Hello OGR. After about a year of reading your posts and lurking your threads and posting only once or twice, I'm finally starting my own thread, and it's in my favorite forum, the layout building forum. I'm a 26 year old Penn State grad who never grew up with an electric train but has lived blocks from the Downingtown station on the Pennsy main my whole life. I still to this day have my wooden trains that I started collecting before I was born though, and have always liked trains but they fell behind girls and sports and school and many other things along the way. The train bug really started to bite about two or so years ago on a trip over the abandoned PRR Trestle Bridge in Downingtown. I've been on it before but this time after biking through the deep cuts in the hill approaching this massive span, the questions started to come out and I began to do internet research on the P&T branch, then the PRR and it snowballed into all things trains, especially O gauge and now I'm here.
I've convinced my family that the only thing I want for Christmas this year is the Lionchief Plus PRR RS-3, and I've negotiated a 52x80 space in the smaller living room on the first floor for my "temporary Christmas layout". I'm using 2'' green Lowes foam board as a base, with a little added on one end, and SuperSnap/ShadowRail track that I've gotten from semi-local Nicholas Smith Trains (THANKS!) for what I feel like have been good deals including six 031 supersnap switches. The foam will lay on a solid wood table with leaves so I don't have to worry about benchwork. Eventually it will have green felt for a finished look. Like i said, I've done alot of lurking/research on this forum, so I've got a pretty good idea of what I'm doing, though it is all new to me. Just this week I've gotten started, I extended my foam 4' from 48' to 52', and have started piecing together my track, with my first attempt cut pieces working perfect for me tonight. The reason that I am adding the extra inches is because my layout is displacing the area where the TV sits, so it is going to be between the two parallel rear tracks, and I'm planning extra clearance to be safe cause I really don't know what I need. I'm thinking of using some extra foam to create a grade (and maybe some tunnel portals) on the rear track behind the screen. Pics show how far I've gotten, I'm working in my garage until after Thanksgiving. I have a refurbished KW for track and separate switch power, but I still need to order my TVS diode and (5 or 7???) amp breakers and everything else for my wiring. I'll attach pics of the track plan and SCARM file for you to have fun with.
As far as rolling stock I have been acquiring a few pieces along the way from a few forum members (THANKS to GunRunnerJohn who I met at his house), and also at the Allentown meet this weekend which I attended by myself on a last minute whim with almost no money in my pocket. I've been working the last two nights on this and typing away my sleep right now so I think i'll leave it at that for now, but I plan to drop back regularly with updates and questions, because I know I'll be making some classic rookie mistakes along the way. Feel free to drop in with comments of advice.
-David Walton
-DWbaseball
Also, Is there a way to wire my switch pairs to operate on one controller?