Ed, I definitely plan on using the connectors. I felt like getting some progress made this weekend, but Menard's only carries the larger gauge sizes, and Radio Shack charges something obscene for a handful
Instead of waiting on an order, I decided to temporarily wire up the layout so some trains could start running, and it shouldn't be an issue to replace it down the road. Since it's something of a rat's nest, here's a shot of the nice cover that I mentioned earlier. I'll spare you all from the electrical atrocities hidden inside.
I'm still trying to figure out how some of the half-hearted ventilation holes are out of line and oblong. The spade bit may have walked, or it's the cheap beer, but least it's on the bottom. Personally, I blame the High Life.
As you can see, during this process I had the layout standing on its back side on my workbench. Needless to say it wasn't exactly the most stable, and about halfway through my layout tipped and fell three feet to the floor.
After considering quitting the hobby and picking up something safe and mellow like checkers, a quick inspection showed no apparent damage and the track unscathed. I am thankful for that, and am happy that I overbuilt this project. If there had been any substantial damage I don't think I would have the heart to do it again, at least not for a long while.
Back to wiring, I decided to top it off with this truly state-of-the-art control:
A MRC throttle has been on my 'to buy' list for at least ten years now, and I still intend to replace this chintzy piece of crap, but it works. I may design and build my own at some point, it'd make a fun electronics project. I even designed a schematic for one, but it may have been thrown out.
The hole in the fascia will be covered by a control panel in the future, but for now the layout is wired for one block, but can be separated into three or four. The wire nut is where I can tap in with my ammeter to see what's going on.
My ohmmeter did not show any crossed wires and continuity to all the right places, so it was time to run the first train:
After some rough starts, picked points and trimmed trip wires, I finally got a full lap. I'll need to power the frogs on the turnouts, especially the curved ones, as my engines like to stall on those at low speeds. I've never had this issue before, but I think the frogs are substantially longer on the curved turnouts.
Also, I tried to get some close ups of the track work, but I couldn't get my camera to play nice with the depth of field. I really want to show the difference between the Atlas code 55 and ME code 40, but I'll have to play with my camera some more.
All in all, a busy weekend, but at least it works!
-Lucas
