Model Railway Forum

If it’s DCC you might want the loco to sit in the siding with sound active so it will need power.

If you are using DC, i'd consider fully isolating each lane of the yard from the points, and powering it independently from a set of switches.

you might also consider splitting the lanes in two so you can have two shorter trains in one lane.

Don't rely on turnouts to shunt power even to the active route. They might start out doing that but over time they begin to fail. My layout is almost a year old now and I've had four turnouts give up on me now. It's easy enough to fix but irritating to discover these things when you're operating the layout.

On the same subject don't trust fishplates either. When I built my layout I put droppers in 'quite a few places' but have had to add a few more over the months.

For my next layout every individual piece of track is going to have a dropper. Soldering really isn't difficult once you've found a good technique and done it a few times.

My old loft layout was pretty large and only had one power feed to each circuit and dozens of points, never had a problem. My latest layout has power to each piece of track.

andruec wrote: ↑Sat Dec 18, 2021 4:07 pm When I built my layout I put droppers in 'quite a few places' but have had to add a few more over the months.

I've yet to successfully and easily solder to the rails on my various setups. I either apply too much heat and melt the plastic chairs and sleepers or not enough to melt the solder to get it to flow correctly.

I stick to purchased track joiners with the power leads attached from Peco and others. It does work out expensive, but they work for me and that is the important bit!

I wouldn’t recommend powered track joiners but if they work for you then use them. We all have different ways of doing things but if the end result is successful who’s to say you are right or wrong.

I know they're not ideal, but they're the best solution I've managed to come up with that works for me.

Ref your soldering to rails problem, what type of track do you use?

I've old Series 4 on one layout, steel. (Hence the problem there.)

I've also System 6/Peco Nickel set-track for the other main layout.

Yes steel can be a sod to solder. Nickel shouldn’t be a problem though.