With a little luck, this Sunday will be loft layout build: Day 1. I've got some more layout building questions that I could really do with some help on.
I'm using Peco 100 and my base boards are all 6mm and I'll be using 3mm cork tiles as underlay (to be ballasted later on scenic sections)
Control:
I have several points that are off scene (See blog for layout). I need some sort of train detection. Has anyone used IRDOT from heathcote-electronics? Ideally I would like the trains to stop at a specific point rather than an LED come on and me to stop the train (I'm using DCC). The signalling PCBs look like a great idea too but I'm not quite sure where I need signalling (although I would like to include signals at some point.
Reverse loop module - will any do? I've got an NCE powercab.
Point motors? - are PL10 point motors the ones to use? I want manual control rather than DCC control if that matters. I'll be using MasterswitchV2s for point control. Are side mounted point motors reliable?
Power:
Power Bus - how do people do this? I'm going to make the point mods as discussed in my other thread and I'll be wiring each track section together rather than relying on the frogs to do it. So thats track power sorted. How do people provide their tracks with a seperate power supply - i.e. point power and signal power etc. is there something off the shelf for the job - I don't really want to get into open 240v/16v transformer fiddling. How do you supply this external power supply round the track? Just run wires underneath roughly where the track is?
Think thats pretty much my main nagging questions. The base building I've done before its just the power and control of the layout is completely new ground for me.
Thanks in advance
I'm using Peco 100 and my base boards are all 6mm and I'll be using 3mm cork tiles as underlay (to be ballasted later on scenic sections)
Control:
I have several points that are off scene (See blog for layout). I need some sort of train detection. Has anyone used IRDOT from heathcote-electronics? Ideally I would like the trains to stop at a specific point rather than an LED come on and me to stop the train (I'm using DCC). The signalling PCBs look like a great idea too but I'm not quite sure where I need signalling (although I would like to include signals at some point.
Reverse loop module - will any do? I've got an NCE powercab.
Point motors? - are PL10 point motors the ones to use? I want manual control rather than DCC control if that matters. I'll be using MasterswitchV2s for point control. Are side mounted point motors reliable?
Power:
Power Bus - how do people do this? I'm going to make the point mods as discussed in my other thread and I'll be wiring each track section together rather than relying on the frogs to do it. So thats track power sorted. How do people provide their tracks with a seperate power supply - i.e. point power and signal power etc. is there something off the shelf for the job - I don't really want to get into open 240v/16v transformer fiddling. How do you supply this external power supply round the track? Just run wires underneath roughly where the track is?
Think thats pretty much my main nagging questions. The base building I've done before its just the power and control of the layout is completely new ground for me.
Thanks in advance
