Seaboard Central 2.0

[davefoxx]

Thanks for responding, Mike.  I have a Digitrax DB150, which is five amps.  But, there will only be two locomotives at maximum out on the staging section.  What does an N scale Atlas or Kato motor pull in amps?

DFF

[C855B]

Very little. Last I measured... an Atlas something-or-other... under strain it was around 0.3 amps. Level with the number of cars you can put on your setup I would be surprised if it drew 0.1. IIRC the rule-of-thumb max draw in N is 0.5 amps.

But again, plan for shorts. If your booster is capable of 5 amps, then you'll need wire that will not become a fuse before the booster's short detection kicks-in.

[davefoxx]

Very little. Last I measured... an Atlas something-or-other... under strain it was around 0.3 amps. Level with the number of cars you can put on your setup I would be surprised if it drew 0.1. IIRC the rule-of-thumb max draw in N is 0.5 amps.

But again, plan for shorts. If your booster is capable of 5 amps, then you'll need wire that will not become a fuse before the booster's short detection kicks-in.

Maybe I should do the quarter test (quickly!) and see what happens. 

DFF

[Ed Kapuscinski]

You know what those B-boats need? Virtual Sound Decoders!!!

[davefoxx]

You know what those B-boats need? Virtual Sound Decoders!!!

@Ed Kapuscinski,

With the reduction of the layout to a single HCD, I'm listening.  (Heh, see what I did there?)

DFF

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Yeah. In fact, it'd be perfect. Drag your laptop into the basement, bring some speakers, and crank the volume!

There's even a GE 7FDL in the sample VSD file.

[basementcalling]

Yeah. In fact, it'd be perfect. Drag your laptop into the basement, bring some speakers, and crank the volume!

There's even a GE 7FDL in the sample VSD file.

That's one way to strip the paint off the walls.

[VonRyan]

Okay, electrical wizards, here's a question for you.

ISSUE: Whether telephone wire is heavy enough to run DCC power through safely, i.e., not overheat and cause a fire.  Keep in mind, the telephone wire is only six or seven inches long, and I'm not even certain if any of this is a concern.  The locomotives seem to respond fine as the wiring currently exists.

QUESTION: I used only two wires in the six-wire telephone cable for each rail on the swing-out staging section (however, my telephone plug only uses four of the six wires).  What if I were to also use the additional two wires and essentially "double" the wires to power each rail?  It would be easy to tie the two pairs of wires together for each rail, especially on the shelf's end with the terminal block.  Or would this cause problems with the DCC signal?

Thanks,
DFF

You'll be fine. I've seen layouts where two of those wires were the only power feeds to the entire layout, and they were about 20" long. Ain't burned up yet.

[davefoxx]

The staging section passed the quarter test tonight, but I might still make another piece of phone cord up to double up on the wires serving each rail since I've already got the parts to do so.

I've also messed around with JMRI's Virtual Sound Decoder, which was hilarious.  My four-year-old daughter may have enjoyed it more than me.  I showed her how to press the different buttons to sound the effects.  She loved the horn and giggled overtime she set it off.  Unfortunately, the JMRI program is buggy on my laptop, and it shut down later in the evening.  By the end of the night, I finally got the program to run again, but I couldn't get the throttle on JMRI to work. 

Anyhow, I pleasantly discovered that the Tropicana Juice Train fits on the staging section :



Now you see it, now you don't:



DFF

[jmarley76]

Very Nice! 

[davefoxx]

Thanks, Jeff.   It worked out by sheer luck (I probably should have measured my unit trains).  But, it wouldn't have mattered since the shelf is limited by the height of the table.  Any longer and it would not be able to swing down and under the layout.  Luckily, my intermodal train and my Juice Train fit completely on the staging section; of course, they have to be split in two.  I haven't tried, but I'm fairly certain that my Auto Train won't fit, unless I leave the car carriers off.  Those car carriers are Con-Cor models that I don't really like anyway, so . . . . no real loss.  My Amtrak train of Amtubes should easily fit on one track.  And, of course, when I use the staging section for ordinary freight cars, I can fit up to eighteen cars or so, which actually provides a bit of flexibility to ops on the layout.

DFF

[davefoxx]

I'm off from work today, so I screwing around with JMRI.  So far, it's given me no fits.  Right now, I'm putting together my roster of locomotives.



Not too shabby!  As you can see, Atlas has just hooked me up with a fleet of Seaboard System locomotives, which is fantastic, considering the railroad only existed for three years!  Now, this isn't 100% of my locomotives, but it's most of the relevant ones for my era.  Actually, looking at my roster, it seems that I forgot to add my SAL 2-10-2 steam locomotive.  Now, that might be fun to play with in Virtual Sound Decoder.  Back to JMRI!

DFF

[C855B]

This, for an HCD?

I guess they see you coming at the train shows. You're about as bad as I am.

[davefoxx]

This, for an HCD?

I guess they see you coming at the train shows. You're about as bad as I am.

Haha!  Yeah, I know.  Don't think that didn't occur to me as I tore down the expansion.  Honestly, the fleet was too large even for that layout, and most of these purchases occurred recently after I felt obligated to buy the Seaboard System GP38-2s, B36-7s, and SD35s (eight locomotives!) that Atlas just released within the past four or five months!  If you recall, Cory emailed me back in October 2014:

Next run of GP38-2s, choose one.

Seaboard Coast Line?
Seaboard System?
Family Lines?

I picked Seaboard System, and that's what Atlas produced.  I have to support Atlas with that kind of service.  Thankfully, the wallet beating is over, and with the minimization of the layout back to a HCD, hopefully, significant spending will be curtailed for quite sometime.  The good news is that the IM SD40-2s are still vaporware. 

DFF

[davefoxx]

Brainstorm (or at least the moment when I said, "Duh!," to myself)!  I built the telephone cord jumper yesterday and had two phone wires to each feeder for the two rails.  Today, it occurred to me that I had forgotten to power the frog of the turnout on the staging section.  So, out came the second jumper and I built a third one.

Now, the cable uses three of the four wires (actually three of six, but my telephone plug in the fascia is only a four-wire piece), which is one for each rail and the frog.  I was lucky enough to have a Hex Frog Juicer nearby that had one slot open after the removal of the expanded layout.  Now, the wiring looks like this, and the tracks and the single frog on the swing-out staging section are powered:



On the four-position terminal block, the top position is unused, the second one down is for one rail, the third one down is for the other rail, and the bottom position is for the frog.  No more short wire jumpers between the terminal block positions, either!

DFF