The second layout: The layout - The landscape takes form - My beauties - Closeups
The third layout: Design goals - Photos from the building phase
Technical aspects: Wiring - Braking digitally sections - LocoNet information
It's about buildning layouts railroads, buildings, mountains etc in scale 1:87, connecting the tracks, the switching points, the signals with lots of cables, and running trains. It's about beeing intrested in trains, their history and function. It's about controlling the old mechanical wonders of the 1950's with new digital control, connected to a computer. And it's about meeting nice people all over the world with the same interest.
At Christmas 1960 we got the start. A Märklin 3031 tank engine with four axles and remote controllable coupling, and a circle to run it. I was 3.5 years at that time, and my little brother about 5 months. A few years later we got our second, a swedish litt DA, Märklin 3030. The swedes remember the brown engine which was used in most trains at that time. The number of tracks, switch points and signals increased slowly, and toghether with two start packs which were bought second hand, about 1975 we had 5 engines, lots of tracks and interest, but less of space for a layout. And the the time became occupied with other things.
Then about 40 years of age I suddenly woke up. Now I had three small children of my own, lot's of time at home when they were asleep, a large home with the space available for an interesting layout. And even more; during my sleep Märklin had released the digital system, it was possible to connect to a computer, and more. So it was time to unpack the old, fully functional items, get a new catalogue, and to begin planning (as a matter of fact, most of the equipment is fully functional. The only ones that didn't work well were a few blue control boxes for the switch points; the plastics had shrimped and the switches were not working).
And on the web I discovered a new dimension; contacts with very nice people around the world, with the same interest. The Märklin mailing list is my main forum for this; and I laughed when I realized that so may of the participants were around 40, and had their first rails around 1960!
When I write this, March 2002, I'm on my third layout, as a grown up. The first wasn't documented, and I made so many mistakes that it really doesn't matter much. On these pages you will find the second layout described; the text about it hasn't been rewritten, even if I have changed my mind about some things after that. And now I'm publishing a description of my current layout, and my thought about it. The work was stated summer 2000, and it's soon halfway :-)
I run Märklin as always, which means that the engines get their power through a slider between their wheels. Conventionally this was a 0-16 V AC. I run digitally now, which means that all locos on the tracks always get full power on the track, with superimposed pulse coded information. This information may be for examle: ENGINE 37, set speed 7 with lights off. Each engine has a electronic decoder, which checks if the information is to it (if it's engine 37 in this example), a controls it's motor, including the direction, the speed and extra functions like light.
I now have several engines which make up a wonderful mix. I'm mainly interested in models of older german steamers (Era I), and swedish locos, preferably from my own youth. But really, I can't resist when there comes a technically interestesting model of something other. The locos are mainly Märklin, the ones nearest to my heart like my first, the 3031, certainly. But it amuses me to test also other brands; currently I like ROCO very much, and also have some Lima equimpment, mainly because Märklin isn't very interested in the Swedish market. As a child it was very importan if you were a "Märklinist"/AC, or if you were DC. Now that difference is nearly totally gone; there is still an important choice between standard two-rail and Märklins three-rail (center studs), but almost every brand produce rolling stocks for both systems, and when running digitally you might have decoders (an electronic board inside the loco that so to say is the brain of the loco in a digital system) that overcome the minor differences in the digital systems.
Digital systems yes. You might say ther are two major systems to choose between: Märklins, originally called Motorola, at the one side, and an open standad DCC at the other side. Märklin has the largest market, DCC have the most manufacturers behind it, at least from my point of view. However, I have the fortunate positions of having access to both these worlds! Uhlenbrock, a german firm, have produces a marvellous thing, a digital system that is compatible with both Märklin and DCC. So, all my locos have sliders underneath, but inside some have decoders from Märklin and some have DCC decoders. And that's nice because on the open market the advances are much quicker. The last years especially ESU Loksound have drawn my attention; they make it possible to have a really outstanding sound in the little locos; OK, the speakers are two small to make justice to a hevy diesel motor, or ditto steamer, but nevertheless, i't astounding.
As a techican I also find it interesting to test certain aspects, to make some electronics myself etc. More about that in certain pages.
Here you can see some of my trains, taken from my previous layout.
The running train is a DRG 18.4 with pullman-like coaches from Würtemberg. Under the sand tower is my first loco, BR 81, with remote controlled couplings, and at the coaling filling is a BR 24 "Steppenpferd".