Tasks and more tasks

Had a short, but intense business trip this week. Fortunately successful, as the first site to launch this large new platform worked the first time. Lots and lots of hours so I will be taking tomorrow off to compensate.

Being away from the house meant no time directly on the layout, but I did have some down time to write the last three posts on design influences, concepts, and the layout room. I also fired up 3rd PlanIt again and redesigned the track from the middle tier to where it meets the main layout. I'll describe that in a later design post, but that had been a roadblock to any further track construction.

Now I'm back, somewhat rested, and am writing this post to organize what to do next. Here is a brief list of tasks needing to be addressed, in a rough priority order.

1. Resolve switch machine issue.
   
   On the main layout the switches are all still manual. This is mostly okay, but three in particular are impossible to reach unless you go into "the Box" in the center. Back in spring 2007 I was running trains using the first iteration of staging and was finding it a pain to go into "the Box" to set the switches, so I took the two Tortoise switch machines that were left over from the 2002 layout and hooked them up, temporarily using a DC power pack and switch boxes from the same layout.
   
   So what about the 3rd switch? Well, being cheap by nature I wanted to avoid buying another Tortoise -- which runs around $17 if you buy just one. In my defense, two of the switches in question form a crossover. One attribute of a crossover is that the two switches always move together, either both facing normal or both facing the diverging route. Thus, if you can set it up correctly you can drive them both with one switch machine. Further in my defense, I have about 15-16 (lost count) crossover configurations on the layout, so the savings of using just one switch machine on all of them would be over $200. And that doesn't count the two double crossovers, in which one machine can theoretically power all 4 switches.
   
   I tried this in 2007 but never got it working. Then summer came, I stopped work on the layout, and in December 2008 I removed the first staging and started the replacement project -- as described at the start of this blog.
   
   Now we're finding that the one switch that I was working on is a common derailment spot because the spring was removed as part of the installation process. I need to solve this, either by finding a one-machine solution or giving up and allocating two per crossover.
   
   This item has to be done before I can start thinking about the DS64 project below.
   


2. Power cabinet.
   
   I received the items from Mike in the mail this week. I now have what I need to set up the internals of the power cabinet in it's semi-permanent configuration. As part of this task I would also install the new UR92 on the layout facade by the cabinet and re-install the UP5 and UR91 panels onto the staging area (they were taken out when the old staging was dismantled). Also as part of that I should test the loconet cables for an issue I'll describe in a later post.
   


3. Track cleaning.
   
   This includes hand-cleaning the remaining middle-tier track, so I can start using it for storage and test running of more trains, and also starting a regular weekly track-cleaning cycle with the CMX car.
   


4. Track scenery.
   
   My attempt last week to paint the Peco ties to look like concrete came out worse than most of my previous attempts. Something I'll describe in a future post. But I really want to solve this before I lay any more Peco track, and that means it has to be before a lot of other work.
   


5. Upper AR issue.
   
   The upper tier AR section has a funny problem whereby it works fine in the normal direction, but in reverse it simply loses power to the track. We work around it now, but during sessions where a switcher moves cars from one upper tier track to another this will be a problem.
   


6. DS64 deployment.
   
   This is the stationary decoder I mentioned last year. Once the switch machine issue is resolved I should get the DS64 working with the Digitrax system and 4 switch machines. This is a necessary learning experience, a prerequisite for putting up switch panels on the layout facade or using traffic control software.
   


7. Extending middle tier staging.
   
   Quite a bit to do here, but the first step will be ordering the needed Atlas code 80 switches and track, as I've run out. So I can get that started this week.
   

My goal for the end of this weekend is to complete items 1, 2, and 3 above and to have a plan in place to solve 4.

During the same time I expect my son will continue his work with car repair and soon, decoder installs and engine cleaning.