Building Track for the New Layout

I got online a couple of Tuesday nights back with some of the Tuesday Nighters and Tyler from Taswegia.  Tyler was showing me detail photos from the QLD QImagery site from the 90’s.  We got online again on the Wednesday evening and a very detailed photo that Tyler provided me, blew we away and caused me to revisit my future exhibition layout track design.  My previous design of my future layout was from published photos and articles on the topic.   I had wrongfully designed the narrow gauge trackage in my layout siding area to have a large narrow gauge loop.  I guess these diagrams were correct at a point in time and not when I was setting my layout date.  The QImagery shots are more timely and thus more accurate.  A closer look at the photo shows that there was another section of dual gauge trackage in the yard.  I was planning on making the sidings through a large building on the layout - narrow gauge.  They were in fact both standard gauge tracks with one of those being dual gauge.  Out the back of the building, there was a crossover and two dead end tracks not both tracks coming into a single track section as I had planned it.  So I now needed to borrow PK’s dual gauge jigs again and build at least 3 more dual gauge points.  While that will be fun, it complicates the trackwork immensely, but it will also look very interesting.  I went down to the shed on Thursday of the previous week lunch time and went through my collection of previously made dual gauge trackage.  At that time I thought it turned out that two of the three pieces of track have already been made.  I have gone through a number of iterations of trackage on Cassino in a number of areas (well actually around Acacia Ridge Yard, Clapham Yard and Fisherman Islands).  So, these old points get taken out and replaced from time to time as I make changes to the trackwork, etc.  So I joined two of these pieces of track up to some narrow, standard and dual gauge flex track and ran some wagons through the track.  I’m quite happy that the already existing pieces of track all seem to run quite well.  So I only now have to build one set of dual gate points.

But I need to get my paper track layout diagrams out and re-design things to ensure that everything still fits.  I could not be bothered last week to do that.  So it looks like this Wednesday is when I will do this.

On Tuesday evening this week, I picked up the FastTrack Jigs from PK at our fortnightly Tuesday Nighter's in person meeting.  This jig will allow me to build my first point in the sequence from the siding.  I easily built that on Wednesday morning. This point was not actually a point.  It could have been built just as a splitter piece of track with the narrow gauge going straight and standard gauge coming in from the right.  However, the shared rail is on the right.  I did not need a moving point blade, as I could have just guided the wheels on the standard gauge around that angle.  But I put the moving point rail in this version of the track.  That might change in the future.  In the afternoon, I went down to the shed to put this new piece of track next to the point that goes next to it.  Then I went DOH!  The piece that I had reserved for this location, was in fact only a splitter track, and not a left hand narrow gauge track with dual gauge and a common right hand rail.  Bugger.  I had two of these pieces of track.  So I could have half demolished this piece of track and add in the narrow gauge point component, but I’m thinking that it will be far easier just building the new piece of track.  Luckily, this piece of track that I now have to make, is the other piece of track in the current Jig that I borrowed off PK on Tuesday night.  Sometimes you can get lucky.

The first point I built on Wednesday this week was the one on the left above.  But when it came time to check it with the one I already had previously built, (the one on the right above) my original one was just a splitter, instead of a point.  So I needed to make the one on the right.

This was an existing point that will go on the layout and form a standard gauge crossover outside a shed (which will be on the left of the point) to enable a run around movement on the standard gauge locos.

So this new point was built on Wednesday afternoon and finished off on Thursday morning.  While not perfect, I can successfully run narrow gauge and standard gauge wagons through the trackage.  I have also joined everything up in a test arrangement and can run trains the combination of all their pieces of track now.  PK may get his jig back next Saturday.  But it depends on how many photos he published of me over the coming week.

On Saturday I participated in a planning day for our NMRA Division to help identify some of the things we need to accomplish over the next 12 months.

Ops Session Follow-up, Another Ops Session and Helping Poor Marty

On Monday I was cleaning all the point blades on entry to Acacia Ridge Yard from the south with a cotton bud dipped in Metho.  I then tested all the points with the front four all working, but the 4 rear points were not.  On Tuesday when I started tracing the wires to find their DS64 point controller, I had summised that the whole DS64 had lost power.  When I found it, sure enough, a wire had been pulled out of the DCC input to the DS64.  So that wire was restored and the DS64 checked and all four rear points were confirmed as working again.  In my testing, I noticed that I had no power to Acacia Ridge Track 4.  So that was put onto the list to be fixed later.

Feedback from the Ops Session last weekend from my North Coast Control Dispatcher, was my phone system needed a piezo buzzer to attract the attention of the North Coast Control when Grafton or Acacia Ridge is calling.  So I found that I had one sitting in my Arduino Starter kit, so I tested it on Tuesday.  It was installed into the phone circuit and eventually I got it working well.  I had to change the value of a resistor within my phone system, so I could provide at least 3V DC to the Peizo buzzer to make it work.  I went to my local Jaycar to pick up another Peizo buzzer on Tuesday arvo, but they did not have any – the shelves were bare.  They advised that the next closest Jaycar had one.  On Wednesday morning I went there and picked it up and tried to install it in the arvo.  This version of the Peizo forces you to use the third terminal on it.  It has some other electronics on the board and is different to the first one I used.  But I just wired the V and S pins to my positive power supply and the Base pin to the negative/ground terminal.  It only took about 15 minutes and I had the call switch working from North Coast Control to Grafton Yard and Acacia Ridge Yard.

Tuesday arvo I did some testing of the Rocklea Siding area.  I made up a list of things to attack.   I needed to re-solder some cold solder joins and also cleaned the point blades.  I got around to this on Thursday afternoon.  I had a set of points that was not supplying power properly through the point blades, so I attached a jumper between the rails of the point.  That solved the problem.  But running a loco through the blades caused issues on one route.  I could not work out the cause.  So I packed the rails on one side and that solved the problem.  I found out the reason why I had no power on track 4 of Acacia Ridge Yard.  It was the perennial problem where I installed a set of points and never jumpered around the points.  So I added jumpers and now trains run there as well.  I have ticked off most of my to do list items, except that I had not run trains through the 12mm trackage at Rocklea Sidings.  Maybe this coming week.

Also earlier in the week, I noticed that three above track point motors in Rocklea Siding had their actuator come adrift from the point.  So I added a dab of super glue to the actuator and the side knob of the point.  When I went back on the next day, the points had stuck hard with the super glue.  Within a few minutes on using a knife on the point, I had freed up the actuators.  All three point are now working from the various control panels.

On Friday I went to Jaycar again to pick up some wire so I was laying a track bus for the Sunnybank branch.  I have started laying the bus, but as yet I have not soldered any jumpers to the track.  Plenty of time this coming week for that.

Darren and I car pooled to Anthony’s place on Saturday for Operations Session number 69 on his layout.  It was a blast with 9 people in attendance.

My first train was a hightop T.  It ran well and I enjoyed the train.

I love the detail of the diesel fuel tanks

I ran this steamer running this passenger as one of my 6 trains during the session.

A blunder by the west end not setting the points correctly, and the Fast Freight came almost to a catastrophe, instead of going through road 2. 

This is a great scene where the grain is being loaded into grain wagons via the Aagur.

On Sunday Darren and I, but this time joined by Glen, car pooled down to the Gold Coast to help Marty work on his layout.  Again we had a ball.  Marty put on some snags on bread with onions for lunch.  Although I'm not sure how much work Marty did.  He spent most of the morning looking for his cutoff blade knife.  We joked about Harper having it.  Sure enough she did.

Harper with the missing tool.

Marty was at it again, splitting the points with his VR coach on some of the newly laid trackage.  Glen was looking on.

Darren advising Marty what he needs to do over the next few weeks, so we can continue work on his Plywood Central layout.

Ops Session Update

On Monday I was going through my list of tests for the layout prior to the Ops Session.  After adding a power jumper in Grafton Yard between two tracks, I tested two locos which ran well on the test track, but had some issues on the layout.  I am thinking that I need a snubber added to my return loops at Grafton Yard to clean up the signal and this might help these two locos on the layout.  I did some checking on three trains to ensure that their wagons were in the correct order so the operators had a smooth run on the weekend.  They basically were all OK.  However, I could not find the timetable cards for one of the trains, No. 11 and its return No. 12.  The North Coast Control list had those timetable cards in it, but the main layout timetable card box was missing both these trains.  I remember that this train may not have run in the last iteration of the timetable.  The shunt lists for both trains was also missing from the shunt list box on the layout fascia, but again a copy was in the North Coast Control Box.  Maybe the cards were missing at the last session.  So it appears that I must have removed the cards in the distant past to do something, and I did not return the cards back to their rightful place.  Whoops!  So I printed a new copy.  I also did a small run of NL1 (the Brisbane Limited) out of Grafton Yard and I found out that the express goods wagon and the railmotor wagon were at the wrong end of the train.  That was my fault, as I can remember that I supervised the return of this train in the past session, I must have told the driver to do something wrong.  So I shunted these two wagons back to the front of the train, and parked that train back up in Grafton Yard. 

So I printed up the two missing Timetable cards, and the two missing shunt lists.  I inserted them into the correct position in the timetable sequence and noticed that another card seemed to be missing.  As I was going back upstairs and sitting down in the office to print the missing timetable card, I noticed buried under my multimeter, some timetable cards.  Wouldn’t you know it.  Cards for No. 11 and 12 were found along with the shunt lists.  Underneath them were 4 more timetable cards.  One was the missing one I was about to print.  So an audit was undertaken so see if there are anymore missing. All four of these cards were missing from the shed.  I found another 6 cards on my desk.  But these existed in the shed, as I reprinted new cards for the last session.

On Tuesday about 9 of us met at Cliff’s place for our fortnightly gathering.  It was another good night of great discussion.

On Wednesday after the boss left, I got my track plans out along with paper and track and continued on the design process.  I had read during the week in the AMRM magazine that a NSW Railway Club had 900mm wide modules and I think 2400mm long.  So I took a step back to see if that was possible on my potential layout.

I went down to the shed and tested the headsets and the phone system on Friday morning.  Headsets were all OK, but the phone between the main layout yards and North Coast Control did not work at the Grafton Yard/Acacia Ridge Yard end.  I pulled the control box apart and found a couple of broken solder joints.  So these were fixed and all was good again.  I then added some lettering to the control boxes and the phones, advising how to use them.  I then decided to give my Signal Panel a test before I released it for the Saturday crew and I found out that a few panel switches were not working.  I traced it back to two wires that had come loose from opening and closing the panel.  So they were also fixed.  I then noticed that two signals on the Branch B1 and B3 were playing up.  It took me a while but I dabbled with the Arduino code and got everything working again.  It has me perplexed, as I thought that I had tested the Branch logic and had everything working properly.  Anyway, it is all good now.

When Saturday dawned, I took the signal panel outside into the pergola for the guys to view later in the arvo, and with all the ambient infrared light from the sun, every IR detector lit up.  That was a real bummer.  So it could not be used.  Anyway at a few minutes before the appointed kick off time of the Operations Session, I turned on track power and I had a short on Power District 4.  That means I had an issue somewhere between Cougal Spiral and the far end of Acacia Ridge Yard.  Acacia Ridge Yard includes the auto reversing section of 4 tracks for trains that terminate there and return south to Grafton Yard.  I was stumped.  I could hear the auto reverser in that section chattering away, but it did not click.  I could not find a loco sitting over a set of points – which is the usual cause of a short.  It took me about 30 minutes, but the steel train that sits on one of the reversing tracks had a wheel of its last wagon sitting directly over the joint that is the boundary of the reversing section.  It bridged the isolated section with the wheel across both sections.  I moved the wagon 1cm and the short was removed.  What a waste of 30 minutes!  I had moved that train only on Monday when I tested each loco.  I guess I did that and then shut the layout down.

Photo by Darren Lee.  This is me trying to work out where the short was.  I was pulling out what hair I have left.

Anyway the Ops Session brought back some memories.  I was going to increase the output voltage from my NCE 5 Amp DCC system after the previous Ops Session, but I never got around to it.  Trains run very slowly in the Grafton Yard district.  It had the lowest track voltage output of any of the power districts.  During the session 8047 and 4848 on the steel train ended up being a total failure.  It turned up that 4848 while originally running, was eventually failed for being dragged around by 8047.  Then 8047 developed a straight short within power district 4, but it took us a minute to work out that this loco was causing the short.  So we removed those two locos and replaced them with a 44 class and that train got going again.  Apart from that we had a few trains separate, but once we got started most things worked.  Loco 44236 had working lights and sound but could not or would not move in Grafton Yard.  So we replaced that loco as its train prepared to get under way, i.e. the operator talking to Control and awaiting line clear to take the staff for the section Grafton Yard to Rappville Loop.  I took 44236 to the programming track, ran it on DC and it sprung into life.  I have no idea what caused it.  So we quickly swapped 44236 back onto the train, as the train was still within Grafton Yard just about to leave.  We had problems with the tracks into Acacia Ridge Yard not consistently providing power to the frogs of the points.  I will clean all the points this week.  Anyway we ran 16 trains with our reduced crew complement.  The main reason for today’s session was to give Darren 2 hours as Dispatcher on the layout, to complete his 10 hour requirement to help finalise his Dispatcher AP.  We ran for 2 and a half hours.  It would have been 3 if not for the initial short.  Also with most of the guys having fun in Bundaberg at their train show, those left back in Brisbane wanted to have fun as well.  So we scheduled this rival session.

The Rail Train traversing Cougal Spiral heading towards Kyogle

Jeff and his son Cooper were a 2 person crew today.  Cooper was talking to North Coast Control for permission and advising where they were.  They are running the Oil Train with only the gas tanker to be placed into the unloading track.

Two first timers in this shot.  Dean and Kevin handled the situation admirably.

Darren Lee took this selfie of himself at North Coast Control.

Darren Lee captures the crew after the session finished.

Today I went down to the shed and bit the bullet and wound the power output from the NCE 5 Amp dcc system to 16V.  Because I provide two levels of current measuring on the layout , the actual voltage at the rail is much less.  The first stage is the complete layout current draw and the second is current draw by Power District.  These two processes reduce the layout power.  I’ am now getting between 14 and 14.5V to the track in each power district.  Now that this change has occurred, I went to the point motor that was controlling the standard gauge point at Dutton Park that directs trains to either South Brisbane Interstate, or Fisherman Islands Yard.  This point was only operating in one direction, so had to be manually reset back the other way by a signal crew after a train goes to Fisherman Islands.  It had been on my ‘To Do’ list for many months to adjust this point.  I was planning on increasing the capacitance on one output of the NCE point motor controller, but never got around to it.  Alternatively I could adjust the alignment of the point motor to the point.  However, after testing today after increasing the layout track voltage, that point now works.  I give up!

While on my Mr Fix-It run today, I re-soldered a wire in the Glenapp to The Risk staff machine power supply as this went out late in the session.  I noticed while shunting some trains in Grafton Yard that a KD spring had caused a Steel Slab Tilt wagon to uncouple from its brother.  I added the KD spring and that was now working.  I looked at 4848 which had stopped running.  I opened it up and the wire had come off the Powerline 48’s motor.  That was quickly fixed and 4848 was working again.  8047 was another issue.  I put it on the track and got a direct short.  I took off the shell.  Nothing obvious.  I put it on my DC test track and it sprang into life.  It then ran on DCC again.  I put it back on the layout and it was running.  I give up Again!  So I moved these back onto the steel train that was sitting on Grafton Yard.  I checked the timetable card box and worked out that two timetable cards were in the wrong timetable sequence order.  I had their sequence numbers wrong.  So I fixed them up in the EXCEL Spreadsheet that is my timetable.  So I am now ready for the next Ops Session.  Maybe I will have the next session on the Sunday of the Sydney RPM weekend for those staying in Brisbane.  Oh to be a disrupter!

Layout Testing on Two Fronts

Early on during the week I cut up some styrene 'I' beam that I use to simulate lengths of rail.  I use this for fence posts made from rail.  I painted a few lengths and also cut up some fence rails from styrene strip.  This is ready for the next working bee on the Div 1 modules.  I also found a sheet of some laser scribed wood planks.  This was stained and is also ready to be taken to the next working bee.

Wednesday this week I again unrolled paper onto the floor in the kitchen/family room and threw down some track to continue the planning of the future exhibition layout.  I am trying to confirm the size of each layout module and the exact location of various items (particularly track) within the module.  This layout is then transcribed onto some small paper templates for each module.  These templates are 10 times smaller than the real modules.  It is pretty easy when you have a floor with 30cm tiles, as it is very easy to draw where everything is located on these small diagrams with a 3cm square grid drawn on them representing the 30cm x 30cm floor tile. 

Bit by bit some modules are shortened in length and width and the module edges are initially adjusted to allow for the position for a set of points that does not get positioned over a module join.  After next week I might have a completed 'version 1' of the complete front of the layout before I implement selective compression.  The layout is too long at the moment.  I am also using Google Maps to help with the location of road over rail bridges, level crossings and creeks, as well as some buildings.

On my way to the Club on Saturday I stopped off and bought some styrene as I had basically run out of 0.060" 'I' beam.  While at the Club on Saturday I took some measurements of the Club trailers that the Club layouts get carted around in.  I will use these to help design my future trailer for carting my future exhibition layout around in.  I think once I finalise the layout size, i will build a 1:10 scale copy of it in styrene and also look at how they will fit into a scale 1:10 trailer.  If only I had the funds allocated and approved to start building it.  I might win the lotto soon.

I spent a couple of hours down the shed after lunch today preparing for the Operations Session on my layout next weekend.  Next weekend is also the date of the Bundaberg Model Railway Exhibition.  A lot of people are heading up there, but quite a few are not.  So I thought I would give those not attending Bundy something to do back in Bris Vegas.  I’m still awaiting a few RSVPs to the session, but we have about 5 days before the Ops Session is run yet, so it is not really an issue.  I went through all the timetable cards and then gave each loco a simple test.  I found two locos that are not working for some reason.  They have been replaced in the timetable and I will spend some time next week pulling them apart and investigating them.  It has me perplexed what causes them to have issues.  I am also going through my loco fleet and updating a Loco card for each powered vehicle on the layout with a decoder in it with what each function does for that loco.  These cards will be located in a card holder on the fascia next to the timetable cards.  These cards will be in numerical order.  Layout operators can pick up a timetable card, and then find a loco card for their loco so they know what functions are available on that loco.  That is the plan.

Planning the New Layout, and Scenic Work on the FreeMo Modules

On Monday I visited a local Hobby Shop and it helped me plan for what track I will need to procure for my future layout.  On Tuesday I got the vacuum out and gave the shed a once over.  I had daddy long legs spiders everywhere, but now they and their cobwebs are now in the garden via the vacuum cleaner.  I had 12 guys come over and when they left the pergola they thanked me for the light show of the moon changing colour throughout the night.  PK was caught putting signs up on the layout.  I'll have to do something about him.  I ran the XPT from Cassino to Grafton and still some swear that it did not run.  A number of attendees where watching it run.  Others purposely ignored it so they could deny the truth.  It is sometimes hard to get good help.  I also had my signal panel out for the group to peruse and when I was demonstrating it, at least one switch did not acknowledge its throwing.  I knew I had a wire off.  This was the switch for signal D2.  So I could not run any shunt movements because of that wire issue, as I could not turn off the Down automatic signalling. 

On Wednesday I open up the signal panel and the wire providing powering to D2, D2Shunt, D1 and SS2 (for shunting out of the narrow gauge siding) had come adrift, so it could not provide feedback to the Arduino and thus these switches could not be set.  So a quick solder and everything was as good as new.  Maybe I should have tested the panel on Tuesday afternoon as I could have quickly soldered that wire back on and had it working 100% for Tuesday night’s show.

Also on Wednesday when the boss was out I took over the kitchen and family room floors and started layout out paper and then track to work on the future layout's track plan.  I am getting there.  Maybe I need a box or two of track to lay down on the floor as I am quite short of lengths of flex track and dual gauge track.

We had a working bee on the NMRA Division 1 FreeMo modules on Saturday and two corner modules received some treatment.  I think they look a lot better than they did before we did the work on them.  We also came up with a plan of attach on these modules to add some more detail at the next such session.  It is amazing how a small amount of effort can bring a module to life.  We built a bridge with supports, added dirts to the painted baseboard, and then added some fencing and then coloured scatters.  A few telegraph poles were also added.    We also blended dirt around some items that were glued down on the module, and were sitting quite proud of the baseboard.  So we added quite a bit of dirt and they now look quite natural in the scene.  We even added some static grass from a static grass machine to one section on a module and that looks good.

Today with all the rain I started working through the list of items that I need to build for the FreeMo modules.  I have built some roadway - stained balsa that will be cut up and glued on a module.  I have put together a small section of fencing, and made a few gates for one property.  But the gates need to be painted yet, as does the fencing.

One of the modules that was being worked on.

Track Plan Develops

On last Sunday evening I realised that I needed to make some logic enhancements for my Dual Gauge operation of my panel switches.  Most of that was done that evening.  The next morning I made the small changes to signal DG4 and it now seems to allow normal operation of the signals as train on the UP Dual Gauge travel past it, instead of that signal just sitting on a red signal aspect and never changing.  I also found and fixed a number of issues with Signal DG4 and its shunt into the sidings aspect.  It now clears after other switches on the panel are reset, the points are changed or a train passes the IR detector for signal DG4.  So I now think that is working well.

I also implemented a small change, that if I select the self-test switch while the panel is in normal operation, it will clear the LCD screen and its memory of what is where in its message queue.  So I don’t have to restart the panel to reset the display when it gets orphaned lines that won’t scroll off the LCD screen  It will be just a quick flick of a switch and everything resets.  So that is working brilliantly.  I am also looking at another special panel based reset process, (basically my own Ctrl-Alt-Del feature) if my Dual Gauge logic gets out of whack somehow.  My Dual Gauge has 4 UP signals, and 4 DOWN signals.  It also tracks if there is an UP train or a DOWN train, or there is nothing on the track.  If I get into a jam, I was thinking that if I set all the Siding Signals to Depart, I would force a reset of all the logic on the Dual Gauge Track.  This is very easy to do, but I may not have to do it, if everything operates as designed.  This will be in my back pocket as a possible solution if things go haywire.

So after a few hours sleeping on it, on Tuesday afternoon I decided to go ahead and implement a special reset of the Dual Gauge signalling as a 'just in case' scenario.  I tested it and all was good.  So as it currently stands the panel is 99% complete and I do not think there are any issues with my currently tested logic.  So that allowed me to move onto my next task, the actual physical track design.

Tuesday night we car pooled down to Sparkles place.  We had about 10 or so people there.  I was able to pick up a roll of paper from Sparkles, which will assist with layout planning of the baseboards.  On Wednesday arvo I tried to do some more layout planning, and it dawned on me that I probably need more then 2.4m, maybe 2.7m or even 3m between my signals on the future layout.  That might mean that the layout could end up being up to 9 to 10m long before I include my returns to the back of the layout.  I think I will need to do a lot more planning with pieces of track thrown on the paper baseboards.

Thursday I got out into the garage and rolled out some paper and a few pieces of track trying to get a better understanding of the layout on the future layout.  I have a feeling that the northern end of the layout will wrap around the side of the display.  That way the first signals will be on the side of the layout and give me a decent distance between the signals.  I think I have made a good effort of the first two modules.  It dawned on me that I still need a huge amount of track to purchase, particularly for the dual gauge.  I have come to the realisation that the standard gauge track will probably be code 83 track.  I will have to purchase everything from scratch.

The second module where the branch comes off on the left.  The first of the sidings on the right.

Shown from the other end

Saturday we went to Paul’s place to continue the teaching of the students in various NMRA disciplines.  The white plastered 30cm x 20cm modules, were painted, had various dirts and sands added with a covering of glue, and then they were covered in some ground foams and scatters.  The track was then added, and then ballast was applied from a plastic honey jar with the twist lid.  This allows the flow of ballast to be regulated.  This was then set in place with diluted aquadhere with a touch of dishwashing detergent from a pipette.  Some attendees then added some split post fencing that we made a few weeks before and then added a telegraph pole or two, again put together at the last session.  QED!  The module was then put aside and after lunch the attendees were then split between the styrene and trees clinics again.   What a great day.  You should have seen some of the little dioramas – they were pretty good.  A great place to take a photo of a model on.

It seems that the most of the attendees on the day were getting a bit over excited about the upcoming NMRA elections for Div 1.

Today I did a bit of a tidy up for this coming Tuesday.  The disturbance in the force is being rectified with the correct Tuesday nights returning into equilibrium with the guys coming to my place.  Next Wednesday I will continue track planning activities for the next module.

Still Struggling with the Signalling Panel

You do not have to be Einstein to guess I have continued my work on the Signalling logic for my future layout’s signal panel over the last week.  I had plans for implementing SPAD detection.  I can do it on a couple of signals, but not on all of them.  So I might back off on that thought for some time.

During the week, I installed a second Arduino UNO to attach 11 Infra-red Detectors to.  These are for the Branchline and the Dual Gauge line signals.  These IR detectors were installed into a piece of cardboard (just like the 10 other IR Detectors for the UP and DOWN Lines and the Siding lead lines) and were wired up back to the new Arduino UNO and the UNO was added to my I2C bus inside the panel. These detectors were all tested and work well.  That allowed me to then move onto the logic for the Branch Line and the Bidirectional Dual Gauge Line.  The Branch line signalling is relatively short – just three signals but it is also Bi-directional.  This means that an UP train will not effect the signal on the DOWN and vice versa, however the IR detectors will still light up to show where the trains are on the layout.

Now I have fixed up the branch line logic, and I have implemented all the Dual Gauge logic.  I have strenuously tested all the shunt movements, and cancelling the shunt movements via resetting the switches, or changing the points underneath the train and everything gives the correct results. 

From my point of view I think there is just one bug remaining, and maybe one item that is causing me some minor inconvenience.  I think the DOWN Dual Gauge logic is working perfectly, but the UP Dual Gauge logic has one signal that clears to yellow too early and my brain is currently fried a bit too much to see the cause.  I will have a good look at it tonight, or if that fails, tomorrow.  When this is fixed, I think the signalling logic will be about 98% done.   I have also installed the logic to determine if we have an UP or a DOWN train on the Dual Gauge.  But now thinking about it, I might have to dive back in and look at the UP and DOWN logic in regards to signals at 'Hold'.  This code to set and release these signals must execute regardless of an Up or DOWN train running.

The logic inconvenience can be fixed later if I don’t like it.  Basically I have some reversed logic in one of my panel switch implementations, e.g. I test certain logic tests in a different order, and thus it does not send a message to the LCD screen until a second switch is also set.  Everything works here though. 

So it is possible that on Wednesday when I have a free house with the boss out, I can roll out my 1:1 scale 8m long track diagrams onto the floor, throw around some points and some flex track and do some more detailed design work on the various layout module lengths and widths and where the modules all overlap etc., as there are modules that end up side by side, as well as end to end. 

On last Saturday (yesterday) we had our first monthly NMRA meeting for the year and I gave a talk on our trip to Rosehill Exhibition last year.  I also took along my signalling panel in the hope that at least one of the two QR Train Controllers in our group, could give me some feedback on my signal panel.  Things like the messages I give on the LCD panel, and other comments about the panel.  But the two slackos did not turn up.  I spoke about the panel at Show and Tell and gave a few demos during various breaks in the day.   I found a couple of issues during this testing.  A wire broke in transit and I found a bug in my Down Main Shunt Logic.  Both of these were fixed last night.  I will be adding a whole lot of signage to the panel over the next few days as well, to make it more understandable or self explanatory to the operator.