First steps into DCC

Last week I bought four second hand motors and a Decoder box which I collected on Friday and played around with today (Sunday).  Bought some dual core speaker wire from Maplins and I'd got a power pick up from the analogue train set I bought.  Doing this today I'm really glad that I bought a wire stripper some time ago (rather than having to rely upon craft knives).

Very simple to wire up and it worked first time...  it may not be the most exciting video to watch (and i turned the loco sound off) but it's evidence of another small step for Chris.  It's not had its day as a video star yet, but combine digital remote control points with the digital remote uncoupler/coupler shunter, and the shunting yard become much more fun.  

Here's a close up of the 'magic' box, wiring etc..  The wire is far too long but it's so I can play around with it.  The power for this is drawn from the track: there is not a seperate wiring circuit.  

Results were so successful and so easy that I've just asked for the rest of the stuff that the guy had on sale.   

Research and Inspiration Part 5 - Two Magazines and a supplement

Broadly speaking there would seem to be two magazines on Garden Railways: Garden Railways from the USA, and Garden Rail Garden Rail from the UK (There's obviously German magazines as well but they are somewhat in the future), and I've already mentioned that the Hornby Magazine in July had a supplement on Garden Railways with substantial input from the G scale society.

Lots of inspiration in all of them on different things.  The supplement featured how to build a Garden railway in a day - much of the preparatory work had been done but some handy tips on laying on concrete slabs across the lawn area.  Garden Railways despite being American was packed full of things - I'd managed to have a quick glance through it at the Sunday G scale meet when I saw someone else's layout and I bought the back issue (June 2011) from Glendale Junction because of an article on Freight movements and freight yards.  Another article on on an American touring layout could prove equally important though - making portable track supports, which could be an answer to coping with the 4" step and also getting round the lawn.  My initial plan once I have a layout plan had been to use LGB track joiners to keep track of 3-4 foot in length connected by track joiners - which is what the Americans were doing, but they then provided the next idea of using elastic bands around the sleepers to keep the track tight on the non joined sections. Simple like lots of the best ideas, but should work.

Outdoor Operations - First Day

Well, here we are, the video that you have all been waiting for.  Day 1 of outdoor operations.

The video could probably be better but we learned how to use i-movie as well in a hurry today to be able to get it into you tube.   Shows off the two DCC locos.

Lots of lessons learned today in getting here.  I was already aware from the rolling carriage on the photo shoot that the patio slopes.  Quote tonight from Ann - the rainwater runs off it rather than collecting - so the slope is deliberate.  Problem is that the engines don't like radius 1 curves on slopes, and in this configuration I had an S bend followed by the uphill, to the engines struggled.  So, some layout re-design on that basis.  

This was done with lapping passing loops - a track design that I learned off the web last night.  From a safety viewpoint then I think it will be a move to put the sidings etc on the other side of the patio and only have a single line in front of the step to walk over.  

Hmm, the photo uploader seems to be taking it's time tonight, so I'll stick with the video for now. 

Blue, Orange and Black - and two discoveries

The article on model railroader on "Switching Fun" illustrated it's puzzles and techniques with wagons of contrasting primary colours; on the real model they would be distinct liveries, although possibly not in the primary colours.  Garden Railway Specialists in Princes Risborough then decided to have their 20-20-20 sale: 20% off second hand stuff for 20 days from 20th June.  So, it was out with the plastic once more and three distinctive wagons were ordered.

Ebay had in the meantime what appeared to be another bargain wagon, although whilst it had a German name in the advert it is in fact an American reefer.  And thus on the first discovery: a long wagon on a small layout will cause trouble.  The Schlitz reefer is 415mm long, compared with the 300mm of the three previous wagons.  One of the very useful tips from the article (and the book on modelling freight yards) is to ensure that your sidings can take the longest wagon/coach that you have on your layout.  The Picture illustrates the difference.

Whilst setting up this photo shoot I also discovered that the patio isn't level (something which had never really occurred to me before): enough of an incline for the Leikeim wagon to start to roll towards the lawn (the white blob near one wheel is a small piece of white tac to keep it in place).  Given that I intend to do most of my passings loops etc, at right angles to the direction of this photo shoot then I'm hoping it won't be too much of an issue.

I've got another black Leikeim wagon and orange Cardinal wagon coming, so the bits where they have to be "delivered" are going to have to be at least two wagons long. To add to the impact I'm already thinking of some low relief model fronts to represent the breweries.  Seems like beer wagons prove popular in Germany.   Not sure what other colours of wagons I will add yet: probably depends upon what comes up on ebay and what appears second hand in the shops.   White, Green and Red are obvious choices.  

The First Rolling Stock

Whilst looking at ebay and the shops and contrasting what I got for my money in various starter sets etc, it became clear that a starter set was going to come with 2, perhaps 3 wagons/coaches,  and therefore if there was much to be done on the future layout it would need a few more purchases.  I'd also started to get a feel for ebay prices, and second hand prices and there didn't seem to be the 'used and a bit battered' type of item that I'd found when looking for N gauge open wagons to use in my 28mm old west miniatures games as mine wagons.  Having reached the decision that I was almost certainly going down the LGB route then I'd been looking for track bargains as well.

So, a couple of purchases were made for the first rolling stock.
This Caboose was brand new but minus chimneys.



This was from Ebay, and eventually identified as part the Lake George and Boulder series - to me it was a grey box wagon - so with an American theme.

Two items and an American theme has started to appear.

To start to get an idea of size and scale, these were placed in the garden and we put out the second hand track I'd got to start to get a feel for that as well.  The Co Director of Patio Rails got some string to pull one of the wagons up and down the track (and do woo woo sounds in the process).  Early wagonways and tramways were horse drawn before the application of steam, so are re-doing history in microcosm?

 

Research and Inspiration Part 4 - New Books (and a re-think)

Perusing the Model Railroader magazine caused me to realise that Kalmbach (the publisher) do a whole range of books.  Two were swiftly ordered and proved to be a mine of information.

The Logging railroads explained how "skidders" which have been made by one of the G scale manufacturers worked, which intrigued me since they look like a boiler on a flat wagon.  It also explained that unless I was modelling a few particular places where there was some interchange with the general rail network, then a logging railroad is often self contained and there wouldn't be passenger coaches or freight wagons.  There might a morning and evening coach for workers, and a flat car taking supplies up to a camp, but otherwise its logs, logs and yet more logs.   I was also discovering that logging wagons (like ore wagons) tended to command a reasonable premium on ebay, presumably because lots of people shared my dream.

The Freight Yard book was extremely inspirational given that the mood was swinging towards a realistic idea of a (small) freight yard on the patio.   Very American in theme but I'm assuming that the principles apply to railways all over.  If not, then I'll just have to say "It's my railway, and I'm having fun with it".  That said I do want to avoid the "United Nations" that I had as a child where a German Baggage coach (with moving roller doors) happily rubbed shoulders with some Rocky Mountaineer stuff (Observation car was good) and on the goods side I think it was assorted British with a mixture of Guards vans (and did I mention that the locomotives were Belgian and German?).

Broad themes were now beginning to emerge.  There was the American theme (both large company and small company), German historical and German modern whilst doing anything around the UK appeared difficult.  I was starting to gravitate towards LGB because all their stuff is designed to cope with tight curves and there were comments abut it's durability (an elephant can stand on the track), reliability, and ease of use (large wheel flanges to keep them on the track) given that I'd decided that I would not be doing live steam or radio control.  The downside of LGB was that they got into a big financial mess a few years ago, and the original parent company went bankrupt/into administration, so what did the future hold?  The rescuers themselves (Marklin) then seem to have got into a financial mess as well.  Both are now out of whatever trouble they were in and trading.  Alan from the G scale society had already said at the show to try and do as much as you could (especially on couplings and wagons/coaches) as it should make life less difficult than it could be.  If I didn't do logging, and carried on with the freight yard, then how about a small goods yard with a preservation line attached to it, or a private railway delivering wagons in some sort of National Park.  The start set I'd been looking at came with two locos - one steam and one diesel and it was trying to rationalise how they came to exist on the same line at the same time. Based upon memories of the preservation lines around the UK and Germany, then it came down to Steam Engine for show, diesel to do all the mundane work.

 

Research and Inspiration - Part 2 - Setbacks and costs

The internet is your friend when it comes to ways to spend hours of non productive time looking at things.  Equally so, it can be a boon when comparing, contrasting and getting information on specific things.

By now I'd established that I could get a trainset that would run in the garden for a reasonably modest price - say £225 - but, and there's always a but, it would only come with a simple circle of track, wouldn't be DCC (so would be like the trainset I'd had as a child, with one train on the track at once and speed controlled by altering the amount of power fed to the tracks) and wouldn't come with sound or smoke.  Sound or smoke would add another £50-£100 (depending upon manufacturer) for a more deluxe starter set.    DCC starter sets seemed a rare commodity - at least in G (for Garden) scale: I think there is a bit of a presumption that by the time you reach DCC levels then you know what you want and have a fair amount of kit - locos, wagons, tracks etc - already, so it becomes a question of conversion rather than starting from scratch.  One starter set - the Aristocraft  Silverton set - seemed to offer promise with it's radio control and basic train manager system, but again (because of the way it works) I'd be limited to one train on the track at a time: it wasn't DCC how I envisaged that.  For that I needed the Ordinary Train manager rather than basic train manager and that was of course, more expensive.

There is a whole raft of systems out there as well, and it was hard to get a basic understanding of what each system did for your money and its limitations and complexity.  No easy solution.  

Ann by now was being supportive, especially as the diet regime (remember the diabetes diagnosis) had caused some weight loss towards target weight (at this moment in time, lower is just good), and dietary changes had caused blood sugar levels to also drop.  I'd started to feel much less fatigued: basically because I wasn't putting (fruit) sugar into my system that it couldn't cope with.  In an attempt to eat healthier a couple of years ago and cut down on the chocolate biscuits, I'd moved to having a fruit smoothie to get two of my "five a day" and eat the fruit bars, and snack on dried fruit and trail mix etc.  Healthier in terms of less fat, but my body was starting to collapse because of age/genes/previous lifestyle and the diabetes (unknown to me) was probably setting in.  However, any trains as far as Ann was concerned had to come with sound (chuff-chuff), whistles (woo-woo) and steam.

There was also a setback.  A brief garden survey revealed a flaw in my plan (aka the step).  

It may only be a 4" step but that meant that the path around the lawn wasn't level.  There was a corresponding rise and fall on the other side of the lawn as well.  At that point I didn't know what gradient a model train could cope with, but it would clearly require some thought and investigation.  

 

Research and Inspiration Part 1

This is the cover of Model Railroader that contributed to a large degree to me setting off on this project.  I'd had a very traditional train set as a child - linked double oval and one siding.  I could make a train go backwards and forwards, and put a carriage or wagon into the siding.  Some further excitement came with the Hornby Royal Mail set whereby the coach automatically (based upon track devices) picked up and threw out little mailbags, and I had a Hornby log tipping unit although that was difficult to co-ordinate with the second hand Fleischmann track that was the basis of my layout.  Ultimately though, watching a train go round and round - even if it does have lights that shine in the tunnel, gets a bit repetitive.  It also becomes clear that expansion and change is both going to prove expensive and difficult because of space arguments.  I'd also moved substantially into the modelling aspects and painting and gaming with model soldiers.  

Going to model railway shows had caused me to understand how railway modellers coped with the limitations of the oval train layout: a fiddle yard either at the side of the layout being modelled, or behind the painted scenery backdrop.  Freight yard, depots, stations, quarries were now all possible with the change of trains/wagons/coaches all taking place off stage in the fiddle yard.  I still enjoyed talking scenery with people, but the degree of "realism" that some people demanded of their layouts started to make me realise that some people were very serious and I started to wonder where the "fun" was coming from.  I think a large part of the enjoyment comes from the accurate depiction and modelling, based around old photos and track plans etc, but that's not something for me.  It's clear that there is a broad spectrum within the hobby though and it was clear that there were people who's enjoyment came from actually running the trains on layouts. 

So, back to the magazine.   "Making your layout more fun to operate" as a sub header.  A quick flick through in Smiths confirmed there was value for money in that issue of the magazine and it was purchased.  Two important things came out of this: an explanation of trailing point, facing point and runaround sidings (and how the latter offers much more flexibility than either of the former - and more again if combined with the two former items), and that freight yard operation was a bit like a sudoku puzzle: the yellow, blue and green wagons/vans are already in place on the layout, and you have arrived with a trainload of red and black wagons/vans and you have to get various wagons in various places before leaving.  

So, here we had a concept of fun from operating the layout that was centre stage, although there might still be the need for the fiddle yard to provide a home for a trains that are going to arrive or once they have left.  Building a freight yard layout still seemed to require an extensive degree in railroad electrics because of the complexity of (not) having more than one train on the same piece of track.  

The discovery that DCC meant that I could have more than one train on the same piece of track, under separate independent control, opened up whole new possibilities, as it also meant that the fiddly wiring was not needed.  An indoor layout was still going to be out of the question though because of space.  I'd discovered that people had layouts running around the sides of rooms - sometimes at head height - or had layouts that were hinged above beds, to fold down over the bed for operation.  Whilst I could see the attractions of these, I knew that they weren't for me. 

In the beginning

So, why have a Garden Railway ?
Mid life crisis?  


I've always liked model railways although they were something I enjoyed watching or looking at, rather than modelling myself.  Because of the interest in miniatures gaming (model soldiers) then I'd look at the scenery at shows and buy the occasional railway magazine if it had lots on scenery articles in it.  The concept of building a static layout, aside from the space implications, was something that was always a bit intimidating because of the electrics.  Relays, isolating tracks, current polarity etc was a language that was alien to me. 


Several things came together at the same moment in time to cause me to take the plunge and have a Garden railway. 
Doctor's advice following Diabetes diagnosis to lose weight and therefore severely curtailing the pleasure of a good book or movie at home accompanied by red wine, mature cheddar and crackers.  Each bottle of wine not bought could be money into the train fund and provide an incentive to keep to the diet. 
The availability of DCC.  I'd been aware of digital train sets for some time and whilst I knew it meant sounds and lights and other bits, my actual knowledge of it was a bit fuzzy. The discovery that it meant lots of fiddly electrical bits would be dealt with by the system for me, providing I had locos with a computer chip in caused to look at options on the internet.    Digital Command Control (DCC) is a scheme for controlling locomotives on a model railroad layout that allows more than one locomotive to occupy the same electrical section of track. Each of the locomotives has a decoder between the track and the motor, an electronic circuit that reads messages sent over the track and controls the amount of electricity delivered to the motor. A command station/booster places both the power and the messages on the track using a scheme where the actual power modulation encodes the digital bits of the messages. Devices that are fixed in one spot, such as switches and lights, can also be controlled by DCC.  
An article in Model Railroader magazine.
An imminent birthday.