Getting Back into Railroading after 30 or so years


Renodemona

Renodemona

Member
Greetings all! I am getting back in to N scale after about 30 years absence. I build a little loop layout on a piece of plywood with some flex track and a couple manual switches as a kid, built a few buildings, wired a couple lights, but like most junior modelers never really finished before life's other interests took over. I participate in a few other model hobbies (Model Warship Combat and several types of tabletop war gaming) but all my train stuff just sat in a closet at my parent's house until recently. I rescued my old stuff and bought a couple boxes of Kato Unitrack and a starter kit.
Presto! Things Moved! Well they kind of moved. As you can imagine a 30 year stay in unmaintained reserve has an effect on performance. I played with the two functional locomotives a little, bought a couple cars on ebay, but ultimately being a busy dad and gainfully employed sent my fun trains back to the closet for a year or so. I had thought of a "dream" layout as a big dog-bone with a town on either end and the straight shelf section going over a river, past a sawmill, some industries, etc. Obviously, this was too much.
Now, I have set my sights on a more reasonable layout: 2'x4' specifically one I found on Steve's Trains Website. It conveniently had the breakdown for unitrack. So here we are, with some pink foam glued onto a 2x4 piece of fiberboard, and a track plan. Prepare for rapid fire questions:
1) Should I just go to DCC? I am pretty good at wiring, even tiny little circuit boards thanks to my dumb combat boats. I have 5 or so Locos to convert with a decoder board. I have a couple passenger cars that light up, will they still work the same with DCC or do they need some kind of board too?
2) Converting couplers. I got a big pack of the Kato couplers that slide in to the coupler boxes, are these fine as long as I just keep using the same Kato ones on everything? I have a box of MTL trucks with couplers that look they same, are they in fact "Compatible"?
3) What is a good DCC controller to start with?

Thanks!
 
First off welcome back to the hobby!
Lots has changed in the last few tears, never mind thirty! 🤯 I can answer a couple of your questions at least.

1 Should you go DCC? Well if you start off with a simple layout I’d say maybe get it up and running first, sounds like you already have the power supply. Switching up to DCC requires no extra wiring from there.
As for passenger car lighting, I’ll leave that to someone with more knowledge in the field.

Some locos are as simple as replacing the DC board with a decoder equipped one, some are “just about” impossible to convert short of flagging down a passing alien spaceship and enlisting their advanced expertise.

2 I believe the two brands play nice together, personally I prefer the MTL for operation.

3 A good DCC system is a trickey question. NCE is easy to use, Digitrax has its advantages too. Kato’s system is easy peasy but not sure of expanding later. Digitrax has the advantage of two control knobs to control two trains simultaneously on the one throttle, something many prefer.

Best advice? Start small and simple, don’t waste time with old outdated loco mechanisms, ask questions, don’t drink cheap wine.
Life’s just too short.
 
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Renodemona said:
1) Should I just go to DCC? I am pretty good at wiring, even tiny little circuit boards thanks to my dumb combat boats. I have 5 or so Locos to convert with a decoder board. I have a couple passenger cars that light up, will they still work the same with DCC or do they need some kind of board too?
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How many of those 5 or so locos are you going to run simultaneously? No, the lighted cars will generally not need anything additional, unless they end up lighting too brightly. Then a resistor to tone them down would be good.

Renodemona said:
2) Converting couplers. I got a big pack of the Kato couplers that slide in to the coupler boxes, are these fine as long as I just keep using the same Kato ones on everything? I have a box of MTL trucks with couplers that look they same, are they in fact "Compatible"?
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I had a mixed bag of Rapido and Kadee(now microtrains) couplers. I had several conversion/transition cars to run. Eventually I was headed the Microtrains direction but they were expensive (especially since I was in Jr High at the time), and the transition cars worked OK. So I would say choose the couplers you like best and just ease into it.

Renodemona said:
3) What is a good DCC controller to start with?
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I don't think you can really go wrong with any of them other than the really old MRC-2000 and CVP systems that don't have full addressing. Of modern current production equipment the only one I would recommend against is the "Twin". Looks really cool but it is pretty limiting. General consensus is the NCE Power cab is a good starter, as is the Digitrax Zephyr. I've heard good things about the Zimo but I've never seen one in real life. There are so many out there these days, one has a hard time keeping up with all of them.

I have the NCE PRO cab, a couple of the Lentz, a Zephyr, a Digitrax DSC-100, and the afore mentioned old MRC-2000 and CVP.
 
Welcome back.

I was in the same boat, packed up everything in the early 1990s and started dipping my toes back in the water about 3-5 years ago.

Lessons learned Jumping back in, my highly detailed HO Athearn Blue Box locomotives were outdated. All the people in the round robin group I fell into ran DCC. So yes, start over with DCC. My very early Lenz DCC (1st one sold at the LHS in the 1990s) wasn't upgraded and the newer systems had many more advantages. Everyone has DCC opinions on which system is the best for their needs. On other layouts have operated updated Lenz, NCE, MRC, and Digitrax. After a year decided on and purchased the MRC Prodigy Express 2. I liked the big knob and the simplicity.

Couplers. As Iron Horseman stated, ease into it. I used transition cars for years until I was able to afford converting the whole system to Kadee's. Now when purchasing cars at swap meets, I look for cars with Kadee couplers are installed.

About the layout construction comment, when first back in the hobby I saw a Bachman N scale set on clearance and purchased it to refresh my skill sets. I used foam on plywood with a 1x3 frame. The 30" x 40" layout is to heavy for that small size. Since then, have purchased L shape molding 1" x 1" and use that to frame 1" thick pink foam for an HO 12" x48" switching layout. Since it is in the early stages not sure how supportive it will be, but worth a try.

Have fun and don't be afraid to experiment and find out what works best for you.
 
boatwrench said:
My very early Lenz DCC (1st one sold at the LHS in the 1990s) wasn't upgraded and the newer systems had many more advantages.
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That is interesting. I got regular updates from Lenz for mine until Lenz USA changed ownership in 2011 or so. I thought the problem with Lenz was their wireless solution of using an old telephone (not a smart phone at the time), so for mine I bought the CVP wireless throttles. They are the best. It is just too bad they don't make them anymore. Apparently cannot get some component.
 
Thank you all for the welcome! So I guess my next question is I would like to convert one of my Diesel Locos to DCC, what is the right decoder? It definitely is not DCC ready Bachmann F7 that moves but will get a thorough cleaning. I also have a Minitrix F7 but it seemed even less happy about moving. I also have a couple Bachmann 2-6-2s but I think the Diesels might be easier to work on to learn?
I've got the NCE Powercab starter kit on wish list when the layout is actually ready to run trains beyond slapping a couple pieces of track down to test.
 
Renodemona said:
Thank you all for the welcome! So I guess my next question is I would like to convert one of my Diesel Locos to DCC, what is the right decoder? It definitely is not DCC ready Bachmann F7 that moves but will get a thorough cleaning.
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The issue with the Bachmann is that is has a split chassis. That requires a lot of work to isolate the motor from the frame, and keep the "hot" frame from touching anything on the decoder. Looks like many people mount the decoder into a second un-powered B unit.
Found this.
https://jamesmodelrailwayco.com/2016/01/25/converting-an-n-scale-bachmann-f7-to-dcc/

Renodemona said:
I also have a Minitrix F7 but it seemed even less happy about moving. I also have a couple Bachmann 2-6-2s but I think the Diesels might be easier to work on to learn?
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Not really as the steamers, have the tender space to put a decoder in. Usually the diesels are all totally filled with weights.
 
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Iron Horseman said:
The issue with the Bachmann is that is has a split chassis. That requires a lot of work to isolate the motor from the frame, and keep the "hot" frame from touching anything on the decoder. Looks like many people mount the decoder into a second un-powered B unit.
Found this.
https://jamesmodelrailwayco.com/2016/01/25/converting-an-n-scale-bachmann-f7-to-dcc/


Not really as the steamers, have the tender space to put a decoder in. Usually the diesels are all totally filled with weights.
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Ah, good information thank you! Well I guess we will see what happens when I pop some shells off. They might not even be Bachmann just in a Bachmann box. I thought I had life-like or maybe model master as these were the cheapest (I was 11, 5 bucks mattered lol). One of the 2-6-2s is definitely Bachmann and the other one looks just like it except in green. I have a Rio Grande F7 in a Bachmann box that seems to match the label, and a plain grey one loose that looks identical that I got on Ebay that says Bachmann in the auction. And then the Minitrax one. I guess it depends what is easiest to figure out. I do have a dummy A unit F7 I suppose I could use that one and have a permanent pair? Hmmm more things to think about.
 
Well here's step 1, plywood with 1x3 strip substructure!
1000002642.jpg
 
Renodemona said:
Better safe than sorry haha
Ive picked up a motley collection of F7s, PA/B, and a Budd RDC and one of them will probably get a DCC board in. Which one? Not sure
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If those PAs are the old Kato units, they were the best runners of the day. I would say they would be the contender for DCC. However there is probably more space to be found inside the RDC.
 
Iron Horseman said:
If those PAs are the old Kato units, they were the best runners of the day. I would say they would be the contender for DCC. However there is probably more space to be found inside the RDC.
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I have one of the wire leads DCC modules, its pretty small, but I think you are right the RDC is the most roomy, although I would like to make the PA/PB unit and put the DCC in the booster and they would just be a permanent unit. Maybe that will be the second one, and I can play with sound too.
 
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