Getting a start and a few ideas.


B

Boilerbuster

Member
I personaly have yet to build my layout but I have plenty of engines and rolling stock for it. Unfortinatly all I have for track is the EZ track and I will have to go thru and replace it all with and I plan on useing alot of Flex Track. I plan on a 4 room layout in my basement that are connected by tunnels It will be a rural layout with plenty of rural activities. My layout will be a retro type with older rustic type buildings that 1930's steam wouldnt look out of place in only I am going to have modern traffic control devices and a mix of old and new cars and trucks. That way my modern diesels wont look out of place eather as many small towns have retained there old style buildings.
One room will be a yard with a two track main running along the outside. outer will be a passanger line inner will be freight. As it passes from room to room there will be a few sidings for activities and extra space to leave other trains parked when not in use. The first room I build will be the yard with engine repair and fueling areas will incorperate both Steam and Diesel portions of the yard.

As far as my Engine Collection goes
Diesels
1 GE -8 UP
2 GP38-2 BNSF
3 SD45T-2 Road Numbers 9194 and 9330
4 3 F-7a's and one B

Steam
Southern Pacific 4-8-4 Black paint
Pennslyvania M1A 4-8-2 DCC Equipt with sound
Frisco 4-8-2
UP 2-8-0
UP 0-6-0

I also have a very good collecton of rolling stock
including 8 3 bay grain hoppers
17 mixed coal hoppers
10 or so box cars
and 5 Southern Pacific Sunset limited Passenger cars
And on the way from ebay 5 GATX 20,700 gallon Tankers
A Southern Pacific MOW train
and a Track Cleaniing Car.

When I do my Layout I will be powering it with both DCC and just normal DC depnding how complex I want to be that day. However I need to find a good controler To power more then a single engine. as is I have to buddy up two power packs to keep a train running with multiple engines.
 
I also plan to incorperate alot of trucking into my Layout as I drive truck for my real job. I dont care much for intermodal but I will have some elements of it in the layout.
 
BB, sounds like you will have a dandy layout. However, I would consider DCC only for the simplicity of it. You may have to convert a few locos, but I can guarantee you will not regret it. Then, you can run as many trains as you want on one track in all directions (if your careful:D :D ). No sweat to the track hookup: just one pair of wires to each every 6-9 feet to maintain good track continuity. My personal preference for a DCC command module is Digitrax, but there are a few other good systems. A lot will depend on number of locos running, versatility, and ease of operation you want from your DCC system.
 
What do you do run the wires from the power supply or what. I also plan when I get my layout finished to sauter all the pieces togeather. However I have had problems with switches. How do you guys ever solve problems with switches. One problem I run into is there are dead spots including in the middle of the switch when transisitioning onto the siding or second main. Another problem is when the switch is not set to switch to the other track the train passes over ok but one set of trucks on a car will try to switch anyway. I have learned to keep switches away from curves but that dosnt always work.
I guess a little trial and error will get me where I want to be.
My main yard will have 9 or 10 sidings plus two mainlines I may run the main lines thru the middle of the yard instead of along one side, however not sure yet. However thinking bout it sidings on one side would not interfer with main line opperations as having the main in the middle may have problems switching from one side of the main to the other. However sidings on eather side would make seperate activities possable on eather side like an intermodal yard on one side and a Engine servicing yard on the other side.
 
Yes. The power will come from the DCC Command Module and you will only need one. Sometimes a booster is needed for larger layouts, but mine is a full 20x40 garage, 1000+ feet of track and I have never had the need. just make sure you get one that has the power for the highest number of locos you will ever have on the track. Usually a 5 amp will take care of it. I have the 8 amp Digitrax Super Chief, but it is only tested when I have a large Op session with 15 or more locos out there.

The track wires are "A" and "B". "A" will go to one rail and "B" to the other. Because it is recommended that you feed the rails power every 6-9 feet, most people will run a pair of bus wires under the layout and then have the feed wires coming from them to the rails. The size of the bus wires for a large layout should be 12AWG or 14AWG wire and the feed wires to the rails can be 20 or 22AWG. Solid or stranded wire is more of a personal preference, but I like the solid because it is stiff and can be neatly shaped around bends and etc. The reason for the feed pair of wires is to compensate for any power/signal loss in the wiring and rails and also to help eliminate any bad spots.

There can be many causes for your problem with turnouts (switches). The points of the T.O. may not be closing completely causing the wheels to want to follow their own direction or the wheels may be out of gauge in separation. Does this happen to only certain cars or all the cars? If all the cars, I would concentrate on the points of the turnout. Also, check to see if there is a bump/hump in the frog (middle thingy). Another cause could be the track gauge in the turnout is out of spec. You will have to have a track gauge to check all of this.

For turnouts, I would recommend DCC friendly turnouts that have the power feed through all the time and a dead frog to prevent shorts. There are many out there to choose from and a lot would be dependant on your budget. I like Walthers Shinohara and Atlas.

You have the right idea in not running your mainline through the middle of the yard. Although railroads did what they had to do, it is obviously better not to foul the mainline with switchers. Now, sometimes this was necessary for RR's to get out on the main for switching purposes, but the Dispatcher always had to give permission. If you can keep from getting on the main, you will be better off.

BB, do you have a first name or nickname to sign by. It would make it easier to call you that in a reply. As more and more people see your thread, you will get all kinds of help in working out questions/problems in the design and operations. Hope I have been of some help, but studying and careful planning will be the best thing you can do. We are glad to have you here and hope you like us enough to stay.:)
REX
 
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Yep my name is Don. I was kinda afraid of DCC when I first learned about it which wasnt too long ago. About a month. Most of my engines are not DCC but I have been reading that I can add it to engines that are not? If I get a controler I will have a remote one as I will eventualy have as I stated a layout that will span four rooms. I was just headed down US 50 tonight and seen an inspiration. I saw an overhead at a COOP that was made of a Four bay Grain hopper. I just got a glimps of it and it is in La Junta Colorado. The entire front of US 50 along the BNSF line there is a wonderful looking place. Now I am not going to model any place or line. But that entire few blocks of the area down US 50 looked great. Its filled with alot of older buildings with a few modern places along the way that would make both Steam and diesel engines look at home.

Thank you for your great points as any advice is well worth listening to.
I have a friend who is great with carpentry that is going to aid me in my layout so I have a leg up on how to build something right. I plan to build the tables then build the layout to fit the tables. I have been looking at all your track designs for some insperation but I will have to get a good mesurement of the rooms before I decide what I am going to do.

Don
 
That is going backwards. Make the plan and fit the table to the plan. Why limit what you can do?

Check out my beginner's guide clickable from my signature.
 
Don, check out Space's guide. I think you will find some very good info.

You do not need to be concerned with multiple rooms and etc. when it comes to controlling your trains from remote locations. We have already talked about power; now a little about control: I will only tell you about Digitrax (Loconet), but the other manufacturers have similar methods. There is a separate communication cable that runs from the command module to all areas of the layout that you will operate from. This cable is plugged into panels mounted on your layout fascia. You plug in your handheld throttle to the panel and control your engine(s) from there. The signals go back to the command module via cable and the module sends the commands to the correct loco via rail. Simple...yes!;) :)
Digitrax and some others also have wireless and infrared Throttles that will eliminate much of the cable if that would be your fancy.
REX
 
I have been reading some guides on what to do. I still have plenty of time. I have to clean out the basement first. I will mesure the rooms then make a plan. I dont even have the track yet as I am still in the planning stage. You all not need to worry I will have a plan drawn out before I start to build. I dont even know how much space I have to work with yet but there is plenty to work with in the basement. Also there are places I will have to build Inclosed tunnels. One is thru the old bathroom in the basement as its not used anymore. I will have a design that will utlize the space to its fullest as I like to run long trains. 30 cars or so there is plenty of space to run trains that the KYLE route runs anywhere from 30 to 40 car trains.
 
I was wondering if DCC and Sound can be added to older locomotives. I have a few in my collection that I got before I knew about DCC. One is a GP38-2 from athearn. The other two are Bachman Steam engines. one is a Mountian and the other a Consolidation. they are both of the spectrum line of engines.
 
My guide is not like the other "guides." It is designed to get a newbie oriented so that they don't waste a lot of time and money on the built-in traps that everyone seems to go through. Takes about 5 minutes to read.
 
Boilerbuster said:
I was wondering if DCC and Sound can be added to older locomotives. I have a few in my collection that I got before I knew about DCC. One is a GP38-2 from athearn. The other two are Bachman Steam engines. one is a Mountian and the other a Consolidation. they are both of the spectrum line of engines.
Click to expand...

You can add DCC and sound to anything. Just some are harder than others. I know the Bachmann 2-8-0 is a drop in sound decoder. The Geep is as well if it is newer. I don't know about the Mountain.
 
I have added DCC w/sound to both an Bachman HO Consolidation and a Light Mountain. As long as there is a tender, you have a place for the decoder and a speaker. (I even put a Tsunami decoder and speaker in a Shay.) With diesels, space is tight and always more difficult, but still can be done without having an advanced skill level.:)

A good vendor for DCC products and info is http://tonystrains.com/
There is also a "DCC for beginners" link on the opening web page. Look at the second column.
 
I was just thinking how about instead of running the wires under the layout, Howabout running them along telephone lines in plane site above the layout. Have like junction boxes and such just to add to the looks of the layout. and when you send power to the oppiset side of the track just run a wire across to a pole on the other side of the track like you would see in real life. That is how I will do mine.
 
The wires you will have to use on your layout will be way out of scale if you put them on telephone poles. Your normal wiring buss should be 16ga or so, with the feeders being 20-22 ga.

Kennedy
 
:eek: Whoa! Kennedy is being kind...the wires would be huge by scale...more like storm sewer pipes running on telephone poles. Even the 28-30awg that you have on some light bulbs are about the equivalent to 2 or 3" water pipes by scale. If you are not familiar to wire gauge sizes a 12awg (American Wire Gauge) wire is what you have in your house wiring. The larger the wire the smaller the gauge number.;)

Also, the larger the wire the less resistance it has and stranded wire has less resistance than solid for the same size. That is why it is recommend by books and most to go with 12-14 awg for large layouts (long wire runs). In our layouts, it has nothing to do with current carrying ratings, just the lower resistance. Since a drop feed from a bus to a track is very short length and the amount of current going through a single feed will be divided up with all parallel feeds, the resistance is small and you can use a smaller gauge of 20-22awg.
 
Sorry to hijack your thread Don.
Rex at North White Plains the north bound main line ran right through yards B and C. At night when all the MU electrics where in the yard the diesel powered expresses heading north would pass through at track speed. Very dangerous if you were walking from one yard to another. One road forman got hit there and died. I had made that yard B to C walk before and I was always on the look out for the main line that I knew was there some where.

NYC_George
 
George, that had to take some very careful traffic control and certainly put some meaning into "Look Before You Cross" for anyone working the ground. I have seen several RR maps that show the mains through the center of the yards. I know the old GM&O yard here in T-town had a main going through it. Still, with model operation it can be sure be a bottleneck in Op sessions if you don't have a good Dispatcher/Yard Master. Of course if there are only a couple of operators, I wouldn't think there would be that big of a deal.;) :)
 
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