I am planning/working on a 9' x 12' over and under with a small yard with an engine terminal (roundhouse and turntable) and industrial area along with a passing siding and a station track. I am planning to have several electrical blocks on the main line, the yard, engine terminal, industrial area. My question is this: Do I need to insulate both rails or just one with one as a common on the entire layout? ------------------ Jim Krapf (thetrainman00@aol.com)
Well, there are two theories to this. You can do it either way and it will work, just make sure if you use common-rail, that you remember which one it is! My suggestion would be to isolate the yard completely from the mainline, and run a feeder to every yard track (so you can turn them off and on). You can get away with common rail for the mainline/passing sidings, just make sure you run enough wires to the common rail so it doesn't loose the current. ------------------ Corey Lynch Pres - Rensselaer Model RR Society, NEB&W RR http://www.rpi.edu/~lynchc/Railfanning/railfanning.htm - My Site http://www.union.rpi.edu/railroad/ - NEB&W
I agree entirely with Harron but would make this extra point. If you intend running with 2 cabs you need to ensure both cabs are wired to seperate transformers otherwise on a common rail system if you used a common transformer would result in a short circuit. My layout is wired using common rail and I have never had a problem. ------------------ Regards Paul Cassar-Moderator & Member number 50 SPAD Investigator #1 ICQ 61198217 http://users.bigpond.net.au/railroad2000
Good avice above. I have always used common-return wiring, with no problems. To remember which rail is common, I always make the near rail feed, and the far rail common. My current layout has five cabs, so I use rotary switches to select the cabs, but now I am going for DCC, I will just leave 'em all switched on ------------------ Alan The perfect combination - BNSF and N Scale! www.alancurtismodels.com Andersley Western Railroad Alan's American Gallery
