I’ve been doing a lot of research which, while informative, has led to more questions. These are (mostly) related to N scale, in no particular order, and hopefully you don’t mind a list.
One quick comment first…Wow, are you guys ever artists! In scouring this site I’ve seen pic after pic of incredibly detailed and realistic layouts that are genuinely amazing! Between that and some stunning photography what you’ve created is truly inspiring, and I thank you for sharing the results of your dedication and what had to be countless hours of painstaking work.
Ok, on to the list!
Will rolling stock from different manufacturers couple without issue, or must they all be converted to something like Kadees?
RC vs DCC: I’m an RC guy, so I’ve looked into it. Expensive compared to DCC and not sure it’s necessary on my small layout. Not really a question but I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.
Re: DCC(a). I haven’t decided if I’ll go that route but just in case I’m considering wiring for that possibility. A DCC wiki I ran across (https://dccwiki.com/Wire_Sizes_and_Spacing) states every single piece of track should be wired, with 14awg no less! Really?
Re: DCC(b) Will an engine equipped with DCC run on a DC setup, using a standard power pack, or will something with greater output be required?
For individual control of powered accessories is there a commercial alternative to toggle switches? I’m thinking along the lines of a soft-touch panel…
For what reason do some convert plastic wheelsets to metal? Isn’t it noisier?
Sorta conjectural, but in the RC world brushed can motors are a thing of the past. I’ve seen complaints of engines not having enough power so I’m curious why these haven’t been embraced by model RR manufacturers.
Gimme30, I’ll take the easy one, #1, [(-D] yes they will all couple together, UNLESS, (there’s also a catch) one car has horn/hook couplers, and the other has knuckle couplers.
You might still find the old horn/hook couplers on older cars bought used, maybe from Ebay, or a swap meet, or such, but most ( I hate to use the word EVERY, it always comes back to bite me) newer manufactured cars have some type of knuckle coupler, beit plastic or metal, that will couple together.
Your have to Google horn/hook coupler, as I don’t have a picture at hand, at this minute.
Modern stuff all has some form of Kadee compatible coupler out of the box. Some brands work better than others, which is why I convert all my rolling stock to real Kadees. They are still superior to all the copycat alternatives. The difference is, since most cars already come with some form of knuckle coupler, swapping in kadees is usually easy as there aren’t the all over the place heights like back in the day, so usually it is simply removing the stock coupler and putting the equivalent Kadee in place.
Nowhere does it say ever piece of track needs 14 gauge wire for DCC. The 14 gauge wire would be the power bus for a layout at LEAST up to the 13x18 around the room layout I previously had - #14 was plenty for that. Actual feeds to the track were #22 wire, not the #14.
If you use flex track, that’s one set of feeders ever 3 feet, it’s not much at all. It can be less if you solder some of the rail joints - the issue is no DCC vs DC, it’s that rail joiners are horrible electrical connections as then inevitably loosen up and no longer really clamp the rail.
Before the last one, I had an 8x12 donut layout and it ran fine with DCC with ONE pair of feeders hooked up for weeks until I got around to hooking up the others. Not ideal for a long term setup but it can work. With sectional track you have more joints, thus more chances for problems. DC doesn;t work well long term with a larger layout and only one set of feeders.
For the Scenic Ridge layout - you can run a section of #16 down the center the long way, and then run 20-22 gauge feeder wires to the tracks. Nothing more complicated is needed.
Most any modern DCC decoder can run on DC, sounds locos, I wouldn;t waste my time because in order to ge the sounds to start, they delay the motor until the voltage is high enough to run the electronics. The end result is the loco goes from a crawl to full speed over a very tiny range of the throttle knob. Non-sound DCC locos work fine, just a tin
Not included are “Rapido couplers” which were in the old days the standard for N scale. You may find older used cars and locos (that have not been converted) with them. “Rapidos” are not compatible with the others.
Also not included N scale dummy couplers. They can be connected/disconected by hand to the other knuckle couplers.
Note Kadee are also not included - they are HO couplers. MicroTrains (MT) were Kadee N couplers untill the N and smaller products were spun off to a separate company.
2 . DCC. It’s great when there are multiple operators running multiple trains. DCC is medium expensive, requires a DCC decoder ($30?) to be installed inside each locomotive. This can be harder to do in N than in HO. If you will be the sole operator on your layout then plain old fashioned DC works just fine. I run DC on my layout.
I used common 14 gauge house wire tp run a power bus all around my layout. I ran 22 gauge jumpers up from the power bus to the track. I had the 14 gauge wire lying around the shop, so that was cost free to me. Electrically speaking, 14 gauge is overkill for a model railroad, but the wire is rugged, you won’t break it while working on other stuff under the layout, and it doesn’t matter if you knick the copper while stripping off the insulation to hook up a feeder.
Ideally you should run a feed wire to every single piece of track on the layout. In practice running a feeder to every other piece of track works just fine. Although railjoiners do open up and stop conducting, they don’t all do it at once. Since each rail has two rail joiners, one on each end, one can open up, the other still conducts, and the trains run just fine.
I still use toggle switches.
6.Metal wheels look better. They show a bright metal tread where they should. They give a nice clickery clack going over points. That said, better than half my rolling stock still rolls on plastic.
Good trackwork is the essence of good running. No humps, bumps, kinks, out of gauge, twists, anything. Any roughness in the roadbed can show up in the track. Sand paper works fine on roadbed.
It would be interesting to see if you can fit R/C into an N-scale locomotive.
Keep in mind re the ‘connecting every track’ advice that many (most?) folks are using 36" long flextrack, not sectional track, so connecting every piece means running a connection every 3’. If you use ‘click track’ like Kato Unitrack for your N-scale layout, you don’t need very many connections as the track / power connections between pieces of track are more secure than conventional sectional or flex track.
For #3. Many folks solder their track together (leaving a few unsoldered as expansion gaps) soldered track is like a single piece for wiring. If the layout is not long term then railjoiners will work, best if they and the track are new as well as atight fit.
#5 as long it turns on and off it really doesn’t matter what type it is.
#6 some folks feel that plastic accumulates crud, others think they don’t. For lighted cars metal wheels are a way to pick up power from the tracks.
#8 for the road bed the smoothness of the subroad is not critical, but keep it flat. For the track on the roadbed, you want the road bed to be even/flat both side to side and length wise. Except for where grades start and end you want the roadbed and track flat, where grades start/end you want a gradual transition from level to grade - the grade itself should be flat (in the sense that it is all on the same plane). For cork roadbed I go over it with a surform plane before laying track. I haven’t used Woodland Scenics product so I can’t tell you how to do it with that product.
I will only address your last question, the one about smooth surfaces for the tracks.
In the real world, sprung frames and car bodies allow large heavy freight cars and locomotives to negotiate iffy track, sometimes very iffy. But…it’s at walking speed.
In our scale models, which have decidedly poor-to-no springing, uneven track, kinked tracks, buckled tracks…they cause problems in the mm scale. The faster you move the trains, the higher the probability of a derailment.
When you halve that, to N scale, you are talking about less than a tenth of a millimeter. The same order of unfinished roadbed issues will have a markedly greater effect on the tiny items in that scale, and again…the faster you make the train run, the greater the problems.
Long way of saying, the smaller the scale, the more care and refining of all techniques is required of the modeler. So, yes, your roadbed will have to be very smooth, slow curves entering grades and getting back out of a grade, tiny bits of super-elevation will show up nicely if you do it right, and so on.
Take a belt sander or rotary sander and do broad sweeps along your roadbed, checking frequently that you have reduced the bumps and valleys to something that won’t ruin your new railroading experience. Use a length of flex track, place a bit of weight on it here and there, and then get down and look for gaps under the ties. You’ll have to contend with them or your rolling stock will…your choice.
I didn’t know what that was. It’'s more than their risers to achieve an incline;
Kit Contents
3 Pre-printed Foam Base Panels
24 in x 36 in (60.9 cm x 91.4 cm)
10 Profile Boards™ - 8 in x 24 in (20.3 cm x 60.9 cm)
6 Profile Board Connectors
8 in x 3 in (20.3 cm x 7.62 cm)
2 Foam Sheets - 1/2 in (12.7 cm)
4 Foam Sheets - 1/4 in (6 mm)
22 Risers - 2 in x 24 in (5.08 cm x 60.9 cm)
2 4% Incline/Decline - 0 in - 1 in x 24 in (0-2.54 cm x 60.9 cm)
2 4% Incline/Decline - 1 in - 2 in x 24 in (2.54 cm - 5.08 cm x 60.9 cm)
17 Track-Bed™ Strips - 1/8 in x 24 in (3 mm x 60.9 cm) ea
3 Plaster Cloth Rolls - 20 ft2 (185 dm2) ea
1 Plaster Cloth Roll - 5 ft2 (929 cm2)
Lightweight Hydrocal® 1 qt (946 mL)
1 Random Rock - Rock Mold
1 Base Rock - Rock Mold
Earth Colors™ Liquid Pigment / Rock Colors Yellow
Ocher, Burnt Umber, Black 0.16 fl oz (4.73 mL) ea
75 Foam Nails - 2 in (5.08 cm)
1 Paving Tape™ Roll (includes Spreader)
1/4 in x 30 ft (6 mm x 9.14 m)
Smooth-It™ 1 qt (946 mL)
Asphalt Top Coat™ 2 fl oz (59.1 mL)
Concrete Top Coat 2 fl oz (59.1 mL)
4 Cut Stone Portals
2 Concrete Culverts
Black Base Paint 8 fl oz (236 mL)
Scenic Cement™ 32 fl oz (946 mL)
1 Spray Head
Hob-e-Tac® 1 fl oz (29.5 mL)
Foam Tack Glue™ 8 fl oz (236 mL)
Earth Undercoat 2 fl oz (59.1 mL)
12 Tree Armatures 3/4 in - 1 1/4 in (1.9 cm - 3.17 cm)
12 Tree Armatures 1 1/4 in - 2 in (3.17 cm - 5.08 cm)
18 Tree Armatures 2 in - 3 in (5
Here NMRA standards ought to be your friend, in that they provide interworkability criteria and tolerances that ought to give at least an expectation of ‘plug and play’ operation out of the box. Having said that, the judicious use of gages and knowledge of shims and filing ought to allow reasonable conversion, or adjustment, of cars that do not have the coupling ‘system’ you want or have chosen to use, in a way that would maximize both the use of your cars on other layouts and the compatibility of ‘new’ cars on yours.
Difficult to re-invent the wheel by developing a whole RF API and then building all the equipment to work with it. One point is that since relatively seamless electrical conductivity is needed to make the trains run in the first place, it takes comparatively little work to make the same set of conductors and contacts ‘data-grade’ for the required bandwidth…
In my opinion a better approach if you want radio data would be to ‘bridge’ DCC codes wirelessly, perhaps after the manner of radio repeater services, using a RF channel of appropriate bandwidth. I suspect posters like Randy Rinker or Mel (with extensive experience in radio) can give you advice about the necessary devices.
There is a fairly well-developed community of RC control users, in the garden-railway and large-scale live steam communities. As a start, you might want to look for threads over on the Kalmbach Garden Railways forum and then ask detailed questions there.
Gents thank you, all, for your insight and advice. I hate asking dumb questions but apparently there’s no limit to my ignorance. [D)]
For clarification, my concerns about wiring for DCC were based on future expandability, but I’ve decided N scale is much too small for my aging eyes and fat fingers so I’m considering this a practice build in preparation for a larger project in HO, assuming I can find the space! Since I’ll be using the Atlas “snap” track (whatever they mean by that) yeah, the idea of wiring each piece was daunting to say the least. Glad that’s not the case! I’ll stick with DC and solder the majority of the pieces together.
Once I can find a suitable image host (blast you photobucket!) I’ll get pics up of the foundation. It’s white, a bit difficult to capture detail in a photo, but will hopefully give you an idea of why I’ve asked about how smooth the surface must be. Woodland Scenics uses these kinda zig-zag shaped strips of foam on which plaster cloth is applied but they don’t bother to tell you that wet cloth will settle into the open spaces leaving dips. Having never worked with plaster cloth before I found this out the hard way. Plaster of paris to the rescue!
This particular kit has no superelevation built-in and appears to be uniformly flat to the eye, but I’ll check it with a level before going any further. I have no intention of running anything at full throttle, but is this something I should address with the plaster of paris before laying the roadbed?
Quick question regarding scale…is there a simple method to determine how deep a ravine, or how tall a mountain, should be in N scale?
#7 got me thinking because I fly RC micro planes and those tiny motors are amazing. The power to rails is going to be limited by wheel to rail traction and weight of the loco. I find the question intriguing though because a brushless motor might save valuable space for a sugar cube speaker if you enjoy sound. I don’t know if the added current draw would overload a decoder though. Those little motors also might be a little noisy… Anyways it won’t help pulling power, but the other benefits are worth thinking about. Thanks
