Location: Blogs North Pacific Coast Garden Railroad - Tom FarinGeneral RR Information |
 | | Posted by: Tom Farin | 4/11/2008 9:13 AM | This report updates progress made on the NPC GRR between late September 2007 and today.
My last general posts gave a progress report through Mid September. All the material from the old archive posted in 2007 is now in this builders log. Construction was pointed toward a golden spike ceremony Scheduled for October 7, 2007. We had very significant rainfall in August breaking our record for the month, which put me behind schedule. As a result, I cut back on my goals for the ceremony hoping to have the main loop serving San Anselmo and San Rafael complete in time for the ceremony.
The weekend of Sept 30, the concrete roadbed was completed. I spent Saturday, October 6 laying track including switches for incomplete branch lines. There was not time to ballast the track but I figured with the solid flat roadbed I could run trains.
Here's how the San Anselmo loop looked. This photo was actually taken last week after the snow melted.
And here's the San Rafael side of the loop.
All I needed was trains and power.
This layout is designed for radio control battery power. But there was no time to install batteries in an engine. So I decided to temporarily power with track power, using an Aristo Elite power supply (laying around) and an Aristo Train Engineer Walk Around Transmitter and Receiver which I had purchased a week earlier. That evening, in spite of multiple attempts following the instructions to the letter, I was unable to synchronize the transmitter to the receiver.
I visited the Aristo Web site the next morning and found the transmitter and receiver had been packed with the installation instructions from an earlier version. I downloaded the new instructions. I still couldn't get it to synchronize. Aristo isn't open on Sunday.
In desperation I tried to use a basic Train Engineer that had been packed with a starter kit 0-4-0 loco. I could get the loco to move a little. But I couldn't get it to run. I suppose it was way too big a layout for that little power unit, although it has been a little flaky ever since I bought it.
So imagine my frustration of inviting folks over for a Golden Spike ceremony and only being able to offer a static train display. Fortunately noe were train people, so they really didn't know what they were missing. Some of the problem is mine. I should have tested my power setup earlier, rather than waiting until the last minute. But part of the problem is Aristo's. Based on posts to their Web site, the 'fix' to the syncronization problem had been posted months earlier. Yet units were still being sold with the wrong instructions. When I called for help (after the ceremony was over), the response was I needed to call during business hours with the unit in hand. That of course would mean bringing it into work. With snow taking away my ability to run trains, that is still on my 'to do' list.
The experience put me in a funk. The snows came and the railroad was buried under our all time record snowfall until a few weeks ago. Seeing it emerge is making the enthusiasm come back. If it would quit raining .... I'd get started.
Of course, I obsessed about power all winter. I'm also concerned about global warming and our dependence on foreign oil. When I build my retierment home it will be powered by either grid connected solar or by off-grid solar. So I thought to myself, "Farin, why not take the railroad off grid?", to get some experierience with the technology. And that is what I'm going to do. As I write this post, there is a thread in the Battery Power forum, discussing my approach. I'll be moving it into the Power and Solar child blog of this Builders log in the next few days. As my battery power and solar power approach evolves, I'll post updates to that child blog.
You'll find more detailed updates in the San Anselmo and San Rafael child blogs along with my goals for those sections of the railroad for the summer of 2008. Most of my work this summer will focus on infrastructure and on completing those two sections of the layout. But here are my more general goals for the summer of 2008.
1. Install the drip irrigation system that will serve the layout. The manifold is complete, and the switching unit purchased. All I need to do is hang the unit and run the lines.
2. Install the path lighting for the train viewing area (patio) and the walkway down to the pond. This is a string of 13 really nice metal Malibu lanterns that will be converted to solar power using Harbor Freight solar landscape light power units.
3. Complete the dog pen at the top of the layout and the pathway that runs from my drive to the back of the house where the layout is located.
4. Install an off-grid PV unit that will be used to power the battery charging setup and probably the pump returning water from the lower to upper pond in the water feature.
5.. Develop and test an approach that uses solar power and LEDs to light my structures.
6. Settle on the manufacturer that will provide the radio control battery power for my railroad.
7. run some trains.
That should keep me busy into fall. And because my goals are more than I'm capable of accomplishing, I'm sure some will carry into winter or next spring. | | | Permalink | Trackback |
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