Diamond, part 1

All the tie strips for the code 55 rail are glued in place, and the complete trackage is now easily distinguished. As seen in this picture.

Sometime ago I decided to make two of the spurs cross, creating a diamond (which can also be seen in the picture). This to create some visual interest. And for the opportunity to build a diamond, which I have never done before.

When now installing the tie strips I was forced to consider the diamond as well. I started by drawing lines where the rails would eventually cross. I also marked the position of the ties.

After having studied some pictures of diamonds on the Internet I realized that the ties needed to be diagonal to both sets of rails. Otherwise they would not be able to support rails in both directions at the same time. I arrived at the pattern in picture below.

I had some H0 6" x 6" scale lumber at hand, so I used that to cut the ties for the diamond. In the end I squeezed in yet one tie on each side. This to get a tighter tie spacing. The spacing I had originally planned (as in the picture above) just did not look right.

Then I could proceed with the adjoining ordinary ties, like this.

Next I will start laying track, but I will save the diamond for last. But I have understood that I will need an auto reverser or a DPDT switch to handle the frog polarity of the diamond. Since I want the diamond to adapt automatically I have ordered a Digitrax AR1 to have handy once track laying reaches the diamond.

Rail height transition

With the switch machines in place I could turn back to track laying. I have so far only laid the code 70 track. The code 55 spurs remain to be done. But before I could begin that task I needed to fix the rail height transition. Since I do not use any rail joiners this was a simple matter of shimming the code 55 track so that the rail tops became aligned with those of the code 70 track.

I used the standard procedure applied when building super elevated curves - pieces of masking tape cut successively shorter and used to build up a smooth grade. In my case it turned out that four layers of tape was what it took. Here is a picture of some masking tape shims arranged in front of the existing code 70 track.

A this test fit of some tie strip with a piece of code 55 rail on top shows that the rail tops are aligned.

Reinforced actuator wires

Due to a number of reasons, a wedding anniversary trip to Rome and a cold among others, have made layout time scarce lately. But the last few days I have managed to make some useful progress - all the Tortoise switch machines are now hooked up and possible to control with toggle switches on the fascia.

Most of them worked fine on the first try, but a few of them did not. They did not move the points all the way up to the stock rails, with a derail as an inevitable consequence. The first attempt to remedy this was of course to slide the green plastic piece on the Tortoise, the one with a hole which the actuator wire runs through, further down. This to create more actuator wire swing. But that did not help.

Since there is quite a vertical distance between the top of the Tortoise and the turnout, 2" of foam and 1/3" of MDF, the stiffness of the actuator wire could be the problem. The original wire is quite flimsy, so I had switched to another type of wire from the start. I used wires about 1 millimeter (around .035") thick. So I ruled out the wire as the cause of the problem. Especially since 7 out of 9 turnouts behaved as they should.

The only reasonable reason for two of the turnouts to have problems is then that the points of those turnouts are harder to move all the way up to the stock rails, as compared to the others. And the only reason for that is the electrical wiring of the point rails. My guess is that the wires I use for this simply create to much mechanical resistance.

Since I could not, at this point, make anything to lessen that resistance, without losing power to the points, my only option was to overcome the resistance (brute force). And since I refused to believe that the problem was lack of force in the Tortoise itself, it all came back to the actuator wire. It needed to be stiffer still, for these two turnouts.

The only thicker piano wire I had at hand was more of a thin steel rod than a wire, so I did not want to use that. Some flexing of the actuator would still be healthy, both for the turnout and the Tortoise. So I ended up soldering a piece of stiff rod along part of the actuator wire, making the wire stiffer but still flexible. The photo below shows a wire with a rod attached to make it stiffer.

The wire reinforcement turned out to be the trick. Both troublesome turnouts now move the points all the way up to the corresponding stock rail!

I since detected yet another turnout that sometimes shows the same effect, but now I know how to fix it.

Preparing fascia for toggle switches

Before I could wire the switch machines I needed somewhere to put he toggle switches. In turn meaning I needed a fascia.

I used hardboard for the fascia. Fortunately I had a few strips left over from when I did the fascia for the previous layout. I started by clamping the hardboard to the bench work. With a pencil I then traced the terrain contour on the back of the hardboard. I removed the hardboard strips and cut them along the pencil trace, and clamped them back again. This is a picture of the progress at that point.

To make things more convenient while I worked along I flipped the whole layout over, letting it rest on its back. I marked the locations of the toggle switches, and then drilled pilot wholes right through both the fascia  hardboard and the bench work.

With the fascia once again removed I then drilled larger holes in the bench work, using the pilot holes to find the proper location for each hole. The holes are large enough to contain the toggle switches.

To avoid damaging the switch machines and wiring when the drill bit eventually came through, I clamped an extra piece of wood "below", as can be seen above. I could then stop drilling when I reached into that piece and avoid to falling through with a bang.

Making these large holes turned out to me a rather messy affair.

But when all the sahavings had been cleaned away it all looked rather neat.

Then it was time to put the fascia back for good, after I had enlarged the pilot holes so that the toggle switches would fit. Here CNW 1316 is posing above a newly test installed toggle switch.

While I was doing the fascia I took the opportunity to expand the layout at one end. The bench work for this layout has been taken from my previous layout, after having been cut down to make it less deep. But the backdrop at one end is still sized after the old layout depth. So now I made a small extension. Like this.

And then letting the fascia curve out like this.

I want the main line, that runs along the edge of the layout, to not just come to a dead end at the backdrop. The extension will help me build some kind of structure or building that the tracks can disappear under. Or something else like that... Anyway, I think the extension, small as it is, will come in handy.

All switch machines in place

Today I got all the switch machines in place, although not yet electrically wired. Here is a photo of seven of them. There are two more of them further to the left.

Switch Machines

I have begun to fit the Tortoise switch machines. Since I have no plywood or board of any kind beneath the pink foam I needed to add some before I could proceed. I cut pieces of Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF), two for each machine. One piece for the actual Tortoise and one for the terminal strip I already had connected to each machine. I did that for a previous layout and the strips come in handy when the machines are moved to a new layout. Makes the electrical connection much easier. The reason I used MDF was just because I happened to have a piece lying around.

Here is a picture of the two pieces of MDF for one machine, glued to the foam with "No Nails". The hole for the actuating wire was made from above, at an earlier time when I built the turnout (in place).

And here a switch machine in place. Tested and working on the first try, but not yet permanently connected electrically. 

The second machine was not that easy. The actuating wire needed some tweaking before the turnout worked as it should.

Wiring

With all the frog rails done, for all of the turnouts, its was time to turn to wiring. The layout is not attached to the shelves which it sits on, it just, that's right, sits on the shelves. This makes it possible to turn it over, letting it rest on the backdrop, so that the underside can be reached. But for this to be possible I needed to get all of the tools and loose stuff out of the way. I took the opportunity to take a photo when everything look tidy for once in a while.

Then I turned the layout over to reveal all the loose wires. There is one wire for every single piece of track. Here are some of them.

After soldering them to the bus wires it looked better. Not "nuclear plant standard" but good enough for a model railroad. At least for mine. The loose green wires are coming from the frogs. Each such wire will be attached to the corresponding switch machine, providing electricity that changes polarity when the switch is thrown.

The larger holes is were the actuator rods from the switch machines will be. To install the switch machines will be the next task. I think I have seven Tortoise machines, meaning I need to get two more. I'd better go and count them.