Getting ready for christmas.

[rs2mike]

Ok i am thinking about the christmas layout. I have a bunc of christmas buildings from kohls and lowes. I have a grade crossing , 3 left turnouts and 2 right turn outs. I usually have a siding set up for the train station with a dummy engine and 3 pax cars, and have a loop of track around the tree with one short siding for extra cars. I would like to have an engine sitting on the siding but not have power to it. I would also like some suggestions on something different. Any ideas or pics or plans that would be intersting would be appreciated.

[SantaFe158]

You need a block section going to the siding.  You can insulate the center rail from the rest of the layout with insulating "fiber" pins, replacing the steel ones (assuming you're using tubular track), then connect a wire to each side of this break in current and put an on/off switch between the two.  This would allow you to shut off track power to the siding when you want, or turn it back on when you want.

[rs2mike]

Thank you for the block wiring help. I am using fastrack track so would i do the same thing or is there a different way to do things with it?