In the beginning, I wired the layout the old-fashioned way with
stationary controls and control panels where you watched the
train go by. I had electrically controlled turnouts so we didn't
have to walk back and forth between the turnouts and the
panels. Well, this called for miles and miles and miles of elec-
trical wire. The underside of my layout looks like a bowl full of
spaghetti.
Eventually I found a fella that had a walk-around control. It
wasn't command control; you still had to have blocks. I had 31
blocks with 4 cabs so I'd get a few guys up here to operate the
layout and it was always "Who's got my block?" or "Can you
get out of that block so I can move in there?" It worked but it
wasn't all that great.
Then we got command control and I went with Digitrax. It
worked fine. I had a good experience with Digitrax. However
it wasn't very intuitive, it was difficult to use and especially to
show others how to use it. I kept forgetting how to program
configuration variables and it was frustrating.
I recently switched over to NCE which is much more intuitive.
It basically asks you a question if you want to do something
and you follow a menu to do it. I'm very happy with NCE. The
blocks are still there, I just switched everything over to Cab D.
If needed I can turn off a block and look for a short circuit or
isolate a problem. So the blocks are still handy. The layout
is also sectioned with circuit breakers so if one section goes
down, the rest of the layout can still be operated.
I don't rely on rail joiners for connectivity. Every individual
piece of flex track is wired to the bus by feeder wires with the
exception of some stub-end sidings where I park locos. There
I used power-routing turnouts. However, over the years I've
found that the points don't make solid contact thus increasing
Jim Ferguson’s GN - 1
MRH-Oct 2013
