Day Log 8

Monday April 27, 2009 Lethbridge, Alberta

1:00 PM

I have finally completed the initial setting up of the 2009 Dale's Depot web site.

All links on the left margin have been tested and appear to be working.

It should be obvious from a glance at the paucity of links on the Day Logs page that I have not been very actively involved in this hobby since the beginning of the year. I am hoping to change this during the next few weeks.

I have an order in for 4 Tsunami digital decoders, which together with the one I recently purchased, should soon make it possible to have 5 new locomotives DCC ready. I have also made arrangements to have the decoders installed in my locomotives. That will bring the total number of locomotives (7 diesel and 1 steam) to 8 and will give me sufficient motor power for running my 1950's era trains.

While waiting for this to happen I will work on setting up all of the turnouts in the Coaldale Yard so they can be operated by Atlas controllers on the front facing. I have all of the pieces - all that is required is to wire them all together and have them powered by a separate power source (my MRC transformer that I no longer use).

2:30 PM

I have been thinking about how to best control the turnouts in the Coaldale Yard.

At first I was opting for using the Atlas sliding switch that comes with the turnouts but after looking at it, and at the track in the Coaldale Yard I realized that the Atlas switch does not hide the wiring very well. Ideally I want some form of switch that only shows the actual switch on one side of a mounted surface and has all of the wiring on the other side of the surface.

In the process of looking through my stuff to see if I had anything that might work, I came across two "coal loads" for two of my hopper cars. I had no idea that I even had such items. This will come in handy as I now have loads for all three of my undecorated hoppers which will make it easy to put them on or take them off as I move the cars over the layout according to the directions provided by Ship It!. Now to see about finding 6 more loads for the Walthers 100 ton quad hoppers.

I also found one Access switch with a red and a green button for controlling a turnout. In my ideal world I would like the button to light up indicating the status of the turnout. I will now sit back with my Walthers catalogue and see what I can find - both coal loads as well as electrical switches.

That worked. I have identified the products for both controlling the turnouts as well as a mounting panel. I think if I ordered an 8-switch panel and a 5-switch panel that I will have what I want for the Coaldale Yard. I am backing away from lighted bulbs, even though such systems exist, as the cost is about $20/switch, compared with about $5/switch. I think that being close to the switches implies that I can see the status of each switch and therefore will not need the lights. I also found the coal loads for my hopper cars.

I think the next step will be to see if I can find any of these products when I am next in Calgary. My head is a lot clearer now than it was a couple of hours ago regarding what I will need to buy and what the final result will look like. But it may be some time before I can actually begin installing the wiring.

I am now waiting for my order to come in before I can install decoders in my locomotives. I am also waiting until I can drive to Calgary to see about wiring accessories for operating my turnouts in the Coaldale Yard. I am also looking for a hand-held magnetic decoupler to provide more flexibility for where I uncouple cars when operating.

What can I now do? One possibility is to begin assembling another structure such as the water tower. I can also begin adding ground cover to the sanding tower and the refinery ballast.

Another possibility is to run a locomotive and freight cars around the layout to check for problems with either the track or the cars. I may begin this tomorrow.

I have spent about 3 hours today on the above considerations, largely updating the web site.