Switches

[bill collins]

I'm getting ready to build a new layout. About a 9' x 12'. I run DCC. Do I need to buy DCC switches or will regular DC switches work? Also I will have several sidings. Should the switches be at least #5's?

[JonJet]

My layout is DCC...My switches are the standard DC turnouts operated by a DC transformer

[jward]

I'm getting ready to build a new layout. About a 9' x 12'. I run DCC. Do I need to buy DCC switches or will regular DC switches work? Also I will have several sidings. Should the switches be at least #5's?

I would recommend the use of numbered switches. 5s are a good size. My layout is currently mostly handlaid #5s. There are no cars or locomotives I currently run that have problems with them. This includes steam up to 2-8-2, and diesels up to C44-9W. All of my switches are DC, run off a space DC power pack while the trains run off a Digitrax Zephyr. One thing I would recommend you look into is a capacitor discharge unit to go between your power supply and the push buttons that control the switches. Bachmann uses a twin coil design that can burn out if the buttons are held down too long. The CD unit will help prevent burnout by limiting the length of time the coils can be energized regardless of how long you hold the buttons down.

https://www.hobbylinc.com/circuitron-snapper-switch-machine-power-supply-model-railroad-electrical-accessory-5303

[Tenwheeler01]

Hand laid is the way to go.  But I did not have the time on my current layout so I used roadbed less switches with twin coil switch machines. (Should have used slow motion switch machines).  But I ran the switch machines of DS74 Quad Switch Stationary Decoders with DSXC4 connected to the DS74 and Berrett Hill Touch Triggers connected to the DSXC4. 

This allow me to control the switch from a control panel, DCC throttle.

DS74 will drive Bachman DC switch machines.   Berrett Hill also offers a complete and simple switch machine control system (Touch Toggles).  The reason I choose the PR4 is because it can be set to control 4 twin coil or 4 slow motion. So if change out switch machine or you have both types on a layout. 

Now I just use switches with springs in them for my yard. (Finger powered.) 

I also have the PR4 USB to loconet interface. This is getting into more advanced control and automation.  But using JMRI I have built software control panels and local JMRI website so I can use an IPAD to see and control the layout switch from.  It's a Layout diagram that I can just touch the IPAD screen over the switch and it will flip the switch and change the signal color on the JMRI panel and also change the color on the Touch Trigger on the control panel on the layout.  Same goes if you use the Touch Trigger it will change the status in JMRI and show the switch has change position on the IPAD.     

[bill collins]

Thanks all. I'm going with #5's. You gave me good info.

[Tenwheeler01]

If you plain to run 85' passenger cars or a Big Boy you may want to go with a Min of #6 on the main line. and number #5s or #4 for industrial and fright yards.

I use #6 and #8 for main line cross overs, Passing sidings and station tracks.  #4s for industrial siding, fright yards, etc.  This will also give your railroad a more realistic look.  I have issues with cars over 50' with body mount couples navigating a #4 switch ladder.   

 

[trainman203]

I love no. 8 switches but you need a warehouse to hold a layout big enough for them.  Being a retiree from a public sector job, I am cursed to an eternity of undersized layout spaces in which only number four switches really allow any kind of trackwork to accommodate operation.  It's a good thing I model a shortline with very small locomotives and 40 foot cars that were prevalent in the 1940s, the era I'm interested in.

[Tenwheeler01]

Yep...  That is way I gave up on HO passenger trains.  Take way to much space.   We are talking 12 foot long trains in HO.  Even a local service passenger train was 3 to 4 cars.  This is around 5 foot with loco.  So I have moved all my passenger trains to N scale. And for some odd reason right now there are full passenger trains available in N scale but not in HO.

So my 4' X 12' HO layout is limited to 36' and 40' cars and steams no larger then 2-8-0s.  I have been playing around with local passenger service using 50' cars.     

[jward]

I love no. 8 switches but you need a warehouse to hold a layout big enough for them.  Being a retiree from a public sector job, I am cursed to an eternity of undersized layout spaces in which only number four switches really allow any kind of trackwork to accommodate operation.  It's a good thing I model a shortline with very small locomotives and 40 foot cars that were prevalent in the 1940s, the era I'm interested in.

This is one of the reasons I handlay my switches. The ones you buy often have alot of extra track built into the ends of the switches, which affects things like track spacing, crossover length, etc. When I build my own I can eliminate this extra length, and can make a #^ fit in the space of a #4, and a #8 fit in the space of a #6. WHen I had the room and rebuilt my grandfather's old HO layout, I took full advantage of this and the double track mainline had mostly #8s while the yards had #6s. Add to that the fact that I can build switches to fit places where nobody makes anything that will fit, and I can have an extensive railroad where most people would have minimal track.

[Tenwheeler01]

Jward, I am jealous,  I wish I had the enough free time to devote to this hobby to handlay switches on may next layout.  Maybe one of these years.

[jward]

Jward, I am jealous,  I wish I had the enough free time to devote to this hobby to handlay switches on may next layout.  Maybe one of these years.

They are not hard to make. I can crank one out in about an hour. FastTracks makes jigs and point form tools that take all the guesswork out of it. The jigs are a bit pricey, but once you have them you can build as many switches as you need for the cost of materials.

[trainman203]

The best thing about hand laid track is that you can use very light rail with irregularly spaced and staggered ties like on shortlines.  I promised myself that on my next layout I'm going to hand lay at least some yard siding or something right in the foreground.

But, I would think that hand laid track is really only worth it where it's really closely visible, and that you're wasting your time doing it in spaces at the back of the layout or up in tunnels or somewhere.

[jward]

The best thing about hand laid track is that you can use very light rail with irregularly spaced and staggered ties like on shortlines.  I promised myself that on my next layout I'm going to hand lay at least some yard siding or something right in the foreground.

But, I would think that hand laid track is really only worth it where it's really closely visible, and that you're wasting your time doing it in spaces at the back of the layout or up in tunnels or somewhere.

I've never seen it as wasting my time on hidden trackage. I find it easier to maintain some consistency in my trackwork.

As for sidings, all of my trackage is laid on pine dimensional lumber, which holds spikes exceptionally well. You can lay small rail like code 70 spiked directly to the lumber, and eliminate the ties altogether. Use cinder ballast, and maybe place some weeds between the rails, and nobody will notice there are no ties. It also helps on these tracks if you don't try to align your track with a straight edge, and just let it meander naturally.

[trainman203]

I have a semi outdoor small layout in a covered space out of the rain but open to outside air.  I had been building it for the last three years using EZ  track left over from a previous project, but one by one electrical conductivity failed in nearly all the rail joiners and switch pivot points.  Some of the joints were soldered and restored, but everything I did was basically sequential Band-Aids trying to keep a corpse alive and trying to keep ahead of the failures.  So I demolished it all in the last couple of months and started over.

This is no rap on EZ track, anything I would've used out there would've eventually failed.  So I'm starting over but this time I'm using Kato Unitrak mostly because of the appearance of Code 83 rail.

The difference is that at this point in time, we know we're leaving this house within a year or two.  So I'm not fastening track down to the layout surface at all, but rather making removable scenery sections that bump right up to the track to hide the fact that it's a plastic roadbed sitting on a table top.  The track is spray-painted brown and it really looks OK when you hide most of the road bed. I like the reduced roadbed height since I am a branch line.   It's all removable and I can take the track with me when I go, which is a substantial investment of several hundred dollars.  I'll be able to use it again on the next layout wherever the next house is going to be.

This is one place where I would never even thought of handlaying track.  The outdoor layout has always been a challenge. It's the only place I had.  People with basement layouts have no idea how good they have it.  Down here on the Gulf Coast we don't even know what a basement is.  Or snow 😂😂😂.