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Not sure if this is the right sub-forum but I am starting on a project to scratch build a turntable with optical sensing to stop the rotation. I will be using a 12" beer tray and an HO 85' ME deck girder bridge (with a little bashing) for the top part. Drive wheel, drive mechanics & motor...

Like many newbies working on track planning and looking at available turnouts I wondered why I couldn't find one that would let you branch off of a curve with a straight track. After my success building a "pointless" or gantlet turnout I thought I would try making one. It has a 28" curve with...

Not sure what type of tree these come from but we have a big one in our backyard. Drops these all over the ground. The ones on the left have been spray painted green. Might do a Christmas Tree Farm on my hill:-D

I was hesitant to change to handlaid double crossovers due to the wiring problems associated with having solid frogs. After running the Walthers ones for awhile I have noticed that they still short out when the wheels cross the frogs. I am planning on detecting the current on the approach...

After MANY versions I finally made linkage that works to control all four sets of points with a single Tortoise. The solution was to use a stiff push/pull rod connected directly to the Tortoise drive. I used a piece of NS rail with copper plated "wire feed welding wire" for the connections...

This may be a stupid question but I am new to railroading - model & proto. This car is sitting on a "tunnel spur" in the hills west of Portland Oregon. It was connected to the front of a loco. Looks like water pipe connections but I have never seen a water tank this shape. Seems to me if...

I hate mechanical switches. I hate spending money. I wanted an low cost method to control tortoise switch machines and to do "route control" to set multiple switches to predetermined routes while still being able to do individual switching. The solution for me is CMOS NAND gates and LM556...

I will be having a center passenger terminal with track on both sides. I understand that to look besty the platform should be very close to the side of the passenger car and this can cause problems with running freight cars on the same line. Should I? 1) Don't worry about getting the...

I received a lot of input on starting smaller and simpler. I really wanted multiple round-trip loops and large radius for my passenger train that could be combined into one and they all came out BIG. At first I was worried about having a lift up section and I didn't want a duck-under. The...

Following the "Track Planing" recommendations I made a simplified drawing of my layout (both below) to locate track that had to be isolated for reversing loops. I recommend this activity for others as, after looking at the simple version, I was able to eliminate a few switches and some parallel...

I have planned a trestle with separate tracks in both directions. I have seen pictures of railroads doubling up tracks without having any switching or ability to change tracks for a narrower bridge. I think it would really look great to have a bridge track like this. So... Can you buy the...

Well I have been playing with the design software enough to learn that switching turnout locations or moving one a little bit one way or the other can make a big difference in layout operation and avoid problem areas, s-curves, etc. My goal is to use my two hidden loops in either one large...

I am planning on having a crossover with a reversing loop on one side. The other side of the crossover connects to a dual track with a duplicated at the other end. The dual track will always stay connected to the A & B outputs of the DCC as shown with the B output connected to the 12v DC...

Wow, did I get some great advice on my layout plans from The Gauge.. Although many said "start small" that is difficult with my passenger train - so.. Based in the input and my needs my current plan is to start large but simple. Full size layout with two hidden reversing loops but just the...

I am planning at least a 30" radius curves with two full loops out into the room ("G" style). I am going to be running full size passenger cars so having a large radius is very important. If I use 4" of clearance from track center to edge this results in 68" wide loops. I would like to have...

I want to have an automatic turnout & polarity switching of two hidden reversing loops. I don't care which direction the train goes when it enters the loop. The layout will use DCC. I know there are some commercial items for this purpose but they seem complicated, expensive, require more...

I think this should be close to the final layout. Thanks to all of the helpful suggestions on The-Gauge I think I have avoided most major mistakes but would like to get further comments to help avoid at least some of the minor ones. 50 years ago my wife took a trip (alone at nine years old -...

Anybody have some experience in this area? My current plan has some passing lanes where I might want to drop or park some passenger cars. Does this area need to be dead level so the cars won't roll to the main line? I was thinking about 1/2% to 1%. I think I can do what I want without it...

Work is progressing on the layout design but the latest version needs an access port (infrequent I hope) in the center of the 8' x 8' "turnaround loop" area at end. I was thinking about having a lake that drops down on a hinge. Is this a reasonable way to hide an access port? Are there...

I certainly assume there needs to be a smooth transistion from flat track to a grade. If you use a single radius transistion what is a reasonable radius for reliable operation? For a realistic operation? Does this radius change depending on the grade? Is it necessary to "ease" (larger...