And Merry Christmas from a 68 year old guy who is still enjoying his FIRST childhood!

Read lots, but never hesitate to ask questions.  Remember - the only dumb questions are the ones that go unasked.

Jim

I set up one fellow's railroads as follows: one command station with built in 8 amp booster to run his indoor H0 layout and a second external booster to run his two indoor G-scale layouts plus his outdoor G-scale layout.  That is four separate layouts, and he can run all of them at the same time, or more correctly, he can run them all at the same time with some helpers to watch the trains.  One 8 amp booster can run it all in a pinch but limits the G-scale to 14 volts on the rails.  With two boosters, he can run the G-scale layouts at the more typical 20-22 volts while still keeping the H0 layout at a safe 14 volts.

Jim 

Here is a different approach to keeping the couplers closed.  It allows automatic, hands free coupling - no jiggling required.

http://members.shaw.ca/sask.rail/construction/lsbuild/coupler.html

Jim

Bob,
Everyone so far has assumed that your Big Hauler came with track that has metal rails.  But there is a small possibility that you have one of the early battery operated Big Haulers that came with plastic track.  Bad news is, that plastic track has not been made for years.  Good news is, even the battery operated Big Haulers work just fine on metal track.

Jim

Quote from: Doneldon on December 20, 2011, 09:38:48 PM
No one would make out-of-gauge wheelsets, would they? That's nuts. It is
just as much work and requires just as much plastic to make misgauged
wheelsets as correct ones.
                                          -- D

There was a time when most of the wheel sets in cheap train sets were made under gauge.  I believe the idea was that under gauge wheel sets would still run, even if the track had been stepped on.  Properly gauged wheel sets would not.  Too bad if you wanted to add turnouts.

Another reason could have been that those one piece wheel sets were made with plastic that was too hot and was kicked out of the mould too soon.  Both result in excessive shrinkage, but both allow one injection moulding machine to make more wheel sets in a given length of time.

Keep in mind that I am talking about the bad old days when everybody was trying to make train sets just about as good as the next guys' but cheaper.  After enough iterations, the train sets cost almost nothing but were not worth anything.  At one point, you could buy brand new freight cars for less than $1 each.  But they would cost another $4 or $5 to make them look and run decently.  I do not mean to imply that that is what happened in this case.

Jim

Is that the same DCC ready B'mann Alco S-4 that the favorite spot is selling for $47.04 or more like the Soundtraxx equipped one he is selling for $84.04$?

see http://www.thefavoritespot.com/c-1378-diesel-locomotives.aspx?section=-2092-&SearchTerm=alco

Jim

Smooth operation and lack of derailments - the ultimate proof of the pudding.

Just a side note to full max - model railroaders from 3 to 103 all call me Jim.  When someone calls me Mr. Banner, I start wondering if I'm in trouble again.

Jim

Just the run the heavy bus around the table ("finger tip to finger tip, the long way.)  Then tap into its center with some lighter wires, say 18 gauge.  Run these wires to your command station.  The power will flow from your command station, through the lighter wires, to the bus.  How much is drawn in each direction will depend on the loads.  That will take care of itself.  If all the power is needed on one side of the table, that is where it will go.

For the bus wires, I often use 14 gauge Romex type house wire.  I split the outer casing and take out the three wires - a black, a white and a bare one.  I use the white wire for the outside rail and the black for the inside rail - no special reason for the colours but after wiring a number of layouts, it is easier to remember if the colour coding is consistent on all of them.  The bare wire I often string down the middle of the table as a common return wire for lighting and switch motors.  I don't know the prices in your area but where I live, 14 gauge house wire is cheaper than 18 gauge lamp cord or bell wire - go figure.

Jim

What you propose should work on a layout that size.  It is more common, however, to put the gaps in the rails at the point farthest from the command station and have your bus make a loop that is interrupted under the gaps.  The command station then sits in the middle.  Think of your two arms held out in front of you in a big circle, fingers almost but not quite touching.  That is your bus.  The command station sits in the middle of your chest, sending out power both ways.

When a locomotive crosses the gaps at the far side (your finger tips,) it momentarily connects the tracks together.  However the tracks are electrical equals at that point so no problem.  When the gap is close to the command station, the track are not electrically equal - one is only a short distance from the command station and the other is a very long way from the command station (as much as 20 feet on a 9 x 5 layout.)  This may results in problems when a locomotive crosses the gaps.

As far as I am concerned, transmission line and antenna theory, especially with poorly defined transmissions lines like the wiring under a model railroad and the tracks above it, is one of the black arts of electronics.  You follow the rules and it will probably work.  In the rare instance it does not, you fiddle until it does.  Problems usually start rearing their ugly heads when the buses exceed about 30' in length.  Then there are things you add along the buses or at the ends of buses or you can add a booster every 60 feet or so along the layout.  Don't worry about these problems until the time comes that you have to. 

Jim

I suspect it is the moulded "spikes" that are in the way.  These are meant to hold the rail onto the ties but stop the rail joiners from sliding on.  There are two solutions - (a) use an Atlas Hobby Saw to cut horizontally between the bottoms of the rails and the tops of the ties.  Then the rail joiners can slide in.  (b) cut off the last tie or two from each piece, join the rails and lay the track.  Once the track is where you want it, shave the "spikes" off some spare ties and slide them under the tie-less track.  A bit of white glue on the bottom of the loose ties will keep them in place.

If you are planing on laying flex track around curves, beware of joints in the curves.  Either avoid them or be sure to install the joiners and solder them to the rails before fastening down the track.  Otherwise you will have kinks where the two pieces join.

Jim

Both Doneldon and Mabloodhound are correct, depending on the size and shape of the layout.  You can run continuous loops on small layouts, say 1 to 2 sheets of plywood in size.  But large layouts, particularly around the wall types that enclose a large area, can resonate at harmonics of the DCC frequencies, causing large voltage spikes that can interfere with decoders or even damage them.

The DCC buses and the tracks form large coils while the capacitance between the rails and the wires form a distributed capacitance in parallel with the coils.  Capacitors and coils in parallel form tuned circuits.  If the capacitors and coils are small, as on a small layout, the resonant frequency is high, so high in fact that the harmonics of the DCC fundamental frequency are virtually nonexistent.  As the coils grow larger and the capacitance across them increases, the resonant frequency drops.  When the harmonics are powerful enough and the frequency resonates with the DCC wiring, the large spikes mentioned above occur.

The first sign of problems is usually loss of control at points far away from the command station or booster.  Some decoders are more sensitive than others to the voltage spikes and usually lose control first.

We can go into more detail if anyone wishes.

Jim 

I believe that the basic E-Z Command as supplied in Bachmann DCC train sets is an excellent choice for starting out in model railroading.  It allows you to control several trains on the same track at the same time, which is what DCC is all about.  While it does not allow you to program decoders beyond changing their address and defining which end of the locomotive is "front," it can operate locomotives that come with decoders installed and preprogrammed for you.  That includes all DCC ON BOARD locomotives sold by Bachmann and many other companies.

When starting out in model railroading, there are many things to learn.  Learning all the ins and outs of DCC does not need to be one of them.  By the time you want to install and program your own decoders, or feel the need to run many trains at once, then is the time to consider upgrading to a more advanced DCC system.  At that point you can sell or give away your basic system, or better, put it on a back shelf as a spare in case of problems with your new system.

Think about using a computer as an adding machine.  Virtually any computer can add up numbers for you.  But it takes a lot of time and effort to learn to operate a computer.  A simple desk top calculator can also add up numbers  It takes only a few minutes to learn how to use one.  So if all you want to do is add up numbers, which do you really need?  Someday you may want to do more than add numbers, but you can delay learning how to operate a computer until a more convenient time by using a calculator today.

Jim

Yet another reason for all model railroaders to own a Digital Volt-Ohm-Amp meter.  I cannot imagine model railroading without one.

Jim

Try Googling define rolling stock and I think you will find that it includes locomotives as well as cars, at least in North America.  By some U.K. definitions, it includes only freight wagons, in other definitions it includes passenger cars as well, and by the most modern definitions, also includes locomotives.

As a Canadian of British parents, I grew up with the narrowest British definition of rolling stock.  But over the last decade or so have tended to use the North American/modern British definition.

Bottom line, I feel we should be willing to use the broadest definition, especially on a USA discussion board, and add limiters if we wish to restrict the definition.  How hard is it to say "rolling stock." "non-powered rolling stock," or "freight cars" when we wish to be specific?

Jim

ONTRAX,

Glad it worked for you.  The only time it did not work for me was a case of a bad decoder.