Hi all!

[toml_12953]

I'm a retired IT consultant who played with my Dad's train set in the late '50s and early '60s. I recently got the bug again and bought several post-war sets and a LionChief Plus 2.0 Polar Express set from Lionel. Other than the original oval that cam with sets, I wasn't able to figure out what I'd need to expand my layout. I found AnyRail and several other layout aids and tried them. AnyRail is the only one I kept and bought (50 pieces is used up quickly!) I've included an AnyRail file with my current layout. If anyone has suggestions, I'm certainly willing to listen! (suggestions to give up on trains and take up stamp collecting will be ignored)

[magnus]

Welcome!
Nice start, but I'm afraid it will be a bit boring pretty quickly - round and round. Add some side tracks where you can park cars. Maybe a yard.  Will you have a station? If so where do passengers go? What about freight cars, where are they going? What are the destinations? Where do trains come from and where do they go, and why? No train is just going round and round. Try to tell a story about your layout, what is going on? That will add more ideas to your layout.

There is plenty of tutorials online. A nice one, which uses AnyRail, and is going through the entire process is here

Check the first video in that series and see the story he is telling about what's going on and then how the layout follows from that. It will be much more interesting and fun, and potential for multi user operations.

Are you running DC or DCC?

Note that you have two reverse loops, so read up on that.

Good Luck with your layout and feel free to post questions and your layout here on the forum for feedback!

[toml_12953]

Welcome!
Nice start, but I'm afraid it will be a bit boring pretty quickly - round and round. Add some side tracks where you can park cars. Maybe a yard.  Will you have a station? If so where do passengers go? What about freight cars, where are they going? What are the destinations? Where do trains come from and where do they go, and why? No train is just going round and round. Try to tell a story about your layout, what is going on? That will add more ideas to your layout.


Are you running DC or DCC?

Note that you have two reverse loops, so read up on that.

Good Luck with your layout and feel free to post questions and your layout here on the forum for feedback!

Thanks! I'm always glad to get tips from experts (anyone who has more experience than I do!) I have a Legacy Control system running my TMCC Polar Express LionChief Plus 2.0 engine. So far, I haven't been able to make the engine do anything even though I have the 180W PowerMaster and PowerMaster Bridge connected properly (I think) The red light on the bridge flashes when I select ENG and press buttons and the red light on the PowerMaster flashes when I select TRN and press buttons but the engine just sits there. I was able to use the train when I just had the Legacy controller hooked to my GW-180. I could control the train from the Legacy CAB-2 just fine.

[magnus]

the red light on the PowerMaster flashes when I select TRN and press buttons but the engine just sits there

I'm not sure what is wrong, so I'm just guessing here. Red light flashing sounds like a short circuit. Could be related to your reverse loops. Break those and see if it works by removing the crossing track in the picture below. The reverse loop short circuits the track and modern controller detects that and shuts down. Some people avoid reverse loops for this reason, others get special equipment to handle the switching of powers when trains enter them.


Note that there are other forums which might be better for non-layout issues like DCC problems. Here are two that are pretty active:
https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/forum/5
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/default.aspx

Also, there are several great resources focussed on DCC only including these:
https://dccwiki.com/
http://www.wiringfordcc.com/

[toml_12953]

Thanks for taking time to answer this noob's questions! I figured out what was wrong with my PowerMaster setup. It was me (surprise, surprise!) The instructions say to press Boost to turn on the track. I was pressing the switch straight down. In order to start the track, you have to press the switch and rotate it toward Boost! My bad.

A note about the flickering red lights on the PM and Bridge. Those are COMM lights and flicker when either the PM  or the Bridge is receiving data. In other words, it's normal for them to flash when you're controlling the track or engine. Whew! I was starting to think either my PM or Bridge was broken!

Thanks again, everyone! I'm sure I'll have more questions in the future. Oh, wait - I can think of one right now! What's the problem with reverse loops?

[magnus]

I'm glad you figured out the problem. There will be many small problems like this as you climb the knowledge ladder.

Reverse loops is when one side of the track is connected (short circuited) to the other side and the loco would potentially get both signals on the same rail. Bad situation; you could destroy decoders with this. Fortunately modern controllers shut down before that happens.

Look at your layout: follow the top line's outside rail to the right, around the curve, and then back using the diagonal cross, you see that the outside rail now has become the inside rail, thus they are connected.

Luckily AnyRail will detect these loops for you if you turn on to check for them on the Show tab, see pic.


You could avoid reverse loops, but as you have found out, they make the layout more interesting and will also allow you to turn locomotives around. So there are special equipment to handle them; I use this in my layout. I'm sure you have something similar.

There is a lot more to learn about this, see for example
http://www.wiringfordcc.com/intro2dcc.htm#a26
https://dccwiki.com/Reverse_Sections