Unitrack, Flex Track, and Platforms

Well, I've been distracted quite a bit by my position on the local Board of Education.  I had to vote to close a school, which was difficult, and unpopular, and has taken a lot of time away from other activities.  But I have been thinking a bit about my layout and other items.

I started to research track bed - Cork vs WS Foam.  Basically, cork is old-school, tried and tested, and well liked.  Foam is newer, but has adherents.  I started leaning toward foam as it sounds easier to get started and potentially will last longer.

But this lead me to a reconsideration of my track.  I had been planning on using Atlas flex track and snap switches, which are DCC friendly.  But the work involved in laying track, ballasting, etc. got me to consider Unitrack by Kato instead.  It has the advantage of being easy to use, and there are ways to wire it that avoid soldering, which is something that would save time and trouble.  It also has the advantage of being able to be broken down and reused - something that as a noob I find attractive.  So I'm still thinking this through.

I also spent some time looking for platforms.  I found some that may work well from Walthers.  I want the landings to have mock staircases to a pedestrian tunnel.  Trainboard.com is very helpful for this kind of advice and I'm just starting to participate there more fully. 

Anyway, things are moving slowly, but my birthday is coming up, and depending on the goodies I get, I may be able to make some real hands on progress.

TTFN

Latest Status

Well, a lot has happened since my last post.  So I should get right to it...

I spent some time designing a test layout.  It consists of 2 turnouts, one LH and one RH and a bunch of flex track.  I plan on temporarily mounting these and the switches on a piece of 8' 1x12.  Basically, it will merge two tracks to one.  I also plan on mounting 3 IR detectors, and a DS64.  Oh yeah, throw in an RR-Cirkits Locobuffer USB...

Among the tests I want to do are:
- Test that the DS64 can be used to throw the turnouts using a momentary switch
- Test that the DS64 can be used to throw the turnouts using the Digitrax Zephyr throttle
- Test that the Locobuffer can be used to interface with the throttle via the computer
- Load and test JMRI - use the default computer controlled throttle to run trains and switches
- Attach the IR detectors to the DS64 and verify that JMRI can sense the input
- Test that the JMRI software can throw the switches
- Begin testing the scripting of JMRI to control trains and switches based on sensor inputs

It is a long list and will take some time.  I've already designed the test layout in XTrackCAD.  I've also imported that into JMRI to create a default panel.  Some gotchas on the way, and I can expound on this step if people say they want that in the comments.  So far, nobody is looking or listening to this blog... but I will keep posting anyway.

That's it for now... I'll probably test whether or not this blog is getting indexed by Google next.  I've put a few links on Trainboard.com and have begun asking and answering questions there.  I will try and integrate the blog with my questions and answers there to drive some traffic.

Oh yeah - I put all the stuff above on my birthday list.  Hopefully some or all of it will come in.  If it doesn't, it will be a slow slog acquiring my test equipment, as money is tight.

TTFN