10 Years Have Got Behind You...

... or more like 25 since I last did any serious railway modelling. Leafing through the latest copy of Railway Modeller I realised things have moved on considerably in the intervening years. Back then it seemed little changed year on year; new models were introduced, of course, but I recall the biggest change was the introduction of Z gauge back in 1972 (crikey!).

Here are two 'Things I Didn't Know I Needed To Worry About'.

Track Record
No problem here, surely. I've plenty of track to make the most ambitious layout in the space I have available (or will have - see previous post). That was before I watched a careful explanation on YouTube by ngaugeuk why the track I have (99% Peco Code 80) is as prototypically accurate as Brio. The sleeper and rail heights are the main problem. With Code 80 track at 2mm scale the scale height of each is about 30cms which is much too high.

Peco Finescale Code 55 is the answer then? Well, not quite. Apparently, as with Code 80, the sleepers are too close together. I've measured them and it's true, they are, but I can live with that and the towering rail and sleeper heights of Code 80 too.

Zeroes and Ones
Ooh, this is a good one! Back in the 20th century if you wanted to make a model locomotive move, you'd connect a wire from a controller to each rail and turn the knob. To make it go t'other way just turn the knob the other way (or flick a switch). Then came Digital Command Control (DCC).

By fitting decoders into each locomotive you can control them individually, even if they're on the same stretch of track. This makes double-heading practical and means the sectioning and wiring that was mandatory when modelling MPDs is no longer required.

The drawback is that all the locos I possess were produced before DCC became a commercial reality. I doubt that any are even 'DCC ready'; when they were purchased it was the era when VCRs were still considered cutting edge technology. Whilst it may be that I can retrofit a DCC encoder into some I doubt that it will be possible for all of them.

So, decision made - stick with conventional control? Not necessarily. There are two ways round this. Firstly, DCC is able to control a single non-DCC loco using address 0; this is not ideal as you can only run one loco like this. Secondly, the layout can be wired to accommodate both types of control - DCC locos will happily run under analogue control. Actually, in the tradition of Monty Python, there is a third option which is to buy new DCC locos, and I will need new rolling stock.

Only Time Will Tell
At present both trackwork and train control are a little way in the future. The next major challenge is building a baseboard, and there are a myriad different ways of doing that, including paying someone else to do it for you. I, however, shall apply my O-level woodwork skills and build my own.