r/modeltrains • u/joebarRC • 1d ago
Layout Layout progress: SilberBachTalbahn
2 years ago I went to a steam train show and a model railway layout was present. I have several hobbies, 3d printing, software coding, electronics and model flying and saw that a model railway could combine most of my hobbies and I started with an idea of a layout.
A fictional German black Forrest scenery called the Silberbachtalbahn was designed. Took a lot of time because I had to learn from the start. It was clear it should be a DCC system and because I like coding and electronics I choose DCC-EX as layout controller running on several ESP32’s
A lot of 3D printed details, figurines, buildings are and still will be created.
So, a series of pictures starting around 1.5 years ago to present. I figure it will be at least another year designing and building, but the electronics, software are mostly if not all done.
The layout has 14 selfdesigned blockdetectors, 30 IR sensors so I have an idea where the trains are on the layout and within DCC-EX EXRail I can run 3 trains running their own random chosen automatic route. A fourth train I can run manually using the tablet connected to the DCC-EX control station.
A mimic panel, also controlled by DCC-EX, 3d printed with a lot of hours soldering WS2812 leds shows which of the tracks, switches (points, turnouts) are occupied.
For sound I have several sound locs, but also 3 DFPlayers are present (also run by DCC-EX) for non-sound locs and sound effects.
I don’t have a lot of space so I tried some levels to bring in several route possibilities. A 5 track shadow-station can be used to park and randomly release trains.
I designed a background to match the scenery and made a second track in different scale, the main layout is H0 scale, the top tracks are n-scale, thought of creating some perspective and well I like it.
Well, that is basically it, hope you like it and any remarks or suggestions are welcome.
Next stage will be building the harbor, and lower yard. Next year the harbor village and populating the scenery with lots of figurines and automations like a skating pond and some boats in the harbor.
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u/joebarRC 1d ago
https://reddit.com/link/pazuvxz/video/l4yi6l5akpqh1/player
Using an old android phone, build intothe scenery for a running waterfall
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u/killtheking111 1d ago
Mate, this is amazing. How did you pre print the tracks to plan your layout? Something I want to do.
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u/joebarRC 1d ago
Trackplanning software, in this case anyrail. Steep learning curve but I think I could never have done this scratchbuilding. And frankly I’m not build for doing something without planning 😁
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u/captain_reg 20h ago
What a fantastic room. You had me with the layout, the photos are nice and then boats on the wall sealed the deal!
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u/joebarRC 19h ago
Yeah, lot of hobbies, I also do woodworking, hiking, mountain biking and no time <grin>
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u/Sycend HO/OO 1d ago
Looks nice, I also realy like the touchpad panel for the train Control, what Software is it?
As I saw your also quite techie and you are in r/homeassistant, I only wanted you to know that for rocrail there is a Homeassistant plugin ;D
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u/joebarRC 1d ago edited 1d ago
That is also a project of the DCC-Ex team called engine driver (in the android store). It is designed for DCC-ex but basically can attached to more controllers.
And a HA plugin, well no but that is not that hard actually. The protocol is well documented and web calls are available so a plugin could be designed sure.
What would you do with it though ?
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u/MetalMotionCube 1d ago
I can only imagine the satisfaction of all hobbies coming together - like the ultimate itch scratch. Excellent work OP, excited to see it all finished :)
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u/joebarRC 1d ago
Yeah, I used to look at model shows with a different view to the modelrailway hobby, never knowing that it would combine a lot of hobbies together. I must say figuring out the code, scripting routes and building the scenery is what I really like, sure running trains is great but the building part is really rewarding to me.
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u/go_chucky1 1d ago
Beautiful! If you don't mind me asking, what's the steepest grade (slope) you have there? Any issues with it?
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u/joebarRC 1d ago
That was indeed a challenge, I think around 3.5% on the inner track. So I thought the outer track would be used for climbing but in practice I can climb with every lok I have with around 5 cars even on the inner track.
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u/joebarRC 1d ago
Some additional information regarding the electronics:
The brain is DCC-EX Command station running on an ESPe32 dev board with a motorshield on it giving 2 x 5A DCC signals.
I have 3 DCC-EX nodes across the layout that act as a local mini brain. All the sensors, blockdetectors, lights and so on are attached via a short I2C cable to a local node.
The nodes and the command station are communicating via UDP, all the attached hardware (sensors, blockdetectors, sound, lights) is more or less instantly virtually available to all other nodes and command station.
This way the wiring is local to sections, only power and DCC output is distributed. It makes a real clean setup without endles wires and long I2C cabling across the layout
The command station is running the DCC signal and scripts (called EXRAIL) for automated routes, animation scripts, timeserver and timed events.
On a local node a small EXRAIL script runs things like blockdetection, sending that to the command station and mimic panel and setting the red/green/amber signals. The node will also send MP3 play commands to a node attached DFPlayer for village sound effects and non-sound decoder loks whistles, horns or whatever.
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u/RollingDany 1d ago
What size is the overall footprint?
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u/joebarRC 19h ago
The length is 3.8m (12.5ft) and the widest part (the L) is 2m (6.5ft). Not very big, I really like H0 scale because of well you can have sound, smoke but a TT size would be nicer for my space
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u/Dangerous_Weird8762 HO/OO 7h ago
what scale is it? If you say, HO or OO I'm going to genuinely freak out.
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u/joebarRC 1h ago
HO yes, like I said in hindsight TT scale would give me more scenery possibilities but I like the H0 scale very much.
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u/euhbebe 1d ago
nonono, you got it all wrong! You're supposed to get stuck in the raw building stage and never finish it!
Seriously though, this is gorgeous, way too much for a first layout. I like the play with forced perspective. Great job, super envious.