DGoSec

If you're bumping the voltage up, then yes, you'll need a buck convertor to drop it back down, but are you trying to be cost conscious or space conscious? If you use dual wheel pickup, then that will most likely resolve 99% of the power delivery. You can get a 16-25V 1000uF capacitor if you really want to smooth things out (should be good for 100ms gap and about a 2V droop), but 1F seems large. We can start to add ceramics and diodes to deal with inrush currents and high frequency noises, but at what cost and space? I only say this all, as I've been recently been playing with the rectifier and capacitor in doing some 9V conversation work, but I am using dual wheel setup. If you're trying to put in a charge board, are you running a small battery with it?

Thank you for all that you did. All the best to the future and I hope the sale goes well in finding the right person to carry on what you started.

I like the layout. I'm dealing with a smaller space then you, and it's tough to not have oval/circle. I tried bi-level, but the track required to go up...its huge, you could possibly do it with your. This gives height and ability to hide behind. If you do go through the center, and concerned about the hole you need for when you put on a table, consider a simple bridge. Win-win.

I just ordered and installed the IR sensors, slight variant of Toastie's selection that I could get in the US from Amazon (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I57HIJ0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1) that I just used for my train crossing, this seems to work better than the reed switch sensors I was gonna use as it will detect not just the locomotive, but all the cars as they pass, with one sensor on each end of the crossing. I mounted between the rails as well, no filing, but I did raise my track to nominal ballast level (2 plates above baseplate) and the top of the IR bulbs is about even with the top of the rail. Works well so far, not had to adjust for an sun/outside light interference yet, will test. This is running to my custom Arduinio controller, ESP8266 based. I hope in the next few weeks to get my code up into a github once it's cleaned up.

I've started down the Automation journey about a month ago. The kids are part of the driving force, but also I wanted to get back into coding, so this was a good foray for that. I've also been a log time lurker, very little poster here. I was looking at the nControl suite, but opted to go a bit of a blend of Internet of Lego & Mattzo's paths [http://www.internetoflego.com/ & http://mattzobricks.com/ ] leveraging the NodeMCU ESP8266 modules for controlling the sensors, lights, switches, and will get to train control as well. I do like what Mattzo was looking at towards integration with rocRail for full automation, but am starting out with Node-Red on a raspberry Pi. This allows the audrino boards operate as a individually, and the parallelism is centralized via MQTT messaging to the flows within Node-Red. It's allowing me to start slow, test, build up in scaling out. While the flows in Node-Red won't let you visualize the track per-se, it will allow me to make a dashboard to control the track sections and trains, creating a sudo-autonomous situation at first, and then maybe flows can do full automation. I'm still very early on in the work, getting the hang of programming again(been a number of years since doing stuff at this level), and also the feel for it all and Node-Red, MQTT, etc.

Riding Amtrak almost daily....on one right now.... I’d go w/ regular blue. As dr_spock said, more cheery and probably actually is closer in color, and much more available for what you’d need.

Thanks. I’ll eventually get to stickers. I’m in the process of rebuilding the train setup, had to take old tracks down for painting of a room, now I have 2- 30x60” tables instead of a floor...which is small, and doesn’t allow a good layout for running two trains. I did swap some parts to try to strengthen the build, the ‘base plate’ of the train i felt could use some more strength. That’ll be a WIP and I’ll also have to see how she handles inclines, fingers crossed w/dual pf motors. It was a tricky fit for wiring. thanks again for the file!

@sed6 loved the design and modified it into a red/black scheme, much like Candian Pacific's coloring. I had wanted to go red with, had a lot of the bricks already. I will say, it was a bit of a tricky build but that also might of just been the way LDD put the instructions together; fun non the less. It really is a monster of a design. I'll try to get a photo next to my GP40s and or my steam engine.