Power is 2-rail electric using DCC. The digital signals in the alternating track current are read by mobile decoders and fed to the Locomotive motors as direct current. Digitrax, ZTC and similar NMRA DCC compliant decoders are perfectly compatible with digital sound-only decoders from Soundtraxx as well as with various makes of combined power and sound decoders. In 2007 I changed the base station from ZTC to Massoth to benefit from the remote control handset. Massoth works with Digitrax and Soundtrax but not with ZTC decoders.
The layout is in the 'dog-bone' or 'dumb-bell' style for continuous running, being a length of double track with turning circles at each end. The tightest curves on the layout are to 10 foot radius.
Up to 2004 the wheels were 42.0 mm back to back with 1.5 mm deep flanges. Models were at 10 mm/ft and 29:1 scales.
From Jan 2005 all fresh stock has been at a scale of 1:32 and been given wheels with dead scale (0.9 mm deep) flanges.
Initially I used a back to back of 42.2 mm but I then (Oct 2007) succesfully tested some wheels with 'dead' scale back to back of 42.46 mm,
(or as close as I could get to that) through the G1MRA Fine points.
All of the remaining stock with scale flanges then had their back-to-backs widened close to the deadscale dimension of 42.46 (min 42.4, max 42.5) so I run no stock at 42.2 b-b. At this stage I had 2 Diesels, a Challenger, 8 coaches and about 20 freight vehicles with 32:1 scaled down flanges and back-to-backs (0.9 x 42.46 mm). They all ran outdoors through the existing Gauge One Fine points. To test the wheelsets a few flangeways on the indoor layout have been fixed at 1.4 mm. All new points will be made with 1.4 mm flangeways. These dimensions have been used for all subsequent stock including the 4-8-8-4 Union Pacific Big Boy converted in the winter of 2008-9.
