HO Flex Track


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Bumpers are used for the end of a spur.
It keeps the rolling stock from leaving the end of the track.
The coupler is supposed to "bump" up against it.
You can make your own from a pile of ballast,ties and even old rail.:)
 
Ahhhh, track bumbers. We had a guy look at joining our club several years ago. He wondered how our layout worked because there where no atlas track bumbers on the ends of the tracks. (Those big ugly ones with the red light in them) He thought that they kept the electricity from running out the end of the rails!

But David is right, they are to keep rolling stock and enigines from running of the ends of the track. They can be made out of all kinds of things. Our local short line, the ETR, has an old derailed hopper at the end of one of its spurs that serves as the bumber.

Nice looking start to you layout king, If you connect that track through the middle, you'll need to insulate it at both ends and wire a DPDT switch to it because it will be a reversing loop.
 
Ok, thanks for the info.

Thanks CP for the heads up on the center track connection. Didn't even think about that. I will get er done............
 
You've got major problem in the center track of the layout. The way it is now, you've got an S curve, which will cause derailments. You need to straighten that out before you finalize anything. Actually, I'd get rid of that center track altogether. You have no passing sidings and you need at least one if you're going to run more than one train. Use that track to add a passing siding to both straight sections of track. You can have the industrial leads come off your passing siding. This gets rid of the reverse loop issue and gives you better operations for more than one train.
 
frolf_king said:
Any suggestions on an easy way to hook up the switch?
Click to expand...

Wire from the power pack to the middle poles on the DPDT switch. Wire from the left set of poles to the tracks normally and wire from the right set of poles to the oposite tracks of the left side. This will reverse the polarity of the rails when you throw the switch.

As Jim mentioned, eliminating the center track and reversing loop would be the easiest solution and putting in a passing track would open you up to more operating posibilities. Not sure if you want to do switching or just run in circles. If you put the industries off of a passing track, it can also be used as a lead to allow you to switch the industries while a train runs around on the main.

If you keep the current layout, the 'S' bend may be a problem if you try to run larger cars, but based on your small radius curves, you should be fine running small cars and engines. Replacing that section with flex track with a more gradual 'S' would be a better way to keep the 'S' bend, as it is nice to watch a train go through them. Eliminating the 'S' would be the most reliable solution.

It is always a good idea to run a few test trains before you glue anything down or add ballast.
 
Cool, thanks again for all your help. I will take it all in and get back to work. Trian Roll on..........
 
Guys, I am new to railroading and this conversation is right up my alley. I found out the hard way what frolf king is asking about and learned a lot about reverse loops. I decided to bag the idea of trying to make it work. However, I didn't realize there was a way to run more than 1 train on a track? Are you saying that if I have sidings I can run more than one - do I need any special wiring or equipment for that?
 
You really can't have more than one train running on DC. You can isolate trains on sidings and let another train pass but that's it. You can't for example, have have two trains running in different directions on one DC powerpack. You can isolate a siding with either plastic rail joiners or by simply cutting a gap in the track just beyond the turnout. You'd then run feeder wires to siding to supply power to the train on the siding once you wanted it to move and the other train was in an isolated siding. You can accomplish the same type of thing with switches that are power directing, e.g. the siding has no power unles the switch is lined for the siding. You'd still have to have the second train isolated on a a siding before you could run the first train even under this system. Even though DCC seem like a fair investment of money, it removes all these complications and allows you to run as many different trains as you want without any wiring except the DCC power to the track.
 
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