AndrueC

Also worth noting that by default the PowerCab only supports two locos on the stack. You can configure this up to six locos however. You also need to be aware that the PowerCab doesn't initialise all locos on the Recall stack when powered on. Nor indeed does it initialise the last loco used. It remembers the state of the last loco though so if the first thing you do is increase the throttle it should also set the lights and sound to be as you last requested as well. However at power on locos and accessories will be at whatever their default is. Some decoders will remember how they were last set and act accordingly, others don't. Eg; I have a Class 43 and when powered on the lights will be off even though they were on when powered off. All my other locos remember how their lights were last set and display accordingly. It's worth noting however that if I Select a loco that has its lights on at power on and then increase the throttle the lights will go out because the PowerCab starts off with 'no lights' as its default. My sound enabled Class 68 never remembers that it last ran with sound either. So whether I get sound initially depends on how the PowerCab is set when I send the first command.

All my Streamline code 80 turnouts cause a solitary bogey to derail if not set to straight ahead. A four wheel wagon is fine. The problem seems to be that something as light as a bogey 'picks' the frog V. It doesn't cause any problems when the bogey is attached to a coach nor with any other rolling stock other than occasionally causing my solitary 4-6-2 to derail presumably the front bogey it being light but it happens so rarely that I haven't tried to investigate it.

I just love the way that an unweighted bogey can't be used to test them. Strangely I thought it was fine on my first layout which used Settrack.

For what it's worth there are two ways to implement the bus. The way I did it is to have two bus wires running under the layout. Then wires are soldered to the rails and dropped down (we call them droppers) and connected to the bus wires using Scotchlok connectors. The problem with this is that it's easy and can lead to haphazard wiring. A better way is to use something like these or these. Here you have the bus wire connected to two of the terminals then the droppers connected to the remaining ones. So instead of a continuous run of bus wire you 'daisy chain' the terminals together. This encourages planning and more careful wiring. Both of these also allow you to make/unmake connections which could be good for fault finding. Tidy well planned wiring is a must for exhibition layouts. For those that won't ever leave your own home..it's nice to have. I was able to wire my layout up quickly and can add new things with little thought. But if I ever need to trace where something is getting its power from that can be a real pain.

If you want the whole layout live just connect the siding rails to your controller outputs (following the same 'polarity' as you did the main power connection). Turnouts can be a little more complex as per my other reply. But for your layout as shown here I think five pairs of connections should be enough but if in doubt add more. A lot of us make a point of connecting each section of track to the bus just to ensure electrical connectivity. For turnouts the fixed outer rails need power. The frog..as per my other post ;)

What scale are you modelling in and what kind of turnouts are you using? For N scale Peco 'insulfrog' turnouts are as I described and can be installed as-is out of the box with no special treatment. For Peco electrofrog you need to isolate the frog connection but otherwise installed and used as-is. Ideally for electrofrog you'd power the frogs separately.

Your controller should have two output wires. At a minimum you pick a section of track and attach one output to each rail. For a small and simple layout that should suffice but possible improvements: * Your turnouts are probably power switching. That means whichever route is not selected loses power. That's not a problem for DCC but means that any locos parked in sidings will lose power so their lights will go out and sound will stop if the turnout is set against them. It isn't necessary for DCC so... * On larger layouts it's not wise to trust fishplates to carry power. More complex layouts will have a separate 'bus' and each section of track and each turnout will be fed power from that bus.

And if they get caught they feel sheepish.

Yeah I could get behind the idea of a Class 185. I could retire my whiny and 700mph (scale speed) class 121.

I occasionally bemoan not having stickers on wires or controllers to indicate what turnout they relate to. The trouble is that by the time I've traced the wires back from the turnout and found the controller and fixed the problem there is just not enough left in the tank for me to bother attaching a sticker. Rinse and repeat 😁

Perhaps worth noting for anyone who reads this thread that the above modifications aren't needed for Peco N Scale Insulfrog turnouts.

I've had a similar issue recently on a couple of my turnouts. In my case (N scale for what it's worth) I don't think the back to backs were wrong but rather the turnout motor wasn't quite throwing far enough. One of the switch blades was therefore not being pulled tight against the stock rail. It left just enough free play (and it really wasn't much even by N scale standards) for the opposite switch blade to touch the inside of the wheel. A quick test for this is to use a small screwdriver to push the blades fully across thus ensuring a proper sized flangeway between the inactive switchblade and its stock rail. Given the absence of turnout motors here I'd assume the over centre spring is still in place in which case this is unlikely to be the cause but I'd thought I'd mention it.

An update. I've been a bit remiss of late so I'd better bring things up to date. I've got rid of the bridge. Some comments here convinced me that it really wasn't working so I've replaced it with a couple of at-grade crossings and a farm track. It definitely looks better: Clearly that fencing needs redoing (think I've mentioned that in a prior post) but otherwise I like it. The gates were from Scale Model Scenery. The crossings were from me - maybe I'll do a post on them in a bit. I found another turnout that needed its throw adjusting which is curious. Again I've had to set it to 'slightly too far' but it's solved that problem. I also found another motor whose linkage was fouling some of my rolling stock so I remounted that one lower down. On the subject of turnouts I've programmed some macros on my controller - an NCE PowerCab - now. Each of the four sidings in the two yards has a macro to set the turnouts at either end so eight in all. Unfortunately I'd forgotten that PowerCab macros can only control accessories. I'd hoped to have also selected the loco and switched on lights etc. but sadly it can't do that. Another reason to keep thinking about replacing the controller. In more exciting news my Trans Pennine Express Class 68 finally arrived! The Wallarium fleet is now complete! To celebrate here's a gratuitous photo of four trains. Although it's only a single image I can assure that it is possible to run four trains at the same time on Wallarium and it only comes to approx 0.6 amps even with one of them being sound enabled (the TPE Class 68). Speaking of being sound enabled: The engine sound is a bit meh but there's nowt wrong with her horn 😀 Out of desperation one rainy day (has there been any other kind in the last few months?) I tackled a job I'd been putting off for a while. I bought a cheap load of N scale figures last year and have been dreading painting them. Much to my surprise it turns out that with a set of magic hands it's an easy job. They aren't as detailed as those you can buy but they are plenty good enough. The orange overalled workers are now in place to supplement the existing workforce but the rest will have to wait until I've rebuilt my station platforms. I've also been constructing trees. That will probably be the subject of a future post but for now here's the upgraded corner (note - no bridge any longer!):

Finally! My sound enabled Class 68 TPE arrived today.

I was assuming that as it's a toggle there was just one command being sent which implied that the decoder state was not being echoed to the outputs. However doing some research on DCC commands it appears that although it acts like a toggle on the controller there is actually separate on/off arguments so in that case it's probably just that the decoder is not remembering that the lights should be on. I wonder if there's a CV setting that controls that functionality. Time to dig around for Imperium decoder information I suppose.

I scratch built mine (N scale) by using ground signals from ModelIt and Ratio Pratt Truss kits. Turned out well enough for my purposes but not prototypical and I've not yet managed to hide the wiring.

You beat me to it. It's a Dapol Imperium Next 18. Interestingly it's on the power unit of an HST and the dummy trailer which has the same decoder type is remembering to power the lights up. So it's either a fault or mis-configuration of the that decoder. It is one of the few locos that was bought DCC ready with the decoders bought separately.

A couple of my decoders seem to have a problem enabling the lights on power on. It's not that they default to 'off' but rather that they don't set their outputs correctly on power up. Thus to have the lights showing I have to toggle the headlight switch on my controller (NCE PowerCab). It's not a huge deal but I was wondering if it was a simple fix or a fault I'll have to live with.

I have an N scale Class 121 that can cover the 2m back straight of my layout in about a second. That's a scale speed of about 1,000kmh or nearly 700mph. I typically run it at speed step 5 (out of 24) on my NCE PowerCab. At that speed it covers the 2m in about 15 seconds which is a more realistic 88kmh or 55mph. I keep meaning to investigate it further. I could probably adjust the decoder but as it's a very noisy (whining) loco I suspect a gearing issue. It was bought as new direct from the Dapol stand at Warley though so that seems a bit odd.

Yup. When I was designing my first layout I wanted to include my other hobby so looked into including a golf course. Even in N scale that's impossible unless you live in a mansion. Another friend wanted to model a dock with a cruise ship tied up and discovered the same problem.

It's certainly true for N scale. For reliability it would be sensible to add a dropper for the frog and provide it with power rather than relying on the switch blade contact but that's all. Just be aware when attaching the frog dropper that Peco N scale turnouts do not have pig tails. Do not attempt to pull one of the underside wires out to use as a pig tail. Leave them in situ and either solder to them or solder to the frog rails. (Oh and you only need insulated joiners on the V rails of the frogs so two per turnout typically). Also on a 'non electrical' subject if you intend to use point motors you might need to remove the over centre spring. This is best done before you install the turnout but then you are stuck until you install a motor or a lever. It is possible to remove the spring from an installed turnout (I did it a few times on my previous layout) but it's not for the faint hearted as you're basically tearing it out from the wrong side.

I do agree that the bridge is a bit too dominant (you should've seen the first one, lol). I think the fields look better with something other than trees and bushes on them though plus it seems like there'd be no reason for the fencing since the middle one at least is an 'island' with no other way to access it so it becomes even more boring. However at the far end the rail has risen up to be on the same level by then so perhaps an at grade crossing would work. It's an excuse for a bit more detail as well with warnings, gates and telephone. Thanks for the suggestions. However I do still have another bridge (one that looks a lot better) and I could do with general advice on how best to fill in a gap.

😁 It's the unfortunate consequence of me not originally realising that I needed a bridge there. I have considered extending the ramp in a spiral to reduce the incline but that seems like a lot of engineering work just for a farmer's access. My options seem to be: Have sheep and horses in the fields but no way for the farmer to get to them. Have at grade crossings (crazy on what are two main lines and anyway the paths down to the rails would be treachorous. A bridge. Completely redo the landscaping. I find the bridge the least offensive solution and..you know..rule one 😉

I've got a bridge with a 'tarmac' road that ends in a field. Can anyone recommend how to improve the look (should be some mud on the road and a 'fan' of the vehicle's various paths leaving it. Or at the least how I can hide the join?

Interesting. My QE's DCC socket is also in the tender with the motor in the main body. It seems odd for Farish to have not bothered with pickups. It's a little more weight for stability (the tender wheels on mine are plastic) and although I've never had any problems with it six more pickups seem worth having.