Crewlisle - From Baseboards to DCC & Overhead Catenary

[Crewlisle]

Crewlisle is due to appear at Warley this year (hopefully) for its last show so I thought I could pass on some tips on how to build a DCC layout that works without spending a fortune on all the new gadgets you can buy for DCC.  I have started doing it all under the 'Track & Layout Design' forum but have since decided it would be more informative under the three main forums, ie 'Track & Layout Design', 'Modelling Questions, Help & Tips' & 'DCC Help & Questions' but under the same title as this post.  The 'Crewlisle' track diagram is at the head of my first post in 'Track Layout & Design' with a smaller one at the end of my first post showing hidden tracks & points in the top left hand corner.

 

1. Pointwork Installation:

The layout was started 47 years ago so the majority of my points are a mixture of old style Peco Insulfrog & Electrofrogs clipped to the underside of the point. After a while it was noticed that the plastic frog on the Insulfrog points & short diamond crossing were wearing down so the old Insulfrogs have been converted to old style live frogs.  The plastic frogs were carefully dug out & replaced with a hand crafted brass one, secured in position with a blob of superglue & carefully filed to the profile of the frog/rails. See below about the short Insulfrog diamond.  See photo of modified point at end of post.

 

2. Pointwork Control:

There are a total of 29 points.  7 of them are mechanically operated from under the baseboard inside the operating well by simple operating arms made from 1.5 mm steel wire.  The remaining 22 are controlled by simple old style Peco small cylindrical solenoids & a handful of the newer PL10 solenoids via a CDU.  None are fitted with polarity switches, frog juicers, accessory decoders, uni-frogs or any other DCC 'gizmos'.  And how are they operated?  By the simple use of that basic method of using Dymo tape as the diagrammatic track plan & Peco bifurcated rivets for each route.  The bifurcated rivets are pushed through the track plan & trap the relevant solenoid wire on the underside by opening them out. I have three of these small panels inside one end of the operating well.  As you look at the diagram, the actual track is in front of you! The one in the photo below is looking at the terminus.

To set a route, all you do is touch the head of the route rivets with the other wire of the solenoid circuit & the points change instantly or use the Peco rivets & probe (PL17 & PL18). Some of the point motors are linked mechanically to PL10 Peco accessory switches to operate colour light feathers or the lights themselves.

 

3. Live Diamond on Down Line From Terminus:

This is the only polarity switch on the whole layout which automatically changes the polarity of the diamond when the point is selected for the line down from the terminus to join the double track main line at right hand side of track plan. Also, the point motor automatically activates a colour light signal to double orange on the down line from the terminus.

It controls the polarity switching for this diamond & is converted from an Insulfrog Diamond. Quite a bit of work was required. Live frog short diamond crossings were not available at the time. The modification was made about 25 years ago when the layout was simple DC analogue control & after many years of use the frogs were being damaged with heavy Wrenn type locos. Remove the diamond, turn it over & remove all the embedded wires to make all the rails isolated from each other. Then remove the plastic frogs & small insulating plastic insulators from the rails & replace them with solder or hand made brass pieces as described above under 'Pointwork Installation'.

Solder new wires to each rail & wire them up as shown in the diagram below. The dotted green line shows which wires to join together.

When wired up it is surprising how much simpler it is in DCC than analogue! The two Peco PL13 accessory switches are mounted together as shown in the wiring diagram. In the diagram the switches are mounted as shown with the operating pin vertically through the middle. The pin moves sideways when the point motor is activated changing the polarity as required You can easily follow how the current flows in the photo & are operated by a 1.5mm steel wire mechanical connection to the point motor.

When replacing the diamond, ensure that all 8 rails are isolated from the adjacent tracks with insulated rail joiners.

 

4. Cleaning Track & Maintenance on Point Motors:

All so called modelling 'experts' look away now! Track is cleaned with the good old reliable Peco track rubber. After track cleaning, fine grade abrasive card is folded & with light pressure on the movable blade, pulled through the point blades from the frog end of the point. The track is vacuumed with a specially made attachment made from two toothbrush heads attached to the vacuum cleaner hose to remove dust & particles left behind when using the track rubber. Then a specially made pad is doused in meths & rubbed over the track.

All points only rely on electrical continuity between the stock rail & movable blade. I know, I can hear some of you now saying 'It is not reliable for DCC'. The number of failures I have had over many years I can count on one hand! To ensure this after track cleaning, cotton buds are dipped in 'Track Magic' & then dragged from the frog end of the point through the stock rail/movable rail. It is surprising how much 'gunge' is removed.

Point solenoids & accessory switches are squirted with 'Servisol Super 10' & activated a few times. Before exhibitions or when not used for sometime, all points, accessory switches & live diamond are also checked out for isolation/conductivity with a reliable multimeter.

[kevinlms]

Shouldn't this be added to in the existing thread?

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/164272-crewlisle-from-baseboards-to-dcc-overhead-catenary/&tab=comments#comment-4421532

[Crewlisle]

Kevin,

 

After I started the post on the planning, baseboards & laying the track in 'Track & Layout Design' I started to realise that if someone is looking for answers on any aspect of the layout that it would be better under the relevant forum as quoted in the first paragraph of this post. 

 

It was a question of damned if did or damned if I didn't.

 

Still, I hope it will answer some modeller's questions,  even if some are contrary to current thinking!

 

Peter,