The tunnel liner project turned out to be quite the project as the commentary with the pictures below will attest.

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While the final results are good it took awhile to get there. What I learned was that you need to take the time to let the plaster dry thoroughly. From start to finish it took 2 weeks to complete the tunnel liner. If I would have waited a week for the plaster to fry instead of a couple of days I probably would have been ahead of the game.

Another project to do with Tunnel No.1 is the timber portal and retaining wall for the east portal of Tunnel No. 1.

The portal and retaining wall were built using S scale kits produced by Hunterline (www.hunterline.com). I used the S scale ones as they were more in like size wise with On30 than the O scale ones which were two big. I had enough left over to build a smaller retaining wall that will be located along the approach to Tunnel No. 1.

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A little painting touch-up and the sign looks great.

To finish the building I decided to add some exterior lighting.

In order to make the exterior light I order some .018″ tubing, 18″ and 24″ lampshades from Ngineering (www.Ngineering.com). For the lights I used warm white (0805) SMD LED’s. I started by soldering 38g magnetic wires to the LED’s. I then flared the end of the .018″ rubing using a push pin. I did this to hold the lampshade in place once I assembled it. To bend the tubing I inserted a piece of .012 brass rod in the tubing and uses a 1/4″ drill as a guide. One bent I pulled out the brass rod and threaded the wire through the tubing. This turned out to be the hardest part of the project, once done the LED’s were tested to make sure they worked. Because I’m using a 12V DC regulated power supply to provide power to the lights and the LED’s run on 3V I had to make a power supply for the LED’s. This was done by using a breadboard and 470 ohm resisters were used. Basically a 470 ohm resister was soldered in parallel with each LED.

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The kit called for a corrugated metal roof but I thought a shingled roof would be more appropriate. In shingling the roof I cut individual shingles from ceder veneer available from sierra scale models (www.SierraScaleModels.com). while a time consuming process the end result is well worth it.

To finish the roof I wanted a weathered look that portrayed a roof in good condition but not needing repair. To do this i started my making a grey stain by mixing black and whitewash stains made by Saman (available here at RONA hardware stores) It dried a little too light but two coats of A/I (Alcohol/India ink) fixed that. In order to give it a silver grey look I drybrushed the roof with Wicker White (Folk Art).

There will be a grave yard beside the church so I needed some tombstones. My buddy Chris Lyon brought me back some made by Paw of the Bear that was made just for the Fine Scale Model Railroader EXPO that was held in October. The instructions suggested that they be “stained with Prismacolor Premier Double Ended Art Markers. I had some grey ones so I decided to thy it and was more than pleased with the results.

Next up will be planting the building.

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by Ron Newby

Note: This article originally appeared in the October 2004 edition of “The Interchange” the newsletter of the Ottawa Valley Associated Railroaders and updated on November 16, 2010

(Disclaimer: This article is based on my own experiences and what has worked for me. This is by no means the only way of wiring a layout for DCC.)

In last month’s INTERCHANGE I explained how I chose my DCC system. This time around I’ll explain how I went about wiring my layout for DCC.

If you believe some experts out there, all you have to do is connect two wires from your command station to the rail and you’re good to go. While this is technically true, unless you only have a simple loop of minimum radius and nothing else that’s all you would need to do. But if this is all you’ve got, I don’t think a DCC system would be the way to go.

My first attempt to wire a layout for DCC was on a module I built that is incorporated into my layout. This module is a small industrial area with lots of switching. What better place to start. It is small (4′ x 1′) and I figured it could be wired in under an hour. So out came the trusty tools and time to get started before the mood left me. I started by installing two 12-gauge bus wires, one white and one black, from one end of the module to another. When I laid the track I didn’t install any gaps as gaps are not required with DCC (or so I thought), I then ran feeders from both rails at each section of track before and after turnouts. I even colour-coded the feeders, red for the north rail and black for the south rail. After all the feeders were installed I flipped the module on its side and wired all the red feeders to the white bus wire and all the black feeders to the black bus wire. An hour and half later it was time to flip the module right side up and connect the command station up.

After hooking up the command station to the modules and dreams of finally being able to run multiple engines without having to worry about throwing a gazillion toggle and rotary switches, I turned the power on. The command station did its thing and was ready to go. Put a locomotive on the track, select the locomotive’s address on the throttle and crank up the throttle. Nothing, the engine didn’t do a thing, maybe it’s time to refer to the manual (when all else fails, read the manual).

While reading through the getting started portion of the manual, I find out that one has to turn on the power to the track. OK not time to panic yet, follow the directions and voila, 4 beeps and the system shuts down. That’s not good, time to get the manual again and see what the beeps mean. OK I’ve got a short, no problem, maybe it’s the engine. Removed it from the track and tried again, same result, 4 beeps. OK maybe now is the time to start panicking. Time to flip the module back on its side and check out the wiring, maybe I had a moment of colour blindness and connected a wire to the wrong bus. The wiring under the module checked out, so I checked to make sure that I used the right coloured feeder to each rail, no problem there either. Discretion being the better part of valour, I decided to sleep on it and come back to it with a fresh state of mind later.

A couple of evenings later it was time to tackle the problem once more. First thing I did was gap the rails after the turnouts like you would a conventional DC system. Checked the bus wires with an ohm meter and still the short was there. Next I started cutting the feeder wires one by one till the short disappeared. Wouldn’t you know it; I had cut 80% of the feeder wires before I found the short. I knew I should have started at the other end. Further investigating and testing found out that a turnout, a brand new one right out of its package, was defective and was causing the short. After changing the turnout (after testing it first) and reconnecting the feeder wires it was time to try again. This time I was holding my breath and praying that it was going to work. Turned on the command station and let it do its thing, turned on the track power and no beeps. Now I was starting to get excited, put a locomotive on the track, select its address on the throttle and cranked up the throttle. The engine moved, success, ran that locomotive for the next half hour, grinning like a kid in a candy store the whole time.

I wish that the above was just a bad dream (or maybe a nightmare) but that was my actual first encounter with wiring my layout for DCC. So, what did I learn from all this? Wiring a layout for DCC is not as simple as I thought, but it isn’t all that hard either. Now that I have wired the rest of my layout (the part that is built at least) I use the following standards.

Use 12-gauge stranded wire for the bus wires. I used white for the north rail and black for the south rail (it’s what I had on hand). The reason for using stranded wire is twofold. It is easier to run than solid wire and it has less resistance. The heavier the wire the better, I would suggest that 14-gauge be the minimum bus size. As DCC uses a constant voltage the loss of resistance is its worst enemy.

Run 22-gauge solid feeder wires from both rails colour coded to simplify wiring. Again use red wire for the north rail and black wire for the south rail (solid wire is easier to solder to the rails). That way when you’re under the layout there is no confusion as to what wire is attached to which bus wire. Feeder wires should be a maximum of 12″ long. If longer feeders are needed, convert to 12-gauge wire. Run at least one set of feeder wires for every length of flextrack. Nickel silver track has even higher resistance than wire.

Gap both tracks, and block the layout like you would for a conventional DC layout. That way, if you plan to add signaling or track detection circuits at a later date, most of the work is already done. It also makes it easier to find shorts by dividing the layout into bite size pieces.

Gap the frogs of the turnouts. This is to prevent shorts from the wheels of the locomotives when they go through the frogs. Also test the turnout before you install it. This is easy to do before installation and is one of the hardest problems to detect if the turnout is faulty once installed.

I recommend that you build a simple tester that will instantly give you an audible alarm when a short is present. It’s cheap and effective, the only components required are Piezo buzzer, a 9-volt battery and a battery holder. I built mine from parts that I had on hand, but if you need to buy all the components, the cost is around $10. A note of caution, disconnect your DCC system from the bus wiring before connecting and using this tester.

Divide your layout into power blocks or sub-districts. This way if there is a short only the power block where the short occurs will be shut down instead of the whole layout.

1. Be sure to locate all possible reversing sections whether they are reversing loops, wyes or turntables. Automatic reversers are required for these sections. These sections also need to be double gapped and isolated from the rest of the layout just like they need to be in a DC system.
2. Mount all components in a centralized location. This will aid in trouble-shooting problems as you will not have to run around the layout checking out the different components. The only component I mount near where they are required are the automatic reversing units as they are fed by the track power and are not tied into the DCC system by any other means.
3. If you use a block on your layout as the programming track (I use a separate track that is located at my workbench) install a DPDT switch so that that track can be used as part of the layout.

By using the above suggestions I have not had any further nightmares in wiring my layout for DCC and the one problem I did encounter (due to momentary colour blindness) was detected right away by the tester. Since I’ve been running my layout with DCC I’ve not had any major problems with the layout and the problems that have cropped up have been easily solved. Although some experts claim that wiring a DCC layout doesn’t require complex or miles of wiring,I have found that wiring your layout the same way you would a conventional DC layout with blocks will give you very reliable operation and detecting and eliminating shorts becomes a very simple task. The biggest difference in wiring a layout for DC or DCC is that for DCC, the blocks are wired to the main bus instead of toggle or rotary switches thus eliminating all the complex wiring.

If you would like to read more about this subject I would suggest the following books:

Note: This article originally appeared in the September 2004 edition of “The Interchange” the newsletter of the Ottawa Valley Associated Railroaders and updated on November 16, 2010

What prompted me to switch from conventional DC to DCC was when I started calculating the cost of wiring my new layout. I had always thought that the cost of a DCC system was expensive and that I could not justify the expense to myself or to the finance department. The cost of toggle switches, rotary switches, power supplies and throttles for a walk around system that I would meet my needs soon indicated otherwise. The cost for the yard at Depot Harbour alone would pay for the major part of a DCC system. So, without further ado, here is my story.

I got my start in DCC a few years ago the hard way. The first DCC system I owned I built myself using an old computer and plans off the Internet. Using this system on my test layout (a circle or track) turned out to be a fun and an interesting endeavour. I also had bragging rights, I built it myself. I finally got the nerve to start building my dream layout, so I designed a trackplan and started construction, but that’s another story.

What the system I had built was capable of, and what my needs were going to be on my new layout differed somewhat. In order to get this system to do what I would like required some serious R&D and my understanding of electronic circuitry leaves a lot to be desired.

I’m real good at following directions, but designing something electronically is another matter. My talents lie elsewhere, give me a screwdriver and a fuse box and I can get zapped with the best of them. It was time to go with plan “B”, choosing a commercial system. With so many choices, which one is the best system out there? I started asking around. Talking to people led me to believe that the best DCC system in the world was the one they were using. Ok, I may be exaggerating a bit there, but you get the picture, confusion city, here I come. At one point I thought about tossing a coin, start eliminating the losers of the coin toss one at a time and go with the last system standing. As you can see the coin toss wasn’t really a smart way to go, so it was on to plan “C”.

The first step in going about choosing which DCC system is right for you is to make a list of what you want to do with your DCC system:

The walls was stained using a brand of water based stain we get here called Saman, the color used is called “whitewash” (#116).  The premise for using whitewash is its a cheat alternative to paint as it is basically lime mixed with water.  Mr Adams is a fugal owner who doesn’t believe in spending money if cheaper alternates are available.  The trim colour is Folk Art “Hunter Green (#406).

Six coats of ink and alcohol was used on the end walls to get the basic stone colour and random blocks were painted with stone gray, raw umber, burnt umber and yellow ocher liquid pigments produced by Woodland Scenics.

I didn’t use the chimney that came with the kit as I found it to be too low and bulky for my taste so I used one that I had in my spare parts bin.  I don’t remember where I got it but it is a resin casting.  Finishing the chimney was achieved by spray painting the casting with red automotive primer and adding Roberts Brick Mortar after letting the primer dry a few days.

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The walls were painted “wicker white (Folk Art #CA901) after the boards were applied to the walls.  This caused some warping that required a lot of clamping to get everything straight.  Next time I’ll paint the boards before I apply them to the wall.   The trim color is Folk Art “french blue” (#639)

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Just after Christmas I started on laying the track for mosquito flats. The trackwork at Mosquito Flats is the most complicated to date as it required 2 turnouts leading into a crossover that also had a curved switch attached. This arrangement was built on a piece of 8″ x 48″ long piece of pine at the workbench. I drew the track geometry and tie layout in Autocad and printed a couple of full size copies. One was used to lay out the PC ties and rail at the workbench and the other copy was glued to the benchwork to give the location of the wooden ties. The trackwork took a couple of evenings to build and another evening to spike in place.

Once the crossover and associated turnouts were built there left only two turnouts to build, a couple of track sections and the two staging tracks.

All was going well until I discovered a short in the crossover. It took a whole evening to find an elusive short that was finally solved when I discovered I missed a gap on a PC tie. The short wasn’t caught at the workbench because the short only appeared during one unique set of circumstances.

At this point I decided that I would control the turnouts remotely using “bullfrogs” made by Fast Tracks. I bought the unassembled ones as they were cheaper ($6.00 unassembled vs $9.00 assembled) and I bought enough to do all the turnouts on the layout. It only took 15 minutes to assemble the first one and once I had the assembly procedure worked out I did the rest of the ones for Mosquito Flats as an assembly line. An hour later they were all assembled.

I had to figure out how to mount them as they are made to be screwed to the underside of the roadbed so the mounting portion is small and would not give an adequate the gluing surface to the foam. I solved this by screwing a piece of 4″ x 2″ x 3/8″ popular to the foot and glued this to the underside of the foam roadbed. This mounting method also allowed me to make any minor adjustments that may have been required.

The bull frogs are controlled using plastic choke cables that I purchased at a local hobby shop that sold pards for radio controlled airplanes. I bored a 2″ hole in the framing so that the pull/push rods would be receased. The handles are wooden knobs I picked up at a craft store.

Rather than figure out the electronics required to power the frogs of the crossover made complicated by the frogs of the turnouts leading into the crossover I purchased a “frog juicer”(made by Tam Valley Depot, sold by Fast Tracks). This device can control up up 6 frogs on a single board and are very easy to install and wire up. All you need to do install DCC feeders to the board and run one wire from the board to each frog.

In other developments I plan to finishup the half built buildings sitting on the layout in the town of Clearwater. First up was “Suzie Q”, only thing left is to add the details which I will add when I do the scenery. To the right of Suzie Q will be the Clearwater Revival Church

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