Hi all,
Now that the forum has permanent threads I thought I'd "hijack" the Great Event thread from last year. I changed the thread title from "GREAT EVENT - NorthWest Trunk Lines" to "Northwest Trunk Lines - The voyage continues." From now on I'll post NWTL updates here.
In the months since the Christmas Party we have been able to work on a lot of detail projects that had been by-passed in order to make the layout presentable for several events around the holidays. Much of the work isn't very photogenic. We have been steadily improving our iPad control panels and computer control system.
I've posted the above photos on several other threads. However, what's not clear in the photos is that we have now integrated audio and lighting and track power controls into the same system. When Peter (the layout owner) comes down stairs to run trains he can now press a single button on a lighting control pad and turn on track power around the entire layout. Another button on the same control pad can be pressed and held to bring up the lights. The lighting now works on a time basis. Press and hold the button and the "time of day" changes 1 hour every 2 seconds. When you let go of the button the lights stop at that time of day. It sounds simple enough, and it is pretty slick, but it took over 35,000 lines of computer code to make it work.
One really neat feature we barely got up and running in December was ambient location sounds. Peter made contact with a sound editor who is also a railroad buff. He has been building audio mixes for each location around the room. Initially these effects had to be turned on at each location manually. Now we have them integrated into the automation system. You can start and stop all the sounds from the computer, any iPad, or a DCS remote.
Originally posted by Popsrr:
Dave any new pictue up dates?Originally poster by Hot Water:Especially the ladies????
The temp bridge was built of plywood and homasote. It has been perfectly functional for years but is hardly attractive. I designed the aisle and bridge angle from the beginning to use an Atlas Pratt truss bridge kit. The real bridge leading into Skykomish from the west is a two span truss bridge. The east span is a Pratt truss, so the Atlas kit was a natural selection.
I wanted to make some enhancements to the stock bridge kit. We added cast metal bridge feet, simulated concrete abutments, and gave the truss a light weathering. The biggest modification was replacing the stock plastic deck and Atlas code 215 rail with wood ties and ScaleTrax code 193 rail. Jennifer built the wood deck using O scale wood ties that she stained and weathered to look like creosoted wood. She built six sections of ties spiked together to the same dimensions as the brown plastic sections of the stock kit. I glued the tie sections to the bridge base and then spiked the ScaleTrax rail to the ties. To add another touch of realism I added code 148 guard rails across the bridge. A mere 1108 spikes later and we had a nice new bridge.
Hope you enjoy this little update.
Dave
