LVT&R: First trip between Allentown & Lehigh Water Gap

Yesterday afternoon, Lehigh Valley EMD F7A #572 made the first trips between Allentown and the Lehigh Water Gap on a test track.

It turned out to take far longer than I expected to get to this point. All my previous layouts had been basic DC wiring, but for this version of the LVT&R, Christine got me an NCE Power Cab. (I had been thinking about DCC this time around, but I was going to postpone the transition for financial reasons. I think she caught me drooling over the InterMountain DCC F7A at the train show. Well, OK, I *did* point it out to her.  But I really started drooling when the the woman put it on the the test track and I heard the built-in sound.) I had done some research on DCC systems and had already read some positive reviews of the NCE Power Cab. But the fact that I could get an expandable entry-level DCC system for only $100 more than a good DC power pack put to rest any thoughts of wiring a new layout for DC first.

Anyway, I had read lots of advice on DCC wiring on the net, including the page at Gateway NMRA. Based on those recommendations, I had purchased 12 AWG wire for the DCC bus. As it turns out, that was too large for the connection to the NCE Power Cab. Plus, somehow I had picked up one spool of stranded and one spool of solid 22 AWG for the feeders. So back out to the stores I went again. At Home Depot I was able to get 16 AWG wire as well as 20 AWG bell wire. I flirted with the idea of using splice taps, but at over $0.70 each, that was going to be too expensive. Instead, I picked up a box of wire nuts to minimize soldering under the layout.

Because I couldn't find clear markings for which bus wire connection was to be red, I decided to do a quick test first. I made a pair of jumpers with a spade connector (which I soldered & crimped) and soldered a pair of feeder wires to a section of flex track. I made the connection to the NCE panel and the terminal block, plugged in the AC adapter and nothing. Sigh. After a bit of checking the continuity with a VOM, I discovered that I had made the black wire wasn't firmly connected at the NCE panel. So I stripped a little bit more off the ends and made sure I had a firm connection at the NCE panel. Not only did my EMD F7A come to life, but I was able to run it the entire length of my test track: over 10 feet of flex and sectional track with only 1 pair of feeders.

By the time Chris came home, I had relocated the feeder wires to beneath the layout, mounted the terminal blocks, reconnected the main bus jumpers and added the first bus section to connect to the feeders via wire nuts. She came downstairs just as #572 was making its first trips between Allentown and the Lehigh Water Gap.

I need to eliminate some bumps where the plywood sections butt against each other before I can begin laying the final sets of track in this section of the layout. Unfortunately, that will have to wait for us to finish relocating some of Chris's things that she doesn't want covered in sawdust.

In the meantime, I can start working on rolling stock. There are a few boxcars to assemble and some Kadee couplers to install. We'll probably make some paper buildings to get a better feel for scenicking. (Allentown is the biggest city in the area I modeling with the LVT&R--it would be a shame for it to not have any buildings because I located the track poorly...