ParkeNd

I've just connected the above to my tracks for the first time. No locos on the tracks. Nothing across the rails like track pins etc. Never been used. But on switching on the handset displays oVLd which I believe means Overload as opposed to SVDa for short circuit. Cannot find any help for this. I have yet to install the Cobalt SS points motors so its quite feasible to my non-electrical mind that the random setting of the 6 points creates a short somewhere which will be "fixed" once the Cobalt Controllers get to reverse polarities wherever required. Anybody able to help with this. DCC is new to me.

I've installed the Gaugemaster DCC Prodigy Advance 2 and it's displaying oVLd with nothing on the tracks. Oh bother.

DCC - simply connect 2 wires to the rails and GO.

I’m getting within a few days of having to find out if a loco will run on this. Scary if I’m honest. The dropper feeds from the DCC bus are all in place and labelled, and I’ve almost finished routing the point polarity “left, common, right” wires from the frogs to where the Cobalt SS Controllers will sit, along with power feeds to them. That leaves somewhere to put the Prodigy Advance 2 boxes - so I’ve made and fitted a shelf high up on the support legs - this looks simple but it was deceptively labour intensive and tortuous to get into position to fix and have enough room to use my hands and arms. By Christmas Day (on my own) I will start installing the point motors and controllers. Power up before New Years Day?

This is the simplified power wiring on the underside of the board. The coiled wires are the three leads for each point for the Cobalt SS Points Controllers to change the frog polarity automatically. The labels (right way up when board flipped) are for the dropper connection points and numbered points matching a marked up photo of the tracks. DCC Concepts instruction booklet leads users in the direction of having the controllers on the top of the board so that point throw and direction can be changed (the tiny points motors are surface mounted) without crawling under the layout - that appeals to this 73 year old so I’m going to do it. The landscape is going to be undulating so they are easily hidden.

Following on from the above, this is the relaid change to the layout on the main board - L shape to come later when trains will run on what is done already. This leaves me two zones with no physical link between the two - no rails that is. A single track into 3 platforms for passenger traffic - and a single track into a goods set-up that looks like it’s being fed from the same place as the passengers come from. It’s a country terminus remember. I’ve rewired the entire underside for power and droppers keeping the two zones on different choc blocks for simplicity and clarity for my non-electrical mind. So 4 points removed and no crossovers. Cobalt SS controllers and point motors next. Top pic is before - Bottom pic is after. Will photograph wiring tomorrow- it’s dark now. See also DCC Programming Track on right hand side.

It could have been a frustrating day today if I had let it. The problem is the short circuit(s) across left and right rails. The extra IRJs at the frogs solved some of it and systematically I checked continuity of the whole layout. I found one point at the station mouth with a short so removed it, discovered the tiny wire under it that needed cutting had folded back down under the point and completed the circuit again. However, placing the probes at either end of the gap where the point had been, with nothing but air and cork between the probes, generated a beep - continuity in the wiring under the board somehow. So I’ve had to admit that there are too many points in proximity and that I don’t have the skills to solve the conundrum. My solution has been to simplify the things by removing four of the points in the middle of the layout - it makes virtually no difference to the operating potential. This will enable me to have two separate zones with no physical connection between them, no crossovers, and only 2 points in one zone, 4 in the other. I shall wire each zone completely separately. Because I enjoy the construction of buildings and scenery most I don’t want to get beaten by over complicated electrics and not finish the layout. DCC is not simple.

All 13 of the switch rail frogs not already fitted with IRJs because they were on opposing points have been fitted with an IRJ. Not easy but I became more confident of finding a way to do it on track already laid and wired as I went on which avoided me having to hold my breath and hang my tongue out of the side of my mouth. Didn't need to buy and use a Dremel. Now I can see I need 5 more power droppers for certain, and 1 more maybe. Knowing where it's safe to drill through the layout board will need a lot of "tilt, peak, and measure".

Thanks for your comments. I’ve installed 5 of the single IRJ’s on the switch rails of the frogs with 8 more still to do in situ. 4 of the will be tough and might need a Dremel cut and epoxy filler. I’ll then do as you suggest and check by isolating sections which I figure (with no electrical knowledge) I can do by disconnecting one dropper at a time.

I've now wired the 3rd square of 3 as far as connecting droppers to the DCC bus is concerned. I'm new to using a multimeter and was initially delighted that on the Continuity setting I got a beep every time by placing the probes on the "power in" terminal of the choc block and the corresponding rail at the point the dropper is soldered - for black and then red cables. However, I get the same beep if I place the probes across both the red and black terminals anywhere, and between rails on any price of track. On the ohms setting I get 0.3 ohms across rails or red and black leads anywhere on the layout. I fear short circuits if I was to connect power. There are no track pins lodged across rails and red and black leads are uniformly soldered to rails on the same side of the track. Every pair of opposing points is joined with pairs of IRJs. I haven't fitted a single IRJ to both point rails on every point though and I'm just about to fit 13 of these. But I think this just guards against wheels sitting across switch rail and the stock rail when passing over the frog. Feeling lost and short of experience here - is my multimeter telling me I have short circuits, or are these avoided when I install the Cobalt SS Controllers and point motors and connect the Prodigy Advance 2? Confused.

Dropper spaghetti wired to DCC bus in square 2 of 3. This is not in my comfort zone.

Because of the framework and cross members under the inverted board I’m working the wiring inside 3 squares I traced with a thick felt tip pen. First I have installed the DCC bus and now, one square at a time I’m wiring in the droppers. I’m using a multimeter to check continuity as I go, and I am using choc blocks to cut down on connection to the bus with scotchloks. I thought about soldered connections for all of 5 seconds before abandoning the idea! Next comes the fitting and wiring of the Cobalt SS Controllers to the modified points and surface mounted points motors - these are really tiny - 1/3 the size of Peco motors. I haven’t worked out yet how to position the points motors whilst connecting them to the SS Controllers whilst being able to see what I’m doing - maybe with the board angled at 45 deg.

Well here we go with the electronics. It’s a system- honest. Red and black wires to power bus, red and blue wires with green frog wire to Prog Power terminals on Cobalt SS controllers etc etc. The plan is to minimise crawling under the layout. This is not in my comfort zone.

Soldered two leads to one point as described above and it worked - the adjacent soldered links one sleeper back didn’t melt. So will start tomorrow with the rest.

I’m sure I have read many times how wiring for DCC is child’s play compared with analogue. Not true. After modifying the points and laying all the track a while back, I find that I need 3 connections to each point from the Cobalt SS controller - red and black from the same place as the new bridging links in addition to the green wire from the frog. So after turning the layout board over ready to instal the power bus and track droppers I’ve had to abort that, turn the board over right side up to do more soldering with track already laid. Insert swear word of choice here. I reckon if I solder the extra leads one sleeper forward but before the break gap in the rails I might be able to do the job without melting the previous soldering. Not looking forward to it though.

Finally after spending huge amounts of time on garden projects (because there was a need - not because I'm a gardener) a 2/3 length entirely scratch built recreation of Cinderford GWR Goods Shed is sitting on my layout. More detail around it will be added like boxes, barrels, more people etc but this is for later. Just two comments - it's 2/3 length because that's all the space I have - and the hardest part of the job, believe it or not, was the little assembly with the steps up to the office and the railings. The Cobalt SS DCC addressable points motors and their controls and wiring arrived just last week having been on order for most of this year. Now I'm terrified because I have to move out of my comfort zone and turn the top board upside down to fit the DCC power bus, and all the ancillary DCC controls. Then locos can run and I can get on with ballasting, painting the sides of the rails plus scenery.

Roof slates are on now, long job using overlapping Slaters Plastikard 4mm slates which have to be cut into strips first - pairs of plain bit to to be overlapped and embossed slate to show. Used kit gel glue this time since liquid glue applied with hollow needle applicator was too hit and miss on station roof. Will post pics when tiles and chimney stack painted. Moving on then to make office hand rails (fiddly but masochistically addictive) and front wagon doors which have to have two sided detail. Still not able to turn board upside down to do DCC wiring because DCC surface mounted points motors and controllers still on pre-order - can’t do irreversible track and landscaping until I know trains will run. If the delay goes on then I have a footbridge to make.

There's still loads to do - the whole roofline (slates, bargeboards, gutters, downpipes), doors on one end, detail around the office entrance such as the handrails and finish on steps etc, plus more "clutter" detail and weathering of woodwork - but it's progressed a bit more from a white sheet of Daler Board with pencil lines.

The external painting of the bricks in the main two boxes of the goods shed has been completed. What comes next is the roof with tiling and chimneys, then the small detailing including window ledges, gutters, drainpipes and handrails , and then the canopy over the goods inwards door, and finally the main doors. I am thinking of sliding doors at the rear, and goods inwards, and two hinged doors at the front - because that's what will fit in the space available.

The interior walls of the two big L shapes, and the loading floor have been painted now and glued together to make a solid building. I was concerned that the loading floor and it's platform front wouldn't fit if I glued the L shapes together first, so I held my breath and kept my sticky fingers off the outside walls (mostly) and applied glue to all the joint faces and pushed and held the whole lot together in one go until the glue set enough to take my hands away - quite scary in case it went wrong. I'll wait before posting the next photos because I want to paint more and add more before then. At the moment the office exterior is coming in for attention with detail at ground level and the stairs up to the office door - these are a lot of work for a very small assembly!!.

The accumulation of parts is slowly changing shape and being added to as I work out how to progress through the build - no instructions like a kit! So I've added brick pillars to the two end pieces to add detail, increase the strength of final building, and aid construction. The inside walls of the main shed are now covered in brick Plasticard, as yet unpainted, and the loading/unloading floor constructed. I didn't have enough Plasticard planked flooring to cover the top surface with one piece but figured that "tiling" it with small pieces might look more realistic since it would probably have been repaired several times during it's life. So far the main shed and the office are each in two L pieces which will be pushed together and glued when I've decided if I will paint the main shed bits beforehand. Still thinking it out. Anyway, here are two pics - the side with the four windows faces the track.

The shape of the pile of pieces continues to evolve. The etched brass office door to be painted and fitted next and then the two basic boxes that form the core of the goods shed can be assembled. But there’s an awful long way to go yet.

At last it moves forward a bit.

Not surprisingly I suppose the additional Slaters Plastikard I needed has not been quick to arrive. However, two days ago a young lady phoned from Slaters to sort out a shortage of one of the materials I had ordered. Nice move from Slaters, sorted out very easily, and what I needed arrived this morning. Great initiative from Slaters. So now I have no excuse but to get on with the Goods Shed. Quite a lot of the interior will be visible from outside so both sides of several of the pieces will have to be clad. I already have my mind on making a footbridge next because the pre-ordered DCC points motors (made in China?) are still not available and I want to do all the wiring in one go followed by ballasting and painting the sides of the rails.

The layout’s progress has been slower than I’ve wanted, there’s no denying that. The ScaleScenes windows arrived this week after a 32 day trip from Queensland in Australia. So I now know that I won’t have to change course to other windows like etched brass or lasercut wood I have cut out the core pieces of the two basic boxes for the main shed and the office. I was saved from a strong desire to find new windows when I thought that my chosen windows were lost in Air Mail by an event that resulted in a forced break and some very skilled component insertion just after Easter involving 4 stents - 2 hours wide awake! Returning to the layout - I have had to order more 7mm brick Slaters Plastikard (I like to see my bricks) because having originally believed from unsharp black and white photos the buildings were stone blocks - this is the demolished GWR Cinderford goods shed not the still existing Coleford one - I hadn’t bought enough brick stuff. So more delays but hopefully not long.