Boulder Creek Rail Yard

This is a cross post from siliconvalleylines.com (link to be posted soon) For the last few years SVL has been running hybrid ops where we have remote operators and in layout room operators. The remote operators get a engineers view of the track using our CabCam Project . This allows our remote engineers to participate and run through trains or trains with light switching with the help of a local brakeman. We are accomplishing this using modified JMRI WebThrottle code and some fancy memory variables that will be explained below. 1. Install the WebThrottle JS and CSS files. Download the webThrottle.css file and the appropriate webThrottle.js file for your install of JMRI. The file labeled webThrottle 426.js is for JMRI versions 4.22-4.26. webThrottle 5+.js is for JMRI 5.0 and up, it works as recently as 5.1.3. These files will be placed in your JMRI install folder. This is different for various operating systems but you wan to look for /JMRI/web/js and /JMRI/web/css respectively. Place...

Sometimes early mistakes make you work twice as hard later. When I set to build this layout I was considering a NCE DCC system with JMRI but eventually I landed on a PiSprog. This presented challenges as its a open book but not well documented on how to input sensors and such. I knew when I started that I wanted to go with switch machines but did not want external decoders and switch machines like the venerable Tortoise and the SMAILs were not well tested. I went with Walthers Switch Machines but they presented a challenge.  They have a form of DCC decoder in them won't report to the DCC system when you do a local trigger of a route change. Fortunately Walthers was smart enough to put limit switches on the side which can be used to trigger a Arduino sensor shield for reporting. I will cover this in a later post. The shield also comes with a added benefit of Caboose Ground Throws can be used to report the status of their routing to JMRI. The easiest way to do this is to ...

Or how to avoid getting accused of stealing Luke Towan's railroad name. This is going to be a blog of my musings and adventures with building a small shelf layout of a similar name to that of the awesome Luke Towan. To explain the name I must explain he was the reason I avoided using Boulder Creek Railroad despite the fact I live in Boulder Creek. A simple google of the name to see if it was in use landed me on his Youtube which ended up being a gold mine of how to's. If you have not visited it yet I suggest you do, it is very much worth your time, if you learn a thing or two join his Patreon.  This naming issue of Yard may cause some issues in the future when I build a proper layout but maybe I will pivot to Boulder Creek Lines. Anyways the idea behind my small layout was to get back into a hobby I had been absent from for nearly two decades. The original plan was a large dog bone shaped layout in my basement but upon joining the local club Silicon Valley Lines I de...