Saturday, October 29, 2016

2 steps forward, one step back

It's almost been a week since I got back from the awesome Chicagoland RPM.
Much has been said about what a terrific job Mike Skibbe and his crew did. And I'd like to add my thanks and hearty "well done". I know I'll be back and I'm looking forward to seeing more people next year.
On the home front, I started connecting all the track in Aylmer to the DCC power bus and was 90% done when I thought I'd pause and check the circuit breaker for that section and lo and behold there was a short.
Well as it turns out after hours of searching and checking, there's at least 3 shorts, if not more in the track/power feeds as it sits right now. The turnout shown was shorting between the power feeds because the wires were touching the underside of the pc board ties. I suspect that there's at least one other turnout with that going on, if not more. And there's always the chance that there's a sliver of copper not cut through from the turnout building process.
Object lesson time. Should have checked every turnout before installing on the layout.
Right now I'm thinking I have to cut my losses. Disconnect the bus completely and rail by rail make sure there are no more shorts.
That'll be fun!
And to add insult to injury, the autofocus on my camera has failed. Turns out the lens, new, is more expensive than the entire camera. So a lightly loved unit is on order.
It might be time to take up knitting.

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