And enjoying it.
A bridge and an engine house so far. I need to go shopping for more stuff.
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Looking forward to your next developments!
Simon
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Itâs a 3â x 8â table but doesnât look like it in the pic. Closed the loop on track this morning. Iâve not put a whole lot of thought into scenery, so it may change. Iâll probably go ahead and run wiring under the table this week. It can be changed easily enough.
Any suggestions at this point so a newbie doesnât get himself in trouble?
Where are you planning to isolate blocks?
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Iâm glad you asked because I have no idea what that means.
After a short YT education it looks like I may only need to do 2 on this table, which will be at the isolated sides of the turnouts.
Actually, I can probably explain it simpler here. In short, unless you want all your locomotives to do the exact same thing, you must divide your layout into electrically isolated blocks. If you plan to use DCC (I assume not, given the DC power pack) or have just one locomotive on the layout at any given time, blocks are unnecessary. For example, you could isolate each siding on the railroad separately from the mainline, which you might also want to break up into two blocks. This requires insulated rail joiners or gaps cut into the rails.
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Thank you. That was more than I got from YT, which didnât address DC v. DCC.
About choosing DCC or DC: DC is easier to deal with on a simple layout, but as complexity of the layout adds, complexity of wiring increases exponentially. DCC is relatively simpler for a bigger layout. Some DCC systems can run DC locos as well; I would recommend one of these if you go with DCC. DCC locomotives and systems cost more, but allow for fully independent locomotive control and digital sound. DC locomotives are also easier to find. If you use DCC, I would still recommend that you divide it up into blocks with just a simple toggle switch for each to aid in troubleshooting (i.e. whereâs the short?). In DC, your block divisions sound like they make sense. Be sure that you have enough feeder wires!
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Probably going to lean toward keeping it simple until I learn more about the hobby.
I do plan on adding more tables, so will likely transition to DCC at some point. It is a year or more down the road for me.
Itâs easy to change to DCC, fortunately.
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I can see space for at least 4 electrically isolated blocks, for 2 or 3 locos. The siding in the middle could be isolated for a train to âsitâ there while the other travels from point to point. The tracks on the little yard at the end could also be isolated to store a loco.
About that yard, I would find space for a turnout at the end to allow a loco to drop cars and take a return track to go in the other direction. I would do the same thing at the end of the other line.
Question: will you be doing some sort of creek in the middle? That bridge looks pretty big for that 
.
Simon
Thanks for the tips. Yes, a creek. I am having a hard time finding smaller bridges. Iâll eventually find them, but I may use a raised platform for this single bridge so the bigger doesnât look like overkill. I can build something up that will make it look reasonable (e.g a creek coming out of a mountain pass.) Cutting out more plywood and enlarging the water way is another option.
There are plenty of places where very long railroad bridges span what look like innocent little creeks and rivers. Creeks and rivers that at certain times of year or under certain weather conditions turn into raging floodsâŚ
It might be interesting, come to think of it, to model several âflood stagesâ of the small creek, as modules that fit the bed, so you can get the effect of different depths and currents.
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