I am looking to cut costs, most turnout motors I see are around 20.00 to 30.00 bucks and bullfrogs are about 6.00 un-assembled and servo,s are around 10.00. With the servo,s I can have a cental dispatch panel, and the fact that bullfrogs use R/C aircraft control rods allready it just sounds like a good fit. I have been fighting cancer for three years now and finaly had to go on dissability last year, before that I drove an auto transporter and never had the time to get back into the hobby. Now I have the time but the money is not as good as it was before.
It also took a long time to convince the wife to give up a part of her glass and pottery studio for the layout, I had been trying for years to convince her to let me build a shelf layout just above the door frames in the house, but she was not having any part of that. There was some compromises though, I have to keep the footprint down to 10'x12' and it has to be modualar so it can be taken apart and stored out of the way if she or I have any large projects to do in the shop.
Again Thank You for the tips, bench work is nearing completion and hope to start laying track soon.
Ron
I refuse to grow up!!!
Well that's sort of one or the other, either a servo controls the turnout or a Bullfrog controls the turnout. I guess that's what you meant. Manual controls are fine, and the Bullfrog is a great choice, about the only cheaper way would be to drill your own holes in some DPDT slide switches and make the linkage yourself.
You only really NEED motorized turnouts if they are too far from the edge to easily reach or you want to have some sort of centralized disptatcher control of the turnouts.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Hey Randy, thanks for the tip on Tam Valley. I was thinking of using rewired servos and Bullfrog manual turn out controls instead of the servo actually controlling the turn out.
The Atlas components end up wiring your layout using common rail. If you notice in all the simpler layouts where they actually show all the wires run, one side of each power pack goes to just 1 connection. I actually never wired a layout like this, even back in the early dyas. I always gapped BOTH rails and ran wires to both sides. At one point all of the connections from one rail did join together, and the other side went to single pole toggles to cut the power, but the common connection was done at the panel and did not rely on one rail to carry power everywhere on the layout. So use the Atlas book as a guide, but where they show a single insualted joiner and a single feeder beyond, use two insualted joiners and two feeders. It will make converting to DCC easier.
Servos are probably the greatest thing since sliced bread. I love them, they mount easily and take up very little space. It also works out to being cheaper than a Tortoise. Do it the RIGHT way - check out the various bits from Tam Valley Depot. I'm not a fan of that article in MR that has you convert a servo into a stall motor, servos weren't designed to stall.
This sounds like my story. I, too, was out of the hobby for nearly 40 years. I also planned to build a DC layout and convert to DCC at some later time. But that's not the way it worked out.
First, I discovered that my old engines from the 50s and 60s didn't work very well. They would hardly run around a loop of track, and some wouldn't run at all. None of them was a big investment, mostly blue-box Athearns, some even with rubber-band drive. I looked into remotoring them, and replacing the old wheels. I found I could buy brand new engines for less, and they were much nicer looking engines, besides.
I'd always wanted subways, and when I found that they are being made as off-the-shelf products now, I bought a set. So, I had a brand-new train that was easy to add decoders to. Then, I had a small financial windfall, enough to buy a good DCC system, so I took the plunge. By going with DCC from the beginning, I saved myself a lot of work. From the moment I first powered up my subway train on DCC, I was back to being an 8-year-old kid again.
Of the dozen or so engines I had, I only got one running well enough to give it a decoder, and it didn't work the last time I put it on the track. I took the guts out of a couple of them and turned them into dummy engines. I bought a new powered chassis for one, and kept the original shell. I gave them all a try, though, out of nostalgia or loyalty for some "old friends," but in the end, I moved on and I'm happy I did so.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Thanks for the tips, just one problem, I have been out of the hobby for nearly 40 years and have forgotten so much. The layout i am building consists of 8 modules that will be wired individually then plugged together using some sort of wire connectors. The whole layout is designed to be taken apart and stored in a rolling rack, the footprint of the layout is 8' x 12' with an open center. So my first question is what is commen rail wiring, second what is the differance between say atlas customline turn outs and DCC freindly turn outs?
When I pulled out an old box that contained a bunch of my old rolling stock I found the book that I had used in the 70,s to wire the layout I had back then. "Model Railroad Wiring" from Atlas, at this point I am still a little ways away from starting the wiring but i plan on using this book as a refresher before I look at some newer publications. Also I recently saw an article about using R/C servos for switching what are your thoughts on this considering the cost?
Thank You for the info and please excuse all my dumb questions.
1. Do not use common rail wiring. (Single gapping) Always double gap blocks.
2. DO use DCC friendly turnouts.
3. Buy DCC ready locos.
4. Make sure all your main bus wires go back to a single source. Minimize the use of A/B polarity relays in between. You'll rip most of them out.
5. IF you can, wire ALL track to be live (like make all yard tracks live at once). (Don't power by the points) This will limit you to one independent engine/consist per power district however.
That about sums it up.
You can safely ignore 4, and 5. But by doing so you'll negate two of the benefits of DCC. (Simplified wiring and leaving power on for accessories/sound/movement without the need to switch points)
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!
Are you planning to create multiple blocks along your mainline for the DC layout? Are you planning to install realistic signally with train sensing? How many DC engines do you currently have, and how old are they? How soon is "soon?"
The answers may lead to different recommendations. Assuming you want more than just a plywood prarie with a loop of track, you are probably looking at a number of years to design and build the layout you've specified. So, if your plan is to upgrade to DCC in two years, you will still have a long way to go. Spending a lot of time wiring a DC control system might not be worth it in this case - just go straight to DCC.
On the other hand, if you have 120 DC engines, all of which you run frequently and wouldn't dream of parting with, then DCC might not be the answer for you. The task of converting all those engines is just too daunting.
There's a simple answer, too. Wire the layout well for DC. The rules are the same - thick bus wires, and frequent feeders to connect to the tracks. A well-wired DC layout can be connected to a DCC control system in a manner of minutes, literally.
I would use a 14AWG wire buss for each main line you build. This way you will have a seperate power district for each line. Use 20 AWG wire for track feeders and keep them as short as possible. You can use toggle switches to turn off the track power as needed so when you convert the layout to DCC you can just leave the switches on. If you are planning the layout to be movable I would make a way to disconnect the wiring between the modules with something like Cinch Jones connectors (if you can find them), or Anderson Power Pole connectors.
I am building a modular layout with 2' x 4' moduals, that form a 10' x 12' open centered box with a 2' drop in for access. Currently all my engines are analog, but I am planning on switching to DCC equipment soon. My question is if there is anything I should do to the wiring to make the switch over easier ?
Thanks for any advice.