The LK&O Railroad

[Lemosteam]

Um.. WOW!!!  Awesome video editing as well.  Would that tortise control circuit work with a soft touch SMD momentary button or a sensory (heat) button, like under a calculator button or old cell phone?

[TLOC]

There were 3 people who made by decision to use Railpro easy. You, K-pack and Bill Brillinger. Unfortunately I moved to DCC to be able to use ISE’s  Proto Throttles that Ring wanted nothing to do with. Glad to have you back here on the Railwire. I encourage Railwireto look into Allans blog that he Highliner above. Lots of good info like Mike is sharing on how to do things slowly but right, IMO.

TomO

[MK]

Wow!     I like your analness. 

[nickelplate759]

Prototyped a method of controlling Tortoise motors with a momentary contact push button switch.

Very Cool, and Clever!    I would appreciate  a writeup with a little more detail than the video shows.  Also, what's the cost for the Digikey relay?

[LKOrailroad]

Track laying began. This is an area where, for better or worse, I believe the LK&O build to be unique.

The cookie cutter plywood "track modules" described back on page 5 of this thread were made to be easily removed and reinstalled. Aligned tracks and sliding joiners at each end attach one track module to another much like true modular. This build approach was not meant to create any sort of sectional, modular, domino, TOMA, or whatever name individual rearrangement pieces but rather as a means of allowing me to utilize stout, "trussy", secured in place, dimensionally rigid benchwork and at the same time allowing me to build at the workbench in a comfortable position rather than over and under the layout itself. The self-contained modules have all the necessary mechanical and electrical components directly mounted to them, not to the benchwork, so modules are fully functional on their own. Connection to the aforementioned power buses, module-to-module connections, and a harness to their respective fascia panel(s) are the only electrical connections. The connections are all either plugs or terminal blocks. A handful of screws secure the module to the benchwork.



The first trial of the first module captured on video:

I built modules all way round the upper deck. That took about a year.

[LKOrailroad]

Um.. WOW!!!  Awesome video editing as well.  Would that tortise control circuit work with a soft touch SMD momentary button or a sensory (heat) button, like under a calculator button or old cell phone?

Sure, why not.

Very Cool, and Clever!    I would appreciate  a writeup with a little more detail than the video shows.  Also, what's the cost for the Digikey relay?

Enough detail to make your eyes bleed:
http://www.lkorailroad.com/tortoise-printed-circuit-boards/
http://www.lkorailroad.com/tortoise-control/

Relay is $1.79 in qnty 50.

[LKOrailroad]

After all of the upper deck modules were built and back in place on the benchwork, I just couldn't resist the urge to run a train from end to end on the completed modules. I taped up all the dangling fascia control panel wires so they wouldn't short out and then put a train on the rails.

The video is kinda boring. Wasn't to me when I was making it. Excited to be this far along on the layout. At least the soundtrack makes it watchable if you have nice speakers.

[Hawghead]

I liked the video.

Nice layout, looking forward to seeing more.

Scott

[LKOrailroad]

Last post to finish off the Railwire catch-up saga brings us to the layout as it exists today.

Cut and installed the fascia. Built control panels and mounted them.











BTW the fascia color appears jet black in the photos but in person it is actually very dark gray (almost black).

For anyone interested there are 11 consecutive blog posts that chronicle the control panel builds. They start here: http://www.lkorailroad.com/control-panels-part-i/

[LKOrailroad]

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

Hope you enjoyed the greatly abbreviated recap. I don't think it is fair to the Railwire host(s) for me to post all the blog content here in sequence. Last I checked there was 2-1/2 Gb worth of text and images spanning 10 years of posting. Doubt they want that gobbling up server space. So abbreviated will have to do.

Going forward my posting of progress will slow to real time.

Again, thanks for allowing me back. The adventure continues...

[C855B]

DAAAAAaaamn. You build beautiful control panels, man! Ho-lee cow!    I'm jealous.

[GaryHinshaw]

First class in every respect.  Thanks for reviving this thread!

[LKOrailroad]

I read in the Administration section that attaboys are not freely handed out on this forum.

So, I must say a heartfelt thank you for the compliments.

[Cajonpassfan]

DAAAAAaaamn. You build beautiful control panels, man! Ho-lee cow!    I'm jealous.

Yes, just beautiful, cool graphics and a great combination of colors and materials!
And for us electrically impaired, what is the *thing* on the back of the panels, see below?
Nicely done!
Otto K.

[C855B]

... what is the *thing* on the back of the panels, ...? ...

Diode matrix for downstream turnout control is my edu-guess.