help on long Island NY

Suffolk - Nassau? Looks like your doing a nice job already....

what specific help,were you looking for?

There are a number of volunteers at the Railroad Museum of Long Island who may be able to help you. We work on the Lionel Visitor center layout now located at our Riverhead location and we can help you. We are closed for the winter but the volunteers get together at the Riverhead site on Tuesdays to work on the layout so I can inform them on what you need and see if anyone will help but I need more info as to where you are located. If you prefer my email is in my profile and you can send me info that way.  If you are available on Tuesdays stop by the Museum and see what we do (9:30am  - 3pm), we are always looking for more volunteers and you will be able to enjoy another area of toy trains.     Lenny

I live in Nassau near Hofstra university. I need help with the wiring of the track, advice on the layout and construction of the mountain scenery. I'm good with wood but not so much with making plaster mountains and foam inclines. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated as I'm trying to get the foundation set for my sons birthday in ten days so he can use it. At this point I'm also willing to use a service if available .

thanks 

Troy

More pics of the layout

Troy-

You're definitely off to a great start. From the pictures it looks like you are using Lionel Fastrack and have the layout designed as two independent loops (presumably to run two trains separately). If so, wiring is very easy; please use this forum post (link here) for reference.

The goal when wiring a large layout is not to run numerous pairs of extension wires back to the transformer posts, as the wiring will quickly become unmanageable. Instead most layouts use bus wires, which are essentially two extension wires from the transformer (one for "hot" and one for "common" or "ground"). Some modelers have the bus wires follow the track plan, while others centrally locate the wires under the layout. Both ways are correct; it boils down to personal preference. I would recommend using either 12 or 14 gauge solid wire for bus lines; the thicker wire size reduces the amount of power lost through resistance. Home Depot and other electrical suppliers sell this wire in 250 or 500 foot spools in different colors, and since color-coding your wires is always a good idea, I would suggest picking up at least two colors (ex: black for ground and red for hot). As an aside, bus wires work great for accessories and track switches too, so it's ok to have multiple bus wires on your layout (the multiple colors of wire help tremendously here).

Once you have the bus wires in place, adding feeder wires to the track is very easy; simply splice a short length of thinner gauge wire (16 gauge works best for this application) from the "hot" bus to the center train rail, and another wire from the "common" bus to either of the two outer track rails. The bus wire does not have to be cut in order to splice wires to it; some modelers opt to solder wires directly to the bus, but I prefer to use suitcase connectors (they're easier and safer to use). Since you are using Lionel's Fastrack, connecting the feeder wire to the track is easy - simply crimp on a 0.187" wide female quick connector to the feeder wire, then connect it to the corresponding metal tabs under the track (middle tabs are hot; outer tabs are ground). If you get any short circuits/overloads, it might indicate a crossed connection between the bus and the track.

There isn't a set formula on how many feeder wires to add to a layout, but in general I add a feeder every 8-10 linear feet of track. If you see any areas where the locomotive slows down (or if a light bulb dims), then likely this area needs an extra feeder wire or two. Fastrack tends to be reliable but over time the electrical connections between tracks tend to weaken, especially if the tracks are connected and disconnected frequently.

Beyond the wiring, I might be able to help with some basic scenery too. You mentioned foam inclines, and judging by your layout I see you have graded track (track on an incline). Woodland Scenics makes an entire product line of precut foam inclines in 2%, 3% and 4% grades (the grade is the change in vertical height over 100 inches of horizontal distance). For real railroads any grade over 2% is a major problem, but for model trains 3-4% is fine; the steeper the incline, the higher the grade.

Although you didn't mention it, noise mitigation is another factor to consider when building a permanent layout. Most modellers try to dampen the noise caused by the trains running on tracks on a solid surface with some kind of padding, which is explained in detail here. The idea is to not have the noise of the trains moving on the layout overpower locomotive sound systems and other ambient noise.

Best of luck - hope this helps!

-John

Troy-

I forgot to add yesterday that if you want to operate two independent loops of track, each loop will get its own power bus. So in the end you will end up with four wires: power and common for the outer loop, and power and common for the inner loop. Each pair will go to either a separate transformer, or a separate throttle (in the case of larger transformers such as the ZW or Z-4000). Note that extra care will be needed if there are any crossovers between the two loops, but I did not see any in the pictures. If you opt to have a crossover, the middle rails of the crossover have to be electrically isolated by removing one of the middle rail track pins; this prevents one loop from inadvertently powering the other.

Feel free to e-mail me at AcelaNYP@verizon.net with more questions.

-John

get any help yet?

It looks like you have the MTH bridge-so two sets of 40-1113 will get you up and down without a lot of scenery work. Then you only have the tunnel to deal with for scenery.

if you get the track to where you can run trains, the two of you could do the scenery together.

On my layout. I have the one TIU and one Z-4000. I don't remember isolated the middle pin.

 And I have the three loops ruing. Each loop has a  Pair of  Switch Track cross over two each track.

 I can run all my Trains over three loops and never had any problems.  I wish I was home so I could verify  what I'm telling you here. I'm away up in New Jersey helping out my son here.

Maybe some else verify what I'm talking about here.

Good luck,John 

John-

The isolated loops would only apply if Troy wishes to operate his layout conventionally; each loop would have its own transformer (or throttle). If you have a remote system and are operating only command-equipped locomotives, the layout would not need to be isolated into independent loops or blocks.

-John

yes, thanks, I thought he know that. If he going run his Trains in convententionally he would have to isolate each loop .I hope that clears things up here.

Thanks, for your correction. John

Wow , thanks for all of the great info. The fun begins Thursday ! I have to tweak the layout a bit and will post updates as I go.

Isn't it still helpful to isolate the loops and even other sections of track in order to aid in diagnosing some problems?