N Scale Hi Rail - Retro Hollow Core Door Layout

[wm3798]

More fiddling in the fiddle yard.




Now I just have to remember how to wire electro frogs.
Lee

[wm3798]

Cut an actual plywood base for the upper yard, and started in with the roadbed.


And found some stuff to start making it look like something.


Lee

[wm3798]

Now I've gone and done it...


Today I paid more for a piece of track than I paid for most of my locomotives.

The good news is that the yard wiring can now come into focus...
Lee

[peteski]

Looks like a Unitrak crossover, but the brown ties, their spacing and layout, and the plastic frogs don't look like Unitrak. Is it some other Japanese track with integrated roadbed?  Or maybe European?  The Unitrak joiners seem to work with it.

[wm3798]

It's Unitrak, from the concrete tie line. 
Compatible in every way but visually.
Lee

[wazzou]

It's Unitrak, from the concrete tie line. 
Compatible in every way but visually.
Lee

The tie spacing looks a hell of a lot better.

[peteski]

The tie spacing looks a hell of a lot better.

No kidding!  It looks out of place surrounded with all the "hi-rail" Code 80 track and its tie spacing.

[wm3798]

You're right... I better replace that good looking track with something chunkier!

Meanwhile:


Thanks to a handy table saw, a Nail gun, and a few hours before Rho gets back from North Carolina, another double has emerged  to bring the lower yard to its full and final configuration.   Although I think I need another crossover at the far end to create a runaround for arriving eastbound traffic.

Time to build a control panel!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Looks like a Unitrak crossover, but the brown ties, their spacing and layout, and the plastic frogs don't look like Unitrak. Is it some other Japanese track with integrated roadbed?  Or maybe European?  The Unitrak joiners seem to work with it.

100% Unitrack.
https://katousa.com/n-unitrack-concrete/

[Ed Kapuscinski]

The tie spacing looks a hell of a lot better.

It's why one of the secrets of better looking TTRAK modules is using that stuff and painting it.

[wm3798]

Built my first DKS 9v battery throttle, and wired in the requisite DPDT switches.


I was able to run the first train out of the lower yard, around the main a few laps, and back into the yard, almost flawlessly...  the far turnout needs to be wired, and there's a minor alignment issue that needs to be worked out, but otherwise, it was very pleasing.
Lee

[peteski]

Nice!
Is that 9V throttle powered by a standard 9V battery?  Those batteries do not have much capacity. You'll likely be replacing them fairly often.

[wm3798]

This will only be used to assemble trains in the yard.
If I grow weary of changing the battery, I have a 9v DC wall wart that I can hard wire to it.  I've already ordered a 4 pin handset cord to make that connection.
It may happen sooner rather than later.  A few of my old locos are real Amp hogs, and even a fresh battery struggles to budge the old 3-pole motor.
Lee

[peteski]

This will only be used to assemble trains in the yard.
If I grow weary of changing the battery, I have a 9v DC wall wart that I can hard wire to it.  I've already ordered a 4 pin handset cord to make that connection.
It may happen sooner rather than later.  A few of my old locos are real Amp hogs, and even a fresh battery struggles to budge the old 3-pole motor.
Lee

Using a bank of 6 AA batteries would give you much more amperage and capacity, but that will wont fit in the handheld unit, but with external power being considered a wall-wart will be a more permanent solution..

[learmoia]

I wish Kato would release the Concrete line of track with black ties to 'match' the single track line.. (At least the super elevated curves)

I picked up a set to try out my steady hand with a black paint pen..