The Not-Quite-Model-Railroad...

Closest charicter that a.) looks like me, b.) is within the Japanese theme of my screenname that I could think of.

(BTW, as of my typing this, your image link was broken)

Is there something wrong with watching Adult Swim? As i recall YOU, otto put Frylock, Meatwad, and MAster Shake in the cab of NJT GP40-2! And i personally prefer Stewie from Family Guy.

yes to much adult swim. don't stray off topic. i mean this guy needs help on his model railroad, and now you guys are talking about japanese cartoons (the most mind rotting of them all by far).

nells choo, those are nice buildings there! good work!

Yes, I do need help, and I am a woman, not a man...

NellsChoo,

That is a nice start on a small town, villiage, or other population center you have there. I was wondering if you shot that on a floor or a coffee table (I noticed what appears to be granite, or some kind of stone on the left hand side of that second photo)? Just currious.

Also, is that shop/garage in the second shot a scratchbuilding/kitbash project? (I can't tell, I'm an HO modeler!)

Granite? Nope, a bit softer... carpet! Things are so low-tech that the plywood sheet was on carpet in my brother's old attic bedroom. But my sister returned a small folding table to us, so now it is on top of that. Almost like the floor better, but it really does a number on your aching body that way...

That garage building is an N scale one from JL Innovative Design. Their kits are a bit more "craftsman", it seems, as some parts need to be cut to size, etc. Case in point is the garage door...

I just put those buildings there for effect... not sure what they will eventually become, but I figured if I build SOMETHING, it will help me out.

i'm sorry!

i made a layout to help describe the whole block wireing thing.

you see the green rail? thats the common rail. you only need to connect one feeder to it.

the red rail is the outer rail. you determine where each block would be, and divide it. in this case, each block is insulated and divided at the big black squares on the red rail. the black circles indicate where feeders would go, but you can put a feeder anywhere on the block. you can use plastic rail joiners, or you can use a razor saw, and cut the rail where the end of a block is desired, and fill it in with a nonconductive material to keep the rails from touching each other. do not divide the common or green rail.

these feeders are then connected to the top terminals of an atlas controller, in this diagram with blue wires. the last three on the second controller isn't needed, and can be left alone. on the side of a controller there will be two terminals. the top on for CAB A (one throttle) and the bottom one for CAB B ( the second train's throttle). connect the right hand DC track power terminal from each throttle to the appropriate CAB terminal. in this case, the red throttle is CAB A, so its connected to the top terminal of the controller with a red wire. The orange throttle is CAB B, so it is connected to the bottom terminal of the controller with a orange wire.

now back to the common rail. put a feeder where ever convenient on the green rail (inner rail), and connect it to both throttles on their left hand DC track terminal.

the layout should now be block wired. when you slide one of the green switches on the controller up, the track connected to that switch will be controlled by CAB A. slide it to the bottom, that section of track is controlled by CAB B. the middle turns that section of track off.

you now should be able to run 2 trains at once, just keep an eye on them. short circuits can happen if they run into a clock where the direction is switched in the opposite direction, but this won't be a problem if you pay attention.

i hope this helps
chris

(ps sorry for all the gramatical errors in my first post)

Jonelle,
"Not bad fer a youngsta' ." I like the building models, nice work!
Everybody else:
I think I'll add the cast of "Case Closed" to one of my passenger trains.