Now, to do this right, you would still need a panelboard that at least gives you a lighted location and status of turnouts and blocks-especially those out of sight!  You still also need some toggle switches-there is no way  I am going to totally rely on high-speed circuit breakers to ensure the block is dead.


      Why all these complications? If you read previous posts you will see that this is a 'starter' who has so far just built a 3x8 table.
      All he will need for some tims is a Bach EZ-Command set.
      By the way, he hasn't said what scale he is going to use. The smaller On30 stosk will fit just as well as HO. I have a portable layout which uses Peco Setrack turouts and Radius 1 curves and can run the Bach On30 Mogul and the BLI C-16.

       Eric UK

 
    Harold Minky's site has a diagram for cutting a 4x8 to fit into a corner and a layout plan to fit. Ends up around 9ft.plus in length if you remove part of the outer 'point'.

    Eric UK

   Try a Loksound Micro--they do a Galloping Goose and come complete with speaker and enclosure. With Soundtraxx these are extra. Think Tony's Trains stock them.

    Eric UK

      Jonathan,

    Question wasn't "best"but "best selling"i.e. most sold--see subject.

     Eric UK

    Gene,

    After curving the track,the outside rail will always be short whichever side you put the flexible and the inner rail will need cutting to match. All switching will do is give you different appearance of ties between sections.

    Eric UK

    I believe that most "dual-mode"decoders come with this switched"ON". This means that the loco will work on both DC and DCC out of the box.
    There is no need to do anything when changing to DCC. However you can switch the dual-code working "OFF", which will disable the ability to work on DC. Some people say that locos run better on DCC this way. Personally I don't bother.

    Eric UK

      To sum up:-

     Bachmann is a Chinese owned company.

     The offices in Philadelphia are those of Bachmann US

     The offices of Bachmann UK ("makers" of the Branchline range)are in England.

      Not sure where the offices of Bachmann Europe are sited; probably also in England seeing that Bach UK bought out some of the failing European makers along with the Graham Farish N gauge range.

      Eric UK

     Bob,

        A thought just occurred to me.
       Do you  have a track on the 'back side' of the table i.e. before the 90degree point ? If so can you move the loco onto this track ? If you can the trouble IS with the table reversing mechanism.

     Eric UK

     Bob,

        Is this an auto-reversing table ? Sounds as if the reversing is no longer working which would result in a short as soon as the loco bridges the gap between table and lead track .
        On an auto reverse there is a point in the rotation where the table has no power - this accounts for the momentary loss of sound. You get the same when loco hits a patch of dirty track  and  loco is not picking up power on all drivers ( sound decoders are more sensitive ). I have an On30 Mogul which I have converted to a 2-6-2 ST( with sound ) and needs looking at as regards pickups.

     Eric UK

    EK

    Go to http://www.photofiltre.com/       Download their free Photo Filtre V6 and see what you can do with it.

      Tower Models website now has a couple of photos of the pulpwood cars and the log load --looks good.

       Eric UK

     Scott,

   The 'smooshing' may have broken the wire inside the insulation and your jiggle has pushed the ends together.  Vibration or a coupleof knocks could make them pull apart again. If there is any slack in the wire I would cut the squashed part,trim back the insulation and solder the ends together,covering the join with 'shrink'tubing. Don't forget to slide the shrink on to one end before you solder. Have done so myself before now when connecting lights to a DCC decoder. LOL

    Eric UK

     Tower Models in the UK have received some of the unlettered version of a new Bachmann On30 Pulpwood Car. Have not seen any mention of these here or elsewhere in the US.

    Eric UK