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Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2018 4:07 pm
by Glenn Brooks
Thanks Ryan. Might be cool to install the track signaling. Iam thinking of adding a small turn out/ crossover once the main line is done. I need to talk with you also about maybe having your guys make up a set of truck frames for my 1/4scale yard goat. The tiny little trucks on it now are ridiculously small for the locomotive.

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2018 5:44 pm
by rkcarguy
If you want to do 3 color signaling, you'll need to isolate the track into at least 3 blocks, and add a wire running from the furthest block away to the signal location. This will trip the signal yellow when the train is in the next-next block. The signal location will also need a 12V power source. I use a 12v, 6 amp power "brick" from a printer, about $6 on amazon. It has enough juice to run everything I've setup so far.....trigger circuits and power for several signals.
I think I'm going to look into using phenolic materials for the joiners to isolate the blocks on my setup.
Incorporating the signal into the turnout is possible, we'd have to add another head though with R/Y. So basically straight ahead signal would be G over R, clear. Y over R, next-next block is occupied, R over R, next block is occupied, R over Yellow, turnout is set to diverging. This would require 2 relays and a switch on your turnout that is closed when it's set to diverging.
We could also use a single yellow aspect on the lower head, when the turnout is set to diverging, like the SP did on their Siskiyou line signaling on the cheap. If you omitted the upper yellow, the signal could be mounted near the turnout and indicate R, G up top, Y on the lower, and wouldn't require any wires to be ran far. Whatever the case, each aspect and situation will require a relay. So it's sort of like this:

Upper Head
Track is clear, turnout is set straight ahead. Relay #1 at rest, Green
Track ahead is occupied, Relay #1 is triggered and turnout is still straight, Red
2nd block ahead is occupied, Relay #2 triggers and drops R for Y indication.

Lower head would indicate turnout position, indicate Yellow if set to diverging. Could add one more relay (#3) to this circuit such that if a boxcar was sitting on the spur, and the turnout at diverging, relay #3 would drop power to #1 and then show Red over Red.

There is a minor flaw with this setup at this scale. The yellow aspect will not switch to red until the entire train has left the 2nd block because yellow drops the red as long as there isn't something else in the adjacent block(I use a diode to accomplish this...complicated isn't it?). So make sure there is enough distance between blocks for your longest train plus a margin of safety.
I use the train to complete the trigger circuit, so if you have no reversing loops or turnouts that would close the circuit artificially you can isolate one rail into blocks. If not, both rails must be isolated into blocks.

I think the signal would look great on that sweeping curve through the woods, but not sure where that lands on your track layout.

No problem on the larger truck sides, our new "toy" is coming in early August and I'm hoping to have a bunch of stuff cut once it's all hooked up and working. Price will be up to my boss but should be cheaper than before.

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2018 12:25 am
by Glenn Brooks
Thanks Ryan. One of these days I plan on driving up to Grizzly’s showroom to look at bandsaws. Maybe we can discuss more...

Glenn

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2018 11:39 am
by rkcarguy
Sounds good Glenn. Grizzly is only a couple blocks away from my place but are only open my work hours, so I have to go during lunch.

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2018 12:22 am
by Glenn Brooks
Spent the day tamping ballast and raising the approach to the turntable 2” to mitigate a slight “design flaw” in last years turntable/ bridge install. I built one end of the structure 4” higher elevation than the other end. 4” is the exact height of the full dimension 4x12” track anchors I installed on both ends of the bridge sections. One rests on top of the grade. The other is set below grade. Hence 4” height differential in 25’ length of bridge deck. Not good, as this area is supposed to dead flat as it connects to the turntable and loading area. Can’t have cars loaded with passengers wandering away from the locomotive.

I recently bought a cheap, second hand laser level off Craig’s list. Best $25 I ever spent. I made up an 8’ surveying rod out of an old, recycled lengthmof bannister that came out off our living room entry basically hand rail marked with increments of one foot, divided into 3, 6, and 12 inch increments. So,with this surveying kit, I’ve been able to quickly measure grade and elevation differences to the half inch- plenty of tolerance for holding 1% grade change over the length of the mainline. Basically, 1% grade works out to 3” rise over each 25’. The laser works a lot more efficiently that the old water level, ( stepladder, 5 gal bucket, and 50’ hose) I initially used to layout the track.

Here’s a few photos of more tamped gravel and the turntable - pointing toward the car storage yard to be. I plan to install 3 sidings adjacent to the shop to hold rolling stock not used on the mainline, and the locomotives awaiting restoration.

Turntable alignment:




Final grade, tamped and leveled:
Final grade, tamped and leveled, leading out the yard
Final grade, tamped and leveled, leading out the yard
More exciting gravel photos.  This section leads to the trestle, thence sweeps around to the back of the property to climb “Grizzly Pass”
More exciting gravel photos. This section leads to the trestle, thence sweeps around to the back of the property to climb “Grizzly Pass”
Glenn

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2018 10:24 am
by NP317
That's going to be a FUN RR to mess about with!
~RN

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2018 4:17 pm
by Glenn Brooks
Pontiacguy1 wrote: Thu Jun 21, 2018 8:12 am that next-to-last picture looks just like a big ol' American Flyer track setup! Glad you are making progress.
Pontiacguy- thanks for the kind words! I do think of this as my model train set sometimes.

Glenn

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2018 4:39 pm
by rkcarguy
Jumbo sized train set! Looking great Glenn.
If you have any broken tape measures, you can pull the tape out, cut it off, and tape it to your "survey poles".

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2018 1:58 am
by Glenn Brooks
Well, achieved a major milestone today. Became a railroad Barron by taking on a neighborhood lad of 15 years, to help out on the extra gang. Actually the milestone was finishing up the western district, surveying, grading and laying in two spurs for the rail yard, and raising the turntable 2” to accommodate the new grade. We accomplished 3 days of work in under 5 hours. Actually that’s 3 days of old retired guy work in five hours. All I had to do was show the lad what to do and watch him whizz though with teenage speed - that’s light speed + 60, with me pounding spikes as fast as the lad could throw them out on the ground. Wonderful day!

Here’s the visuals:

Before- large pile of ballast with no inclination to lay out flat on the ground.
A85C9B7D-56A6-447D-864A-4D9FCD9D7731.jpeg
After the whirlwind - two sidings surveyed, ballasted, 18 ties driven in place, and connected to the turntable.
6B20C04D-447D-4784-88DC-38FC23766458.jpeg
Apparatus and tools for bending 12# rail to square up with the turntable
9C0B8DEA-F7EE-4ACA-98E4-FB1AD20C83E6.jpeg
A6E504DC-DCA6-4183-B3B8-920BEE8A4A2E.jpeg
Happy camper enjoying new status as a Railroad Mogul.
7373E512-316E-4B22-A2AC-1B86E1167CD1.jpeg
Now, off to Train Mountain as my gandy dancer whirlwind extra gang ballasts up and over Grizzly Pass. Life is good!

Glenn

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2018 1:06 am
by Glenn Brooks
Had a great time at Train Mountain Triennial. It’s truly an amazing experience to make a 10 mile run deep into the Wildsrness and back on a miniature train, never running over the same length of track, and never seeing any signs of civilization. Very glad TM got its ownership issues sorted out and the Northern ROW easements put back into place. We walked a portion of the recently cleared ROW out at hope Circle - where future track laying should add several more miles of main line. This will make the TM route even more unbelievable. The photos and videos simply don’t do justice to what the volunteer groups have accomplished there.
C881D455-0D3F-4F81-AF39-2862E9D78E2F.jpeg
Back at the homestead, approaching the end of track laying on my little backyard pike. Long haul indeed. But, only a few more sections of track yet to bend into the last curve. Then spike down Grizzly Pass and the eastern approach to the Great Western Trestle. The cut through Grizzliy Pass came out pretty well. It’s a bit,wider than I wanted, but I just couldn’t reduce the radius with the little Kubota tractor I rented. Had to take out a Doug Fir and a young maple that ended up teetering precipitiously on the edge of the cut. They would have come down pretty quickly in a blow, and I didn’t want anybody to get hurt if they fell at the wrong time. So now they are firewood for the neighbors.

Iam estimating Monday or Tuesday for completion of the rail laying. Then another couple of days to level and tamp ballast. Then fire up the Ottaway for trial runs to see if everything is in the right place.

A few pics of the S curve leading into the Pass and last segments of unfinished track. This area Might become a tunnel next season...
Approaching <br />Grizzly Pass
Approaching
Grizzly Pass
Laying out the radius of the last curve
Laying out the radius of the last curve
Into the Pass
Into the Pass
Eastern approach to the Treastle
Eastern approach to the Treastle

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2018 3:02 am
by Harold_V
Man, you have some dandy trees on your spread, Glenn.

Looking real good! Continued success with the project.

Harold

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2018 7:50 pm
by rkcarguy
Looking great Glenn! You've made a lot of progress in a short time, impressed that you'll be gold spiking things soon!