Track and electrical/DCC

tommyl's picture

Loconet vs non-loconet

Sun, 2020-12-06 06:24 — tommyl

Question for the DCC gurus out there. I have a Digitrax based system and use loconet devices to control my turnouts, semaphore signals and get occupancy information back to the computer. I'm going to be adding light signals to the next portion of the layout. 

I'm trying to decide between several controllers for the signals, some with loconet and some without. My question is whether there is really any advantage to having a loconet device for this vs just connecting it to the DCC bus to get the information. 

Thanks for any help.

Making Turnouts shorter, doable? (Peco Code 83)

Fri, 2020-12-04 06:18 — Yannis

Hi all,

I was wondering if it is doable to shorten code 83 Peco (HO) turnouts by cutting rails (on all three sides) by a bit in order to have curvature of tracks starting earlier (I hope I am making sense with this). Is this doable and if yes are there any limits? Ok I see the obvious one where the blades/contacts are for the actual moving parts but I am wondering if there is something I am missing.

All the best

Yannis

GregW66's picture

DC - DCC Control box

Wed, 2020-12-02 14:30 — GregW66

I want to be able to switch between DC and DCC for my layout. DC mainly for testing locos before DCC decoder installation. The layout is portable, with the ability to hook up with my modular club so the control box needed to be self contained and portable. My system is all DIY, based on DCC++ and a MERG Booster. Here are a few pictures of the completed project and a link to my website with full details. 

https://gregstrainyard.com/2020/12/02/dc-dcc-control-box/

 

Ends of the main buss

Mon, 2020-11-30 08:36 — taholmes160

Hi Guys:

I am getting ready to start installing my main buss and a few of the sub busses and hopefully laying some track in the next couple days!!!

the layout is U shaped around the wall.  As I pull in the main buss that is attached to the plug panel where the NCE power cab plugs in, the buss will go 2 directions from the plug panel -- when I get out to the end of the layout, should I just terminate it at a terminal block or is there some special way to terminate it? im using the method that Ron describes on Rons Trains and Things -- 

railandsail's picture

Micro-Arcing,..... Metal vs Plastic wheels

Mon, 2020-11-30 05:59 — railandsail

Micro-Arcing,..... Metal vs Plastic wheels

I believe that it's established that its the micro-arcing that creates the black gunk we get on our model railroad wheels. So a few questions came to mind this morning:

  1. Does this arcing occur to same degree using metal wheels as plastic wheels?

  2. Does the arcing occur, at all, using plastic wheels,... a non conductive material?

  3. Is the black gunk we find on the plastic wheels just a deposit from another source, or a result of any type of arcing?

Updating JMRI for a new decoder on the market

Sat, 2020-11-28 19:26 — Juxen

I just got my Bachmann SC-44 Charger, and have really been enjoying it. However, I was wondering how people update JMRI for a new decoder. While this is TCS' WowSound, the interface is much different than the aftermarket TCS' that I'm used to, and selecting anything else from the list sets up the locomotive incorrectly (in JMRI). Is there a way to update JMRI with this new entry, or will I have to wait until JMRI is updated with the new Bachmann/TCS decoder?

Thanks!

Bachmann EZ Track Turnouts

Sat, 2020-11-28 10:55 — garytrains123

Can anyone recommend a manual switch for my Bachmann ez track turnouts? I looked through Caboose Industries products but they never mention Bachmann turnouts.

gogebic's picture

Code 70 to 83 compatibility

Fri, 2020-11-27 12:07 — gogebic

All of my layout is code 70 track and turnouts, ME and Shinohara. I need to install a right hand curved turnout and am wondering if a Peco curved code 83 #7 would be compatible with the code 70 ME track. My first attempt at hand laying a turnout has not been successful and at this point, I just want to get it done.

Question about M.E. HO frogs

Thu, 2020-11-26 17:23 — Michael Whiteman

Was wondering how you solder a wire onto a Micro Engineering HO turnout frog.  There is so much mass I'm sure the ties will melt before the solder flows.  It would have been nice if they would have included in the casting a 1/4 inch long pin like protrusion pointing straight down to solder to.  This could have dropped into a hole you'd cut in the roadbed.  Oh well, maybe next time.


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