When I first put track down 12 years or so ago, I did what I was told by the LHS guy (local hobby store - you have to acronym-ize everything you know). He and I worked out a trackplan based on Flex track (the Code 80 stuff) that could be expanded and would be pretty easy for me to do. So the theory went! This was back in the days of DC... DCC was around but was in its earliest incarnation and expensive.
DC vs DCC
Ok, real short chat about these two words. DC is direct current and is the original way toy trains were made. The voltage on the rails tell the train how fast to go, more juice the faster the little engine spins. So if you wanted to run two engines they would run at the same speed. The only way to control multiple engines at different speeds was complicated "power zones" and you could still only have 1 independent engine in each zone. Very sucky. DCC changed all that. Every engine could be controlled individually and a few other perks since they all had microprocessor controls and such.
Here's a picture of what I'm talking about. This is my MP-15 switcher taken apart. You can see a green line on the engine. That's a DC controller circuit board. The next picture below is a Digitrax DCC controller board]
Right back to the story of my first layout! DCC was new but was expensive so I went DC. With the trackplan in mind I purchased everything he suggested. Then I got to work. Boy was that an interesting experience. I used nails to put the track down - holy crow that was nuts! I also didn't know the trick about laying track around curves. That really ticked me off. I ended up with piece of track that stopped right in the centre of the curve. I had to fasten a new piece onto it - had to match the curves and then get the little things to align. Oddly enough it didn't come out at all! So I had a track that my train couldn't use. Took the wind out of my sails a bit you know? If my terrain didn't turn out so damn good I'd probably have given up. but that's another story, let's get back to track laying.
And Now...
I spent a long time reading stuff on the internet. Apparently there's all sorts of stuff on the internet ! some of it is actually really useful. Anyway, learned some tips and tricks to laying track, and all that.
I'm using a non silicon clear chalk to stick the roadbed down, and then the track on top. No stupid little nails, which really means I wasn't playing meat tenderizer to my fingers this time around. That and it takes a lot less time to get the track down. Oh and mistakes - seriously, I've made 1 or two - are pretty easy to fix.
This picture is the mainline at zero elevation going into the Fergus station (which will be on the right), it will also be used as a siding if passing is necessary. I just got this down, looks great I think.
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