The LK&O Railroad

[LKOrailroad]

Finished all the cork roadbed. I am ready to begin laying track!

The paper track plan has been laid to rest. Read the eulogy and see the completed cork roadbed results here: http://www.lkorailroad.com/goodbye-to-a-dear-friend/

[Philip H]

Congrats on getting your cork all done!  That is a milestone.  And that eulogy was classic.   

[LKOrailroad]

Detoured from layout building temporarily to get my modeling bench reworked so it is more functional. Need to mass produce switchstands, Tortoise controllers, and various other assorted stuff for track laying so it was time to quit putting off the redoing the workbench. Pieces parts ready for stain!

http://www.lkorailroad.com/workbench-overhaul-part-iv/

[GimpLizard]

The paper track plan has been laid to rest. Read the eulogy and see the completed cork roadbed results here: http://www.lkorailroad.com/goodbye-to-a-dear-friend/

Are we allowed to have this much fun in life? Especially given the sad, and serious, nature of the occasion.

[LKOrailroad]

Modeling bench all done except for the hard part - putting everything in place.

http://www.lkorailroad.com/workbench-overhaul-part-vi/

[Wardie]

I really like that work bench and storage space. I have a couple of those Akro Mills units myself. They work nicely to hold parts, and in N scale, whole projects in the works.

[LKOrailroad]

Is it politically correct to come back to my layout thread on Railwire after 6 years absence?

For all practical purposes I quit posting on train forums years ago simply due to time constraints. However, I did keep my personal blog current. Well, time constraints all went away this month. I retired!!! Woohoo.

Cool if I continue posting here about the LK&O Railroad?

[Chris333]

Post em up!

[Cajonpassfan]

Congrats on your retirement! So...what does that pristine workbench look like now? And the layout?
Welcome back,
Otto K.

[C855B]

Welcome back! Please update. What you had posted here was top-notch, so looking forward to more.

[LKOrailroad]

Thanks for allowing me back.

I'll summarize the progress in a series of short posts here over the next few days to catch everyone up. I'll spare you from all the gory details. Leave that for the blog www.lkorailroad.com if anyone is interested.

[LKOrailroad]

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

Then replicated it 74 times.

[LKOrailroad]

Next came circuit breaker and block detector design and build. I know I probably could have purchased these ready-made but that's no fun.



Etched my own boards in masse and soldered for weeks until I had enough to do the entire planned layout. 17 circuit breakers and 32 occupancy detectors in all.

   

Interesting sidebar... the IC that I eventually settled on for the circuit breaker design is an LTC1153. The very same used in power systems on the International Space Station. How cool is that.
https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/data-sheets/lt1153.pdf

 

[LKOrailroad]

I made one of the toughest decisions of all - which DCC system to use. Answer? None. I went with RailPro.

Six years on and still no regrets. System works great. The MU'ing functionality is awesome. No CVs or speed tables here. Link'em up and go. Although in all fairness, the modules (decoders in DCC parlance) are a bit big. Had a dickens of a time fitting a module under the hood of an Atlas S-2.

[LKOrailroad]

I added power supplies and distribution buses. To the three previously installed power supplies for the LED lighting, I added a 7A unit for the rails and a 30A unit for accessory and control buses.

• Orange/white - track
• Green/white - accessory
• Blue/white - control

Bus bundle follows benchwork with termination every 6ft or so.
Controlled from panel near entryway.