Well, its been a few weeks now since the last update and the May Ops Session. Due to going on Holidays for a week, the amount of tasks I set myself and the readiness of the AT&SF Boise City Sub layout, I decided to push back my next Ops Session until mid August.

I had set myself a few objectives to be done before the next Ops Session.

The first of these was to have working signals between Oak Ridge and La Follette. These are a pair of intermediate signals to protect against head on accidents as trains round the end of the peninsula through the tunnel. Happily this task is done and the first 2 of my Signals have been built and installed.

Also built and installed are all the remaining track detection ccts. The Main Line and passing tracks are all detected, The main line is detected all the way down to the Staging yards. I have used 2 variations of the Coil detectors in that I have some using Remote Coils and others with distributed track feeds from a group of detectors.

Since I have Detection working it was time to start making freight cars detectable. With 300 Fox Valley wheel sets, a pack 10K surface mount resistors, Super Glue Gel and some wire glue on the work bench, it was time to start production.

Once you get started you can knock out 15 axle lots in under an hour. But it is still going to take a while to get them made up and fitted to over 300 freight cars. FVM wheels are really nice, but need the black finish removed for the wire glue to work. Also the treads need to have the black taken off to help them work.

There are still plenty of tasks still to be done but these will be placed on hold for now.

Over the next few weeks I will be working on preparation for the next Ops Session. Sorting out the freight cars, waybills, repositioning trains and sorting through a few things that came out of the first session.

 

To say that May has been busy on the Knoxville Division would be an understatement. The first 2 weeks was consumed by getting as much as possible done in preparation for the Ops Session. Since then I have reflected on the night and there are plenty of things to be done before the next session in July.

I had a few projects on the go for the Ops Session such as the Staging yard control panels. These use the 751D cct boards from Ken Stapleton in Canada. A really nice cct to control the Atlas code 80 turnouts in staging and provide feedback on the panel as to the way they are set. The first of the 2 Arrival/Departure staging panels is now completed.

 

 

 

I also decided that the Layout Signals needed to start getting made. So, after searching the room for all the parts I decided to build a single head Searchlight signal. This wen fairly well and i was very pleased with the result. So much so that I built a 2 head signal the next night. That was after making a jig to cut the brass tube for the signal masts and hoods. I also made a jig to help assemble the masts.

Now that I had started building signals I needed to get back into JMRI and start adding everything there that is needed. But first I had to test the Signal LED’s I plan to use on my Digitrax SE8C. I used 2 Digitrax Signal masts to understand how to operate the 3 signals that sit around a turnout. Once that was done I built a Signal test unit with the Common Cathode red/Pure Green 2mm

LED’s I purchased from http://www.led-switch.com/ 10K resistors to feed the green and 1K on the Red, mounted 4 LED’s and the resistors on vero board, added the ribbon cable and after a few wiring issues I had a Test Signal.

So what is planned from now until mid July? Hopefully a few working signals on the layout. With Detection working from Oak Ridge to La Follette I will probably add some signals there first. Some updates to the train packs we use for the Car Cards, some refinement to the Train Schedule and work on the Corbin Staging Yard Control Panel. But I’m sure there will be other things as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Just a short video from the Ops Session.  Enjoy.

http://youtu.be/b8lG0XrmZjo

Enjoy.

 

After making a commitment about 2 months back. last night the L&NRR Knoxville Division held its first full operating session. The invitation went out to my group of 11 fellow N-Scalers and the crew arrived ready to go. After checking out the layout and the usual chit-chat it was 8:00pm and time to allocate the crew to the jobs. Brendan Volunteered to run Knoxville Yard. He may have been informed that he was running the yard. Either way he does the yard job exceptionally well. Ron took on the La Follette Local, Big John started with the Oak Ridge Local, Noel and Charlie headed off to Butler Paper in Morley and took charge of the mill switcher. John C ran the first through freight, a northbound produce train. The timetable quickly got behind which was not totally unexpected, but this was more due to the Local’s not being ready to go.

By the time we stopped for supper we were running well behind the clock, which had been slowed from 4:1 to 3:1 to help the road crews. Even though we were behind time we had run 2 local’s and about 8 through trains. After the break we finished of running the schedule and by about 10:30 – 10:45 when we called and end to the night we had run 2 locals, a transfer job and 12 trains over the layout.

A very pleasing result given that this was the first session with a full crew. Thanks to the Crew. Rod, John F, John C, Barry, Brendan, Charlie and Noel . A special thanks to Ron for helping over the past 2 weeks in testing the layout and the timetable which I’m sure contributed to how well the night went. Thanks All.

 

In the lead up to the night I have built 2 control panels for the north and south staging which I hope to complete before the next session. These will replace the Atlas slide switch controls. The new panels utilize the 751D turnout controls by Ken Stapleton. Nice cct that works really well on the Atlas code 80 turnouts in the staging level.