Push Buttons for Delta Wye and Vail Jct.

Without going into detail about how difficult it is to stoop down underneath a model train layout and connect up wires between push buttons and circuit boards, let's just say that significant improvements have now been made to make it easier for operators to control the three powered turnouts at Delta Wye and the very difficult-to-reach powered turnout on the narrow gauge line at what I fondly call "Vail Jct.", named of course after the legendary HOn3 modeler Jim Vail.

The reason I procrastinated on this job for so long (do I need a reason?) is that the wye needs to be operable from either side of the peninsula, meaning double push buttons and their associated wiring. Here is an overview of the wye area from each aisle, followed by a detailed view of the push buttons themselves.

This wye has been in operation for at least 20 years, with powered switch machines which I controlled with the "macros" on the NCE DCC throttles, and the single pair of push buttons to the very right of the lowest photo and a corresponding pair on the left of the photo above it. I was very proud of how well this worked, and as you can see I mounted a complex diagram on the fascia explaining which macro controlled which route. My operators, however, had a different experience. They would be trying to run a train through the area, and would not be the slightest bit interested in learning how to use the macros on the NCE throttles. In some cases it may have been their first experience even using an NCE throttle, let alone selecting a macro on it. So, prodded by a recent quip from operator Jim Betz, I spent about 6 hours setting all the needed pushbuttons up. So, having done that, I hereby apologize to all the operators here for the last 25 operating sessions for not having installed these in the first place! Argh!

It probably goes without saying that, once again, I have cut corners here significantly by not setting the push buttons in from the outside edge of the fascia. This means that operators will accidentally bump up against some of the pushbuttons at the wrong time and cause random derailments. Rather than spending the time to do it right in the first place, I seem to have chosen to wait and see how much of a problem it causes before investing any more time in it. Also, I probably should draw the track plan of the wye to connect the pairs of push buttons to make them easier to understand. Chalk pencils to the rescue, at a minimum!

The other thing that goes without saying is that the whole complex would benefit significantly from some red and green LED lights to indicate which way each switch is currently thrown. I hear you. That would be another 6 hours or more, not to mention the study and design time. I started looking at LCC and have all the equipment needed to advance this wye area to a much higher level of user-friendliness, but then put it all away in a box until other things with a higher "priority" get finished. One day I'll get back to that and you will be the first to read about it here. In the meantime, it's great to get these pushbuttons in, and many thanks to Jim Betz for spurring me on!

Adding a second deck - Part 3

With the completion of a working reversing loop, the famed (and arguably dubious) suspended second deck on the narrow gauge branch is officially in service. Here's how it looks today:

It looks a lot more finished than it really is. After painting the surface of the 1" Gatorboard base with brown latex paint and sprinkling it with Woodland Scenics turf blends, we grabbed four chunks of previously used extruded foam scenery, trimmed the corners to fit the turnback curve, touched up the exposed edges with more paint and turf, added some smaller trees for a "forced perspective" effect, and dropped the scenery pieces on top of the flat shelf. Magic! Here's a photo of the foam scenery pieces during paint touch-up, before putting them back on the layout:

In the distant background is one of the footstools that are pretty necessary to see and operate on the upper deck, which is too bad, but on the other hand it's great to have a place to run narrow gauge trains to, and have them be able to turn around and come back from. We decided to name the town "Opportunity" - partly because that's a real town near a famous smelter in Montana vaguely on the way between Washington State and Colorado, and partly because it fits in with the feeling of the other narrow gauge towns on this fictitious line - Paradise and Hope. 

"Track is scenery" means that I also took the time, after forming the flextrack pieces to the right curvature and length, to remove them to the spray booth and coat them with flat weathered-wood shade spray paint. Here's a picture of the peices drying on a bright yellow dropcloth afterwards, and the spray booth afterwards, before the final tracklaying:

Not shown are the ten switches, which I also spray painted in the booth before tracklaying. To lay the track on the Gatorboard, I drilled out small holes in some of the ties, the size of MicroEngineering medium spikes, and pushed the spikes through the ties into the top surface of the Gatorboard. I plan to go back and glue down the track more permanently with liquid latex after we've operated enough trains up there, and designed enough scenery and buildings, that we can commit to the track layout.

Speaking of operations, I also (somehow) found room on the front fascia of the deck below to install ten more car card boxes and labeled them appropriately. The town of Opportunity is officially open for business!