Model Rail Layout

[Shawnna Franz]

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Track planning is, for most, an essential aspect of model railroading. The best place to begin your layout is the drafting desk. Sketching out plans for your layout, however roughly or precisely you are capable, will make the process of building your layout much easier and more enjoyable. In layout planning, one must consider track design, scenery composition, and structure placement, among other factors.

In days past, one could simply go to the local hobby store and find a myriad of model train sets, locomotives, and anything else needed for a layout. Unfortunately, hobby stores are becoming increasingly difficult to find. Luckily, almost anything you could need for your layout is now available online from a variety of model railroad retailers and manufacturers. Additionally, the advent of 3-D printers has given rise to a bounty of accurately scaled models produced by enthusiasts looking to fill gaps in the marketplace.

The layout will be semi-permanent, meaning, once built the layout will not be moved regularly, however, if the customer wants to relocate the layout in future, he should be able to do so without ripping off all the hard work. So my design had to cater to that critical requirement.

Now, even though AnyRail provides a 3D render which is helpful while building the layout to visualize track elevation, clearance and calculate gradient, it is quite difficult to get a workable idea about the complex benchwork that is the foundation to make this project a success. So, I built a 1:16 scale model of the model railway! Yes, you red that right! Here is a little gallery that shows how different components were built and how that is extremely helpful to visualize a complex project like this in extreme detail without even buying a single board of ply or even a piece of track!

This design is the same concept and scale, just in a larger space, thus allowing a small logging section on far left hand part. You also get an over and under action, much longer siding to run longer trains; narrow, long design to give a sense of distance, especially with the long and narrow stretch of the road in the front. It gives an opportunity to create a small town scene and sawmill crew quarters as well.

If you dream of a model railroad, but have little time and space or want to acquire the manual skills first, you do not have to do without your own layout: We offer a wide range of ready-made layouts.

Whether you are looking to get started in this wonderful hobby or add to your existing model railroad empire, we have thousands of items to turn your dreams into reality! Specializing in detail parts and scenery.

I am building a lengthy n scale model rail layout. The width of the layout calls for a wireless controller. My arduino literate friend said that making an interface to control speed (voltage) and direction (polarity) would be very easy for him so I could use my iPhone to control the little dc engines on my layout. The problem he has is the electrical side of how a power supply would exactly be used or controlled via arduino.

Basically the track plan is split into blocks, each block is turned on at a control panel with spst switches to send power to the selects blocks. I have an mrc dual throttle desktop controller that offers up to 12v dc. I need to look at the current specs.

So I ask of you, how would one go about trying to get a regulated power source to a train layout via arduino? The radio systems generally have a pulse width modulation control (I am unsure really what this means and am trying to learn on the Internet).

Pulse Width Modulation is a system in which the current is turned off and on several hundred or several thousand times per second. The width of the pulses is varied so, for example if the off period is much longer than the on period the average power seen by the electric motor is low and if the on period is much longer the average power is high.

The Arduino cannot supply the amount of power an electric motor needs so you need something like an L298 driver chip to allow the Arduino to control the high current. The L298 also has the ability to reverse the current to make the train move backwards. A single Arduino could create 6 PWM outputs (for 6 trains) but you need an L298 for each train.

I suspect you are confusing the signal used to control servos and ESCs (which is produced using the Arduino servo library) with the use of PWM to vary the power to an electic motor (which is produced using the Arduino analogWrite() command).

Robin2:

Pulse Width Modulation is a system in which the current is turned off and on several hundred or several thousand times per second. The width of the pulses is varied so, for example if the off period is much longer than the on period the average power seen by the electric motor is low and if the on period is much longer the average power is high.

Everything Robin2 wrote plus...

There are ready-made motor shields, which plug straight onto an Arduino, that can control up to four trains.

Not only can you use an Arduino to switch the power to the sections, you can also use it to control point [switch] motors, signals and for train detection.

Pulse-position modulation (PPM) is a form of signal modulation in which M message bits are encoded by transmitting a single pulse in one of 2 M \displaystyle 2^M possible required time shifts. This is repeated every T seconds, such that the transmitted bit rate is M / T \displaystyle M/T bits per second. It i An an...

Pulse-width modulation (PWM), or pulse-duration modulation (PDM), is a method of controlling the average power delivered by an electrical signal. The average value of voltage (and current) fed to the load is controlled by switching the supply between 0 and 100% at a rate faster than it takes the load to change significantly. The longer the switch is on, the higher the total power supplied to the load. Along with maximum power point tracking (MPPT), it is one of the primary methods of reducing the...

Some people call it that, mainly to try to avoid confusion with the Arduino PWM analog output, but it's not a particularly accurate name. The servo control signal is a form of pulse width modulation, just not the same form that analogWrite() produces.

While I would enjoy having my own model railroad again, I simply do not have the room in my present situation and do not have the time, especially since starting my new Drew Ex Machina web site last year. Still, I do wonder if there is some gifted modeler with more room and time (and skill!) than I have who has quietly built his or her own lunar model railroad tucked away in some basement or spare room out there.

The scale models include locomotives, rolling stock, streetcars, tracks, signalling, cranes, and landscapes including: countryside, roads, bridges, buildings, vehicles, harbors, urban landscape, model figures, lights, and features such as rivers, hills, tunnels, and canyons.

The earliest model railways were the 'carpet railways' in the 1840s. The first documented model railway was the Railway of the Prince Imperial (French: Chemin de fer du Prince Imprial) built in 1859 by Emperor Napoleon III for his then 3-year-old son, also Napoleon, in the grounds of the Chteau de Saint-Cloud in Paris. It was powered by clockwork and ran in a figure-of-eight.[1] Electric trains appeared around the start of the 20th century, but these were crude likenesses. Model trains today are more realistic, in addition to being much more technologically advanced. Today modellers create model railway layouts, often recreating real locations and periods throughout history.

The world's oldest working model railway is a model designed to train signalmen on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. It is located in the National Railway Museum, York, England and dates back to 1912. It remained in use until 1995. The model was built as a training exercise by apprentices of the company's Horwich Works and supplied with rolling stock by Bassett-Lowke.[2]

Involvement ranges from possession of a train set to spending hours and large sums of money on a large and exacting model of a railroad and the scenery through which it passes, called a "layout". Hobbyists, called "railway modellers" or "model railroaders", may maintain models large enough to ride (see Live steam, Ridable miniature railway and Backyard railroad).

Modellers may collect model trains, building a landscape for the trains to pass through. They may also operate their own railroad in miniature. For some modellers, the goal of building a layout is to eventually run it as if it were a real railroad (if the layout is based on the fancy of the builder) or as the real railroad did (if the layout is based on a prototype). If modellers choose to model a prototype, they may reproduce track-by-track reproductions of the real railroad in miniature, often using prototype track diagrams and historic maps.

Model railroad clubs exist where enthusiasts meet. Clubs often display models for the public. One specialist branch concentrates on larger scales and gauges, commonly using track gauges from 3.5 to 7.5 inches (89 to 191 mm). Models in these scales are usually hand-built and powered by live steam, or diesel-hydraulic, and the engines are often powerful enough to haul dozens of human passengers.

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