Here is what my CTC panel looks like at the moment.

This is a work in progress, check back from time to time!

Content copyright, Joe-Daddy.com 2007 all rights reserved.

Foam or plywood sub-roadbed

2007-01-24T20:07:00.003-07:00

Now at the risk of raising an eyebrow or two, here is a question for you experts.

If 3/4 5 layer plywood and 2" foam are about the same price (and they are if you watch for specials on plywood), then why would you ever use foam?

Portability is the only reason I can see.

Pro Foam

Lighter

Pro Plywood

Stronger
Flatter/Smoother
Quieter
Easier to wire Staples etc easier to feed 24 gauge wire through
Easier to mount tortoise or Peco switch motors
Holds a track nail
Looks better if not painted
More durable

Just curious

Joe Daddy

Train Cadd Criteria

2007-01-24T20:07:00.001-07:00

What is most important to you in selection of your train cadd program? We are interested in the MOST important criteria. All of the listed criteria is important and is considered at some level during a purchase, but what is MOST important? You are being asked to only select four choices for your vote.

The poll data is anonymous, the only identifier we receive is the IP address from which the vote is submitted.

Note:
If you feel you just cannot limit your choice to four, you may as well not vote, because I will throw ALL of your choices away if you pick more than four.

Tools, oh the joy

2007-01-24T20:06:00.001-07:00

I imagine most model railroaders like tools. One of the reasons for having a model railroad, is to use those little jewels. One of the lessons I learned from my Dad was to buy good tools. They never let you down.

So, I thought it might be interesting to share my experiences with tools for the layout. To start it off, I will share three things I have learned or discovered as highly useful during my layout benchwork phase:

1 - The Black and Decker dust buster battery powered vacuum is my most used tool, next to my electric drill. $35 at Walmart By the way, it keeps my wife much happier with the condition of my train room. (I had to buy her one for the kitchen too.)

2 - I have read that cutting 3/4 ply with a sabre saw is cake, well never in my life was it. My old Cheap, Skill 35 special beat me to death cuting anything and it was never straight or square, in any direction! So, last week, at HD, I looked over their selection an decided to try a Bosch 1587AVS and WOW! Where has this saw been all my life! And, it cam with a free orbital sander too boot, about $140. Cutting 3/4 is like cutting on a band saw. Nice, smooth, no flopping around.

3 - Been using dremels and die grinders for 30 years, could not live without them, wore a couple of dremels out and use my big Makita for bigger jobs. Then I saw the new Dremel Lithium ION Cordless, put a chuck on it and it is a very useful tool, especially when nailing track, I can easily pre-drill holes to push nails into even the most subborn hardwood. Just like your old dremel, but with no Cord! HD 70 bucks. This is a very handy tool!

4 - I am a bit of a tool nut, so when I was told about Xuron nippers, I purchased a new pair right then. I received the obligatory "these are for cutting rail ONLY" speech. OK, I said. Well, these 'dikes' are about as sharp and precision set of side cutters I've ever owned, so it only took a few days for me to abandon my other dikes. (For that one person on the planet who does not know, dikes is slang for diagonal side cutting pliers.)

Remembering the admonition to only use on rail, I started wondering if these were actually kinda cheap pliers that would quickly dull and loose their effectiness at cutting rail. So, I bought a second set and put them in the tool box over a year ago as a 'spare' to be used when the first pair became sloppy at cutting rail. Well, the new pair is still in the package. Brand spankin new!

I use my Xuron rail nippers for everything BUT cutting spring steel and if I think it might be like spring steel I don't use them, meaning I don't cut nails, screws or the like. But I have cut a few thousand pieces of wire, flash, pulled rail nails, even clipped my toenails, ((just kidding)! ;;)

So, I shared some of my new tool choices and discoveries with you, how about sharing yours with us? You can do that by adding a comment to this entry!

Lessons Learned - Lenz LH100 Quick Reference Guide

2007-01-15T19:27:00.001-07:00

As a newbie, trying to master the sundry capabilities of the Lenz LH100 was causing me some amount of grief. I didn't think it was rocket science, especially with all the people in model railroading that seem to know how to use a word processor as well, and in many cases even better than they do using a #11 or 60watt soldering iron. A diligent search of the web left me empty handed. Does not mean it is not out there, just means Joe Daddy was unable to find it.

My next option was to begin pinging the forums. What a pain that was, why do you need one, are you stupid? You ought to change over to MRC's prodigy, you don't need no stinkin cheat sheet, it is so easy.

Anyway, here is my Lenz LH100 Quick Reference Guide. Let me know if it is useful! Certainly let Joe Daddy know if there are mistakes!

Roadbed

2007-01-15T19:25:00.005-07:00

Well, I remain undecided about roadbed, not so much as to what to use, but where or if to use it. Looking at dozens of prototype pictures as well as many very high Q layouts, I have come to these conclusions:

1 - NO roadbed inside of downtowns or in yards. Period.

2 - The only place to put a roadbed is on a mainline, outside of downtown of a city.

3 - Cork roadbed is TOO HIGH when or if I should choose to use it, most of the time. Excellent models blend and feather the edges of the roadbed into the scenery. It seems to me that Cork roadbed would suit my needs better if it was about 1/2 its current height, i.e. 1/8 instead of 1/4 high.

4 - When the track is multi tracked, the roadbed should be flat between the tracks, by that I mean the roadbed should be wide enough to have both sets of tracks side by side on the same level.

5 - Staging yards should have no roadbed, however, something like homosote or some other sound deadening is acceptable.

Still more learning to do on this and if you look at my layout, you will see that I have violated these rules myself, especially #4!

As to what to use as roadbed, Cork is the favorite of most modelers by a 4 to one majority. Follow this LINK to see and participate in a poll I started on Trainboard about this subject.

Sub-roadbed (work in progress)

I prefer a solid and sturdy roadbed.
I like the flexibility of a ribbon type roadbed, meaning one that is only a little wider than the roadbed (cork) with open space between the roadbed.
Probably because of not wanting my layout to look like a simple plywood table, I don't like flat table tops very much. Although, after spending some time with friends who have large, table top layouts, their are some great advantages to that method as well.
All of my track work is supported by a 3/4 5 ply plywood subroadbed.
Almost none of my track is 'flat', except for areas where I have crossovers, the track is rising or falling.
When I make the roadbed ribbons too small, I use 3/4 masonite strips and glue them to the side of the plywood to make the roadbed wider. I use the same technique as spline roadbed builders. It has saved my bacon several times when my calculations and measurements were off.

Joe

DCC buyer selection criteria

2007-01-15T19:25:00.003-07:00

A lot has been written and said about just how to buy the right DCC system. In an effort to get better understanding of the subject, I have put together the following poll. Please know that your results are strictly anonymous. While one can argue that all of the listed criteria is important, I'm asking you to pick out the top four only. Certainly you can click on all of them but that defeats the purpose of the poll, right? Any entry that has more than 4 selections is deleted from the poll. So far, I have deleted 3 votes from people who picked most, or all of the choices.

If you have something to add that I missed on the list, you can add that too!

Joe Daddy

Train Automation - My Goal

2007-01-15T19:25:00.001-07:00

Simply put, my goal is to have my Model Railroad operate independently without any need for my intervention. By operate, I mean that multiple trains will operate independently, without intervention (malfunction excepted) including turnout changes, speed changes, whistles, bells, smoke, lights, and stopping at appropriate places.

By and large, I have accomplished this already with CTI. I thought it would be interesting to put a poll in this blog to see what you are doing with train automation. Joe Daddy

A note about Joe Daddy's Polls. The ONLY piece of identifying information available to me is the IP address used to register the vote. For all practical purposes the votes are anonymous.

All rights reserved Joe-Daddy.com 2007

Lessons Learned - Ceiling Railroads

2007-01-11T19:48:00.001-07:00

Caboose Hobbies and Mizell's Trains in Denver both have G Scale trains running around the ceiling. Caboose has 3 or 4 of them running independently. I like them very much and watch them when I am in the store.

I visited a hobby shop in eastern Indianapolis that had a couple of HO tracks running around the room about a foot or so below the very high ceiling. They were running a long passenger train with either a pacific or a northern with QSI sound. Because the tracks were so close to the edge, they had 6 inch or so plexiglass sheilds in place. IMHO, the Sheilds were higher than necessary (1.5" is adequate) and these same sheilds greatly affected the quality of the sound. Or, they had a problem with the locomotive sound system. The train on the inside track was hard to see and I thought it was a waste of time.

Until about 2 weeks ago, I had intended to run my G scale around my office with a 'tunnel' into the next room, even at one time considered a dual mainline the desired state. Those plans are now abandoned as I have decided the efforts would detract from my 'real' layout.

A ceiling railroad is better than no railroad. But, I think there are some serious issues I'd consider before building one. If the ceiling road is to be your only layout, your options will be seriously limited. For example any kind of realistic operations will be nearly impossible, as would realistic switching. If the purpose of the train is to serve as a novelty like the Dentist in Ft. Collins, well and good. But if this will be your only railroad, and you have an alternate location, I'd seriously consider the other option. I've 'fallen in love' with scenery. A ceiling height layout would pose some unique issues and problems for those who want to build scenery.

If you are determined to have your ceiling train, ready made shelving is available through the LHS or the Web and some pretty nice bridges exist in G that would look nice over doors and halls.

Joe Daddy

Soldering and unsoldering train things. . .

2007-01-11T19:32:00.000-07:00

Tips on soldering and unsoldering train stuff. . . (updated 12-24-2007)

Unsoldering
The issue is usually how to unsolder something. Almost always, the problem with unsoldering something is the lack of flux in the existing joint. This is where a bottle of liquid flux is invaluable. In the electronics repair business, we typically paint the old joint with some liquid rosin flux with a small brush.

Using a larger iron is better for unsoldering. A smaller iron takes longer to heat the object, that time translates to heat migration and the area gets overall hotter than using a larger iron. I use an iron of 45 watts for everything. Remember, with soldering, the object is to get in and get out quickly. By the way, I never burn ties.

It is kind of like a house painter, they will use a 4 inch brush for things you and I would use a 1 inch. They have the technique and skill honed to use the larger tool. Soldering is an art, you have to develop and practice the technique.

Liquid soldering flux
From GC Electronics Completely non-corrosive liquid solder flux consisting of a solution of special rosin in alcohol. Contains no traces of acids or chlorides and is completely safe to use on even the most delicate electronic equipment. For electronics applications. $6.95
http://www.action-electronics.com/kester.htm#Flux

Here are the tools I use to solder everything from a decoder wire to an HO rail. There is NO adjustment on my Iron, by the way. The advantages of the station is the thermostatic control and the sponge. Simple soldering irons typically have poor or no thermostatic control and get hotter and hotter the longer you use them as evidenced by their burned up tips. The tip in my Iron is 5 or 6 years old. It does not burn up, and is easy to re-tin. I cannot tell you how many times I left it on all night. My soldering station is an old TC202 Weller. They can be had on Ebay, I recently purchased a spare in near mint condition (compared to my old unit) for less than $40 including shipping. The tips are still available.

Lesson Learned
Soldering iron tips wear out much faster when you use acid core solder like when hand laying track

Too bad we don't have a video of the time I sat on my soldering pencil in a computer room about 20 years ago, burned a hole in my pants and my butt!

These are the primary tools I use to do all the soldering on my layout. The two larger rolls of solder are there for illustration purposes. I only use the tiny stuff on the left. The yellow disk is solder wick, a copper braid useful in removing excess solder from a board. Been years since I used it.

The most useful tool for soldering that I have is this marvelous tool.

A brass solder sucker, only time I use this is when I am removing a part from a printed circuit board, or I am cleaning up excess solder on track joint or feeder I removed.

Battery powered soldering pencils

2007-01-09T07:31:00.001-07:00

In 1975 or so, when all of my electric drills had cords, not battery packs, I purchased a battery powered soldering pencil. In a nut shell, it sucked:

Took too long to get hot,
The tip was hard to keep tinned,
My finger did not like staying on the power button,
If I used the switch latch to keep the iron on all the time, it got too hot,
And, battery technology in 1975 was not quite where it is in 32 years later.

In Home Depot the other week, a soldering pencil, battery powered, portable, caught my eye. And, it was a Weller brand. Yes, I remembered 1975 right away. But it was only 15 bucks. Only my 1/2 hammer drill has a cord these days. Why had I waited so long to buy one of these, I thought?

At home, I was too busy to do anything but put the iron on the charger so it was the next day before I got to use it. I needed to solder a couple of 16 gauge wires together in a splice somewhere under the layout. Ah, I thought a perfect opportunity to use the new iron. And it is fully charged. I grabbed it and headed under the table. Boy did I get upset. Remember all of those things I said were wrong in 1975? Well, none of them had been fixed! But there was a difference this time, I took this one back and got my 15 bucks, instead of letting the batteries go to ash and ruin the bottom of my tool box like the last one did!

You'd think someone actually made a battery operated soldering pencil that works properly. Maybe I am just spoiled to my Weller soldering station that works perfectly every time.

Go figure!

Joe

Computer Control - Painful first steps

2007-01-09T07:29:00.005-07:00

Under construction

I am a computer guy, it is all I have ever been. DCC & the realism of today's QSI sound systems pulled me back into the hobby I left some 30 years ago. Read any write up on DCC in any magazine or on the web and real quick, you get this picture of the PC and DCC integrated, sort of a symphony of beauty and control. From the beginning, computer control has been central on my mind.

Actually Lenz helped me a great deal with these notions. How, very simple, my first DCC set was a Lenz SI. If you took the time to look it up, you would find that I did not purchase a system with a throttle, but one with a serial port, and software included. I hooked it up, plugged it in, and installed the software on my computer and I was running my trains with my mouse in less than an hour. Oh, was I pumped. I am computer integrated already! The next day I was completely wireless running my Atlas Midland Central layout with my Ipaq, way cool, oh, am I in deep.

Ultimately, I evaluated four different products, KAM, JMRI, Railroad & Company and CTI-Electronics. I settled on CTI as my solution. Today my trains are automated using CTI. It took over 13 months to make it happen. To be clear, it took me over 13 months, from November 2005 until early January, 2007, to make a locomotive behave like a trolley under DCC control.

My criteria
My initial test suite was simple. I wanted to run a locomotive as a trolley. Simply Go back and forth on a single piece of track, waiting different amounts of time on each end of the track and blowing the whistle upon arrival and departure. I thought it was going to be cake, a very simple request. I never dreamed it would be as big a deal, and expensive as it turned out to be.

First stop, KAM
Since the software Lenz sent me was Train Commander by KAM, it was natural and expected that would be my first software experience. Train Commander is a nice throttle and the network features built into KAM make it a VERY attractive product. KAM's website, it turns out is as confusing as its documentation. While this is unacceptable, it is also the norm for all of the four solutions I examined.

KAM's Railroad Commander was the product that was suppose to do what I wanted. Certainly it took some time to get feedback working on my Lenz, navigating the LR101/LB101 is not trivial. Wiring DCC for block detection feedback is more complicated than DC blocks, belying all of the DCC is simple to wire nonsense. But I digress, back to the software issues.

I can tell you that Railroad Commander is a pretty nice automated CTC panel, reasonably straight forward to get working. My only issue was that I could not get the contrast and intensity of indicators on the screen as bright as my old eyes required. KAM does not rely on scripts to work. Their GUI reminds me of a level of complexity found in intermediate Access programming and about as well documented, I might add. The program was originally developed in German and I had German translation messages pop up. I found errors and confusion in the documentation. I was never able to get any level of automatic operation. After two hard months of working on this software, the bubble was burst, I declared model railroading was not ready for computer automation. Also, as a piece of trivia, the KAM Yahoo support Forum is highly moderated.

Railroad and Company
As I was winding down my KAM effort, RR & Co looked like a good solution. It has the best documentation of the four offerings, excellent, no, the best advertised capability and a really awful software trial arrangement. The 'quick timeout' just turned me off. The price is very high, around $500.

To clarify my comments about the price of RR & Co, directly from their website 3-8-07.

The basic software is $349, add $149 for network and $149 for sound.

Couple the price with the trial approach and I bailed out. If they would have given a nibble approach, get me hooked at an affordable price, I might have been an RR & Co user today. But the risks are just too high, I'm not about to spend $500 for another piece of software that just fails to meet the claims. I have already reserved that money for Bill Gates.

JMRI
Perhaps the best support and certainly the most loyal fans belong to this solution which is certainly priced well. Decoder Pro is a viable, perhaps best of breed decoder programmer. I have used it successfully and certainly can see where a club with many locomotives and visitor would swear by this product. I find the documentation to be confusing and somewhat ambiguous. JMRI is for those who have a high geek content. This is one solution that can and does run on Linux, if that is what you'd like to do. Their Panel Pro is a CTC solution and I know that they can automate train movement. Their Yahoo support forum is extremely active and I'd say one of the best around.

Recently on the JMRI yahoo forum, two messages stand out in my mind.

Where is a tutorial that goes step by step and does not confuse me like the documentation?
Does someone have code that simply automates a trolley?

The answer to the second question was a link to several pages of code. That pretty much shut down any further interest I had in that solution. I may be back to it, but for now, I am not ready to be 'that' deep into a product.

CTI-Electronics
I stumbled into CTI while looking for C/MRI (Bruce Chubb) information. Confusing web page, I understood their DC automation, signaling and feedback information right off. But understanding the tie to DCC was a real challenge. Not well explained except they say it works together. (I'll explain exactly what CTI can and cannot do with DCC in another post. ) By now, I am from Missouri and everything has to be well understood! The CTI Yahoo group is pretty good, heavily moderated, but very good. Took me a day each time to get an answer and frankly the users from Australia were able to get me good answers to my questions. Their Starters kit is 99 bucks including their software and hardware, it is enough to automate a trolley. (It took less than 10 lines of code.)

Actually, I was able, in less than 8 hours to get a trolley operational running my DCC system from TrainBrain (their software) without using their hardware! Finally, after four products I hit pay dirt. At the moment, I have three trains automated with only 8 sensors allowing them to operate smoothly, blow whistles, bells, stop at stations, run the turnouts and I am a happy camper! I have less than 24 hours of time working on it to get it to the point where I am. As a note and to be very fair, CTI gets the benefit of all of the expertise and learning that I expended with the other products along the way. Looking back though, CTI was just much easier to understand and ultimately get results with. A fine place to start from my perspective.

Click to join cti_users

Commentary
If you want to spend an interesting but meaningless couple of hours look into the legal stuff between KAM and JMRI. One could make the argument that a direct focus on the product details and documentation would yield better results than the distractions of legal discussions. I'm a free market guy and the best concepts and products win the day.

After almost 18 months using CTI's Train Brain software I'm satisfied with the progress that has been made. I routinely operate my layout running 5 trains simultaneously. But all progress comes at a price. When Lenz offered their new 3.6 upgrade, I sent my system in for upgrade. As I have a spare system because I like to have extra parts on had for occasional troubleshooting, when the first system came back, I sent the second one off. It never occurred to me that I should test my layout with 3.6 as I was consumed with building the new valence and facia.

Testing with 3.6 proved to be troublesome, CTI looses sync with the Lenz system and my locomotives occassionally stop responding to the computer. So I'm temporarily impacted until CTI gets their software back in-sync with Lenz. A check of the JMRI site suggests that JMRI users are also experiencing 'issues' with 3.6 as well. JMRI and CTI are now in a corner, as Lenz has not yet released the internal 'specs' for 3.6.

I decided to step around this set of problems and make the leap to NCE's new Radio system. It was all the inertia I needed to make the purchase. Well, nothing is that simple, the NCE USB is simply not ready for prime time, it works 'funky' with JMRI and CTI has not yet added NCE USB to its code set. So I jumped over to NCE serial port which comes built into the command station only to find more serious issues there.

So here I sit, waiting for the Lenz situation to be resolved, or hope that the NCE issues can be put to bed. In the meantime, I'm running with Lenz and tolerate the highly intermittent issues. Take a look at my entry on my new NCE Radio system to read about my pros and cons of Lenz and NCE.

More as I learn.

Joe

All rights reserved, Copyright 2007, Joe-Daddy.Com

Lessons Learned Train fencing

2007-01-07T21:33:00.001-07:00

Plexiglas train fencing

I believe in using Plexiglas to save your locomotives and cars from the 5 foot smash to the floor. Here is how I have done it.

Procuring

1/8th inch Plexiglas is sold at Lowes and Home Depot in my area under the name of acrylic sheeting. It comes in various sizes, minimum I have seen is something like 1' x 2'. I try to get the 2' x 4' pieces. I don't buy the tempered kind.

Approach

I have a lined all of my track near a table's edge with either Plexiglas or Masonite strips. I use the Masonite in places where the transparency is not required. My strips are 1.5" tall and I use #4 x 1/2 screws to attach it. I know, 1.5 inches is not tall enough you say, well I had to be convinced too. Make them 6" for all I care, just know that I find the 1.5 inch height is just about perfect. :)

Cutting

I have tried to cut this stuff with my radial arm saw, band saw, chop saw, hack saw, saber saw and near killed myself with some of these methods. Then I tried scoring and snapping. None of these methods worked, all I got was cracked, chipped and scrap.

Then I tried my table saw. Set the blade at just the thickness of the sheet being cut. I use a standard ripping blade, have never tried any other except that one. I get a good cut using this approach. I then use my stationary belt sander with a 60 grit belt to take off the sharp edges. Wear your safety glasses, make sure ALL of your saw guards are in place, blade sharp and use a push stick.

Drilling holes

I use a sharp 1/8 drill bit to drill the holes in the edge for the screws. I make up 5 or 10 strips at the same time and it is easier to drill 5 or 10 stacked pieces at once than singularly, it is when the bit breaks through that last piece that you can have problems with splitting.

Interestingly, I have had my fencing up for about 7 months. Of course I have a couple of areas where I didn't think I needed it, locomotives have way of finding the areas where my fences are missing. Oh, how I hate to see a $300 locomotive go crashing to the floor.

I am sold on this approach!

My friend John Parker uses an open weave netting that he tacks to the underside of his layout frame. His idea works really well for him.