@RSJB18 posted:You are correct SH. I run conventional so power blocks are a must. My next project is to add a third spur to the yard in the middle. Car storage is premium on a small pike. Here's the current and new plan. I bought some MTH scale-trax switches and will modify them to fit. The old 5122's are as close together as possible.
Looking good, Bob. A wise decision for this addiction we share. Adding on more side tracks invariably leads to filling those side tracks/yards with more trains! I did the same with my main level when I grew from the original 4x8 layout. Almost all of the extension was devoted to a storage yard. This is what I wound up with:
Which soon became this, with wonderful additions to my pike-
One suggestion though. Like you, I originally ran only conventional. One day, I picked up a dcs system and I was blown away by how much more fun it is to run in command mode on a small layout. Try picking up one of those dcs commanders and try it out. It can run 3 trains at a time. If you have more Lionel, get the older tmcc system. Also, on small pikes, command control works really well with all of the power blocks that we have. Signal strength has never been an issue for me, and I have 4 levels with over 20 independently powered sidetracks in total connected to the dcs. Running the conventional stuff on a layout wired for command control is also not a problem. Give it a try.