4th Subdivision: Planning for Power Districts

In my last post, I mentioned a number of decisions to be made before installing Nooksack, the first TOMA section. I have made a number of those decisions, but I felt the need to make some long range plans as I started prepping the two modules that will be the core of Nooksack. During last Thursday's modeling night, I shared the plan seen above with the attendees, with my initial questions/plans for power districts. The consensus was clear that with a railroad of this size, one booster will be fine, and four power districts and an auto reverser for the turntable should be quite adequate. In my attic layout in Meadville, I had two power districts, using NCE EB1 circuit breakers. I plan on continuing with the EB1 circuit breakers, but I will plan either physical or terminal space for adding two as I set up the "command center" of the railroad. 

Proposed Power District Plan:

1. Nooksack: Carnation Plant to Interchanges
2. Ferndale Jct. Fiddle Yard and Staging
3. Chikamin
4. Port Gullick and Curtis
5. Auto-Reverser at Chikamin turntable

Prepping Nooksack Modules and Planning Ahead:

The intention in planning ahead is to minimize the work under the modules moving forward. So, with the small creek and trestle scene that is attached to Nooksack up on sawhorses, I have started preparing it for installation. I found some bolts for attaching it to the main Nooksack module. I will next screw on some Euro-style double terminals for the DCC bus into and away from this module. I also need to install a terminal for the control toggle for the Tortoise switch motor. Knowing that a separate DCC bus for the future Chikamin circuit breaker and for the Chikamin Turntable reverser will later be traveling through here, I could at the minimum pre-drill appropriate holes.