1.) I am playing with decisions about whether to get DCC or not..
2.) I now have 3.5 more sq.ft. to play with..
3.) Many people point out that there are two reversing loops in the layout, when there are none..
To DCC or not to DCC, THAT is the question...
Ok, since I have limited funding available at the moment and am hellbent on having more than I did as a kid when I had HO track nailed and hot glued right to a 4x8 piece of living room wall paneling..
I am estimating on $300 to start out with. I have narrowed my options to two distinct lists
- Option list 1---------------------------Option List 2
- Zephyr DCC command system-----Faller Car System $125 each
- Atlass DCC equiped GP38-----------undecided starter set $75*
- 5 random used freight cars---------undecided starter set $25*
* one starter set, around $100 - Both lists require a 4 x 8 foot, 2 inch thick foam panel, $35
- Both lists require quite a few pieces of Atlas Code 55 flex.
The new expansion
Basically, the Mother-In-Law and I took another look at the space and the plans I had before were smaller than I had thought. I can extend the yellow section of the layout by another foot and still not actually have to move the dining room table.
The new expansion allows space for more city roads which will eventually have real moving traffic on them! If you want to know more about the traffic idea, look for my thread in Buildings and Scenery about the "Faller Car System"! ( City street and highway traffic in small scales, http://www.scalerailsonline.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3444 )
This drawing also shows my plans for building an enclosure in the wall of the closet in which to keep my eventual Zephyr DCC command center. I chose that location specifically because the switching yard (in blue) cannot be seen from there.
Since someone asked, here is my plan for wiring.. I intend to have a feeder system from the Zephyr to each section of the layout with some common connectors. The reason is, I intend for each section to be removable and portable. The green section will be a photo diorama. The same connectors will be used between the Zephyr and the feeder system so that the Zephyr can be connected directly to any of the individual sections.
The bright blue switching yard section will be entirely independent from the rest of the layout as far as power and control is concerned. It will be a classic "Inglenook" game with a turn counter as well as consist generator of some sort and will be stocked with some short side-tip coal cars filled with different colored craft beads, and a small gasoline 4 axle switcher. It will have access to the mainline, just for the hell of it. I understand that there are certain DCC decoders that will dumb down and run on DC if there is no signal present, and I also understand that address 00 on the Zephyr can control a DC loco, so the switcher doesn't really matter what it is.
Reversing Loops
Quite a few people have pointed out that my layout plans APPEAR to have two reversing loops when in fact there are none at all. In the image below, I have deleted everything but the rails from my plan images to make it easier to see the plan without interruptions, and to the lower right I drew a very simplified version of the plan with two colours to indicate each rail. If you put your finger on any location on any of my plan images and begin moving in a clockwise rotation, there is no way possible to take a combination of turnouts and end up traveling in a counter-clockwise rotation, therefore there is no way to reverse your travel. That's the simplest and most straight forward and failsafe way that I know of to be sure of that. Here is the image:
As always feel free to save any of these images on your computer and edit them to show your suggestions and repost them here.
That's it for this edition of my post, hope you enjoyed it.
Mike, from Diecastoms
[EDITED 12:50pm 2/15 just to add a few things I forgot..]
Edited by - DieCastoms on February 15 2008 09:46:49 AM
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