Need Help With Display Layout

[Chris333]

Not knowing much about electronics    I always thought I could cut up many different sections of track and put a different resistor on each section. So the speed change would be gradual. And if you turned up the master speed it should work on all sections.

Max controller speed would be going up hill and everything else would be restricted with resistors till it matched the up hill speed.

[peteski]

A basic DCC system would likely be the best option but it would be pretty expensive for what we want to do.  Lots to think about.

Doug

A full-featured DCC system: (NCE Power Cab $140) http://blwnscale.com/nce-dcc.htm
2 function mobile DCC decoders: less than $20 each (this one is $17 http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Digitrax-N-HO-Scale-Wire-in-Mobile-Decoder-p/dig-dn136d.htm ).

That is not really all that bad considering that if you end up selecting some sort of electronic device to control the DC voltage will probably not be that much cheaper.

Even with DCC and BEMF, I'm not sure if you will achieve a truly constant speed.  Thee are few advanced decoders (usually sound decoders) out there which claim to have a mode where they supposedly can keep a calibrated speed, but I have not experimented with them enough to verify those claims.

[peteski]

Not knowing much about electronics    I always thought I could cut up many different sections of track and put a different resistor on each section. So the speed change would be gradual. And if you turned up the master speed it should work on all sections.

Max controller speed would be going up hill and everything else would be restricted with resistors till it matched the up hill speed.

Resistors will drop the voltage which will slow down the loco, but unlike diodes (which have relatively constant voltage drop independent of the current flowing through them), the voltage drop across resistor greatly depends on the current passing though it.  So, the more the loco is struggling (consumes more current), the more voltage will drop across the series-connected resistor. That will further slow down the already-struggling loco.  I'm not sure that will be a desired effect.