BEGINNER'S QUESTIONS

[Anonymous]

Hello. As a kid I had a 5 x 10 ft HO setup which I enjoyed a lot until I started to be more interested in girls. All this was long ago and now at 53 I am ready to jump into the MR hobby again, however, I notice there are too many changes (for the better!) and I find myself quite mis-informed and confuesed. I need a little guidance, if anybody could help me....

1) I tend to prefer HO gauge but what are the basic advantages (if any) between HO and N gauge? (And maybe other smallish gauges) Aspects like availability, price, etc. The one obvious I can think of is size: N will take up less of it.
2) Can I mix & match locos, cars, tracks, etc from different manufacturers? What about couplers, power contacts, electrical controls, etc....are they usually compatible? (My train as a kid was a Marklin. My dream would be to restore and to enlarge it and complement it with pure American stuff; space is no problem. I know it may sound a bit weird but forgive me for it).
3) Can you tell me in very few words, what is "digital control" (and is it good to have?) Again, can trains with & without digital setup be used together?
What is meant by ACC power system?
Is there any other "high-tech" item I should consider?
4) I love Mantua locos....would these we "up to date" on the technical side?

Those are my most basic questions, apart from many other minor ones. As to the Marklin combination, if not recommendable, then I could consider running it with my new American trains mixed but keeping separate tracks and electrical systems, no problem.

All help will be very - very appreciated!!

Lars

[thirdrail1]

You have asked enough questions to fill a book with the replies! But, here are a few superficial answers. Re: N scale, which I model in. If you want to build a model railroad build it in N. If you want to build railroad models, build them in HO or larger. RE: Digital Command Control (DCC). DCC locomotives will run (poorly) on regular track, but you lose the advantage of individual control. It has the great advantage that each locomotive can be individually controlled anywhere on the layout, but each locomotive requires a decoder, which costs $20.00 and up. If you are like me and figure you're never going to try to run two trains at once, you don't need DCC.
Re: ACC, that's superglue, not a control system, which is DCC. RE: Mantua - they are unchanged except in price (they are grossly overpriced) from when you left the hobby, except they assemble them now. RE: Maerklin. It will not run with other HO as it is 3 rail AC and the rest of HO is 2 rail DC. Most of the cars won't run on 2 rail track, as the wheels are not insulated. Look over all the books Kalmbach offers on this website and purchase a couple that interest you most before buying trains. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Lars,

I am 56 and I just started my second childhood into trains five or six months ago.

As far as I know, most equipment can be mixed and matched because most manufacturers conform to the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) Standards.

Digital control is great to have. You can have one very large loop powered by one power supply. If you want to control one of several locomotives running on that track you can. You send a signal down the track which is received by every locomotive. However, only the one that it is meant for responds to it. You can thus tell that particular locomotive to go faster, slower, even back up. It's definitely in the future and the NMRA has established standards for it.

I don't know what ACC means.

I sent email to Mantua and they are not DCC ready. DCC ready means that you could simply put a chip or board into the locomotive and go digital. I have purchased two locomotives since starting and I have made sure that they were both DCC ready even though I am not yet using DCC. There are so many other things to worry about at this time such as buildings, benchwork, etc. that I have put DCC on the back burner. But I would not buy a locomotive that is not DCC ready.

I don't think you were very clear regarding whether or not you are starting from scratch. I am starting from scratch so DCC is a primary concern of mine. If you have considerable equipment from years ago, you may not want to go DCC.

I don't know anything about Marklin.

Regards,
Bob Guercio

Bob Guercio

[Anonymous]

I don't think that a locomotive that is wired for DCC will run at all on a regular track unless you remove the DCC chip or module.

Also, HO is the most popular size so you have a tremendous amount of products to choose from. I believe that N guage is more expensive that HO.

Bob Guercio

[Anonymous]

Lars,

Gregg did a fantastic job of answering your questions in as few words as possible. I would like to contribute the following:

ACC is glue as Gregg said, but there are AC power systems. I think Marklin runs on AC power but I know it is not compatible with regular American stuff. Lionel runs on AC power as well and is three rail. It is a shame, but all other HO scale stuff I can think of is compatible, you just have to select a coupler you want to use and everything else will be fine. (BTW, I model in HO scale so I will be a bit biased)

As for N vs HO scale: You make it sound like space is not a problem. In my opinion, if you have the space then go with HO because of price, availability and opportunity to appreciate well detailed models. If you consider yourself to be tight on space, or you love a 100 car unit train winding its way through the countryside, then I would recommend you consider N scale.

As for other 'High Tech' stuff, you should put a trackside signal system and on-board sound on your list of things to look into later on.

As for DCC, if you want to operate two or more trains independently (at the same time) then you have two alternatives (excluding a functioning catenary system) DCC or two-rail wiring. With DCC, the wiring is a piece of cake because you just hook up the track power, but you will probably have to fool around with the DCC receivers and stuff until you are comfortable (It may not be as hard as I perceive it though). The other method, two rail wiring, requires that you insulate sections of track (usually from six to twelve feet long sections) from one another and provide power feeder wires to each section. Then a switch at a control panel will connect each section of track to a specific power supply. One train operator can then connect a few sections of the layout to his power pack and run his train independently from the remainder of the layout. A more complete discussion of two-rail wiring should be taken up as a separate discussion (thread) if you are interested.

I hope this helps. Good Luck. - Ed

[Anonymous]

Lars,
lot's of questions with even more possible answers. When I was young (I'm 35 now...) I used to have a HO layout which was very basic. Just a 5x9ft piece of plywood with some track and buildings. I then added catenary. That was a fault. My cat just loved to play with all these fancy wires on the tiny posts. Well, supplying 220 Volts (I'm living in Europe) to the catenary just gave the cat this funny afro look... (I'm just kidding). When I started to work I had no time left for the hobby. It was on a trip to Western Canada when the fascination of huge trains hit me again. Back home I started to build a layout. I choose N-Scale because of the very limited space. Unfortunately my focus was on not spending to much money rather than on high quality products. Some (expensive) experiences later I threw all cheaper models (Model Power, Life Like, ConCor,...) in a carbage box. I'm only using the market leader products now (Kato, Micro-Trains, Atlas, Intermountain).

Now whats DCC ? It's for trains what a dad is for children : just yell in your house and maybe someone is listening. That's what DCC is doing. Every locomotive has it's own receiver. Therefore just this engine is listening to your commands (speed up, slow down, turn on lights ..). If you don't want to spend crawling under your layout searching for short circuits then choose DCC. All you need is two wires to power your entire layout.
There's one way to make all your locomotives listen : re-programm the decoders adress while all engines are on the track.... I managed to do this. 25 engines were listening on the same adress after. Thats quite funny.

But all in all I'm very happy with N-Scale and DCC. But there's another more human aspect. Think of getting older. Maybe you're happy that HO-parts are much bigger than N-Scale. I know what I'm talking about. Next thing I'll buy are some extensions for my arms so I can see these little things again...

If you find the time to visit my homepage you'll find some pictures of my N-Scale layout
www.sschaer.homestead.com/sschaer_main.html


have fun

sandro