I am building Scenic Ridge and I am just about to the point where I will be glueing track down. I have a quick question about block control... For now, I have only one locomotive, one power pack and no controllers, BUT- I might add more in the future. I was thinking about blocking off the passing siding, and maybe making between two to four blocks on the main line- then just wiring them all together for now to a single power pack. Would this be the way to go? With making blocks, do you isolate both rails or just one? I'm very much in the dark on doing this (I have read a bit, but am still kinda lost). Also, if anyone wants- where would you put the blocks? Here's the track plan: Thanks for any and all help.
Hey Guppyman, I was just thinking about you the other day... hadn't seen you around, but then you might be elsewhere here and I just have seen you.. Anyways, a block is its own little railroad, so you isolate both tracks. I would isolate everything at the bottom of your diagram : the stub end, the passing siding, and the mainline, in between the siding. If you could somehow get another passing track somewhere else on the main, maybe double the one over the other track, I would isolate that as well... if you double to make a siding. I remember when you wife gave you your layout and how excited you were... nice to hear from you.
Also look around the net for a "used" MRC DCC system. I suspect you will be able to get it quite cheap now. Maybe that would be a better way to go, then you only need to decode a couple of engines... much cheaper now. The price is cheaper than you think, when you throw some atlas block switches in to work your blocks. MRC definitely has some shortfalls, but it would be almost perfect on your layout.
You do not necessarily have tio isolate both rails. On my layout I run a common rail so only one rail is isolated which reduces the amount of wiring required. The only point you must realise is if you are running different cab controls then the controls must be from a different transformer. Some duel controllers use the same transformer which mean with a common rail would create a short on the track.
The MAT uses block control and two cabs. I tried to go with common rail wiring but got lost somewhere and find it easier to isolate both tracks. Each block is controlled be a dpdt swith for either cab A or cab B. My layout is designed for walk around and I use the MRC controlmaster 20 for cab A . I have to get another one sometime for cab B. At the moment I use an old MRC techII to control the yard and roundhouse area as cab B
I suggest you pick up the Atlas Wiring book. It explains blocks very throughly, as well as other topics. Is around $5
When buying MRC power packs... look for used ones... I have had incredible deals on almost brand new power packs, for next to nothing... ask at your local dealers..... and at train shows. The other reason to be cheap with MRC is that if you stay in the hobby a long time, you will go DCC eventually at some point, and your MRC's will be sitting around doing nothing like ours.
Thanks for the feedback. I probally will eventually go DCC. Right now, my train budget is approximatley $0, so nothing is really an option. I do have an MRC power pack, and an old bachmann tiny thing that I will probally just run accesories off of. I hadn't thought about the train show thing... I think GATS will be here in January (hopefully, some money will be here too). I just figured for now, I'd go ahead and block some things off, then I don't have to go back later and rip anything out. I've pretty much decided that I will block off the passing siding and the stub, and also split the mainline into two blocks... The whole deal isn't big enough to handle much more. I'm finally making some real progress on the layout. For the longest time, I was scared to close in the tunnels. I figured if I had problems later, that I would be in trouble. I finally just decided to go ahead and do it- ever since, things have progressed nicley.
I'm seeing four blocks. One is the whole main including the two siding turnouts. Two is the siding that is the main line trough track. Three is the other siding. Four is the stub. You could merge block 3&4 if you only ever plan to have two locomotoves on the layout at a time. There is little need to break the mainline into more blocks than the two sidings because with no place to meet, you can't really run more than one train on the main at a time. edit - deleted confusing ascii art attempt to illustrate. [ 08 November 2001: Message edited by: yankinoz ]</p>
I see anywhere from three to four blocks as the other posters have stated. If you do not plan to go DCC then common rail wiring should do fine. The Atlas wiring book and a couple of Atlas selectors should put you on your way. If you ever want to run two locomotives, look up the section in the Atlas book about father-son cab control. If you want to go to DCC in the future then isolate your blocks and use a wire to each rail in each block. For this size of layout it shouldn't be that much more work. You could then control the blocks with double pole double throw switches for each block. Actually you probably could get by with Double Pole Single Throw switches, and just reverse the direction from your power pack. When you do decide that DCC is in your future for this layout, you would run two bus wires (+/-)from your command station to the leads from your track directly. (Make sure you keep the proper polarity.) You would just bypass the DPDT or DPST switches. However, for that stub siding I would keep one of the switches there so I could park a locomotive and turn off the track power to that section. Wiring isn't that hard, just make sure you have good connections. This includes the rail-to-rail connections as well. Good Luck!
My layout wiring is about as simple as you can get- I use Atlas's modular block selectors. I've wired my layouts for two-cab control (due to size, this works just fine), and for me, using the Atlas components works really well. DCC for me is not an option at this point, but perhaps I may look at the Atlas offering. Where you're at with your layout, wiring it for two-cab control would be great. You could run with just the one cab, and sometime down the road (perhaps at that GATS show) pick up a secondhand MRC Tech II for the second cab. I had a Tech II 1400 power pack for the longest time, and even for the basic model, it held up very well.
