Morgan,

It sounds like you are off to a good start, board by board. That’s got to be fun. I am envious as I have some old HO but NO shelf.  I recommend you go ahead and live on the edge - so put some turnouts in that shelf track plan. A few sidings and a bypass would be cool. I’m 3 years behind you so I know about sight, hearing, and stiff hand/finger joints. Just keep at it, it only maters to you. Good Luck to you. I’ll be following along as you post. 

Sounds like you have a plan.

And working to figure it out i'm in the same boat buy one or the other.

Morgan!

You're going to have a ton of fun with your new layout! Peco makes excellent products. Having everything in easy reach results in a huge reduction of the "Hassle Factor" in a layout.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

Andre

Bon courage Morgan !

Peco is a good choice - just make them DCC friendly if your on DCC. They work just fine !

I'll follow along. Maybe you share your track plan ?

Happy model railroading,

Filip

Thanks guys. For the encouragement. Today, I'll just ramble. I have pretty much completed the track, wiring, etc. on the left board. Yes, there's turnouts. And I went through a bit of "people telling me what to do". I am a little contrarian. So, I chose PECO Insulfrog turnouts. Why? I felt they were easier to work with. First, I decided the turnouts would be totally free. No wires soldered to them. No machines. I mean, who needs machines on a 12" shelf layout. But what frightened me a bit was the Electrofrog. If not wired to be DCC friendly (I really don't like that word) you do need to make cuts and solder wires and probably use insulated joiners. I didn't want to have to do that. So, the Insulfrog is good to go as is. I will rely on point feed and other things most people warn me about. But so what? For roadbed, I didn't want cork - when you sand or smooth it, there's the dust. I went to "Dollar Tree" and found lot's of "junk" to try. I bought a 20"x30" poster board, foam with paper on top and bottom. I cut it along the 30" and made strips just wide enough for the track and another strip a little wider. I then used caulk to lay the wider strip and the same caulk for the narrow strip. And even the same caulk for the track. I caulk the flex track, but not the turnouts. Another thing I did y'all scream at. I soldered the feeders (AWG 20) to joiners. Place those at the point end of each turnout. At frog end of turnout, just the regular metal joiners. Oh yeah. Joiners. Phooey! They are so darn difficult to use. Hurt fingers. Split nails. Either too tight or too loose. When too loose, won't stay in place while moving the flex around. And when tight, have to fuss with filing, smoothing, and trying to get them on the rails. Broke many flex tracks, rails off ties. Those little "spikes" don't hold very well. I finally got the hang of it and did manage to get that left board done. More on that later.

Morgan Bilbo, a PRR modeler sometime in 1952

For today, just a frustrating situation. PECO track is beautiful. I love the way it handles, works, and is smooth running. No problems there. The problem is the darn joiners. I did buy the PECO code 83 joiners. And they are too tight. I struggle getting them to attach to the rails. I manage to cut the little spikes off and slide an Xacto blade under the end. Just enough to leave room for the joiner to slip under the rail. But it takes a lot of strength to push the tracks together. Those joiners are way too tight. The worst thing is that I've ruined several pieces of flex where the ties just pop right off the rail. On one turnout, where that happened to the first few ties, I was able to glue the ends of rail to the 2-3 ties they had popped off of. I used Gorilla Glue, the general use stuff. And after that turnout was laid, joined to the flex that was caulked, the whole situation resolved itself and I have no trouble with that. Anyone have any good advice on how to handle track without having ties pop loose from the rails, or vice versa, please say so. I probably forgot to mention. Paint the track before laying. I take the brand new track and space it out on newspaper. Put a bit of tape over the points and throw bar. And simply spray a dark brown/the can says Expresso. Just a light overspray. Wipe the rails as soon as you can. And even after they are all dry, you can easily wipe the rails with acetone. Careful you don't get the acetone on the plastic ties. But it cleans rails better than alcohol. I never like used bright boy or an abrasive. But I found that with masking tape over those points, the gum stuck to the rail. Cleaning with liquid didn't work, so had to use an eraser. A red pencil eraser. The gum did come off. But I have yet to connect the feeders and check to see if locos run over that area. The first two boards, left and middle, are complete for the main line. I ran a loco and two cars over those track, getting on every rail that is laid. No problems whatsoever. A few derailments, but not the same car nor the same place. And the more I ran, the better they got. Tested voltage with Harbor Freight meters. Used 3 meters. Measured voltage, AC and DC. All meters read constant voltage from one end to the other and everywhere in between. So, my feeders soldered to joiners seem to be an OK way of powering my layout. ?? So far, so good. More later. Morgan Bilbo, a PRR fan modeling 1952.

To protect your fingers, use s rail-joiner tool.  I've had great success with this one.

1: Take some scrap rail and file the end for easy addition of a joiner

2: Slide a joiner that has one end cut flat one-half a joiner length onto the rail

3: Solder it in place.

Now the new joiner can be slid onto this rail and easily applied to the 'live' rail with no sore fingers.

Just a little more on that. I did use a piece of rail, similar to what you show, but without the handle, etc. The problem is getting the joiner on the rail. Period. It's just too tight. When I finally get it on, it don't move or slide very well. In fact, the joiner just barely gets started on the rail, only about 1/32" and don't want to go further. I have filed the rail some, but that don't work. In fact, if I don't touch the rail at all, and it's a brand new rail, the joiner does eventually get started, but again, it don't want to go on far enough. Harder to explain in writing. Just a pain. Is there a brand/type  of joiners that works best with PECO track. Now: a bit more on track. I contacted PECO about the rails separating from ties. I specifically asked about glue. They said and I agree. The plastic used on the turnouts is different than used on the flex. You can glue rail to the turnout with: (They recommend cyanoacrylate - I used Gorilla Glue.) But not the flex. I gave up trying. I have ruined a few flex now and hate it when I have to throw them away. Anyone have a suggestion?

The latest issue of MR/June. Has a question from a reader regarding this same subject. The people at MR tell the same story as what we are discussing here. But I see no answer on how to spread the joiner or ? open it up. I realize if we do, there's the danger of the joiner being too loose. I did manage to file a piece of rail/as an experiment. I got the joiner on about 1/16", maybe enough to hold it till you try putting it on the track. But having to file each and every rail to accomidate the joiner will be a tedious nightmare. And I tried pushing that joiner on the rail further than that little bit and that was impossible. I see no way to use these joiners. Now, on to other things. I have the main line all laid. Wired. And operational. I ran a diesel and 2 cars up and down the tracks, switching the runarounds to get the engine and cars into different configurations. Slight derails. ?? Not in the same place, nor with the same car. ?? Need some close inspection at those areas. Can't see how the cars could be at fault. They are new, with wheels in gauge, etc. The track needs to be fine combed with the NMRA gauge. More later.

Well. Now comes the fun. Or rather the head ache. I put a steam engine/Mikado on the layout and tried to run it. The engine sits and chugs, the bell and whistle work, and when it started to run, it stutters and stops and restarts all by itself. The diesel did not. ? Is it dirty track? Is it dirty wheels on the steamer? Now to have the fun/head ache of finding out what the problem is. Also, need to figure out how to mount the DCS50. I have all the feeder/buss wires connected to terminal blocks and those t.b. connected to the DCS50. I also put a 1137 light bulb in series between the t.b. and Z. (terminal block and Zephyr). When there was a short, that bulb lit up. Really easy to tell when something was wrong. And easy to fix. So, having that visual indicator is nice. The Z and t.b. and bulb are all located in the center of the layout, 12' from each end. Making it easy to use. I may invest in a UR92 so I can use the UT4D at the ends of the layout. But that's an expense I don't need right now. The UT4D was bought at the same time as the DCS50, a few years ago. When I was contemplating DCC but didn't start the layout until 6 months ago. And yes, it took those 6 months to get this far. I have to work slow, it ain't like it used to be!