Tram Line Update

Well I knew this was going to be the hardest part of my layout redesign, and I was right.  The tram line is a real challenge, and I've had lots of moments of anxiety thinking that I should bag my approach and go with the Kato Unitram (which does mean waiting until more than the basic track pieces currently available are released).  But I'm committed to this approach, so best to finish it off!

In my last post on the tram line, I talked about my use of sintra to create the street/top layer for the downtown area, and how careful cutting where the track contacts the sintra is necessary so that the top of the sintra sits just about level (but not quite) with the top of the rails.  For the most part, this worked out, but there were some areas where the sintra was too low or there was too large of a gap between the rails and the 'street'.  I've tried patching it with both caulk and Testors putty, but both were somewhat difficult to work with.

So guess what?  I've ended up using Spackle after all!  It actually works pretty well.  I think I've got all the street to rail contact areas at the right level so that the street does not lift the wheels above the rail and lose contact, as well as nice level/flush surfaces by all the track.

So, I'm not waiting for the latest coat of paint to dry.  I used a dark, dark grey primer color, which I'm starting to like a lot more than my usual lighter grey (I usually use Polly Scale paint's SP Lark Grey, which I think has a nice asphalt tone, but I'm leaning towards a dark color right now).

Here's the evolution of the 'north end' of the layout, from a lower elevated suburban area to part of the downtown with the tram line progress - The top photo is how it looked most of the past year, with the changes from the last month in the remaining photos...a much slower and tedious process than I had hoped, but this is one of those 'permanent' and hard to change layout features that I have to get 'right':

 

  

 

Tram Line Project

The little plastic people of Quinntopia have spoken, and they've decided they want light rail!  No longer are they content to pretend to drive their little cars (with wheels that don't move!) or stand on the station platforms as yet again the Thalys speeds on by!  No, they want their trolley / tram system!

This tram line project on the layout that has been holding up a lot, and one that I've procrastinated on for quite some time.  It is also one of the key drivers of my decision to expand and rebuild my city/downtown...which I feel like I've been talking about on this blog for far too long!

My approach is probably a somewhat unconventional one.  There are a few good solutions that I've been thinking about for quite a while.   I've never had good results with spackle or plaster, although I know some folks who have done a really nice job with this, I just don't have the skills or patience for this approach.  Having been exposed to the Tomix Tram system about a year ago finally got my mental gears going on this, and I've been thinking about how to use this system and still maintain flush and realistic looking streets.  I've also been dragging my feet as I've been waiting to see how the Kato Unitram system was going to look and what would be available.  I expect someday that I'll regret my own approach as the Unitram system has real potantial, but I can't wait on Kato to hold up my layout construction!

My method, once again, used sintra, that hard, foam-like plastic material commonly used for lightweight signage.  For the 'downtown' area where the tram tracks will run, there is actually two layers of this 1/4" sintra; one for the base that sits on top of the styrofoam, and another layer of sintra that is actually the street and which will be cut to match the rail width of the Tomix Finetrack I am using for the tram section of the layout.

This is where the Tomix Tram system comes in.  One of the most difficult questions I had to answer was getting precise (or nearly so) curves for the layout.  The Tomix Tram sections provided a useful template.

Once I had all my tram track laid out, I just duct-taped the pieces to the sintra, slid the track out from the Tomix Tram section, marked the interior edges of the tram pieces for cutting, and then continued these lines on to the next curve.  Pretty simple!

After getting the entire outline of the tram line cut out, a process which actually went a lot better and quicker than I had been expecting, I could start to lay it out on the base sheet with the track to check my cutting and the 'fit':

 

 

The biggest challenge at this point was creating an inverted 'bevel' on the edges of the sintra that come into contact with the track/roadbed.  This is critical, as I've found that if there is an even a hair of the sintra that is higher than the rails, the tram will lose contact with the rail and stop.  I could just sand/gouge down the top side of the sintra, but that does look sort of crude and would not have a smooth finish that I was looking for.  An Xacto knife and my Dremel tool helped me with this very time-consuming project (the below photo shows the underside of the sintra where the roadbed contacts the sintra)!

After a coat of dark grey primer, the 'street' was then placed back on the layout and more testing and fine-tuning took place.

Once the wiring (including an auto-reversing unit) was complete, the track was attached with small nails, and the street could finally be cemented to the base.  At which point, gaps between the rails and the sintra were filled with either paintable caulk or Testor's putty.

As mentioned above, all of the curves are Tomix Finetrack (both 103mm and 140mm), but some of the straight sections are either Minitrix snap track or Atlas flex track.  They are all code 80 so there was no problem connecting them together.   I did choose to directly solder feeder wires to the bottoms of the Tomix finetrack as the defauly connectors for Tomix were too bulky to properly integrate.

 

Wallah!  Everything works (the reverse unit, the trams!) and it looks like this major milestone on the layout redesign (what I think I've referred to as Version 3.0) is done! Well, almost.  I still need to give the street a better color and cover up the gap-filling caulk, add street markings, and add in the center pieces for the curves from Tomix, and straight pieces of styrene for the straight sections.

What this means for me is exciting!  I can start to add buildings to the layout and, with this sort of major (and often dirty) construction complete, I can add trains back to the layout!  Yeah!  Stay tuned for more updates!

Kato Thalys Decoder Install Notes

I provided my initial observations of the Kato Thalys almost a year ago, and I've since had two comments to provide more information on the actual decoder install.  As always, I'm far from proficient at these sort of things, but I did get it to work, so I'll share some photos and information on what I did.
 
First, equipment.  You'll need the ESU manufactured replacement light board (KATO147456) which will remove the Kato light board in both control cars.  You'll need a NEM 651 decoder with a wire harness for the motor car.   I used the  ESU 52684 LokPilot DCC MICRO V3.0 6-pin NEM651 interface with wire harness.  I'll also mention that I think any NEM651 decoder with a wire harness would probably work, but I like ESU or Lenz .  I've shortened my list of decoders that I like now that I have some experience with them, and these two brands have never let me down.

The reason for the wire harness should be apparant in the below photo. On the interior of the motor car you'll see a grey molded plastic piece that is actually where the pantograph is mounted.  As this grey piece is recessed, its virtually impossible to get a standard NEM 651 decoder installed here and still be able to close the shell onto the frame!

The situation for the non-motor motor car (or 'dummy' I guess) is the same....you're going to need another NEM 651 decoder with a wire harness.  Either out of ignorance, impatience, and some fiscal irresponsibility, I used another ESU 52684 for the non-motor car, even though its clearly overkill as a cheaper function decoder will suffice (I assume someone makes a function only NEM 651 decoder with a wire harness?).

Programming Decoders without Motors (e.g. the 'decoder' for the motor car without the motor). UPDATE- Be sure to read the comments below! This is not entirely complete or accurate!   Here's something I had to learn the hard way.   Apparently most decoders and most DCC systems require that the decoder requires some sort of load in order for the decoder to be read.  Did you understand that?  I don't.  What it means for us non-scientists is that you need to connect the decoder to a motor, not just a light board, in order to program it.  Don't fear, however, as the solution is simple.  Just program your decoder for the 'dummy car' in the 'motor car', remove it, and then place in its appropriate dummy car!  See!? This DCC stuff is easy!  You could also program both locomotives on the same programming track with the same info, then remove the dummy car so that just the motor car is left on the programming track and correct your 'light' CV's so they are correctly set.  I think that works too.

Problem Putting it Back Together:   
The wire harness may create something of a problem however.  If you don't get the wires folded just right, it tends to exert pressure on the lightboard, which causes the light board to lift slightly and results in some contact problems between the light board and the copper strips where the current contacts the decoder.  I initially had some small, foam spacers that put a small amount of pressure on the light board (they are placed between the light board and the interior ceiling of the locomotive) although this made the shell not quite snap tight onto the frame all the time.  Lately, I've been able to remove the spacers as the wires and everything seems to have settled and contact has been good.
Another thought.  Perhaps its my model, perhaps I damaged it, but the shell just does not sit tightly on the body/frame for either of the motor cars.  The tabs don't seem to exert enough pressure to create a tight fit as is typical.  Not a big deal, but sort of annoying.

I think that about covers that actual decoder install.   There should be no soldering or anything more complicated than that.  It really should be easy, there's just a few things that can feel tremendously frustrating when you run into them!

UPDATE!
My good friend Don (make sure you check out his site!) adds the following really useful information in the comments that deserves to be added to the original body of this post.  If my comment on programming decoders without a load was confusing and/or incorrect, Don clears it up!  Thanks Don!

Does anyone make function only NEM651-interfaced decoders? If so, I'd be interested to know.

You can program a decoder even without a sufficient load on it. I.e., there's no need for the decoder juggling just to get the "function" (as it were ;) ) decoder programmed. Your programmer will complain, but ignore this complaining. All the programmer is missing out on is the "OK!" the decoder sends back after programming a CV. The juggling is necessary if you want to confirm your programming by reading CVs back, however.

Here's how it works. First: The decoder only talks back when, 1) you program a CV into it. In this case all it says is "OK!" The lack of a response is a "D'oh!" which is why your programmer will freak out. Really, though, it doesn't really matter if your programmer can hear the decoder talk back or not. What's important is that the CV got sent. Second: When you explicitly ask for the value of a CV.

How does the decoder talk back? Why does it require a load? Think about how the decoder is connected to the programmer: Only through the track. The programmer talks by modulating (FM) the voltage on the rails. The decoder can't respond in kind, because it's not connected to a power source (think about it for a second). So it responds in a different way, not by putting a modulated signal on the voltage, but by turning on the lights and motor for a second. Why does that work? Because turning on, say, a motor is the only way the decoder has of drawing current from the programmer. That's what a load is: something that draws current. In the programmer is an ammeter that detects when current is being drawn. It knows that, if after sending a command, current is drawn, then that's an "OK!", and if no current gets drawn, that's a "D'oh!" But you have to draw some minimum amount of current before that threshold for detecting a "D'oh!" to detecting an "OK!" is crossed. A motor will draw enough current, a bulb will draw enough current, but even several LEDs will not draw enough current. Which is why you have to put your function deocoder in the motorized carriage to get anything back. Reading back CVs works in an analogous manner, but I'm unsure of the details.