PRR freight first layout, updated 12/9

Nice work. You can certainly connect the switch controller wires together for route control. Just be careful to connect similar wires thru and thru, etc.

What does the switch controller look like?

I am not sure what you should use for breakers. I would be tempted to suggest that you use a 2, 3 or 4amp. Most of them break at 200% of hold. The train may only draw 2-3 amps.

If you get a 5A, the train will melt before the breaker kicks out.

One item you absolutely need to play with electric trains is a meter. get the small clamp meter at harbor Freight. That will let you do tests with probes and clamp around your wires from the transformer and check the current draw.

Ok, I cleaned up the track plan for you. I don't think you have half straight in Snap Track.

Select a track, it will turn red, then right-click it and select length of section. That will help you know where the length should be. Double check with an actual measurement while you build. It should be very close.

I bumped the inner loop wider with a half straight to lengthen the sidings.

You don't need terminal tracks if you can solder. Just solder the hot to the bottom of the center rail and to the outside rail. Pick a few tracks and solder a jumper across both outside rails to make sure both carry the common or neutral current.

The KW is a unique beast. Do you have the instruction manual for the connections?

SCARM attached.

Pats Trains has the lighted bumpers for snap track. Also,

if you get a 90° crossing you could build a figure 8 for the next layout.

Moonman, 

Thanks for your responses, I'm going to try to cover a few things that you mentioned and that I missed last night. 

As far as the switch controller, I plan to use the ones that came with the switches, they actually say Lionel in the mounding of the plastic, and have a metal bar coming up with two lights. which makes sense because they are NOS from the k-line by Lionel period.  I'm thinking what I will do is just wire up one, then add jumper wires to the second in the pair, except reverse the sides that I connect because the way I have them set-up one switch the diverging path is Main, the other the straight path is Main.  Is this correct?  I still plan to triple check the instructions before I start my wiring.

Speaking of wiring, I plan to drill holes trough the foam for this so I can hide the wires from view underneath, That will be ok and not a crazy fire hazard or anything right? 

As far as Terminal Tracks go I have two designated terminal 10' straight pieces, I am going to use one at the very top of the Larger loop and the other on the bottom of the smaller loop right after the siding switches, I think this will be enough, also I am using track pins for every connection not simply relying on the SuperSnap Jumpers, this will add extra conductivity. 

Yes I have read the instruction manual for my KW.  I plan to use A-U as track power/commom, and then wire the B connection at a lower voltage for Aux switch power.  The common connection for switch power in this case is outside rail common.  and the U posts inside the transformer are connected, so I wont have a wire connected to the U post on the B side.  Correct?

And yes I have been loosely following the threads on the situation at RMT and the curious inventory that  has appeared on the market.  For $8 a cirlce of 072 i think I cannot pass up buying one even though they wont nearly fit my space, and I still need two track bumpers too so I think Pat's trains is going to shipping some items to me soon. I am sorry to hear that RMT may be on their way out, I was hoping that their products would be available for future expansion, though I wouldn't have chosen this track in the first place  if I hadn't known that It mates perfectly with traditional O tubular, so Menards might be my focus for expansion track pieces.  

Lastly, I have two K-line uncoupling tracks that I will use on each of my sidings, and my loco will have electro-couplers, so I should be able to do switching without reaching for coupler tabs.  However, I think It would be a good thing to place another uncoupling section at the top of the smaller loop, in order to cut off the caboose before I bring the train around the smaller loop counterclockwise to work the siding, at which point I can do switching with the caboose attached to the front of the Loco.  Does this sound like a good plan?  I have thought about leaving the Caboose on the outside track, but I kinda consider this as fouling the main even though there aren't any other trains in the picture. My plan for operations is to do a watered down version of the 223 Inglenook, where I pull cards or something to determine the order of cars in the train, then  make it up, though I might not bother with the yard lead length requirement at first.  Does anyone have any other ideas for fun operations?  I wish I could have incorporated a reversing loop but I decided on the siding tracks instead, my thinking is that I can run the RS-3 diesel long hood forward or backward to mix up the direction, which is more interesting anyway.  Will this work? And will I have major difficulties with the getting the Loco and caboose in the right places with my limited runaround ability.  

I appreciate all the help you've given me so far, this is all very exciting and I cant wait to see it all come together December 25th!

-Dave

Welcome, Dave

Peter

David,

  Good luck with the layout.

  Tom

Hello everyone!  Just wanted to share a bit of the progress I've been making on my train board.   I've been trying to to get a little bit done after work each night, because I understand it is a tedious process and I want it to be as far along for family to see at Christmas as possible.  

All of my interchange section is tightly pieced together and I have laid out exactly where they will lay.  You can see where I have started to use my knife to dig out some of the foam in areas where i will have the terminal connections for the switches.  I decided to quit halfway through and share my progress with all the good folks on here   

What I have done with a bunch of the track pieces is use little four inch zip ties to bind the track connections via the plastic ties.  You can see if you look closely at this picture the zip tie heads are sometimes raised above tie height but still below the railhead. Even with the wheel flanges i cant see these ever giving my trains a problem. Do you?

List of things to do.

1. Finish foam work leaving spaces for all wiring and spots to zip tie the track down to the foam board.   Also need to determine how I'm going to build the grade of the rear track up to about 2in and back down.  I think I need to do this before #2.   

2. Lay the green felt and make cuts for wires. 

3. Wire everything up, break out the KW and use newly acquired multi-meter to test voltage levels throughout.  Hope nothing blows up.

4. I want to build a derailment fence around the edge using something like chopsticks as fence posts and use fishing line between them.  I really don't wanna derail this thing onto the floor 

5. scenic elements

6. have fun playing trains.

Coming along nicely!

1. Cut blocks of foam for the risers for the grade at the track joints. Starting at the curve just past the switch it's a 2.1% slope. You can bevel the tops at 2°. A big knife will work.

(see attached SCARM with the elevations marked)

I left two straights at the center (20") for a bridge. You should be able to find an old #317 for $20. Ask Chris at Nicholas Smith.