Basement to Trainroom Updates

Our electrician came by this past week and finally finished all the upgrades. These include:

1.  Six LED lights for basic basement lighting  mounted in three bays of the basement with separate switches for each bay.  
2. Eight plug in receptacles installed in the ceiling for train lighting as the layout grows. The switch in the center of this photo is for the train lighting. 
3. The glowing "UFO" appearing nightlight (which can also be in full light mode) controlled by a switch at the top of the stairs. 
4.  Not seen in any of this post's photos are the new circuits to my paint booth, the sump pump, and the dehumidifier. 
5. Several other upgrades and repairs finalized the electrical work.

 Between his parent's health issues as well as mine in the fall, it took months to actuallly get four days worth of work finished. Still, it is very motivating to have it finished. Yesterday, my wife and I took the four older florescent tube fixtures that had been removed and five contractor bags of ceiling tile, out of commision wiring, and other rubbish to the dump. The general basement clean up is underway, but a lot remains to be done. 

Today, while organizing what needs to be moved to the garage, I took the edge banding and miscellaneous screws and nails out of the plywood deck of the former "bar." I had been thinking that I could use it as part of the TOMA phase four "blob." In my planning it will have a 30" radius. Placing the cleaned plywood on sawhorses, in the planned location, I sketched out  the radius. In double checking the marked piece with my scale plan, it appeared to fit. Since it was all laid out, I went ahead and cut it. Phase four is quite a ways away, but I am reassured that my plan is working, and I can store this reclaimed piece of plywood for that future day. 

I still have a lot to do before I move onto construction of the phase two TOMA modules mentioned in my last post or my plan to reenergize the Ingleton shelf. The cleaning and organizing that I have been doing as well as having bright lighting make a huge difference in terms of keeping the motivation going. While at the big box store yesterday I picked up some concrete hydraulic leak repair mix to attempt my floor levee creation along the French Drain canal. I will also want to paint the foam insulation on the foundation walls in the last portion of the basement before extending the railroad into it. I may also try painting the basement floor. Even before those tasks, I should rework the shelving and paint storage in the laundry area of the basement. 

Staying on Track: Updates and TOMA Phase Two

Over a week ago, our electrician was able to spend a couple of days working with us. Several projects have been completed and most are at least started. Hopefully he will be able to finish up next week. One of the new general lighting fixtures in the basement is seen in this photo. He has all six of the hard-wired LEDs installed. He has all the boxes roughed in for the railroad lighting and the wire strung for those as well, but those receptacles or any of the switches are not in. I have been removing the detritus left over from the ceiling tile removal (some tiles were removed by the previous owners and I just completed removal of the balance). I have most of the nails and tile bits removed, with about one more session needed on the ladder to finish. You can see the nails and tile bits on the furring strips in the photo taken before I removed them in that section.

The rolling stock and buildings remain packed up, and the completed benchwork is under tarps while drilling, hammering, and removal continue overhead. The general lighting is much brighter, and I am making some headway in cleaning up after our messy work as well as visualizing what the future train room might look like. We have numerous bags of debris to move out of the basement, but with our recent 18 inches of snow and weeks of below freezing temperatures, we have been slow moving it out to the garage to store until the township's "spring-cleaning event" aka free junk gathering. Once the electrical work is done, I want to paint the remaining basement walls including where the planned phase two of my TOMA plans will be located. 

I have been sketching out some ideas for the phase two segment. In the sketch, the right segment will be a new module, mainly focusing on scenery, including a cut and fill. I am thinking that the benchwork will be grid framing with cookie cutter plywood as the subroadbed. The middle section will be a module that I brought from Meadville, although it will have some additions and changes. For example I am adding a runaround, and what was the front will be the back. 

On the planning sketch, I have added a two foot square addition to the left, basically to keep a linear standard with the yard tracks here as long as my Nooksack passing track. This addition utilizes a corner module brought from Meadville seen in this photo. As a corner module with scenery, I found that I needed to clear it down to the plywood base. I made several discoveries or observations in doing so. Cork and ballast applied with white glue can be removed by saturating with isopropyl alcohol and prying with a painter's 5 in 1 tool or heavy putty knife. Sculptamold is also fairly easily scraped off. Ground Goop, on the other hand, is difficult to remove, requiring heavy chiseling and sanding.

I have been spending time in the basement most days. While on one hand, a lot of it is infrastructure work rather than modeling, on the other hand, many of the work days have been significantly more that just a few minutes. The condition of the basement has been a major gumption trap for quite some time, and I see a light at the end of that tunnel. 

Staying on Track: Nooksack Switch Control Redo

 

NP interchange, one of the new control touch toggles

In a post last fall, I discussed changing from a control panel to individual controls for the switch machines in the turnouts in and around Nooksack, thinking that it would be a more prototypical approach. In a post earlier this month, I mentioned actually getting on track by regularly spending time in the basement with the new switch control system as one of the potential projects. 

Having earlier removed the control panel and ordered "Mini-Cup Toggles" and "Extension Cables" from Barrett Hill Shop, the first step was to remove the "Direct Base" from the front of the fascia. As seen in the photo, I identified the bell wires coming from the different switch motors before disconnecting them. I also sketched a quick diagram of red and white wire order, so that the LEDs in the toggles would show green for mainline and red for diverging route when everything was completed. I went ahead and disconnected the wires labeling them by turnout number.

Remembering that the panel would be reversed when mounted on the back of the fascia, I reinstalled the wires from the Tortoise turnout motors to the "Direct Base." Then I reinstalled the unit, screwing it to the back of the benchwork 1" X 4" behind the fascia. As the fascia was pretty beat up and I didn't want to replace it, I resorted to spackle to plug the holes and otherwise smooth the damage from removing the control panel. Luckily, I was working on the railroad for a limited time, but regularly. Rewiring the base unit and testing took some time, as did waiting for the spackle to dry, sanding it, and later touching up the paint. 

As long as nothing was directly behind, I chose to drill the 1" holes lined up in front of the turnout throw bars. In a couple of cases, I had to veer a little off to clear an obstruction.  I also wanted a consistent level above the bottom of the fascia. After marking a point 2" above the bottom of the fascia with tape, I first drilled a small hole through the fascia and frame at that point. Then I used a 1" Forstner bit to drill the holes lining up the center point with the smaller hole. While the Forstner bits are more expensive and slower than spade bits, the holes are clean and accurate. 

In this photo, one can see the cup touch toggles as they come from Barrett Hill Shop. I also ordered some extension cables as the mini-cup toggles come with a relatively short three wire cable. Luckily I had calculated closely enough with the number of two and five foot extensions that I had ordered. When I first made my order, Kevin offered me a good deal on the mini-cups if I returned the original touch toggles from my control panels. He is very helpful, and has a reputation of working with folks to solve their problems.

 In this photo two of the Mini-Cup Toggles can be seen in place. Although I had one kerfuffle with two of the wires slipping out of their clamp in the base unit, with a little patience I was able to solve that problem. In doing so, I found another feature of the Direct Base. The blue wiring clamps actually slip off and on on posts, so I was able to reattach the wires easily to the blue wiring clamp freed rather than working in a really tight space behind the fascia. 

Looking at the original photo at the top of the post, one can see that the fascia there still needs some touch up. I will need to remove the fascia to complete the water and other scenery in that section, so I chose to not attach the toggle cups with acrylic caulk at this time. They are tight enough to stay in place, but can be easily removed for fascia touch up later. I also want to dress some of the cable wires, so they are more hidden from view. Other than that they are all working, so when we ever get the electrical work done, they are ready! 

Back On Track in 2026

 

My last few posts from 2025 discussed the railroad in the basement being on hiatus. One step towards getting back on track in 2026 consists of having model railroading itself not be on hiatus. No matter the status of the basement and still incomplete electrical work, I can spend time at the workbench. In this photo, I have mounted some 1/16th inch wood to the roof and started trimming some Bar Mills shingles to complete the roofing of the wooden warehouse. I initially started construction of this warehouse back in July, but work on it has been in fits and starts. Roof shingles and installing the windows should finish it.

Actually building the habit of spending at least ten or fifteen minutes most days is the first major step to getting back on track!

Looking back over my posts from 2025, a major issue and gumption trap stemmed from taking a one section at a time approach to prepping the basement as train space. Definitely connected to that were the 2025 sump pump failure and electrical work's glacial pace. Our electrician had family illness, hospitalization, and death causing delays, and I had hospitalizations as well. We still haven't gotten the planned work done. While the rolling stock and buildings are safely packed up, limiting what can be done, some work definitely can be done, either on the workbench or in other train room prep. 

Another step that I could take, now that the holidays are over, is to redo the switch controls as I discussed in an earlier post. I am pretty sure that I have everything that I need on hand. The work would largely be under the Nooksack benchwork, and the completion now would set me up for being able to actually run trains once the electrical project is finished. While working under the benchwork, I could also revisit my plans for revamping the DCC cab bus. The East Branch segment does not have a UTP panel.

Midwinter is an ideal time for model railroading and to get myself motivated. As noted above, I have projects to work on now, and I have projects to work on after the electrical work is done:

• Complete scenery in sections of the Nooksack and transition to East Branch areas.
• Paint walls and prep space for Phase Two of Nooksack.
• Revisit the Ingleton mini layout. 
• Organize storage and work on train room "presentation."