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LVRALPH
Fireman
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 Posted - 06/07/2012 : 4:42:33 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by jatravia
Now Ralph, I know you're tired and all that but what have you told me? You just have to make the time. Now come on and get yourself moving. No time to sleep or socialize when there is a model railroad to be worked on.
Joe <>< :-D
And you have completed what Mr. big mouth? 
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Tony L
New Hire
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Posted - 06/07/2012 : 4:46:58 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by MarkF
That's right Joe, you tell him! Heck, he's already throwing in the towel on an August op session, and it's only the beginning of June! Plenty of time Ralph!
Hey, we could still have an op session if part of the machine didn't work. We know how to work in the dark.
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MarkF
Engineer
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Posted - 06/08/2012 : 01:11:57 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Tony L
quote:
Originally posted by MarkF
That's right Joe, you tell him! Heck, he's already throwing in the towel on an August op session, and it's only the beginning of June! Plenty of time Ralph!
Hey, we could still have an op session if part of the machine didn't work. We know how to work in the dark.
Ouch! Let the mud slinging commence!
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Mark
See my homepage at http://home.comcast.net/~prrndiv/
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Country: USA
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nhguy
Fireman
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Posted - 06/08/2012 : 03:46:18 AM
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If the machine don't work completely, do what the real railroads did. Use a Train Order or a track warrant (depending on era). If the machine went down, which it did occasionally, refer back to the rule book and issue train orders (Form 19) and clearance form A's. It may be back to the dark ages (pun intended) but at least you'll be running trains Ralph  
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Bill Shanaman
Superintendent, New Haven RR in the 1948 to 1952 era
PMRA President 2013-14, OpSIG Member
NCE User Since 1999
Sugar City, Colorado |
Edited by - nhguy on 06/08/2012 03:48:33 AM |
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LVRALPH
Fireman
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Posted - 06/08/2012 : 04:48:20 AM
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Hueber usually runs the machine. That by itself makes it in the dark! 
The most important things I need to get working are the turnout connections and the DCCOD's for power to the rails, even if they do not detect. It is kind of hard to run an op session without turnout control or power. We could always go to Joe T's layout and run there as a backup since he has made SO MUCH progress.
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LVRALPH
Fireman
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Posted - 06/09/2012 : 04:49:36 AM
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It's 4:30 AM and I am getting ready to work downstairs before the gym opens at 7. Today is shot, but I might have time this evening. Doubt it though, because I have been up awake since 3:30 so I tire quickly at night.
I made my first programming statement all by myself. Oh, it does not work, but I'm not sure that is the reason. TBD.
What I did was this. I have a sub buss wire run that I ran when i first installed the DCCOD's on the layout in 2001. It ran from Packerton to WK (OS 90) That wire run is 60 ft long. Now it is 12 gauge wire, but still it is a long run. Wanting to shorten this and not have to buy more wire for an additional run to this area, I chose to move the programming statement to SMINI 2 at Crestwood since is only 7 ft from this area.
Bill set it up this way, because at the beginning he did not know the physical relationships to RR locations and node locations. I was not smart enough to realize it was important.
Anyway, because WK is a crossover, I will need 2 sub buss wires to control it. One for each track (OS 90 E and OS 90 W. I already had one sub buss there labled WK. I pulled the wire back from Packerton and re-ran it to the Crestwood SMINI # 2. This will be sub buss OS 90 E. I then used the extra wire to run sub buss OS 90 W over to the same SMINI. I have not yet connected this wire.
I carefully removed some feeders from the original sub buss as both tracks were connected and each side of the crossover needed to be isolated. I re-attached feeders for OS 90E. Convinced it was isolated, I hooked this sub buss up to the newly installed DCCOD motherboard. I then plugged in a DCCOD. Now I had power to OS90E. Better yet, the detector was working, as it detected the train on the DCCOD and the LED went out when the loco left the block.
The next job was to connect the output of the DCCOD to the proper input pin on SMINI 2. That would be the new statement that I wrote connecting it to port A, pin 5 on the input side. I went upstairs to see if I was getting a 1 on the display screen to show OS 90 E as occupied... nothing. :(
So I have an issue to resolve. Is it the SMINI? After all this is the first input device that is being connected to this unit. Is it my programming staement? Or is it the original program. Since Bill is my superman and his stuff works 99% of the time, I suspect the first two.
My next thought is to try to test OS 175 E and W as this is programming that has not had Ralphie's fingers in it. I was going to GROUND the input pins on SMINI 2 and see if they returned a 1 upstairs for block occupied. Next I was going to maybe run a SMINI 2 test under Bill's supervision, to try to test the inputs.
We will see where this takes me. But at least half of the OS works from a power and detection standpoint. This morning I will finish the other side by connectin new feeders. We will see what tonight or tomorrow brings. But it is a step forward, and I actually worked on the project. maybe August is still doable. :)
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Edited by - LVRALPH on 06/09/2012 04:59:27 AM |
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LVRALPH
Fireman
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Posted - 06/10/2012 : 05:37:02 AM
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Yesterday was spent attending a wedding in Sea Bright NJ. I managed to get my yard work done late just before dark, so now I have time today to work on the RR. I will only get about 3 hours due to other commitments, but hey that's a goldmine compared to the time I have recently had to work on this.
Yesterday I installed the sub buss for OS 90 W and connected the feeder to the DCCOD mother board and installed a DCCOD. The unit properly detects the train in OS 90W! The loco also runs smoothly through both straight sections of the crossover. I was getting ready to test the diverging route, when I noticed the curved closure rail solder joint failed in the Fast track turnout in the crossover. The rail no longer aligned with the frog. The other one is a scratchbuilt Ralphie # 8 turnout and was fine. Looks like I made a lousey joint. No biggie, I just got some spikes and made a quick fix.
While I was there I took the time to cut fit and glue some styrene for the gaps on the Fast Tracks turnout. These are made when building the turnout with a fine jewelers saw. They are very thin and could easily close during the heatin season, even though they are soldered to PC ties. So I fitted some pieces of .010 styrene and ACC'd them in place. Today I will cut and file them, then test operation through the diverging route.
I still need to do some tests for Bill, but it looks like he approved my programming changes. I am enjoying making those.
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Edited by - LVRALPH on 06/10/2012 05:43:13 AM |
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LVRALPH
Fireman
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Posted - 06/10/2012 : 6:19:28 PM
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Finally! A good day! I had a 90 BD party to attend for one of our larger clients. So that knocked half of my day, but I managed to get in 3 hours. In that three hours I got all of OS 90 working. It was some oxidation on the pins that prevented it from working. I then had time to restring block 1001 and move the programming for it to SMINI 2. I had enough wire left over, that I was able to string a wire to OS 175 E. I did not hook it up though.
Today I had the midas touch. Everything I did worked. I like days like that.
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Edited by - LVRALPH on 06/10/2012 6:20:46 PM |
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MarkF
Engineer
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Posted - 06/11/2012 : 12:52:12 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by LVRALPH
Finally! A good day!
Today I had the midas touch. Everything I did worked. I like days like that.
Wow, I had to go to the window to see if it was going to snow!
Sounds like your back on track for an August op session!
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Mark
See my homepage at http://home.comcast.net/~prrndiv/
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Country: USA
| Posts: 9270 |
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LVRALPH
Fireman
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Posted - 06/11/2012 : 04:44:52 AM
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Not so fast Mark. next weekend has 3 op sessions between Friday and Sat night, and this week I open lake DeBlasi. I see a whole lot of time being sucked out of this project.
My next task will be to pull the feeder that will become block 1002, and install that. I should get enough extra wire to string OS 175W.
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jatravia
Fireman
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Posted - 06/11/2012 : 06:26:44 AM
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Man, talk about shutting me up! Way to pull out the time!
Joe <><
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jbvb
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 06/12/2012 : 10:58:57 PM
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Still following, still rooting for you Ralph.
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Country: USA
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LVRALPH
Fireman
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Posted - 06/13/2012 : 04:35:12 AM
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Thanks James,
I opened the pool Monday night, Oh my aching back. I still have a hose to replace thats leaking and chemicals to apply, but that should be done. Then there are the pool toys the wife wants cleaned and inflated. Plus the lawn needs mowing Thurs, So, nothing gets done until Sunday after Mass and breakfast with the wife.
I did find a little time to finish installing sub feeder 1002. I tested it and it works. The CTC machine is reading it perfectly.
I almost made a mistake however. As I move down the RR, from east to west, I am testing everything.
I tested the diverging route into the Martin Marrietta Cement spur and the loco died. A broken rail joint/failed rail joiner was the cause. I drilled a hole and was just about to install a feeder to block 1002 when it hit me. STOP!
If i did that, once there were any freight cars on that spur with detectable wheel sets, I would have a block occupied result. I need to connect this to the main power bus, NOT one of the sub busses. So I need to see if I have a main buss feeder in the area, and if not, run one.
One of my guest operators PJ Mattson, noted during the last session that there were some issues around the frogs, with trains losing power. That is because I had disconnected the frog power contact wiring. I am reinstalling that as I progress.
I also need to install a resistor in the frog power feed on the Martin Marrietta turnout. That will detect if the turnout is thrown for the diverging route. This is important in case someone forgets to normalize the turnout or the toggle gets accidentally thrown.
But, as of now the double track RR runs from NY Division staging to MM cement. Not a long distance, but it runs. No connection to the CTC machine yet. That requires a new DOUT-32 board to be built and connections made on the CTC machine. That is last on the punch list. The RR runs first and all the turnout controls from the CTC machine must be working.
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Edited by - LVRALPH on 06/13/2012 06:51:25 AM |
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LVRALPH
Fireman
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Posted - 06/18/2012 : 04:44:32 AM
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Finally, some time to work on it. On Fathers day I was able to give it 6 hours. Not a lot of progress to report, but the part I was working on was time consuming and slow going..
First I removed the old sub busses betwen Martin Marietta cement and Packerton (HQ) (OS 119)after disconnecting the feeders from them. This was a time sucking operation, but it had to be done. Then I ran a new buss for block 1041. This is the westbound main from MM Cement to OS 119. I then had to locate the feeders that fed this sub buss (another time sucking process) and re-attach them to the sub buss. I then connected this to a SMINI 2 input port at Crestwood.
Well, the track works, but the detector does not detect. I am down to five DCCOD's and they all seem to have issues. I am either going to have to try to fix them, or ship em out for repair. Or, I could build a new one, and hope it works.
I strung the sub buss for block 1042. This is a shorter block that runs from MM Cement to OS 116. I was not having any luck finding the correct feeders under the layout, so I moved over to OS 119. The sub buss is in place here and only needs it's feeders checked, and new ones added. So I decided to cut all the gaps to isolate this crossover.
Like I said, not much progress to the end goal, but the ball is moving forward. This was one of those things that just requires a lot of time. But I am six hours closer to the end game.
I am not sure what progress I will make this week. With some high heat hitting here I will spend some time down the basement in the AC, but Lake DeBlasi will get some attention too.
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Edited by - LVRALPH on 06/18/2012 08:01:26 AM |
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AVRR-PA
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 06/18/2012 : 07:01:06 AM
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Ralph, your persistence and determination is amazing.
Don
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