I had to continue my list of fix ups on Monday morning, this last week. I started with my Bachmann Tamper. It would run on DC but not DCC. So I checked CV 19 = it was not in a consist. I checked CV 29 and it returned 115? What? So I reset it to 0 and then set up its address again – 083 – and it was running. This time the CV29 was a decent number. I think I have had this happen before. It must have been a short somewhere had scattered the decoder's brains. But it is all good now.
I had a another loco - 4894 - a reasonably new Powerline loco that was causing some issues and I tried to fix it. During the recent Operations Session I removed a nail and a small screw from under the loco and I thought it might have another one inside. So I pulled it apart, reset the loco and it was running well. So this loco is a bit of a problem. It ran in the wrong direction. So I reversed the bit in CV 29 and it ran correctly, but the headlights now come on in the wrong direction of travel. So I set up the two CV’s for the Output 1 and Output 2 in the reverse direction of travel and with dimming on F4 and all was good. So that loco has been put back into service on one of the stock trains.
I checked the headset plug-in-point at Grafton Yard, and it was working, so there was no more to do. Bill had DM’ed me on Saturday night and advised that one of the plugs in the plug-in-points at Cassino had been pushed through the panel. I’ve had this happen before, so I just add a styrene shim in front and reattach it and all is good. About 2 minutes work. I had an issue with the point control for track 4 at the southern end of Clapham Yard. So I thought I’d try direct entering the point motor address and it would not throw the curve route. So it was either the output of the Point Controller or the point motor. I looked at the point motor first and the common wire had come off one of the terminals. So a quick solder and that was back working. I also had an issue with the track power into tracks 2 and 3 at Acacia Ridge Yard – also the southern end. This small section of track is fed directly from the point. I got some sandpaper into the point between the stock rail and the point blade. It was now working. I then ran the train a bit further in track 3 and it went dead. I looked up the line a bit further and I noticed that a crossover point was set to crossover. I turned that point to straight and the loco moved. Looks like I added this crossover and never added the jumper around the point. So that was added and that section of track is now powered and now works irrespective of the point setting. This section of track is where the 4 sugar wagons get dropped off during an Ops Session.
While I had the soldering iron going, I went to Cassino and switched two wires on a control panel for various lights in that area. I had a car’s headlights and street lights labelled incorrectly. I switched the wires and now they work according to the descriptions on the panel. Before my next Ops Session, I think I need to install some more layout street lights and control these with various switches on the layout fascias. I think I will add two lights to West Street at Old Cassino and two lights to Fairy Lane just outside of Fairy Hill Crossing Loop. But I think I’m out of miniature switches. So ebay might get some more business from me. I have ordered some more switches and a stack of LED street lights, so in a couple of weeks, I will get around to installing these on the layout.
There was mention on a timetable card that maybe one of the trains needed to come into track 1 at Acacia Ridge instead of track 2. A review of the timetable shows that this logic was indeed correct, Just 5 minutes before train number 18 was due to arrive, train 7A gets to track 2 and drops off some steel wagons in track 2. So we have probably never had this issue because train 18 has been really late and the track has been cleared by the shunt train number 70. So new timetable cards have been printed for train 18 advising the new arrival track. I also added an extra line to the timetable card for train 7A to cover his shunting that occurs from 9:00pm until 9:10pm in track 2. This tells the North Coast Controller in his string line diagram that train 7A is hanging around for a few more minutes in that track. I also had feedback that one of the staff machines was turning off and on, but that occurs if there is a train running through a set of points and causing a short in a power district. I checked out the three staff machines for this section, and all were working correctly. Someone was just being too cautious.
On Tuesday I had some success with my future control panel. I identified one of my Arduino Port Expanders was not working. I also identified that I had wired some jumper leads incorrectly. So I fixed these jumpers, added the correct drop down resistors to the network and replaced the bad Port Expander, and wouldn’t you know it, everything on the I2C bus was reporting its address correctly. Happy with my progress, I did some more shed work. I found a loose wire off behind one of the Staff machine panels at Clapham Yard. I also started running some narrow gauge trains. I was running one from Fisherman Islands and one from Acacia Ridge. I am going through the narrow gauge timetable, identifying what wagons will be placed in what sidings. I have some fixing up of some trackwork, particularly in Acacia Ridge Yard. I added some dual gauge points to a section and now the narrow gauge track does not have power. So on Wednesday I fixed the staff machine wiring at Clapham Yard. I also found the wire that had come off the narrow gauge track at Acacia Ridge Yard. So all is now good.
Now turning my attention back to the Future exhibition layout's signalman's control panel. I added the remaining connections to the white track detection LEDs on the panel and changed my test program and I had further success. They are all working very nicely. I then got the UP signals all working. Next was the Down Signals. There was some weird things occurring and it was not until I looked at my initial definitions that I left out signal output 3. After that was fixed they worked brilliantly. Next was the Branch line signals. I think I had a bad green LED. So that was replaced and then they worked too. I added in the last two Port Expanders to the I2C bus and everything stopped working. It looked like that the last one had an issue. So I swapped it out for another Port Expander and it then joined the I2C bus. So I then tested the Down Dual Gauge signals and they worked. Then it was the turn of the UP Dual Gauge. I had one Green LED not light up. A quick check revealed that its common on that LED was not wired up. I soldered that and all was good. So next week’s job is to now wire all the shunt signals, the two sidings signals and the branch indicator signals.
This Signalman’s Control Panel might just actually work.
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