A good place to model...

{I have updated this post and corrected errors as best I could.  New post can be found here: http://jjwtrains.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-good-place-to-model-redone.html

A person from the area has brought to my attention a few minor errors in this post.  Errors are corrected by red lettering. While visiting Minnesota, I came across the small town of Villard, MN.  It has a station, and a large grain complex that was served by the railroad, Soo Line  Burlington Northern to be exact.  Anyway, here is a listing of buildings that were served by the railroad in town:

1. Station depot/ both passenger and freight.
2. Grain elevator/ loading and unloading spots, plus a car spot by the main office.
3. Grain storage building 1/ 3 car spots
4. Grain storage building 2/ 4-5 car spots

And here are some photos to give you a general idea of what the town looks like:

Here is the front of the Depot, with both the freight and the passenger  areas, I am standing on a trail next to the 100 remaining fee of track still in town.

In the fore ground, you can see the track.  The track would probably have continued to the left of the metal grain silos.  A spur track would have gone between the silos and the elevator.

The trail could possibly be on a second set of tracks, making a runaround. From photos, I now know that the station was actually between the runaround tracks.  Therefore, a second set of tracks would have gone behind the depot, and past the elevator.  The tracks continue in the distance to go between Lake Amelia and Lake Villard on a man-made land bridge.

Here is the old feed building, or what's left of it.  This would have been a truck transfer point, as there are doors on either side (one side for trains, the other for trucks).

The elevator was still running in the 60s, although the tracks may have been ripped up.  I say that because there is a scale in place for trucks, and a 1960s-70s truck is in the weeds bearing the name of the Elevator Co-op.

Prior to this Co-op, the elevator was owned by Great Western Elevator Co.

here is the second grain storage building.  If this were supplied by rail and truck, it is likely that the trains had a platform leading to the building as the doors on the other side are too low.

Here is the overall complex

And there is where the trains would go to load/unload cars.

Finally, here is what I think Villard, MN looked like.  Pretty much a generic small town elevator yard.   Maroon:  station, red: feed storage, green: elevator, gray: grain silos, dark gray: a utility building on a spur.  After looking at photos, the runaround went around either side of the depot.  There was no spur leading to utility buildings, and there was no spur going to the elevator, the elevator was serviced on the same track as the runaround which went behind the depot. A new plan will follow shortly.

Part 5.a. DCC on your layout

DCC has changed dramatically through the years, going from a large, bulky, computer program to a sleek, self-contained, unit.  Digital Command Control basically allow multiple locomotives to operate on one track, without the need of complicated wiring.  Basically, DCC is the new thing, and most modelers already have DCC, or know someone who uses DCC.  This article is going over how to add DCC to your layout, and modify your layout and track plan for DCC.

DCC does need several things on a layout:

1. A wiring system that is bulletproof and simple.
2. A programming track that is separate from the layout itself so new locomotives can be programmed inot the existing system.
3. Old block systems need to be turned off, or taken out, as they are not needed when using DCC.
4. Track must be clean for the trains to work well and locomotives need to be maintained well.

So, with those four things in mind, let's design a train layout!

The Basic Plan

Here we will start with a basic plan of my own.  It is a basic plan with basic switching on a 4X8 piece of plywood.  It has a passing siding on one side, and a small industrial center on the other.  This plan is good for DC power, but it needs work for DCC.  So, let's go through the list of requirements.

Step 1, Good Wiring

Any layout needs good wiring, but let's go over what is needed here:  You will need to have feeder wires going to the different tracks (red arrows), powered switches (yellow boxes coming off of switches) if you want them, and places to plug in your throttles which are symbolized by black rectangles.

Here, there are feeder wires on every track, and electric switches on the main line.  Also, there are three plugs for DCC along the edge of the layout, allowing for two to three trains to be running.

Step 2, Programming Track.

A programming track, and separate wiring so that the programming track is in its own block.  We had room on the left, and so the programming track was located there, along with its own plug in.  In operating sessions, this track could be used as a interchange track, a place for cars to come and go. The track has its own feed, and a hidden the plug in.

Step 3 and 4, not shown.

In order for trains to work well, track and block system need to be in good order.  In order for DCC to work well, the block system (if you have one) needs to be turned off or taken out, otherwise a train can go into an area that is turned off, and you will have to dive in to get it.  The track being clean is a given, and it is good practice regardless of  what you use for track power.

There you have it, a simple train layout for DCC.

Part 5, Power and Control

Controlling your trains is something that needs to be examined more closely in this day and age of the hobby.  It used to be that you could have a train run forward and backward, maybe have a whistle and bell.  But now, modelers can choose to have systems that control trains very close to the real thing, and instead of a few features, modern systems can deliver features by the dozen, with lights, bells, horns, whistles, radio chatter, engine droning, exc...

Today, I'll look into several different control systems, DC/AC, walk around control, DCC, DCS and Legacy, and R/C.

DC/AC

DC, or direct current, is the basic power source for all trains except some O scale trains. AC current controls the O scale exceptions.  The idea behind this source of power is to change the amount of current running through the motor, thus controlling speed and direction.  This does give the modeler good control, but at a cost:

• DC or AC, without blocks to separate power districts, only allows for one locomotive to run on the track.
• In most applications, DC or AC control is quite limited for extra features.  Though some sound functions may be activated, it is pretty limited compared to DCC or DCS/ Legacy.
• DC, in most applications, is a stationary control system.  Though walk around throttles are available, they are pretty limited.

DC/AC walk around control

Walk around throttles in DC were more popular back before DCC arrived and became popular.  The idea was to be able to go around your layout (or at least a section of it) and follow your train through a block, before going to another throttle to run the train further.  However, there were a few problems with this:

• If the throttle is unplugged, the train will stop on most systems.
• There is still not very many features on the trains under this system of power.
• Block control becomes mandatory, with each locomotive needing a throttle.  That means that you can have a mess of wiring in this system.

DCC

The DCC revolution has made a huge impact on the hobby.  The idea behind DCC was to have each locomotive have their own address on a computer, then be controlled by the computer, hence the name "Digital Command Control".  There is really no limit to what you can do with DCC, as it is expansible, simple, and easy.  Instead of going through a confusing paragraph, I'll explain through ha list what DCC does in a nutshell:

• DCC has constant current going through the tracks, with electronic signals embedded with the electric current.  
• A locomotive decoder picks up signals meant for only it, therefore the locomotive acts independently from other locomotives, therefore there is no block system needed.
• DCC can support sound, light, and engine functions, therefore allowing a locomotive to behave like the real thing.
• DCC can support more than one operator, with easy wiring, only needing a "bus" system to operate.

DCC however is quite expensive, so it is important to think about what you want in a system.  I suggest, if you have a small layout that you operate by yourself, to not go with DCC.  But, for literally everyone else, DCC is a great option because of what it can do.

DCS and Legacy

DCS by MTH Electric Trains and Legacy by Lionel are the two big systems for O scale and S scale trains that operate similarly to DCC.  You can choose which one you want, but I suggest testing each one, because even though they do the same things, MTH and Lionel are different in how you run the trains and program them.

Remote Control R/C

This idea has been in the hobby fro many years, but it hasn't been until recently that smaller scales down to S scale were able to have their power off of R/C.  There are two kinds of R/C, battery powered and track powered. Battery power is popular with garden railroaders because it eliminates all wiring out side that would be needed for track.  Track powered remote control is good for indoors as bulky batteries are not needed, so that eliminates plenty of problems.

Now the point of this article was not to go into great detail of each kind of power source (that would take several days) but to simply explain what's out there.  If something caught your eye, a simple Google search will reveal all the information you need to know. 

Any wiring diagrams will be presented in the Track Laying and Wiring section to come later.  However, an article might be needed to further the explanation.