HO Exhibition Layout Build

Gary wrote:

That's a good idea Gary, I'll have to look at that over the next week or so.

Ian

 

Thanks Matt. I always try to have very little track parallel on all my layouts and I thought a curved front would help draw people into the scene. I hope to do a video of operations on you tube some time soon so I'll post a link here when it is done (might be a while before that happens though).

Ian

 

Hi Everyone!

After a few quiet weeks there is finally some progress to report on this layout. Today I installed the bus wires and connected all the track droppers. I used an idea I saw on a layout build on another forum and installed bare copper wires the length if the layout and soldered the droppers to them. As you will see from the attached picture, I installed 3 bus wires - pos and neg for the track and the third one is for the common return on the point motors when they are wired up. I hope to get all the parts I need for the point control system later this week so that will be the next project.

Ian

 

Had a trip to Jaycar today and got all the bits for the point control system. I'll post some pics in the next day or so as wiring gets done.

Ian

 

Hi again,

I had a chance to start work on the wiring for the point motors tonight so I thought I would share where I'm up to and how it will operate.

I wanted simple wiring with route indication that didn't need extra switches and leds connected to the point motors. The control panel also needed to be separate to the layout so it could be operated from either the front or back, so a minimum of connecting wires was essential. I did some searching and found a diagram online that uses on - on spdt switches to move the point blades and indicate the route set. The great advantage of this is that it doesn't need a separate CDU as each point has it's own capacitor fitted into the circuit. I did a test build last week and found it worked best with a minimum of 15 volts dc. Using a toggle switch shows which route has been set and I'll only need 8 wires running from the control panel to the layout. The attached picture shows the wiring for 3 of the 6 points so there will be 2 of these terminal strips fitted under to baseboard with just the switches in a separate box on a 1m multicore cable. I don't fully understand all the theory behind the design but I know that with the switch one way it charges the capacitor via the point motor and the other way discharges the capacitor into the point motor.
I hope the above description makes sense and that the picture/diagram below helps to clarify how it all goes together.



Ian

 

Thanks Chris.

The diodes only cost 70cents for a packet of 4 so for that little expense I think anyone building this circuit would be best to use the diodes and save on some wiring. The dearest things for this circuit are the 2200uF 50v capacitors at $3.25 each. All being well, I hope to have this all up and running by the end of this weekend.

Ian

 

Well, I finished all the underboard wiring this morning. YAY! All that is left to do now is the control box & cable and then I can play trains!



The wiring wasn't difficult, just time consuming with all the wires that needed trimming and tinning - at least the layout could be laid on its back and I could do it all sitting down.
If all goes to plan I hope to get the switch box done this afternoon.
Ian

 

Thanks Toto.

I managed to get the control box wired up this afternoon and everything works nicely. I still have to do the track diagram for the panel but all the soldering is finished.

Ian

 

Thanks Toto, Paul and Gary.

The diodes are 1N4004 and capacitor is 2200uF 50 Volt. When I tested it this afternoon, 15volts was fine for some points but others were sticky so I upped to 20volts and they all worked fine (the power supply is adjustable from 9 - 24 volt dc). I think a couple of the springs are just tight but they should loosen over time and I can probably drop the voltage a bit.

Ian

 

Hi Again.
Had a nice day out in Sydney today and got to spend some money on train things - 2 kits to bash for the HO layout.


Walthers Red Wing Milling


Atlas Middlesex Manufacturing

I hope to be able to get a few smaller buildings buy using these kits for parts rather then assembling them as per their design.
Ian