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Power Districts and Staining Timber


Yan

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This week has been spent on two main areas:

 

  1. Pondering the wiring of the layout got me thinking about Power Districts.
  2. Staining sleepers prior to track laying.

 

Firstly on the subject of Power Districts I’ve decided to have seven. You may wonder why I’ve gone for seven on such a small layout but let me explain my thinking… I’ve only had the privilege of operating a couple of DCC layouts but one of the main issues I experienced was electrical shorts. On one layout the short brought everything to a standstill, on the other it shut big sections down that in essence stopped much of the layout functioning. My thinking is that there will be a number of locos drawing current simultaneously, not all moving but with some a sound element running e.g. quietly simmering away. With more locos on the layout there might be a greater chance of a short. The aim of the seven Districts is that in the event of a short the offending District can be quickly isolated either automatically or manually so that it will not affect other areas where locos might be live. This should keep the effect of the short on the overall operation of the layout down to a minimum. With the seven Power Districts there will be a good chance that locos will still be able to move on/off the shed or around the shed while the short is being rectified.

 

Note on sound: the intention is to try and create a subtle soundscape. A soundscape that will convey the experience of viewing the engine shed from afar on a hot August day. If it ever gets to an exhibition the hope is you will have to be within a few feet to hear any sound emitting from the layout (not from the other side of the exhibition hall). Possible easier said than done me thinks…

 

Well that’s the plan…

 

305363644_PowerDistricts.jpg.fc9e85b8098607431c85c59e5921222c.jpg

 

Staining sleepers has progressed reasonably well with a good 1000 stained but I’m not getting all the results I’m after. I’ve been using a number of colour references in books by Peter Gray and Hugh Ballantyne published by Ian Allen. Colour reproduction and type of film used aside, the pictures in these books do show a generally darker shade than I would have expected.

 

20210316_003219.jpg.468aa8885660a06de636115bb6188dcf.jpg

 

Above is a sample selection from three different batches of stain that I’ve concocted. I’ll be using these mainly for the Engine Shed area and possibly the main line but I’m after a different colouring for the sidings at the front. I decided to visit our local Preservation Railway Line to gather photographic references (see below).

 

20210319_114505.jpg.879d6975774ca6aa78156ea45122a11c.jpg

 

These are the colours I would like to achieve for the three sidings at the front of the layout: sleepers that have probably seen better days but were deemed good enough for use in lightly used sections of track and storage sidings. I’ll be trying to portray sleepers that have faded in colour to something like the above photo. I might even try to create a few splits in some of my sleepers with moss/weeds poking through.

 

To try to achieve something like the above I’ve ordered a few samples of stain that is used to distress furniture or wooden planking for internal walls. These stains have the exotic titles of: Mushroom, Storm Cloud, Gunstock, Tudor, and Gunpowder. Hopefully these will arrive during the week and more sleeper staining trials can continue.

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Hi there Yan, Could you explain how you are going to wire your Power Districts?, I am intrigued by this concept, mainly by the thought that to operate trains, you have to connect each district to a single DCC Controller via a power bus, or run wires from each district back to a single controller, again creating a simple power bus, which effectively negates the separational integrity of each district, since they must all lead back to that single controller. Unless you run only one locomotive at a time, it will be impossible to work out which loco is causing what problems and where.

 

Dave.

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Wiring diagram to follow in the next Blog which should show my thoughts better. I'm new to DCC so I may have got the theory completely wrong so the diagram should help me to confirm one way or another.

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I think it all starts with choosing a suitable technology (DCC system) which supports the functions you require.  The approach to the wiring of the track, accessories etc will naturally fall out of their documentation and preferred practice guidelines.  Having said that the principle of a power district is that each district is electrically isolated from it neighbours and (effectively) has just two wires feeding each district.

This is something I've been playing with myself using a system initially based on the DCC++ Arduino hardware and firmware, but has since gone fully bespoke using both hardware and software I've been developing.  All good fun :)

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I'm starting off with an NCE Power Cab, which I believe I can add further controllers (ProCab and/or Throttles) and command stations as required later. My plan is to have each Power District electrically isolated from each other with its own circuit breaker of some kind. I'm currently reading about MERG's boosters that have circuit breakers built in, no doubt there are others available.

 

It seems I have a lot to learn...

Edited by Yan
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With local circuit breakers, it is important that the power district ones act faster than the one in the command station/booster.

Otherwise a dead short still trips the master cut-out before the local one has had time to act causing the whole layout to shut down.  If they are all from the same vendor, this shouldn't occur as it ought to have been a design consideration, but if you are using equipment from different families you might need to check.

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The big thing I get from your sleeper picture is the colour where the chair was. Having not been exposed to light, wind and rain etc. this is going to be  nearer the colour the sleeper was when new. The real issue then is not the original colour but how old the sleeper is.

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12 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

With local circuit breakers, it is important that the power district ones act faster than the one in the command station/booster.

Otherwise a dead short still trips the master cut-out before the local one has had time to act causing the whole layout to shut down.  If they are all from the same vendor, this shouldn't occur as it ought to have been a design consideration, but if you are using equipment from different families you might need to check.

I'll take that on board, thanks.

 

12 hours ago, KH1 said:

The big thing I get from your sleeper picture is the colour where the chair was. Having not been exposed to light, wind and rain etc. this is going to be  nearer the colour the sleeper was when new. The real issue then is not the original colour but how old the sleeper is.

That will be thought about when I stain old sleepers that are laying track side. For the moment I'm staining timbers for use in building plain track.

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