Interstate “Yellow Ball” Hopper

INT 9524 55T yellow ball hopper
Interstate hand-me-down hopper in transloader service

Added another hopper to the roster today. This car is one of the hand-me-down hoppers given to the Interstate in the early ’60s when the INT was under Southern ownership but still operating independently. The independence didn’t stop the Southern from specifying a Southern-inspired paint scheme. This model started life as an Athearn blue box model–it was a hand-me-down from an old friend and mentor who got me into model railroading as a kid, so the body of this car must be 40 years old! The toughest part of this model was modifying the angular peaked ends to the oval version seen here. The cars in this series were a hodgepodge with various ends, so photos are helpful. Other details include DA steps, tichy grabs, and some homemade tow loops. The decals came from K4 Decals, and the unit received moderately heavy weathering to reflect its age and status as an end-of-life car.

After 1965 when the Southern consolidated its operations at the Interstate’s Andover Yard, most of these cars spent the rest of their lives in captive service between the Interstate and St Charles area mines and the Westmoreland Transloader that was build on top of the Southern’s old yard in Appalachia, VA. These cars became known as “yellow balls” because many of them had a large yellow circle painted on the side. This is actually my first time actually applying a “yellow ball” to a model hopper, and it’s definitely something I’ll duplicate in the future as it makes these cars very distinctive!

Southern 100T Articulated Hopper

SOU 100T Articulated 11
Finished car with some light black and tan airbrushing on the sides, trucks and interior

The Southern Railway was definitely known for innovation, especially in the ’60s. They were one of the first railroads to use large numbers of 100T hoppers for moving coal. The Southern still had a large number of usable 50T cars, particularly war emergency rebuilds and ex-Interstate hoppers, so they permanently paired some of them into what they deemed 100T “articulated hoppers.” There was nothing fancy about it, they just removed the coupler cut levers from between the cars, put the brake ends of each car at the ends, and numbered them as a single car. The idea was it allowed 100 tons of coal to be moved in a single car shipment for a customer which gave these old cars a little more life in the 100T era. There were several paint schemes used on these cars include a red version with “SOUTHERN” on the left-hand car and the car number on the right-hand car. Some cars had a black version of this. The most striking and unique cars were those painted with giant lettering and “SOUT” on one car and “HERN” on the other–this is the car I wanted to model.

The base cars were easy enough. They’re essentially stock Proto 2000 War Emergency hoppers with a couple minor modifications. I trimmed the tow loops off the bottom, added small beveled strips of styrene under the outermost ribs, and used bent .012″ wire to fashion new side-mounted tow loops above the styrene strips. I also used dummy couplers on the “A” ends of the cars that I pulled out of an Accurail 50T AAR hopper kit–this will keep operators from inadvertently uncoupling the car on the layout. I only added coupler cut bars to the “B” ends like the prototype, and I added a scratchbuilt train line air hose to each end (piece of bent copper wire from old Cat 5 cable sandwiched between two styrene L-shapes).

SOU 100T Articulated 4
Step 4. Apply the lettering masks to the car, cutting around the ribs

The tricky part of this model is the lettering. No one makes a lettering set that even comes close, so I would need to either make my own decals or somehow mask and paint the lettering–I opted for the latter technique. First, I had to draw up some artwork. I used my favorite graphics program, Microsoft PowerPoint, to create the lettering using large rectangles and quarter circles. Once it looked about right, I copied and pasted the lettering as an image (right click and picture icon) on a new sheet, then I was able to size it and print it with the letters 3′ tall in HO scale and the numbers 2′ tall. Then I covered the lettering with some Tamiya model masking tape and ran it through the printer again to get the ink onto the top of the tape. Warning: even after the ink dries, it still smears a bit, so I used another piece of plain masking tape to remove some of the ink, and I was careful not to get smudgy fingers on the car.

Speaking of the car, I airbrushed the sides white and let them dry overnight. Back to the lettering, I carefully peeled the tape off the paper and placed it on a clean cutting mat. Then I used a straightedge and Xacto blade to cut along all the straight edges. I freehanded the corners which was a bit more challenging. The angled ribs on this car required me to eyeball where the rib would go through the letter (I had a picture of an actual car), so for each rib I removed about 1/16″ of masking tape. Next, I peeled the letter mask off the cutting board and applied it lightly to the car, using a blade to lift and reposition it as needed. After all the lettering was in place, I used the round end of the Xacto handle to burnish the tape onto the sides securely.

SOU 100T Articulated 7
Step 7. Carefully remove the masking using a sharp blade to get under the tape

Back to the painting booth, I first sprayed the cars with black as a dark primer and then gave them a couple coats of oxide red and let them dry for an hour. After the paint was dry, I carefully removed the tape from the sides using a blade and careful fingers to reveal the white lettering. I thought I was going to have a lot of touch-up to do, but the tape held up very well and left mostly clean edges. With all the tape off, I then used a brush and white paint to fill in the lettering gaps across the ribs. I sprayed it with some gloss coat and applied the capacity stencils and other small lettering from a Microscale data sheet using multiple liberal coats of decal solvent and decal setting solution. After letting the decals dry for a day, I hit the cars with another coat of gloss (the paint came out REALLY dull, so even with three coats of gloss it’s pretty dull).

For weathering, I first dry brushed a little light rust and dark rust onto the car, mostly on the inside to simulate a few years of wear with the paint just starting to wear through where the coal repeatedly tugs at it. Next I gave all surfaces of the car a couple coats of black wash (water with a dab of paint). I worked one set of sides at a time (one “SOUT” and one “HERN”) to ensure the weathering was consistent across cars, brushing on the wash, letting it sit for a couple minutes, then dabbing and streaking it off down the sides with a moist paper towel. I followed the black wash with a single wash of tan. The final weathering was some black airbrushing inside the hopper and along the bottom followed by some light tan airbrushing on the sides and trucks.

SOU 100T Articulated Hopper
Finished 100T articulated hopper showing the huge “SOUT” and “HERN” lettering

I’m pretty happy with how this car turned out. It’s definitely unique and is bound to be a conversation piece on the layout. I can’t wait to watch the first operator trying to uncouple the dummy couplers so I can give them a little history lesson in Southern innovation!

Heritage Hopper – NS 70T

The next installment in the “heritage fleet” of hoppers is an original Norfolk Southern 70T car still in gray paint. The NS wasn’t acquired until 1974, so this represents a car most likely in “yellow ball” captive service to the Appalachia, VA transloader in the late ’70s.

NS 70T hopper
Orginal NS 70T hopper that’s seen a bit of service

The model is a factory painted Bowser hopper with some detail upgrades. Because it will be a light gray hopper in a sea of black and brown, I figured it would catch the eye more than most cars, so it has a higher level of detail than most of my cars. I removed the molded-on grabs and replaced them with wire, upgraded the brake detail, and added coupler cut bars and a trainline. Weathering if primarily drybrushing for the rust spots. I’m pretty happy with how the inside turned out–it’s two colors of rust drybrushing (dark rust for most with light rust around the paint edges) and a little black airbrushing.

These heritage cars are a lot of fun! I’ll need at least one 55T fishbelly hopper in NS gray as well.

Heritage Hopper – CG 70T

One of my goals is to have a fleet of “heritage fleet” hoppers representing each of the railroads purchased by the Southern and L&N in the 50s-70s. I’ve already got plenty of Interstate RR hoppers from the previous layout, but this is my first completed Central of Georgia hopper. Most of these were repainted into the Southern’s 74000 series, but some kept their CofGa reporting marks well beyond the merger. This model represents a car showing a lot of rust and wear and ready for the shop.

CG 70T hopper
Old CG hopper ready for another trip to the shop for a repaint

It’s a stock, factory pained Atlas Trainman hopper with some detail upgrades including shaved-down grabs and a few wire details like the homemade trainline hoses and coupler cut bars. I spent most of the time on weathering. It’s mostly drybrushing to get the rust effects including the subtle ring inside the car. The data is supposed to represent a shop patch job, but it didn’t turn out as distinct as I would have liked. Lesson learned for next time.

Southern GP7 2187

Today was a big day!… but it shouldn’t have been. It’s been an embarrassingly long time since I completed a locomotive model… like 7 years. Now it’s been less than a day as I put the finishing touches on Southern GP7 2187 today. This model started as a Proto 2000 GP7, and I’d gotten it through at least its initial detailing and coat of black paint several years ago. Last week, I finally decided it was time, and I decaled, added the last of the details, and weathered it.

SOU GP7 2187
Southern GP7 2187 from a modified Proto 2000 model

I modeled 2187 as she appeared around 1970. This was one of a handful of GP7s the Southern modified with Locotrol in the 1960s (hence the white number boards), but it seemed to spend most of its life in secondary service. Photos place it in southwestern Virginia in the late ’60s and again in ’71 after a trip to the shop that added the Southern-style sunshades and ACI tag. Modifications to the model include a 36″ dynamic fan, fan shroud and blank grill cover, scratchbuilt spark arrestors, modified fuel tank skirting, Southern-style sunshades, 5-chime horn, and Locotrol details like the 3 antennas and extra conduit.

 

Building Fascia for Operators

Finished fascia and labels at Mayflower
Finished fascia and labels at Mayflower
Drawing the track diagram
I set a combination square to the right height and slide it along the bottom of the fascia while dragging a pencil across the top to draw straight lines for the track diagram

Working on the fascia is very mundane and unexciting, but as a human factors engineer by education, I take my fascia very seriously! On most layouts, the fascia is the primary interface between operators and the layout. It’s often where we place controls and place names, and it’s also a blank canvas we can use to help our operators better understand the scene they’re interacting with. Like many who perform switching operations on their layouts, I like to use the fascia to help operators understand as much as possible about towns, tracks and industries to aid in making their switching moves.

As far as construction goes, my fascia is just sheet Masonite fastened to the benchwork with drywall screws. I cut it in thick strips that will account for all the vertical scenery contours along the front edge. Where there are noticeable gaps or indentations from the screws, I touch things up with lightweight spackling compound and wipe it smooth with a damp cloth after letting it harden for about an hour–this saves a lot of time sanding later. Then I draw in the ground contour with a pencil and cut it with a jigsaw. A little black paint, and things are ready for the operator features.

Switch controls on the fascia
All the Mayflower switch controls installed–they’re at different elevations to line up with the track diagram that will be installed on the fascia

On my last layout, I drew the track diagram onto the front of the fascia, and it worked so well I decided to continue it on my new layout. It’s essentially an elongated track diagram like you’d find in a railroad track chart that lines up with the adjacent track and switches on the layout. I draw the lines parallel to the bottom of the fascia 3/8″ apart. To draw them, I’ll set a combination square so the end of the ruler is at the exact height I want when the square is pressed against the bottom of the fascia, then I’ll run the combination square around the bottom of the fascia while dragging a pencil along the top to draw it onto the fascia. I draw the switches onto the fascia at 45 degree angles with the convergence drawn where I want the switch control rod to be placed (directly perpendicular to the switch mechanism usually). One lesson learned from my last layout I was able to incorporate into this one is that the “straight” line through a switch control is the “normal” position of the switch while the “divergent” line represents the “thrown” position. It required a little “wiggling” of the track lines in the yard ladder to make this work, but it’s intended to help operators understand how to set the switches before departing a town.

Fascia labels
Finished fascia labels with the town name and siding identifiers for the Mayflower Tipple

I installed the switch control rods (see full article on switch control mechanisms here) after the lines were drawn but before placing the graphic tape on the fascia to represent the tracks. I use two sizes of white graphic tape for the tracks, 3/32″ to represent the main, and 1/32″ to represent sidings. This offers another visual clue for operators so they know which tracks not to block and what to leave clear after leaving town. Next come the labels. Every town on the layout has both a name and a unique 2-letter destination code for routing cars. In this case, Mayflower is represented by “MY.” Within each town, each track has a unique number, for example, MY 1 is the tipple track for the Mayflower Tipple closest to the main. For tipples, I also designate where the empty (MTY) and loaded (LD) cars go, so an empty hopper destined to be loaded on Mayflower’s outermost track would need to be placed at MY 4 MTY. Towns are labeled with large dry transfer lettering with the town name above a line and its destination code in smaller letters below. I also cut a small gap in each track tape on the fascia near the switch and use dry transfer numbers to label each track by number. Industries are given white labels with black lettering that gives the industry name, town initials, track number(s) and MTY | LD track dividing line if needed (see picture of the Mayflower Tipple and its labels). If two or more industries are on the same track, I use a “B,” “C” or so forth to denote each spotting location. In the case of Mayflower, I’ve identified a spot on load track 4 where I might have operators occasionally spot cars of supplies and a spot on the tail track of the main where I might have them spot covered hoppers of AN–each of these spots has its own industry label adjacent to the correct track on the fascia track diagram to make it clear where to spot the cars.

There’s nothing really novel here, but I do think this method of using track diagrams on the fascia and integrating switch controls, town names and industry track designators with unique operational codes goes a long way toward making the layout more intuitive and operator-friendly.

First Mine Run on the Layout!

Drew Working the First Mine Run on the Layout
My son, Drew, was the engineer for the first mine run on the layout, a “Black Mountain Local” working Mayflower and Baker

Saturday was a big day–the first operational train worked the first loaders on the layout. It was a “Black Mountain Local” with me as conductor and my son, Drew, as engineer. Things overall went pretty smoothly with only a single derailment in the entire session (not bad for the first time operating on hand-laid track). Our power was GP38 2877 and GP30 2534. We picked up our train of 13 empty hoppers and a single loaded ACL covered hopper (AN for the mines). Awaiting us in Baker were 4 “yellow ball” loads for the transloader in Appalachia followed by 8 loads at Mayflower and an empty covered hopper.

The tracks at both Baker and Mayflower are stub tracks (prototypical), so most of our time was spent pulling loads to clear tracks and running around empties 5-at-a-time in the single run-around track. It was a great time to teach my son about run-arounds, delayed couplers, and how to think through switching moves. Despite the lack of scenery or even operational throws for the switches (I had to reach under and throw the mechanisms directly), it was 30 minutes of pure joy more than 3 years in the making (since we moved in). We finished the shift with the entry of this “milestone” marker on the benchwork to commemorate the event.

Commemorating the First Mine Run
“Milestone” entry for the first mine run worked on the layout

Rails in Mayflower

Rails in Mayflower looking South
View of the finished load tracks from the top of the tipple–note the track that’s been removed on the left side (thought it would make a cool detail)

I’ve completed laying rails on the Mayflower section of the railroad, and I’m just about ready to run the first mine run–exciting times! Everything is hand-laid, and I’ll share a little about my technique. I lay everything in place instead of using a jig because I find the track flows better. I use code 83 for the main and code 70 for sidings, and I spike everything with small spikes, about every 5th tie except for switches. I like to work outside-in as you’ll see in the pictures of the load yard ladder. This means the first few switches take a while because you’re notching for the points of ALL the switches on that piece of rail, but it speeds up as you go because you’ve already filed pieces up-front. I don’t pay much attention to frog numbers or curves–I just lay them as the ties dictate (and remember, the ties were laid down based on outlines traced around flex track, so that’s where I check radii and things).

You also might notice that I’m not putting in guard rails alongside the frogs for some switches which is prototypical for sidings in some areas of the country. I use them on both sides of every mainline switch, and I use them on the tightest curve side of every curved switch. For the rest, I test cars and put them in as needed. If your frog is straight, you probably wont need them. If your frog is curved at all, you probably will. I like the look of the switches with no guard rails because it emphasizes “siding.” I also use the track to tell part of the story, so you’ll notice that I laid an extra switch’s worth of ties for a 5th track under the tipple that has been removed (try doing THAT with commercial track)–Mayflower had a spot to load on a 5th track, but track diagrams in my era only show 4 tracks. I’ve modeled it as if they just pulled up the rails and laid through the switch instead of pulling up all the ties.

All the feeders (a gazillion) got dropped and attached yesterday, so I just need to set out some cars and recruit my engineer for the first-ever mine run on the layout. Woohoo!

Laying Ties on Mayflower Branch

Mayflower Tipple and Ties
A close-up of the Mayflower Tipple mock-up with ties running underneath

Made some progress this week on the Mayflower Branch section of the layout. All the ties have been laid! This is a tedious but simple process made a lot easier by the outline of track left over from tracing flextrack onto my subroadbed for cutting. I just place the material (1/4″ door skin for me) on top of the layout, place thumbtacks in the holes of a piece of limber Atlas flex track, fasten the track down with the pins using turn radius templates and “eyeballing” the rest, then use a pencil to trace down both sides of the track. For marking switches, I leave a portion of the track fastened and move the loose section to trace the divergent track. After tracing, where the pencil marks diverge is the location for the turnout points and longer block ties. After the subroadbed is secured in place with risers, screws and glue, I’ve got a perfect template for the tracks on the layout for laying ties (more about making and laying ties below).

Ties for the Mayflower Branch
Overview of the Mayflower Branch section of the layout with the ties freshly installed (this one’s for you, Bill)

Now that all the ties are in place and I have the mock-up of the Mayflower Tipple, I can really start to visualize the entire scene. I’m really liking how the track snakes into the scene, and I think the gentle curve into the tipple will really look cool with strings of hoppers hanging out. You’ll also notice the tracks run into the wall–I didn’t have enough room to model the empty yard, just some space for empties above the tipple. This was an easy compromise to make for space because the empty yard at Mayflower was a stub-ended affair, so crews still had to run around and shove cuts of empty hoppers, just as they’ll need to do here. I can’t wait to get the rails down and operate that first mine run! There’s a lot of rail-laying between now and then, but it’s good to see it coming together.

Making Ties
My “workbench” for making ties–I cut strips from 1/16 and 3/32″ basswood to use for siding and mainline ties, respectively.

Making Ties. Rather than buy bags of ties, I cut my own from sheets of basswood, 1/16″ for siding ties and 3/32″ for mainline ties. It’s not that ties on the prototype were different heights, but using different height ties on the layout keeps siding tracks a little lower than the main (very prototypical). I use a “spacer tie” to line up a metal straightedge the proper distance from the edge of the basswood board, then cut it with a couple strokes of a sharp utility blade. Most sheets come in 2′ length, and I’ve found it easier to cut it to 1′ length first so I don’t have to move the straightedge in the middle of a cut. With a bunch of sticks in hand, I then use a Northwest Shore Line “Chopper II” (amazing tool) and a scale rule to cut the ties in .5′ increments from a scale 8.5′ to 16.5′ with a separate, well-marked ziploc baggie for each size and length. Standard ties are 8.5′, and switches require a few of each longer size as you progress up the switch with 16′ ties for block ties at the points.

Ties tell a story
Ties tell a story about the type of track you’re modeling from mainline to well-used siding

Laying Ties. Laying ties is a simple matter of putting down some wood glue on the subroadbed and placing them. I work in sections of about 8-12″ at a time to make sure the glue doesn’t dry before the tie gets there. Ties tell a story about the kind of track you’re modeling, and it’s one of the reasons I love hand-laying track. Mainline track should be in good working order with closely spaced ties perpendicular to the rails and just a little side-to-side variation. Well kept sidings are similar but with perhaps a bit wider spacing between ties. For old, well-used sidings like you’d see at coal tipples, I’m pretty haphazard with my ties, allowing some of them to kink off perpendicular and lots of variation in spacing and alignment from side-to-side. It looks absolutely disgusting before the rails go on, but the effect is more subtle once the ties are stained and the rails are in place. I love disgusting looking track that still runs well, so I can be pretty aggressively messy when laying siding ties!

Mayflower Tipple Mock-Up

Mayflower Tipple Mock-Up
The final tipple mock-up in place on the layout showing its size relative to the benchwork and hoppers

I’ve finally started laying subroadbed onto the main level of the layout, and I’ve chosen the section between Baker and Mayflower as my first scene (see track plan). Mayflower is the first of four large tipples on the layout, so to make sure I’ve got proportions and track spacing right in the plan, I decided to build an HO scale mock-up from foam core and cardboard first. I’ll just warn you, this is not a time-saving process, but it certainly helps you visualize a scene and make adjustments before building more permanent structures and track. Because this was the first and the only large tipple on the lower deck where vertical spacing would be important, I decided it was worth the effort.

Mayflower Tipple Pics
This is all of the photographic material I had from which to draw and build the Mayflower Tipple

Step 1 – Research. I’ve made a commitment to modeling the tipples as closely as possible (rule: no Walthers New River Mine allowed–it’s not a bad kit; it’s just over-used and too recognizable). The trouble is this area is not well documented by photos, so there’s a lot of guesswork and extrapolation involved. The first resource I had was a track chart that showed four tracks under the tipple, a medium-sized operation. Next, I found an aerial photo from the 1960s that showed the basic footprint of the tipple and the distinctive portion of the tipple connecting the tipple to the mine that sits 45 degrees to the tracks. Finally, I found a single grainy photo of the front of the tipple and a painting of it from a post card that someone had posted to Pinterest. With these resources, I had enough to rough-out a drawing.

Step 2 – “Scale” Drawing. Regardless of whether or not I’m building a mock-up or the final model, I need some sort of scale drawing to build from, and for tipples that were one-of-a-kind, actual drawings are very rare. I use the word “scale” here loosely because none of the research offered any clear dimensions. Still, distances between tracks and height above hoppers can be estimated, so I did my best. To make the drawing, I used my favorite drawing program, MS PowerPoint. No, PowerPoint isn’t designed for this, but it’s easy to use, and you can draw lines to specific dimensions and angles. I would work on one side, matching it as best I could to the photos. Then I’d copy relevant bits from the one side to use as size references for the next side until all the parts were drawn. Some sides were longer than a piece of paper, so I drew these as two separate drawings I could glue together later. The tricky part was the photo and postcard showed two different time periods for the tipple. The photo showed a section added to the front over two tracks, so I had to figure out how this might have worked in concert with the tipple represented in the postcard.

Mayflower Tipple Drawing 1
Line drawing of the front of the tipple showing the 2″ track spacing and profile

I decided to draw windows and corrugated metal siding on it as well. This was a simple matter of making a generic window and copy/paste it in place. The siding was just a texture I found online and copied into scale sheets to place behind the drawing (use the “send to back” function on right click). When everything looked decent, I printed it out.

Step 3 – Building the Mock-Up. For material, I used black-on-black 1/4″ foam core picked up at the local big box hobby store. It’s easy to cut and work with and has enough rigidity to make a durable structure. I cut out pieces of the drawing and then glued them to the foam core using normal white glue. Where I have a corner, I needed to pick one wall to recess the width of the foam core so they won’t overlap (i.e., when gluing the drawing would overhang the foam core by one foam core width). As you can see from pictures, the glue caused a little discoloration and warping of the paper, but hey, it’s a mock-up. Next I cut along the edges using a metal ruler and X-Acto blade. The trickest part by far was cutting the intricate frames of the leg pieces (5 total). A mock-up doesn’t really require this level of detail, but I decided it was important enough to judging the look of the tipple that I spent an extra 3 hours or so cutting these out. The glue and paper caused some of the sides to bow a little, so for these I cut out 1/2″ wide strips of foam core to attach perpendicular along the back and bring them back into shape and provide lateral strength. This required laying a heavy book on top while it dried, but it worked well.

Mayflower Tipple Mock-Up Assembly
Tipple mock-up in progress–I worked one joint at a time

With the pieces cut out and strengthened, I started gluing them together. I worked on one corner at a time and used little pieces of square foam core to keep the corners square. I added structural pieces of foam core wherever needed to keep things sturdy. Again, the trick was to work one joint at a time (no more than two) instead of trying to build it all at once. The glue dried sufficiently in about 30 min, so I’d just come by every 30-60 min and glue another side on. Finally, I made the roof out of corrugated cardboard salvaged from a box–it’s a little thinner than the foam core but still has sufficient rigidity. After test fitting the roof pieces and making adjustments with the blade, I glued on the roof pieces–this is tricky because you have to worry about a lot of edges at once.

Step 4 – Evaluating the Scene. With the Mayflower Tipple mock-up complete, I could now mock-up the scene on the layout and see where the tracks would go, how tight the spacing would be for hoppers (adequate), how far I could bring it out or push it back in the scene, how much space I would have with the upper deck, etc. As it turns out, the tipple fits perfectly and doesn’t need any adjustment, but it would be easy to make cuts and repairs to the mock-up to try different things that would be a lot tougher to do on a final model. Any changes would simply be added to the drawing to use for the final model.

Conclusion. While I could have been halfway done with a permanent model in the time I built this mock-up, I now have the confidence in my drawing and in the scene to build the final model. Besides, it will be a while before construction on the upper deck in this area will be complete enough to install a permanent model, so in the meantime, the mock-up will give me and other crew members a good stand-in to enhance operations that I don’t mind getting a little roughed up. Beats having to use your imagination when switching out empty and loaded hoppers!

DCC Zones – Planning for Future Operations

This post is less of an update and more of an effort to chronicle a minor but important part of layout construction: DCC track bus planning. Installing DCC has two major components, the first is wiring up the DCC system with its command station, booster(s), throttle panels, computer connections, wireless throttle receiver, and network cables–I covered the installation of the DCC and logical connections of the DCC system here. The second component of DCC is installing the wiring for the track which includes electrical buses, circuit breakers, and dividing the layout into zones which I’ll cover here. Even if you don’t plan to use circuit breakers, its still a great idea to “future proof” your layout by wiring for zones–you can always tie the zones together at the booster, but you don’t want to be installing new buses and feeders under finished scenery. These zones will also help with electrical troubleshooting if you can’t find a short–you’ll at least be able to isolate it to a smaller section of track.

DCC indicator light on UP5
This UP5 panel’s Loconet light is connected directly to the booster (note the “M” label for “master”)

My layout is small enough to easily be powered by a single 5A DCC booster, in my case, an old Digitrax DCS100 Chief acting as a booster (a DCS51 Zephyr is the command station). At most, I’ll have 3 trains and perhaps 6 locomotives running at any given time. The DSC100 can handle this current easily, but with circuit protection provided by only the booster, if any one locomotive runs against a switch and shorts on the frog, power for the entire layout and all trains shuts off. The solution? Dividing the layout into zones and using solid-state circuit breakers!

I already needed at least three zones on the layout because I have two reversing loops which need to be isolated from the main bus and powered through an auto-reversing circuit breaker. In my case, I use the On-Guard AR reversing breakers from DCC Specialties. Although a tad on the expensive side, the solid-state AR circuits are rock solid and work more reliably than their analog counterparts, especially with the current draw of sound locomotives. Aside from the reversing zones, I decided to divide the remainder of the layout into 3 additional zones, one per level. How many zones you use is a balance of cost and functionality–too many, and the cost quickly gets out of hand along with the wiring (each zone needs its own wiring bus), too few, and operators causing short circuits will quickly ruin the fun of other operators in the same zone.

With my max of three trains in mind, I drew zone lines primarily to ensure each train would be in its own zone most of the time. Consequently, the zones are different sizes based not only the amount of track it powers but the operating locations for the trains. For example, zone 3 is the largest on the layout and powers not only the entire upper deck but the helix between the lower and upper decks as well. That’s a lot of track, but only one train at a time will venture to the upper deck, so it can be large. The main level is two zones with one covering the wye and yard at St. Charles, and the second (a reversing zone) covering the branch to Mayflower–there will often be a train at St Charles while another works the Mayflower Branch. Finally, I made the staging level its own zone (along with a second reversing zone) so that operators moving things in and out of staging won’t impact operators on the visible portion of the layout.

Once I knew where the zones would be, I ran an electrical bus from the vicinity of the booster all along the benchwork where the tracks of that zone would go. I’m all about overkill here, so I use household Romex 14 gauge copper wiring that I pull out of the sheath. I drill holes and run the black and white wires through the benchwork about 4″ apart. One important step is to LABEL THE BENCHWORK with a Sharpie every few pieces of wood, especially if you have multiple buses running side-by-side, so you don’t become confused as to which track you’re hooking up to what zone–if you mess this up, your track could be wired to multiple zones simultaneously and eliminate any benefit of electrically isolating the zones. At the ends of the run, I just wrap the lines around a drywall screw. If I need to run a bus in two directions, I just make a junction and join the three wires together with a wire nut, just like I would do with household wiring.

Pigtails for the DCC bus
Pigtails on the DCC bus, note the zone IDs (2 and 2R) marked on the benchwork

I strip about 1″ of insulation off each wire about every 2-3′ where it will connect to track, and I wrap a 4″ section of the uninsulated ground wire from the Romex around the bare spot about 3 times leaving 1″ or so hanging off both ends. A little solder keeps this pigtail in place. I’ll offset the white- and black-line pigtails by about 4-6″ horizontally in addition to the distance between the wires to minimize the risk of shorts. These pigtails become the connection points for track feeders using wire nuts. Of course, you’ll need to physically separate the tracks between zones by either cutting gaps in the rails or using a plastic insulating joiner. Be sure to overlap your gaps by 3/4″ – 1″ for zones connected to an auto-reverser!

Between the bus for each zone and the booster is a circuit breaker, in my case a PSX-3 (essentially 3 PSX-1s) from DCC Specialties (I covered how to program these with a DCS51 here). Like the auto-reversing breakers, the PSX breakers are solid-state and are well worth the money over analog breakers, especially if you’re running sound locomotives. I have been extremely impressed with these units so far! The PSX design makes it easy to daisy-chain multiple breakers with just one set of wires to the booster. The only split I had to make was after the PSXs when I had to run the last booster connection off the PSX to the two AR circuits. To make the connection to the buses easier, I made a simple “panel” on part of the benchwork where the 14 gauge wires for each bus come through, get wrapped around a drywall screw, and have the ends exposed for connection to the PSX via smaller wires connected with wire nuts.

DCC zone indicator lights on UP5
Zone 1 and 2 indicators using UP5 Loconet lights

A final step for me was figuring out a way to monitor each zone to know what’s active and what’s shorting out. It’s more difficult to detect a short with the PSX than the DCS100 because the booster makes a distinct noise when it’s reacting to a short, but the PSX is silent. For monitoring, I turned to the Digitrax UP5 universal interconnector panel. I have five of these panels at various spots along the fascia of the staging level for connecting throttles, and each has a “track status” light that can be wired to the track bus. I chose one in proximity to each zone to be the “zone indicator”, labeled with a sticker for the zone number to help me remember, and wired it to pigtails of the corresponding track zone. This way, if a short occurs, only one light corresponding to the affected zone will go out to aid troubleshooting. I wired the UP5 adjacent to the command station and booster directly to the booster wires (no circuit breaker in between) and labeled it to be the master monitor–if it’s on and everything else is out, it tells me the problem is somewhere in the circuit breaker wiring.

Finally, I drew pictures (the ones seen here) of the zones on top of a layout diagram to help me remember exactly where the zones go, and I placed this in my layout binder with all the other helpful information on the layout. This wiring took a good bit of time to plan out and install, but now the layout has the robust electrical backbone to make for smooth connections, easier troubleshooting, and ultimately more fun for operators.

 

 

All the Boring Stuff – Wiring, Wiring, Wiring

I haven’t added an update for a while because the layout doesn’t really look any different. That’s not to say I haven’t been working, it’s just been all the boring stuff – wiring. It may be boring, but if you want your layout to run well, it’s doggone important, so it shouldn’t be left as an afterthought.

Power switches for staging tracksFirst, I corrected an issue I first noticed when running trains around the staging level – sound! I never ran sound locomotives on my previous layout, and now that I’ve got a few, I noticed how annoying it is to have diesels sitting in staging making idling noises that are easily heard throughout the room. These trains are supposed to be dozens of miles away, and I don’t want to hear them while they’re in staging. Of course, there’s the option to “mute” a sound locomotive temporarily, but I don’t want to force operators to go through an entire consist muting and unmuting every time they pick up or drop off a train in staging (and every time a short occurred, all the sound would come right back on anyway). For a solution, I went “back to the future.”

I installed a small SPST toggle switch (picked up 20 for cheap on eBay) for each staging or locomotive track (9 total) on the fascia where the track diagram will be. Unfortunately, this meant pulling dozens of feeders from the staging tracks and running a secondary bus for one rail under each track that’s connected to the switch. Thankfully this didn’t involve any de-soldering because all my feeders are connected via wire nuts. Now I can turn off the power to any staging track with sound locomotives until they’re needed, and all the operator has to do is flip a single switch. Old school “electrical block” solution to a DCC problem.

PSX3 InstallationWhile I was at it, I broke down and ordered a DCC Specialties PSX-4 solid-state circuit breaker to go with my On-Guard-AR auto-reversing circuit breakers. I’ve been planning to do this all along and wiring for multiple zones, but after reading through the PSX documentation, I discovered my understanding of the PSX-4 and how it interacts with AR breakers was a little lacking. I didn’t know that the AR breakers should not be wired off a PSX zone but directly wired to the booster themselves. Turns out with the two reversing zones already protected by an AR circuit breaker, I really only needed a PSX-3 because I only have one non-reversing zone per level (1=staging, 2=lower level, 3=upper level, 1R=staging reverse tracks, 2R=St Charles wye to Mayflower). “Snap” – “hey look, now I have a PSX-3 and a spare PSX-1”. . . smart DCC Specialties! Not gonna lie, it was a little confusing to program the PSX to work well with the AR breakers using the Digitrax Zephyr, but I finally figured it out:

  • Set the Digitrax booster to .5 sec short circuit trip using booster instructions (CV 18 to “c” on my DCS100)
  • Solder the Digitrax jumper on each PSX zone per PSX instructions
  • Set the PSX to programming mode via the jumper per the PSX instructions
  • Ignore the part about setting the PSX address unless you need the PSX to respond to “on/off” or other special commands from the DCC (If you just need it to be a circuit breaker, you don’t)
  • Connect a single PSX zone directly to the Track A / Track B from the Zephyr
  • Turn the track power on on the Zephyr
  • Put the Zephyr into “OPS Programming” mode
  • Select CV55 (“CV”, “55”, “CV”)
  • Press “1” and “CV-W” (add delay to the PSX so the AR zones will trip/reverse first)
  • Select CV65 (“CV”, “65”, “CV”)
  • Press “80” and “CV-W” (set delay to 10ms which works for my setup)
  • If Zephyr shows “Busy,” exit programming mode and try CV65 steps again
  • Set PSX to ops mode via the jumper per the PSX instructions
  • Repeat steps for additional PSX zones

Lower Level Wiring BusI encourage you to read all the instructions first and choose your own adventure–just sharing what worked for me.

Finally, before I lay subroadbed and track for the lower level, I had to add the wiring bus, or in this case, two wiring buses. Two are needed because the St. Charles wye needs a reversing circuit, and the reversing district carries over all the way to Mayflower. Lots of drilling holes, cutting open Romex, and pulling heavy gauge wire through. I still have to make the little pigtails for feeders, but it’s mostly done. Shouldn’t be long before I’m laying track on the main level!

Lower Level Benchwork Complete!

 

Finished Lower Level Benchwork
Finished lower level benchwork as seen from the door

Well, the train garage now has a roof. Or in other words, I reached a major milestone today by completing the benchwork for the main level. What made this particular project tricky was I’m trying to match the fascia contours of the staging level exactly so they look like they’re one thick deck with staging under and trains over. The upper level won’t need to match, so parts of that project will be slightly easier.

All the benchwork is open box, so most pieces were fairly easy to build. However, building the peninsula benchwork was tedious because 1) I needed a pretty big, single piece of benchwork to give it strength to reach from the wall to the edge of the peninsula, and 2) I needed a very specific octagon pattern at a very specific place in the middle of the peninsula to serve as the foundation for the second helix which will take trains from the lower (main) to the upper deck. I’m very glad I have an open basement area just outside the train room where I can build big pieces of benchwork. I’m also glad my wife announced she’d like to replace the carpet in the basement soon, so I’ll take advantage of this window for making messes on the carpet without repercussion!

Finished Lower Level Benchwork
Benchwork for the Mayflower tipple in the corner–I really like how this space is turning out!

Now that I can really see it, I really like the space I’ve got between staging and the main deck. I could have brought the staging up a couple inches and still be ok, but it’s nice being able to see trains in staging just by backing up (instead of squatting down), and I like the functionality the fascia cubbies (now painted black) add – something not possible with less vertical space. I also like how the cabinet corner is turning out. I’ll still be able to reach all the drawers and the DCC components next to the cabinet easily, and it will make the corner under the Mayflower tipple look really finished when everything’s done.

Next step is to build the hidden connecting track between St. Charles and Mayflower (already started), and then comes the first subroadbed and track that will be part of the visible layout with scenery–exciting!

Final Touches for the Staging Level

Final fascia pockets
The final 3 fascia pockets are in place in preparation for benchwork being laid on top of them

I spent a few hours on the layout this past week primarily getting the staging level ready to have benchwork for the main level laid on top of it. There will only be 8″ or so between the decks, so it will be tough to do things like swing a hammer to nail down track once the main level goes in. I pounded the 100s of track nails down well to avoid trouble later, and I finished the final 3 fascia pockets for holding clipboards and other operator paperwork. As you can see, I tried to pick places where nothing is going on behind the pockets so I’m not covering switches or key viewpoints for spotting trains or clearing fouling points and the ends of tracks. Not sure exactly what I’ll keep in the lower pockets, though the one in the back corner is big enough to hold 8.5×11″ papers, so I finished it out with a masonite floor. I will say, I grossly underestimated the amount of sawdust MDF makes!

Extra storage tracks
Using some extra space on the staging level for car storage tracks

While I was at it, I decided to fill up some of the extra space on the staging level with a few car storage tracks. Who doesn’t need more places to store cars, right? I’ve got plenty of staging, but being a coal railroad with little non-coal traffic, I wanted a place to store some of the extra non-coal cars that won’t be used every session, and I wanted to store them where I could easily add them to trains without taking up an actual staging track. I just nailed in 3 tracks directly onto the subroadbed in a spot that’s easily accessible and doesn’t block anything critical behind it like switches or fouling points for the active staging tracks. It’ll hold about 15-18 cars which will help. I’ve already got a coupe extra short staging tracks for the locomotives. These are connected to the railroad via a switch because I didn’t want to be picking up locomotives every time I swapped them out–I’m ok with the extra handling of freight cars.

While I’m giving an update, here’s a picture of the toughest benchwork on the layout so far–it’s the corner by the door that goes around the staging helix. What made it so tough is I wanted to match the curvature and location of the staging-level fascia below, and it happens to be a series of complex curves with NONE of the edge on a 90 or 45-degree line. I also wanted it to be secured well enough to walls, cantilevers and the helix that it wouldn’t need legs down to the staging level. I ended up building it in-place around the helix, and I’m satisfied it will do the trick.

Helix corner benchwork
Some of the toughest benchwork on the layout to match the curvature of the staging fascia and work around the helix

Double Pinwheel Helix

Nearly complete helix
Just one more 1/2 turn to go before reaching the main level

Just [almost] finished the first helix. Man, am I glad not to have to work around a floating wall for the second one! As promised, I’ve written an article on how to design and build a helix that’s strong, reliable, easy to build and an efficient use of space and material–it’s a design I call the “Double Pinwheel Helix.” I’ve built two helices this way now, and I haven’t seen another design that comes anywhere close to being this simple to build using nothing but plywood and a circular saw (no jigsawing for hours), and it’s very forgiving if you don’t cut the pieces exact or your space is a little wonky. 

Rather than post it here, I put the article on Appalachian Railroad Modeling where more people would be able to find it and hopefully be inspired to overcome their fear of building a helix. You can find the article here. Here are a couple of photos so you can see the progress.

Building the Double Pinwheel Helix
The key to the double pinwheel design is lots of clamps to ensure the lamination of pieces is thorough