Hawks NEW "MHO Junction" layout


Update on my staging area.

Work on my staging area is almost complete. It is connected to the helix, just need to buy more wood and finish the loop. Once that's done, will start on wiring and installing the tortoises. Here are some pictures:

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Looking good Lloyd. You have made quite a bit of progress. Saw the photo on the phone over the weekend but wanted a better look on a larger screen. Impressive. Thumb up.gif
 
Thanks Chet, still lots of work to be done if I want all my framework and tracks to be done by year end.

Hi Sherrel, thanks, lots of tracks.........................yes, just about 1,100 feet of them
 
Lloyd it looks great (and super tidy). Small question and apologies if i missed it earlier, what is the distance between the lower staging deck and the upper deck? If you got heights from floor even better.

Thanks for posting
Yannis
 
More progress as been done, but not without difficulties.

When doing research and finding articles , pictures and videos, it's not always black and white. Picture of the final results are not always explanatory, articles are sometimes, (or almost always) written in terms of specialist and not common everyday people and videos don't always show exactly what as to be done. This is why questions need to be asked. But again, lots of answers are often vague or off subject.

I wanted a system which for now could run my trains without having to undo what I had done. At a later stage I would like to have my layout linked to a computer, so toggle switch was out since a toggle switch can't toggle if action was done on a computer. A push button would solve this (seen on a video), but how?

I read that NCE had a push button board that could accept 8 push button which then linked to a switch8 could activate 8 tortoises. GREAT, but how does all this work and how to wire all this together? More reading and I then find out I need 2 push button per tortoises, the reason why the button board has 16 inputs. PROBLEM...... I don't want two buttons, I want one, now what?

More videos, pictures and reading, now I want LED's to be activated on a control board, but how do I do that? There are single LED's, Bi-color 2pin and 3 pin, etc etc. I need help!!!

After posting for help here, my hangout group, on Facebook and on the NCE Yahoo group, I finally got all the answers needed to continue. Like I said earlier, I get all kinds of answers, like I'm talking about push buttons and I get an answer on toggle switches, but I do appreciate the help.

I've been working on my hardware board as shown here:

View attachment 59660

The square hardware is the button board, I need two, therefore 16 push button. I did get the answer for installing one push button instead of two. All I need to do is reprogrammed the board, which to me was WHAT????? It ended up being very simple. "Setting CV548 = 1 will cause each push-button connected via the ‘Button Board’ to ‘toggle’ the switch machine output, i.e. each press of one button will alternate the switch’s position. Thus only 8 push-buttons are needed; each is connected to an ‘N’ terminal, so less wires in the control panel. Setting CV548 = 0 disables it. (Factory default = 0)."

The two identical rectangular hardware are the Switch8 which will activate the tortoises, that one was simple.

The rectangular piece at top is the circuit breaker

You can see my push button that is temporarily installed, I tested the system and ran a train with 2 LED's for the future panel and everything WORKED as I wanted. For me this is a great step forward since when it comes to electronics or electricity, I'm illiterate.

[FONT=&amp]Half of my staging area is completed, that includes, soldering, wiring, tortoises. Hope to have the rest finished by year end, except for the control panel as I'm waiting for more LED's.

View attachment 59661

Not much to show, but lots is getting done.
Thanks to those that took the time to help me
Later
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You are doing now what I hope to do in few months with your turnouts. One push button per turnout, that gives feedback to the DCC system, and I want to be able to use the DCC controller to activate the tortoise motors as well. I am going with the RR-Cirkits Motorman though. Always fun learning new things.;)
 
Coming along nicely, it will be interesting to see how you make out with the electronics.
 
gjohnston said:
You are doing now what I hope to do in few months with your turnouts. One push button per turnout, that gives feedback to the DCC system, and I want to be able to use the DCC controller to activate the tortoise motors as well. I am going with the RR-Cirkits Motorman though. Always fun learning new things.;)
Click to expand...

It sure is a BIG learning curve. I personally think it would be demanding for me, to run and manage turnouts from the throttle at the same time.

Lynn, with baby steps, I should be able to master electronics....lol, well at least the easy train stuff
 
Lloyd - I am a late-comer to your thread here and came across the youtube model builders segment on the 19th of November. I started watching it last night but finished the rest of it today. That is an amazing set up! I will watch your thread here as it develops. You are doing a few things that I had ideas about - the lower level staging area and helix access between the levels.

I was in to model trains when I was real little. I never really had a "layout", though mom and I built a 3x4 N scale oval around when I was about 10 years old. DCC is what really got my interest going. My main hobby is Ham radio, I've been doing that for 15+ years now, and am fairly well versed in the electronics side. The way the addressing works over DCC is really interesting to me. The application - running trains - brings me right back to all the enjoyment I had when I was a kid. In the near future I can't build up the scale of layout that you have, but that is a lot of inspiration as to the possibilities. Seeing the construction techniques is really helpful. I like hearing the "learning mistakes" - such as how you started with the original layout that was to have a passenger train loop, then the cargo/box train would run independently. I think that is a lot of what the magic is of DCC today - with a double main line like you have you have so much control with what you can do.

I don't want to stack on too many ideas for you here, Lloyd, but you can automate your train layout at some point also, as opposed to having a dispatcher control the layout. There are some people experimenting with computer software, arduinos, etc that will run schedules.

The webpage that was mentioned on the live show - www.wiringfordcc.com - is a fantastic resource for that subject. If you and Bill have yet to tackle the section subject that may be a good place to spend some quality time to figure out. By segmenting the different track lines on different circuits you can have the dispatcher take overall control of the layout. Then based on what section a train is in you could split off the control of the section of the layout that train is on to the operator - so they can flip the turn outs. The dispatcher would be able to limit the control of sections of the track that would lead to a head on collision, for example.

Lots of exciting possibilities!
 
Thanks Flyfishn and Dave

Yes it's been a while since my last update, so here we go.

My last update was in mid December, but with the holidays, not a whole lot was worth updating. I finally came up with a new name and logo for my layout. It will be called MHO Junction where Hawkesbury is the junction between Montreal and Ottawa.


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I did do a lot of wiring which I don't want to bore you with the details, but I will say that I finally got trains running in the staging area, which by the way is still not completely finish. I also got a section of the main layout wired so that the trains can leave the staging area, up the helix and on a straight away.

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I worked on my panel which will control the staging area. I finally got everything working like I wanted. A push button will activate my turnouts which will trigger the right color of the bi-color LED on my panel for the available direction to take.

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I took a small break and build the machine shop. It will have some machine tools inside, lights inside and out, a gravel roof and lots of scenery. As per the picture, you're probably wondering why a different kind of bricks where the top windows are, well, once that section glued, I realized that I had forgotten to put the windows in. So my story is, the second floor had a fire and the windows were bricked up and I'm sticking to my story.

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I also worked on my gorge, but now I need to work on the two trestles before doing more work on it.

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I was so anxious to start work on my brewery, that I began working on a mock-up. What you see is only one third of the size. I'll be picking up a sheet of 4' x 8' sheet of polystyrene and ordered a few roof top equipment to get me started.

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I will also be participating in Arduino classes online with the other group I'm part of. This should be fun because my goal is to have animation on my layout.


For the next coming weeks, I'll be working on more wiring, the trestles, finishing the staging area, the brewery and more panels.

That's it for now, later
 
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Hey everyone,

Last update was 3 weeks ago, therefore I was due for another.

My brother came over to help me install masonite for my backdrop and we manage to install about 24 feet. I was curious to see how the backdrop I had ordered would fit. It included the sand industry, the cement factory and the refinery. Personally, there's something that doesn't look right, the backdrop looks a bit cartoonish, looks like a drawing. The reason is that the resolution is very low, the trees seem s a bit blurry. For now I'll keep it like it is, but might change it when comparing with others to be done.

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I finally got around to using my airbrush for the very first time. I did practice a bit on spare tracks before attacking the layout. Now I have 10 feet of main line done and it turn out to my satisfaction.

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I've also been working on putting stuff and people in buildings. The little office is the control center for the cement loading plant which is furnished with a desk, filing cabinets and a figure sitting on a chair. The other two are from the machine shop viewed from the outside and inside before installing the last wall and the roof. I still have to add an arc welding light with and Arduino before doing so.

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Lastly, I started work on my brewery, got one of the many walls cut. This is the wall to the loading dock.

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This will be my last post here for a while.

The main reason is because of the lack of comments. Since my last post, there was 1,575 views but only one comment and since my last two posts, there was 3,016 and a total of 6 posts (5 + 1). It's always nice to see comments, in a way it encourages you to do better and keep going, which I get from elsewhere and not from here. The funny thing is that there's more posts in the coffee thread.

For the few (about 10 of you), I'm sorry for leaving but you can always follow my updates via my blog or Facebook page and would like to thank you for all your help.

Take care all
 
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Lloyd Super impressive work! I am so looking forward to seeing the brewery taking shape. Many thanks for posting these.

Yannis
 
Lloyd - Looking good. You're making some good progress. Hate to hear that you are leaving. I hope that you have a change of heart, as I don't do Facebook and rarely have time to visit blogs or other forums. I would be encouraged more by the number of views, rather than discouraged by the lack of comments.
Thanks for sharing.

Willie
 
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