# Draggin' Out The Ol' N Stuff



## wsboyette (Jan 25, 2014)

Finally, after thirty-seven-odd years of storage with no layout to run them on, I have dug my old N scale stuff, added some trains & buildings to it, acquired track, roadbed & switches, and begun to plan a layout adequate to handle all the trains (4 or 5 of them). First, I tore my hair out designing a track-plan satisfactory to me:










Then, got the stuff out, went bananas building new buildings including a roundhouse with turntable, and added a nice Bachmann 0-6-0 and logging train to my collection:




















Built lots of plastic kits in addition to pre-builts:



















And my first wood kit, an old country store:










And a scratchbuilding project: Two Eastern North Carolina Tobacco Barns:










Just before I started all this I repaired various problems in some of my O scale locomotives.... So I have been one busy model railroader ! I will eventually post pix of the finished N Scale layout.....


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## Ray Haddad (Feb 19, 2014)

A lovely start to a fine layout. At the momen, I am also agonizing over my track plan. I see you like a reversing loop. I do too. I want to be able to reverse from either direction of travel so a double is required. As yet, that eludes me in a small layout. I don't have any desire to have a sprawling layout so the double reversing of the train has to be done on what I imagine my small layout to be.

Rather than pull out my hair, I may go modular. So many options.


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## wsboyette (Jan 25, 2014)

Yes Ray, I saw a convenient way of providing a reverse loop in my trackplan. I have a double mainline, and a branch line and staging tracks so that I can run up to three trains at a time, with a fourth in storage awaiting its turn on the layout. I have always dreamed of having a roundhouse & turntable too. As for the construction, I will use the old thin plywood "cookie cutter" trick to produce the overall contour and graded section (low at one end and high at the other). I will also be using flex track, a little trickier to install but far more customizable than sectional track. My only worry is that my turnouts are Bachmann, but most of them are the newer type E-Z Track and should do OK. It's that couple of old-school ones that I fear trouble from.....


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## Ray Haddad (Feb 19, 2014)

Just start by isolating the older ones on all three sides of entry and exit. Work it from there and you should be all right. People get into trouble if they believe they know the internal wiring of the turnouts.

You might get lucky though. They may all be the same electrically. You can find out if you have a meter. Good luck.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Fun looking N scale layout.

But the first thing I saw is that reverse loop.

Tell me you are running DCC, please. The problems
of reverse loop wiring are eliminated with
a DCC reverse loop controller. lBut it cannot
be used on a DC layout. If you have a
DC operation how do you plan
to handle the polarity changes 
of the reverse loop?

You'll need to do the same thinking with
the turntable.

Don


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## wsboyette (Jan 25, 2014)

DonR said:


> Fun looking N scale layout.
> 
> But the first thing I saw is that reverse loop.
> 
> ...


Oh, we operated reverse loops with polarity-reversing switches long before the advent of Digital Control. In this case, the branch line loop and the crossover reversing track are blocks isolated from each other. I will simply be controlling them separately with two different power packs, as the train clears the insulators the polarity on the block it just left is reversed, so that when the loco returns to that block the polarity is now right for its direction of travel. As for the turntable, polarity controlling switches on the power pack control the approach and stall tracks, and the turntable itself automatically reverses polarity as it passes from one hemisphere to the next. Takes a little skill to operate, but not nearly as much as flying a R/C plane ! 
I've old locos that are hardly upgradeable to DCC and am on a very tight budget, so I have elected to do it the way it was done for years and years !


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

You have my utmost respect for your knowledge and operating
experience. And I'm sure you'll also have that from so many 
others of our members who have had complex DC layouts
like yours in the past. We all have many fond memories of those
operations. 

Your layout is so well thought out it is obvious that it will be
something to see when you get along with the construction.

Do keep us up to date with pics.

Don


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## wsboyette (Jan 25, 2014)

DonR said:


> You have my utmost respect for your knowledge and operating
> experience. And I'm sure you'll also have that from so many
> others of our members who have had complex DC layouts
> like yours in the past. We all have many fond memories of those
> ...


Thanks, I hope to get some major work done soon so I can report on it. Yes, the wiring is a bit of a brain-teaser, and there will be a small learning curve for operating it. I just cooked up a scheme for wiring up LED polarity indicators for each block, and mounting them in the control board in a schematic of the trackplan. Then I will be able to see at a glance whether the polarity is correct for what I'm doing on each block.


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