Extending my layout

[dale_andrew]

I read on here yesterday about a guy who was thinking of using a trakmat for his first layout. He was advised not to because he or she would inevitably extend in the future. Well im the same and have another board to create another layout. I will be connecting the new layout to the old but I have a couple of questions if I may. Will Railmaster provide enough power for both layouts or do I need some kind of booster?

[Cronan]

It really depends how many trains you want to run. So for example if you have an e-link it comes with a 1 amp transformer you can control up to three trains. If you have an Elite it comes with a 4amp controller you can control up to 10 trains going at the same time. Something like that anyway. Hopefully there will be someone that can explain better than me and they will help you.

I think I'm right anyway I think it's all in the amps.

[Yelrow]

Hi, you do not say if you have elite or elink. Hornby will tell you that the elink with supplied transformer will do a big layout. They have one running. If you have elink, the baud rate is greater. Once you start adding points, you will need the a amp transformer. I know nothing about the elite, but  rest assured, somebody will shortly tell you. I dont think you need a booster. john

[dale_andrew]

Thanks Yelrow and Cronan, I've got the elite and the elink but im using the elink. I've currently got seven points on the current layout out and will probably have around eight on the new one.  

[96RAF]

Dale

I have 13 points on my 12'x 6' layout and run up to 6 locos at any one time under RM control. I use the Elite for the locos and the eLink for the points, both running from 4 Amp PSUs and there is bags of umph.

[Yelrow]

Raf96, greetings, when you run your 6 locos at once with elite, with only 2 control knobs, how easy is it to slow the other 4 down. I tried it with a select, and chaos ensued. john

[RDS]

RAF96 says he runs the 6 loco's with RM.

With Elite, you can of course take manual control as well.

[Fishmanoz]

Dale, let me try to summarise and clarify what has been said above for you. 

For a start, you will not need a booster until your layout fills your entire double garage. 

As you already have an Elite, you also have the 4 amp supply which you can now use with either eLink or Elite. Modern locos draw around 300mA flat out, less when going slower, so you can run 3-4 of them at the same time per amp of power to the track. You can have as many as you like sitting on the layout at the same time, it's only the ones running that count. 

Accessory decoders that have CDUs draw very little continuous power while recharging the CDUs, and they draw almost nothing when not recharging, so you can have quite a lot on your layout before they will affect the number of locos you run. John will tell you that you need the 4 amp supply for points but HRMS will say this was a Windows driver issue that occurred with only some PC configurations and has been fixed with v1.56 with the supply of a new driver. You may have to manually update to this driver though if you have the problem. Note though that accessory decoders without CDUs controlling solenoid point motors will draw lots of current while switching the point so will affect the number of locos running at the same time. The diabolical Switchpilot is one of these. 

In short, you already have enough hardware to run an extended layout. Enjoy. 

[Fishmanoz]

John, it is a little easier to switch between locos on Elite than Select for two reasons. First, as you have 2 knobs, all you need to do is press one of them and the loco on that knob is immediately under control. Then when wishing to change the loco being controlled on a knob, after doing so you don't need to return the knob to zero speed before you get control, the knob is immediately at the speed the loco is running at. Elite control knobs operate quite differently to the Select knob.  I prefer them, others like the Select, you won't know until you try an Elite.

But RM is still far superior if you have more than 2 locos going at once. 

[96RAF]

Adding to what Fishy has said with the Elite John you can use the ESC button to scroll through the last 10 locos in use, then punch a knob and take control.

Rob

[RB51]

Thats a useful piece of info - I didn't realise you could so that. R-

[Yelrow]

there you are you see, not all my questions, are silly, john

[96RAF]

Same thing applies to points Rog if you are using the Elite to fire them, but again you have to have selected them first within the session. Then when you shut down the session the volatile memory forgets you had them, bit like me really - now where was I...

[RB51]

Ha-ha, know the feeling. R-

[dale_andrew]

That's brilliant thank you.

[Fishmanoz]

We all aim to please on here.