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techhobbies

  1. Running two trains at the same time

    I finally got there. Two trains running together and not requiring any user intervention. The outer loop was easy, but the inner loop is two independent reverse loops tied together. To make this work without my activating turnouts, I used the DCCConcepts LM-iD to sense when a train is getting close to the turnout, which then toggles the Cobalt IP Digital which is the turnout point motor. This was the magic sauce. It works great too, and didn't take too long to wire up.

    I got the idea ...
  2. Lots of changes

    So, before the holidays, I took a lot of time to reconsider the layout. I was having a lot of trouble running trains and for the space, it felt very complicated. It's 4x8, but there were lots of ways for trains to go. I found it was hard to enjoy. So, I stepped back, redesigned it a bit, and ended up ripping up a lot of track and scenery. I'm still doing a LOT of work on scenery, and haven't gotten the reversing loops tested yet. But the outer loop works great now. I felt so good about it, I staged ...