mjfjo

Thanks for the further reply. I have bought quite alot from them in the last few weeks and always been very prompt. However I thought this offer very mean as the items are immaculate never used and I was looking to try and get an NCE Powercab from them but not now! Yes they knew all those facts. Also they will sell these items for quite close to new prices and the Gaugemaster model D doesnt seem to stay in their stock very long so an easy seller. I hadnt realised the Terrier was relatively easy to convert, looking at it I am amazed anything can fit in there, but was leaning towards keeping it anyway and if not on the main layout making a small diorama type layout with it at some time as it looks a very nice engine. Thanks for the link I will have a look. Regards Mike

With regard to my decision to change course and start my new layout with DCC rather than DC I was a bit taken aback by what I thought a fairly derisory offer from Hattons on items I bought from them in the last month and never actually used (mainly a new Gaugemaster model D controller and a new Dapol Terrier A1X N gauge loco plus a couple of small items). Items which cost in total over £170 but offer from them less than 1/3rd of this. Bearing in mind this is a buoyant market and they sell pre-owned for pretty high prices, also the items have never been used and barely taken out of their boxes and only then to check the contents? Anybody else have any experiences with their trade in prices?

Thanks for confirmation Mike, I think I get it now. My bus runs would be just over 2 metres each side. I have stripped out the red/black from my 1.5mm solid core and think it would be ok generally but have just thought that maybe you cannot use those suitcase style connectors with moderately thick solid core, would it not be impossible to clamp down the metal joiner into this? If that is indeed the case I will need to go with the multistrand! Regards Mike

Ended up adding my original reply to this message on the bottom of your original! Meant to say I do have a bunch of terminal blocks so similar to yours I may go down this route, but to confirm it means daisy chaining the bus wire in/out of a number of terminal blocks to get all around the layout rather than just a single long run with droppers attached? Thanks Mike

Thanks for your time again and very informative. I take your point re the dropper wire and also will retain for building wiring etc as you suggest. I do have a small amount of 16/0.2 20 AWG wire and hopefully keeping the droppers short should mean I can get by without needing too much more. Will have a read through Digitrax user manual although I just viewed and very informative US youtube where he went through the basics very clearly and it looks a good system for me. Thanks again. Mike

Hello and thanks again David for more informative comment. I do actually have the 100m rolls of red and black 18/0.1mm wire, but now it looks from what you say as though this may not be the most suited for use as droppers. Purchase in haste repent at leisure seems to be my motto at the moment! As for the bus wire, I think I will go with this solid core as I already have a roll and it is so sturdy I cannot see it ever breaking, especially as the layout is permanently fixed. Also I did see in a YouTube video that to get over the thin dropper wire into suitcase connectors that they folded the end round a few times before inserting in the connector to achieve fixture and connectivity? I have also been looking further into suitable controllers, although fairly academic at the moment as most seem to be out of stock! My preference is for one with an actual throttle knob rather than say touch screen and one that seems well reviewed and fulfils this brief is the Digitrax Zephyr, but like most others seems to be in big demand and oout of stock everywhere, but I will contact CoastalDCC and ask re lead times etc. Regards Mike

Thanks for this again very useful information. I have found a roll of twin and earth cable left over from house wiring which I assume I can use for the bus wires once stripped away from the insulation. This has a rating label 1.5mm solid core 18 amp which sounds plenty for the bus. However I am still unsure regarding the dropper wires. I have read loads of threads on here and elsewhere and lots of different terminology seems to have been used. I have bought a couple of 100m rolls (Expo brand red and black) from Hattons without much info other than a label saying 0.14mm2. I have used this for the first few droppers I have soldered on but now unsure if this is thick enough as it seems very thin although I believe it is 18 strand multicore. Could anybody clarify on this. With the disparity in size between the 1.5mm bus and the very thin dropper wires I assume there wouldnt be a scotchlok/suitcase type connector which could marry the two different sizes so it may be I have to solder join? Thanks Mike

Many thanks for these latest replies, more food for thought and I will certainly look at the Sig-na-Track ACE2, I had visited the CoastalDCC site and lots of interesting stuff! Also I take the point about keeping the Combi controller, I was thinking that myself, also because I am quite taken with some of the small diorama style layouts I see in the mags and online and could envisage using the Combi if I make one of those with maybe a small DC shunter. I have made a restart on the track laying, which entailed taking up a few sections of track and fitting droppers but I am still a bit confused as to whether it is necessary/advisable to use insulated rail joiners in any of the points areas. I am using insulfrog points and leaning towards it being a DCC operation. Also does anybody have any views on using "suitcase" joiner clips on the bus connections, seem some positive and negative comments on these? Regards Mike

There seems to be a consensus on having lots of dropper wires from the track onto the power bus, does this also include having separate droppers from each point (I have insulfrog points) as well as from each section of "normal" track? Also I am using thin Hattons multistrand wire (18 strand 1mm outside diameter) for the droppers, but I assume something thicker would be required for the power bus? Thanks

With regards to the DCC option I had originally done some limited research into equipment but for some reason I was put off DCC by the complexity, when to me it seems no more daunting than DC from a wiring point of view and from operational viewpoint not something I am to worried about mastering. Then and now I am quite interested in the NCE Powercab as a reasonably priced (relatively) unit to run my fairly "simple" layout with three or for locos, any opinions anybody?

I think in hindsight and with some of the comments mentioned I will be connecting the outer circuit in a couple of places to the rest of the layout. As for fiddle yard I will probably add another siding or two and "hide" locos there as I do not envisage having more that three or four locos on the layout for the foreseeable future, largely due to finances! Many Thanks Mike

Thanks for that. So just to double check, you basically wire all track droppers together underneath but isolate the actual track into separate sections? Theoretically could I wire all three circuits as one large single circuit with no isolation (in DCC that is, not that i would plan to do this but it helps with my understanding) or is there an actual operational reason to still isolate each circuit? Regards Mike

As with the other in depth replies much interesting and helpful advice in here so thank you. I am leaning towards swopping over to DCC before I get any further down this DC route. I probably should have studied it more before jumping in and buying the Gaugemaster DC units, but after 2 months of reading/viewing I was getting swamped with so much information and so many conflicting views. As for my simple (not to me its not! :-) ) layout, although I have the outer circuit standalone I am thinking I should make some interaction with the rest of the layout, would just one crossover to the rest of the layout be deemed acceptable practise or more than one? Would this scenario alter DCC connection if it was more integrated as described here? Thanks for pointing out the issue with facing points - I had tried to find out more on this and had read some posts but I think some assume a level of railway knowledge I dont possess and I ended up just as confused. I had planned the layout with the points in both orientations, I was trying to follow the real life track plans but very difficult to work out from the tiny map schematic. I will certainly change this to two left hand points! Many thanks Mike

Thanks for that, so am I understanding correctly even with DCC you would have the control panel, section switches etc as DC? Thanks Mike