Well Folks, it's been a while since I put ASCII characters into cyberspace, but I have been a bit slow on the modelling lately.
I have been trying to nut out the electrics, as some of you know.
so progress so far:
I purchased a few tortoise switch machines
And some WabbitFBs
My take on the Wabbits with the feedback capability is that it does'nt matter whether the turnout is thrown by a toggle switch or your cab control/handpiece the system will allways be able to tell you which way they are thrown.
And I assumed this was not possible with the basic wabbitt or Hare.
My problem has been ( and still is) that I think I may need another bit of hardware to hook it all up to the power station.
So I have wired up a few tortoise switch machines to the turnouts, and then wired them to the wabbits to give cab control as well as toggle switch control of the turnouts.
A few problems arose 'cause a turnout happened to be directly above a bit of the benchtop structure, but nothing a big hammer an oxy welder a cresent and a bit of wire twitching could'nt fix.
The other problem was that my benchtop with the foam base was to thick and the length of wire (which is supplied with the tortoise) used to throw the turnout was not long enough.
So a bit of piano wire was purchased which I could cut to length. it was also a bit thicker than the original.
Next problem: I did'nt have a drill bit long enough or small enough to drill the pilot for the tortoise' wire thru the foam and baseboard:
because all my track has been laid, I needed to drill from the top thru the hole in the turnout bar to get the exact location of where the hole needs to be .
Solution: I used the piano wire as the drill bit. It was obviously small enough to fit thru the the hole in the throw bar of the turnout. Worked a treat, went thru the MDF baseboard quite easily. At last a Score to Jack.
I bought all the wiring out from under the bench and put it on a board / boards screwed to the side, to make working on the wiring so much easier. Hopefully it will be covered by a curtain oneday.
And by putting a few cuts in the rail at strategic places and a bit of wire back to the wabbit, you can ensure that if a train is going to enter a turnout which is turned against it, the turnout will automaticaly switch to the correct alignment to stop a derailment, or short circut.
And I seem to have been able to wire two turnouts (which create a crossover) together so that they will always be in alignment ie: they both switch together.
Now I will have to put all these accessory decoders onto their own power supply. 'cause I guess if you have a short you wont be able to switch the turnouts. At the moment everything is running of the track bus wires.
News Flash
The War Office has just returned from work and has said that the Principal of the local school would like to bring 20 kids to view the Pistonbroke line for a school assignment on perspective.
Must scurry off and tidy up the Layout and pack away some junk before the pack arrive .
PS : Sorry Steamy, I am remiss. I did enjoy the mine build. It was my first go at something like that, being a newcomer and all, but yes it was interesting, and not too big to overpower the layout.
Jack
