Power and control

Whether or not it is realistic to consider fitting a decoder yourself depends on numerous factors. And not one of them has anything to do with actually plugging one in!Assuming you're asking the question because you have never fitted one...

Model railway 21-pin decoder sockets are easy to recognise. They are usually located on top of a circuit board inside the model and feature 21 pins approximately 5mm in length. The pins are arranged in two parallel rows, one row of 10 and another...

There are a couple of manufacturers of building lighting out there that claim their products are easy to install. But can a layman do it?Well, there are laymans, and then there are laymans. But for the average Joe, installation is no problem...

You have probably noticed that there are many types of power clips available to facilitate different ways of connecting power to your track. You may have also noticed that Hornby's Digital Power Connecting Clips are specifically designed to work...

Under the analogue system, modellers have become accustomed to wiring their light, signal and point motor circuits directly to the auxiliary port of their controllers. But if you are converting to DCC, the process becomes a little more involved....

An accessory decoder is a component that facilitates the operation of accessories such as lights, motorised points and signals etc from your DCC controller's keypad.Although there are some 'plug and play' accessories available that do work...

In theory, converting a regular analogue model railway to DCC involves little more than swapping your controller and ensuring all of your locomotives are DCC fitted, but in reality, there is much more to consider.Firstly though, let's take a...

If you don't have an auxiliary port on your controller, but want to power some accessories, what can you do?If that is a problem you are facing right now, you'll be pleased to hear that you have a few options. Firstly, you could buy a...

It's not very often that it happens, but occasionally you may get a DCC locomotive that runs in the opposite direction to your other locomotives, even though you turned the controller the same way.If this rare but mind-boggling occurrence is...

Solenoid turnout motors, or point motors as they are sometimes called, are powered by a 16v auxiliary power supply just like the one found on the back of many controllers.All turnout motors will have instructions included specifying their...

There are several reasons why a modeller may choose to use a CDU (Capacitor Discharge Unit) to provide power to their point motors, but essentially, it is because they want more 'oomph'.Although a point motor (turnout motor) will happily...

In theory, all decoder brands conform to the same standards so should be compatible with all locomotives (providing the pins match).If you are pondering which decoder to purchase to upgrade a locomotive from DCC ready to DCC, which brand of...