Monday, November 8, 2010

More pathways and stairs

Work outdoors has been slow. On the plus side weather has been unusually warm. On the minus side, I've been able to make progress only on weekends. On Saturday, October 23rd, I put in some more stone steps and also installed another conduit for future electrical lines, as shown in this picture:


The conduit is 30' long. Work continued outside, including several trips to the landscape materials yard for sand, stones, and the "red breeze" clay/gravel mixture. By Sunday morning, November 7th much progress had been made on the paths. On Saturday I hauled 1.4 tons of red breeze and 1.4 tons of sand, and moved all of that via many, many wheelbarrow loads. This picture shows the red breeze in place:


This next picture shows the sand in place in what will someday be the patio in front of the main porch. You can also see that the stone steps are set and almost ready (I will be adding mortar to them, probably next spring, to add stability:


I'm still not sure exactly what type of masonry I'll use for that patio. Meanwhile, I've started placing the "Colorado rose" flagstones in place on the patio by the pond.

Between the stone steps and the porch will be a short foot bridge that will go over part of the train line. This area has been dug out extensively this past summer to reduce the grade needed for the train line, but now I need to finish the stone steps and design the footbridge so that it is easily removable -- as occasionally I'll need to perform maintenance on the tracks underneath. This picture shows that area as it is now:


Stones on the left, a mini-deck on the right, and some landscape timbers and spikes in the middle where the tracks will ultimately be located. I'm going to use the landscape timbers to frame the short line segment where the tracks will go (this section will be double tracked as it will include a siding) and those timbers will also serve as the base for the bridge. I've bought the materials and cut the landscape timbers to size -- if the weather cooperates I might be able to get them all in place before it gets too cold.

Finally, on Sunday I spent the day prepping for winter, performing numerous necessary pre-winter tasks, which are - alas - a prerequisite of this area. Winterization work has been going on for a few weeks now -- I moved the pond goldfish to an inside tank about 2 weeks ago. Today I did one other winter thing, this time related to the garden railway. In a few spots the planned rail line markings have worn thin, or they were marked by metal tent stakes that were falling over. I replaced all track markings with wooden stakes that will survive the winter, so that I won't need to remeasure their locations in the spring.

At this point the best I can hope for is to complete the footbridge footings before winter gets too intense. From this point forward I expect most work will be focused on the N scale layout.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Update on shopping locations

As an update to this post I'll add the following:

First, the CharlestonDigitalTrains web site is now showing very low inventory, missing most of the items they used to carry. I'm now using Wig-Wag Trains for DCC stuff.

Second, note that Wholesaletrains.com also has great prices on Atlas flex track.

And, yes this means I'm thinking ahead for the winter and getting back to work on the iNdoor layout. First order of business: extending the line from the middle-tier staging onto the main layout.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Towards Stairways

The last post covered work through the morning of September 5th. With the digging done and dirt tamped down the next steps were to put the edgings in place and the fabric cloth down to cover the dirt pathways. These next two pictures taken the morning of September 18th show that work has been complete and, in addition, the first ton of sand has been added on the ground of the pond patio:


That picture is from the driveway side of the pond patio. The edge of the pond is to the right, reflecting the morning light. The patio is straight ahead, with green edging on the sides, and a bit of white fabric cloth is showing underneath the sand. The construction of this patio will be standard flagstone-on-sand.

At the bottom of that photo you can see the newly-added dirt is sloped away from the patio edging. Erosion is a definite concern. I made sure that the slope is no steeper than 1-in-2 (about 33%) and tamped it extensively. However, I will be adding in embedded stakes and something to cover this during the winter to prevent erosion. You can also see a black-painted stake in front of the edging - the track will be running along this side of the patio and then along the driveway side of the pond.

One thing you can see in this photo and the next are a lot pine needles on the ground -- a reality of this time of year. This next picture is from the front of the house and shows the edged pathway extending from the pond patio:


The next three pictures were taken yesterday. This first one was taken from the pond patio looking south toward the front patio:


You can see flagstones on the ground. Actually we won't have any flagstones on the pathway -- that will be "red breeze" like the bridge approaches -- but these are staged for use on the pond patio. I started to place those then I realized it would be better to have the rest of the sand first.

This next one is from the south side of the front patio looking north towards the pond:



The rock walls and the fabric cloth for the pond patio are complete in this photo. You can also see the first two steps on the stairway to the front porch. I decided to use something that looked "natural" but was somewhat varied from what we have elsewhere in the garden. These are "siloam" rock steps -- basically slabs of siloam rock that have a flat surface to be used as stones. I am trying for 7" risers and 11" steps, but of course it is approximate. A ton of this type of rock is about $100, which is enough for 3 steps. Getting these into position involves a lot of trial and error, and the time involved depends on your experience and what compromises you'll accept. I focused more on safety than on looks, but I think it is okay.

Here is the last photo for this post, which is just in front of the front stairs:


That photo was taken late yesterday afternoon. After much consideration of possible building materials for the stairway from the front porch I decided to start with a deck extension, shown in this photo, and then transition to stone steps.

Last weekend I put in the concrete piers for this structure -- basically just pre-molded piers, placed in dug holes and leveled, then surrounded by poured concrete (one 60 pound bag per two piers). This weekend I built the substructure using pressure-treated fir and strong tie connectors.

There is still a little work to be done at the transition areas on the porch side and the left side, and I worked on some of that today. I actually rebuilt the bottom two porch stairs. It turns out the second porch stair was misconstructed and was shorter than the other two, which made the stairway somewhat awkward to use. I took the stairs off and added wood extenders to make the stair normal width. This also will serve to extend the bottom stair over this new deck, so the transition will look natural.

My next step is to finish off this structure, then work on finishing the stairs connecting the front patio to the front porch. Will it be done by Hallowe'en?

More outdoor paths

Following up on the last post, construction began with the patio area on the south side of the pond. I wanted to have a gathering spot near the pond and that place made sense due to proximity to the footbridge staircase and also being a logical connecting point for a stairway to the driveway and a path to the front of the house. The patio will be made of "Colorado Rose" flagstone, which not only fits nicely but is also mostly free as a neighbor gave me their leftover flagstones.

The first challenge was that the patio area needed a lot of dirt fill to raise it up. Partly this was because I wanted the patio higher than the existing ground anyway, but also in part because I want to raise the sides of the pond early next year, as noted in the last post. I created walls to hold the dirt in using the old pieces of ground-contact 4x6 beams, held in place with 12" rebar pounded into the ground. Now, where to get dirt to use as fill?

Well, part of the rest of the plan was to build a flat patio in front of the house, roughly 8x10, and to have stairs down to the patio from the front porch. The front patio would connected to the pond patio via a 3.5' wide path. Since the ground in front of the house was fairly steeply sloped I would need to dig quite a bit to create a flat spot for the front patio and the pathway. So, I started digging the dirt for the front patio and using it to fill in the pond patio.

By September 5th progress had been made. This first picture shows the pond patio area, taken from the footbridge:


Compared to the pictures of the same area in the last post much has changed. You can see the dirt fill-in, varying in depth from 6" to over 2' at the far end of the picture near the driveway. The dirt has been tamped down several times, watering between each iteration, to make it solid. You can see the start of building green metal edgings -- these edgers are 4" tall and will add that much height to the patio. (They were in place by the end of the day on the 5th.)

If you look closely you'll also see evidence of an electrical conduit Near the top of the photo is a black-topped skimmer box for the pond, which houses the pump. Just to the right of that is a grey pipe, curved, that is sticking out of the ground. I used 1/5" schedule 80 pipe and ran 20' of it under the patio. This will all me to later add an electrical box at that location, both for powering the pond pump (and future lights) but also for general outdoor electrical outlets. The pipe opening is covered and will be this winter to keep it clean and dry inside.

Finally, note the colored stakes gathered on the ground at the bottom of the photo. As planned elements are built the stakes are removed and sometimes reused.

This next photo, taken at the same time, shows the view from the pond patio area looking south:


This shows that the front patio has been dug out as has the pathway between the two patios. The ground near the bottom of the photo has been tamped down as that is where the dirt fill began. The most prominent feature is the new rock wall along the new pathway. We inherited quite a few walls in the front yard built of these types of rocks, and the same rocks were used as edging in various places. I had to remove quite a few of the rock edgings during construction of the pond and stream, and even more during construction of the foot bridge where the bridge ends at a rock wall. As part of this project I re-stacked the rock wall near the footbridge and used the leftover rocks for this wall.

The overall effect from a distance works well, giving the front yard a tiered effect, but flowing rather than rigid, uniform tiers. Plus the added advantage of reusing materials, thus saving money.

At this point the cost of the patios had been remarkably low. The conduit and rebar together were under $75 and everything else was reused. For the next section I'd need to buy more edging, as the leftover edging from the bridge project ran out, adding about $100, plus a couple of tons of sand at under $15 each (the savings of picking up sand yourself rather than buying the bagged stuff or having it delivered is stunning). Costs would go up just a bit with the stairs, but I'll cover that and the last month's work of construction in the next post.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Outdoor paths

So my last post was 2 1/2 months ago. Just like last summer, I have again failed to keep the blog up-to-date while garden railway work was in progress.

So, it's safe to say that this summer wasn't as productive as last summer. OTOH, last fall at this time I had broken my rib and had to stop work early, whereas this year I should have at least 3 more productive weeks ahead of me, helped by the warm October we are having.

My last words from the last post on June 28 were: "If things go well I hope to have the roadbed for the main line roughly in place by the end of the upcoming holiday weekend." If only. Two things really impacted progress this summer. First, I was talked into volunteering for a local community organization, right about the time of that last post, and it has taken a ton of time. Second, I had a serious design problem to solve regarding track locations and, as has happened before, this caused me to stop progress until I found a satisfactory solution.

What I eventually figured out was that I needed to plot out in detail the locations of track, garden pathways, and underground electrical conduit in advance before starting any actual work. Otherwise if I started any one of those three without determining the other two in advance I could cause myself all sorts of trouble later on. Furthermore, the track locations in particular had to be very exact regarding grades.

The net is that I've now made a lot of progress on pathways and even electrical conduit. I also have a clear pathway for the main tracks, and even have bought a cool bridge for crossing the stream. But, alas, there will be no trains running in the garden this year. But we are now SO CLOSE -- next spring is a near certainty.

For reference, here is what the front garden, just south of the pond, looked like on June 13th. You see a lot of overgrown grass and two boxes that will be raised planters:


The month of July was spent contemplating, measuring, and some digging. In August I had a local stump removal guy get rid of the stump near the top of the porch stairs that I mentioned in the last post was causing some problems. Finally, on the weekend of August 21-22, I started seriously plotting out the locations of the track (using black paint and stakes, very carefully setting out 12' radii, often in difficult-to-reach locations), followed by locations of walls (green), pathways (orange), and electrical conduit (blue). The next several pictures show how it all looked after locations were all diagramed. This first is in the area near the bottom of the bridge stairs, and shows the future patio bordered in orange, plus some blue (electrical) and black (train) lines:


This next photo shows the north side of the pond and the lines for three train tracks in black. The two on the right are the passenger station in Leadville, while the on the left is the track to the freight depot. Yes, this matches, schematically, the actual tracks in Leadville in 1882:


The next photos shows the ground on the west side of the footbridge, and if you look closely you can see the black-painted path for the single-track line that will go over the stream using that cool bridge I mentioned earlier. As with all other painted lines, I included stakes to mark the spot in case the rain washes away the paint:


Here is another view of the pond and the south side of the pond, this time taken from the footbridge. Emma, now 10 (we no longer have any children in the single digits!), is posing alongside the pond. You can see various black, green, blue, and orange lines. Note the green walls near the south side of the pond. After maintaining goldfish and pond plants for a summer in the pond one regret I have is that the pond is only 11" deep. Next year I intend to raise the sides of the pond by as much as 1' to allow for a deeper pond, one that supports a greater variety of fish and plants. The adjacent patio will thus be elevated to match the higher height of the pond:


This next picture shows the raised planters. You'll see the smaller planter has been moved to be higher and next to the larger one ... something that became obvious to me after planning everything out. You call also see lines of various colors all over and, if you look closely at the top of the photo, you can see how the ground near the porch is now several feet lower (due to digging), and there is evidence of the pile of leftover tailings from a stump:


This final photo shows the area in front of the porch. The orange lines show the boundaries of the stairs down from the porch, and a patio in the middle of the yard. The plan is to provide for several "gathering areas" for people to view the garden and the trains. It's not possible to really see in the photo, but in addition a two-track siding is planned (using black lines) that will go underneath the stairs from the porch. There also is a blue line for an electrical conduit underneath the stairs:


Now, here's the thing: the plan shown in these photos has happened, with only a few adjustments. No, the tracks aren't in place yet (dammit), but everything else is well on it's way, and that means that everything will be ready for the track in those exact locations early next year.

The next post will show progress on constructing the pathways, patios, and electrical conduits.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Dig It

Since the last post I've been doing a lot of digging. While planning out the track locations I realized that there is one 12' radius semi-circle that simply wasn't going to work because the grade would be over 15%. I started digging a little bit at the top to try to get the grade down to 4% (the maximum grade for the real Rio Grande narrow gauge, thus the maximum for this layout). But it turned out that "a little bit" wasn't going to be nearly enough -- I was going to have to reduce the differential between top and bottom by 3.5 feet. So, I've been steadily removing dirt from the top of the grade and moving it to the bottom.

Most of the really heavy work is now done. The main remaining problem is a large tree stump which used to be cut flat with the ground but now is two feet higher than the surrounding ground. I am out of town for my job right now, but when I get back I'll try removing the top of the stump with either a chain saw or a rental stump grinder. If things go well I hope to have the roadbed for the main line roughly in place by the end of the upcoming holiday weekend.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

A Better Waterfall

Since last year the waterfall has been unfinished. The top of the waterfall is in place, but the only thing between that and the streambed 3 feet below has been a bit of rubber liner. Here is how it looked the day we restarted the waterfall in May:


My intent has always been to take care of this "someday", and in fact my focus the last couple weeks has been planning out the location of the footpaths, track, and rest of the garden. However, the water feature has been losing a lot of water due to evaporation. I checked that it wasn't due to leaks, at least leaks in the pond area itself, by stopping the waterfall for a couple hours and verifying that the water level remained constant. I also adjusted the lining around the water fall to shift the flow, and found that doing so could reduce the splashing and thus the rate of evaporation. But the rate of evaporation was still worrisome enough that something had to be done.

I figured, correctly as it turned out, that the problem was the 3 foot drop caused the water to splash several feet away after it hit the rocks, and that the solution was to find a way to reduce the distance the water fell before hitting the rocks, thus reducing the velocity when the water hit the rocks.

After some experimenting around and buying of various materials, I decided the solution was to replace the rubber liner with a larger one, as shown here:


Once in place, this allowed me to assemble a pile of rocks in a somewhat likely shape to make the new waterfall. Here it is in action:


Visually, it is better but not complete. I will be adding pea gravel around the area and a few smaller rocks, strategically placed, to hide as much of the black liner as possible. I'll also be dressing up the sides of the stream/waterfall so the transition looks more natural. However, even now it is an improvement over the simple rubber liner.

The other advantage we found is that the sound is quieter and, to us, better. The water still babbles and gurgles, but it seems smoother and more soothing now. I'll know tomorrow morning whether this has solved the evaporation problem without introducing new leaks, but early results look good.

Tomorrow is Father's Day and my goal is to have as much of the subroadbed for the main oval sited and pre-dug as I can.

    Wednesday, June 16, 2010

    Outdoor Track

    I've mentioned that the outdoor layout will be set in early 1880s Leadville (front yard) and Salida (back yard). Currently my target date is 1882, but I've wavered a bit on that. I'll comment more on that (someday) in a post on the outdoor layout design, but for this post let's focus on the track.

    I've mentioned before that most outdoor track is "gauge 1" but the track style varies depending on whether we are modeling narrow or standard gauge. Because I am modeling 3 foot narrow gauge, my official scale is Fn3 -- "F" (1:20.3 scale), "n" = narrow, 3 = 3 feet. There is a lot of track available for Fn3 modelers, including Llagas Creek and Sunset Valley (I'd link to Sunset Valley's site, but they are having apparent site problems right now.) There are other manufacturers, but those tend to be the most respected in terms of "authenticity" of appearance.

    Alas, I have two problems with their track. First, is cost. Over $3/foot for a normal section of track from the former, over $5/foot for the latter. Ok, maybe I could live with that, given that I spent over $1k on the Aquascapes stuff for the pond. But the second problem is that their appearance matches NG (narrow gauge) track in the 1900s, which granted is the era most people model. But in the 1870s and early 1880s this was what the track looked like:



    That's Palmer Lake not long after the Rio Grande RR first came through. Look at those ties -- not a nice rectangular one in the lot. Tie plates? Not even sure they were invented then. And given the HUGE drive to make NG track as low cost as possible to appease the northeast financiers, tie plates would have been avoided as an unnecessary luxury. And ballast? We don't need no stinking ballast!

    The truth was the NG movement in the U.S. from 1870-1883 was based largely on a myth of cost savings, and those constructing the railways were determined to ring out the cost savings even it it meant sacrificing long-term high maintenance costs in exchange for short term construction costs.

    By 1882 in Leadville things probably weren't so extreme, but alas I can't find any pictures of the track at that time. I can find some of Salida in 1880 (when the railroad first came to Salida and Leadville) and 1882 and it appears that in 1882 they were still using 7-foot wide NG ties, but they were somewhat more rectangular in shape. Of course new ties would have been swapped out for the original ones -- put straight into the dirt the original ties would have needed replacement very early.

    By 1882 the Rio Grande was already coming to terms with the need to put standard gauge rails to any city where there was competition from other standard gauge lines. In 1880 they added a 3rd rail to the front range line, and by 1890 they would do the same to Leadville, in response to the arrival of the standard gauge Colorado Midland.

    But having said that, in 1882 the Rio Grande would also have been counting on having to replace the ties several times before they needed to add standard gauge to Salida/Leadville, so I figure 7' ties are just about right. Also, when the railroad first came through ties were built from local wood. The local wood was quickly exhausted however (in Palmer Lake the foresters talk about the 1870s as a time when everything was clear cut, and the oldest trees today date from that decade), so ties had to be bought from external sources -- and usually those were more conforming to a rectangular shape than the ones that were hastily cut when the line was first laid.

    So, for my track I want: 7-foot scale, very rough ties; light rail (to match the rail then used), and more of a sand-dirt roadbed than anything resembling ballast.

    I am considering fashioning my ties from old bits of pressure-treated (p.t.) fir from the bridge project, with some kind of additional sealant to make them last longer. For rail, looking at the table of rail sizes (see third table from the bottom) and recognizing that early Rio Grande rail was 30 lbs, later to 40 lbs, I will probably go with the smallest rail I can find that can support standard flanges -- maybe code 205.

    For the roadbed I am considering stained concrete, with sand put on to make it look like the dirt/sand roadbed at the time. I'm now working on marking out and leveling the subroadbed area for the first loop of track that I will lay. Once that is in place I can experiment with handlaying roadbed and track using these materials.

    If that is successful I can start working on handlaying a stub switch (scroll to bottom of page) -- which was the cheaper form of switch that was common on NG railroads back then.

      Sunday, June 13, 2010

      A Beginning of Fish and Plants

      I knew nothing about pond maintenance when we started -- now I know only a little bit. But the only way to really learn is experience, so after reading the books and talking to the nice lady at the pond store, we took the plunge and got 3 gold fish. That worked so well the next day my wife got 8 more. I also added pond salt and have been adding the dry bacteria recommended for the biofilter.

      Alas, I'm pretty sure now that I overestimated the size of the pond (I thought it was around 800 gallons -- now I've recalculated and estimate 450), and I'm pretty sure I overdid the salt and the bacteria. At least that's my guess for why the fish started looking very lethargic. 5 ended up in the skimmer the next day (not harmful, but it shows they were just floating with the current).

      Eventually I got the water stabilized and 9 of the 11 fish survived and now thrive. At the pond store lady's recommendation we added a shelf in the middle of the pond to give the fish a hiding place and as a place for hosting some water plants, as you can see in the picture below:


      This was taken just after the rain storm (two days long, but rarely more than a drizzle) ended. Some of the other things you see in the pond are actually fake aquarium plants and logs that we tried first. The fish seem to like all of these. After the sun comes out you'll often see a school of all nine swim around the pond, but if you come close they will feel the vibrations and move -- either to the other side or under the rock.

      The reason the black pipe in the back is in the pond is that a pipe leak was found. I have the repair stuff -- was waiting only for the rain to end to repair it. However, this event suggests that I probably don't want to bury the pipe where I can't inspect it should another leak occur.

      The plan is to use stones to make some "shelves" for marginal plans on one of the sides, and to add more plants to the center. Also, of course, we have to scenic the area around the pond, but that is a topic for another post.

      I won't go full bore with the pond plants until we've gotten through this summer and next winter to see how things go with 4 seasons. In the meantime, the main focus now is the rest of the front garden.

        Saturday, June 12, 2010

        Restarting the Water Feature and Finishing the Foot Path

        In this post last year I talked about how I decided to use Aquascape's Microskimmer box to house the submergible pump. I also explained that the pond was too shallow (about 11" deep) to have the box sit in the pond itself, so I planned to create a permanent place for it just off the edge of the south side of the pond. Here is how the pond looked last summer shortly after the Microskimmer was in place:


        So before restarting the water feature this year I wanted to get the MicroSkimmer box in place. The first step was to dig a hole for the skimmer box and level it at the right depth. My main concern was that digging close to the mortar walls of the water feature might weaken them or even make them break, so I starte about a foot away. This process was not hard, just a lot of trial and error to get the box at the right depth and level in both directions.

        The MicroSkimmer box -- as with everything from Aquascape -- is pricey but very well designed. You need to attach the pond liner to it using their procedures. I couldn't readily find the 60 mil rubber I'd used for the main pond, but I found decent quality 40 mil material and folded it over -- effectively doubling the lining to 80 mil.

        That was the easy part. The next part was to cut out enough of the mortar wall so that I could create a "mini-canyon" to connect the pond to the skimmer box. I found a concrete-cutting blade for the circular saw at Lowe's -- less than $3 per blade -- so took two and tried it out. I was cautious at first to not dig too deep for fear of cutting the underlying rubber lining, but as it turned out the concrete blade cuts concrete but didn't bother the rubber. Here is how it looked after that step:


        You can see the cutout in the pond wall with the skimmer box in place behind it. There is a pile of rubber lining in front of the skimmer box because the lining has already been attached to the box so it has to sit there. The rubber lining on the pond had held up very well but was, of course, dirty and needed cleaning with mineral spirits -- which I had left over from the pond project last summer.

        The next step was to dig the canyon to connect the skimmer box. Easy enough, but once done I realized the walls were too step to expect that they would stay in place by themselves, even with mortar on them. So I used left-over pressure-treated (p.t.) fir and two leftover metal stakes to give the walls some strength. This picture is after the first one was in place:


        You can see the top of the p.t. fir along the "mini-canyon" wall that is not covered by the rubber lining. This block of p.t. fir doesn't need to cover the whole gap -- just enough of it to give the wall strength.

        The next step was to cut the rubber linings (both the original and the new ones) so they overlapped nicely but not too much (about 3") and splice them. Cutting was easy with a box knife (new blade). But splicing liners is always a tricky business due to the potential of leaks. I started out intending to use some of the lining tape left over from the project last summer, but decided that wouldn't work the because the liners did not meet up nice and evenly -- in fact the two liners were coming at very different angles and there would have to be folds and compromises at the splice.

        So, back to the home supply store. After looking at various adhesives intended for repairing holes in pools and on boats under the water line, I found something in the caulk section intended for showers with a 1 hour dry time. Reading the label they pointed out that if a product said "can clean up with water" then it isn't really water proof -- and they claimed their's was water proof. So I bought two caulk-gun-sized tubes to try it out.

        I used one whole tube of the stuff between the original pool liner and the first of the new liners (remember I was doubling two 40 mil liners for this new section). It squished down nicely and did indeed appear promising for covering all gaps. I used a second whole tube between the first and the second of the new liners and again squished together nicely.

        Now my theory was, and is, that if the caulking material is truly waterproof the splice will work because the weight of the mortar will hold the liners close together. I'll spoil the ending of the story and tell you right now that it did work - I tested the pond later for two days without running the waterfall and the water level stayed even the whole time, indicating no leak. Of course, we'd had similar results last summer with the splices using tape and some Polyseamseal, but this splice was more challenging.

        Next step was to mix and stain some mortar, as we'd done last year, and add rocks for strength and decoration. Here is oldest daughter Paige adding the rocks (something she loves to do):


        In the end, but before water was added, the skimmer box connection looked like this:


        But would it work? Well we had to wait some time for everything to dry. In the meantime, there were other projects to do. One was to clean the water feature, washing out the internals of the skimmer box and the Biofalls box at the top of the water fall. We also needed to very carefully rake up pine needles and debris from the stream and pond. I'm happy to say that all four kids helped with some of this. Here is a picture of Laura helping rake the pond:


        AND, it was long past time for me to put down the "red breeze" clay-rock mixture on the paths adjacent to the footbridge. Buying in bulk, and using my trailer, the whole purchase was only $11.30. Here is a picture of the north end of the bridge with the red clay-rock in place:


        The work to do this was mindlessly simple (remember that weed-blocking fabric had been put in underneath the red-clay last year) but labor-intensive. Be sure to tamp-water-tamp a few times to get it solid. We've been very pleased with the appearance and utility of this. The kids are even now using the bridge for riding bikes over.

        The next day was the great re-restarting of the water feature. Unlike last year this did not generate a huge amount of excitement. Kids checked in and looked, but didn't stay long as they'd seen this before. I was, however, very interested in if the skimmer box would work as expected. The answer: Yes, it did. This picture shows the skimmer box with the top open after I'd filled the pond just over the maximum point and the water was starting to run out the overlow pipe in the back:


        Here is a view of the skimmer box within the context of the pond:


        At that point the skimmer/pump had yet to remove all the water debris, but by later that day the water was as clear as glass.

        Since then we have added fish and a few water plants. I've started planning the remaining footpaths and the exact location of the train tracks. I've also started installing raised planters. None of those things are visible in this photo, taken May 31st, of how the front yard looked on that day:


        There still is a lot of work to do, but contrast this to last year on June 23rd:


        So, we're happy with all that has been done in the last year, and looking forward to some real refinement and -- yes -- trains! this year.

          Thursday, June 10, 2010

          Footbridge Railings

          As you may recall, late last year I stopped work on the bridge due to an injured rib. At the time the footbridge looked like this:


          I started work on the railings after the snow thawed and I'd completed the normal spring forest maintenance. I finished the railings on May 23rd. These next four pictures show the bridge as it looked then. Note that at the time of these pictures I still had work to do on the paths leading up to the bridge, and had yet to complete the facial panels on the undersides of the north ramp. Also, the waterfall/stream/pond had not been restarted. All that would be completed by the 31st, which I'll cover in a future post.





          The rest of this post describes the construction methods used on the railings.

          Railing design is subject to local building codes. I am absolutely NOT an expert, so please do not rely on anything written here. I strongly advise you to do your own research for your situation. Having said that, typical building requirements include: 1) minimum railing height (36" in my case), 2) maximum width of any gap in the railing (4" for me locally, but this apparently varies), 3) railing design does not allow youngsters to "climb" the railing using horizontal footholds and the like, and 4) strength guidelines, which are pretty complex. In addition for stairs there is a requirement for a grippable hand railing, which I did not provide. There may be other requirements I missed -- please don't trust this write up for your situation!

          There is also a wide variety of choices in railing material. This includes pre-constructed railing parts made of special materials, which I rejected due to expense, and pre-constructed railing sections of cedar, which I rejected due to appearance and poor strength. I eventually decided to stick to redwood -- the same material as the surface of bridge. Posts would be 4x4s (nominal 3.5" x 3.5"), balusters (those thin vertical pieces of wood between the post) would be 2x2s (nominal 1 3/8" x 1 3/8"), and the top railing would be 2x4s (nominal 3.5" x 1.5"). The total cost for the railing materials was close to $1k.

          For construction all pieces were given a first coat of the same stain as the rest of the bridge BEFORE they were assembled. This serves two purposes. First, after assembly there are always places where the wood is joined that is exposed but can't be reached with staining tools. Pre-staining provides at least some protection for those areas. Second, it's easier to stain the parts of a railing in bunches on their own, as opposed to after they are all assembled.

          This custom footbridge has a lot of unique areas in terms of how it was constructed, so I started the railing at the simplest section -- the part of the bridge over the creek. This is very nearly level and each side of the bridge is comprised of a 2x8 length of redwood attached to two 2x8 pieces of pressure treated (p.t.) fir -- making attachment of the posts relatively easy. I started by cutting 4' lengths of 4x4 post in half, giving me 4' high posts. The posts were to be connected to the bridge sides with 2 screw-end lag bolts = 1/2" x 8" long, with a matching washer. The top of the posts were to be 35 3/4" from the bridge floor -- which meant that with the railing top the railing height would be about 37 1/4". (This just seemed a good height.)

          Note that this means part of the post extends below the bridge bottom. I considered trimming off the excess, but after looking at a number of pictures of railings in books decided I like this look. After doing the same thing with the balusters, this created a visual sense of the bridge gently transitioning from the bottom of the floor of the bridge to the scenic area underneath, rather than a sudden cutoff.

          The assembly method I settled on, after some trial and error, was as follows. I first measured the appropriate locations of the lag bolts on the post. The idea is that you want to keep the lag bolts as far from each other as possible, but also make sure both will be firmly anchored in the wood. I then drilled two holes using a 7/16" bit -- just slightly smaller than the 1/2" lag screw so that it could have some wood to "grab" to. Although I did everything possible to make the drill holes straight, some slight variation is possible, so I measured the location of the exit holes relative to the entry holes, vertically and horizontally. Typically the offset was no greater than 1/16", but on some occasions it could be as much as 3/16". Taking the offset into account, I marked the corresponding location of the top drill hole onto the side of the bridge. I then used a 3/8" drill bit to make a hole in the bridge side (keeping it as level and as perpendicular to the bridge side as possible). This meant that it would be a lot of work to get the 1/2" lag screw into place, but once into place it would hold tightly. (My drill was not strong enough to drive the lag screw -- I had to use a large manual rachet.)

          Holding the post closely in place, I screwed in the lag screw (with washer) through the post then partly through the hole in the bridge -- enough so that the post would stay in place unless I intentionally moved it. Then I verified that the post height was correct (if not, adjust). Then I used a vertical level to set the post straight and used a drill with a long bit, put through the second post hole, to mark the location of that hole on the side of the bridge. Be careful to center the marking as much as possible. Once marked, drill the second hole with a 3/8" bit, then add the second lag screw. As I got close to finishing the tightening of the lag screws I used the vertical level to see if the post was leaning inward or outward from the bridge, and if it was used shims (of p.t. fir or redwood) between the post and the bridge to make it as upright as possible.

          Ok, posts are now in place. The railing was comparatively very simple (assuming top of posts are level and in a straight line). Measure the length, cut, sand, stain, then attached to the tops of the posts using 3" deck screws -- 4 per post. Where the railing piece would share the top of the post with an adjacent railing, use 2 screws.

          Balusters were also 8' lengths which I cut in half -- so each baluster was a 4' length of 2X2. You want baluster spacing to be even and to have each one as vertical as possible. At the same time, because wood pieces tend to warp or bow you need to account for possible warpage and visually adjust the location of each to make sure it all "looks" decent and keeps within the code requirements for maximum spacing.

          My process for attaching balusters evolved, like everything else, through trial and error. The first step was to decide the exact placement of each one. While the code discusses the spacing between each baluster, many of the builders on web sites talk in terms of center-to-center spacing. I decided on a center-to-center standard of 4" -- which is closer than necessary. In part I did this because I wanted some extra room just in case two warped balusters were placed next to each other, creating an extra wide space. But even allowing for an extra "safety space" I think I could have gotten by with 4 7/8" or even 5" center-to-center spacing. But, 4" is the standard I started with, so I stuck with it.

          The next question is the spacing between the post and the first baluster on each side. Because posts are not evenly spaced on this bridge this is something that has to be figured out anew for each section. I eventually came up with this process. First measure the distance between the posts. For example, let's say 50". Then divide by 4" to get the remainder -- in this case 4x12 = 48 so the remainder is 2". Add 4" to the remainder (in this case summing to 6") and divide that number by two (result in this case: 3"). This number is will be the distance between the *edge* of the post and the *center* of the first baluster. If you do this on both sides, then all other balusters will automatically be spaced 4" apart. (Note that in some special cases this might not yield a desired result, and if so you can adjust the center-to-center spacing slightly. It's all subjective.)

          To attach the baluster to the rail I used 10d 3" nails -- the kind with a stub head so they can be easily hidden with putty and stained over. You can nail these in directly, but with redwood doing so every 4" in a line is prone to creating a split in the wood. So I drilled each hole with a 1/8" bit then hammered the nail in until about 1" appeared below the rail.

          At that point I positioned each baluster onto the nail from underneath the railing -- taking care that the center of the baluster matched the center of the rail and the edge of the baluster matched the inside edge of the rail. I then hammered the bottom of the baluster (not the nail, but the bottom of the wood) until the baluster was on the nail and flush with the bottom of the rail.

          The bottom of the baluster now will swing a bit in each direction. Using a measuring tape I found the correct position for the bottom of the baluster, relative to the next baluster or the post, and drilled a pilot hole through the baluster and the side of the bridge with a 1/8" bit. Then used a 3" deck screw to fix it in place. Because wood is not always straight the distance between the posts at the rail level may be slightly differnet than the distance between the posts at the foot level. In addition, some posts or balusters may be slightly warped. Therefore, it is best to stand back a few feet and check appearance every few balusters to make sure that everything *looks* like it is lining up right. Once the baluster is screwed in place at the bottom, hammer in the rest of the nail at the top.

          Although this sounds like a complicated process once you get the hang of it you can do it very quickly if the balusters are already cut and stained. I typically did 6 balusters at a time -- starting at the posts and moving inwards, 3 at a time from each side. I didn't do more at a time because I felt that hammering in nails on the rail board at a distance of more than 3 holes from the previous fixed baluster risked splitting the rail wood.

          After I completed the railing on the main footbridge over the creek I found that the rest of the railings all had a few extra complications. One issue was post anchoring. At the bottom of the stairs there was not a natural anchor place for the post. There were redwood stringers on the outside but no wood on the other side of the stringer for the lag screw to attach to. I had to pull up the stair planks temporarily and add some leftover bits of p.t. fir, cut to size, to fit between the redwood stringers and the inner p.t. stringers. I also found i had to cut the bottoms of the posts at the bottoms of the stairs and at the top of the south ramp where they came close to the ground. This would also be true for the balusters in those locations.

          At the top of the stairs I had to adjust the metal straps that were used to hold parts of the bridge together, in order to create spaces for the lag screws. This required unassembly and reassembly of the straps, at one point a fairly involved mini-project. At the post across from the stairs the edge of the bridge floor was curved, and the edge of the bridge is 2-to-4" from the underlying beam. In order to create an anchor surface for the post that was aligned, vertically, with the edge of the bridge floor I again had to miter some p.t. fir and use 6 4" deck screws to put it in place against the beam. The 8" lag screws were long enough to penetrate this extension and still firmly grip the main beam, and as such that post is as solid as any on the bridge.

          Finally, on the north ramp the sides of the bridge floor fan out as far as a foot from the underlying joist. Since that was just a single 2x8 p.t. fir joist -- not a 4-6" thick beam like on most of the bridge -- and because it was so far from the edge, there was no good option for anchoring the posts to the bridge itself. So, instead I installed two concrete post footings, each fixed in place with half of a bag of concrete installed around the footing. This sounds like a lot of work but actually was one of the quickest tasks of this project -- taking only 40 minutes for the two posts. The posts were then put in place against the bridge facias and used 5" lag screws to the facias -- not for vertical support but only horizontal support. I was prepared to add a horizontal beam underneath the bridge between the two posts for additional horizontal support, but when installed that turned out not to be needed.

          Another challenge was uneven post tops. Where the bridge floor was sloped the railings had to be sloped to match, so the post tops did too. I tried a number of measuring techinques, but in the end the best was to position the post in place and draw a faint line where the floor went against the post. Then add 35 7/8" along the line and cut the top of the post there. In some cases the post had different slope where it would support two railings that came in at different slops. In that case the measurement had to be done twice, once for each slope.

          Railing edges were also more interesting if slopes were involved. In one case I made 12 separate miter cuts to get it exactly right. All I can suggest here is to be patient and expect to make many cuts if there are many angles involved. And be prepared with stainable wood putty if something goes wrong. Also count on sanding the rails afterwards so that transitions from one railing piece to the next will be smoother.

          Baluster tops, like post tops, had to be cut at slopes. The advantage here is that the cutting could be done after the railing was in place. So, using the vertical level, set up a baluster (the straightest one you can find) in place and mark the angle against the railing. Set up the miter saw at that angle and note it (like, 3.5 percent, for example). Cut one baluster and test. Adjust if needed and cut another. Repeat until it's perfect. Given the natural variation the first one is probably usable even if not perfect, but it's worth adjusting until you have the angle right. Then cut all the rest at that angle.

          For baluster spacing you have to make an accomodation for the slope. If you want 4" spacing horizontally that will be slightly longer spacing if you measure at the top of a sloped railing. In this case determine the spacing of the balusters nearest the post as described before. Then measure the spacing along the top of the railing between the two holes that are nearest the post. For example, let's say that horizontally the distance between the two is a multiple of 4" -- say 40". But along the top of the sloped rail it's actually 40 5/8". In that case add 1/16" (1/10 * 5/8") to the distance along the top of the rail between each hole. And make sure to drill the holes vertically -- not along the same slope as the rail.

          One more point is that code has special rules for stair railings, and one issue is height. Because the railing is linear and the steps are not, you can't develop a single measurement for the height of the railing relative to the step, but instead the code uses a height range. I tried to make sure my railing was at the middle of the range.

          Finally, there is the issue of the curved railing. At one part of the bridge -- the side opposite the staircase, the edge of the floor is curved in a quarter circle. I felt that if I used a straight 2x4 railing connection between the posts on this side it would look bad. The balusters would have to be angled in order to connect from the bridge side to the railing, for one, and the connection would just be wrong.

          After considering a number of options I decided to use 2x6 planks for these railings instead of the normal 2x4, and to use the extra width to cut the planks to match the floor edge curvature. The outside edge of the railings was installed along the post edges as normal -- that is the outside edges of the railings lined up with the outside edges of the posts -- thus leaving the inside edges sticking over the bridge floor. Then using a very careful and multi-iteration process, I measured and cut away the extra parts of the railings until they matched the floor edge curve. The railings were given extra sanding and now look natural with the balusters in place.

          Next post: red clay pathway and getting the water feature running.

          Wednesday, June 9, 2010

          Transition to Summer

          My last post was on April 23rd. A lot has happened since then, but virtually nothing on the iNdoor layout. Except for a little work on the N scale electronics, the past 6 weeks has been a transition to outdoor season.

          It all started with a snow storm. Every few years in Colorado we get a pile of heavy snow in the late spring. This one wasn't predicted -- in fact, I'd swapped out my snow tires for all-seasons based on a clear weather forecast less than a week before we got 20". Unfortunately, the heavy snows are hard on trees, and we lost 10 this year. So my first task was to clear that up with a chain saw and a few trips to the slash/mulch site. I also became a forest volunteer for our local community, as it seemed a neighborly thing to do plus I get to learn more about the forest we live in.

          Since then I've focused on the front yard. The bridge railings are complete, the red clay pathway is installed, and the waterfall is running again -- this time with the pump and skimmer properly installed. We even have fish and pond plants now. I've started work on the rest of the garden, including planning the track. Yes, this summer I will have actual trains running.

          All those are topics for future posts. I'll try to get my posts caught up this week so that I can post in real time this summer.

          Friday, April 23, 2010

          Switch machine standards

          This post describes the procedure and standards I use for installing Tortoise switch machines on the main layout. This is the first of two related posts -- the next post will cover the switch wiring standards.

          As I write this I have successfully installed 12 Tortoises on the layout, all driven by Digitrax DS64s. The photos in this post were taken of the last two Tortoises I installed.

          This process is not by any means fast. It takes me at least an hour per switch. I don't claim this is the best process, but it works, and it's the product of lots of learning, research, and trial-and-error.

          Background: The Tortoise

          The normal Tortoise installation position is shown in the picture below, which is copied from the Tortoise instruction sheet:

          This photo is a bit hard to decipher because it is in black-and-white, but the components are all there. At the top you can see the switch (they use HO scale in this picture, but the same machine works for N and other scales too). The switch is on top of roadbed, which looks white in this picture, and that in turn is on top of a piece of plywood subroadbed. There is also a shaft drilled through the cork roadbed and plywood subroadbed. The Tortoise is attached underneath the plywood. A non-electrical metal wire, which I will call a "driving wire", links the Tortoise to the switch through the shaft. The driving wire goes through a “fulcrum”, or pivot point, which is piece of plastic with a small hole for the wire near the top of the Tortoise in this picture, then down to a screw near the bottom that holds the wire to the gears. When the gear shifts from one side to the other, the wire is moved and the switch above will move to the opposite side.

          This is a simple but cool mechanism. Because of different scales and different thicknesses of subroadbed, the span of the “throw” at the top of the driving wire (that is, the distance the wire covers at the top when going from one side to the other) can be adjusted by moving the fulcrum up and down. The instructions also say that you can substitute a larger gauge wire if you like, and this can be useful in some situations.

          Extending out of the bottom of the Tortoise in this picture is a circuit board for 8 electrical connections. The Tortoise is driven by a low DC voltage using the 1st and 8th connections. To “throw” the switch you simply reverse the polarity of the DC voltage being supplied, and that causes the gear to switch sides. Once the gear has gone all the way to one side the motor stalls. It can still receive power without causing problems, and depending on your situation you might want to keep the power constant to be sure the point rails are held against the side rails.

          The other 6 connections on the circuit board are linked to two internal SPDT switches, which are switched whenever the main switch is thrown. The most common uses for these are to provide switched track power to the frog rails and to wire lighted indicators for a switch board. I will be using both of these functions, but this post only describes the frog wiring as I haven’t set up the light boards yet.

          A sideways installation: concept

          I chose not to install my Tortoises as described above, for two reasons. First, you’ll notice the Tortoise sticks out quite a ways under the layout – almost 4” when you consider the wiring attached to the circuit board. I simply won’t have that much available space under the upper deck, nor at certain parts of the lower deck (such as above the power cabinet). Furthermore, even where there is 4" of vertical space I prefer not to have the Tortoise taking up that much head room in the under-layout crawl area.

          Second, on the lower deck of my layout there are many places where the thickness of the foam subroadbed plus the underlying plywood is as much as 2 ¾”. This means the driving wire has to be extra long, which is not by itself a problem. But it also means that the span of the “throw” of the end of the driving wire is huge, even if the fulcrum is moved to the absolute top of the Tortoise. Add in the fact that I’m in N scale, and what this means is that with a normal Tortoise installation the “throw” for the wire is 3x the distance needed to move the turnout (switch) from one side to the other. In practice this is still workable, as the wire is bendable. But the downside is the aesthetics. One of the key benefits of the Tortoise is that your switches move in slow motion, like the prototype. At a typical DC voltage the time it takes to move a switch from one side to the other is about 3 seconds. However, when the “throw” span is 3x the width needed to move the switch, what happens is that the switch is moved in 1/3rd the time, or about 1 second, and that means the appearance is way too fast.

          Both of these are common problems and thus there are many proven solutions. The Circuitron people even sell special sideways Tortoise mounting kit to address the first problem (but not the second). A while ago I ran across a link to this model railroading news letter where on page 8 the author describes his procedure for sideways mounting. As I studied it I realized that not only was this cheaper than the official sideways mounting kit, it also had the added benefit of addressing the second problem (although that was not the author’s intent) because of the geometry of the two wires and fulcrums.

          The procedure I use is copied from his, making adaptations only because I used different materials that were more readily available. After successfully testing this with one switch, I modified the remaining 13 Tortoises that I had on hand as shown in this picture:

          My goal in the modification of the Tortoise is to prepare it for an installation that looks something like this, viewed from underneath the layout:


          Note that both Tortoises in this picture are mounted sideways. The wire that drives the switch still runs through a vertical shaft in the plywood, but now there are two wires and two fulcrums.
          The rest of this post describes how to set up this installation.

          Preparing the Tortoise

          1) You are going to glue two pieces of styrene to each Tortoise. In preparation, you will file down Tortoise plastic “shell” slightly just to make sure there is a smooth surface to glue to. I first used a hobby file, but then went to a normal sized metal file as it was quicker. The first place you need to file is what will be the “top” of the Tortoise when it is installed – this is the side opposite the side with the gear. You probably have to take off the round sticker that the inspector put on it and then need to file down the “bump” down the middle where the two plastic pieces of shell were joined. Do so for the whole side. The second place you need to file is the side that is the “top” in a normal installation. Again, file down the bump in the middle.

          2) For what will be the “top” of the Tortoise you will want to attach a piece of .030” styrene about 2 7/8” x 2 3/4”. This styrene will act as a mounting plate. As per the picture above, you see there is a plate of white styrene attached to the top of the Tortoise with glue, and the plate is screwed to the plywood to mount the Tortoise. I bought some large sheets of .030” styrene in bulk and cut them with a plastic cutter. Thicker styrene can also work – I would not recommend thinner. Once cut, I attach the styrene using common super glue, which dries very fast and holds strong.

          3) You’ll need a second, smaller piece of styrene to act as the second fulcrum. In the picture above this is the piece of white styrene at the very left of the photo, attached to the Tortoise very near the plywood, and with the driving wire running through it. For this I used .040” styrene, cut to 1.5” x 1/2"”, and used super glue again to attach it to the Tortoise. It’s a good idea to drill the hole before attaching. I placed the hole in the center, lengthwise, and about 1/8" from the end (widthwise). The hole should be big enough for the wire, and after the hole is made you probably want to tilt the drill at an angle and move it in a circle to provide an angled cut so that the wire can tilt as the switch is thrown.

          4) For driving wire some people recommend .025 piano wire. I use 18 gauge wire that I found at the local Michael's art supply store in the floral section. It's intended to serve as a stem for fake flowers, but it's very cheap, is available in bulk packages, is perfectly straight until you bend it, and can be cut easily. It's thicker and stiffer than the wire which comes with the Tortoise, which is an advantage, so I use it for both of the wires in each installation and save the stock wire for some unknown future use. The wire lengths should be cut to fit your installation, with some extra left over just in case.

          If you use the thicker wire you'll need to drill larger holes in the Tortoise fulcrum and in the slot where the wire slides into the gear. I recommend buying a small hobbyist hand drill with an assortment of small bits -- you can use this for all kinds of model projects, and the hand drill is easier to control than a power drill. I choose a bit that is exactly the size needed for the 18 gauge wire.

          For the gear slot, I use hobby pliers to hold the black plastic gear while drilling -- this prevents possibly damage by pressing too hard onto it. Ditto for when the screw is added. When that wire is in place add the green fulcrum, putting the wire through it.

          5) Then you join the driving wires, one each for the styrene fulcrum you added and the green fulcrum that came with the Tortoise. There are many options here, but the easiest I found is to use a short (1/2" or so) length of chunk of retangular, tube styrene available at any decent model train shop (Evergreen Scale Models #259, .250 x .375"). I drill cross holes in each direction and put the wires through. While there may seem to be a lot of slack in this set up, in practice the first wire moves the second like clockwork.

          6) For final touches, first add 4 holes to the edges of the mounting piece of styrene and pre-set 4 screws (I use #6, 5/8"). Then I add a label for the switch number. This shows a Tortoise where everything is ready for installation. Note it is upside down and the second driving wire isn't in the picture -- that will get added during installation:


          Preparing the Switch

          There are three things you need to do to prepare the switch for Tortoise installation (or possibly 1 or 2, depending on your type of track). It is easier if you do these before you install the switch on the layout, but alas I'd already installed these switches, so I had to do these things after the fact.

          First, here is an example of two Peco code 55 switches, installed in 2006 and still on the original AMI roadbed:


          So here's the modifications that I make:

          1) First, I connect a feeder wire to the frog rails. I described this issue with "Electrofrog" or "Live Frog" switches last year. In my case, I had hoped that I could avoid having to make the extra effort to add a separate feeder wire the frog rails, but my experience operating the layout proved that in the absense of a separate feeder wire, the frogs frequently lose power due to dirt between the point and outside rails. You can correct this immediately by cleaning the rail contact points, but on a large layout you have to do this a lot during operating sessions, so it quickly becomes tedious.

          Adding a frog wire retroactively to an installed Peco code 55 switch is a challenge, but doable. There is a connecting frog wire hidden underneath the switch. I found that I could access it from the outside rail of the straight route, between the 2nd and 3rd tie from the end. I used an eXacto knife to first cut out some roadbed, then cut the plastic under the rail, and then "dug" a bit into the under-rail plastic until I caught the wire on the end of the knife. I would then pull the wire out just enough for it to be visible. At that point I would strip about 1/2" of insulation off of a 22 gauge solid green wire, bend the end of the wire into a hook, and use it to "hook" the exposed frog wire. Once hooked I'd use small hobby pliers to clamp the wires together, then solder them, then drill a hole in the plywood for the green wire. The end result is a hidden feeder wire connecting to the frog rails on one end and sticking underneath the layout on the other end.

          2) Peco switches have built in springs that force the switch to one side or the other. This is a nice feature in the absence of a separate switch machine. However, when using a slow-motion Tortoise the spring needs to be removed.

          The spring is located right at the end of the point rails. You will see two metal tabs on the plastic part between the rails that spans two ties. Use and eXacto knife or similar to pry these up, then remove the plastic tab in the middle. Then push the metal tabs down so that you can remove the piece of metal that includes thow tabs. Finally, the spring itself is now visable. Pull it out with hobby pliers or a tweezer. You're done.

          3) Finally, you need a hole for the driving wire that will link the switch to the Tortoise. I use the hand drill mentioned earlier. This hole should be in the large tie that drives the movement of the point rails, and I prefer putting the hole in the exact center of the tie between the rails, rather than, say, on the part of the tie on side of the rails. It just seems to work better that way.

          First, I use a small drill bit to create a pilot hole, then a larger drill bit that is the exact size of the driving wire. Be very careful, as too much downward pressure can damage the switch.

          4) One other thing you'll need is to drill the shaft through the subroadbed for the switch machine wire. I use a 3/8" bit, and am sure to clean the shaft of debris before installing the switch.

          Here is a switch which has had all of the above steps completed, and even has a driving wire in the wire hole. At this point the switch machine below is not connected, so the wire has been slightly bent at the top to prevent it from falling through:


          Installing the Tortoise

          With the switch and Tortoise both prepared we are ready to connect everything up. Depending on the space available underneath this can require some real physical contortion to reach everything. To the degree possible try to provide adequate space and light. I use at least two cheap "clamp" worklights available at hardware stores. It's good to have two to provide lighting from different directions so that you avoid shadows.

          1) Prepare the space.

          Make sure there is a spot under the layout clear of wires and other obstacles. Here is an example of such a space:


          On the left side of the picture you can see the bottom of the shaft for the driving wire, and the wire itself hanging down from the switch. Next to that hole is a white shelf support bar -- because of that we won't be able to install the Tortoise to the left of this shaft, we'll need to do it to the right of the shaft. On the right side of the picture you see the green feeder wire from the frog. In the middle of the picture is the red-and-black power bus. This is near the intended location of the Tortoise, but not in the way.

          The Tortoise itself has to be positioned so that the movement of the switch wire is perpendicular to the switch itself.

          2) Connect the Tortoise to the plywood.

          Here's a picture showing this step completed:


          This is a pretty simple step conceptually. Position the Tortoise such that the driving wire is through the styrene fulcrum (see left of picture) and that the fulcrum hole is at the center of the shaft. This gives the wire maximum movement potential -- if the hole is too near the sides of the shaft the you may find the switch doesn't move well. Also make sure the Tortoise is lengthwise positioned in the same direction of the switch itself -- this is to make sure that the wire movement is perpendicular to the switch. Then drill the 4 screws in and you are done.

          In practice this is tricky. I usually put in the first two screws manually, at least part of the way, to make sure they go in straight and don't shift the location of the Tortoise. Then I use a power drill on slow speed setting with an extra long drill bit to keep the screws going in straight.

          3) Connect the frog wire.

          Here is a Tortoise with just the one frog wire attached, not yet soldered:


          There are two options for adding wires to the Tortoise circuit board. One is to buy a 3rd party "slide on edge connector" which have wire clips on one side and a slot for the whole unit to slide on the tortoise circuit board on the other side. This is the smart way to do it, as it saves difficult soldering and allows for easy changes later.

          So, since that is the smart way, naturally I do it the other way. Mostly out of trying to save money where I can. I solder the connections. Now, this is quite tricky but I've gotten so I do it quickly and reliably. And I figure that if I need to make changes later I can do so at the other, non-soldered, end of the wire.

          After I have the Tortoise in place I think of the circuit board as having slots numbered 1-8 from left to right, from the point of view where you are sitting looking at the board directly (as in the above photo). In this case slots 1 and 8 will be used for the switch power from the DS64. I connect those wires last because it is easier to solder the inside slots first. Slots 5-7 will be used in the future for the switch board lights, so I don't talk about them in this post. Slots 2-4 are for powering the frog.

          Slot 4 is the frog wire. This is the unswitched side of the connection, as shown in the internal Tortoise SPDT diagram below (taken from the Tortoise instructions):


          I'll have more to say about the above diagram on the next step. For now, the point is that slot 4 is always for the green frog feeder wire.

          Attaching and soldering is the same process for each wire. First, I strip about 3/8" of insulation from the end of the wire. The wire is then routed through the hole and, using hobby pliers, the wire is bent as shown in the picture above so that it forms a "U" shape and clamps onto the circuit board. You want to have only a small amount of wire extending above the board, and you want to make sure that there is no chance that any two wires above the board will touch each other. Below the board there is a thin, narrow strip metal for connectivity, so you want to run the wire along that metal strip.

          Once in place, I use a soldering iron at 40W (the 20W setting doesn't work as well for this application). I place the flat end of the iron blade on one side of the wire and make sure it is touching the circuit board metal strip, then apply solder from the other side of the wire. The whole process takes only a few seconds -- as soon as the solder is applied I remove the solder source and the iron. The solder will tend to bind to the metal, not the insulation between the metal strips, if you are spartan with the solder there should be no shorts yet the connection should be solid.

          4) Connect the track power wires

          This picture shows the same Tortoise after the track power wires have been connected:


          It's not clear from the picture, but the red track wire has gone to slot 2, the black to slot 3. The track wires are connected to one of the terminals on the power bus, as described in earlier posts on wiring standards.

          The biggest challenge at this point is figuring out which track polarity goes to which of the two slots #2 and #3. There is no simple rule of thumb. It depends on the orientation of the switch itself and the orientation of the Tortoise. The only solution I found that works is a complicated procedure. I first look at the switch from above and mentally identify which rail is "red" and which is "black". Then I note whether we want the frog rails to be "black" or "red" when the switch is set to the "normal" or "straight" route. In that case the frog rails should be the same polarity as the outside rail from the diverging route.

          Then I mentally note whether, in the "normal" position, the switch is set toward the wall or away from the wall. Thus, at that point I might be thinking "switch set toward wall, polarity black", for example.

          Then I climb under the layout and position myself so I am looking at the Tortoise from the side of the circuit board. Let's say, from that point of view, that the "toward wall" position matches the left side of the Tortoise. So I will now say, "switch on left side, polarity black".

          Now I look at the internal Tortoise SPDT diagram shown above in the previous step. At the bottom of that I have manually drawn in two boxes and a line connecting them. This represents the two possible positions of the switch. The box on the left is filled in, the box on the right is hollow. So what this says to me is that when the switch is on the left, the internal SPDT switches will be in the position shown in that diagram. When the switch is on the right, the internal SPDT switches will be in the opposite position.

          And from this, I know that if "left side, polarity black", then if the switch is to the left slide, then slot 4 (frog) will connect to slot 3, so slot 3 should be the black wire.

          Then after doing all that I repeat the mental exercise to confirm the result, then I attach and solder the wires.

          After doing this for 11 Tortoises I've found it works every time. The only time I made an error in polarity was when I tried to short cut the process with a "rule of thumb", copying the wiring on a nearby Tortoise, but missing a detail so I made an error.

          5) Connect the switch power wires

          This picture shows the same Tortoise after the power wires were connected to slots 1 and 8:


          One thing that might be confusing is that there are two pairs of white power wires -- one coming from above, and another extending below. The reason is that the Tortoise in this picture is one of a pair of Tortoises that drive a crossover. Crossover switches have the unique attribute that they should always switch together. That is, it makes sense only if both switches are set to "diverge" (so that a train can crossover between the dual tracks) or "straight" (so that trains can pass each other on the two tracks). So, in this case we wire the power for both Tortoises from the same DS64 switch slot, saving a switch slot and simplifying the control.

          Therefore, the second set of white power wires are hanging down in this photo only temporarily. They will soon be connected to slots 1 and 8 on the paired Tortoise.

          6) Connect the Tortoise driving wires

          This photo is a repeat of the photo at the beginning of the post, and shows the paired Tortoises all set up:


          You'll see that the driving wires are now connected using the piece of rectangular styrene tube. Back during the Tortoise preparation phase I drilled holes in the piece of tube so that perpendicular driving wires could go through both ends. Now the driving wires are routed through the holes.

          It's worth remembering that the driving wire which goes to the switch will not be supported from above after this installation is complete. Therefore, in order to prevent it from sliding down and falling out, we need to support it from below, This is done by bending the bottom part of the wire around and using pliers to clamp it onto the rectangular styrene "connector".

          7) Testing and tuning

          Everything is in place but there is still quite a bit of testing left to do.

          The first tests I run by powering up the DCC command station but not adding track power. The first test is simply to see if the DS64 actually drives the Tortoise using the switch address we thought we programed. Note that you may not see the switch actually move at this point (although it's better if you do), however, if you see the Tortoise switch gear move in response to the command then the test passes. If you have paired Tortoises, both must move, and their movement must be coordinated (so that both switches are either diverge or straight at all times). If this fails you need to check that the address is correct and then that the wiring is correct. (Or, if this is the first usage of that DS64, you need to verify that it is getting power and Loconet correctly.)

          The second test is to make sure that the DS64 "thrown" and "closed" positions match that of the switch. If not the simple solution is to reverse the two wires that connect to the DS64. In fact, although it is possible to reason out in advance which switch power wire should go to which DS64 slot, in this case it's not worth the bother. I just connect the wires to the two DS64 slots randomly and half the time I end up having to undo and reverse them them -- a process that takes less than a minute. (Note: the reason I don't use the same process for the frog wires is that with frog wires we are dealing with soldered connections and the power test takes longer run.)

          The third test is tuning the switch. Ideally as soon as the Tortoise gears starts moving the point rails will start to move from one closure rail to the other -- and get to the other closure rail just as the Tortoise completes the movement. You don't want the point rail to not reach the closure rail, obviously, but you also don't want it to get to the closure rail too soon either, mostly for aesthetics as noted earlier.

          One adjustment is to move the green fulcrum on the Tortoise to increase or degress the span of the driving wire movement. The other adjustment is to slightly bend the wire if the switch is favoring one side or the other. This adjustment takes practice, and the first time you try it you may decide you need to start afresh with a new wire after too much bending. However, once you get familiar with the process this adjustment is usually completed and tested very quickly.

          Once the switch itself has been tested for correct connections and movement you can remove the top of the driving wire that was sticking out the the switch hole. Thus the switch will end up looking like this:


          Note that you can barely see the end of the metal wire in the middle of the switch tie. After adding scenic treatment this wire will be completely hidden.

          The final test is the power to the frog. For this you turn the track power on. There are two tests. The first is to see if the polarity is correct. If not you'll probably know as soon as you turn the track on because the frog will short, as the point will be touching the wrong rail. However, just in case the short is masked by some dirt between the point and closure rails, also test with a voltmeter on an A/C setting.

          The second test is to make sure the frog is getting power separately from the point-closure rail connection. That is, test to verify that the frog feeder and red/black track power wires you connected to the Tortoise are actually routing power. Using the voltmeter on the A/C setting, first test to see what normal track voltage is between two nearby rails. (For my layout, it's usually 12.6V or so, which is correct for Digitrax on the N scale setting.) Then put one lead on the frog, one lead on a nearby rail of opposite polarity, and manually move the switch so that neither point is touching a closure rail. The voltage should stay the same -- if not the frog feeder connection is either tenuous or non-existent. Throw the switch and repeat again, to verify this works with both polarities.

          Now you are done. This post didn't cover the wiring standards or the programming standards for the DS64. I'll cover that in my next standards post.