I was wondering if a few peeps out there wouldn’t mind taking in the time to give a poor guy a helping hand.
Here’s what I want… doesn’t mean I can have it.
I want to run trains. Strickly DC. N scale with two mains and long yard lines here and there.
I want to keep this as simple as possible. No DCC,(well maybe on one main) no fancy turnouts with motors. Strickly spring loaded turnouts (Peco) all manuel.
I want to be able to do alot of things… but my desires and space available are at ends with each other.
I wanted to have a busy station with lots of passenger cars and some freight. (fairly large train yard) using the longest Peco turnouts possible.
Being a beginner, I came up with this.
Both cars/liners are on the A/D tracks… with the mains on the inside.
Now I have a few questions… I hope I can get some feedback. I usually never try to post anything for fear of looking like one big dope.
So lets take this slow. Take the Top Main # 1 MARKED YELLOW.
If I put Electrofrogs at both ends. I can direct the arriving train to the A/D t
I’ve gotta recommend picking up some books on the subject of wiring. Our sponsor (Kalmbach) has a couple. I’ll mention that, if you’re going to run DC (not DCC), you’re pretty much going to have to divide your trackwork into blocks. These two books should give you adequate guidance in the matter. I think they’ll also discuss the various options with regard to your choice of switches.
Oh yeah… the wiring…I forgot to ask about too. Hey I thank you for the input and I’ll probably go out and buy those two also. I’ve done so much reading already… good thing I enjoy it.
“Electrofrog,” and, “InsulFrog,” are Peco terms.[:)] The more generic forms are, “Live frog,”[:P] and Dead frog."[xx(]
With live frogs, you should use something more positive than the switch points to power the frog from the appropriate stock rail. Dead frogs route the power around the points and the frog, which is a ‘no power here’ zone. Using analog DC, both require electrical gaps in the rails leading away from the frog, with one exception I will address below.
Live frogs are electrically continuous across the frog, so rolling stock units with short or touchy pickup systems are unlikely to have any problems. Some rolling stock, like short tank steamers, can lose contact on the frog of a dead frog turnout - especially if the frog is raised above the closure and ‘beyond the frog’ rails. OTOH, a live frog really should be powered through contacts on the switch machine or hand throw device. Tortoise and some twin-coil machines have such contacts, others don’t.
The one thing that a live frog can do that a dead frog can’t? If you throw the switch to the opposite route, a dead-end spur without rail gaps behind a live frog will be dead, since both rails will be at the same potential. To get the same result with a dead frog, you will need a gap in the rail and a separate on-off switch to ‘kill’ the track.
I run analog DC, and my hand-laid frogs are all live. It does make the electricals a little more complicated, but I run a bunch of short-wheelbase tank locos and MU cars that make dead frogs a non-starter. If you are running ‘all wheel pickup’ diesels and steam with tender pickup, dead frogs might simplify things - but not much.
I had posted this for many reasons. But in short, I believe there are others out there that want a simple approach with simple answers. I am retired now… a bit early in life but never the less, I have spent my whole working life in my field with little knowledge of the outside world. Imagine learning Model Railroading for almost the first time.’
Now Chuck and anyone else, the information I have verses what I gave you is/was limited. This one run… from one station to the next station… is a whopping 105 feet. Not N scale feet but the actual real footage of the layout.
So in one direction the train will travel 105 feet to get to the next station, with the other direction measuring approx. 120 feet. Now I really can’t see blocking some track. Maybe I am under the thought process of a HOT track is hot track. But a simple cut might do the job.
So when the train leaves the bottom station traveling over a 100 feet in either direction, I really don’t see a need for a block. I see a choice, the train can keep traveling by or pull into the station. Maybe with a simple cut in the rails, then switch to another transformer.
Switching from one transformer to the next is a matter of moving my hands. Hey I’ll be honest here, I maybe doing this all wrong, but I am having fun. Also, there are a total of four areas to have train stations. I just see this as four different layouts … all in one. lol. I have just about everything to make this happen.
If you want to keep wiring at a minimum and you don´t want to care about blocks to be assigned to cabs, so in short, if you just want to enjoy running trains without having to worry about power routing - go DCC! It just requires two bus wires and a sufficient number of feeder wires - that´s all!
DCC is nothing “fancy” anymore. Aside from installing decoders (or having them installed), it takes away a lot of chores and just leaves the fun!
I second this.You already have a fair level of complexity in your design so buying all the hardware (switches,controls,extra wiring,etc) will end up as expensive as a basic DCC system,and that is without considering the constant hassle of controlling polarity all the time.It has been done in the past as there was no choice then but now DCC makes things a lot easier.
If you still want to go the DC way,Atlas sells a great book on block control along with specially designed switches and controls for this purpose.
