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Shedend - DCC on a budget


andymoore

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I've been dabbling with a train set / model railway for a number of year now - I started in the loft, but climbing up & down the ladder was a nightmare & the heat in the summer made it unuseable. I then moved it all to my 'office' (a log cabin in the garden). As an OO gauge layout, it just didn't fit. So I sold most of it & started on an n-gauge layout. After nearly two years it has started to take shape, it consists of two main loops & a branch line. All of it was DC controlled, with a little tank engine running round & round on one of the main loops. The second loop had a Gaugemaster SS-3 module, which allowed two trains to chase each other, stopping & starting without bumping into each other. The branchline had an EMU running back & forth controlled by a heathcote electronics shuttle module. All lots of fun, but not quite as automatic, or realistic as I would like. I've dabbled with zero 1 in the past & been keeping an eye on DCC. This month II finally made the decision to switch to DCC. This is being done on a budget, as I don't have a bottomless wallet, so a Hornby Elite or any of the other usual DCC controllers was simply out of my price range. Last week I purchased a Hornby elink controller, with Railmaster. This is basically a DCC controller that uses the power of a PC to do all the work. I also picked up two LAIS dcc decoders & a hornby accessory decoder.

first off, here is a video of the last run of the layout under DC, my apologies if videos aren't allowed here, if so I'll take it down.

24758827233_28b05fc454_z.jpg20150717_191810 by Andy Moore, on Flickr

So far I have fitted one of the decoders to the EMU - it runs beautifully. I had some fun & games getting the elink to communicate with my PC, but that is all sorted now & with the railmaster s/w is a fabulous bit of kit.

Next up was to fit a point motor to the set of points near the road bridge at the end of the lower station. After a couple of hours of fiddling about trying to fit it above the baseboard I realised that the set of points in question were too stiff for the motor to switch them, so I have taken the points up & have fitted a point motor to the underside of a replacement set. This will now need a hole cut in the baseboard. While i'm at it the two sets of points in the middle of the same station are going to be taken up & changed to left hand units, also with motors fitted underneath. I'm also taking up the track at the other end of the layout as it has too steep a gradient & too tight a curve - the track work will hopefully be completed next weekend.

Once all this is done, the next job is to fit a decoder to the black 4MT steam engine - I've found some notes on how to do this on a yahoo group - it looks daunting & very fiddly.

Total spend on DCC conversion so far:

Elink & Railmaster : £75

6 pin lais DCC decoder: £13

bare wire lais decoder: £10

Accessory decoder : £37

Total: £ 135

This is an ongoing project (my grandkids love it), Thankyou for reading....

Edited by andymoore
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  • 4 weeks later...

Looks interesting, I confess to knowing very little about the trains but as my own shed nears completion I'm beginning to fancy a train running around at head height. I'm thinking just a simple single track "circle", so was leaning to one of the Hornby sets that has everything in it.

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Looks good :) good luck with the fitting of the DCC Chips, can be very fiddly!!!

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  • 1 month later...

Time for an update:

Progress has been patchy, due to life getting in the way.

First up is the controller - this was a piece of cake to wire into the existing railway, there are just two wires that go to the track & that's it. I had to add quite a few connections to the two wires as the previous wiring had one of the loops split into 5 sections - these are now all joined up.

There are four connections on the controller - the second pair go to wha t is called a programming track. This is an isolated section of track onto which locos get placed in order to program the dcc decoder inside them. The railmaster software makes this all very easy.

26999095176_0687d3ce77_z.jpgWP_20160515_17_52_27_Pro by Andy Moore, on Flickr

After an hour or so I had a diagram up on the screen of the layout:

26426834214_8c665c5f46_z.jpgWP_20160515_17_56_12_Pro by Andy Moore, on Flickr

Next up was to add dcc decoders to the locos - the EMU was a piece of cake, just pop the top off, insert the chip into its' socket, put he loco back together & away we go.

The tank engine was a little trickier - but also successful.

Then on to replacing three sets of points & fitting motors to them. this involved lots of track cutting with a rotary tool, using a jigsaw to cut holes in the baseboard, lots of cleaning up & then wiring up the point motors. this was simple - three wires go to the accessory decoder. I never know which way round to wire the red & green wires (black is common) so I just plugged them in. This is where the software comes up with a fabulous feature - if you've wired the point motor round the wrong way you can just check the 'reverse polarity' box - no need to rewire !

26938286602_f153afe13b_z.jpgWP_20160515_17_59_33_Pro by Andy Moore, on Flickr

So the trains are running again & I now need to get the scenery sorted out. Platforms 2&3 need reshaping in the lower station due to the new set of points...

26938283082_5cf9aa958e_z.jpgWP_20160515_18_16_42_Pro by Andy Moore, on Flickr

This weekend I've built a peco carriage shed - here it is & a few other pictures around the railway.

27032485775_e70a8fe4a8_z.jpgWP_20160515_17_54_35_Pro by Andy Moore, on Flickr

26938290352_5881bde4b1_z.jpgWP_20160515_17_54_51_Pro by Andy Moore, on Flickr

26426821434_6a5b71a5a4_z.jpgWP_20160515_18_17_30_Pro by Andy Moore, on Flickr

27032475255_6aa0d49ae0_z.jpgWP_20160515_18_18_36_Pro by Andy Moore, on Flickr

in my next post I hope to have all the hills finished & an engine shed next to the carriage shed. Oh and possibly a signal box or two...

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Impressive layout.

I run a DCC layout myself on a Roco geoline system with the Digitrax Zephyr as a Base station.

Norwegian trains only at the moment. All locomotives have DCC and DCC with sound modules in them. Some have smoke installed too.

The DCC system is fairly plug and play, but retrofitting can be a pain.

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  • 1 month later...

This one was a challenge,

IMG_1460_zpscfgferq7.jpg

Getting any decoder small enough was difficult. In the end I decided the only chance I had

was a Lenz Silver Mini and the cheapest in the U.K was £29 + £2 P&P.

So I do appreciate Anyd's DCC costings

'V'

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  • 6 months later...

well it's nearly a year since my last post & I have to admit that work on the railway ground to a halt last year. Mostly due to getting distracted building model aeroplanes. Anyway, at Christmas my railway mojo resurfaced with a great addition - a loksound 4.0 for my EMU, it blows the DCC budget out of the park at £125, but it really does add a whole new dimension to the atmosphere of a model railway/ train set. Here's a short video showing the first test run of the EMU.

31899873616_a02ede044d_b.jpg411 cep with sound by Andy Moore, on Flickr

 

Once I had that running I decided it was time to get all the scenery sorted out, I reckon I can get most of it done by the end of March. I've started on the right hand half of the railway & needed to make sure I had all the signals in place. I ordered 4x Z35 signals from some fella on ebay (£11.99 for four), expecting them to be awful. Indeed they didn't look great when they turned up.

 

31931328310_d922c21246_b.jpgWP_20170114_18_43_27_Pro_LI by Andy Moore, on Flickr

 

A lick of paint makes them look a lot better.

 

32268748156_b24e649d47_b.jpgWP_20170114_18_43_56_Pro_LI by Andy Moore, on Flickr

 

There are three wires coming out of these - red, green & black. I guessed that black was common & the red & green were the live wires. I contacted the supplier & he confirmed that there is a resistor fitted (they're LED signals). I wired it all up to my accessory decoder and..... nothing happened. After a lot of cursing & testing I discovered that DCC accesory decoder have a common positive & the signals are wired for a common negative.

 

so cut away that sleeving:

 

32188537261_a15ab711c7_b.jpgWP_20170114_18_44_13_Pro_LI by Andy Moore, on Flickr

 

to discover some nice enamelled copper wire and a resistor.

 

31931326990_8084cdd70b_b.jpgWP_20170114_18_47_07_Pro_LI by Andy Moore, on Flickr

 

So I cut the resistor off, fitted green & red wires to the leads that had been connected to the resistor, then took the two wires that had the original red & green wires, soldered them together & to one end of the resistor.

 

put it all back together, reconnect to the decoder and... TADA !!!!

 

32188535741_458e0b5798_b.jpgWP_20170114_18_51_15_Pro_LI by Andy Moore, on Flickr

 

During by browsing around ebay I came across 60 trees for £6.95. I can't resist a bargain, so I ordered them - all the way from China, free postage! They arrived two days ago & I managed to fit a few today - I've ordered another 60....

 

31466298704_f0ab3342a1_b.jpgWP_20170114_18_51_53_Pro_LI by Andy Moore, on Flickr

 

lots more to come over the next few weeks...

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You're right Billy - it makes a huge difference. What I did find was that when I move the throttle up to start the train off, nothing happens - then there is the sound of the brake release, and then the train starts to move. That is great for realism - but the delay between moving the throttle & the train actually moving varies, and as the instruction sets I have put together to 'automate' the railway are based on timing, this caused me some grief. I found a setting in the chip to disassociate the startup sound from the movement, it makes the brake release occur just after the train starts to move, but fixes my sequences.

If you think that one sounds good, checkout CR Signals videos on youtube - like this one:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wow .. that video is amazing .  All it lacks is the steam ! I'm currently in the process of starting building an N gauge layout myself on a 4'x2' baseboard, but its only going to be DC to start with.

 

Thanks Andy

 

BillyD

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well let's see it! A 4x2 layout sounds like fun. I discovered some videos about static grass on youtube this week, so as soon as I can get the bits together I'm going to have a go at making my own static-grass applicator - on a small layout like yours it would be an awesome tool for the scenery.

 

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On 26/01/2017 at 8:31 PM, andymoore said:

well let's see it! A 4x2 layout sounds like fun. I discovered some videos about static grass on youtube this week, so as soon as I can get the bits together I'm going to have a go at making my own static-grass applicator - on a small layout like yours it would be an awesome tool for the scenery.

 

 

Well just got baseboard sorted at mo and waiting for cork underlay to arrive. And still not got track plan sorted quite yet. Its one from the Peco Setrack plan book, but there's is 3'6" x 2'3" which means there's a bit of jigging about to be done to fit the 4x2 :wink:

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  • 8 months later...

This stalled for a long time - but over the last few weeks, I've had a good go at the scenery. The hills are made using some brown paper that I received as packing in a large parcel, soaked in diluted PVA glue. They are then covered in 2mm static grass. The trees were purchased on ebay & came from china - they're currently £8.56 for 60 trees - so far I've 'planted 120 of them.

Here are a few pics to show how things are progressing...

37521344822_975258e5a6_z.jpgIMG_20171007_173025 by Andy Moore, on Flickr

37553044851_1e9aab05a2_z.jpgIMG_20171007_173439 by Andy Moore, on Flickr

37820351472_7cb32c1df9_z.jpgIMG_20171022_124031 by Andy Moore, on Flickr

37820371202_6ceff8bf6d_z.jpgIMG_20171022_124156 by Andy Moore, on Flickr

 

And one video...

 

37599846270_f50f953917_z.jpgVID_20171022_162957 by Andy Moore, on Flickr

 

Coming soon.... I hope to have a sound-fitted merchant navy running within a fortnight.

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  • 1 month later...

well it took a bit more than a fortnight, but here is the merchant navy....

 

24235500217_bed25964c6_z.jpgVID_20171216_160127 by Andy Moore, on Flickr

 

 

next up - i'm going to be making some copies of lenz BM1 modules. This is going to enable me to fully automate the railway for very little cost. Thanks for looking.

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Well here's the first part of the automation changes that I'm making. Up until now all stopping & starting of the trains has been by using timers. although this works well it's not perfect & the stop position is always slightly different - to get by this I have always run the train very gently into the buffers. In this clip, once the train is running there are no more instructions sent to the train, instead it detects a module wired into the track & then goes into a fixed-distance braking sequence, stopping just short of the buffers. The train will now always stop in this position regardless of the speed it approaches the station. The module only works with DCC chips that support "ABC braking". Lenz sell such modules (known as BM1) for around £10 each. The circuit for these modules comprises of just five diodes, so I ordered 50 diodes for a mere £1.79.

The next batch of modules I build will also have a relay fitted- this relay will be powered by the green light on my colour light signals. When the green light is lit, the relay will bypass the braking module allowing trains to pass, when the signal is red the braking module will be active and a train with a compatible DCC chip will stop just in front of the signal. No need for timers & no need for expensive loco detection modules feeding back to the controller.

 

39153669412_8d3349179f_z.jpgHome made BM1 module by Andy Moore, on Flickr

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  • 2 weeks later...
On ‎20‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 9:26 PM, Rick Brown said:

Looking good Andy!

Rick.

Thanks Rick, I'm quite pleased with the way it's developing now.

 

Here's a new video - there is now a braking module at each end of the branchline & another on the signal on the anticlockwise mainline at Undershelf station.

 

 

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Having discovered Asymmetric braking, I can't stop... 

I've replaced the Lais decoder in the 4mt with a Zimo MX622 (£25) and added another signal with braking module/relay combination to platform 1.

All three platforms now have automatic braking modules, so whenever a signal is set to red any oncoming train will stop.

 

39558721341_4cdb4a6c8e_z.jpgAutomating the railway by Andy Moore, on Flickr 

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