Alot to go on

Some good progress has been made sense my last post.

I decided to make the full switch to DCC and couldn't be more happy with it. Also picked up another decoder yesterday and got that installed this morning. The only other decoder i have has sound, and i must say that the one with sound is far more interesting to watch and use. The other nice thing is you know ware its at. The other locomotive is almost silent moving around the layout.  My goal however is to have one locomotive in each consist with sound.  Running the trains this morning with dcc was much more easy then before with dc. I could actually watch them and have time to enjoy it before trying to rush and throw a reversing switch.  The slower realistic speeds producced are a great improvement too. i can not wait to get my mainline down!

I found this idea In digitrax's how to area. I know i will need some place to put the dcc components so i figured this might be the best way. everything will be installed on the side you see so i wont have to work under the benches or upside down. leaving slack in the wires and not pinching them might be a little bit of a trick but i don't think it will be to much trouble. This will fold all the way around under the bench work.

I didn't want to take up space on the board i made for the dcc components so i am placing the command station and power directly off to the side.  My power supplies are formally Bachmann transformers. (17 VDC 20 VAC) These have been kicking around for a while. These where bought in boxes of train stuff at garage sales over the years, for me when i was a kit by my family members. I actually have a couple of the old metal box ones too. 

I ran 14g wire from the transformer to the command center.

I didn't have any fancy wire ends around and all of the 14g wire didn't want to fit under the screw terminal on the transformer. So i made my own out of the end of a Cord I had "saved for something". First I cut the bottom side of the loops open and then cut them free from the cord. then solider my wires to them. Oddly enough they fit perfectly.