Power and control

7/02 wire is a wire made of 7 strands of 0.2mm wire. Stranded wire has the advantage of being flexible while solid wire is more difficult to bend. 7/02 size usually used for model railways for most connections. For example, this would be used as...

In my experience, stranded wire is preferable over solid wire. Stranded wire is more flexible than solid core wire, which gives you more flexibility when routing cables under your layout. Also, if a strand of wire should break for what ever...

For an analogue system, the maximum voltage supported by the engines is about 12V. Most analogue controllers will deliver a bit more but constantly running your engines with 13V or even 14V may damage their motors (and does not look very...

A stay-alive (or keep-alive) is a capacitor that can be used with a DCC decoder. It stores power to allow for a more effective and constant power to your locomotive motor and therefore, smoother running. However, there are issues with fitting the...

Solenoid point motors are used for throwing the points on your layout. They can also be used for other animations such as semaphore signals. The point motor uses two solenoids to pull a metal rod towards them, when this is connected to the tie...

Slow action point motors are exactly what they say, they are designed to give a more realistic look to your points on your layout by delaying the movement of the track points  so that it appears like the real thing. This replicates the signalman...

Grain of wheat bulbs are filament based so run hot. This means in certain situation, they have a habit of melting plastic which is not good for buildings or control panels that are made of plastic. They require 6 to 12 volts to run. On the other...

There are several ways to improve traction on those steep gradients. Below are a few ways to try. Consist: This method uses two or three engines joined together in a row. This is what is done in real life to pull very heavy loads. This is very...

This is really a matter of personal choice and what you want to get out of your model railway. There is a lot to be said for DCC as it allows you to control your locos with more accuracy and true to life performance, such as acceleration,...

Voltage drop is the decrease of voltage in an electrical circuit. On a model railway layout and it layman's terms, it is when the current can not make it all the way around the track. This is mostly caused by the resistance of the track and...

Despite what most places will say, the voltage on the track when using DCC is not 16V. It is not 15V or 12V either. Actually, as the DCC signal is digital, it is a square wave. Unfortunately, square waves cannot be measured by standard digital...

Next18 is a DCC decoder standard that is smaller than existing decoders and designed to fit in to locomotives that have limited space, such as N gauge engine and and OO gauge steam engines. The maximum size of a decoder is about 15mm x 10mm. The...