Gaining momentum…

[english-electric]

Hi all,

After a long hiatus, coupled with other reasons that happened in my life, I have not been able to get the garden railway completed, however I picked up momentum this Summer and cleared out old masonry stuff and other mess that gardens tend to accumulate over a period of time, I am set to complete the foundations using blocks and hope to have decking with felt covering installed in 2025 as soon as Spring comes. Then it’s track laying next. 

I’d like to ask esteemed members of this forum for advice about which analogue controller is best for use on long OO gauge garden railway as I had asked Gaugemaster for recommendation and they weren’t able to help, which somewhat puzzled me. So I turn to experts here. 

My plan for the railway length is approximately 110ft per running line and as I plan a double track it would mean 220ft of track in total. Will I need a power feed for every length of how many? Would one controller be sufficient? I’m sure many of you would be saying DCC operation is the way forward.

I really could do with some help!

Will send some pics of the progress this weekend as weather’s looking excellent.

Thanks, Mark

[Clay Mills Junction]

Welcome back Mark.

I don't think any controller manufacturer will give any help, all of their controllers are marked as "for indoor use only" That is fine, we're adapting stuff anyway and for the majority of us, the controller will be inside a shed or similar. Gaugemaster are a good controller, generally the Model Ds are 1amp contollers so pack a fair punch.

We don't generally rely on rail joiners to transmit current (or DCC signal) reliably at all. That means either soldering a pair of joining wires across the joins or using a separate bus cable and joining every piece of track to it. I've decided to try a hybrid approach myself in a couple of places to reduce the number of attachment points to the bus.

Using a big enough bus will reduce the voltage drop the further you are from the controller. One idea might be to try to get your controller in the middle of the run rather than at one end, then the maximum distance from the controller is halved.

 

[mick]

Hi Mark welcome back. I often need a break myself so there's no problem with taking time away for other things.

Barry's quite correct regarding the use of controllers outdoors and of course safety must be our primary concern.  I'm not that surprised to hear that a manufacturer has been less than helpful because 'it isn't possible to run OO gauge outdoors' so we are more or less left to work it all out ourselves.

I would think that any controller capable of running a decent size indoor layout would be capable of doing likewise outdoors. There are no special requirements or at least nothing I have yet come across.

As for 'DCC operation is the way forward' it all depends what you want. In my view a garden railway is generally for watching trains circling round rather than playing trains and shunting wagons about so either type of power  controller would be suitable. DCC sound is great but not always clearly audible outdoors depending on the layouts location. Sound also tends to attract a lot of attention - something you might not always want.

Electrical continuity along the length of the track is what you need to aim for and Barry gives sound advice above.

[kenbrunt]

Hi Mark,  I use the Gaugemaster D controller for the outdoors part of the layout and have had no trouble other than dirty track. Again I only run DC and the controller goes indoors when the running session is over.

[english-electric]

Thanks Barry, Mick and Ken for your input. 

I envision running it as simple as possible, at first will use analogue control and then see how it goes. 

As for allowing space between rail ends, how far should the gap should be, measured in millimetres? I’m informed that they shouldn’t be fully joined, in order to allow for expansion/movement due to weather.

Regards, Mark

[mick]

On 20/09/2024 at 22:43, english-electric said:

...As for allowing space between rail ends, how far should the gap should be, measured in millimetres?...

Doesn't need to be much Mark, a couple of mill or so should do the trick though I suppose it all depends on the outside temperature when you begin laying track so think of that as a guide.

As far as I can recall I've never experienced a problem with expansion of the track outdoors though up in the attic was a different story initially. Does get warm up there mind you.

[ba14eagle]

Good to have you back Mark.

On my original OO version of Hampton Field, when running analogue locos, an old H&M controller was used effectively.

I would only lay track in warm weather and allow literally just 1mm gap in joints.