The endorsements I really appreciate are the ones where the presenter goes off-script and tells us what they really think - telling us why THEY like it not the company line. This video takes it to the next level. Cheers!
Derails are great in that they've never once told me what to say. For the vast majority of the sponsors on this channel I do genuinely use and enjoy their services (which is often why they end up becoming sponsors) so it's easy for me to talk about why I recommend them.... aside from forgetting when the video was due to be released of course 😅 Thanks for watching 👍
A great addition to the layout and good to se North Poleton back again this year; great tips for adding the DCC shuttle - very easy to follow. Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
It was definitely nice to finish off this longterm project and it's definitely added a lot of interest to the layout while it's been out this Christmas. Thanks for watching and Merry Christmas to you too 🎅
It's certainly nice to have two trains running on the layout now and people who have seen the layout always seemed to be impressed by the little tram running itself. Thanks for watching 🎅
Perfect timing. Someone at my club was asking about a DCC shuttle for his layout, so I'll be sure to pass this excellent little tutorial on. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Wonderful way to add interest to a point-to-point section. Nicely explained & surely an incentive to get my baseboards (& stuff) down from the loft. All the best for 2025.👍
The plan eventually is to 3D print some wagon loads made to look like presents, either being delivered or sent out from the elves warehouse. Thanks for watching 🎅
This is such a unique system I never knew existed. I'm not a modeler being more involved with Train Simulator, but I often do little hypothetical of "If I did build a model railway". One I've mulled over is trying to adapt the Rev. W. Awdry first model depiction of the NWR from Tidmouth-Knapford updated to somehow include Duck's branch line "The Little Western". This particular branch is operated with GWR Autocoaches in push-pull service. Using the shuttle system I could have either a model of Duck or Oliver coming in through the rear of Tidmouth, stopping in the terminus, then reversing back out of Tidmouth without any input from me, without interrupting other operations on the layout, and it would still look correct. Taking it a step further I could do something similar at Knapford with Thomas or Daisy operating as a push-pull running into Knapford from Ffarquhar out of shot into the branch platform and reversing back to Ffarquhar and similarly not interrupting operations on the layout, still looking correct, and leaving me better able to focus on operating the main line and shunting at Tidmouth. Now I'm tempted to download some software and sketch it out...
The Push-Pull trains and Single Car DMUs would be a perfect application for the system. Enough to give you a little bit of automatic movement every so often while the main layout can be operated manually. Thanks for watching 😃
It reallly adds interest, seeng the two trains in motion - sometimes travelling side by side in the same direction, other times in opposite directions. Now youneed a station stop for the OO train.
It's definitely nice having two trains moving on the layout. Now that's an interesting idea - although possibly a bit more tricky to do because of the location of the bridge. But definitely an idea for the future perhaps using ABC functions on DCC. Thanks for watching 🎅
My pleasure! Yeah it's really handy they do these for DCC too. A little more expensive (as is everything with DCC!) but obviously very useful if the rest of your locos are all chipped. Thanks for watching 🎅
I’m a big fan of your tutorial videos, it makes me excited to make my own layout eventually. I do have a question though. Would you ever consider making a winter layout tutorial? I’ve tried looking for some but I’ve never found any good ones, and seeing as how you’re one of the best model railroader tutorial UA-camrs, I was hoping you’d give it a go one day. Anyways keep up the excellent work!
Hi there, glad you're enjoying the videos. I've already done a whole series on the Christmas/Winter themed layout shown in this video: ua-cam.com/play/PLrxCs5t2FkmxLex747V0kLVpub41ITtT3.html The series covers the whole build from start to finish including things like adding snow and icicles around the layout. Hope that helps and thanks for watching 🎅
It is really enchanting to see the little train stop and start again all by itself. Glad you enjoyed the tutorial, hopefully it shows how easy it is to do! Thanks for watching 🎅
That was great tutorial on that shuttle set-up. It seems to work really well and looks like fun to watch. Thanks for sharing and hope you had a great Christmas and Happy New Year. GOD BLESS from America 🚂💕🚂💕🚂💕🚂💕🚂💕
Lovely video and compliments of the season. Thanks for presenting this great idea and product. If you need DCC because the stock is used eleswhere then it is a nice solution. It also adds some realisim if it uses momentum settings to gently accellerate/decellerate the loco. Curious that have to bridge both ends, they could have done that in the circuit. Looks expensive tho, so only worth it if you need DCC. A DC solution can be made much cheaper with a timer and a relay and a couple of diodes at the track breaks, but more effort, and not as elegant.
The DCC shuttle unit does allow for the momentum programmed on the decoder - so it won't come to a dead stop when entering the section if the deceleration CV is set particularly high... and obviously the same for the acceleration CV when starting off again. There are analog shuttle units available too - Block Signalling have a few versions available and there are plenty of others on the market as well but they do work in a slightly more rudimentary fashion by cutting the power when the loco enters the section. Hope that helps and thanks for watching 🎅
Interesting. A Keep Alive I guess would not be recommended in this install. However, it would be interesting to set up a test to how much further a Keep Alive loco would run beyond the stop gaps. A little planning from the testing could make for an interesting narrow gauge runner.
A Keep/Stay Alive would be fine as the DCC shuttle unit sends slow & stop commands rather than just cutting the power like on a traditional analog shuttle unit. So adding a capacitor wouldn't keep it running any longer, it would only kick in if needed - the same as it would for manual running. Hope that helps and thanks for watching 🎅
@@ThatModelRailwayGuy I could use one of these. However, I would have to order it from the UK. Do any of the UK hobby shops carry this board that ship to the U.S.? The eBay listing mentioned they did not post to the U.S.
Thank you for that, really interesting. So much so, I've ordered one! One question though, as it is an entirely seperate controller, does the shuttle not care about the loco address, or should the loco be on a specific address?
Awesome, best of luck with the install. The shuttle will send the commands to all locos addressed 1-99 so as long as your DCC address is set within that range you'll be fine. Hope that helps and thanks for watching 🎅
I love this, have been wanting to do a shuttle on my layout one day and this seems a lot simpler than I feared? Have you come across the DCC concept shuttle units that go in the locos? Is there much of a different set up for those?
Yeah it's definitely really easy to do - took me a couple of hours in total. I have seen the DCC shuttle units. They work in a similar way that you still isolate the track into 3 difference sections but each section needs its own control board. I believe you also have to use their Zen decoders to get the full functionality out of the shuttle too, although I think some ESU and Zimo decoders are mostly compatible too. The Pros are you don't have to isolate the whole shuttle area from the rest of your layout but the Cons are that it's more expensive and is a bit more complicated to setup. Hope that helps and thanks for watching 🎅
You don't need to. The shuttle unit outputs the commands to all addresses between 1-99, so as long as your decoders address is in that range it'll respond. Thanks for watching 😃
Merry Christmas. This was very timely as one of my top projects is an end to end layout that I want to be able to run automatically like this. My question would be as I am starting from scratch is what are the pros and cons (if any) of DCC or non-DCC shuttle units? Will it make any difference at all given that the line is isolated and in my case will have dedicated rolling stock? I also note that the placing of the break at either end is very important, something I will be wary of as I have stations at either end so will want the train to stop in the right position! Many thanks.
Awesome, sounds like a fun project! If it's all isolated and you'll only be using specific locos then it comes down to personal preference really. Some people prefer using DCC because they feel they can get better slow speed/consistent running or can add things like sound and stay alives, meanwhile others prefer the simplicity of DC analog. To get the stopping position right it might be best to do a test setup first so you can see how long your specific loco takes to come to a stop once it enters the section. Then you can measure that distance and cut the rail accordingly on the actual layout. Remember the speed the shuttle unit is set too will have a bearing on this - as will the inertia settings of the loco itself if using DCC. Hope that helps and thanks for watching 🎅
Wanted one of these for a while on my end to end diorama on a shelf so this is a push yo get round to getting one and installing it. However, I'm guessing that when you install it you are stuck to the automatic features it brings all the time you run it so therefore if you wanted to run it without the shuttle in place it wont work due to the breaks in the track? Let me know if theres a way of switching between shuttle mode and manual mode if that makes sense. Thanks again
As I noted during the wiring diagram section, the shuttle section of track and the unit itself has to be electrically isolated from the rest of your layout, so it's basically one or the other. I suppose technically you could have some sort of setup where you manually hooked up the track feed wires to either the shuttle unit or your normal DCC bus... but I'd be wary of doing it myself personally as I wouldn't want to damage the shuttle unit. Hope that helps and thanks for watching 🎅
Would need a four pole double throw switch to for the two main shuttle wires plus the isolated end bits to change between shuttle and DCC circuit. Complex but doable, and more complex if the shuttle track section is not isolated from the rest of the layout.
@richlawrence4160 Yes I was thinking something along those lines… or perhaps even simpler, a set of connector blocks to physically plug the feeds into either the shuttle unit or main DCC bus.
On this layout yes, the buildings on the lower level (Goods Shed ad Station Waiting Room) are fixed down. The ones on the top level (Houses, Pu & Church) are removable to allow for easier storage the rest of the year. Thanks for watching 🎅
Well as the sponsor for this video is Derails Model Shop I'd recommend starting there (there's a link in the description 😉). They're actually doing a deal on points at the moment if you order before New Year's Day. Thanks for watching 🎅
The endorsements I really appreciate are the ones where the presenter goes off-script and tells us what they really think - telling us why THEY like it not the company line. This video takes it to the next level. Cheers!
Derails are great in that they've never once told me what to say. For the vast majority of the sponsors on this channel I do genuinely use and enjoy their services (which is often why they end up becoming sponsors) so it's easy for me to talk about why I recommend them.... aside from forgetting when the video was due to be released of course 😅 Thanks for watching 👍
A great addition to the layout and good to se North Poleton back again this year; great tips for adding the DCC shuttle - very easy to follow. Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
It was definitely nice to finish off this longterm project and it's definitely added a lot of interest to the layout while it's been out this Christmas. Thanks for watching and Merry Christmas to you too 🎅
What a great way to add interest to an already excellent layout.
It's certainly nice to have two trains running on the layout now and people who have seen the layout always seemed to be impressed by the little tram running itself. Thanks for watching 🎅
Perfect timing. Someone at my club was asking about a DCC shuttle for his layout, so I'll be sure to pass this excellent little tutorial on.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Fantastic, yes please do! Hope it helps them with whatever they're planning. Merry Christmas to you too and thanks for watching 🎅
Wonderful way to add interest to a point-to-point section. Nicely explained & surely an incentive to get my baseboards (& stuff) down from the loft. All the best for 2025.👍
It's definitely a good way to get something running quickly in my opinion. Best of luck and thanks for watching 🎅
I love this set up. And this additional shuttle system is lovely
It does work really well! Having two trains running independently in such a small space is a really nice achievement. Thanks for watching 🎅
Either put a cover on the wagon, or use a box wagon instead. That way, you can imagine it being filled and emptied, and it won't ruin the immersion
The plan eventually is to 3D print some wagon loads made to look like presents, either being delivered or sent out from the elves warehouse. Thanks for watching 🎅
This is such a unique system I never knew existed. I'm not a modeler being more involved with Train Simulator, but I often do little hypothetical of "If I did build a model railway". One I've mulled over is trying to adapt the Rev. W. Awdry first model depiction of the NWR from Tidmouth-Knapford updated to somehow include Duck's branch line "The Little Western". This particular branch is operated with GWR Autocoaches in push-pull service. Using the shuttle system I could have either a model of Duck or Oliver coming in through the rear of Tidmouth, stopping in the terminus, then reversing back out of Tidmouth without any input from me, without interrupting other operations on the layout, and it would still look correct. Taking it a step further I could do something similar at Knapford with Thomas or Daisy operating as a push-pull running into Knapford from Ffarquhar out of shot into the branch platform and reversing back to Ffarquhar and similarly not interrupting operations on the layout, still looking correct, and leaving me better able to focus on operating the main line and shunting at Tidmouth. Now I'm tempted to download some software and sketch it out...
The Push-Pull trains and Single Car DMUs would be a perfect application for the system. Enough to give you a little bit of automatic movement every so often while the main layout can be operated manually. Thanks for watching 😃
It reallly adds interest, seeng the two trains in motion - sometimes travelling side by side in the same direction, other times in opposite directions. Now youneed a station stop for the OO train.
It's definitely nice having two trains moving on the layout. Now that's an interesting idea - although possibly a bit more tricky to do because of the location of the bridge. But definitely an idea for the future perhaps using ABC functions on DCC. Thanks for watching 🎅
Lovely video Josef, I'd previously used one of these on DC but completely forgot that they do them for dcc too! Thanks for the video!
My pleasure! Yeah it's really handy they do these for DCC too. A little more expensive (as is everything with DCC!) but obviously very useful if the rest of your locos are all chipped. Thanks for watching 🎅
Fantastic mate. Just ordered one, been looking for a DCC one for ages. Going to use on my heritage line on Pepper Road. Regards Bernie in NZ
Brilliant, glad to hear that it's helped you progress with your own layout. Best of luck and thanks for watching 🎅
Great tutorial, Joe 👍.
Hope you had a brilliant Christmas 🎄.
Glad you enjoyed it. Merry Christmas and thanks for watching 🎅
Nicely explained. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Glad you enjoyed it! Merry Christmas to you too and thanks for watching 🎅
I’m a big fan of your tutorial videos, it makes me excited to make my own layout eventually. I do have a question though. Would you ever consider making a winter layout tutorial? I’ve tried looking for some but I’ve never found any good ones, and seeing as how you’re one of the best model railroader tutorial UA-camrs, I was hoping you’d give it a go one day. Anyways keep up the excellent work!
Hi there, glad you're enjoying the videos. I've already done a whole series on the Christmas/Winter themed layout shown in this video: ua-cam.com/play/PLrxCs5t2FkmxLex747V0kLVpub41ITtT3.html
The series covers the whole build from start to finish including things like adding snow and icicles around the layout. Hope that helps and thanks for watching 🎅
@ my apologies I don’t know how I didn’t see this 😅 thank you for the response!
Ooh, that's like magic! I never realised that was how these systems worked! Love it. You made that very clear x
It is really enchanting to see the little train stop and start again all by itself. Glad you enjoyed the tutorial, hopefully it shows how easy it is to do! Thanks for watching 🎅
That was great tutorial on that shuttle set-up. It seems to work really well and looks like fun to watch. Thanks for sharing and hope you had a great Christmas and Happy New Year.
GOD BLESS from America
🚂💕🚂💕🚂💕🚂💕🚂💕
Glad you enjoyed it, it does work really well. Thanks for watching 🎅
Awesome tutorial mate!
Glad you enjoyed it - it's definitely something a lot of people might want to add to their layouts. Thanks for watching 🎅
Lovely video and compliments of the season. Thanks for presenting this great idea and product. If you need DCC because the stock is used eleswhere then it is a nice solution. It also adds some realisim if it uses momentum settings to gently accellerate/decellerate the loco. Curious that have to bridge both ends, they could have done that in the circuit. Looks expensive tho, so only worth it if you need DCC. A DC solution can be made much cheaper with a timer and a relay and a couple of diodes at the track breaks, but more effort, and not as elegant.
The DCC shuttle unit does allow for the momentum programmed on the decoder - so it won't come to a dead stop when entering the section if the deceleration CV is set particularly high... and obviously the same for the acceleration CV when starting off again.
There are analog shuttle units available too - Block Signalling have a few versions available and there are plenty of others on the market as well but they do work in a slightly more rudimentary fashion by cutting the power when the loco enters the section. Hope that helps and thanks for watching 🎅
Nice one, That Model Railway Guy. It does add quite a bit of interest to the layout operation. Not that hard at all. Good show!
It's certainly nice to have the tram engine shutting backwards and forwards on it's own. Thanks for watching 🎅
Interesting. A Keep Alive I guess would not be recommended in this install. However, it would be interesting to set up a test to how much further a Keep Alive loco would run beyond the stop gaps. A little planning from the testing could make for an interesting narrow gauge runner.
A Keep/Stay Alive would be fine as the DCC shuttle unit sends slow & stop commands rather than just cutting the power like on a traditional analog shuttle unit. So adding a capacitor wouldn't keep it running any longer, it would only kick in if needed - the same as it would for manual running. Hope that helps and thanks for watching 🎅
@@ThatModelRailwayGuy I could use one of these. However, I would have to order it from the UK. Do any of the UK hobby shops carry this board that ship to the U.S.? The eBay listing mentioned they did not post to the U.S.
Thank you for that, really interesting. So much so, I've ordered one!
One question though, as it is an entirely seperate controller, does the shuttle not care about the loco address, or should the loco be on a specific address?
Awesome, best of luck with the install. The shuttle will send the commands to all locos addressed 1-99 so as long as your DCC address is set within that range you'll be fine. Hope that helps and thanks for watching 🎅
I love this, have been wanting to do a shuttle on my layout one day and this seems a lot simpler than I feared?
Have you come across the DCC concept shuttle units that go in the locos? Is there much of a different set up for those?
Yeah it's definitely really easy to do - took me a couple of hours in total.
I have seen the DCC shuttle units. They work in a similar way that you still isolate the track into 3 difference sections but each section needs its own control board. I believe you also have to use their Zen decoders to get the full functionality out of the shuttle too, although I think some ESU and Zimo decoders are mostly compatible too.
The Pros are you don't have to isolate the whole shuttle area from the rest of your layout but the Cons are that it's more expensive and is a bit more complicated to setup. Hope that helps and thanks for watching 🎅
How did you program the DCC address on the control board?
You don't need to. The shuttle unit outputs the commands to all addresses between 1-99, so as long as your decoders address is in that range it'll respond. Thanks for watching 😃
Merry Christmas. This was very timely as one of my top projects is an end to end layout that I want to be able to run automatically like this. My question would be as I am starting from scratch is what are the pros and cons (if any) of DCC or non-DCC shuttle units? Will it make any difference at all given that the line is isolated and in my case will have dedicated rolling stock? I also note that the placing of the break at either end is very important, something I will be wary of as I have stations at either end so will want the train to stop in the right position! Many thanks.
Awesome, sounds like a fun project! If it's all isolated and you'll only be using specific locos then it comes down to personal preference really. Some people prefer using DCC because they feel they can get better slow speed/consistent running or can add things like sound and stay alives, meanwhile others prefer the simplicity of DC analog.
To get the stopping position right it might be best to do a test setup first so you can see how long your specific loco takes to come to a stop once it enters the section. Then you can measure that distance and cut the rail accordingly on the actual layout. Remember the speed the shuttle unit is set too will have a bearing on this - as will the inertia settings of the loco itself if using DCC. Hope that helps and thanks for watching 🎅
@@ThatModelRailwayGuy Many thanks for the advice.
Wanted one of these for a while on my end to end diorama on a shelf so this is a push yo get round to getting one and installing it. However, I'm guessing that when you install it you are stuck to the automatic features it brings all the time you run it so therefore if you wanted to run it without the shuttle in place it wont work due to the breaks in the track? Let me know if theres a way of switching between shuttle mode and manual mode if that makes sense. Thanks again
As I noted during the wiring diagram section, the shuttle section of track and the unit itself has to be electrically isolated from the rest of your layout, so it's basically one or the other.
I suppose technically you could have some sort of setup where you manually hooked up the track feed wires to either the shuttle unit or your normal DCC bus... but I'd be wary of doing it myself personally as I wouldn't want to damage the shuttle unit. Hope that helps and thanks for watching 🎅
Would need a four pole double throw switch to for the two main shuttle wires plus the isolated end bits to change between shuttle and DCC circuit. Complex but doable, and more complex if the shuttle track section is not isolated from the rest of the layout.
@richlawrence4160 Yes I was thinking something along those lines… or perhaps even simpler, a set of connector blocks to physically plug the feeds into either the shuttle unit or main DCC bus.
Nice!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching 🎅
Do you glue your buildings down?
On this layout yes, the buildings on the lower level (Goods Shed ad Station Waiting Room) are fixed down. The ones on the top level (Houses, Pu & Church) are removable to allow for easier storage the rest of the year. Thanks for watching 🎅
@ thanks for the quick reply appreciate it 😊
where can I find some 009 track?
Well as the sponsor for this video is Derails Model Shop I'd recommend starting there (there's a link in the description 😉). They're actually doing a deal on points at the moment if you order before New Year's Day. Thanks for watching 🎅
@@ThatModelRailwayGuy thank you