# new to the forum



## Winston (Feb 1, 2013)

As a kid I remember having a train set. I think it was in ho scale. who know where that train set is been 26 years or so ago. Thinking about it I don;t think the train set lasted that long in my young 6 year old hands either that or I grew board watching it go around a loop and picked up GI Joe and had a battle with a train. 


anywho about a year ago I happed to come across some train stuff on youtube and was a kid again and was like wow thats some neat stuff going on in those layouts people are building and working on so I did what anybody would of done. I had to get me a little train set. so I found a bachmann n scale set the cheapest set you could find. the highballer witch was cool since it came with some track a train and power controller and transformer. so I set the little loop it came with up on the kitchen table put the trains on it and got to work hallin freight to the other side of the kitchen table. Since then I got a few more peaces of easy track and a few more rolling stock cars that the train set came with. Now after messing with the train on and off for a year buying a part here and there every time I happen to visit hobby lobby witch is the only place I found near me with train stuff thats about half a hour away. 

so setting my my train on the kitchen table is ok and fun but now I want something more permanent and not having a lot of space for a table to allways sit with track on it. I plan on building a wall shelf train to go around the room. but I don;t know its a big step up from my little train to go around a whole room so I got a ton of questions. I know I will go with flextrack since its got to be cheaper than the bachmann ez track to go around a whole room even with the little add on pieces of ez track I have now iam sure the flex track will be cheapest to go and plus if I just keep useing ez track I will never learn anything about building or laying n scale track. The question I been thinking about can my bachmann speed control and transformer work with the flextrack or do i have to get a new transformer and speed control for it since the bachmann controller plugs in the ez track terminal and flex track I don;t think they have such a thing i might be wrong but I can see spending hours working on this project witch is ok buy me it will get my train off the kitchen table when I pull the highballer out to run freight from one side of the table to the other . 
so road bed flex track rail joiners is what I got one my check list for now time to build a shelf I recon that goes around the room maybe I will call it my Sunday fun day train building day since I have the weekends off and got some time on Sunday to do stuff but I know me I won;t wait till Sunday to roll around I will prob do little work each day after I get off work man I got sidetracked on this whole post well I got two questions 
the bachman controller and transformer thing about hooking it up to flex track prob need solder two feed lined from the rail joiner and some how hook it to the speed controller next question is its not dcc so will i need to solder feed lines in every so often on the rail joiners and have them the feed lines hooked up together or will just one set of feed lines from the track to the controller be nuff to power my little train around a whole room or will it get maybe 6 feet away and just not have nuff power to keep going my thinking is if its a loop the rail will have the power runing threw it like a complete circuit if its all solders in together. Iam sorry I Didn;t mean for my first post to be this long, theres really no hobby shops around here to ask for advice on stuff and I don;t know anyone with trains so its just me and what I can come up with and what I see on the internet. once again sorry for the long post. any help or suggestions would be appreciated


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## shaygetz (Sep 23, 2007)

Welcome...you'll need a good power pack with at least 2 amps to push thru all that track, but take heart, a good used one can still be found on eBay for under $30 with a little luck and patience. Then you can use that train set pack to power lights and such.

Again, welcome...:thumbsup:


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## Winston (Feb 1, 2013)

got some more questions whats the va like some of the powerpacks have 18 va or 15 va what dose that mean the ones i saw had nothing with what amps it pushes out but is the 18 a volt/amp thing beats me I a green horn when it comes to power packs since i only used my bachmann power pack that came with my starter set 
and the room that Iam putting it in is 11 feet x 11 feet


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## timlange3 (Jan 16, 2013)

From memory I believe N scale locos want 0-12vdc and locos draw at most 1a. So a 18va would give you 1.5a at 12vdc (a = va/vdc). So if you had three locos that draw a maximum of 0.5a at most, the 18va system could run all three at once at full speed (12vdc).

Long wire runs will reduce the power available at the end of the run. Bigger wires (lower gauge) will help, but there is a tradeoff between wire size and cost/practicality.

Put your power pack in the middle of the wire run, so if you go around your room, 44 feet total, the wire run should be 22 feet on both sides. For a few amps 14 gauge for your power bus should be fine. Then use a smaller gauge wire for track feeders. Say 22 or 24 gauge for 6 inches or less. Don't make a loop with the bus, even if the two ends are close, don't be tempted to connect them. It will be easier to find faults that way. To connect feeder wires to rails, either learn to solder wire to rail or buy rail joiners with wire already fastened to them. 

Over time rail joiners do get loose, usually the rail is not supported directly under a joiner so the track flexes as the trains go over them. The flexing loosens the joiner causing electrical issues. This may take years, or much less. 

The MRC Tech series of power pack controllers usually have plenty of power that is well controlled. More expensive locos tend to have better electric motors.


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## Winston (Feb 1, 2013)

man this is very cool only 2 posts and I am learning way more stuff than I thought.
Should of came here a year ago but back then I was just happy setting up on the kitchen table for a few hours and then boxing it all up for the next rainy day. so a wall shelf around the computer room /office in the house will take up less space than a traditional table since I don;t have the room for it if only I would of bought a house with a basement for a man cave. so if it is 12 dvc is about 1a so a 24dvc would be about 2 amps buy your calculations. so I will look for that in fact you mentioned the mrc power packs thats what I was looking at but it was like a Mrc 1370 but I will have to take a second look and see witch one of these puppys pumps out the dvc and the check out some prices.

as for the rail joiners I plan on soldering them witch I haven;t used a solder gun before so should be fun to learn. there are a slew of videos on youtube of showing how to solder tack. 

as for track it self i saw this on your tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_yEypyxW9c witch was neat since I don;t have a hobby store near me and was wondering the differences between the tracks I went with micro enginering track since it looks like its harder to bend and once its bent it will hold it better. got some
coming in the mail with some road bed and some rail joiners. I probably should of got a rerailer to help put the train on the track and keep it alined as it goes around. 

really what gave me the idea is this guy here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0XlHo8bLqs and looking at it again they have a mrc 1300 or 1370 power pack but then again i don;t know his dimensions of there room there in 

Anywho I fill like I am on the right path now just got to get a power pack 
Iam sure I will have more questions about wiring later as I get to building. and want to thank you two guys for your replies very informative stuff and maybe it will help some others who plan on doing this down the road.


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## N scale catastrophe (Nov 18, 2012)

Rerailers will save your sanity, so if you haven't started laying your track I would suggest you work one in to your design.


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## THE TYCO MAN (Aug 23, 2011)

You'll need a needle tip solder iron. If ya got a blunt tip iron, you'll have a p-i-t-a time soldering rail joiners!


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