Testing the Test Track and Signalling Connections

Earlier this week I began wiring in the second cable connection from my signal U2, and the siding signal SS2.  I then did a bit of testing and some things worked and some did not.  It basically all came down to bad connections for my jumper cables in the Signalman’s Panel.  So these were adjusted, reseated and resoldered and most things are pretty good.  I then found that the two red signals on my extension U3 and U4 are not lighting.  So I will have to disconnect the signals and check the LEDs inside the signal.  I thought it is just a cold solder joint.  As suspected for U3 I had to resolder the red LED to the common in the test track.  For U4, I had to remove the red wire in my RJ45 socket and re-patch that wire.  All is now good. 

So at the moment everything seems to be working on the UP line testing, except that initially I had not tested the shunt ahead and routing aspects for signal U2.  So on Thursday I tested the shunt ahead aspect on signal U2 and it worked fine.  I then did some more testing and I was having an issue with the route indicators on signal U2 on the test board.  I jiggled a few wires around inside the box and then rebooted and all is now good.  However, I am seeing some strange aspects occurring when a random IR detector goes off out of sequence.  I will look into this and determine if I need to make the logic aware of this.  I am currently testing the Signalman’s panel and the test board out in the pergola and I am currently surrounded by lots of sunlight, so this is playing havoc with my IR detectors.  An example of this for example is if U3 and U4 are green and then U4’s IR detector goes off.  U3 stays green and the driver is then confronted with a red signal without first getting a yellow aspect.  On other signals this is handled as both the U1 and U2 signals have Hold switches on the panel so the signalman can set the signal to a Red Aspect to do something ahead, like set points etc.  However, no such logic appears for U3.  It will be easy to incorporate by I wonder if I really need to do this.  Maybe if someone is cleaning the track and sets off an IR detector?  But all the other signals can work themselves out of any predicament given the logic I have implemented on them.

I measured my test track and wouldn’t you know it, it seems about 1 inch to long to fit behind the back seat in my car.  That was assessed through guesstimation, as I have not physically tried it yet.  But on Friday afternoon when I did try and put it in the car, I could just get it to fit behind the rear seat headrests.  So I took my Signalman’s Panel and the test track to the Club on Saturday and after the monthly meeting I set it up on two blow mold tables.  I fired the system up and discussed how it worked for some interested passersby.  But at the end after all the opening and closing of the panel lid, one of the wires for a point control lost its wire.  So I could no longer route trains to the branch or the Down Main.  So on Sunday morning I fixed the broken wire and everything was working again.  I did notice that I needed to name the Points and the Catch Points on the signalman’s panel so when the messages come up on the panel, the signalman will be able to understand what is happening where.  So I have now printed off the new name tags, and fill affix them next week.  Another task I did today was to verify the resistance of the resistor on the Green aspect in Signal U1.  I removed it and measured it at 1600 Ohms.  It was supposed to be a 1K ohms resistor.  I don't know how I got that wrong.  So I replaced it with a 1K ohm resistor and now that signal is a bit brighter both on the Signalman's panel and on the test track.

I also took my level crossing test track to the Club and showed this off to the Club’s electrical guru following a discussion we had the previous month.  He wants to implement a couple of level crossing flashing lights in various locations on the HO Clubroom layout.  So he wants to borrow my Arduino code.  I sent him a copy this morning.

While at the Club yesterday, my mate Greg presented me with a couple of 3D items that I asked him to design.  That was a tradie's tool box to go into the rear of a 4 Wheel drive tray or the tray of a ute.  The second item was a surfboard.  I will paint them this week and see if I can place them on my layout.  If they come out good on the layout, I will place a bulk order for these and we will sell them at our Club's next Buy and Sell.  Another item that Greg 3D printed were the shunt ahead signal housing and the rabbit's ears (route indicator) for my U2 junction signal.  This afternoon I fed the LED's into their new homes.  But I must have knocked something as the Shunt ahead yellow aspect no longer lights on the signal.  But it does on the Signalman's panel, so it will be easy to trace back and fix the issue tomorrow morning.

I think I will take the Signalman's panel and the test track to the NMRA meeting next Saturday and show the guys there how the progress goes.  I am waiting on a bulk order at my local Jaycar which should turn up this week sometime, so I will be able to wire up the Down Signals and maybe the Branch Signals.

This actually is my post number 998 on the blog.  So in a couple of week's time I will hit the 1000 post mark.

Signalman's Panel is Progressing

This week I was struggling to get motivated to do much work.  I spent a lot of time watching replays from the Commonwealth Games during the day and live stuff at night.  However on Tuesday I started work on wiring in the wires from the first lot of rear RJ45 connections on my Signalman’s panel for CAT5 cables to be plugged into the signalman’s panel internals.  On Tuesday I spliced in Port 1.  On Wednesday I did ports 2, 3 and 4. 

While playing with the Signalman’s panel, it occurred to me that when I tried to set the B1 Signal to Held, no message was displayed on the signalman's screen.  I thought that the wire inside the panel had come adrift so I went looking.  I could not find anything amiss.  Then it dawned on me that when I last changed the Arduino code that I might have rationalised it too much and removed that message being written to the display.  I then checked the code and I was correct.  I just need to spend some time working out what the circumstances should be to display that message again.  I think I have adjusted the code correctly but I have yet to upload the code to the Arduino and test it in anger.  Maybe next week.

On Saturday I spent a small amount if time in the shed and cut up some thin MDF to form lids on two of my recently acquired storage tray frames.  I have now done a bit of a re-arrangement and placed two more storage trays frames into the shed.

Sunday included a trip to Jaycar to buy some more Rj45 CAT6 sockets so I can punch in the various CAT5 wires into the sockets ready to do the DOWN port connections.  However, they had only one.  I placed an order for another 10.  Hopefully I will get these in about a week.  It is now time to strip a few short lengths of CAT5 cable to allow me to punch them into the RJ45 sockets.    

I am yet to plumb the 5^th usable port into the first lot of UP port connections in the Signalman's Panel.  I will get around to it, maybe this coming week.  But I have wired up the next RJ45 socket to enable me to connect up my junction signal for signal U2 on the test track.  This signal has two route signals, a shunt ahead aspect as well as the normal 3 aspects (red, yellow, green).  I managed to feed all the wires for these down the signal post today and basic testing shows it working.  Again next week I will attach the signal to my test track, and wire that in, and then add the RJ45 plug to the rear of my Signalman’s panel and wire it to the internals of the panel.

This is the U2 signal for the UP track on the future layout which has 3 aspects, the shunt ahead (for access to the sidings) and 6 white 0402 LEDs wired in two pairs of 3 LEDs for the two diverging routes towards the DOWN Main and the BRANCH.

Building and Connecting My Signal Test/Demonstration Track

I’ve made a few trip to Jaycar this week he help me get all the items required for my layout signal test section ready.  The plan is to connect it to my Signalman’s Panel via CAT5 cable.  I have completed the woodwork for this test section, but no track has been laid as yet.  The test section folds out and will house 4 signals along with their IR detectors, and the 4 x RJ45 sockets that are wired to the signal and the IR detector.  So far I have installed three signal/Detector pairs on the test module.  The fourth signal/detector wiring will get done next week.  I need to wire up some very fine wire to get all the wires for all the LEDs through the signal post for Signal Number 2.  I also purchased a number of faceplates that either house 4 or 6 x RJ45 sockets.  These faceplates are now installed on the rear of my Signalman’s Panel and will be wired up to my internal signalling circuitry.  I have wired up the RJ45 sockets using a cheap push-down connector that I bought from Jaycar.  I have tested the four RJ45 sockets on the signal test section.  I have also wired up another 4 x RJ45 sockets that have been installed into the first faceplate on the rear of the Signalman’s Panel.   These also test as working correctly.  At this stage I have connected just the wires from the first signal/detector pair connection.  I also had to make a small tester that allows me to plug into rear sockets on the Signalman’s panel, so I can ensure that I wired everything correctly.  Already I have found out that I may have to change some resistors in the panel as the green signals are now a tad dull.  I originally used standard 1000 Ohm resistors as I had a thousand of them on hand.  So I think I might try something a bit lower resistance, like 680 or 560 Ohms.

The 3D printed signal, with 3mm LEDs is on the left, the IR detector is already poking through the baseboard and the connection on the right which powers the signal and IR detector.  A CAT5 cable plugs into the socket and the other end of the cable connects to the rear of the Signalman's Panel.  I will eventually lay some track on the board.

While I was working on the signalman’s panel I changed the track diagram on the front, as what was originally there was wrong.  Previously I mentioned that the online photos from a historical photo/mapping site showed the real track layout at the location, so I made use of that and made the changes to my panel.  This might also make for some more complex shunting moves in the future.

 

Above is the old siding arrangement.  The colours of the tracks indicate gauge.  Blue is QR 3'6", Black is standard gauge, and red is dual gauge.

This is the new siding arrangement with an additional amount of dual gauge trackage.  This photo also shows the 5 faceplates attached to the rear of the Signalman's panel that the various CAT5 cables connect to.

While it had been quite some time since I powered up the Signalman’s Panel, I thought I would have a play with it.  Everything fired up perfectly, but as I was simulating running trains from the Branch line to the Down line and then setting the Branch Home Signal B1 back to stop, to allow the Down line trains to run again, the trailing signal on the branch (B3) did not reset back to a yellow signal when the signal in front of it displayed a red aspect.  So I connected the panel to the PC and ran a couple of traces and I saw where the code may have been going wrong.  So I made a few tweaks and after the second change, I have the signalling solution working what looks like is now perfectly.  So this was one bug that had crept through my initial testing.  I’m sure there are a few more yet to be found.

During the week I also got around to assembling 4 x KD coupler pockets and these will be installed into two 3D printed SX coaches next week.

Hopefully I will have 3 signals connected up and working from the test trackage module to the Signalman's panel by the end of this coming week.  i just need to find a couple more CAT5 cables.

Steptoe and Son

I’m always on the lookout for items to add to The Shed for storage or making Operating Sessions run better.  Last Sunday on our way home from the Mother-in-law’s place, I noticed that one of the houses nearby had what looked like a small magazine storage rack (like the type at news agencies) out the front of their house for council cleanup.  So on Monday morning I organised my morning 5km walk to end at this house and then walk back home.  As I turned the corner of this street at around 7:30am, I noticed no rubbish out the front of this house.  I looked further down the street, and noticed a truck picking up the rubbish – Nooooo!  The first day of rubbish collection and early in the morning!  I could have walked in the reverse direction but I didn’t.  Any chance of verifying that the item was a usable magazine rack for my crew to use in the shed and picking it up and carting it home was gone.

Anyway on Tuesday I went another direction for my walk and the rubbish was still in place in that part of the suburb.  I looked down a street about 1.7km from home and saw what looked like a small 4 level storage frame - just like the 4 I already have.  Upon closer examination, this frame had 4 plastic tubs in the slide in slots.  I took 3 tubs and the frame and walked back home carrying the items.  Woo Hoo!  On Wednesday I walked another way and sure enough outside my kids former primary school there was a wire storage basket that fits into my previously acquired storage shelves.  That also made its way home with me.  Thursday was also a walk in another direction and about 2.2km from home, I found another 6 shelf storage frame - yes, I have two of these already.  This was also assisted back to my place.  As I was making my way home and I was almost there, I passed my wife walking in the opposite direction, she just shook her head, commented something that I cannot print, and then added ‘Stop picking these things up’.  So I now have plenty of storage frames, but I do need about another 6 storage baskets.  But all the local houses have now been cleaned up.  Maybe next year.  I think it was a good outcome from my morning walks this week.

On a modelling note, I soldered up the LEDs to fit into Greg’s 3D printed signal faces and they are ready to place on my test track after I add wires and feed them down the post.  Greg’s initial test post had a brass tube for the signal post.  My next 4 have been made out of styrene tube, as I had some of that, but no brass tube that fitted.  I have also fixed up my test track and started adding the first signal and IR detector.  I have tested the signal and IR detector by applying power via the CAT5 remote cable connections and the first signal and IR detector work.  I have a 6 way gang that initially will be used to put on my control panel to connect back to the signals via CAT5 cable.  The first 4 ports will be used for the 4 UP signals, the fifth connection for the narrow gauge signal in the sidings and the sixth connection used to manually test anything that I plug into that connection port.  Eventually this port will be used for the shunt ahead signal aspect and the two route indicators on the second UP signal.  I had my order of 50 x 0402 White LEDs rock up on Friday as well.

Saturday was NMRA meeting day and I think it was a really good meeting at Glen’s place.  We are planning what the future meetings will look like.  We did a bit of a discussion with the members in attendance and what they were after.  So I think this will come together.   After the meeting two members Alisha and Aaron came back to my place (on their way home) for a viewing of my layout and I think they had a bit of a laugh at some of the scenes on the layout.

Working on Some 3D Prints

I went for my normal walk on Monday and came across one of my neighbours around the corner who have their junk out the front of their place for next Week’s council cleanup.  They had two of the high pull out frames, which cater for up to 6 storage trays each.  I picked up 5 new trays from their discarded pile.  On Tuesday I went back for one of the frames.  These were cleaned and placed in the shed.  I picked up two of these frames last year.

Tuesday was working on the 3D printed SX coaches that my mate David gave to me last Saturday at the AMRA exhibition.  I cleaned up the flash, did a bit of filing here and there, and undercoated the wagon shells.  I also undercoated the 12mm commonwealth bogies that I just had sitting around.  Later on, I gave the underframe a coat of matt black and the coach shells a nice silver.  Once dry these were screwed together with some existing screws that I just happened to have on hand and added the bogies to two wagons.  I have subsequently found 4 x KD’s that I need to assemble and then I will give the coaches a test run on the layout.  Another job for next week.

On Wednesday I soldered up the various LEDs for the colour light test signals.  I started to also wire up a string of white LEDs for the route indicators and did not like what I found.  I then went looking for 6 x 0402 LEDs which I will eventually solder up and try them for the route indicators.

Saturday involved the trip to the northside and while there picked up a packet of styrene at the Club's local Hobby Shop – RCMA.  When at the Club we had a good showing of numbers.  I had a quick view of the HO Clubroom layout and there had been some great little scene created around the top deck.  Greg had printed off 3 more 3D printed signals which I will assemble this coming week.  I might need to buy a length of brass tube though.  We also discussed the feathers for the junction indicator on top of one of the signals, and that will be enhanced in Greg’s next print.  Greg also showed off a 3D printed aluminium foil corrugated iron roller.  It is a little beauty.  I ordered a few more from him for the NMRA guys.  I also realised that I needed to order another batch of 0402 white LEDs for the layout.  I think I have used up my last order.  I picked up 50 LEDs for a great price at less than $0.50 each LED with pre-wired leads.

Some nice scenery work

The Town taking shape

It looks really good

Looking down the streets

The Plumbing business has some great items outside, including a bath and a pedestal.  I want some pedestals for my layout.

2026 Brisbane Model Railway Exhibition Report

I’ve got to Sunday this week and I cannot remember what I did early in the week.  I’m not sure if it was because I was so busy, or I did not do anything.  I do remember that on Thursday I visited Geoff and picked up two bench seats that we sit in front of our Structure Building Stand  at the AMRA Brisbane Model train exhibition.  I know that on Friday Arthur and I drove to the other side of the world (well Brisbane) and set up our stand at the Brisbane Model Train Show.  On Saturday and Sunday I rinsed and repeated, by picking up Arthur and taking him over to the Brisbane Model Railway Exhibition and even brining him home, even though he tried to stir me with an XPT sledge.  Those close to us will know about this.  And here is my, thinking that I put all of these XPT innuendos to bed.  But I guess not.  Next to us at the show, was the RMCQ N scale layout.  I lost count of the number of times that people said, look left that is an XPT running on the layout!  This was usually followed by accusations that my HO XPT does not run.  Well it bloody well does!

There were a few observations from the show.  There were truckloads of people there on Saturday.  Geoff’s bench seats got quite a workout sitting in front my myself and Arthur at our stand.  They were occupied all day.  I did very little modelling all day and talked myself hoarse.  I did make two telegraph poles with 12 insulators on two cross arms, and built 5 clotheslines.  I almost needed a sling for my arm, as I raised it to wave to heaps of people that I knew as they walked by.  I must admit that when people were looking at the various items on my modelling desk, and in particular my small clothesline scene built on a 90mm end cap, I turned on the switch and the clothesline started to rotate along with the mother handing off of the clothesline.  It brought so many smiles to people’s faces, who then showed their partners, their kids and grandkids, or their parents and grandparents.  It was great seeing all the smiles and that started numerous conversations with the public.  I built this model for the NMRA convention last year for the 90mm cap challenge.

Sunday (today) was no different.  Plenty of people through the doors.  I had a few people ask to get copies of a few clotheslines from my stand, that I had already prepared and also asked to get some other detail items that I had previously build for the layout.  Today’s modelling efforts included scratch building just two windows for my Old Casino Station building.  Pretty poor effort, but everyone had fun.  I'm signed up for next year's Exhibition on the 3rd and 4th of July at the same venue.

I do have a vague memory that earlier in the week I put together all the items that I needed to take to the AMRA Exhibition.  I think I have a few tasks for next week to finish off a couple of items that I wanted to do at the Exhibition but ran out of time talking to the public.

I do have a vague memory that earlier in the week I put together all the items that I needed to take to the AMRA Exhibition.  I think I have a few tasks for next week to finish off a couple of items that I wanted to do at the Exhibition but ran out of time talking to the public.

Home and Back Doing Stuff

Well Monday this week was my travel day.  It started with bunking out of our hotel room and storing our baggage.  Then a bus trip to Central, then tram trip to Lillydale.  I had never been there.  We then caught the same tram back to Central.  This was followed by a Metro trip from central to Martin Place for lunch and saying good-bye to our son.  My wife almosy had kittens when she jumped onto the escalator at Central for the metro.  It must be about 40m long.  We then walked back to our hotel, picked up our luggage, and then took a bus back to Central.  The XPT soon arrived and we boarded our sleeper.  You get a welcome package on boarding and a complementary light breakfast in the morning.  The trip was good.  However, we lost about 30 minutes near Wyee and the train manager over the PA system said there was a signal fault.  Our tardiness blew out to about 37 minutes, and hovered around there.  It would come in to less then 30 minutes, and then creep out to 40 minutes and then then we got into Roma Street about 30 minutes late.  I think I woke up for every station that we stopped at throughout the night.  At Roma Street, we decided to catch a train to Altandi and then a bus home from there.  As we were training it through the southside, the XPT was due to be heading outbound at that same time.  However, we did not see it, as it might have been delayed by the cleaning duties and then finding a new path through the southside on the dual gauge.  The first bus outbound of the morning is not until after 7:00am in the morning, which is pretty poor.  Late in the arvo on Monday while travelling north on the XPT, I saw the candy XPT speed past on its way south.  It was most likely the train from Grafton.

On Wednesday I started doing some modelling.  I was adding 5mm of foam to some of my model modules.  I then tried to terra form the foam to incorporate the various levels of track and scenery.  I now have to adjust the locking mechanism on each of the model modules to the previous module for the modules with the foam above the baseboard.  More work needs to be done on this feature.

On Thursday I hit the kitchen and family room floor trying to confirm the track layout that i will use at the rear of the modules, where the dual gauge splits into standard gauge tracks and the narrow gauge tracks.  I have one version of the trackwork, but I think I might investigate other versions of this over the coming weeks.  I will transcribe the trackwork onto my paper copies of the track work that will fit on the Model modules.

Saturday was a trip to Paul’s place to continue the work on the NMRA Div 1 FreeMo modules.  I had created a set of steps with railings for one of the houses on a module.  The kit we used did not have any back stairs.  After placing then and confirming that fitted in pretty well, I asked Clinton to paint it up and we then glued it to the module.  I had also previously assembled and painted up some ladders to be used around some houses on the modules.  I spent some time adding various people, animals, and other detail items, like cars, seats and BBQs.  I had made some lines for the clotheslines out of phosphor bronze wire.  Alisha had made some clothes to be added to the lines on the clotheslines.  There are now plenty of funny little scenes on the FreeMo modules and I dreamt up a number of 3D printed detail items that could be created to add to these scenes in the future.  If my man gets around to 3D printing these detail items, then I think he will sell quite a few of them.  At the end of the day we gave the 8 corner modules a coat of black paint on the fascias and boy, didn’t that bring the focus from the module in general to just the top of the module.  It was like turning on a spotlight on the top of the module.

There are a couple of items that have to be added to my next building list to be added to scenes on the FreeMo modules at the next working be session. 

Today I went to Jaycar and purchased a couple of RJ45 sockets to allow me to break out the wires from the RJ45 plug that gets put into the socket.  I plan to create a sample connection to the first 4 signals on the new exhibition layout as a demo for later in the year.  I just have to check if I wired the signal on my signalman’s control panel as common anode or common cathode, so I can build my signals for the layout the same way.  Maybe I needed to write that done somewhere when I first put the control panel together.