TurNouts

Thanks to the start of College Football, I finally got into "assembly line" mode building with FastTracks assembly jigs. These turnouts will be part of the Christopher and Luchessa blocks on my friend's layout.  I still have one more #12 to build, but it is getting too late.

#10s and #12 N-Scale Turnouts

More Construction Progress

Got a few hours this weekend to continue working on my model of the dock.  Made some minor adjustments to the previous built section (cutting and re-fitting), and hunkered down and fabricated the long single track section of the structure:

New section of the dock

Overall View of the project so far

Sizing up the Dock

Spent some time tonight playing with a scaled up blueprint of the ATSF China Basin ferry slip.  As a result, I'm going to tweak the dock build a bit and even shorten the moving element of the float bridge.  It is pretty close, and matches nicely with the NScaleShips float barge.

DCC Shield

When I first was getting into Arduino, one thing I always wanted to do was create a DCC-controlled Arduino project, but my day job has been pretty much all-consuming.

I ran into my buddy Kevin a few years back and he was thinking the same thing— so I drew up a quick circuit for him to try:

My buddy Kevin beat me to the punch by creating a DCC_Decoder library and DCC_Monitor example sketch:

http://www.mynabay.com/arduino/2-uncategorised/14-arduino-dcc-monitor

Fast forward a few years, and I managed to design a shield version of the circuit when I had some vacation time stacked up.  A few weeks ago I got my PCBs and spent about an hour this weekend putting together the first prototype:

After some fumbling with the attachInterrupt API (I'm using a Leonardo), I'm now decoding DCC packets:

Float Progess

More progress on the ATSF Float and Apron:

Car Float and Slip

Triple Track Slip Detail (PCB+Scribed Fill)

Slip and Float Interface (Rails on Barge Not Yet Secured)

Scott's State Belt Module

My friend Scott Forrest is building a Free-moN module based upon the area around Pier 43.  Here is a picture of his latest progress.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Float Update

ATSF Car Float kit arrived, now the rest of the dock can be built to match.

Interchange module doodling

Pier 52 Under Construction