Week 113

Week 113

Sunday, September 25, 2016 - Saturday, October 1, 2016

Sunday, September 25, 2016

The overhead lights from China came in this week.

I installed them at Geneva Station.

This week I plan to get the lights working.

Hopefully by Wednesday these will be lit.

Monday, September 26, 2016

Present: Curt Berg & Rob Fair

 Rob Fair, relaying the track due to multiple derailments at this corner.

 The master's hands at work.

 Working on realigning the switch.

 Cutting and reshaping the curve.

 Reconnecting the feeder wire.

Closeup of the feeder wire connection.

On Wednesday I'll take a video of the test train going over this section of track...

More to come...

Wednesday, September 28, 2016
TRAIN DAY!

Present (in order of appearance): Curt Berg, Carlos Baez, Jordan Osborn, Josh Jones
Absent: Ed Nelson, Dean Hatzis

As promised, here's the test train running over the tracks Rob Fair fixed on Monday.

Duration: 0.15s

Carlos Baez taking a close look from one direction.

Duration: 0.21s
Carlos taking another close look from the other direction.

And for the rest of the evening, here's what we did...

Dr. Carlos working on switch contact points.
He had to file them down so the train wouldn't jump the track.

Now for the test run.
Carlos Baez checking the train for QC.

 Jordan Osborn engineering the test train.

 Josh Jones removing a flip switch under the layout.

 Carlos flip flopping the trucks on a commuter coach car as a troublshooting option.

Josh Jones helping me with the Geneva Station Light installation.
More under the table transactions.

We finally figured out the light parameters for the street lights I bought from China.

The voltage rating should be 3V. I tried 16V and burned two of them out. Bummer!
Also, since the lights are LED they need to be polar sensitive.

The orange wires are positive.
The blue wires are negative.

If you hook it up any other way, they won't work.

Hopefully by the time the next blog comes out, you'll see Geneva Station in Lights!

Friday, September 30, 2016
Yes, I was able to wire up the lights.
Check out these videos...

Duration: 0.27s

Duration: 0.37s

And these pictures

 Here's a look at the Geneva Station Lights.

Here's the original switch I installed. The final installation will be planned for Sunday.

Saturday, October 1, 2016
I had to install a switch for the Geneva Station lights on the Central Control Tower Panel.
As I thought about it, I noticed the signage at the Central Control Tower needed to be updated.

So I did.
Here are the new signs...

South Power District
Intermodal Global 1

West Power District
Union Station

North Power District
Proviso Yard

East Power District
Industrial Park

 Our new and improved Central Control Tower

For the final finishing touches on the Geneva Station lighting see Week 114 entry for
Sunday, October 2, 2016.

Week 112

Week 112

Sunday, September 18, 2016 - Saturday, September 24, 2016

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

TRAIN DAY!

Present (in order of appearance): Curt Berg, Jordan Osborn, Dean Hatzis 

Absent: Ed Nelson, Carlos Baez

What happened?

Jordan Osborn and Dean Hatzis cutting the tarp paper for the roads.

 Jordan Osborn pointing out his messed up blade.

 Dean cutting the road out.

 Jordan holding down the base.

 More cutting...

 Now to lay it out.

 Check it out.

Oh yeah.

 We also did some track trouble shooting.

This bend is the culprit.
I'm going to ask Rob Fair to repair this on Monday.

See you then!

Finally, what I did on
Saturday, September 24, 2016

 Taking pictures with my passengers.

 Getting ready for departure.
Covering some basic ground rules.

Ready to GO!

Departure Video
Duration: 0.36

Arrival Video
Duration: 0.35

Then I came home and painted Global 1 with Concrete Top Coat:

Week 111

Week 111

Sunday, September 11, 2016 - Saturday, September 17, 2016

Monday, September 12, 2016

Who was there?

Present: Rob Fair, Jordan Osborn, Curt Berg

Jordan Osborn at the controls.

When we did it...

6-7:30pm

What we did...

Rob Fair took out the mainline switch by #1 Crossover.

Why we did it...

Making it possible to build a bridge over Fox River before arriving at Geneva Station

How we did it...

Rob Fair working on the new replacement track.

Rob Fair preparing to re-solder the track to the feeder wire.

 Removing the spur line.

The finished product.

Another view.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

TRAIN DAY!

Present: Ed Nelson, Dean Hatzis, Jordan Osborn, Curt Berg
Absent: Carlos Baez, Josh Jones

What we did...

Dean Hatzis & Ed Nelson working on the sub-base for the Western Avenue topography.

 Jordan Osborn classifying train cars at the control tower.

Dean & Ed making progress.

 Almost finished classifying all 8 cars.
See the blue box car under the transformer on the ledge?

So, what's are my workbench tonight?

 Working on one of the Metra Commuter Coach cars.

The finished template in place, but not glued.
We'll use this for tracing the tarp paper for asphalt and the chip board for sidewalks and curbs.