Layout Update: Lower Level Staging Update

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and my blog! 

This update is more of a follow up to the lower level staging panel indicator lights. Quite some time ago, I installed panel indicator lights (as well as a second panel) for the west side of both north and south staging. The original panel was not in the best position, as you had to throw the switch, then walk around the peninsula by the west wall, follow the train out of or into staging, then go back and normalize the switch. 

When I decided to put panel indicator lights on the west end of staging, we made a set of new panels and positioned them right by the switches for both north and south staging. Much better than the original one and people can tell (for the most part) which way the switches are thrown.

Fast forward to the present. Since operations have become the mainstay for the layout, and dispatching is critical, the east end staging tracks needed to be lit up just like the west end of staging. The panel did not have to be redone (thank goodness!), and all I needed to do was to drill holes for the LED's, add relays and make it live. Easier said than done!

Before anything could happen, all of the switches had to have the terminal strips expanded. This meant replacing the ones where 2 switches were on a terminal strip and sharing part of the AC power, to giving each switch its own terminal strip. This was made to accommodation the addition of the Atlas relays that will throw the panel indicator lights. A total of 9 relays were used and a lot of spade connectors for both the terminal strips and for the relays. Atlas makes a #3 spade connector that fit the their switches and relays. We used a lot of them, more than I can remember! 

Once the holes were drilled, it took about 4 hours to rewire and install the terminal strips. 30 minutes time to run the DC power from the north wall to the area on the east side. Wiring in the LED's to the relays and the power took about 3 hours total. The LED themselves were previously wired when I had the guys from ECC down and they did all the soldering for me. Once all connected, a  test was done to make sure the lights corresponded to the way the switches were thrown.

I was pretty good adding the wires to the relays; only 3 sets had to be flipped out of 9! Panel labels were added so that the operators know how the main switches in and out of staging are thrown, and hopefully, they will normalize them after they enter or leave the yard.

One last thing will be to add some round dowels to the two holes that I drilled thinking I would need a set of LED's. It's the main track on each side, so it really was a duplication of the ones by the pushbuttons. They'll be added in the next couple days.

Here's a video with a little demo.....

What's next? Since the switches in and out of the lower level staging on both ends are so important to the movement of trains, we're going to add a second set of panel indicator lights just for the switches into and out of the staging yards on the dispatchers panel along with one pushbutton to normalize the switch, if needed (knowing these guys, it will be needed!)

Thanks for reading!