Hi Everybody,
I have procrastinated long enough, so this week end I got back to the railroad. The first thing that needed to be done was build a table or bench for keeping all the building supplies off the benchwork.
I built this opposite Barre. This is the future location of Hopedale yard. What you can't see is the strips of wood for the spline. It's tucked up against the wall. Two shopping bags of ties. As I was building it I could see how much room was under it, so all the storage tubs will be going under here. They won't need to be moved again until construction on Hopedale begins.
Yesterday, I began working on the layout lighting. For the Barre leg there will be 12 lights spaced 2 ft apart. I started making the mounting block for the lamp base to attach to. The blocks will be screwed to the ceiling. The lamps will be hung upside down. On one edge of the block will be an 8-32 steel insert for attaching the valance with.
Today, I was determined to get the switch motor installed. And I did.
The switch motor is a geared display motor that I learned about years ago. No I won't say how many. In the fore ground of the top photo is the power supply I built from an article in Model Railroader. It's a square wave 12 volt power supply and very easy to build. I drew up a new wiring plan for it. It will be on the construction page if you want to build one.
The bottom photo is looking up at the underside of the roadbed. The toggle switch was from the On2 layout. It's a double pull-double throw toggle. One side is the power for the motor and the other side is power for the frog. As I'm not powering the frogs here I will use a single pull-double throw. The resister is to cut down the voltage to the motor.
And from the topside there is no sign of it. Look at the opposite side of the head bar. Where the pin for connecting the bar to the point has been replaced with the throw wire from below. And as this will be the hardest switch to be installed it was also a pain installing the motor. At least the rest of the switches will be up front were it will be easier to work on.
I'll be working on finishing the lamp blocks this week. A few holes still need to be drilled in the blocks before they are screwed to the ceiling.
See ya next time.
