It’s been a while since I last posted any updates, but there’s been work happening although at a bit slower pace than previously.
The general setup that I had planned was that I’d have the layout wired for DCC with a DCC programming track back in the workshop. I could take engines back there and work on them on the workbench and program them as needed.
I purchased a DCC programming track made by GoodDealsDCC from Lombard Hobbies not long after I started building the layout. I wired jumpers using spade connectors to the programming track so that I could easily connect it to either my DC power pack or my Digitrax Zephyr Express. My plan for the longer term was to pickup a Sprog DCC controller for the workshop and hook my laptop up to that but that plan was for down the road.
Initially this solution worked fine, until I got the track down and could start running trains, and then it started to get irritating. The trouble with this idea was two fold.
- Problem 1 – Until I got the Sprog controller I needed to disconnect the Zephyr from the layout and move it into the workshop where I then needed to screw in the feeder wires into the programming ports on the Zephyr – not hard to do, but annoying and in many ways defeated the purpose of the spade connectors to quickly connect and disconnect everything.
- Problem 2 – The programming side of the Zephyr is only capable of programming a DCC decoder. Once you program it – you can’t test it with the Zephyr without disconnecting the programming ports and connecting the feed ports. Which in my case meant program the locomotive, then disconnect everything, go back to the train room, reconnect everything, and then test it. If it works – great… If it doesn’t you’re either trying to CV program on the main, or disconnecting everything and heading back into the workshop to start the process over again.
Initially my solution was to grab a TV table and move it into the train room under the layout and put the test track on there. At about the same time it dawned on me that all I needed to connect my computer to the Zephyr Express was a USB-A to USB-C cable and I could use JMRI to start programming stuff instead of fumbling through the CV programmer on the Zephyr. This ended the dancing between the two rooms – but after bumping the test track with my laptop and having an engine fall off the track and onto the table, I also realized this was not a great solution either.
On the west side of the West Yard I had a stub of track down. It’s disconnected from the track plan, there’s no connection to anything. The idea was that this area is part of the museum, and not everything on display in a museum is operable – so why not put a few engines on this track on static display. I had a few old LifeLike and Bachmann engines that I’ll never convert to DCC, so why not stick them here. Plus if I decide to try my hand at weathering these old beaters are good candidates.
Then it dawned on me – why not take that stub, and wire it up as the DCC programming track? It could be part of the scenery when not being used for programming, but I’d have a programming track always wired up, in arms reach of the main layout. I wired up a switch under the layout, normally it’s off and the track has no power – and it serves as a static display for the museum. Pull the old engines off the track, flip the switch – and now I have a programming track.
There was another reason I wanted to put this track in – it’s the only bit of flex track on the whole layout. It’s also going to be a chance for me to try out ballasting track. If it goes well, I’ll probably ballast the Unitrak, but I wanted to start small. Plus at some point I may still pull out the Unitrak and shift to flex track.
