Engineering Blog
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Today two projects wrapped up. You can read the play-by-play of the projects on our FaceBook page.
The first project was installing LED lighting. Lighting had not previously been installed above Ryde or the Granville Bridge. Following Tom Jacobs' lead, I ordered reels of LED lights from MicroMark. These were unrolled and attached to firring strips and attached to the underside of the upper level benchwork. "Daylight" temperature lights were used and boy did they look great. But they hard a dark side (pun intended)...
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Wow, due to many distractions, I overlooked posting a Q1 2023 update, so I guess this one will have to be a six month update!
A lot has gone extremely well on the PRR Middle Division. Here are some highlights:
- In January I finished the subroadbed of what will eventually be Everett on the Pennsylvania Midland.
- January-February saw a lot of scenery work at Ryde, the east end of Yeagertown, and Milroy. Additionally, the banks of the Juniata River were constructed at the Granville Bridge. The farm scene at Ryde is largely complete and includes interior lighting in the barn and the house.
- January 31st, Bowser announced a new run of N5 and N5C cabin cars. I commissioned a special run of N5C #477866, which was assigned to the Lewistown-Mount Union local. Only 50 cars will be run. As of this writing, there are still a few unreserved.
- In February, I built my first "modern" craftsman kit. Tiny Lou's Grill is from FOScale Models and it has a home serving the steel workers at Yeagertown.
- March-April, the Lewistown Yard control panels were installed and made operational (see Lewistown Yard Control Panels Finally Functional!).
- In May, having previously installed LED lighting over some previously unlit areas, I removed the incandescent fixtures from the area above the yard and replaced them with LED lighting. Because the LED strips are "below" the framing, the need for deeper fascia was realized. I have to replace all of the top level 5" fascia with 6" fascia.
- In June I returned to scenery at Ryde, completing the ballasting and adding ground cover on the aisle side. I am using some static grass for the first time.
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When the PRR Middle Division was struck by lightning 20 months ago, I had just completed the wiring of the Lewistown Yard control panels. After replacing the Digitrax infrastructure and the many Berrett Hill Touch Toggles on the branch lines, I could have replaced the yard controls in a timely manner.
In the existing design, Touch Toggles were located on each "point" on the track schematic. A complex route might require the yard drill team to activate several toggles in order to clear their desired route. While all of this was going on, Berrett Hill announced a new Matrix Controller, which would allow pressing one toggle to activate all switches along a route. This seemed like a "no brainer", but the code wasn't yet finalized for the board. After many months, the code was completed and the controllers went into production. Once they became available, the documentation was incomplete. Without documentation, I was hesitant to invest in the controllers due to the yard having complex ladders and routes, rather than simple ladders.
Read more: Lewistown Yard Control Panels Finally Functional!
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Still no operations. Still no Lewistown Yard control panels. But that's about all that didn't go well this quarter. The Middle Division is going gangbusters these days!
On the matrix controllers from Barrett Hill for the Lewistown Yard, I plan on cornering the vendor at the Railroad hobby Show in Springfield and again a week later at Timonium. This is holding up restoration of yard operations and is a hurdle for operating sessions. I have a holiday on January 16th and, on that day, plan to cut the panels themselves.
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The dispatching system on the PRR Middle Division has long been a Windows laptop with two HD (1920x1080) additional displays. Using extended desktop in Windows, I could stretch the JMRI/CATS dispatching panel across the two displays. Although no pixels are "missing" when doing this, the nagging two inch space of the display frames has always been undesirable.
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It's been a great quarter for the PRR Middle Division in HO scale. For starters, we have a new URL: https://prrmiddledivision.com. You can continue to use https://pennsyrr.com, but that will take you to the index page whereas the new URL goes straight to the model railroad page.
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In preparation for operations, I continue to test, test, test the mainlines and the trains thereon. I'm also converting all of my advanced consist addresses to best match the train symbol itself. Seems more logical than picking a random two digit number. For passenger trains, it is simply the train number. For freights, drop the prefix (e.g. "VL-9" becomes "9"). Believe it or not, there was only one conflict!
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Eastbound train #28, the Broadway Limited, powered by a pair of EMD E8's (class EP22), meets the westbound train M-9, powered by a brace of EMD GP-9's (class EFS17M), an intradivisional with a block for Lewistown, along Roundhouse Road on the west side of Lewistown.
It's been a very productive quarter on the Middle Division...
The greatest task at hand, which was largely underestimated, has been the installation of resistors on wheel sets to allow for detection. It's a multi-step process -- 1) removing two axles per car; 2) attaching the resistor with CA and allowing to dry; 3) painting both sides of the resistor with "wire paint" and allowing to dry overnight; 4) overcoating the wire paint with clear nail polish to harden and protect the connection; 5) reinstalling the wheelsets; and 6) testing each car.
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As 2021 comes to a close, there certainly was a lot of turmoil on the PRR Middle Division... a lightning strike, a hurricane's flood, a water heater replacement, and coronovirus (last week).
Despite the setbacks, the Middle Division is going to be better for it moving forward. Following the lightning strike, most electronics were refreshed to more current versions and wiring busses were cleaned up a bit. The only remaining task from that event are reconstruction of the local control panels, which was going to be done anyway. I am changing from glass panels to more traditional panels with Barrett Hill's cup toggles. I was having connectivity issues with the contacts behind the glass.
