This page describes work accomplished on the new TMRC layout during
the month of October 2012, as taken from the descriptions posted to
the club mailing list.
Progress today was on Section 14 of the helix, again--see February and March of this year. With trains now able to climb
the helix, it's time to wire the track in this area. So, here's the electrical diagram, with 27 feed points.
These are the wires as they wait to be soldered to the rails.
The wires down below. The unique colors are useful here.
The wires are brought out to the 37-pin conector visible at the top of the picture. The
MasoniteTM platform is to support a circuit board which will carry a
microprocessor which will operate the servos and relays to connect the track sections.
At long last, the "temporary" installation of 3 block cards--recently expanded to 4 (see April 25 and September 15)--has been removed.
This dates back to the very first days of System 3; see these two pictures, from February 2002:
This is the new cabinet with the block cards. The wiring is very bad (most wires will need to be shortened)
but it does work. The second cabinet isn't in use yet, but in the future it will hold block cards for the upper level.
Alex did some work on the roadbed near the exit from the helix, to cure the problem of the reverse curve, so
unfortunately caused by thoughtless construction earlier.
Switch 191B has now been fitted with a linkage to connect it to the servo which will operate it.