What's New on the PRR Panhandle 2.0?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

What happened to that mock-up?

Trashed......and no, I did not take photos of it.......and yes, I regret that terribly now.

The vendors that bid on teh contract were stunned - they'd never seen anyone build a working mock-up before.....I'd installed the motorized manipulators that we "borrowed" from Nucl. Med.

[healey36]

Had to go look up what a nuclear hot cell is...good grief, Rufus.

[chuck]

Kind of what WALDO's were developed for.

Other "fun" stuff is getting stuff into the hot cell so you can use the WALDO's to manipulate it.

[G3750]

What happened to that mock-up?

hbombDM1403_468x427.jpg (13.76 KiB) Viewed 3466 times

George

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Had to go look up what a nuclear hot cell is...good grief, Rufus.

Fun, fun, and more fun.........mine if kind of small.....just about 40 tons of lead shielding.

[G3750]

Really nice. A lot of thought has gone into it and it shows.

Having the divider only go high enough to block the obvious view is a great idea, sky is sky, doesn't always have clouds

Thanks Chuck!

You're right about the sky not always having clouds but today we got a bunch of nice, separate, white, fluffy cumulus over the river!

George

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Really nice. A lot of thought has gone into it and it shows.

Having the divider only go high enough to block the obvious view is a great idea, sky is sky, doesn't always have clouds

Thanks Chuck!

You're right about the sky not always having clouds but today we got a bunch of nice, separate, white, fluffy cumulus over the river!

George

So, you want a box of glass wool to make clouds before I toss it into a dumpster?

[G3750]

Really nice. A lot of thought has gone into it and it shows.

Having the divider only go high enough to block the obvious view is a great idea, sky is sky, doesn't always have clouds

Thanks Chuck!

You're right about the sky not always having clouds but today we got a bunch of nice, separate, white, fluffy cumulus over the river!

George

So, you want a box of glass wool to make clouds before I toss it into a dumpster?

I'll pass, but thank you!

George

[G3750]

Updated 10/11/2017:

One of the side benefits of this photographic shoot has been the unearthing of a number of photos I took many years ago. They were taken with a film camera and are a bit dark. I'm hoping to find the negatives and have them re-developed with a lighter touch. I don't know if that's even possible. Any ideas?

Thanks,

George

[healey36]

If you can find the negatives you might want to try using a high-resolution digital scanner (I picked up a Jumbl off Amazon). After you digitize the image you can edit it to get the brightness issue mitigated, or anything else you want to do with it. I've been gradually digitizing a bunch of old negatives and slides...super handy and easy to use.

The one I have is similar to this:

https://www.amazon.com/Jumbl-Scanner-Speed-Load-Adapters-Negative/dp/B00LU0XO3O/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1507807954&sr=8-2&keywords=jumbl+slide+scanner

Healey

[G3750]

Updated 10/24/2017:

After a lot of thought, I have come up with the power distribution plan for layout. The board uses a Block Power Controller (BPC) and 2 Track Power Controllers (a TPC300 and a TPC400). The blocks are reworked as follows:

1 Steubenville (mainline) powered by a Power House 180
2 PRR Bridge (mainline) powered by a Power House 180
3 Weirton (mainline) powered by a Power House 180
4 Weirton Steel (yard) powered by a Power House 180
5 Coal Mine (yard) powered by a Power House 135 attached to a TPC300 and a Block Power Controller
6 Weirton Junction (yard) powered by the same PH135, TPC300, and BPC controls above.
7 River Route (branch line) powered by the same PH135, TPC300, and BPC controls above.
8 Staging Area (yard) powered by a Power House 180 controlled by a TPC400 and the BPC named above.

The components should give me the ability to:

• Shut power on/off selectively to each of the yards using the BPC.
• Run trains on the River Route in either Conventional or Command mode using the TPC300. Since that is just a loop, it's perfect for Christmas trains or train running by grandchildren without affecting the trains of bigger kids (like myself ).

The power distribution panel itself will measure 30" H x 8' W. It will feature light bulbs (to indicate power), fuses, and labels for each of the 8 power districts. Transformers and Power Houses will sit on a TV cart that can be rolled away from the layout for maintenance work on the board. AC accessories and switch buses will be supplied by K-Line PowerChief 120F transformers. DC accessories and lights will be supplied by a 3VDC wall wart (traffic lights, telephone pole lights), 5VDC power supply (TBD), and a 12VDC power supply (animations and lights).

20171022 Panel.jpg (127.96 KiB) Viewed 3383 times

George

[rogruth]

That just boggles my mind and my eyes.

[G3750]

That just boggles my mind and my eyes.

Me, too Roger!

That's why it took 4-5 days with 3 manuals spread out in front of me to produce!

This ain't getting any easier.

George

[rogruth]

Maybe I shouldn't ask this but does it work?
I hope.

[G3750]

Maybe I shouldn't ask this but does it work?
I hope.

Absolutely you should ask.

I think that it should work. The part with the Block Power Controller is based on Lionel's own diagram for controlling 4 blocks with 2 TPUs. The other parts are straightforward. I did pretty much the same thing with Panhandle 1.0 and that worked.

George