Lurking (and Posting) = Learning

I've posted a few layout concepts on the N Scale Net Layout Forum (http://www.nscale.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?108-Layouts-Design-amp-Planning), received some great advice and continue to grind through my paralysis of analysis. After my last layout posted and received great feedback, I did some more looking and discovered the Adirondack RR (#62) in the 101 Track Plans book. I looked and figured that it could really come closer to give me what I was hoping to accomplish - watch multiple trains run, do some low level operations, operate a small yard (mostly fiddle) and have some opportunities for some key layout design elements. I looked and I looked - yup, I think I might be there. I have learned that the reduction from HO down to N is absolutely not 1/2 as most books recommend. It's also not the mathematical .54375 which is what you get when you divide 160 by 87. Nope, I use .75 (which the books use for TT scale) to be safe. So, as I kept working this plan, something kept nagging at the back of my mid. What was it? I had seen comments before that related to my nagging thoughts but couldn't really focus. Then it hit me - the REACH POLICE!!! 

Not good. I quickly did some mock ups on top of my wife's sewing layout table to get to a simulated 42" deck height. Then, using her small step stool, I determined that I could get away with a 36" maximum reach, although I knew that was against a LOT of recommendations. I grabbed a scale and started looking at my break through layout - DISASTER!!! I have major reach issues in two locations. The layout would be against the wall on the top and left sides. No way this is ever going to work. Just when I thought I was nearly close to developing the plan and cutting some lumber. 

Here' the reach dead zones:

Well, as the title says, lurking is learning. 

Speaking of mock ups, when I was conducting my little reach simulation my wife was observing and asked, "So how big is your layout going to be?" One of the must haves for our new home was a train room and the FROG is all mine. In addition to the layout, I also have my desk, a couple of rolling file cabinets (mostly hobby supplies), my hobby table and a bookshelf (train books) in the room. All that means that I really don't have as much floor area as the entire 13'-6" x 14'-8" space. I had always figured about 10'-6" max width (which still affords access to the room's closet) and about 8' max on one leg with 9'-10' max on the other leg of a U-Shaped layout. I really loved what Steve Miazga did with his Missabe Junction layout (see November 2013 Model Railroader) and foolishly thought I could change his 12" grid to a 9" grid, tighten the curves and make it work for me. I had just sketched out the footprint of the benchwork outline when my wife asked me that question. Here's Steve's layout:

With her help, we grabbed some of our empty Christmas decoration boxes and proceeded to basically mock up, at 1:1 scale, what I had envisioned as my layout area. Well guess what - way too big, way too claustrophobic and would leave me with no real way to do anything other than squeeze past a layout. As the saying goes - back to the drawing board. 

A long rambling post directed at two groups: 1. To all you lurkers out there - keep lurking, reading and learning. It sinks in and it really pays off. 2. To all the really great folks out there who have provided input and their expertise - THANK YOU!!! Folks like WP&P, ChicagoNW, OTFan & countless others, y'all are helping a lot of newbies like me learn and avoid costly mistakes. 

When I posted this on N Scale Net, a couple of the folks mentioned above pointed out that without posting, or getting feedback, there's not a lot of learning.  Great point.  Sure you have to be receptive to constructive criticism (I'm an architect - we live by it) and I've never received a snide or condescending reply to anything I've ever posted on that site.

Back to the drawing board working with a reduced footprint and more of a L Shape.

Finally Back - Now the power plant can't get its coal shipment

So I've been fairly scarce for the last three months or so, but I have been working on the new layout.  Sheila & I closed on our home at the end of August, moved in at the end of September and have been living our own version of HGTV since August.  The great news is the new home has a FROG that will be solely used for the "Train Room"  It's about 13'-6" wide and about 14'-8" long.  Since I'm going to have a desk and hobby work bench, along with the built-in storage closet, I have figured that a U-Shape with one 8' leg, one 9' leg and 10' wide will work well.  I have had a lot of help from TXTrainGuy (Tom Wright) some great help from David K. Smith (White River & Northern) and some input from Byron Henderson (Layout Vision) - I final have a pretty decent direction.  At least I thought I did, until I realized that the power plant cannot actually receive any coal from the coal mine.  I have been looking at this plan for awhile and fighting my analysis paralysis (I was an architect for years) so I thought I'd post where I am to the N Scale Net Layout Forum for some guidance and suggestions.  Since I haven't updated the blog in a long time, I thought I'd update with the same post here.

At this point, the elevations haven't been worked out, other than conceptually in my head.  I'm using AnyRail (great product) and haven't started setting track height.  I'm using Atlas Code 80 and predominantly #4 turnouts, since I already own a large quantity of track pieces and about 40 turnouts.  I used the #4's on my last layout (with servo control) and didn't have any issues.  This layout has eliminated the vile 9.75" radius curves with 11" set as the minimum.  I have included a reversing loop since I have the Digitrax AR1 and like being able to switch direction while running.

Glad to be back & finally have some forward momentum on the new layout.

No - I haven't disappeared!!

Been quite awhile since I posted but that doesn't mean there hasn't been progress.  I've been pretty short on layout time recently but I have managed to get the control panel roughed in, with all the control switches:

It still needs a little work to get it to the finished product but it is a great addition and makes controlling the routes MUCH easier!  The close up below shows the red/green lights on the track schematic that indicate which route is open.  Simple to just throw a switch as a loco is making its way around the layout.

Speaking of locos - here's the latest addition.  Thanks to Sheila for my Father's Day present of the infamous "Vomit Bonnet"!!!

Finally, Sheila & I took a weekend getaway to New Bern, NC & I managed to sneak in a little 1:1 scale train view.  Here's the benefit of that quick stop:

Those stairs were awfully tempting but I opted to avoid a trespassing charge!

Stay tuned, more to come later on down the road!

To Rework or Not To Rework, that is the question....

I've mentioned before that this layout is based on the Atlas Atlantic Longhaul Lines and I read somewhere that John Sheridan (probably one of the foremost noted experts on model railroad layouts) had input in the design.  In the notched area, things were bent fairly tight.  The locos made their way around pretty well but there was an occasional disagreement as they tracked through the turnout heading into the reversing loop.

While installing my last turnout servo I managed to burn it out.  Great.  I went to the local chain hobby store and they had the same servo for $17.99, which I could get online for $3.95.  I'm all for supporting the local shops but that was a little ridiculous.  I went ahead and ordered a replacement online (along with a spare) which provided me with some down time in construction.

Here's the area that just wasn't tracking (OK - I know I've used that pun before but it works!):

Turnout 2 on the left and turnout 3 on the right - connected with an 11" radius

Fortunately, I still had some spare track pieces and I decided to look at some options for this area.  After some trial and error, I found what looked to be a much smoother solution:

Rework concept for the "Notch" area

So after several reworks, Sheila pointed out that the locos were working fine through that area so why mess with it?  Well, I knew it just didn't feel right.  So, earlier today the Yorktown M & S had a little demolition work take place:

Demo areas are the blue foam showing through the brown background

Demolition required the removal of two turnout servos, two power feeders and about 8' of previously "ready to go" track.  All in all, I think it was a good decision and things will ultimately run smoother.

More lessons learned - mostly the hard way.....

Should 9.75" radius curve pieces be outlawed?

Another novice layout mistake - using 9.75" radius curves.  I knew they could be "difficult" so I  limited the number I used on the layout.  My first two locos were a Kato C30-7 Santa Fe (love this loco) and  Bachmann EMD DD40AX.  The DD40 was a great price and came with DCC included.  What my novice N Scale self didn't realize is this thing was a monster - nearly a foot long!!!!  My next loco was a Kato SD40-2 BNSF, which was also sweet looking.  Here's a comparison of the three locos side-by-side:

I sold the Bachmann on Ebay and broke even - no loss, so that's good.  It was a good loco but not for my layout.  Now, back to the dreaded 9.75" radius curves.....

The reversing loop, which will be hidden under the upper deck, was about half 11" radius and half 9.75" radius.  The Santa Fe C30 tracked around it with no problems.  The SD40 - it was another issue.  That bad boy WOULD NOT stop derailing on that loop.  I knew that something had to happen so I pulled up the loop and re-installed it, with a little easier curve.  Again - SD40 derailed.  I rebuilt it a total of three times before I finally was able to get the SD40 around, in forward & reverse, at full speed.  I know the locos will never run at full speed but I had to be sure that things would track (pun intended) once the upper deck "lid" was in place.  Here's a view of the loop in question being reworked:

Problem reversing loop with Sheila's school bus and backhoe shown.

In follow up research I learned that 3X a car length should be the minimum radius used & 5X is best.  Now it makes sense, 40' boxcars are 3.25" long.  Use the 3X factor and yu end up with the 9.75" radius.

I know that the 9.75" radius pieces have a place - but in the future, it that place won't be on my layouts!

Living on the Edge - Not Good

Been away for awhile but mostly due to job and work on the layout.  Today's lesson - living on the edge isn't always a good thing ........

I was moving along really well on the servo installations and had the upper deck servo installed and moved on to the areas along the far left side and back of the layout.  This required a little move of some room furniture as well as pulling the layout away from the wall.  Things seemed to be really rocking along until it came to the two servos for the turnouts along the back of the layout.  Atlas had the back track about an inch from the edge of the layout.  I followed suit and felt like I had made good use of all the layout board real estate.I drilled the holes for the turnout actuator wires and was glad they missed the edge framing of the layout ...... or so I thought.

One note about the servos controlling the turnouts.  The servo needs to be perpendicular to track so that when the actuator wire moves from side-to-side, the turnout will likewise move from side to side.  When I started to install the servos, I realized that there wasn't enough clearance for the servo mounting bracket.  I pondered that for a few minutes, looked at options and realized I had no choice - I had to cut clearance holes in the outer edge frame of the layout!!!!!

Ugly I know, but it was a tough job to actually get in here an get the hole cut.

View from under the layout.

So - living on the edge didn't turn out so well. Fortunately, and it's a lame excuse, I'm the only one who knows the ugliness is there.  The back edge is against the wall and will always be, even when the layout moves someday.

Ironically, Living on the Edge is my cellphone ting tone - no joke........

The Reversing Loop That Didn't

Been away from the blog for awhile but had a fairly productive weekend adding power feeders, buss bars under the layout and basically wiring up section after section on the lower portion of the layout.  I had the reversing loop wired for awhile and added in the Digitrax AR1 Reversing Module this weekend.  It seemed like a simple plug and play, until it didn't work at all.  Hmmmm....  It was supposed to be a fairly simple plug and play.  Essentially, this is a compute module that senses the "short" caused when the loco wheels cross into the reversing loop and automatically adjust the power to match the leg where the loco entered.  In DC layouts, there is a manual switch that controls the reverse.  Automatic is much nicer. Well, I turned to my never disappoint me resource of N Scale Net DCC Forum for some help.

I posted my layout schematic (which will be used on my control panel) along with some labels showing where my "A" circuit was located:

I had several suggestions for adjustments to the AR1 and then a User by the name of Heiko made a startling revelation:  "Apart from your AR trouble, which you should solve anyway: The purple section is not your reversing section. The section where you will connect A to B and B to A is the horizontal blue track you reach when you go counter-clockwise through your purple section - or, if you want, you can add the purple track to the part switching it's polarity, but including the T/O between the purple and the horizontal blue track.  The purple section is "just" a siding to the black section it follows. So the AR should not be required at all for that section.

WOW!!!!  He was right.  I never realized when I converted the Atlas DC layout to my own layout, the area Atlas called the Reversing Loop - really was not working that way.  I posted some replies and settled on the following rework of the layout:

I had also read (on the Digitrax site) that it's a bad idea to have the insulated gaps of a reversing loop at the end of a turnout.  Well, I had my insulating gaps at the ends of a turn out on both ends of the reversing loop.  The rework shown above eliminated that issue and also made a true reversing loop.  The change added some length to the reversing loop, which translates into a longer train capacity.  The longest train on your layout is limited to the length of the reversing loop.

The downside of this rework meant tearing up track that was nailed down and roadbed that was glued down.  Had to do what I had to do.  It was a couple nights of work to rework.  Once I relaid the new segment of roadbed and laid the new track in, I had to go back and check all the track feeders.  So far, so good.  The moment of truth came when I wired up the AR1 module.  I powered up the layout and the first test of the reversing loop was a complete success!!!!  I had a few folks ask to see a video of the reversing loop in action so here it is:

You may notice that the loco has a millisecond of hesitation as it crosses the reversing loop insulated gap.  While standing at the layout, you can actually hear the AR1 make a click sound as the loco keeps right on trucking.

Another very valuable, and somewhat painful, lesson learned.......

Turnout Turmoil - Part II

So the Tam Valley Depot products came in yesterday and it seemed a little overwhelming at first.  Lots of electronics.  The first thing I noticed was that the "power supply" I bought looked like a standard laptop charger and the end connection would not fit into the Octopus III Controller.  The Octopus needed 2 DC wires.  Hmmmm.....  As I've mentioned, I'm not really an electronics, or even electrical whiz.  I quickly posted to N Scale Net and started using the vast resource known as Google.  After about an hour of searching, I found out that there is a way to add a connection to the end.  A quick run to Radio Shack and I ended up with this configuration:

Not to blow my own horn, but I dove right in and soldered the wires to the connection.  I ran a quick test using a regular Atlas Turnout Controller and one of my still motorized turnouts.  No sense in frying the $32 Octopus before I knew I was basically configured right.  Success!!  I added the wires to the Octopus and it fired up, ready to go to work.  As a side note, I saw a later post that said I could have just cut off the "charger" connection and had 2 wires to use.  Live and learn...

I had ordered one Tam Valley Switch Wright Servo Bracket, along with one servo and one Bi-Color Fascia Control button.  In looking at the servo bracket, it's a nice product and certainly holds the servo where it needs to be.  On the down side, it's $4.25 each and I have 14 turnouts.  Not to take anything away from Tam Valley, just not sure I want to invest the $55 on brackets.  I will say that the instructions were excellent and included a full size wire bend guide.  One option might be for Tam Valley to sell the bracket pieces for do it yourself assembly, thus reducing the cost.  They do that with their fascia controllers.  Here's the sequence showing the assembly process as I got the servo ready:

This is what comes in the Switch Wright Bracket package

SG-90 Servo in Bracket

Servo Horn with Music Wire (0.032")

So, here's the completed Servo, Horn and Wire mounted into the Servo Bracket:

One note about the servo and Octopus Controller.  I have never worked with servos before and I have to say, it took a little work but I think that was mostly my lack of knowledge and failure to read through the entire process before diving in.  With my order, I bought the Servo Centering Tool (battery operated device that will center the servo - OK, that was obvious).  I also bought the Remote Aligner which will allow the servo to be calibrated while installed in the final location and with the Octopus mounted to it's permanent location.  It comes with a 7' connector cord, which will be handy once everything is in place on the layout, especially since I have a couple turnouts that will be nearly 4' from the Octopus.  I spent about an hour last night learning to get the servo aligned and adjusting the left and right limits.  Servos can move up to 70 degrees each side of center.  With the turnout requiring only about 1/8" of travel, I need to really tighten up the range of motion.  The Tam Valley instructions for the Octopus II were excellent.

At the end of Turnout Turmoil Part I - I had installed a small extension on the turnout activator bar and planned on using the side wire mount method.  I reread Duncan's (owner of Tam Valley) article in the July 09 Model Railroad Hobbyist (great FREE online magazine - with every issue online).  I saw a section about having the servo wire in the middle of the activator slide bar.  It occurred to me - that's the way to go.  Those plastic extension were going to be nothing but a potential problem down the road.  I moved out with my test turnout and drilled out a small hole in the center of the activator bar.  Serious lesson learned - drill from the top not the bottom.  As the drill bit (hand drilled with a pin vise) came through the activator bar, it pushed off the top cap and completely trashed the turnout mechanism.  Great.  One turnout sacrificed.  Second attempt worked great and it was on to the test bed.  In order to mark the hole to be drilled, I cut the head off a push pin and ran it through the small hole.  This way, when I pulled the turnout off the layout, I still had something to show me where to drill.  Then, I just marked a circle around it with a Sharpie:

I pretty much knew better than to take the power drill to the cork and foam bed.  I used a 1/4" bit and just spun it in my fingers to get through those two layers.  Once I had the hole through the cork and foam, I used the drill to go through the 1/2" plywood base.  I used the included double stick tape on the bracket and lined everything up.  Once that was done, I still had about 5 - 10 minutes of fine tuning to get the throw distances correct.  Overall.  I think this is going to be an excellent system and it will look much more realistic than those damn chunky surface motors.  The Bi-Color LED lights on the fascia controller are really cool!  Red shows the "route" closed and green shows the route open.  Here's a not so great quality video but it still gives a good idea on how everything works:

Thanks to all for the great encouragement I've been getting.  I recently discovered the N Scale Model Trains group over on Facebook and have had some great suggestions.  I just added a Follow Me by Email link to the Blog.  If you like what you see, and want to see future updates, go ahead and add your email address.

One last detail I just remembered - if I ever decide to get really advanced, the Octopus III is adaptable with a DCC decoder.  Not sure I'm up to running DCC turnout control - but the option is there.

Turnout Turmoil

So having a background as an architect, combined with a lot of years as an architectural model builder, has left me with a rather critical eye for detail and accuracy.  As the layout started coming together, I couldn't help but keep looking at the Model Power turnout motors and thinking there had to be a better way.  As you can see, here's a 40' box car in comparison to the turnout motor:

Where would you ever see a 40' long x 5' wide mass along side a railroad track? No where!

I started doing a lot of research and found there were numerous ways to control the turnouts.  Most of them were expensive.  Multiple expensive (about $30 per) times 14 turnouts = too much $$$.  Relying on the ever useful N Scale Net site, I cam across the process of using model airplane mini servos to control the turnouts. I looked at Tam Valley Depot and saw they looked to have perfected the process.  They had a great article in the July 2009 Model Railroad Hobbyist Magazine that really showed the entire process.  I was also really impressed that Duncan (Tam Valley owner) pointed out, on his site, that you could get servos off Ebay in bulk for lower costs.  He even described what to get off Ebay.  Amazing!

Fortunately, I have a few extra turnouts and can do a little research without sacrificing the layout.  I started by pulling one of them apart to see how they were built.

Underside of the actuator mechanism

The first thing I noticed was that the Model Power turnouts were built a little different than the Atlas version.  Even though there was a slide activator for the tracks, it was a really short piece.  I found some great info on the servo method from Jeff over on N Scale Net who shared some pics as well as his diagram:

Server under layout and brass guide tube

Notice the longer actuator bar on the Atlas turnout

Jeff's actuator mechanism

Looking at all this, it looked like a fairly easy solution to controlling the turnouts.  I went ahead an ordered an Octopus Controller (can handle 8 servos), one servo and a fascia mounted actuator button with dual LED lights.  I wanted to be sure that the system will actually work, although Duncan from Tam Valley swapped a couple emails with me and gave me some pointers that let me feel like everything would be good.

Since the slide activator bar was so short, I considered having the wire run under the turnout and come up to the bottom of the slide activator:

Slot and hole added to the bottom of the actuator bar

Slot test with wire test

Although the slot system worked, adding the wire quickly revealed that this wouldn't work.  There's no way the wire would twist on axis and still move the turnout.  That led to what will, in all likelihood, be the final solution - a .040 (same thickness as activator bar) x .25 styrene extension:

The only critical issue with this solution is getting a really good bond between the styrene extension and the activator bar.  There's only a little less than 1/16" of activator bar exposed when the turnout is thrown, so no real way to lap joint.  I use SC-125 acrylic adhesive which is sort of like super glue on steroids.  It's the same consistency as water and dries in about 5 seconds.  So far, 50 - 50 on confident bond.  There won't be a lot of torque on the extension but it needs to be stable enough so as not to have a continual problem one the turnouts are in place on the layout.

Next phase of this will be the actual op test with the Tam Valley products, which are due in this week!

First OP Test!!!

Once the roof raising was complete, I could get back focused on the lower level track install.  I needed to add feeder wires for under the upper deck and marked the spots in an easy to reach place for my first "live" solder work.  I've gotten a little better but no were near the level I'd like to be.  It's sort of like when we did USN aircraft repair.  We may need a BFH & it might not be Blue Angel pretty, but they would fly.  Same goes for my first feeder work.  At least all of my initial learning is under the upper deck and a great practice spot.  I dove in and added the four needed feeders.  As I said, not the prettiest, but - they get the job done:

So looking at the picture, I can really only see the bottom two wires.  The top two were much cleaner.  Maybe it's easier to "pull" the solder towards the rail than "push" it against the rail.  In any case, no one connection required more than about 15 seconds with a file to be sure all was smooth running.  Then hooked the wires to the DCC controller and:

OK, not very sexy but I was damn glad to see it move!!!!!  Onward!

Proper Planning Prevents....

There I was, cranking along.  Lower level road bed in, track going down - what progress!  I had a box car on the track to roll along and make sure everything was smooth, as the track was being nailed down.  Suddenly, I looked down....... Wow, that car is looking really tall.  I laid a piece of scrap foam across a couple of the upper deck supports and rolled the car under the foam......  That doesn't look good....  Really tight......  I grabbed both of my ready locos and checked them.  The GE C30-7 was even tighter than the box car.  Next, big boy, the EMD DD40AX.  Nope, it's just not going to work that way.  Apparently, I failed to take in account the additional height of the cork roadbed when I set the height for the upper deck supports.  Well, I think that may be considered a little set back and a HUGE lesson learned.  Time to cut some 1/4" shims for all the supports, rework two ramps and rework the side of the "mountain" as it meets the upper deck surface.......Definitely a one step forward - two step back moment.......

So, after some rework I ended up with Shim City.  Added 1/4" shims to all the upper deck supports:

That was the easy part.  Next, it was time to rework the ramps.  I found out that the Woodland Scenics foam cutter (hot wire) can actually be used as a "fixed" height cutter.  I set the wire height on the hoops, then feed a left over piece of tapered foam ramp through.  Ended up with a nice "cap" for the two ramps:

The only down side is that will add a little more elevation grade to the end of the ramps but I have good locos & the math still wasn't too crazy.  Only thing left is to putty & sand.

LARGE lesson learned but "raising the roof" made a big difference:

Ramp it Up!

The original layout had the Atlas plastic trestles used to lift the track sections up to the elevations required.  First, they really look sort of cheesy and toy like.  Second, I just didn't have enough of them.  I'd been looking at some of Woodland Scenics products online & really like their structures.  I noticed that they had a foam ramp system that comes in 2%, 3% and 4% grades.  The entire package of 3% grade is about $15 and runs from 0" to 4 1/2" in a 12' length.  It comes in 24" long sections so 1/2 of the package worked nicely.  I ordered my first (notice the word first) set from Model Train Stuff who is a great vendor with great prices.

Atlas plastic bridge trestles

Foam ramp with "destroyed" plastic trestles

The next step in the ramp process is to use the Woodland Scenics Sub-Terrain Foam Putty, which works a lot like spackle but is a lot lighter & easier to sand.  It took about 1 & 1/3 tubs (at 16 ounces per tub) to fill in all my ramps (remember when I said "first" a little earlier in this post).  They sanded nicely and the Woodland Scenics hot wire (another blast from the past model making days) was a great addition to my tool box.  Here's the finished ramps:

I've decided that I will end up finishing these with a combination of terrain built up to them, or a stone facing on the side of the ramp.  All in all, much better than the plastic trestles for sure!

Bridging the Gap

I've mentioned before about the area where I will have a custom built curved bridge, but I also realized as I progressed with the initial building that a single Atlas Plate Girder Bridge was too short.  Two of them together were too long.  Hmmmm - easy day.  Break out the X-Acto razor saw & miter box.  This bridge will be right after then curved bridge and, since the track below is at a pretty acute angle, it needs to have enough length so that it clearly spans over the track below.

The nice thing I found was the track is not permanently fixed in the bridge.  It's a standard piece of 5" straight, pressed in with a couple snap clips to hold it in one place.  Easy day to remove and then cut the bridge down.  Once that was done, I glued them together and patched the gap at the bottom.

I got finished, checked the alignment and everything fit.  At that point my years of working with Charles Kendrick (my professional model builder buddy & friend of nearly 30 years) had the typical affect on me and I realized, this was just a space filler and would need to be redone.  A few of the instant things I found wrong:

1.  Why in the world did I not cut equal distance of each bridge end so the joint would be in the center?

2.  Hard to see in the pics, but these little bridges actually have rivet and panel details.  Wouldn't it have made sense to match those up?

As I said, it's a learning process and I absolutely learned on this one!

DCC Decoder Dilemma

So one of my great Christmas presents from Sheila was a Kato C30-7 loco in the Santa Fe Warbonnet paint scheme.  It was "DCC Ready" and she got me the Digitrax decoder to go with it.  I watched Mike Fifer's How to install a Digitrax DN163K0E in the new Kato E5A video, figuring that it was reasonably similar.  Actually, it wasn't; however, the basic concept seemed to be the same.

I pulled the shell off the Kato and studied the interior along with the instructions that came with the Digitrax decoder.  For those not familiar with DCC (Digital Command Control) on train layouts, the best example I heard was that DC is like a slot car track while DCC is like radio controlled cars.  Here's what the decoder actually looks like:

So, I pulled the spacer out, added the Kapton tape (a special high temp electrical tape) - the key here is I installed the tape where I THOUGHT it should be.  I reassembled the loco and fired up the DCC system for a road test.  First, I was able to rename the loco address, which told me that the system was communicating.  Next, I released the brake and applied throttle.  Nothing........ well, not really nothing - I heard the engine making the typical electrical whirring noise - but no movement.

Now, I've mentioned him a couple times and I can't say enough about Mike Fifer of Fifer Hobby.  He is truly someone who is dedicated to the hobby.  I had emailed him before I started and he gave me some advise regarding my old DC locos.  When my install stalled (pun intended) I sent him a couple pics of my work:

You can see the Kapton tape as the yellow bands at about the 1/3 points.  Well, Mike wrote back and said: "Just based on the pictures the tape is in the wrong place and you may have it stuck to the flywheels, not letting the motor turn. You need tape on the frame under the motor tabs."  I did some more reading and found out that the Kapton actually insulates the decoder chip from heat build up from the motor and the chassis.  So I cut the tape back, put the loco back on the track, released the brake and off it went!  Not to mention, this is my first Kato loco & this thing is sweet! Smooth and silent.  Here's the final outcome:

Time to stop planning and time to start building....

After a lot of trial and error, the layout is where it needs to be and it's now time to move onto laying the roadbed and attaching track.  I had ordered a couple of really great structures by N Scale Architect from Internet Hobbies.  Great customer service and some seriously good prices.  Erring on the side of caution, I held off on the track install until the Eagle River Mine and the Shue Cement Company arrived.  Good thing I did!  The spur I had planned for Eagle River wasn't really needed since one side is served by an ore track (much smaller than the main line track) - more lessons learned.  Shue Cement worked out great where planned but it was still good to have the full size plan to verify.

"City Planning" for the rest of the layout relied not only on my architect's eye, but also Sheila's experience in laying out her Christmas "Village".  Much to my admiration, she didn't just line her village pieces up - she planned the layout!  It flowed & made sense.  We really like Woodland Scenics DPM line of buildings and actually have 2 or 3 already waiting in the wings.  I made some paper footprints and we spent one evening last week working our "town".  Now that we've got that worked out, it's time to mark out the track (plan on painting the track brown while in place), pull it all up and laying down the cork road bed.  Also need to do a little trimming work on the Woodland Scenics foam ramps (which are far better than the Atlas Bridge Trestles you see on the layout now).

Left Side of the Layout

Main Street

Industrial Area

Shue Cement Company

Right Side of Layout

Eagle Rive Mine Area (Foam ramp needed for track in back area)

Custom Tunnel Portal using 2 Woodland Scenics Portal Kits

Site of future custom made 130' curved bridge

I know what some folks are thinking ... seriously, a 130' curved railroad bridge.  Sure, what fantasy land do you live in.  Well, I've said it before - N Scale Net has everything.  Including, in discussions on curved bridges, a link to Vivion Chemical in Portland, OR.  Using the reference & Google Map - there it was & I was able to "walk" all around it thanks to Google Maps street walking function.  Here's a shot of what will be the sample for our bridge:

Vivion Chemical - Portland, OR

At the same time we build this bridge for our layout, we'll add a little jazz to the Atlas Plate Girder bridge that's already in place on the layout.  It's a little technique I learned form my buddy (and professional model builder extraordinaire) Charles Kendrick.  I can only hope to hit about 50% of his talent level!

So there you have it.  Time to log off the lessons learned blog and get back to work ..........