Finishing the New Point Control

My plan for Friday night were cancelled very early on Friday morning when Geoff, our host, called in sick.  Oh well, I watched some Bronco’s brilliance instead.  When I came home from work I picked up a roll of wire from Jaycar.  On Saturday I completed laying the wire from the point motor in Fisherman Islands Yard to its controlling NCE QSnap.  I then used the push buttons on the control panel to test it and the point was not initially throwing.  I re-aligned the motor in regards to the point and everything was then working well.  Next job was to move a wire from Input 22 to Input 23 on the South Brisbane interstate NCE Mini panel.  I then coded up the command to throw point 1631 in the first step for Input 23.  I also recoded step 2 for Input 21 to reverse point 1631, and for step 3 to link to Input 22.  I then had to install the shorting jumper on the NCE Snap-It that was under the point for track 9/10 in South Brisbane Interstate Yard.  I set this point to address 1631.  I then removed the shorting jumper, and used the South Brisbane Interstate Panel to toggle between track 9 and 10 and you guessed it.  It went in reverse.  So I had to swap the two wires on the point motor and all was good.  It then dawned on my soon after that when I set Input 23 in the mini panel, I forgot to set the other points in the lead up to track 10, which is the track into the Oil siding.  So I need to set a few more points and then also get this input to link to Input 22 to throw the common points from the mainline into track 10.  Doh!  Late on Sunday I added a throwing of point 1644 to normal and then linked to Input 22.  A quick test and everything is perfect.

So back to Friday, and I then moved down to Clapham Yard and cut a small section out of the fascia so I could mount the new point motor.  The cut out was about 2.5cm wide.  I installed the point motor and then wired three wires in parallel from the other point motor that this point motor is to operate in unison with.  A test by pushing the button for either track 5 or 6 at the southern end panel of Clapham Yard soon revealed that the new point motor operated in the opposite direction to the original.  So a quick swap of the two actuating wires on the new point motor and another test revealed that everything was now working correctly.  Yee hah!

I then did a quick run of my Southern Rail Models 2300 loco with sound.  This was sitting in Acacia Ridge Yard with 4 coal wagons behind it.  I ran it out to the dual gauge point at the entry to Acacia Ridge Yard and back again about a half dozen times.  I then went through a different track in the run around tracks.  This loco sounds quite good - maybe still a bit loud.

Today my mate David arranged a visit to his place to help him wire up his layout before Tuesday Nighters this week.  Basically, I connected the two wires from the power supply to the NCE 4 pin plug going to the PowerPro, with the other two wires going to a distribution panel to then go to his 4 NCE EB1 circuit breakers.  I set all the circuit breakers to 2.5 Amps.  I then wired the distribution panel to the inputs to the EB1s.  This was followed by the EB1 outputs to the main track bus to the various sections of layout in the shed.  I powered the PowerPro on and it came on and three of the EB1’s lit up.  The fourth started flashing.  That was not good, so I disconnected it.  Even though David had promised that he would clean the track, it was covered in gunk.  So after cleaning, the first loco ran from the main yard to Hammersmith and onto the first of the return loops controlled by AR-1 auto reversing controllers.  The loco ran straight through and out the other side.  We then tried to run it around in the other direction via the second AR-1.  It also worked well.

David had advised that his London track was the source of the short.  So we disconnected its main track feed, and reconnected the EB1 and there was still a short.  While David went and got some beers (it was hot), I was going to humour myself, and disconnect his middle section of his layout and then reconnected the EB1 and mysteriously the previously shorting EB1 can back on line.  So I then reconnect David’s London track bus and the EB1’s stayed on.  Sometimes it is hard to get good help!  So we narrowed down the short, to another section of track.  So I could not see where the short was coming from.  So now with the London section also available, we tested that also around one of his two reversing loops.  Again success.  The next job was to clean the track in the section where the short was coning from, and I removed one passenger car from the track.  I then tried to reconnect the disconnect power bus and mysteriously now, the short had gone.  I was very confused.  However, we now had track running very well in the middle section.  That just leaves his lift up bridge which is not yet wired.  So we will certainly have some discussions on Tuesday Night.

Before I ventured over to David's, I shot down to the shed for half an hour and did some programming on the main to about 5 double/triple header loco combinations on the layout.  While I’d been running operations for years, I have never worried, (actually I was too lazy to open a manual) about setting up the headlights correctly on the locos in consists.  So I disabled F0F and F0R in CV22 in all my consist locos.  I also turned off F1 and F2 in all the locos as well, except my sound locos.  This is in CV21.  I tested all locos, and everything worked as expected.  So now when the driver turns on the headlight of the train, only the headlight will come on and not all the locos in the consist.  I also set up F1 and F2 to be the cab lights in the No. 1 End and No. 2 End respectively.  So a driver can turn on the cab lights when stopping at a crossing loop, so the loco crew can see their way around the cab when making their way to the steps to exit the loco and exchange the staffs.