New Member - Dumb Questions

[Shadowbruf]

I am new to RPUG and recently introduced myself on 02/12/2021. It was suggested that I redirect several of my questions to the General Discussion forum.

I am getting back into HO and I'm slowly designing a layout and picking equipment.
•   I have read the Ring Engineering manuals and I have reviewed all the Ring Eng videos.
•   I know my learning curve would go up exponentially if I could just "play" with some stuff and wires, but I have yet to commit to take the RailPro plunge. Closest hobby store is > 100 miles away.
•   I know I would greatly benefit from any videos, from real world users, who may have videos or links on the following topics: My apologies in advance if these areas have been addressed somewhere visually, I just have not found them.


1)   PWR-56 Model Railroad Power Supply - Does anybody have any information as to videos / links of actual installation, bus layout, wiring, programming, usage of 2-3 power supplies, and CB-1 Circuit breaker Modules

2)   AM-1 RailPro Accessory Module
a)   Actual installation, wiring, programming and usage of ~6-8 turnouts (2-AM-1's) incorporating Tortoise switch machines, local dwarf signals,and feedback to a central led lighted board.
b)   I'm curious how cluttered and "klugey" it may be to operate 6-8 using the HC-2 and scrolling back and forth

3)   AR-1 Auto Reverse Module - Actual installation, wiring, programming of a wye.

Thanx-Mike

[Alan]

I saw earlier you discovered a 500# fudge sundae.   Here are some specific posts that address a few of your questions.

Q1) Not PWR-56 but you can simply think of my SMPS as a PWR-56. Wiring-wise no different.
http://www.lkorailroad.com/powering-the-lko-part-i/
http://www.lkorailroad.com/powering-the-lko-part-ii/

Q1) Not CB-1 but you can think of my homemade units as CB-1s. Functionally and wiring-wise they are the same.
http://www.lkorailroad.com/circuit-breaker-and-block-detector-final-units/

Q2a) Minus AM-1.
http://www.lkorailroad.com/tortoise-printed-circuit-boards/
http://www.lkorailroad.com/control-panels-part-i/ and the 10 posts thereafter.
http://www.lkorailroad.com/panel-wiring-part-i/ and the 2 related posts thereafter.
http://www.lkorailroad.com/control-panels-complete/

Q2b) Very klugey. Equally awkward to a single person running 6-8 trains at a time regardless of control system. Would have to be a big roundy-roundy style layout or a show module arrangement to make that practical.

You may want to check out member Kpack's YT channel. https://www.youtube.com/user/freewake84/featured

On a side note... my former boss early in his career actually did operate a Kluge feeder. He says its reputation, and the associated eponym, is well deserved.

[trainman605]

Questions like this are hard to answer, as most of us that are using RailPro  it was not our first operation system. I have NCE DCC in my HOn3 layout and my G Scale trains where all track power conventional engines. I'm not going to put RailPro in my HOn3 trains as the NCE DCC system is a fine working system, plus my HOn3 tenders are fairly small compared to HO engines available space. If it were me I would consider going battery power and forget all the additional items needed for doing all that you want to do in your new layout. I can tell you running one battery powered engine and you will never want to go back to track power again. Contact Don Sweet at RCS of New England, he is one great guy and will help you with your questions, he is a RailPro dealer.  https://rcsofne.com/  I did all my RailPro installs and the info I needed I got from Don, plus I never saw a RailPro engine operate in person. Got all my info from YouTube.

trainman     

KPack's video of HO diesel with PailPro battery power 

[KiloWhiskey]

I got back into ho after a 30 year hiatus, with the last layout being dc. I found RailPro by chance on Youtube, found this forum and bought a LM3S and the computer dongle thing (I had a 14v powersupply from amazon but did quickly buy the railpro unit.). I Fell in love with it. My layout currently is a 2ft x 8 ft yard and will soon be doing the 4ft x 8ft oval added to it. I recommend trying it out the way I did. Looking at other dcc forums, its all cv this and speed matching that.. what a pain. I currently have 2 AM-1's in use for my kato snap switches. I am so glad I didnt go dcc.

Kevin

[ON28]

I have a mix of NCE DCC and RailPro. At first, with no DCC investment and wanting to avoid wiring in the worst way, I explored battery control. In HO I found it to be a solution in search of a problem. I later got a sweet deal on NCE and a number of decoder-equipped locos, so went that route. But, I discovered RailPro via the New England installer mentioned earlier, and separately lucked into another sweet deal so jumped on it, as RP is DCC-compatible. I use the NCE transformer and base station, and, having never installed a decoder, found installing RP modules with keep-alives to be straightforward. In fact, I run my RP locos way more than my DCC engines, which aren't keep-alive equipped (yet).

[Shadowbruf]

Thank you for your insights.

I'm just sitting back and gathering wisdom. Probably decide in a couple months. Might even be able to get to a hobby shop in June