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I'm restarting after 25 years off - and am going DCC. I remember lots of wiring (that as a kid I did enjoy), and that was for a dinky little 4X6 HO that rolled under my bed. I had some surplus telephone cable and used just about every color to keep straight my 8 blocks, 2 cabs, and six switch machines. It had wires running everywhere. Running two locomotives at once meant constantly switching the blocks. Now I'm restarting with a 4X8 N scale, and DCC. DCC pluses - I just needed one loop of wire under the layout for the main "buss" - I'm using 18 guage speaker wire (red & black). I made a bunch of six inch long 24 guage wires and soldered them to the underside of rail connectors, half are red and half are black, drilled holes to drop them through, and connected them to the buss. Instead of a maze of wires to a control panel full of switches requiring constant attention, I just have the speaker wire and the DCC box. Simple! I'm already planning for expanding the layout - I'll just need to extend the buss. For switches, I glue a simple slide switch directly underneath, run short red and black 24 guage wires from the nearby buss, and a green wire from the center connector of the switch to the frog. A mechanical linkage allows me to control the switches from the edge of the layout - several designs for these linkages have appeared in the last couple years of Model Railroader. DCC minuses - The contoller cost ~$100 more than a simple DC setup (I'm using the Atlas DCC, cheap and simple). Each locomotive will cost ~$20 more. If I start using electric switch machines, I'll either have to wire them the old way or buy DCC controllers for them (Anyone have advice on the best ones?). If I add a reversing loop, I'll need to get a DCC reversing unit (~$50). Brent
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