OO Controllers

[MandrakeMan]

I have two controllers currently, neither are great. First is the awful plastic Hornby R8250 that came with the GWR tank branch Western Whatsit set. This controller drives me nuts, as if one of the - soon to be fitted to boards - tracks should come slightly apart, or sometimes for completely unseen reasons, it trips, regularly, and I have to go to the wall plug, switch it off, wait 30 seconds and switch it back on. Hornby should be ashamed of making this controller!

The second is an old Triang P4-5 silver metal boxed thing, which I love, as it has a trip button to reset, and you can just turn dial in each direction to send train your desired way, unlike to awful Hornby, where you need to stop the train, switch a switch that doesn't always want to be switched and turn dial again. There is a problem though, as I think it may now have started putting out too much juice, as a couple of my locos in the last week have slowed after being ran full on this controller, making me think that it's burning out their motors - does anyone have experience of this happening?

The actual question I have is... I would love a nice, well built, modern, safe unit, to power at least 2 lines, ideally 3 or 4, but one that has a reset handy, and won't send me scrambling under the shelves to the wall plug sockets to reset it if it should trip. Would you have any recommendations for the best controllers out there, with-in a reasonable budget. I'd like to hear all options though. If there is already a thread or article which covers this, please point me there, but personal experience would be appreciated. I'm in London, England, if it's relevant to getting hold of said controller.

Thanks

p.s. the layout is in the layouts section of the forum, it's two loops, one with extension loop at one end, the inner loop has a small siding set. Not super complex.

[Nick the Cabin Boy]

@MandrakeMan,

I don't know where you are, but have a look at Gaugemaster controllers. I have two, the UDS and the 100, and they have never given me any trouble. For most configurations, you can choose self-contained or panel-mounted with separate transformer. The layout (now dismantled) was a simple double track oval (the UDS handled that), and a set of sidings which could be shunted seperately (100). The switching also allowed me to enter/leave the sidings on the UDS.

https://www.gaugemasterretail.com/magento/model-railways/gaugemaster-controls-brand5.html will get you started!

Cheers,

Nick the Nomad

[MandrakeMan]

Hi Nick,
Thanks for your reply, appreciated.
I am thinking of going for a more expensive controller, as the Hornby cheap jobs are appalling, and the Bachmann are half the price of a decent controller just for a one loop controller.

Anyone have any experience with HM2000 controllers? Looks like best of the available others, than Gaugemaster.
Thanks

[Nick the Cabin Boy]

Hi MandrakeMan,

I just did a quick Google search and came up with this, which may be worth looking at.

https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/forum/hm2000-controller-your-opinions-please/?p=1


More expensive is not necessarily better, I have found.  I did a fair amount of research myself before settling on the Gaugemaster ones, including looking at DCC. I bought one from Hattons, and one direct from Gaugemaster (because Hattons didn't stock it), but back in 2013, so not sure which was which now. But one sign of their reliability is that they are still available (as are the HM2000s).

Another thing I have just remembered: I changed all the knobs so that the position was more obvious - the originals only had a small white dot which rubbed off easily. The new ones were about $2 Oz at my friendly local electronics hobby store.

Hope this helps,

Nick the (Sedentary) Nomad
Geelong, Victoria, Australia

[MandrakeMan]

Again Nick, I really appreciate you taking the time to reply.

Yes, I am torn between the HM2000 and a Gaugemaster, as best option twin controllers. There is no bad press about Gaugemaster that I've seen, and most "serious" modellers seem to have gone for those. The one thing swing the HM2000 way, is the plastic case, as my 3 year old son loves to control the loops with me, and somehow, the metal cases of the Gaugemaster make me a little nervous. I'd prefer if both options had separate power units, at the wall, so there wasn't mains voltage sat in the unit that my son would be controlling, but a plastic option, at least wouldn't conduct, if a wire should ever work itself loose?

I'm probably over thinking things, but could do with piece of mind, on what is a fun project for us both. I'm just waiting on the arrival of some new Peco points to replace the crap Hornby ones I have, and then we can get fixing the layout to the ply which I bought this week. We're both quite excited!
Best
Chris (London)

[Nick the Cabin Boy]

Hi Chris,

No problems with the replying - not much else happening in this current situation!

Before I had the Gaugemaster UDS, I had the two controllers that came with the Bachmann sets. They had a wall power pack each, so I used one for each "track" of the UDS. Later I bought a 6Amp transformer to cover the three controllers with enough left over for the point solenoids to get a hefty thump without affecting the tracks.

Here is what I suggest for your situation, if you want to use Gaugemaster controller(s):

Buy the panel-mounted versions of what you decide.

If you have a Bachmann controller with wall transformer, use that transformer. Otherwise, head down to your local Radio Shack, Jaycar or whatever electronics hobby store you have, and buy a wall transformer that outputs 16VAC at whatever you think you would need to run your most power-hungry locos, and add 1-2 amps (for the solenoids). Take your controller with you, and find a plastic box to suit. With any luck, they will have one that is an exact fit, otherwise you will have to adapt the faceplate to accommodate the controller. Then join it all together. Now, at the box you have only 16V, which won't even stand up the hair on the back of your hand.

Hope that all makes sense, bit early in the morning to be thinking this hard!!

Cheers
Nick the Ex-Nomad
Geelong
Formerly of Cheam, Surrey


Nick

[RhB_HJ]

Back when ... I was so unimpressed by commercial stuff in a reasonable price range, that I decided to build my own, remembering how in grade 4 we had a school project to handwind a transformer from scratch. It was a great advantage back in the 50s to have a teacher who was into model railroading and thinking outside the box.
There are any number of build topics on the subject to be found on the Net.

PS eventually we also had those "throttles" for sale.