I am an absolute newbie. I am going to build my first layout. Here’s some background:
My son turns 30 next month. He has autism and lives with us. He LOVES trains. Started with Thomas like most small boys - graduated to Lionel trains, and we drive 10 hrs r/t at least once a year to visit the Train Museum in Pa. It’s usually his birthday ask to go there.
Over the years he has accumulated a lot of stuff. We’ve never had the space for a layout beyond a small oval in his room or around the Christmas tree. We closed last month on a new home in FL, and I had a 3-car garage built. I drove down from NY a couple of weeks ago and built an 8x12 table for him as a birthday surprise. It’s basically 3-sheets of OSB. I covered it with faux-grass carpet. Not the most realistic looking for a layout, but he has some tactile and texture issues and I thought this would be best.
While he was out I took a quick inventory of his stuff. I count at least 4 “starter sets” with CW-80 transformers, another 3-4 sets that use remote control and have different transformers, lots and lots of additional track and many buildings. It’s all FasTrack.
I’ve been reading forums and looking at layouts to find one I like that we can build with his stuff. I don’t have an exact inventory of track (yet), but will in about a week. He has limited switches (maybe 1 or 2 ea LH & RH) and I know these are expensive.
I have a few initial questions, and likely will have many more once I get deeper in.
A couple to start:
- I know FasTrack is FasTrack, but will the remote locomotives run using the transformers?
- how much track can I support (approx) with the 4 transformers? I know I need to wire them “in phase” but I’m wondering what I can expect. We went to a train show today and someone was selling a used ZW transformer for $125 - I would have bought it but he was with me. Honestly, even if it didn’t work it looked cool!
- wiring - I bought 100’ of 2-wire 16 ga wire that I thought I’d loop around the outside perimeter of the track (underneath of course). I thought I could connect it to the track and then run a separate loop for accessories. For the accessories I thought I’d pick up some thinner (20?) gauge wire.
- I’d like to have multiple lines running at the same time. Is the best way to do this simply to treat them completely independently (eg separate 14ga wiring loop, separate transformer) or is there a better way?
As you can tell from my questions I’m still finding my way through all of this. From other experiences I know one of the best ways to be successful is to ask the experts - so here I am. I appreciate all comments and advice, and pointing me to relevant posts to further my education.
Thanks in advance to all.
MX7
My son turns 30 next month. He has autism and lives with us. He LOVES trains. Started with Thomas like most small boys - graduated to Lionel trains, and we drive 10 hrs r/t at least once a year to visit the Train Museum in Pa. It’s usually his birthday ask to go there.
Over the years he has accumulated a lot of stuff. We’ve never had the space for a layout beyond a small oval in his room or around the Christmas tree. We closed last month on a new home in FL, and I had a 3-car garage built. I drove down from NY a couple of weeks ago and built an 8x12 table for him as a birthday surprise. It’s basically 3-sheets of OSB. I covered it with faux-grass carpet. Not the most realistic looking for a layout, but he has some tactile and texture issues and I thought this would be best.
While he was out I took a quick inventory of his stuff. I count at least 4 “starter sets” with CW-80 transformers, another 3-4 sets that use remote control and have different transformers, lots and lots of additional track and many buildings. It’s all FasTrack.
I’ve been reading forums and looking at layouts to find one I like that we can build with his stuff. I don’t have an exact inventory of track (yet), but will in about a week. He has limited switches (maybe 1 or 2 ea LH & RH) and I know these are expensive.
I have a few initial questions, and likely will have many more once I get deeper in.
A couple to start:
- I know FasTrack is FasTrack, but will the remote locomotives run using the transformers?
- how much track can I support (approx) with the 4 transformers? I know I need to wire them “in phase” but I’m wondering what I can expect. We went to a train show today and someone was selling a used ZW transformer for $125 - I would have bought it but he was with me. Honestly, even if it didn’t work it looked cool!
- wiring - I bought 100’ of 2-wire 16 ga wire that I thought I’d loop around the outside perimeter of the track (underneath of course). I thought I could connect it to the track and then run a separate loop for accessories. For the accessories I thought I’d pick up some thinner (20?) gauge wire.
- I’d like to have multiple lines running at the same time. Is the best way to do this simply to treat them completely independently (eg separate 14ga wiring loop, separate transformer) or is there a better way?
As you can tell from my questions I’m still finding my way through all of this. From other experiences I know one of the best ways to be successful is to ask the experts - so here I am. I appreciate all comments and advice, and pointing me to relevant posts to further my education.
Thanks in advance to all.
MX7
