I moved this layout to it’s own thread because no one had seen it buried at the end of a thread that was basically done.
The first misconception is that the Bachman EZ track needs no wiring. All track needs to be wired with drop-down wires every 3-5 feet. If you don’t you run the risk of having under-powered sections of track. There is also the fact that each section has the possibility of a loose connection. If you only power at one location, you have to check the whole layout to find where the connection was lost.
I built my layout with EZ track and found that the more serious you get about building a “model railroad” the more difficult making the EZ track becomes. IF you are just going to throw some EZ track on plywood (toy train), you can get up and running quickly, but I spent a lot of time: 1) Working on turnouts to get them to work smoothly 2) Taking out turnouts to repair them, because they must be repaired from the bottom. 3) building up the rest of the layout around the track so that the height of the track matched the buildings. That last one took months.
Hi Spacemouse and everyone else.
I am also a private pilot and fly a vintage airplane.Why I replied was because of your avatar of “Smokie the Bear”.
At the annual airshow at Oshkosh Wisconsin this summer, the airplane ( a Piper Cub) that actually rescued the small bear from a forest fire which would become the famous “Smokie the Bear” was on display at the airshow.
Just a small piece of history!
Well time to get back to our main subject, trains.
Hey thanks for the reply! That will at least save me ordering track I don’t need, and I’m surprised as it makes a quite misleading on the part of Bachmann on the ‘no wiring’ claim… but hey what can you do! [;)]
To offer what support I can to Space Mouse’s characterization of EZ-Track, but also to bolster what the manufacturers say, it is a super idea…for new and casual users. Even for seasoned modelers, it could be inserted into a trackplan and work very well. Its greates limitation comes in the fixed radii of the curved pieces that are offered. Unless you want curves of x,y, and z, you must make your own, and folks essentially turn to flextrack completely within a short time.
Also, their turnouts are well short of first class. Mine worked well and reliably using the solenoid-type actuators, but the point rails needed a lot of tweeking to get the locomotives to roll through them well in both directions.
As for power from a single connection, Bachmann is perfectly correct. So, unfortunately for them, is Space Mouse. Your voltage will drop as the distance from the power supply increases. It happens in your home wiring, too. So, if you have 60 linear feet of EZ-Track, or any track, fed by one feeder connection, you will find your locomotives labouring considerably at the far end of the loop…every time. To circumvent that, and to minimize the effect of ever-weakening rail-to-rail joints weakening or corroding and thereby impeding electricity, the savvy modeler remembers to solder thin telephone wire feeders, one to each rail, from a heavier gauge bus. As Chip says, about every 3-6 feet is great, but it is cheap assurance of trouble-free railroading from the point of view of connectivity.
Reason being, that basically I’ve been let down big time by a store and I’m ‘trackless’ [|(] - however, I’m now conisdering switching to PECO, which is more readily available. (Why I didn’t do this in the first instance I still don’t know[banghead])
Can anyone recommend a 4x8 layout that can accomodate 2 tracks side-by-side, ideally with a single spur line, like that on the World’s Greatest Hobby plan?
Thanks for that certainly provides some ‘food for thought’. I’ve actually got a 4x8 benchwork from a layout I had as a kid already set up, but I guess I could at least expand into some sort of ‘L’ shape… I could then do some height change.