Sunday, January 25, 2015

Excavation and power relocation

My layout is looking rather forlorn. I've started to make updates and do some maintenance to get the vibe back. Last week I relocated the main power feeds. 

When I did the main construction on the Lost Ocean Line in the fall of 2011 I used Atlas terminal tracks to put power to the rails. My philosophy at the time was to do everything related to electrical as simple as possible as it wasn't my thing. Much later when I expanded Ocean Boulevard I had to build up a hump over the sidewalk to disguise the protruding power terminals - you can see it in the picture to the left of the parked truck. I did a so-so job. Lately I've been wanting to get rid of it, make the sidewalk perfectly flat and normal, and relocate the main power attachment else where. No time like the present.
Here are the terminals after the plastic disguise was hacked out of the sidewalk.
At this point, after unscrewing the power leads, I put a cutting disk in the Dremel and sawed the terminal block off the track.
I moved the leads to a more discrete location. The sidewalk was cut open to either side of the rails and the leads were soldered on. My soldering work was rough, but they're firmly attached. That speeding loco was shot during testing. 
Once powered testing with the leads was done, I 'repaved' the sidewalk on Ocean Boulevard and then did some more styrene paving on the other spot.

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