[gunrunnerjohn]

Those control panels look amazing John.

I especially like the "clean" look of the one on the left!

I’m looking forward to a new GRJ thread with the same title as the one that LateStarter used a few months ago. “Finally! Trains are Running”

Someday...🐦

 

[cole226]

Catching up on the thread.
Looks great John. I'm tickled for you to see a train run.
I even waved back at ya in the vid.

Looks like we'll be seeing one of your beasts making a maiden voyage here pretty quick.
At least we have good layout building weather.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Still chipping away. Got all the bus runs onto the terminal strips, the long outlet strips came in and are mounted. I'm doing a radio control of the four power districts, this allows me to reset the transformers without going inside the lift-bridge. I can use my little remote. I also ran the front freight sidings over to the panel, that's one of the longer wires in the layout, had to go around the hole. Still have to wrap up the wires a little neater coming down, but that's coming when I complete the wiring, more to come.

One more run to deal with, my three track hidden yard. Those three tracks will have relay control to energize the tracks individually to allow me to run just control wires to the actual controls and not have to pipe the power all around the layout. I'm still mulling over where to put the controls.

 

[Millstonemike]

Schematic?

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Wise guy! The good news is, the track wiring is done and all to the panel terminal blocks. I just have to wire the stuff on the panel, and I need to wire a control switch panel for the three track hidden yard tracks.

 

[93firebird]

That all looks nice! Can I come over and play? Lol

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Sure, just have to wait until I have the switches working.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

It has happened! I powered all the loops and have four engines running! MTH DCS and Lionel TMCC/Legacy and a LC+ Camelback all running. I am a happy camper.

I'm also pleased to report that the Perpetual Barking DCS Watchdog Generator works great! With that connected at the TIU, switching on a siding has the MTH DCS locomotives keeping their yap shut until I ask them to wake up!

I do believe it's a train layout now!

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

A wiring party last night, ran all the CAT5 cable from the 24 switch machine locations to the main power/control panel. All the CAT5 will be terminated in the left two punch-down blocks, the right hand one will accommodate the future freight yard switches and anything else that might get added. Then the serial data and the switch status gets wired to the CSM2 LCS boxes at the bottom, and power comes from a Z500 brick that I dropped voltage down to around 13 VAC to keep the DZ-2500C switch machines happy.

I have to connect the other end of these cables to all the CSM2 Breakout Boards at the switches, so more time under the layout. It's getting to be like a second home under there!

I'm really appreciating my wiring chair, the addition of back support when you're wiring under there is really key to being able to spend enough time to get the job done! I have to say, this was one of the better ideas I had to work under the layout. I have a new creeper in the attic storage, never unpacked it after coming up with the chair.

 

[Lehigh74]

Lookin good John, but those aren't trains. Those are just locomotives and a speeder. With that layout you can have a lot of action with four or five trains running at one time.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

I'll be getting out the rolling stock when I finish wiring the switches and get those working. With the DZ-2500C switch machines, if they don't have power, you don't move the points. So, I have them all pointing to I can run the four loops, but I can't get to any sidings.

 

[Lehigh74]

Didn't know that about DZ2500s. Glad I have DZ1000s because sometimes I am closer to the switch than I am to the switchboard.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

I'm always closer to my remote. Also, the DZ-2500 has a button on top to switch it as long as it has power. Once they're wired and working, this is a non-problem.

 

[Madman]

A wiring party last night, ran all the CAT5 cable from the 24 switch machine locations to the main power/control panel. All the CAT5 will be terminated in the left two punch-down blocks, the right hand one will accommodate the future freight yard switches and anything else that might get added. Then the serial data and the switch status gets wired to the CSM2 LCS boxes at the bottom, and power comes from a Z500 brick that I dropped voltage down to around 13 VAC to keep the DZ-2500C switch machines happy.

I have to connect the other end of these cables to all the CSM2 Breakout Boards at the switches, so more time under the layout. It's getting to be like a second home under there!

View attachment 554426

I'm really appreciating my wiring chair, the addition of back support when you're wiring under there is really key to being able to spend enough time to get the job done! I have to say, this was one of the better ideas I had to work under the layout. I have a new creeper in the attic storage, never unpacked it after coming up with the chair.

View attachment 554427

Hm, that looks like a better idea than a creeper. Even with my layout at 36", I can still sit up under it.

 

[Firewood]

Nicely done! You're a better man than I am - I went with 30" sitting-position layout height and above-board wiring. All conventional operation with old-school cab control too - even used rocker switches for the blocks....I may even get an 8-track stereo 😉

 

[Madman]

Nicely done! You're a better man than I am - I went with 30" sitting-position layout height and above-board wiring. All conventional operation with old-school cab control too - even used rocker switches for the blocks....I may even get an 8-track stereo 😉

We need pictures !.....

 

[sjm9911]

Congrats GRJ. Long time coming. You can see the finish line now

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Are you sure that's the finish line? I think it's a crease in my forehead from banging it on the benchwork beams!

 

[Millstonemike]

Are you sure that's the finish line? I think it's a crease in my forehead from banging it on the benchwork beams!

LOL.

Out of curiosity, what type of Cat 5 cables are you using?

Background ... When an office was being renovated next to one of ours, I pick up (read: pilfered) some long cat 5 cables thinking these cables are perfect for powering switches and accessories around the layout. The in-wall cable wires are solid and the ground wires on each cable pair are not insulted. The flexible patch cables wires are stranded and both wires on each pair insulated. I presume you have solid core since you using punch down blocks.

Others would benefit from these color coded 8-conductor cables. You can power a lot of accessories with just a few neat and tidy cables. At HD, 100' of 8-conductor, 24 gauge, solid core, fully insulated cable is just $15.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

I'm using the solid wire CAT5E. I did use the patch cables for the link from the lift-bridge to the fixed portion of the layout, I needed the flexibility for that loop of wire. I'm splicing the patch cables into the solid wire CAT5E cable I am using for the rest of the runs. I'm only using four wires in each cable, so I have four spares in case of accidents.