Shelf Project Update 4

I've completed the job of relocating the micro layout that had been mounted on shelf brackets above the new shelf project. I mounted it on new shelf brackets on a wall 90 degrees from the new shelf, at the same level as the shelf, so that I was able to add a curve that streamed the new shelf onto the micro.

So I've finished the tracklaying and electrical infrastructure for the Phase I - Phase II project. Here's a short run under power. The tunnel portal, and other scenery items and building flats, are there temporarily. I have my eye on a different tunnel portal with a more West Coast effect.

I'm congenitally unable to do neat wiring. At some point I'll staple this wiring to the bottom of the shelf. You can see the two NCE DS52s that control the Unitrack switches.

However, I'm retaining the SPDT control for the switches on the micro layout. I used low-profile worm-drive switch machines from Lemaco for this layout, and as far as I'm aware, there's no DCC decoder that will control this type of switch machine. Also, I didn't feel like doing the rewiring I'd have to do for this. So the former DC power from a Bachmann train set power pack, visible to the right in the next-to-last photo above, has been disconnected, but the power pack is still there to provide plain AC for the Lemaco switch machines.

With the micro now converted to DCC and streamed onto the main layout, I've revised the operating scheme in JMRI to place the existing Paper Box station in JMRI onto a new Box Secondary route that's reached directly from the main layout. The Box name comes from the name of the original layout plan, "Box Street", designed by Jack Trollope. I kinda like keeping the Paper Box name, reminds me of Brea Chem on the former SP. For now, the shelf name stays Malabar, and the whole project is named the Malabar District.