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With my SB5 fully installed and operational, I'm getting back to other layout tasks as well as operation. With the SB5 and a new 14AWG DCC power bus that mostly supplants the old 22AWG analog DC block wiring, I'm discovering that main line speeds are faster. In fact, locos whose speed matching had been effective with the old block wiring are no longer compatible with an SB5 and 14AWG wiring, so I'll need to redo some consists.

Also, I've taken the opportunity to extend switch machine control with stationary DCC decoders. Here is the newest install, covering the switch at CP Crucero

The giant screw behind the Explorer is a sign that the fascia is still removed for the work. Here's the Digitrax DS52 newly mounted below the scene above:

You can also see the new 14AWG power bus going into the terminal strip. One reason I keep working to replace my old toggle control for the Tortoise machines is that the toggles are cheap Radio Shack parts, and of course Radio Shack is no longer around -- I'm a little nostalgic for a time when I could stop by and pick up things like terminal strips or toggles on my lunch hour.

Here is the scene at Cantil spur, whose Radio Shack toggle had disintegrated, and the switch had been out of service for quite some time. Now I can use the spur again. You can see the carcass of the old toggle in the foreground:

Finally, here's the block panel whose lower diagram formerly controlled CP Crucero. You can see the hole where the switch toggle has been removed;

Some of the block toggles will be retained, but otherwise at some point, the only use of these panels will be to show the addresses of the switches.

Quick Project Update

My big project for the past week was installing my NCE SB5, which arrived Tuesday. I'm actually surprised at how long I was able to go with the Power Cab before I needed to upgrade. Here's a shot of the SB5 at bottom with the former Power Cab now connected with he coiled cord and functioning as a Pro Cab. The former terminal plate for the Power Cab is pulled out, so that I could disconnect the former layout connection and the cab bus, which passed to the SB5.

I still need to add a connection from the old Power Cab terminal to my programming track, and the Power Cab will still be used as such for programming. Cords, wire, hardware, and so forth still need to be tidied up and put in final locations.

I also did some more work with the temporary stage I'm using with the T-trak layout. I added a pair of BLMA electrical cabinets I had on hand to the baggage elevator, which is "close enough" to the prototype.

After King Mill went out of business, I looked for a substitute for background building flats and discovered Angie's Trackside Flats on eBay. These are pretty similar to King Mill in overall design, with lots of brick rust-belt type buildings. Unlike King Mill, these come cut out and attached to a 1/8" foam core backing, which limits the creative uses you can put them to somewhat, but they're still the best thing since King Mill. They're available in N, HO, and O.

Using The NCE Illuminator With T-trak

The more I work with DCC and T-trak, the more I think that if I were in my teens or early 20s now and intended to continue with the model railroad hobby as an adult, I'd very seriously consider T-trak. The modules are compact and easy to move, so that if you move out of the family home and into your own place, you aren't forced to demolish the old layout (or leave it up just for holiday visits). As you move around early in a career and start a family, you're also in a position to move it either to a new home or a different place in the home to make room for new members of the family -- or even put it all into storage until you can bring it out again.

One thing I like about how well it works with DCC is that all the wiring for switch machines, track power, and layout lighting goes through a single power bus, and with T-trak, this means it all goes through the Unitrack connectors that link each module both mechanically and electrically. On a small layout, no separate wiring is needed between modules. On a large temporary show layout, there are supplementary heavy-gauge buses that connect every few modules.

I haven't seen anything on how to install lighting in a T-trak module with NCE Illuminators. This may be because of the way I've been doing T-trak, using the hollow space beneath the modules to install electrical equipment. Not everyone does this, and not everyone understands how powerful a feature this is in the T-trak architecture -- for instance, the Model Railroader Video Plus T-Trak project simply filled the modules with styrofoam. They assumed a module would just have simple tracks on it that did nothing but carry track power.

The NCE Illuminator is a DCC lighting decoder that is compatible with the Woodland Scenics Just Plug system, and in fact, as I've posted here, it's even a little more cost-effective than the Woodland Scenics version. This post will give an example of how I use it with T-trak. Here is an example of an N scale house that I built maybe 35 years ago from a kit -- maybe it was Model Power.

When I assembled it, I did what I almost always do, spray the interior walls black to prevent light bleedthrough if I ever want to light it. You can also see that I determined exactly where I would locate it and measured the interior so that I could glue pieces of stripwood (these were actually from fireplace matches) onto the base that would allow a press fit in place. I also drilled a 3/8" hole to feed the Just Plug plug through.

The NCE Illuminator is installed beneath the T-trak module. I also glue pages from the product documentation on the bottom of the module so I have them there for reference whenever I need to work on the module's electronics.

The illuminator is on the left. A Digitrax DS52 stationary decoder for the Kato switch machines is on the right. Every one of my modules has a terminal strip as shown that makes it easy to add other features like these. I added a Woodland Scenics Just Plug warm white stick-on LED to the inside of the house:

I connected the module to the main T-trak module with the DCC power connection via a jumper that lets me power individual modules without connecting them physically via Unitrack joiners. This jumper uses the terminal strips on the bottom of every module.

With the power connected, the LED on the Illuminator lights up:

I then set the house in place on top of the module and fed the plug wiring through the hole, inserting the plug into the Illuminator socket:

The LED on the Illuminator goes out when the plug is inserted, while the LED in the house goes on. Here's the final result:

This is probably a little bright. The Illuminator allows brightness to be adjusted via a CV, which I will probably do. The Illuminator has a total of three ports, so I can add another two LEDs to this module very easily.

T-trak Scenery Work

Here's a track-level shot of a P42 at the Empire tunnel portal:

I received the Scenic Express "Pennsy" double track portals for the Virginia Avenue end of this tunnel. I had to hack away at one of them pretty severely to get Superliners and Chicago style bi-levels through:

Once I get it painted and weathered with scenery brought around it, this should be less visible.

Then I turned to landforms at the other end of the layout. I followed the inspiration of YouTuber Roy Smith and used white foam shaped with Dragon Skin abrasive material and then covered with spackle:

Then I gave it a base coat of earth-colored craft paint. I find this for a little over a buck a bottle at Michaels. (The paper rectangle in the photo is to size a structure kit I'm planning to add there.)

However, I wanted to provide a dirt type scenic base on which I will eventually add trees and other shrubbery. In the past, I've used sifted dirt for this, but I'm out of sifted dirt. I thought I'd try another experiment. I remembered a friend who told me that the way to make European style coffee in the US is to get ordinary US coffee and put it through a coffee grinder a second time. So I decided I'd see what happened if I ran coffee grounds through a coffee grinder -- could I get something like scale dirt?

I gave it a try. Actually, it didn't make the coffee grounds much finer. (I'm not sure how my friend's idea would work for getting European coffee this way, either.) But it was a slight improvement:

I brushed white glue over the landforms and then sprinkled the coffee grounds on top. Then I followed up with Woodland Scenics extra-fine turf in Burnt Grass and Blended colors. Then I misted water from a garden sprayer over everything to get the white glue to soak in without disturbing the grass or coffee grounds:

The scenery smells like coffee when it's first wet, but once it dries out, the smell goes away. Or so I think. Maybe I just get used to it! Below is a train in the new scenery:

I need to finish installing decoders and other hardware below the surfaces of these modules before I add trees. I'll be using NCE Illuminators, DCC versions of the Just Plug light hub, on nearly all of my modules, so I need to finish this work so I don't have to turn the modules over after I've added delicate features like trees to the tops. Other hardware, like terminal strips and stationary decoders for switches, is already installed.

More T-trak Progress

A project I've been procrastinating has been the tunnel on one of my end cap modules. As I've said, my idea for this layout is to focus mostly (but not exclusively) on contemporary passenger operations. I think the most interesting ones are still in the northeastern US and the Chicago area, and luckily, this is what the N manufacturers have mostly supported.

The main scene that's inspired me on one end cap module is the tunnel entry at 45th St on the Amtrak Empire Connection in Manhattan. Here's a photo I found on Google:

I started working on this scene in late 2016, but I've worked on it by fits and starts. I gradually built up a base area with scraps of white foam and then added Woodland Scenics pre-colored rocks, that I think worked out well for the scene. I found the building at a swap meet.

I gradually filled in more areas with Sculptamold that I tinted with craft paint:

Naturally, the prototype scene is on straight track, but this being a compact N scale layout, I had to put things on a curve. The good thing, though, is that the cut and tunnel will help conceal the sharpness of the curve.

But I kept wondering what I was going to do with the portal. The style seems to be unique to the Empire Connection, and there's nothing like it commercially available. And the concrete parts seem simple enough, but there's that odd corrugated barrier or whatever it is above the entry, and it's hard to figure out exactly where the street level is in relation to the tunnel.

Eventually I decided that the height of the portal above the track is due to the fact that it's meant to have a sound mitigating effect for the neighborhood, and the walls protrude some distance above the street.

I tried a new technique I've begun to use on this layout, mocking up building projects with paper. Here's a closeup of the tunnel without any portal:

Now with a paper template measured to fit in place:

This made it very easy to cut a version from styrene:

I had some corrugated styrene sheet on hand that was out of scale for pretty much anything, but it was more or less close for the peculiar corrugated structure above the concrete wall in the prototype photo. I made up a version of this, painted it silver, and cemented it to the painted styrene concrete portal:

The next question is what to do with the other portal on this tunnel. Here is the opening:

I'm drawn to the tunnels in my old stomping grounds, Washington, DC. I'm focusing on the old Virginia Avenue tunnel, which led the freight bypass around Union Station under Southeast Washington. It has recently been completely rebuilt and double tracked by CSX, but I'm going to follow the old version of the portal:

I think I found a good commercial product, the "Pennsy" Double Stone Portal from Scenic Express.

This should arrive in a few days. Then I can finalize the scenery around both portals and start dirting in and vegetation.

Finished The Springfield, MA Baggage Elevator

In my last post, I showed a paper mockup of an N model of the baggage elevator at the Springfield, MA Union Station that shows up in many YouTube videos. I don't think it's used as an elevator any more, but it seems to have some function for running electrical conduits up to the platform level of the station.

I eyeballed the dimensions to suit a passenger platform I'd added to a temporary stage that I'm using for my T-trak layout in progress. If nothing else, it's a good place to put out-of-service locos, but I could also use it to stage short passenger trains, which do in fact run out of Springfield.

Here's the finished version that I made from styrene, after tweaking a few dimensions based on comparing the paper mockup to the prototype:

Showcase Miniatures makes some N scale electrical cabinets that I'll probably add. I also need to add some roofing. I couldn't find an Amtrak sign that matches the prototype, but I did scrounge one from the Kato North American station kit. If I can find something closer to the prototype, I'll use it.

This project has been so much fun that I have some more ideas on how to scenic this little area, so stay tuned!

T-Trak Update

With my main layout on hold while I wait for my SB5 to arrive, I turned back to the N scale T-Trak project. One item I had in work was my Kato North American station. The big problem I left it with was how to adjust the brightness on the LEDs coming from the NCE illuminator decoder, which is a DCC version of the Just Plug lighting hub.

I got an answer from NCE support that cleared things up: not only do you have to address the decoder with SELECT ACCY on the Power Cab and program the CV, but you also have to press the program button on the Illuminator itself. Problem solved, but the documentation doesn't cover this. Below you can see the lighting at a much more reasonable level:

Wheels of Time makes decals for the mandated yellow anti-skid strip at the platform edges. You can install it two ways. Amtrak uses both the wide anti-skid and a yellow line behind it, while METRA uses the anti-skid strip only. Since this is a METRA station, I applied only the anti-skid strip.

I still have to get a set to do the opposite platform. I made the opposite platform from a Kato platform extension set for the North American station. I had to cut it about in half lengthwise to fit on the edge of the T-trak module. This left me with some more platform material, and the wheels started turning in my head.

You will recall that I cobbled together a temporary short staging module to fit against some track I'd laid on a corner module to accommodate some sort of future extension, which might or might not ever happen.

I recognized that I'd intended this T-trak layout to focus mainly on contemporary passenger operation. So the first thing I did was add a platform to the stage made from the scrap material from the Kato station module.You can see it to the left of the P42:

But then I kept thinking there might be something else I can add to this that would say "passenger" even more clearly. Then it dawned on me -- the baggage elevators at the Springfield, MA Union Station! I was in and out of there many times in my younger days.

So I quickly cobbled together a mockup out of paper as a proof-of-concept to see if I could get rough dimensions and proportions right. I'm kinda pleased with how it came out:

I need to make the roof peak a little lower and maybe lower the base a foot or two, but otherwise, it looks pretty close. Next step is a permanent and detailed version out of styrene!

I call this a T-trak modular layout, by the way, and it does use commercial T-trak module kits and Kato Unitrack, which means it would be physically compatible with other T-trak modules. However, I am building this to suit myself using BWBW wiring intended for all DCC operation, and I do not plan ever to use it in a general T-trak meet.

How Do You Know It's Time To Upgrade From An NCE PowerCab?

In 2012, I decided to convert to DCC. I studied the options and settled on an NCE PowerCab. I've been completely satisfied with it, but it was marketed as an entry-level system that allowed upward migration. I got it on that basis. Over a 7-year period, I've gradually climbed the DCC learning curve with it. However, I knew all along that I was going to have to bite the bullet and upgrade at some point -- the question was when.

One thing I did a couple of years ago was rewire the oldest part of my layout, eliminate the DC block cab wiring and panels, and convert to stationary decoders for the switches. As part of that project, I added 14 AWG DCC power buses to about half the layout. In the past several months, I became concerned about power loss on long wire runs in the newer part of the layout and began swapping out the old 22 AWG DC hookup wire with 14 AWG DCC power buses there, too.

At the same time, I began to have problems with what I thought were intermittent shorts. The PowerCab would keep shutting down. I'd try to figure out where the short was coming from, tear my hair out and not find it, and give up for the day. Then I'd come down the next morning and discover the "short" was gone, things were back to normal. Well, OK. Then after a while running, the PowerCab would start shutting down again for no reason. After a day or two of frustration, I began to do research on the web.

One thing I found was that the new KeepAlive, Power Xtender, and so forth capacitors actually take a lot of amps. I'd become a believer in these, and many of my newer locos got them in addition to decoders. Sound locos take a lot of amps. And I was adding stationary decoders and NCE Illuminators. These don't take much power individually, but this stuff all adds up.

Then I read that PowerCabs only have overload protection, not circuit breakers per see. If you get a short and the PowerCab shuts down, it's doing it because of an overload no matter what, not a short. So it began to dawn on me that the PowerCab was shutting down because I'd finally overloaded its capacity by gradually adding amps to the layout's current draw. The new 14 AWG buses didn't help, I'm sure.

What would happen is I'd get frustrated, go upstairs, and come down the next day to find things working. That was because everything cooled down overnight, which decreased resistance, so the layout drew less current, and it was just below the threshold for the PowerCab's overload protection. But then things would warm up and overload the PowerCab again.

Anyhow, I think that's what's happening. So I will order the next step up, an NCE SB5. It'll take a week or two to get it ordered and installed. Meanwhile, I can use the PowerCab on my N T-trak layout without overloading things. When the SB5 is installed, I can use the PowerCab either to run the T-trak layout or as a cab on the SB5-powered main layout, or with a separate programming track.

At least, I think that's what the problem is.