Books for wiring layouts


W

woodcamp66213

Member
I'm new to RRing and am looking for magazines, books etc. to help me through the challenges of wiring my lay out. This would be from the beginners point of view to advanced.

Suggestions accepted & appreciated.

Jim
 
I personally wouldnt spend money on books. That's just me though. You can find all the information and more in forums, websites and on YT.

This is a website that I have found to be pretty comprehensive. I have referred to it many times over the years. I havent had a DC layout for years, so Im not much help there.

dccwiki.com

Learn about Digital Command Control - DCC - Open source

The DCCWiki is a living reference which allows Model Railroaders to share their knowledge of Digital Command Control with fellow Model Railroaders.
dccwiki.com dccwiki.com
 
migalyto said:
I personally wouldnt spend money on books. That's just me though. You can find all the information and more in forums, websites and on YT.

This is a website that I have found to be pretty comprehensive. I have referred to it many times over the years. I havent had a DC layout for years, so Im not much help there.

dccwiki.com

Learn about Digital Command Control - DCC - Open source

The DCCWiki is a living reference which allows Model Railroaders to share their knowledge of Digital Command Control with fellow Model Railroaders.
dccwiki.com dccwiki.com
Click to expand...
Mike,
Thanks for heads up not to jump into books, rather look online, etc.
I'm convinced I want to go the DCC route. I've started looking at DCC Starter Sets, wow some are quite expensive. What would an ignorant beginner like me look for when starting up with DCC?

As always, I look forward from learning from the voices of experience.

Jim
 
As for DCC starter set you will get a bunch of opinions. I don't think think you can go wrong with NCE or Digitrax. There are other systems available as well from ESU, Bachmann, Roko, MRC. Im sure there are others Im not recalling at the time. My suggestion would be to read, read, read, and watch some YT videos on all the systems you are interested in.

I am an NCE user. I started out with a Powercab starter system, and when I started building a bigger layout moved up to the NCE Procab wireless system. There was so much information and research i did. Finally I had to flip a coin between Digitrax and NCE.
 
There's no harm in picking up some books on layout wiring; often they can be found at your local library, or at used book stores for a couple bucks each. If you're getting started in model trains today, it's probably easier to go DCC--it greatly simplifies wiring vs. the complexity and effort (and hidden expense!) of wiring a layout for DC block control, even if the initial investment is a bit higher (a $250 command station and 2 wires vs. a $50 power pack and weeks designing and wiring a block control panel). If your plan is to build a shelf layout or a 4x8 layout, you can start out with a DC pack just to whet your appetite, but DCC offers a lot more. For that shelf/4x8 size layout, you probably don't need more than a starter DCC set (Digitrax Zephyr Express or NCE equivalent) and a couple of decoder-equipped locomotives, and then gradually build your way up as you gain skills and experience. I'm still relatively new to DCC myself (I made the jump in 2021-22) but not to model railroading, and I found both of these pages helpful:

DCC Wiki: https://dccwiki.com/Main_Page
Wiring for DCC: https://wiringfordcc.com/intro2dcc.htm

It's easy to get lost down a complexity rabbit hole, but DCC can be very simple and straightforward, at least in terms of physically wiring the layout.
 
Boy, my view of DC/DCC. Years before years ago I created a layout that could run 2 trains at the same time; abet different tracks. Took multiple On-Off-On toggles for each block to handle that. I found that either you are standing at the control panel at some central location, or if only running one train you are tethered to some throttle if you want to follow your train. Ya, there were radio throttles back then; LocoTrol ( I think ), but another spendy item. Then I started thinking about running 3 trains at once. Total rewire as that idea needed rotary switches connected to each block and the power packs. Don't even want to think about all the cabling and troubleshooting when things went sideways. Yup, they will. That was way back when. Life got in the way and I became an 'arm chair' railroader for a bit, then a couple of smaller layouts for one train at a time. Now days, DCC is the way to go. Pretty much 2 wires ( with electronic glue ) connected to each block. You now can add more power to each train if need be, or run 2 trains on the same track in the same block. Much simpler troubleshooting too; yup you will. As to the price - straight DCC is not that expensive. It probably rivals the set up time of all the block wiring and getting it right. Sound equipped is the spendy part now.

When I have run on other folks layouts, if that specific loco has sound, I run it for awhile, but then turn it off. To me, it gets old after awhile. Well, there is nothing like a steamer chuffing and puffing it's way up the main though.

I guess it really boils down to time and simplicity of the physical plant.

Later
 
William Burg said:
There's no harm in picking up some books on layout wiring; often they can be found at your local library, or at used book stores for a couple bucks each. If you're getting started in model trains today, it's probably easier to go DCC--it greatly simplifies wiring vs. the complexity and effort (and hidden expense!) of wiring a layout for DC block control, even if the initial investment is a bit higher (a $250 command station and 2 wires vs. a $50 power pack and weeks designing and wiring a block control panel). If your plan is to build a shelf layout or a 4x8 layout, you can start out with a DC pack just to whet your appetite, but DCC offers a lot more. For that shelf/4x8 size layout, you probably don't need more than a starter DCC set (Digitrax Zephyr Express or NCE equivalent) and a couple of decoder-equipped locomotives, and then gradually build your way up as you gain skills and experience. I'm still relatively new to DCC myself (I made the jump in 2021-22) but not to model railroading, and I found both of these pages helpful:

DCC Wiki: https://dccwiki.com/Main_Page
Wiring for DCC: https://wiringfordcc.com/intro2dcc.htm

It's easy to get lost down a complexity rabbit hole, but DCC can be very simple and straightforward, at least in terms of physically wiring the layout.
Click to expand...
William,
Thanks for the links. I've seen the wiki link the past few days and it helps. Wiring link is also very helpful to me.

Jim
 
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