The Layout Thread

[Mulfred]

I still want to buy knapford and turn it in to tidmouth station. I'm determine it can be done!looks awesomeas always Christian just echo what sodoradventures and.everyone else says lol excellent work my friend. Your a credit to the forum

[ThomasFan247]

Thanks very much, both of you SA, I actually just found a high-quality picture of a brick wall online, printed and cut it out, and pasted it to the backdrop

[AJW98Productions]

Thanks very much, both of you SA, I actually just found a high-quality picture of a brick wall online, printed and cut it out, and pasted it to the backdrop

What was the 2 stall shed your using, and your layout is amazing, no words I have can describe it .

[ThomasFan247]

Thank you It is a Walthers Cornerstone Kit

[AJW98Productions]

Thank you It is a Walthers Cornerstone Kit

No thank you, I shall look it up .

[TobyTheTram16]

Hey guys I plan on building a new layout resembling Thomas's branchline. Design or scenery is not an issue, it's power and track. What do you think is the best way to power an entire layout with AC/DC control I heard that soldering works preaty well, but I'm not sure how to do that. How do you guys power your layouts? Also what track brands would you recommend? Simierski from YouTube recommends PECO Code 100, what are your thoughts? And finally what are your oppinions on DCC, is it worth it? Are there any good tutorials to convert your locos to DCC? Any specific benifets from DCC?

[SodorAdventures]

Hey, you asked a lot of valid questions. I can give a little advice and that is to say stay away from peco. Aside from its' ridiculous cost, its not better than atlas flex. In fact, atlas code 83 flex track is better than the peco. Anyway, I would also stay away from DCC for now because it is a lot more complicated. I'll be back and edit this with more, as now I have to go!

                                                                                          -Tanner

[TobyTheTram16]

Thanks Tanner, I look forward to more tips and info.

[jward]

Hey guys I plan on building a new layout resembling Thomas's branchline. Design or scenery is not an issue, it's power and track. What do you think is the best way to power an entire layout with AC/DC control I heard that soldering works preaty well, but I'm not sure how to do that. How do you guys power your layouts? Also what track brands would you recommend? Simierski from YouTube recommends PECO Code 100, what are your thoughts? And finally what are your oppinions on DCC, is it worth it? Are there any good tutorials to convert your locos to DCC? Any specific benifets from DCC?

I can't advise on what brands  of track to use, as I make my own.

soldering is easy to do with nickel silver track. steel rail is very difficult to solder to.

as for dcc, there are numerous advantages providing you are using a full featured dcc system. I say that because there are a few low cost systems with very limited features which largely negate the advantages of dcc. the advantages to me are the ability to run more than one train on any track, without regards to electrical boundaries (known as blocks),,,,,the ability to program your locomotives with the operating characteristics you prefer, such as top speed and momentum effects......the ability to program your locomotives to run exactly the same as others in your fleet. this is especially useful if you run diesels, which often run in groups in north America. a full featured system will allow you to run several locomotives under one address as though they were a single locomotive just like the real ones......

[ThomasFan247]

Hey, you asked a lot of valid questions. I can give a little advice and that is to say stay away from peco. Aside from its' ridiculous cost, its not better than atlas flex. In fact, atlas code 83 flex track is better than the peco. Anyway, I would also stay away from DCC for now because it is a lot more complicated. I'll be back and edit this with more, as now I have to go!

                                                                                         -Tanner

I wouldn't say that Atlas is necessarily better. For what it's worth, it most certainly does the job and looks great. I use Atlas code 83 track myself, and I love it. But Peco does have its advantages.

1) Peco track is more detailed than Atlas, specifically when it comes to the spikes and rail heads.
2) Peco's track comes in code 100 and code 75, prototypical to British railway modeling. Though Atlas' code 83 rails look just fine, they are (prototypically) wrong.
3) Peco's track utilizes the bullhead structure seen on British rails. Atlas uses the flat-bottom rail typical in North America. Again, this makes Atlas track the 'incorrect' track because of the prototype. Here's a comparison of the two rails:

4) The switches made by Peco are powered by a spring that throws the point to one direction once it passes the center point. This snaps the moving tongue (moving part of the points that guides the train in a specific direction) against the stationary rail. This allows the lack of point motors and switch throws. Atlas track, however, does not use a spring, so the switch will only loosely stay in position. A stray bump or imperfection of a flange could push the tongue out of place, causing a derailment or allowing the loco/rolling stock to 'jump' the point and proceed along the other direction.
5) Peco's insulated frog switches are insulated with plastic, but the tops of the insulation are covered with a strip of metal to enhance detail and realism. Atlas' insulated frog switches do not have this metal. Instead, the frog is painted brown like the ties, which decreases the realism. Also to add to the frogs, locos tend to run smoother over Peco frogs, while they tend to jolt and stall on Atlas frogs.

Hey guys I plan on building a new layout resembling Thomas's branchline. Design or scenery is not an issue, it's power and track. What do you think is the best way to power an entire layout with AC/DC control I heard that soldering works preaty well, but I'm not sure how to do that. How do you guys power your layouts? Also what track brands would you recommend? Simierski from YouTube recommends PECO Code 100, what are your thoughts? And finally what are your oppinions on DCC, is it worth it? Are there any good tutorials to convert your locos to DCC? Any specific benifets from DCC?

As I stated above, Peco is actually a very good brand of track, and it has its benefits. If you live in the UK, I'd go with Peco as it is easily available to you. If you live in the US, I'd suggest you buy Atlas as it's the cheaper of the two brands and it still gets the job done with very nice quality.

As for DCC, it's really not too complicated once the decoders are installed in the locomotives. Here's a video tutorial on how to install a decoder in Thomas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDSbVQgVfec. Installing chips in the other Thomas brand locos should be very similar if not the same.

If you're not going for DCC and you want to be able to control when each section is powered, you'd have to go with block wiring as jward said above. Block wiring is okay on small layouts, but if you have a big layout with loads of isolated sections, you may just want to spend the money and go DCC. I, of course, didn't listen to my own advice just given, and I went the block wiring route. I have about 30 'blocks' on my layout, and I can't even tell you how many holes I had to drill, how much soldering I had to do, and how much wiring is beneath my 10x10 layout. To clear things up about soldering, it's actually pretty simple. All you need is a soldering iron and rosin core. I purchased a handheld, plug-in soldering iron from Lowes hardware for $30.00. This is the exact one: http://www.lowes.com/pd_357336-273-WPS18MP_4294772306__?productId=3402986&Ntt=soldering+iron+tips&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3Dsoldering%2Biron%2Btips&facetInfo=. There should be plenty of tutorials on YouTube on how to solder wire to rails.

I hope that all helps!

[TobyTheTram16]

This is how it's looking so far, it's roughly 4x6. *Silly questions alert* when the track has been soldered, will it provide power to the entire layout? Or only a certain part of the layout? how many transformers would you reccomend for a layout of this size? Again sorry for the sort-of silly questions, this is my first time building an ACTUAL layout. Thank you jward and ThomasFan247 for the info. ThomasFan247 your layout is fantastic by the way, and yes I live in the U.S so atlas is my best bet for now.

[fitzythe4p]

One thing I noticed about your plan is that even though it is in an 'L' shape, it's only 4'x6'. I would advise that you make the layout larger than that. The reason being that since in some areas you'll be looking at some severely sharp corners. This isn't too much of a problem if you're running small tank engines and 4-wheeled stock, but if you plan on running big engines like Gordon, you'll need to make each "leg" of the layout 4ft wide at least

[ThomasFan247]

*Silly questions alert* when the track has been soldered, will it provide power to the entire layout? Or only a certain part of the layout? how many transformers would you reccomend for a layout of this size? Again sorry for the sort-of silly questions, this is my first time building an ACTUAL layout. Thank you jward and ThomasFan247 for the info. ThomasFan247 your layout is fantastic by the way, and yes I live in the U.S so atlas is my best bet for now.

Yes the whole layout will be powered, but you will choose when each part is powered. I don't think me explaining it will do you justice, so here's a diagram:



Using the Atlas selector, you can either use one or two transformers. The diagram shows that two are used, but I only use one for each main line, at least for now. For your layout, I'd suggest using one unless you want to operate multiple locos independently at the same time.

Thank you very much for the comments! There are no silly questions here, and we're happy to help you out

[TobyTheTram16]

One thing I noticed about your plan is that even though it is in an 'L' shape, it's only 4'x6'. I would advise that you make the layout larger than that. The reason being that since in some areas you'll be looking at some severely sharp corners. This isn't too much of a problem if you're running small tank engines and 4-wheeled stock, but if you plan on running big engines like Gordon, you'll need to make each "leg" of the layout 4ft wide at least

Here's a more revised version of the layout, thanks for pointing that out. I'm still revising it.

[TobyTheTram16]

*Silly questions alert* when the track has been soldered, will it provide power to the entire layout? Or only a certain part of the layout? how many transformers would you reccomend for a layout of this size? Again sorry for the sort-of silly questions, this is my first time building an ACTUAL layout. Thank you jward and ThomasFan247 for the info. ThomasFan247 your layout is fantastic by the way, and yes I live in the U.S so atlas is my best bet for now.

Yes the whole layout will be powered, but you will choose when each part is powered. I don't think me explaining it will do you justice, so here's a diagram:



Using the Atlas selector, you can either use one or two transformers. The diagram shows that two are used, but I only use one for each main line, at least for now. For your layout, I'd suggest using one unless you want to operate multiple locos independently at the same time.

Thank you very much for the comments! There are no silly questions here, and we're happy to help you out

Thank you so much ThomasFan247, you've been a great help! I really appreciate it, I'll be sure to use this when construction starts.