Jamie Bennallack welcome ! Have fun

@@Richardsrailway iv done it thanks to you... had 4 long sidings now cut each track in 2 places. So i can have 3 class 66 in a row and able to move 1 and the other 2 will stay . This has been the most useful video iv watched thank you

Jamie Bennallack excellent! Happy modeling , stay safe buddy

David Shallcross no problem , let’s all enjoy the hobby ! Stay safe . Regards , Richard .

Richard Swallow no worries!

Just begin with a outer loop, a inner loop and in the big empty space in the middle, a shunting yard. That's 3 layouts to work with. Next step is to join these 3 layouts to 1 layout with switches, fish plates and controllers. What you will end up with is taking one train from the yard to the outer loop, one train from the yard to the inner loop and one train for shunting in the yard. That will keep you busy for a long time and even longer then you have decided for a layout and now way to personally "model" it with ballast, grass, trees and buildings, not to mention painting and weathering. All in all, that should keep you busy, for a long, long time. And also make a big, big hole in your wallet. Good luck!

Hello Duncan . I just used what wire I had available at that time , you could remove a fishplate and open that section up slightly to create a gap as such or just make a small cut as I did . The layout sadly no longer exists as I had to move house against my will . I’ve recently built a smaller layout .

Normally , something such as a headhunt or sidings would be best practice, as a passing loop for example is isolated from the switches ( points ) either end , on a main line you could technically, so this is for DC btw . On a main line you wouldn’t normally have loco isolated at a stand and one energized in rear of or in advance. Hope that answers your question ? Regards , Richard .

@@Richardsrailway Many thks

Hi Charlie , ok first you’ll need to use a simple ON/OFF switch . Connect one side of the gap to one side of the switch , the remaining wire on the other side of the gap goes to the remaining side of the ON/OFF switch thus. ./ . ( open) .-. ( closed ) . No need to connect any further wires to your controller , you will only need to run the wire’s from the “ cut section “ to wherever you place your ON/OFF switch . A good idea is to label your switch once installed to denote what section it isolates! Good luck . Cheers Ta . Richard

Thanks so much Richard, I thought it would be so much more complicated👍

Hornby

Technically yes , but the idea is you could easily flick the switch as soon as the second loco was over the isolated gap . But in theory you’d only have one live loco and the loco the other side of the gap would be dead , or add another gap and secondary switch if it’s a really long headshunt say .

@@Richardsrailway Thanks, just busy laying out a track, wondered if i had missed something.

David Shallcross , no because there is a break both physically and electrically