Hello, Pete from Australia here I'm new to TB but used to post a fair bit on modelrailroadforum and particularly Nscale.org (as TrinityJayOne). When the admin left the latter high & dry I moved to Reddit, but as someone whose Internet posting career formed on good ol' phpBB it has always left me wanting...too much 'show & tell', not enough meaningful discussion. Weekly club meetings have got me by for the past 7yrs or so, but the current world situation has prevented those so here I am (no plans to cut & run once everything blows over!) My model railroading story started with HO as a kid, but as my brother & I grew up the spare room was needed for other things and we fell out of the hobby. Sometime around 2010-ish the bug bit again, this time in N (as was the plan originally but the parents got talked out of it). Many layouts have been planned but to date none have been fully built, that's life for ya. The fact that my club has a sizeable layout to work & run on has been quite the distraction, too. Anyhoo, enough about the past. Unlike many Australian modelers I have little interest in local trains and have instead focused on the American railroads, specifically post-merger Burlington Northern. I hope everyone likes rainbows because that's what all my trains look like I'm currently designing/building what I hope will become my first completed layout (finally!), a point-to-point set on a fictional BN subdivision somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, mountains and conifers aplenty, circa 1970-1980 or thereabouts. If you can picture a postcard from the Cascades or Western Montana that's basically the look I'm going for. The baseboards (1200x600mm x4 in a 'C' arrangement) have been built, just trying to nail down a track plan I am happy with as designing small yet functional yards is harder than I thought. John Armstrong's track planning bible is my current bedtime reading material. I've also recently gotten into Arduino for the purposes of incorporating it into my model railroading. I love technology, but I also prefer to drive the trains myself rather than automate. My reasoning for picking it up is to create what I call a 'modern oldschool' system - physical panels and switches like we all know & love, but behind the scenes you are sending instructions to an electric brain rather than switching/energizing physical circuits. Why not just do things the traditional way then? Well, this system enables things that would be very difficult if not impossible to do otherwise, for example I can duplicate panels around the layout for ease of access and even have multiple operators use them simultaneously (without releasing any Magic Smoke). It also means I can add/edit/remove functionality later largely through code rather than having to rip out/redo wiring. I'll likely post more info on this in the relevant subforums at some point, although I fear my work would feel like catching up on Sesame Street to some of the wizards around here! I've missed having a good forum so I hope to become a valued member of this one
Hi Pete, Welcome. Glad to have you on board. I like your thinking about control. You'll find lots of support here. Though, being a DC Dinosaur, I'll just enjoy seeing what you create because what you've described is beyond me.
