Interim Project Status Update #1

Progress was a bit piecemeal after the last big day. I managed to get the track bed in place and installed the servos for point control, but then things slowed down a bit. The work I had planned next was not something easily done in half hour increments during late nights. Luckily, a public holiday came up, and I set time aside to work on the layout. And it proved to be a fruitful day. 

The plan was to reinstall the track after laying the track bed, with isolating joiners in place for the planned blocks, and have dropper wires in place so that, in a next step, the bus wire can be installed and connected. 

Initially it looked like the work was going to be ill-fated. I needed to solder wires to the track, but my soldering station is still at the old place, and I only have a USB soldering pen with me at the moment since I don't expect to do anything but quick soldering jobs for a while, and this pen has always been fine for those. However, first I could not find the proprietary power cable, and then the damn thing wouldn't develop enough heat to melt solder. Eventually I managed to rectify the situation, but these shenanigans cost me about an hour to start with.

From there, everything else went smoothly, and quicker than expected. All the track is in place, with dropper wires where needed, and (hopefully) properly insulated blocks. Initially I am going to hook up all blocks to the bus wire, but at a later stage I can wire in the occupancy detectors bit by bit. 

As a bonus, I installed the accessory decoders, then wired up and re-tested all the installed servos. Once the DCC and 5V bus wires are in place, they will be ready to go, merely needing a change of accessory address and a quick calibration. 

It shouldn't be long now until I can run trains again. Watch this space.

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