Hey Everyone! How about a midweek update.
I've got some good 
I've got some bad 
And some questions 
First, the good. Things have progressed really quickly around here. I officially have 99% of all of the track that I need (still deciding if I'm going to add 1 more switch and 1 more siding) and was able to complete both loops and can officially trains on both. A big shout out to the forum members that sold me track and to Star Hobbies in Annapolis, MD, Mario's Trains, and Engine House Hobbies where I was able to get the last bits of my track. Here are a few pics of the progress getting everything together. I've been running my MTH Railking GG1 beer train set, and have found a few more reefers while I've been inventorying everything. Again, all of this is currently temporary while I was mocking it up. More to come on that in the "bad" section.
So, now onto the bad. My wife an I pulled the trigger to get waterproofing done in our basement. Initially, it was going to be done in a phased approach, but we're moving forward with getting the whole basement done. What this means, is I'm going to have to take the layout down during construction. That shouldn't be too bad considering its built modularly and nothing is nailed down or permanently wired. The worse part is this:
We're going to finish the basement, so I need change the configuration of the layout into an L and tuck it back into the corner that I showed back in the beginning of this epic. I had this in mind when I started down this path. In the Track layout book there is a corner variation for this layout. I've been working on trying to get this figured out, but am stumped on the dimensions for the back corner. @Ken-Oscale Would you be able to give some details on the corner variation? I've tried to build it out in Railmodeller Pro, but haven't had any luck. It looks like its only a 2x2 section which would work PERFECTLY, but if its not, I may have to try to get it to that.
Looking on the brightside here, if the dimensions DO work out, I have a really cool idea for a trolley line that would go through a residential area with two long spur sidings off of the lower left corner *fingers crossed*.
As far as my questions go, I'm planning on using DCS (when I find / buy a system). I've heard / read about the star wiring pattern that gives the best signal. I'm planning on doing drops ever 3-4 feet on the Fastrack (soldered into the connectors), but was back and forth between that and running a bus wire. Is there any draw back of using the bus with DCS or not?
Thanks for reading! Hopefully I'll have more updates soon!
