The 60/40 Layout And Other Railway Related Things


BigGRacing said:
Doesn’t make sense unless it’s the drop of current probably required for DCC?
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I agree, it doesn't make any sense, but no matter what I tried, the only way not to get a short was to connect each set of droppers wires separately.

As an example, I had three sets of dropper wires, all connected to one chocolate block, two wire from the block to the buss wire, now I use Peco code100 pre wired droppers, so their already coloured coded Red/Black, red droppers are on the outer rail, black on the inner, every piece of track is wired the same, I check, check, check again, (and even if I get it wrong, it's two wires, just reverse them) But they just shorted, took each set and tried each track individually, all worked fine, no short. put two tracks together, and it shorted out. This particular set were for the two TO's that are in sequence, so not sure if that had anything to do with it, but I can't see how, but every double set of droppers wires did the same when connected to the buss wire.
 
OK, It's hard to see, but decided to do all the wiring for the TO's, got one more to do and then I'll start on tidying up the cables and get started on the switches etc, but at least I'll get sit down for a while.

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Managed to do a little more today. finished off the wiring for the TO's, then realised I'd wired several of them the wrong way round, (In my defense it was about 6.00am and hadn't slept) so went back and sorted them out. Can't connect the wires to the switches just yet, need more spade connectors, thought I had more, but I can't find them, I suppose when the new one's arrive, Murphy's law will kick in and the ones I know I have will surface.

I've had some warping going on the right side of the layout, I've reinforced it underneath to prevent it getting worse, but I've had to fill in a section where the track will run to the industrial area, waiting for that to dry so I can sand it flat and paint. Need to do the remainder before I add any ground cover on that side.

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Managed to get some ground cover and ballasting done, the various items you see are holding everything down till the glue dries.

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I am, at some stage, need to make a new control panel for the lights, ground signals and TO switches, but in the meantime I'll re use my old one now I've taken out all the LED's and switches I'm no longer going to use.

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Hope everyone has a good night.:)
 
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Yes, I'll move them, there used in a old style signal box, coloured levers are used for various functions,
In the UK, the following code generally applies, a red controls a stop or shunt signal, a yellow controls a distant signal, black controls a set of points, blue controls a facing point lock, and white is spare, I still need to get a couple of blue ones.
 
Smudge617 said:
took each set and tried each track individually, all worked fine, no short. put two tracks together, and it shorted out. This particular set were for the two TO's that are in sequence, so not sure if that had anything to do with it,
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Normally, I would say it sounds like you have some hot frog turnouts in there (electrofrog), but looking at your pictures they all look like Insulfrog. So yes, mysterious.

What exactly do you mean two turnouts "in sequence". Does that mean point to frog or frog to frog?. Did you ever put in that double crossover you mentioned earlier in the thread?
 
Iron Horseman said:
Normally, I would say it sounds like you have some hot frog turnouts in there (electrofrog), but looking at your pictures they all look like Insulfrog. So yes, mysterious.

What exactly do you mean two turnouts "in sequence". Does that mean point to frog or frog to frog?. Did you ever put in that double crossover you mentioned earlier in the thread?
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Yes, my points are all insulfrog, (it's all Hornby track), so I'm not sure what the problem was.
Sorry, not quite sure of the correct terminology, by in sequence I meant one set of points immediately followed by another.
I really wanted the double crossover I mentioned, and I did try, but it simply won't fit, that's my fault for not building the layout on a single piece of timber, I'll know better for next time. :)
 
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Just a couple of "before" and "after" pic's.

This is before I started on the re-wire and the multitude of cables I used, but didn't really need to have done.

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And this is how far I've got, still need to connect the frog levers, all the new lighting is done, as well as the power for the buildings, again except for the switches, hopefully I can re-fit the control panel, levers and switches later this morning.

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It's amazed me how much wiring I did, that I didn't need to have done, not understanding DCC then, as I do now, only have the CDU and two DB's, I probably don't need the one on the right as I'm only having a few yard and building lights on that side, and they can easily be run from the main panel. Should get it finished later today, maybe over the weekend at the latest. Then onto scenery, structures and ballasting.
Oh joy of joys.:(
 
Smudge617 said:
It's amazed me how much wiring I did, that I didn't need to have done, not understanding DCC then, as I do now,
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Yes, In my opinion many folks who write about DCC wiring totally over engineer everything and make it much harder than it has to be. I always start with two wires to the track and then measure to see if it needs more. Much of what is published is to solve problems that 90% of layouts will never have.

I would guess a layout of this size would need 6 feeders, and I for sure would not worry about bus. The last layout I built is basicaly an oval track plan on a rhomboidal 12 x 12 to 9 on one side. It has five feeders of 18(?) gauge wire There is one at the center of each side plus one for a siding. That way the train is never more than 4 feet from power.
 
Iron Horseman said:
Yes, In my opinion many folks who write about DCC wiring totally over engineer everything and make it much harder than it has to be. I always start with two wires to the track and then measure to see if it needs more. Much of what is published is to solve problems that 90% of layouts will never have.

I would guess a layout of this size would need 6 feeders, and I for sure would not worry about bus. The last layout I built is basicaly an oval track plan on a rhomboidal 12 x 12 to 9 on one side. It has five feeders of 18(?) gauge wire There is one at the center of each side plus one for a siding. That way the train is never more than 4 feet from power.
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I agree, I've read articles where every piece of track has to have feeders, solder feeders directly to the track, don't use fishplate feeders (I do) feeders should be every 2' to ensure smooth running etc. So many do's and dont's, it's mind numbing.

I know I've still used too many feeders, 3 sets on each frog, (I have a pet hate of loco's stalling over frogs) plus one set at the end of each siding, and another set every few feet on the mains, I think it's the old saying of "better to have too many than too few."
 
Had a productive couple of days, installed all the frog levers, and ran the power and switches for the yard and building lights, didn't place all the buildings on the part of the layout, there sitting on top of my closet in a box, I tried getting them down and the Goods shed fell off, better part of 5', needs some repairs now, but actually survived pretty well, all considered.

I've noticed in the foto a few of my lamppost's are a little off kilter, need to sort them out plus one of my frog motor's is misbehaving, but as it's Hornby Surface Point Motor, probably needs a little adjustment.

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Evening Everyone.

Not much done today, re-laid the track for the industrial area, now it's filled in and dry, re-fitted the motor on the wye I'd removed, had to change that motor, mysteriously it began shorting out, fiddled with the motor that was misbehaving, after an hour I still couldn't get it to work properly, went to remove it, and found it helps if you wire it in correctly duh!!:(

Finished repairing the Goods Shed and did a general tidy up, cleaned my workbench etc. hopefully I can find everything now.

Need to carry on with some more ground scenery, if I can get a lot of that done this week I can start on the two structures for the industrial area. Once they're done I want to make some features for the layout that I'd like to try my hand at.

Have a good night.
 
Smudge617 said:
I agree, I've read articles where every piece of track has to have feeders, solder feeders directly to the track, don't use fishplate feeders (I do) feeders should be every 2' to ensure smooth running etc. So many do's and dont's, it's mind numbing.

I know I've still used too many feeders, 3 sets on each frog, (I have a pet hate of loco's stalling over frogs) plus one set at the end of each siding, and another set every few feet on the mains, I think it's the old saying of "better to have too many than too few."
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I ignore almost all of this well-intentioned advice and my layouts continue to work just fine :)

For the N-scale layout that I am currently building, I am using exactly one set of feeder wires (gasps from the audience). The layout is small and all track joints are soldered so any power loss is negligible.

If you watch YouTube videos, they all tell you you to use extra flux when soldering. But I have never done this and all of my soldered joints work just fine. Solder wire already has rosin flux in the center which is more than enough for almost all model railroading use cases.
 
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