gingerangles

Now I have some track work down, and I have been adding track/frog droppers to points and track and have installed motors (physically), I am getting to the point where I would like to wire things up permanently. I've trawled through the DCCCs guides and posts on here and on their forum on here but everything either seems either too generic or too specific so thought it best to share the wiring conclusion I had come to and see whats folks here think (I've also stuck a similar thread on their forum). So... DCCCs Advice #8 states to have a Data/Control Bus with Track Connections off this via a CB. Got it 👍 The instructions for the CB shows this arrangement below (I assume although the terminology is slightly askew and "Track Out" is actually the Data/Control Bus)... The Colbalt IP motor wiring is given as follows: On the face of it all seems fairly straightforward. However if Track Connections are made after the Circuit Breaker and the Colbalt IP is wired to the Data/Control bus as described surely using terminal 3 for the point frog on the Colbalt motor is a no-go as it will bridge/bypass the CB? If so how is the point and point motor to be properly wired? Obviously I want track power to the track droppers on the point and would like the point motor to be connected to the Data/Control Bus... likewise I want switched frogs. Do I therefore need to wire track power separately into terminals 4 & 5 on the Cobalt IP and the point frog into terminal 6 to provide switched frog separately to powering/controlling the point motor? To me there seems to be a little bit of a disconnect in the advice given... or have I completely missed something?

Starting to have a play at creating some buildings from scratch... paper modelling a la the @Ron Heggs technique posted on here... quite chuffed for a 1st attempt.

0.75 x 0.75 mm styrene strip seems to be the solution to the slip problem... a short length superglued in after calving off the little lugs that retained the spring seems to have done the trick. Not all the movement stopped but certainly enough to prevent the switch rails not properly closing with the main rails.

And here is a video of the point problem with one of the slips post motor install. The motor wire helps but doesn't solve the problem so a bit of styrene will be required. Excuse the dodgy finger... it was on the wrong end of a drill bit last weekend 😂 20240423_204724.mp4

IDK why this is upside down 🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️😂

Couple of viaduct progress pics...

Hi @PMP it's the bit you've circled that it the main issue. With the slips it seems the spring also served to keep the switch rails pressed back into position and prevent the fish plates coming loose. The fish plates aren't movable and seem to be fixed to the switch rails (all bar one I have found anyway). The fact the switch rail moves also causes a poor fit against the stock rail so needs sorting for both reasons. I've got some appropriately sized styrene strip on order to see if I can resolve with that 👍

Got hold of a could of old Railway Modellers today with articles on a Class D and a 5 plank wagon... Interesting stuff 👍

And these... Referenced from "Chrsterfield to Lincoln" by Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith.

Saw these and though of you @t-b-g 😂

Got some of the DCC Concepts Colbalt point motors installed. Made myself a small template for the install which made things easy, using the plastic of one of the bits I've bought... the snips I think. Quite impressed with all this DCC stuff. It really does look to be very simple. The motors are quite loud though so I'm not sure how 'better' they are over solenoids. I seem to have a little bit of an issue with the peco bullhead slips and double slips in that when the springs are removed from the points they leave the blades very loose. So much so they'll actually move away from the rail they are fixed to by a mm or so until the tie bar prevents them going further. I've seen some use styrene strips to resolve this on other points so will be giving that a go but it's a little disappointing from peco really.

Decided I'm going to incorporate Carr Vale / Bolsover Viaduct at the far end. Looking for blue brick potential options if anyone has any suggestions?

Panel lighting and point protection planning...

Thanks, 100mm timber would certainly have meant I'd not had the issue, even with my fix it'll still be tight and I'll need to make sure the cables from the motors are tucked up out of the way. The strips do have one thing going for them though as they aid the sliding of the boards and would probably be something I'd actually incorporate in the future I think.

What I came up with as a solution... ply 'runners' 🤞👍