I have been working with the panel for some weeks now, sorted out a couple of electrical issues. Played with it enough to realize that while my basic idea was sound, some of the LED placements were suboptimal. Essentially I had been struggling with how to signal the thing -- on a layout this small probably overkill but it did provide some measure of idiot-proofing for areas that were obscured from the command location. Anyhow, it has been fun and is starting to make some sort of sense.

Dear Abby,

OK, it's not as bad as it sounds, but I attempted to install a Digitrax DN136PS decoder in a friend's HO scale Bachmann GP40 -- the newer version, DCC-ready with an eight-plug. A pretty good little runner on DC.

So, been here, done this -- orange wire is pin 1. Plug decoder male pins into circuit board female receptors. No worries, right?

Well, after dialing in address 03, all I got was an unprogrammed Rule 17 light show on both ends and no motion. Turned off the Digitrax DCC.

Making progress converting my layout to DCC

Part of the project was to convert from Atlas to PECO switches.  They are in and I began testing.  I found that some of my PECO switches caused the engine to stall.  Only some, some of the time.

They are the insulated frogs version not PECO's Electro-frogs.  Converted one of them and most of my PECO's were insul-frogs, and I was glad.  Now I find a few of them (maybe a third) still short out the DCC system.

So it begins.

Never built a layout, never even ran an engine on a layout. Don't know a whole lot about nothing and much about some.

After several years of reading, searching and nail biting for the opportunity to have my own fairytale world where I could manipulate the caricatures and play God in sculpting a perfect landscape, I hit paydirt; N scale Free-moN.