My trackplan has nothing but a spur, a passing siding and 3 hand thrown switches with no signals, is that simple enough?
Simple is right!! One-cab control, no blocks (power routing switches), Code 100 Atlas track with Peco switches mounted directly to a solid MDF base. Of course, from the track up it gets more complicated–most of my track is in-street trackwork, which means lots of careful filing and adjustment to keep derailments to a minimum, and eventually (a day I’m putting off) it will be time to run trolley wire above that nice, simple track. Keeping trolley wire simple is almost a contradiction in terms…
think again! check this link out
http://www.astronomy.com/asy/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8624
It’s K.I.S.S. all the way - Having the right STANDARDS and maintainig them.:
ENGINES that pull smoothly. (No jerky starts and stops).
CARS that ROLL.easily (Good trucks).
TRACK that looks realistic.
TURNOUTS that DON’T Derail things.
WALK ALONG throttles. (Yes!).
MODULAR BENCHWORK that can fit through doorways and be reused
(Unfortunately I’ve made every mistake along the way) or .
Stupid Is as Stupid does (SI/SD)
.
Engines with Jack rabbit starts.
Talgo trucks and plastic wheels.
Oversized rail.
Cheap Turnouts with oversized flangeways
Stationary throttles and control.
Benchwork that when torn down isn’t usable for next layout.
Been there. Done that. (No more!).
I completed three layoutsand the first one tought me to do it right - their is nothing worse then having a layout that wont run trains. The wiring for all of my switch machines is color coded if you can understand the first one the second one is a piece of cake. I have an incline on my road and if a car wont roll to a marked spot I find out why and fix it. Now remember that the train room is a fun room so that car may be three weeks getting fixed but it’s in the box with the others. I’m not a fanatic I just work on what I want to fix and don’t worry about the rest. It took me three weeks of thinking and 4 hours of labor to wire 70’ of track on one side of my layout but when I was done it is going to be simple to trouble shoot. Anyone who thinks that the layout isn’t going to have problems is not in the real world so make it easy to find a problem.
Power routing turnouts are no big thing as long as you do all of them the same way with the same color wire. On my layout, green is the frog wire, black is the inside rail, red is the outside rail, orange and blue are the control wires. I use lots of terminal blocks so I can is
Ah! flyingscot, but did you hand lay the track on hand whittled ties made from real railroad tie lumber, scratch build the turnouts for the spur and passing siding to personally reasearched prototypical proportions, design your handthrows to work exactly like those on the prototype you meticulously follow? One person’s brief may not be another person’s simple! [:D]
No, it’s all Micro Engineering codes 70 and 55 laid on AMI roadbed… although the prospect of handlaying track seems quite attractive.
(and I forgot, I don’t use DCC)
Never kissed a model train but hugged some and went to bed with a few.
FJ&G:
I think you are putting new meaning into the word 'Ho"