Layout for son and dad


A milestone has been met. I have laid the first track for the layout!
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Congratulations on the milestone! Get a couple more pieces of flex track down and you can start running locomotives forward and backwards. :)
 
Looks like you're off to a good start, on the layout and a celebratory barbecue afterwards too!
 
Thanks to IronHorse for the advice about raiding the pantry. I did that for the completion of the mainline track. The track I laid the other day with less pantry items seems smooth. Dodged a bullet on that thanks to the smooth cork roadbed.

My son is already testing out the track.

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A major milestone. The first operating session with an SD-40 pulling a CN 5-Pack intermodal Train. This is the longest loco and railcars I have and the worked on both the inner and outer loop. The C425 loco was doing a drive by to say hello!

Just had one area that interfered and caused a derailment. The turnout tie bar on the curved turnout was too close to the main line and hit the side bolsters of the C425 trucks. A quick snip with the side cutters solved that.
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Another barbecue sauce fan! I knew there was something I liked about you! ;)
When my son was 10, I bought him a Milwaukee Road SD45 at a train show because he just had to have it! (You know the tune.) He's 18 now and trains are no longer cool, so I repossessed it. It is the loco that made the maiden voyage on my layout. Runs like a dream.
 
Another barbecue sauce fan! I knew there was something I liked about you! ;)
When my son was 10, I bought him a Milwaukee Road SD45 at a train show because he just had to have it! (You know the tune.) He's 18 now and trains are no longer cool, so I repossessed it. It is the loco that made the maiden voyage on my layout. Runs like a dream.
Hope my son likes it for a few years.
 
Moved Xover on right to left of yard lead. It will be much easier to make up trains on straight tracks vs curved.
 
Moved Xover on right to left of yard lead. It will be much easier to make up trains on straight tracks vs curved.
I have already laid the mainline tracks. Refer to a post above for the layout I went with. You modified an earlier version. Thanks for the feedback.
 
I NEED HELP!!!

So I have the layout running with a DC power supply to verify the track work. All seems to be working well so far with no derailments. With the exceptions of running through a turnout improperly set. Oops! There is one turnout that may have a slight kink at the curve rail coming off of it, but so far no operations issues. I may fix it in the future if it becomes one.

I will be switching to DDC power when I buy the equipment. I am seriously toying with the idea of running DCC++ with Arduino equipment. I do like the electronics side of things.

So I have some questions on wiring. The first picture shows the locations and polarities of the power feeds to the track. I have denoted where the feeds will come from the output of the auto-reverser. Does anyone see any errors or the need for any additional feeds, i.e. between turnouts at crossovers? I am using all Peco insulfrog turnouts which are power routing.

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The second photo is an excerpt from the DCCWiki page. It indicated that I should not have complete loops in the bus or rail. Is this critical or something that is negligible on my size layout. If it is critical, I will need to try to get insulators on the inner and outer loop which I currently do not have. Any thoughts from the experts?

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I cannot answer your DCC question since I operate DC only. From that perspective, as long as you are running one engine and one engine only, this will work. The entire layout will be live at all times unless there are insulators that are not shown. If you plan to run two controllers and two engines, one each on the inner and outer loop, then you will need insulators at the two crossovers to separate things. There is also no provision for parking any additional locos on any sidings. Again, this may not be an issue if you only have one engine. You also did not state how long you are going to operate DC.
The reversing section is rather short. This is not a problem if every train is shorter than that section. If any are longer and you have metal wheels on your freight (or passenger) cars, then there will be a momentary short whenever the wheels cross the gap, as they are in contact with both rails. This won't be too noticeable in DC (a few sparks) as it is more forgiving than DCC, unless you stop while contact is being made. Some DCC systems may be less forgiving.
Looks like a fun layout for you and your son. The Lego guys are a little out of scale though.
 
You also did not state how long you are going to operate DC.

Not too long. Just until I get some more track installed and tested. I acknowledge if I was staying with DC, I would need many more insulators at all the storage tracks and between the two loop crossovers. I don't believe those are required with DCC.

The reversing section is rather short. This is not a problem if every train is shorter than that section. If any are longer and you have metal wheels on your freight (or passenger) cars, then there will be a momentary short whenever the wheels cross the gap, as they are in contact with both rails.

Unfortunately I am space constrained and couldn't make it any longer. My longest storage track should be about the same length as the reversing loop between the insulated joints. If I did marshal a longer train, I would ensure there were no conductive wheels near the end of the train.

Looks like a fun layout for you and your son. The Lego guys are a little out of scale though.
Some things may not be to scale...my son is the yardmaster!

Thanks for the input!
 
So I have some questions on wiring. The first picture shows the locations and polarities of the power feeds to the track. I have denoted where the feeds will come from the output of the auto-reverser. Does anyone see any errors or the need for any additional feeds, i.e. between turnouts at crossovers?
Nope, looks good to me, other than the set of feeders between the turnouts on the center of the top. The general rule of thumb is that one feeds power from the points of a turnout which you already have.

The second photo is an excerpt from the DCCWiki page. It indicated that I should not have complete loops in the bus or rail. Is this critical or something that is negligible on my size layout. If it is critical, I will need to try to get insulators on the inner and outer loop which I currently do not have. Any thoughts from the experts?
No, for a layout this size what you have is fine. I've done layouts much larger than what you have without insulation of any type. In fact, I believe you have more feeders over all than I have.
 
Nope, looks good to me, other than the set of feeders between the turnouts on the center of the top. The general rule of thumb is that one feeds power from the points of a turnout which you already have.

No, for a layout this size what you have is fine. I've done layouts much larger than what you have without insulation of any type. In fact, I believe you have more feeders over all than I have.
Thanks for the tip on the extra feeder at the top. I was thinking that I have a few too many feeders. Not too difficult to install them so I might put them all in except the one.
 



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