Hello to all. Brand new to model trains. Spent the better part of last 2 months collecting tracks and actually some trains as well. Here is what i have and would appreciate your thoughts on the following kindly please.
Tracks - Bought Fleischmann Profi Gleis as I already had some from way back (1984) when I first thought about Model Railway and then had no time until now. My question is do I need to add any material between these tracks and the plywood? What would you recommend I use if I have to?
Trains and buildings - I want to have my layout completely for high speed trains so what is the minimum track radius you would recommend. Will a layout of 12 ft by 4 work for this.
The trains I bougth are the following and would like to convert them for DCC operation. Please let me know which decoder you would install if they have NM652 sockets so you have sound as well.
Roco ICE 2 Digital (Plus 3 cars) with sound.
Electric Loco gigital with 3 cargo cars.
Lima TGV with 3 cars.
Fleischmann 6380 ICE train.
Fleischmann 4460 ICE-T.
Roco ICE 2 Digital with 4 cars.
Have bought some light signals from Fleischmann and am wondering if I can use these if I want to use switching and signalling using Vissemann.
Any advice and help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks to everyone in advance for your patience and your help with a newbie and stupid questions along the way.
seems, as if you are deep down into European prototype model railroading. I just wonder, whether a forum which deals mostly in US/Canadian model railroading is the right place for you. But any how, a big [#welcome]
Fleischmann Profi-Gleis is not very common here - is it the one with the ballasted track? In any case, you should lay your track on a cork roadbed, to limit the noise a little.
The equipment you have listed is able to negotiate that typical “standard” European radius of 36 cm or 14.75", although that looks rather silly. I am not familiar with the Fleischmann track geometry, but you should use a radius as large as possible on your layout.
IIRC, the NEM 652 socket matches the NMRA 8-pin plug, so you can use any kind of decoder that is equipped with that plug. Appropriate sound decoders are available from ESU Loksound, but why would you want to add sound to an ICE train, which emits only a humming noise?
Your Fleischmann signals go well with the Viessmann signals.
If the Profi-Gleis is just ties (sleepers) and rails, then there should be a roadbed beneath the ties, it can be cork or foam, (Woodland Scenics makes a foam roadbed, as does Fleishman, I believe. If the P-G has roadbed/ballast buit in, then you don’t have to add anything, although a strip of 1/8" cork underlayment wouldn’t hurt and actually would make things run quieter.
You’re only going to get a maximum radius of 22" with a 4 foot wide board, it will work, but would look rather toy like because of the overhang of the passenger cars. Ideally, if you’re running passenger equipment you’d want at least a 28" radius, even better would be 30-32". Of course if the Profi-Gleis is sectional track, then you would be limited by what radii are available. You are not limited to the Fleishman track any 2-rail track will do, as long as you use the same “code” track. (code is the height of the rail, code 100 being the largest (and also a bit oversize compared to prototype), code 83 smaller (the closest to protoype mainline), code 70 even smaller (branches and spurs), etc.
Thanks for the information. Will try to change my layout to get a bigger radius. Will use underlayment as well as suggested. As for European vs NA I am not sure if there are any forums that are in english for the european modellers and if you any of you know of one please let me know.
I tried to contact Fleischmann they sent me a link however it is in German.
Will report back on how things turn out as soon as I get a little far from where I am. Thanks again for all the help.