Layout isolation

[Wouldyoukindly]

Good morning...

I am not sure if this is the right section to ask this question but please advise if it is.This is my first post.. I am about to start building another Model railway many years after my first attempt and decided to register on the Hornby Forum in the hope that all you very knowledgeable people will be able to help or advise me during construction..I have done a track plan and I was wondering if you think this is too complex a layout for DC ? I want to run 3 trains at any one time. Would it involve too many isolation areas ? I have thought about DCC but all my locomotives that I have bought over the years are DC and I am not really fussed about converting them if even if it is possible.Looking forward to your comments/media/tinymce_upload/9c8d6589e2a4e68f897f3a9279c2d9cc.jpg

[96RAF]

It looks OK to me but there will need to be a bit of controller management when crossing from the outer to the middle loop at screen bottom and some track becomes common to each loop when certain points are switched. I am quite amazed that complexity of points actually fits, but it will look very good If they do.

[Chrissaf]

To be honest. I don't see the number of Insulated Rail Joiners to be the issue. It is the number of points that is more concerning with a DC layout. Hornby points are 'isolating points' which means that they act as electrical switches to route power into the direction that they are switched to. This means that, ideally all points should have a power feed that faces into their common 'toe' ends.

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I have edited your plan for three controllers powering three track districts - yellow green and blue. The colour coded arrows indicate the track sections that IMO should have a power feed from the appropriate controller. Take for example the green district. I have shown four track sections that IMO need to have a power feed from the green controller. You will notice that the four green arrows all connect to track that feeds into the common 'toe' end of points. The same approach is taken for the blue and yellow track districts. Yellow has two power feed connections from the yellow controller, whilst the blue district can be served by a single controller power connection. With specific regard the four green arrowed power connection points (first option) and option B green & yellow connection power feeds. The two power connections in the lower 'passing loop' section, might need to be wired via 'on/off' switches if you want the ability to park trains in those track lengths.

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Alternative Option B

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Option B is just a variation of the original suggestion to balance out the green and yellow districts in the lower 'passing loop' layout section.

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Technically, the IRJs could be considered optional and left out. To do so would allow each of the three districts to potentially work with a single track connection per controller. But to do it that way would require careful routing of points to provide track power through a selected route and the high probability of dead track sections being created when certain points are not set correctly.

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Such an approach would also mean that areas of track would be totally reliant on the quality of the points to transfer power through them to reach all parts of the layout. Plus, of course, extreme concentration by users to manage the direction and speed settings on the controllers, as without the IRJs the controller outputs will be in direct contact with each other when the points are set to create cross-overs between districts.

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So although my documented plan above might be a little more onerous to implement. I feel IMO that it goes someway to reducing the complexity of functional operation.

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TIP: As a newbie poster on the forum, just be aware that the 'Blue Button with the White Arrow' is not a 'Reply to this post' button. If you want to reply to any of the posts, scroll down and write your reply in the reply text box at the bottom of the page and click the Green 'Reply' button.

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Particularly as my reply includes an image, using the 'Blue Button' may result in your reply being held back for image approval, even though it is an existing image.

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See also – further TIPs on how to get the best user experience from this forum.

https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/forum/tips-on-using-the-forum/

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[Mico11]

 Looks like there is plenty of work ahead and supplementing the advice given above you might like to consider:-

Me being old fashioned, and perhaps in trying to keep the cost down I have used, over the years, the Peco PL 20 switch to isolate any area you wish by cutting the track and more particularly with keeping 2 locos active on the same line.

I notice you have several terminal lines which could incorporate this scheme and I have used magnets between the sleepers to uncouple automatically, then isolate the loco, for carriages/wagons to be taken away from the other end of the set up. Or perhaps, for steam, with magnets, an express loco to pull up in an intermediate station to auto uncouple and be replaced with a fresh engine.

It all works, just a thought.