[montclaire]

I drew up this layout plan in windows paint using a copy/paste of a lionel catalog and wanted to hear some feedback about how it might function. I know it's a rough sketch, but it should be close enough to go by for now.

Obviously it's an L-shaped layout, and we're going for a '50s/60s style' layout here, nothing real fancy and not phenomenally realistic. We're treating this as a toy train setup and not an accurate recreation or anything like that.

As you can see there are two independent rail lines plus a trolley line. To make things easier none of the track will be elevated, but instead I will probably build up some aspects of the platform around the track to give visual interest. The track is laid so that both lines have involvement on each side of the platform. The sidings will be doubled, two per line. I am planning on running two 80w transformers, one for the longer rail line, and one for the short line plus the reversing trolley. The buildings will be lit on a completely different circuit.

The only thing that I am hesitant on is the fact that there is no means of swapping from line to line, and I did that intentionally due to a post on another thread stating that the swtiches do not automatically isolate sections of track when off and I want to maintain independent control of the two lines through the two transformers. If there is an easy way to do this with stock fastrack sections, I will include it and save myself a siding.

What do you think?
Thanks in advance.

 

[T-Man]

There is a book on Fastrack
I do not have any but to isolate a section of track All you do is pull the center pin. With another terminal track, supply power to the new section.

You should be able to follow conventional 3 rail tubular wiring. Found here

My table has one 0, two 027 loops, one Ho and one O trolley on DC. All with different transformers. No connections to each other. On a 8 by 8 space.

 

[montclaire]

Do you regret not connecting them?

 

[T-Man]

I own over 20 engines, the more on the table the better. Simple loops suit me just fine till I expand. If I get tired I can got back and add switches.
The nice feature of the table as compared to a layout is that it is easily changeable. My track is screwed down. I don't worry about derail ments. I first started with a figure 8, then added a pair of switches at one end and added loops from there.

Looks like this . Here I used 6 switches. I tested the anti derail feature on them. This was 027 with 1122 switches.