TEAR IT OUT!!!

[Lester Perry]

A good "first" run....Any time an engine doesn't jump the tracks or stall can be called succesfull..!!

Are you sure you don't have a bull frog stuck away somewhere in the layout..??

Last but not least....can you elaborate on how that business with the panel works..??

The frog is the camera. It is a Kodak Easy Share, and when you have it set on movie it records the sound of the lens focusing. It is supposed to be a still camera and takes fantastic pictures as you can see when I post pics.



The red wire is positive the green is negative. The board is drawn with a pencil. I then took 1/8 inch pin stripping for cars. Put it on the drawing to make the map of the yard. I then drilled small holes at each track coming off of switch. I don’t remember the size. It is large enough for a small nail, 16 or 18 to drop in but the head wouldn’t go through. The shinny spots you see on the picture are the nail heads. The red wires coming from the switch machines( I used atlas under board) are small speaker wires I used the thinnest solid speaker wire I could find. I think it was 24. I ran the common / negative / neutral what ever the middle one is called as a single wire from power supply to machines as shown on drawing. I just made a loop around the screw and went to the next one using bare wire. The speaker wire I soldered to the nails in the board. The coiled red wire is from an old electric tester with a probe. Which is attached to the power supply positive. When you touch the nail head the circuit is completed ant the switch is thrown. Very simple and basically maintenance free.

[Steamtrains]

Les....Very clever indeed.....Not only "handy", but saves a bunch on push-buttons...!!!

[Lester Perry]

I like it and everyone who uses it thinks it is the best thing since ice cream( speaking of the control board ). Now back to the project. I have cleaned up the mess I made. getting tools put away and getting ready to start operations again actually I started a little tonight. It seems to be OK so far. Give me a couple of days of serious operating to really test it out. I hope I don't have to do much fine tuning. I will keep you guys up dated with notes and pics.

[railroader9731]

Sweeeet glad ro hear your back into operation mode. Just want to know how the new station is comming along??? Because id like to get a ticket and see some more scenes from your town

[Lester Perry]

Sweeeet glad ro hear your back into operation mode. Just want to know how the new station is comming along??? Because id like to get a ticket and see some more scenes from your town

Whooooah Slow down a little. Passenger service will starting a little later. Give me a chance now remember the passenger service was an after thought. We are still negotiating the purchase of the ground. The owner is being ridiculous. He seems to think this little piece of dirt is worth $3500. We offered him $2000 and a one year pass for him and his wife. We even discretely offered a one year pass to his girl friend . He is being unreasonable.

[Lester Perry]

Well problem of getting under layout is solved go to <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1949">viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1949</a><!-- l -->

[tetters]

Man I tell ya. You have to love a thread that starts out with the title "TEAR IT OUT!!!"

Looks great Les!

[Lester Perry]

Thanks,I guess I need to update the pics. I do have one pic to add. After the track goes past the town it is going into a tunnel which is open to see as it is just going off the layout. I need a tunnel wall so I tried a stone wall print out. How about an honest opinion.

[Russ Bellinis]

It looks like a stone wall print out in the pic. It may be that it isn't high definition enough. It looks like it is kind of "grainy" like pictures printed on ancient bubble jet printers. I wonder if a rock mold would make a nice thin rock wall that could be glued to the wall at that point to look better.

[Lester Perry]

I would like to have about 4 or 5 feet of it. That is why I am trying to print it. That is a stone wall from Print Artist that I stretched from one foot to two. I am out of color ink need to get into town and get some. it might look better in color.

[ocalicreek]

I was going to ask if you s_t_r_e_t_c_h_e_d it.

It does look grainy and very much like a print-out at this close range. Is the close-up the normal viewing angle? Could you take a picture from where your eye level is typically, as far away as you'd normally view it? The graininess may not matter so much at that distance.

I wonder if there is some way to add some texture to that surface beneath the print-out? Like crinkling foil and laying the printout over that, perhaps wetting it to get it to nestle down in place? Dunno, just thinking out loud.

Galen

[Lester Perry]

I was going to ask if you s_t_r_e_t_c_h_e_d it.

It does look grainy and very much like a print-out at this close range. Is the close-up the normal viewing angle? Could you take a picture from where your eye level is typically, as far away as you'd normally view it? The graininess may not matter so much at that distance.

I wonder if there is some way to add some texture to that surface beneath the print-out? Like crinkling foil and laying the printout over that, perhaps wetting it to get it to nestle down in place? Dunno, just thinking out loud.

Galen

Yes it is the correct angle and I can take a pic from further away but I am in a local open house schedule which means there will be closeup looks at it. Wetting it is a no no as it is printed on an ink jet printer. The quality can be improved a lot as I inadvertently had it set on a low quality print. I am thinking maybe when I get it in color it might help a lot even though it is basically a gray stone.

[Russ Bellinis]

I was going to ask if you s_t_r_e_t_c_h_e_d it.

It does look grainy and very much like a print-out at this close range. Is the close-up the normal viewing angle? Could you take a picture from where your eye level is typically, as far away as you'd normally view it? The graininess may not matter so much at that distance.

I wonder if there is some way to add some texture to that surface beneath the print-out? Like crinkling foil and laying the printout over that, perhaps wetting it to get it to nestle down in place? Dunno, just thinking out loud.

Galen

Yes it is the correct angle and I can take a pic from further away but I am in a local open house schedule which means there will be closeup looks at it. Wetting it is a no no as it is printed on an ink jet printer. The quality can be improved a lot as I inadvertently had it set on a low quality print. I am thinking maybe when I get it in color it might help a lot even though it is basically a gray stone.

I think you are right about the color as well as using a higher definition. The world is in color and I think we would be amazed at how many colors are really found in "gray" stone.

[Lester Perry]

Yup. I will get it in color and show the results.

[Green_Elite_Cab]

The red wire is positive the green is negative. The board is drawn with a pencil. I then took 1/8 inch pin stripping for cars. Put it on the drawing to make the map of the yard. I then drilled small holes at each track coming off of switch. I don’t remember the size. It is large enough for a small nail, 16 or 18 to drop in but the head wouldn’t go through. The shinny spots you see on the picture are the nail heads. The red wires coming from the switch machines( I used atlas under board) are small speaker wires I used the thinnest solid speaker wire I could find. I think it was 24. I ran the common / negative / neutral what ever the middle one is called as a single wire from power supply to machines as shown on drawing. I just made a loop around the screw and went to the next one using bare wire. The speaker wire I soldered to the nails in the board. The coiled red wire is from an old electric tester with a probe. Which is attached to the power supply positive. When you touch the nail head the circuit is completed ant the switch is thrown. Very simple and basically maintenance free.

We just replaced this system on the oldest control panel at my club. Now all the switches are controlled by push buttons.

It was fun to make sparks with the system, but i'm guessing the new button one is a bit more intuitive.