The kinetic element of this installation is the electro-mechanical railroad operation, city, and cavern lighting designed to depict Oasis Palms circa 1963. The layout is wired to allow conventional toy-train manual operation and automated operation using an Arduino.
Power (yellow), common (white), isolation (green), and gate isolation (purple) rail drops soldered to the back of the Fastrack is fed through 1/4″ holes drilled in the foam deck every 18-24″.
JWA Insulated Rail Signal Drivers are wired to the isolated rails, they in turn are wired to relay boards that operate the block signals, and gates, and pass block detection signals to the Arduino which is programmed to continuously operate multiple trains simultaneously without intervention.
All of the wiring terminates at a drop-down panel that is accessible from the side of the layout.
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