help with power Bachmann EZ snap track wiring

[surveyorbill]

Well men. I got my switches to operate. when in doubt read the instructions.

Now I seem to have made a small error in judgement and involved my little woman in a stink about her new car. The neighbor cat likes to track mud up the top of the car so i was in by barn minding my own business. I figured 4 pumps on my pellet pistol woudn't hurt little old Snookums cat and learn him to get offn the car. Problems arise in trajectory calculations when underpowered. So now my spouse is all up in a roar cause i hit the window on the passenger side and missed the cat. Just can't win somedays.

My layout has 2 loops of track Up to now i have ran 2 separate power packs on the separate loops. i want to put a connector between the loops which have the outside rail as the power feed and the inner rail as common ground. Can I make a block on the connector rails and power off 1 or the other packs without frying my Mallet? i assume the poewr packs would need to be syncronised just so to see a smooth transition from loop a including the block connector  to loop b.

[OldTimer]

Go to your LHS and buy a book.  You want something with a title like, "Introduction to Model Railroading," or something along that line.  Kalmbach has several excellent books.  Our host, Bachmann, publishes a very good book that deals specifically with EZ Track.  Any of these introductory books will explain how to divide your layout into blocks and run two trains at once using cab control.  Atlas (the track folks) also publish a number of track plan books that include instructions for wiring using the Atlas electrical components.    And don't shoot at the cat any more!   
OldTimer

[surveyorbill]

No more shooting the cat. You didnt answer my question. BR

[OldTimer]

You can connect your two loops any number of ways, divide your layout into blocks, and operate two trains independently using cab control.   Or, you could convert to DCC, avoid having to do the block wiring and spend a lot more money to buy greater flexibility.  For specific instructions, you're going to have to do some homework.  For a through discussion of cab control, I recommend one of the Atlas books.  The Atlas wiring components are affordable and very reliable.  Good Luck.
OT

[Doneldon]

sbill-

You can connect your two loops with a crossover (that's what such a connection is called) without worrying about polarity.  However, you could be asking for trouble if you try to run two power-packs simultaneously.  Wiring the crossover as a separate block will take care of that if it's long enough, but you'll still have to switch power packs every time you route a train from one loop to the other.  Also, you'll probably want a second crossover going the other way so you can smoothly send trains both inside loop to outside loop and outside loop to inside loop without having to back through the crossover one way.  That won't cause any polarity problems, either, but the two clashing power packs will still be an issue.

You could use just one power pack for  both loops but then the trains on both loops would have to be going the same direction and speed.  You could undo that by reversing the motor wires in one loco but you would still have the problems of both locos going the same speed all of the time and both always reversing direction at the same time.  As has been mentioned, you could wire the whole thing for block control and use the power packs as cabs so each loop would operate independently.  That requires some slightly fancy wiring and it may not really be suitable on a two-loop railroad unless all you want to do is run trains in circles, in which case you don't need the crossovers.

I urge you to look into DCC.  Bachmann's EZ-DCC is inexpensive, is easier to wire than cab/block control, gives independent control of all locos with decoders all of the time, and allows the operator to access DCC light and sound features if so desired.  I'll bet you could be up and running in DCC within a few minutes of replacing your power packs with a DCC unit, assuming your locos have decoders.  If they don't, adding them can take anywhere from 15 minutes to a long time, depending on the loco and decoder selected.  Simple decoders (non-sound and only a couple of variable features) cost under $20.  Theoretically you could just add a decoder to one loco and use the second without a decoder but that's not a very good idea.  It could prove to be destructive to the non-decoder locomotive over the long run.  There are many steps up the DCC scale, in both price and features, but the Bachmann EZ-DCC system is the least expensive and easiest to understand.  There are costs to this system, however.  Those include limited power and versatility.  Only you can decide how important these are to you.

Whether or not you go to DCC, I think the previous suggestion that you get a basic model railroading wiring book is a fine idea.  Model Railroader has some which you can buy online or at your LHS.  If you go DCC, you'll find introductory books for that as well.  Just look for the one with the newest copyright date as the information will be most up to date.  There's also a wealth of information online, including this board, but nothing beats having a good ink-and-paper resource in your hands.

Good luck, whichever way you go, and be sure to keep us up to date on your progress.

In re the cat: Shooting it in the rump might only serve to keep it off of your wife's car when you are present.  I nailed a squirrel with my pellet rifle once years ago and he learned to avoid me like the plague, even if he saw me through a window, but I don't know for certain that it kept him from trying to get at the bird feeder when I wasn't around.  Also, you could find yourself looking at a big vet bill if you connect a pellet with the cat's behind or wherever.  (Air guns aren't accurate enough to adroitly place your shot, as you already found out the hard - read expensive - way.)  And there's still the issue of an irate spouse if you put a non-OEM part, i.e., a pellet,  into the cat.

My folks had a friend in Long Beach years ago who used a .22 to stop neighborhood cats from making noise all night, burying the bodies in his flower garden.  I can't urge you to try that, for a whole slew of reasons, safety primary among them, followed closely by being visited by the local constabulary and being labeled "That Nut With The Gun" by your neighbors.  Capitalization intended.

So.....don't shoot the cat.  It'll keep getting on her car unless you kill it.  That's what cats do.  But it's your wife's car so you don't need to worry about it.  Let her decide what to do once the paw prints bother her enough.  I'm just sayin'.

                                                                                           -- D

[Len]

Or, you could convert to DCC, avoid having to do the block wiring and spend a lot more money to buy greater flexibility.

Unless you have a very small layout, you should at least install blocks that can be turned off/on even when using DCC. Otherwise you may end up spending 3 days searching for the dropped T-pin that ended up across the tracks inside the paper mill!

Len

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

In re the cat: Shooting it in the rump might only serve to keep it off of your wife's car when you are present.  I nailed a squirrel with my pellet rifle once years ago and he learned to avoid me like the plague, even if he saw me through a window, but I don't know for certain that it kept him from trying to get at the bird feeder when I wasn't around.  Also, you could find yourself looking at a big vet bill if you connect a pellet with the cat's behind or wherever.  (Air guns aren't accurate enough to adroitly place your shot, as you already found out the hard - read expensive - way.)  And there's still the issue of an irate spouse if you put a non-OEM part, i.e., a pellet,  into the cat.

My folks had a friend in Long Beach years ago who used a .22 to stop neighborhood cats from making noise all night, burying the bodies in his flower garden.  I can't urge you to try that, for a whole slew of reasons, safety primary among them, followed closely by being visited by the local constabulary and being labeled "That Nut With The Gun" by your neighbors.  Capitalization intended.

So.....don't shoot the cat.  It'll keep getting on her car unless you kill it.  That's what cats do.  But it's your wife's car so you don't need to worry about it.  Let her decide what to do once the paw prints bother her enough.  I'm just sayin'.

                                                                                           -- D

My 80-year-old father takes potshots at squirrels with a BB gun from a second-story window. He lives in a heavily settled suburban neighborhood. I keep telling him, if he gets in trouble with the law, he'll just have to sit in jail until I can get up there to bail him out. I live 65 miles away.

[surveyorbill]

Some very nice details for me to address. Thank you for the time it took to give me a direction to go. No more with the cat.

[Jhanecker2]

Kalmbach  and Atlas both publish books specifically about wiring  model railroads. Both books deal with both DC(analog) and DCC wiring situtations.  Each type has its pros & cons , initially  DCC provides for greater control for multiple trains with less wiring but after a certain complexity you are going to have to resort to establishing  blocks ( Power Districts ).  Everything you can control , you HAVE  TO control , this always adds to cost and complexity .   Remember Rule #1 : It is your railroad.    So do what you want. It ia one of the few situations  where you can have godlike power in your creation . Enjoy !!!   John II