2020/01/30

Fixed video link

https://vimeo.com/388093780

Repaired video link

2020_01_29 Finally!! Albury works, and this ends a major frustration.

2020_01_29 Wiring problem fixed.

And so after a frustrating few months, we have trains running between Wodonga Coal Sidings and Albury. I will write up a story about how this all happened in the near future.
My "DCC University" inspired wiring design is the main cause. I either misinterpreted what was said, or it was just not the correct way to wire such a complex layout as this one developed into in.

I applied at least 6 fixes trying to get this bit of track working. Somehow among  the constant wiring changes, I created extra faults and this just complicated the whole job.

In one day, I disconnected the wires connecting Wodonga Coal Sidings and Albury and then revised the runs and then connected it all up again. I found that the dual juicer (Tam Valley) were cross wired and that a negative feed was missing (BG track was sharing the SG feed!)


Video here 



Rod Young

2020/01/17

2020_01_17 Its hot its smokey as Australia burns again.

2020_01_17 Catching up

Well things have slowed a little but here is a photo gallery of how we managed the first month of 2020



So we found an asymmetric 3 way point and as this gave a bigger radius entrance to platform, we tried it out and it did stop carriages derailing.

All the time I was trying to solve my two big problems!
The first being why my dual juicer reverser was not working. Here it is drawn out. Anybody got an idea?


I suspect it all comes back to my use of a common negative bus line SG and BG tracks sharing the common black feed. I have removed this by running separate negative feeds on both reverse loops. It however did not fix problem.
I also removed the circuit breaker feeding both reverse loops, and instead fed the power to the dual juicer from one adjoining section. Still this did not work.

I am presently installing separate -ve (black) feeds to the BG and SG of the adjoining track section. Not finished yet.

So Thursday was "Al" Day and together we decided to sort out Bullarto. The point motors had either not been wired in, or even in 3 cases installed.

Even though we never had track or derailment problems here, it was always messy, and point motors were difficult to install.

So we ripped it all out and started again!







 After removing the track, we sanded it back and filled the holes (nearly all of them...


 The biggest problem was of course the caneite board used to build the track bed so many years ago. To get the track to stick to it, Al came up with the idea of sealing it with gap filla.


When it dried (48 hours) I sanded it smooth and Al laid the track back on. Actually we threw out the code 70 and used Peco code 75. Much to Al's relief :)






 Need to widen road bed a little to maintain minimum 36" radius.








ok so it looks like it might go back together really well.










 So the road bed is now a little wider.


I had to fill a hole which was associated with the old portable boards no longer required. Its at the end of the dock under that short curve. I repaired it after this picture was taken.











The 36" curve is looking nicer now, and I built up extra road bed to allow the second road a little more room.



 We reinstalled the shed road and extended it to fit a stock race.



So this will keep us occupied for at least another week.
Cheers
Rod