N-Scale Ditch Lights

This project was perhaps the most difficult modeling I have ever done. I had been looking for a kit to convert my Atlas Locomotives, But after a futile search, I had to build ditch lights from scratch. My son likes to take things apart and had been given several cell phones. After combing through his cell phone junkyard I found the small LED’s that I needed.

My scratch built kit consists of three parts diode, wire, and housing.
1.The diode came from the lighted keypad on a Samsung cell phone.
2.Wiring was donated from an old can motor that was disassembled.
3.Housing for the ditch lights was created using sheet styrene.

I soldered the wires to the diode. Twisted the wires together and tested the connections. It works (the motor wires have a very thin layer of insulator) They run on 3V DC so I tested them using them two AA batteries wired in series.
 
After testing the LED’s I glued (using Cyanoacrylate) the front and back housing pieces to the diode. Due to the thickness of the LED there is a gap between the styrene sheets so i filled that with body filler putty, taking care not to accidentally fill in the hole in the face drilled for the light to escape.  I sanded the putty down flat and ended up with a little box with a hole in the front.

Then I drilled holes in the loco shell for the wires to go through and glued the little cubes to the front of the loco. I then identified the anode and cathode ends of the wires and soldered them to the Decoder at the places provided.

After programming the associated cv’s in the decoder. I tested the locomotive and I was pleased with the look. The bonus is when you press the “horn” button the lights pulse back and forth just like a real train. I just wish I had sound.

A new locomotive seen on the branch!

Shortly after Christmas Day a Katy loco was seen delivering an ore car to Miltonburg.

A big thank you to my father for getting me a new Atlas GP-40 in Katy livery and also a big thank you to my grandpa for helping with the cost of the decoder. I went by Angelo Hobbies today and picked up the TCS AMD4 for the little loco. I installed it and it ran fine but it seemed a little too noisy… however it should do.

A really Small decoder, for a really small engine.

I have a Tomix Thomas Tank Engine. It is one of my smaller engines.

Today I went to Angelo Hobbies today and bought a tiny little TCS Z2 Decoder. It features two light functions but I do not have any resistors small enough yet to install the lights.

As you can see there is not much room for anything much less a decoder.

There is a small place behind the motor where I will put the decoder.
After disassembly I cut the motor contacts and removed the brush covers from the motor.

The rear weight needs to be cut down flat to provide room for the decoder and wires.

Here you can see the Decoder with the light wires wrapped around it and the motor and track wires separated. the motor brush covers are the small metal things towards the top.

Here it is after soldering the brush covers to the motor leads.

 
Then after soldering the track leads to the wipers I reassembled the loco.

After all the cutting grinding and soldering I think it came out all right it handles nicely on the layout and is a really fun engine to run.

Some rocks and More Super Elevation

I cut one of the large rock castings and placed it beside the tunnel portal.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

The curve around the engine terminal got some elevation.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

Here is how the curve looks loaded. the elevation is slight but it makes a difference.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

Painted and finished fascia, streams, and some more grass.

I finished and painted the fascia today.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

Carola painted the culverts and some of the rocks. Then we put down some grass and planted some trees.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

We also painted some of the base colors for some of the streams.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

First of the Fascia and grass. Some paint too.

With the addition of the fascia you can really get an idea of how the whole layout will look. I still need to paint it.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

The grass around the industrial lead switches helps to add realism, but I still need to paint the switch stands.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

Having an artist in the house helps when you need to paint things especially bridge abutments.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

A curve reworked, A switch placed and A turntable powered!

I finally got the engine terminal switch tied into the mainline with a wye turnout.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

As you can see from the picture I had to rework the radii of the curves to make the turnout fit in. The radius ended up having to be reduced towards the end of the curve; I was however able to keep enough straightway track between the two curves so operation will not suffer. The turn table got wired into the power buss and its a split ring turntable so I won’t need another auto reverser.
Zach’s little engine (EMD F-9) he got for Christmas last year got a Digitrax  DN-121 today. The little bachman engine was a real pain to put a decoder into. I had to mill the frame to make room and isolate the motor with CA and insulating rubber (road bicycle superlight tube material). The rubber made it a little quieter than it had been, I think. I did, while I was at it, put a rear light in it and give it a good cleaning.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

This brings my “decoder equipped” loco count up to 3.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

Night time in Miltonburg!

Bridge Abutments and Running Trains

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

The double track bridge got abutments and the little road bridge was constructed it needs paint but its done.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

The boys an I got a chance to use the “Jump Throttle” feature on the Zephyr. It was fun and we enjoyed running two engines at once.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

Insulated Joints help Operation

Wiring the turnouts up so they don’t route power helps the locos get better contact and requires less maintenance.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

I soldered brass wire from the main line to the  spur track and then ballasted over them. This means that no matter how the points are lined the loco still receives power. That creates a prototypical problem “running through switches” because the power is not routed by the points there is no dead spot  and the turnout can be “run through” on a trailing point move. I think this is good because it adds to the realism of the model.
Dividing the main into blocks is also a good idea so I’ve started making insulated joints at various locations to separate the layout into four different blocks.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

This picture is of a insulated joint prior to trimming the styrene to the profile of the rail.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

This picture shows an insulated joint in the middle of a road crossing.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

On the industry spur the turnouts have metal frogs so the insulated joints are on the inside rails and they have been wired together to allow good electrical conductivity.

Got the DCC System

Bought a Digitrax Zephyr Digital Command and Control System. The cool thing about the Zephyr is that it does advance consisting, has 2 or 4 digit addressing and will allow you to use two dc throttles as extra cabs.  It will operate one dc loco at a time and up to 9999 decoder equipped locos. It can also program and read back programs written on decoders such as speed tables. This allows you to have  all your locomotives have a similar throttle response regardless of the manufacturer.
But as with any dcc system you need decoder equipped locomotives

This brings up a problem! If you have an older Atlas loco that is not “DCC Ready” then you need to wire a decoder into it…. there is a new solution from TCS that makes this so much easier. The CN-GP split board decoder (pictured above). since I have one of these older Atlas locos, I purchased one. The install went pretty easily, while far from plug and play it was not very difficult. The decoder runs smoother than the other decoder I have in an Atlas “DCC Ready” loco and does so due to the fact that the motor wires are soldered to the brush housings.
While I needed a good control system I also needed an auto reverser. The Digitrax AR-1 was the answer.

This Picture is a view of the wiring junction and Diagram under the front edge of the layout. You can see the AR-1 towards the back. To install the AR-1 I mounted it to the bottom of the layout with four screws and connected it, between the power and the block that I wanted to auto reverse.
The thing works like a charm. The locos move over the crossovers seamlessly without so much as a pause. This thing sure beats wiring DPDT switches and having to manually operate them.

Finish the crossings I started before I got called to take the MFWSA to Taylor.

Aerial view.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

The first one across the Main.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

The second across the industrial spur.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

A truck crossing the spur

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

Base coat of paint and more crossings

The base coat of paint makes it look as if more progress has been made.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

One of the foam putty crossings goes across the main line at the lower crossover.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

and the other crosses the industrial lead.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

A culvert pipe placed for the drainage creek.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

A little bridge construction is underway.

From Miltonburg Branch Subdivision

A real Roll-By

Meeting a south bound coal load at Elm Mott, Texas.

Lots of Painting and Super Elevation

Carola and I spent time today painting the benchwork/shelves

I forgot to mention that I super elevated the big curve a few days ago.

Ballasting, more track work, placement of rock castings, and road crossings.

This is Carola’s handiwork at Ballasting

The tricky part of using two different sizes of track is connecting them together…

Here I used code 55 in the industry spot and code 80 for the main line.

Placing hydrocal castings on the foam and sealing the edges with foam putty.

Using foam putty for road crossings.

The roadway bridges will be placed in the painted area.