Quad problem

  Jim sent in this useful information in the hope it may help someone else. He did omit telling us about the hours of testing and checking, reading and consulting, that helped solve this problem. 

We had hooked up the command station a DCS 240 DigiTrax and had also had our first section of bus wire put in. Our first quad unit power manager, PM42 was then hooked up. Then we attached the four blocks to the quad unit and did our track testing of shorting out the track with a quarter trick.

When you do this the PM 42 is supposed to shut down the individual block that is shorted out so that you do not shut down the whole system. But each time I shorted out an individual block the entire PM42 shut down along with the command station We checked all of our wiring and hook ups and settings in the PM42 but could not find the problem.

I went online and asked DigiTrax and also a few of the train sites asking some of the guys for suggestions as to what the problem was. Somebody on one of the sites recommended going into the command station and changing the option switches. Specifically option switch 18 which is the booster short circuit shut down time. By changing this from T (throne) to C (closed) it changed the shut down time to a longer time.That allowed the PM 42 to trip the block before the command station tripped out and in doing this, it solved our problem. We could not find this information in any of digitrax manuals.

The command station and the PM42 for the four blocks on the layout, that we have wired, are now working properly.

Very thankful to the person who recommended this action

Thanks again

Jim

Tuesday night at the RHR

 All the track for the sidings in Fidler were laid. After, Jim suggested a location, an Interchange track was added in Dover, it looks a lot like part of the CP yard.

Island from the kitchen converted into part of the stand for a HO scale DC layout.

Big melt down in the river, Cedar Creek, by the Coal mine. Looks like a reaction between the paint and the foam. The affected areas were repaired, after which some of the land forms received their first coat of plaster cloth. All of the mainline  bus wires are in, between Lincoln and the loop around Admiral. This should be where we install feeder wires so the track can be tested.

Tuesday at the RHR

 Town of Cartier takes shape.

Sawmill put back, needs some repair.

Big clean up of unused tables and chairs, plus deciding on where 2 donated layouts will go. One is a HO DC layout about 6 x 8 foot rectangle, which will sit on the kitchen island. The other an N scale layout which may go on the bar. The bar will also be an engine programme station and rolling stock repair area.

The branchline track was laid out and industries located, and the river near the Coal mine was worked on. The bridges were test fitted and the benchwork cutout for the river. The area then had a coat of plaster applied, even working in river rapids. When the river scenery is completed the mainline track's can be reinstalled.

Blue foam hills, scenery, feeder wires, electronic installation, and clean up, are ongoing.

We also received a donation of some engines for the club.

Bridges on the branchline installed.

Creating a digital copy of a track plan

 I drew out a track plan at 1/4 inch to a foot. The front, eastbound track is black, the back, westbound track is red and the branchline is blue. The benches are green.

A photo was taken and loaded onto my old PC. opening it in Paint. The first thing I did was add all the town names in 16 pika and the industries in 10 pika text. Printing a copy shows how dark it prints out.

Next using either the eraser, or the select and delete functions, I deleted all the open space around the benchwork. This turns it into a white space.

 

Next, using the same functions, I selected areas with only straight track or the bench edges, erasing sections but leaving references at each end. It is then a simple mater of selecting the proper colour and the straight line function, to replace all the erased pen lines with nice straight, printed ones. Curves were done with the curve line function. All the industries were also redone. All this erasing removes all of the graph paper lines so they are carefully added to the outside of all the benches.

The results are a nice clean printout. As it is saved it can be altered at any time, without having to redraw the whole plan. Copies can also be made for other members.

Layout track plan

 The first full plan of our layout. Not all the industries are drawn in and others are not named. Some mistakes on the colour of parts of the 2 sections of the mainline. 

Tuesday meeting, Oct. 26, 2021

 The financial report swaps accepted as read. Money from sales at the Train Show, was added to the account.

Applying for grants was also discussed. Because of all the red tape, it was tabled for now.
It was agreed that our dues would remain the same and that a limited number of new members would be accepted.
Prices on 14 gauge bus wire will be looked into, and purchased.
No decision on having more sessions per week was made.

Recent changes to the layout, were briefly highlighted.
Some wording, as it applies to car cards, train orders, and the blog, was decided. The 2 double ended yards will be referred to as READY yards, setting out rolling stock will be called SPOT or DROP, picking up rolling stock will be called PICK.
The need for a passing track at the gravel pit was thought to be a good idea, as was another idea for removable loads on flat cars, more on that later.
Ideas for an operating system were floated. Even through the actual choice between Train Orders or Car Cards was not made, we agreed there needs to be more variety in switching rolling stock than just DROP and PICK the same type of car. Some want the piece of rolling stock identified e.g.. AAR and number. To only DROP  or PICK would add

 variety, as would dropping and picking different types of rolling stock at the same

 industry. Spotting rolling stock, say over an unloading grate, putting incoming rolling

 stock at the end of the siding, and multiple industries on one siding are other good ideas.

After the meeting, wiring continued and foam was added to create hills.

Tuesday night at the RHR Oct 19

 Several people were on wiring detail, adding feeders, connecting feeders to the bus wires, as seen in the picture below, even connected one block to a quad unit, and run an engine! For those that don't know, ever piece of track will have a set of feeder wires or a few hundred feeders. At the same time single or double ties are being used to fill in gaps between 2 pieces of track. We have found a couple of cases where the moulded spikes were not removed, causing the track to have a bump. These have been replaced. We found 1 case where the tie ends were not trimed, where 2 tracks join onto a turnout. This causes a bad alignment. Four more rerailers/Road crossings were also installed.

An access hole was cutout beside the passenger tracks in Woodstock. The bench frame was adapted to support the perimeter of this cutout. We tested hiding it with tall buildings.

I hesitate to say this, because I know we will have to remove sections for scenery and other trackwork, but the mainline track is complete!!