Відео

Mike, you're a lifesaver! This video saved hours of frustration. Thanks for the post.

My thinking/wondering; would someone be able to use two different/separate controllers? One for one side of track and another controller for the other side of the track, since its isolated in the middle of the cross over track, so to control the trains differently if not using DCC? and remembering to keep polarity correct or would that cause a short when train engine crosses the two power supplies at isolation point? That would be so cool if possible. Would that thinking work?

I don't understand what you mean by insulating the turn out tracks because while the black joiners are insulated, the rails would connect and possibly cause issues. Do you have a way to provent the track making a connection with say paint on insulation on the ends of the track? Or, can you get a short plastic rail as an insert?

I'm new to this hobby. My dad had a train for years and I would watch him work on it. I'm sure I got into programming as a result of watching him. Plus I read Hackers by Steven Levy when I was in high school and I knew what I wanted to do with my life. Dad was an engineer and machinist, so I know it rubbed off on me. Anyway, he collected HO and I just don't have room for a compelling HO layout. I have recently started on N Scale and I love these little trains! The detail is sometimes better than HO scale! Okay, my question is this - when trying to identify track could you just use an ohm meter and check for continuity? Since one rail holds positive and the other rail holds negative (in an analog layout) there shouldn't be continuity between the rails, so if the rail isn't energized (IMPORTANT!!) you should be able to check continuity right? I suppose if you are trying to check across a 30 foot layout it might be a challenge finding leads for my Fluke that long ;) , but theoretically it should be possible right? In a simple oval it's not such a problem and can be easily visualized, but when you have sidings and inner tracks (like my pops had) it could be more challenging to visualize it.

WoW!! I was 'coupler confused' however thanks to your excellent video & description....I am happily educated!!

I was hoping to see you doing the wash of the Black.

thank you so much that was next delima in my set up I've just started

Nice

Hi Mike, how are you? Great video. I would like to ask if you have had problems with the couplings of BLI locomotives and Kato freight cars. That combination has not worked for me, and every time the locomotive reaches a curve, the car that is coupled to it derails... Do you know how to change this??? Can you suggest me some hook?

super informative for a new n scale guy like me!

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Good ideas never go out of style. Its been 6 years since you posted this. It is still the good information that I was looking for. Now to mount my recessed push - pull controls.

Thanks Mike Great informative video!

Mike, great video…I have a question though and that is: how to you handle a Crossover Switch for feeders and insulation?

MRC's direction sheet show the yellow wires connected to the rails inside the loop, and the red wires to the track bus - the opposite of your video.

Thank you very much. Just what I needed!

And this should work if you want to run o gauge conventional locomotives or something like lionel legacy?

If there are no gaps, you can connect the power 186000 miles away, and it will make no difference

I had a friend who used to use Goo Gone, but theres two drawbacks to that: sometimes when handling the Goo Gone, if it gets on the fingers. It will find its way onto the sides of your rolling stock, and it will mar the paint. Second issue, it can melt the little "spike heads" on the track, and eventually destroy the track, or at least, cause the rails to go out of gage. I used to use Testor's airbrush thinner on a piece of napkin.

Good video. I did not know there are multiple options.

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Very interesting and informative. I'm looking to do something similar for my HO scale Unitrack turnouts, and just wanted to clarify that one should file behind where the mark was made on the point's end.

Does anyone know if these feeders will successfully feed power to a kato double crossover for the second loop?

You are a genius Mike Fifer!

The box is the valve box to load and unload the car. I unloaded and loaded many of these cars over the years. So I had to buy some of these.

Great tip on using powdered graphite in turnouts. Powdered graphite also works wonders on rolling stock wheelsets. Remove the wheels, rub some on the tips/hubs of the wheels and replace them. You'll be amazed at how much easier/faster the cars roll over the track. It makes a very noticable difference in how many cars your loco's will pull, especially up a grade.

Thanks, useful tips. I use an old suede shoe brass wire brush.

Thankyou Mike....my wife is an expert in digital ❤💥🩵🧩♾️💍♾️ thankyou bubbie 💙🔥🔥❤️ Robbie

This is a slight apple and orange comparison. The wire joiners are good for people with permanent set ups. The small section feeder tracks are for people who are setting up on things like dining room tables where drilling holes is not really an option. Each has its use.

Great idea

I like this tar paper material method more than the spackle and sand it smooth method. Looks nice and less messy also faster results. I have yet to try either method but I’m looking forward to making roads for my future layout.

Thank you for the video.

Thanks for all your help. One question nobody seems to answer in all the feeder wire videos is, What guage wire is sufficient for N scale?

AWSOME, as good today as the day it was published! I have a well established DC layout. This will let me ease into DCC instead of a giant leap.

Mike. Just saw this video. THANK YOU for great information 🙏

Thanks for all the help on youtube. When you say sandpaper. What grit is safe for N scale track?

Great information and also enjoyable to watch. (First time Watcher here) I am getting ready soon to install the buss wire and feeders to a fairly large home HO layout with about 400 feet of main line projected. The full main line is not installed yet, (about 250 feet installed so far) and I would like to get some scenery in where the track is installed and doing the wiring now is a lot easier before scenery goes in. * My main concern with the buss wiring on my mountain layout was can my low elevation river line and the high elevation mountain high line share the same buss wire. The river line and high line basically run side by side only at much different heights, (They're about 15" to 20" in height separation). It looks like they can share the same buss as long the polarity on the feeders is correctly wired to the rails. Otherwise, I would have to run two buss wires side by side to the same location on the bench work (one for the river line and one for the high line) and that seems like a waste of wire. Any advice is welcome and thanks for doing the video and sharing the information. Phil Jersey Shore Area

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I don't know if you still make videos, but I have a question about AR units. I watched your video on them, but I am not sure about a Figure 8 layout..which I have. Here's my question: do I need an AR unit for both ends of the "8"??

Thank you mike

Very simple and informative. This video is by far the easiest to follow for wiring a DCC layout!

Dear mike can we do this loop with kato ho scale unitrack

Originally I built a control panel for two cabs as designed by Lynn Westcott. I believe i can connect the NCE power cab to the second cab and then throw the mini spdtco toggles when I want to use DCC. The DC throttle would be turned off in this situation and turnouts powered by a separate different power supply. I hope this is okay and I don’t have to run a whole new separate bus wire.

Great video! But all in all, I solved my problems by cutting and insulating the outer rails at each half, parallel to the frogs. The cons are that I need more feed tracks. I'm with DC only locos, and my current research/project is an auto-reverse loop with sensors. Thaks for your tips

Mike thanks for the video, I had dc back in the 70’s I started dc n gauge back up. My question is I have a reversing loop with toggle switches, I want to make it a auto reversing loop with the digitrac ar1, can I leave my toggle switches in place, and still use the ar1 for the Dcc engines? I want to switch between dc and Dcc the way you did in this video, but I’m not sure about the toggles switches how that will effect dcc, thanks

Thanks Mike answers many more questions than the Kato video. Pretty exciting that it is simple and self contained.

Very informative.

If you have a NCE 5 amp system there is program track terminals

Looks like he's running his railroad crossing gates on an ho scale the way his train cars and the track itself looks.

I knew it this thank you