# Taking a second look at the hobby.



## mosinRR (Oct 29, 2010)

Hello, I was on here over three years ago looking for advice and did receive a lot of it, all good too! Now I'm back and have more questions. The site I use a lot for reference and research is towerhobbies.com so all my links will come from there.

1. Flex track was mentioned in my first thread as I won't be doing any setup on carpet. I took a look at it and it seems simple and cost effective. When looking at Atlas's selection, I would go with their Atlas Code 100 Super-Flex Nickel Silver (5) HO.

2. The next thing is power for the tracks and the locomotive. If this whole thing gets funding, I see a maximum of two separate/together locomotives running at once with no extra electrical stuff at the time. Would the Atlas Universal Power Pack do the job? Not even the Atlas site has any info on it that I could find. I'm open to suggestions but please keep in mind price is important.

3. I would then use the Atlas Code 100 Straight Terminal Nickel Silver HO with the Atlas Code 100 Terminal Joiner Nickel Silver HO. Is that correct? I see the terminal has two holes so I assume a bare wire goes into each while the silver parts go into the power pack?

If I can get those three starting questions sorted out, I can then move on to the next set. Thanks for reading.


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## wingnut163 (Jan 3, 2013)

i am guessing you are doing DC!!

2 trains with DC means both trains will act the same. slow/fast ETC.

if you wish you could solder the power lines to any track.

good idea ,,, if you use NS track every thing that goes to track, joiners ETC should be NS


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

As Wingnut said, with DC any loco on your track is going
to run forward or backward at the same time and at
the same speed. You have no independent control unless
you have more than one 'oval', more than one power pack
and a more and more complicated switch and wiring system.

To have independent control of locos on a layout you must
use the DCC system. You can read all about it on our
DCC forum. If you are just starting out, you would be well
advised to consider DCC. It does away with multitudes of switches
and wiring is utter simplicity. It gives you independent
control of each train.

The Atlas power pack you mention is only 24 watts. It would struggle
to power 2 locos at the same time.

Don


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## mosinRR (Oct 29, 2010)

Honestly I'm not too concerned about the two trains at once and the cost of DCC looks to be too high for a casual person like me at this point.

I had a thought that it might be easier to buy a started set from Atlas so I would have the power pack, terminal track, and obviously a new train to play with. I seen in a video that their track can be separated from the trackbed. Problem is that it seems that they don't currently have a starter set thats in production. Is this true? Sounds really odd that a major brand wouldn't have something so basic.


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## rrgrassi (May 3, 2012)

If I were to do a starter set, I would go with a Walther's Trainline. The Lifelike and Bachmann starter sets are not all that great.


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## T. Avery (Jan 8, 2014)

I bought a Bachmann DCC starter set for $150. 

It should be arriving in a few days, I'll let you know what I think of it.


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## mosinRR (Oct 29, 2010)

rrgrassi said:


> If I were to do a starter set, I would go with a Walther's Trainline. The Lifelike and Bachmann starter sets are not all that great.


I took a look at the Walthers sets and seen that they use Bachmann ez track. I seen in a video that the power pack uses a plug going into the terminal track section. How would I be able to use flex track?


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## Kwikster (Feb 22, 2012)

Using flex track, you can solder the wires directly to rail joiners. A lot of people actually do that, it allows you to put drops exactly where you want them, and eliminates the terminal sections if you choose to. Overall, it's a cleaner more prototypical look when done. Especially if you ballast later on, then drops become virtually invisible when done right. They do make joiners with wires attached, but if you can solder save your money for other things.

Carl


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## mosinRR (Oct 29, 2010)

I stopped by the local hobby store before it closed and was able to get some stuff figured out. The owner was real helpful. Helped me piece together a lot of loose thoughts and I came away with a solid understanding of how I stand. I'm going to bust out some thoughts here so watch out now!

Technically speaking, I'm currently using fixed track code 100 with a Model Power power supply. Both are compatible with flex track. I could simple use my current terminal track piece or buy a new one with a better connection style. Since my current track is really old and not in the best condition, its best to just replace it all. And using a cheap 20 year old power supply is obviously not good. But the best thing is that I don't need to upgrade both track and power supply at the same time. I can go as funds allow.

Same with the actual train. I could buy a new locomotive when funds allow and get new train cars as I find ones I like and can afford.

So in summary, this turned from a $100-200 investment to as little as $20 for new track. This really puts the whole hobby in a new light for me and my accountant.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Hey, you have done good. 

You have your trains AND EAT TOO! 

Good way to start. As you go on you'll find that you
want this or that. And you can do it as the coins turn up.

If you run into any problems, give us a yell.

Don


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## mosinRR (Oct 29, 2010)

I did have a thought this morning. I'm pretty sure on my stock car the knuckle connector can be easy taken out with a small flat head screwscrewdriver. The loco I'm thinking its part of the front wheel assembly. If thats the case can it be replaced?


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## Phillaz (Jan 20, 2014)

Running more than oe train can be done with blocks of track. I ordered min switches from Texas for price reasons. You can stop a train in one block while running an other train on same power pack on a diff block. This is the way we did it before dcc. 
Phill


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