Whale Lion has been working PT and has begun to climb stairs again. I am looking forward to climbing up to the train room with several prtojects in hand.
But first, I am in the computer room rebuilding some Christmas decorations. This is the time to repair these things, after all. This including cutting up the old LED icecycles and removing the defunct wires. I am soldering on new wires, and will use suitcase connectors to connect the new pigtails to the new bus wires.
A string of seventy icecycles 100 feet long. I have to complete this project before I can trqnsition to the train room, since I will have to have someone bring my soldering stuff up to the train room.
In the train room I will need to install about sixty more track feeders to assure smoother operation. Apparently I was a bit optomistic in placing six to ten feet apart. With this project taken care of, any problems can be assesed to components other than the tracks.
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Man!I would like to see the track wiring bus!
This is welcome news, Lion. I hope you continue to see positive results and that you are enjoying your trains within just a few days, few weeks at most.
Good news, Lion. Hope your tracks haven't accumulated too much dust, but I guess since the subways are all underground, there won't be much dirt on the tracks.
York1 John
You're a Card Lion and for those reasons I've always kinda loved you man
I'm glad you found it in your inner strength to make it up to the train room again
If I was a wealthy man, I would no doubt come over there and put a third story elevator up to the third floor and in the mean-time check out your largest subway layout in North Dakota Train Room with you...
John
I'm coming over to Bismarck this Spring to see my favorite Grandson Carter graduate from high school.
Pre warning that I'm coming to your Monastery for Sunday Morning Service.
I will be inquiring to see Brother Elias after the Service.
Just wanted to give you a heads up for meeting with the Track Fiddler in June
TF
Track fiddlerIf I was a wealthy man, I would no doubt come over there and put a third story elevator up to the third floor
I did offer to install a "cat"apult for the Lion, but I didn't hear back.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
philo426 Man!I would like to see the track wiring bus!
Yes, well the wiring is very complicated. I have put all of the wiring on the facia, or what is now the sub-facia this way I can stand, (or now-a-days sit) and wire like a gentle-lion. No under the table, no more getting solder on my nice soft fur.
So actually there are several bus wires that circle the layout.
1. GROUND: The ground bus connects directly to the building grounding system. If you did not do this, you would have a 'floating-common' which then would be home to stray voltages and engender very confusing gremlins. (We don't need confused gremlins on the layout.) Every transformer or power supply connects its common wire to this ground.
2. 600 VOLT LINE: Provides power to the third-rail. Well ok, the third-rail does not really carry power, and the voltage is really a regulated 8 to 10 positive volts. This is connected to the right rail (in the direction of travel). Would you put negative volts to this rail the train would move backwards, a thing that subway trains do not do. The left rail is connected to the ground bus.
3. SIGNALS AND RELAYS: +16 volts DC. Railroad of LION is fully automated, this requires lots of relays and signals. Since I have an LED in series with a relay I found that 12v was not really enough. This power is via a Wall-wart.
4. HOTEL POWER. +12 volts DC. All layout lighting is by LEDs. Includes platform lighting and any structure lighting we may require. My 12vDC power comes from a re-purposed computer power supply. This supply also provides +12vDC power to the GRS machine. There is a second 12vDC regulated power supply which has its positive terminal connected to ground thus providing -12vDC to the GRS machine.
Then in addition to the bus wires are hundreds of conductors required for the vafrious functions of the rail road. I use 25 pair CAT-3 cables to bring these wilres to their proper location. Suppose I have a group with 25 connectors named "Canal-Street". On the main patch panel in the relay room I would have a section named "Canal-Street" and out on the subway I would have a Junction box named "Canal-Street" I only have to wire a device at one end, and connect it to whatever on the other end. It takes five of these conductors for each platform edge on the layout.
(ROAR)
Whale, I am not in the train room yet, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
No. Wait.... Subway tunnels don't have an end, do they?
But work on the Christmas Icicles are coming to an safe conclusion and soo I will have someone take my soldering stuff up to the train room.
Here be the icicles I have been working on...
My browser won't let me open your icicles photo. I can see the mountain lion, but not the icicles.
Humph... Maybe because I am not using a secure server. It is http:// not https://
LION Icicles
LION himself
ROAR
That's better! Thanks!
York1 That's better! Thanks!
Well I have downloaded some different software. I am using "PostImages" which seems to be pretty good. a free version and a more robust paid version. There is an application that you can run on windows. It adds a line to the send menu. From Windows explorer you can right click on as photo, select "send: and the click on PostImages and it will post it right then and there and return to you the URL for using in your favorite forum, It will also resize the photio to what ever standard size you specify so that you do not try to foist off some humungus file on the unsuspecting web world.
Here are some photos from the line of the LION...
Wow.... Amazingly done!!
Good morning
Excellent Craftmanship! Him love for Subway set Him Lion apart in a unique style of modeling, not modeled by many. For those reasons, always interesting and fun to see. I can only imagine the countless hours put in on your Craft through the years.
Really Liked the 4 levels of staging and helix as well as all your other pics. The thing I noticed is the cross sections are long dioramas that provide an excellent advantage for realistic photo shots for whatever sectional scene you choose. I bet you thought about that while beginning your sub-tunnel world on the 3rd floor.
Another advantage I seen you have is your backdrops. Not only do they not have to be very tall, but not very wide either, I'm speculating. Appears you can splice pictures together unoticably at columns and stairwells, or escalators and such.
I could be right or I could be wrong about all that but the one question still remains that I just gots to knows? How did you make all your Great looking Backdrops???
A very IMPRESSIVE Life's Work Brother Lion!
Another nice thing is that Him favorite Lion doesn't have to pay to get into Subway. Him just Prowls under Turnstile as Sub-Staff don't ask any questions...
For some of the backdrops I just walked along the opposite platform and took picture after picture until I could make a wall (with people in it) four feet long.
I really like the one I did at Smith 9th Street. I just took pics of downtown brooklyn as it panning from the station. The result was not quite as long a I wanted, so I just spliced another shot in the middle since each end was bookmarked with a well known landmark.
Those musta been fun and interesting days taking the Subway to your favorite locations to take all those pics. I had wondered if that's what you did and could imagine it got a little challenging at times. That's some admirable dedication
I wonder if you had to wait for everyone to get on the Train so it was all clear for taking pics. Or if all the people on your side of the platform just simply got out of your way, once they realized a Lion was in the Subway!
I like the backdrop you did at Smith and 9th as well KENTILE musta sold lots of floors to have a Huge sign like dat!
I would have never found that seam in the sky on the left if you hadn't told me. I never did find the utter one dough, so doze were sum good splice jobs!
So a lot of the backdrops you did from live photos you took is Cool. But how did Lion come up with all da utter backdrops den?
P.S. Those are some neat icicles your fixing. I'd like to see those lit. Hope I don't have to wait till Christmas to see dem aluminum-ated
All of the photos here are of my own layout. In the city, no the platforms were never free of people, you just took the pix peeps and all. All of my backdrops are made from pbhotos that I have taken, or else were of tile walls or buildings on my own creation and printed on a color laser printer.
The LION sleeps tonight... or some nonsense like that...
Very cool Lion. Those night scenes are really something to see
Sorry, Miss Post.
It there is light at the end of the tunnel, it must be a subway train!
Well I am not done with the Christmas lights yet, but I am done with the soldering iron. I will have someone take it up to the train room for me, and then I can work up there.
What the heck, I am retired, and I can't stand for more than six minutes without sitting down. So I gots chairs up there, and I do not mind sitting.
*ROAR*
Was up in the train room this afternoon. I wanted to install more feeders. I had Br. JP bring my soldering machine upstairs. I coud not find my wire. looked all over the place and then just sat down and looked at the layout. Took some pictured too, I'll post them tomorrow.
Yes, LION weent up to the train room. No soldering yet, but... some nice photos.
The Route of the Broadway LION is not computerized, but rather it is a compute, one giant analog computer. Here is its Random Access Memoryi (RAM)
Hereis an individual RAM module. I printed out these paper slips and attached them to the back board so that I would know how to wire them. Each module contains two relays, but there is a third relay out on the layout. When the CPU says it is time, that relay will pull in (if the signal in front of the train isd not red), releasing the train to occupy the next block.
This next photo is the Network Card (NIC)
Which is cabled to the individul signals or control boxes at each station:
As you can see, LION uses nails as binding posts. One could use properly manufactured terminal strips, but given the quantity required and the cost associated thereof you can see one reason why the LION eschews such a solution. The other reason is that it is easier to solder wires to the binding posts than using a skrue driver, which cramps the paws of said LION.
Cables of layout duLION are neatly stitched acerss the fascia later to be covered with the dress fascia later. The white cable came from an old pipe organ. They are not colored, indeed the insulation is made of string, to expose a conductor you just unwind some of the string. LION had to test out each conductor. Him attach one end to NIC and then with a light, search out the individual conductor to be attached to the proper binding post. Fortunately, LION likes mindless work like this.
LION likes to keep the wiring of him simple and neat.