Is there a point where there's TOO much 9V track?

[JINZONINGEN73]

Some of you bigger train fans might know.

I'm going to be hitting a large sum of money soon, and I'm goin' to be buyin' me some bigtime 9V track.

But is there any drastic loss of power when doing MASSIVE layouts?

If so, is the remedy as simple as adding a second (or more) power regulator next to the first?

[Hobbes]

Yes, a layout can be too big for one speed regulator. And yes, adding speed regulators does help.

Unfortunately my electrical skills aren't sufficient enough to explain what the best way is to set it up. I'm just trying myself when I set up my track. There should be topics on lugnet about that, I remember reading something, can't find it right now, though.

Also to be taken into consideration: rusty track decreases "range", too. Odd thing, though: I have terribly rusty track that work absolutely fine and like-new track that seem to be a "dent" in the power circle. Guess that's a trial and error thing, too.

As for the train motors: the longer (and heavier) the train the more motors you need. A complete Santa Fe (1 locomotive, 5 wagons) is the best test train since it's the heaviest "regular set train". It runs best with 2 motors (although only one is suggested in the instruction manual). I read that unfortunately the new motors (10153) aren't as durable as the old ones (5300). Since I only have new ones and the old ones aren't available anymore I can't compare. But you notice this only after running your trains for quite some time and under heavy stress (exhibitions for example). So, the average hobby train fan shouldn't notice anything too soon.

I'll try and dig up some layout setup links. Hope that helped anyways ;-)

PS: To answer your question: No, there is no such thing as too much 9V track ;-)

[JINZONINGEN73]

Yeah, none of my tracks are rusted... a speck of mild oxidization, but so faint it's almost hard to notice.

I'm guessing when adding regulators, one must place them at different points, instead of all bunched up at one terminal.

(Then again, who's going to bother? lol)

[Hobbes]

I'm guessing when adding regulators, one must place them at different points, instead of all bunched up at one terminal.

(Then again, who's going to bother? lol)

:-D

That's a good point, though. I haven't tried ;-)

When you set up a multi-track and multi-train layout you need to add regulators at different points anyways otherwise your trains would stop running when you switch track. Beeeecause: a switch (or point, whatever the correct term is) acts as a "separator", meaning that power runs only through "one side" of the track. So if you want your trains to run everywhere smoothly you need more regulators on different points. I only run one train at the moment and haven't even tried thinking of figuring out how to "handle" different directions and the like on a layout like that...