Let's not forget that the Lion is a monk and as such has no income. He has built what I feel is an impressive layout using bits and pieces and salvaged parts. His layout is an excellent example for those who are continually complaining about how expensive the hobby is. While we may disagree about the pros and cons of Dc vs DCC lets give him a hand for a job well done.
Joe
Lion (is that from the old Lionel Lion?),
May I respectfully disagree with you...................
I'm pushing 69, and was a DC guy for decades - until 3 years ago when I replaced the previous layout.
The only part of your reasoning for not going to DCC that I can swallow is the cost - and associated installation of decoders in power units. I spent $2k on mine (NOT an exxageration), which included many decoders. Of course those were for locos, and not for turnouts. My turnouts still operate from an MRC DC powerpack.
Anyway, I really went thru a lot of research and soul searching before I made the change. And I will tell you this, it truly has helped me enjoy the hobby much, much more.
Yes, there is a learning curve, but the whole thing only needs to be as complicated as you want it. Believe me, if I can install it and have it work reliably, pretty much anyone can.
Ohhhh, I did have a lot of help from some of the folks on this forum, and I thank them (again).
I'm not knocking DC, nor whatever system you have in place. I'm only saying that DCC offers up a lot of possibilities that many of us truly appreciate.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
The LION is very much an introvert, but would love to have people visit his layout for all of that, but there really are none in this area. Sure people want to come up and see the layout, but they are not operators or layout builders. This is very much a one cat show, and everything must be built on the cheap. I just asked the Abbot for $36.00 to buy some LEDs for signals, and he made a comment on how much this is costing, never mind that it was my only request this year.
Oh well, I will make do with what comes my way and be happy with it. Now where did you put that pronghorn?
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Okay, that's great for a lone operator out in the middle of nowhere on the windswept northern prairie. But not all of us fit that MO (thankfully) The third person who thinks he's a lion thingy grew old on your second post.
The rest of us are social, and invite others over to operate a railroad. DCC is the way to go, and a natural step in the evolution of the hobby.
Now, hows the pronghorn population in your neck of the woods? I would enjoy seeing a "manlion" try to chase down one of those suckers down.
LOL
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
LION has never even thought of DCC. It is far too expensive, and besides, I only have ONE LION to control the entire layout. Him cannot be bothered switching the controls from one train to another or trying control eight trains at once with silly little buttons. Nope DCC is NOT for LIONS.
LIONS like to keep things simple (and if you believe THAT, I have a bridge ing Brooklyn that is for sale).
LION has a heavy copper braid that runs around the entire layout. It is connected to GROUND. All of my power systems use that as the common, and BTW, it must be grounded for stray current will cause havoc if it is left floating.
Signals, lighting, control relays and switch machines all use this ground in place of a common or neutral wire. The LEFT RAIL is tied to this GROUND circuit, thus it does not matter which power supply provides the power or if it is +12vdc, -12vdc or track power from the big 15A regulated supply the neutral led is connected to GROUND.
Connect the RIGHT RAIL to the (+) power output of the supply, and the trains go forward. Subway trans do not go backwards and so that is a moot point. .
LIONS have resistors across gaps in the right rail to slow the trains down as they approach the stations, and each station has gaps that will stop the train, and a relay to start the train again which is controlled by a master time clock.
There are emergency buttons all around the layout, so no matter where I am I can stop the action to go and fix something. The emergency button cuts the power to the tracks, to the control clock and to the STANDARD CLOCK, so the whole railroad and schedule just pauses while I make adjustments, and then when all is ready I can restore the circuit from control in the master tower.
The control clock sends out a signal on a different wire every 15 seconds, and so this can be used to operate the block signals. A signal at the end of the platform and indeed all of the signals between that platform and the next are red until the time clock turns them green and pulls the relay to start the train.It looks like the signals are really working when actually they are all fake, and are simply responding to a time clock. If my trains run five minutes apart the signals will go through four different cycles before the next train appears. Not great but better than spending money on track detectors. The LION is thinking of some Rube Goldberg arrangement where by the train trips the signals as it passes but that too will be costly and I'll not work on that at the moment.
As I said, the LION likes to keep things simple, Now about that bridge in Brooklyn.....
ROAR