Update

The cool temperatures have settled in and work on the railroad has picked up. I have completed wiring all of the drops from the tracks to the power bus. Recall that I am using a Lenz Set 90 DCC system, so the wiring is very basic and almost too easy! I wired almost each section of track. I say almost because there are some runs of continuous flex track where several sections have been soldered together and in those areas, I have only run one set of drops to the power bus. Basically every piece of track between turnouts or stub-ended sidings has power wired to it. This makes for a very very smooth operation. I have not experienced any stuttering of locomotives, headlight blinking or stalled engines.

My next project is to wire the programming track for the DCC system. A programming track is used to program or encode the decoder in a locomotive. This involves things like the address for the engine on the DCC system and other variables that can effect the operation of the locomotive. The program track needs to be either completely separate from the railroad (i.e. mounted on a workbench) or part of the railroad but electrically isolated from the rest of the railroad. I have decided that the interchange track at Walnut would be a good place for the program track on my railroad.

In order to use a track that is physically attached to the rest of the railroad, I will have to electrically isolate it from the rest of the railroad, as mentioned above. To do this, I will cut the rails and use CA glue to glue in a small piece of plastic to act as an insulator. The next step is to wire a toggle switch that will control the power to just that piece of track. The toggle switch is a three-position switch with the center position OFF. The center terminals on the switch will be wired to the track. One side of the switch will be normal track bus power, allowing for normal operation. These terminals will be wired from the normal track bus already in place under the railroad. The other side of the switch will be wired directly from the Command Module and will be programming track power. This switch will allow me to then move a locomotive onto the programming track under normal operations, reposition the toggle switch through the off position to the programming position, program the locomotive, and then return it to the normal position and run the locomotive back onto the mainline.

That's it for now!
Thanks,
Scott

Update

It has been a while since I have posted to the blog and I have been working a lot and have some great progress! Things worked on since my last post:

• Lift Out Section- Complete! Pictures coming soon!
• Masonite fascia installed along entire benchwork. This really finishes off the layout benchwork nicely. I will be painting it in the near future. I am not sure what color though... earth tone? Pullman green? boxcar red? I have seen all three colors used and I like all three.
• DCC walk-around throttle jacks installed in new fascia. I am also very pleased with the way these look. Very clean and professional. They are easily "removed" when it comes time to paint the fascia. I had five from the previous railroad, so I installed all five. It may be a little over-kill, but I didn't see the point of leaving one or two in the box collecting dust.
• DCC electronics shelf has been constructed under Walnut, Illinois. I decided to build a separate shelf to hold the Lenz Set 90 and associated items. I was not happy with the idea of setting it all on the larger shelf I constructed to help stabilize the benchwork. The large shelf is a great place to temporarily store larger construction tools and I thought that having the delicate electronics nearby would not be such a good idea.
• Started wiring track leads to the power bus which I had previously installed, actually even before the 2" foam was installed. Again, I have learned a lot from previous layouts and from others in the hobby... two words, suitcase connectors. Wow, do these save time and headaches. I have successfully used them to connect the drop from the rail to the power bus. What used to take several minutes to strip wire, twist and solder... is now done in a matter of seconds! Not to mention that fact that I don't have to contort like a circus gymnast to solder the connections! Wonderful!

I will post pictures of all the items described above in my next post.
Thanks for stopping!
That's it!
Scott