, , engines and cars and one engine and one Morep railcar. Initially the Märklin engines were conventional but when Märklin began its digital line I converted all of my engines to digital and have purchased digital engines ever since. The HAG engines are also digital with most of them purchased as digital engines converted at the factory with Märklin decoders, most of them 6090's. The Roco engines all have Motorola (Märklin) decoders in them. Most were purchased with the decoder factory installed and several earlier models had the decoder installed by a dealer. I installed two myself since recent Roco engines come with a connector for decoders. The Brawa engine has a Roco decoder and the Morep railcar has the only 
decoder.The layout is 24 feet by 20 feet and is divided into sections. There are two large sections, one a German city and the other an industrial area with a sidings, a turntable, a roundhouse and assorted factories and industrial buildings. There is a long section between these two that is 10 tracks wide which is both a yard and a main line connecting the city and industrial sections. There is a fourth section that is a two tiered yard with a combined total of 15 sidings. Finally, there is a section with a small village and farm. All of these are interconnected allowing a train to run from one to the other, making stops at the various stations along the way.
The buildings are mainly Vollmer with some Kibri. I hope to add some tunnels and mountains to the layout which will allow me to add a village or two.
The layout was powered by 6 Mărklin transformers and 5 Mărklin boosters. I have replaced them with a single Eckert EE 300D digital power unti which provides both a power source and booster for 12 preset wattage channels. I use 4 channels for track power to 4 layout sections and 2 for switches and signals. The remaining channels will be used for accessories and future layout expansion. I have completely rewired the layout using stranded 12 guage bare copper wires for track power, switches/signals, common ground and accessories. In some places I have used insulated 12 guage wire. I have connected distribution points throughout the layout from each of these allowing for easy connections to tracks and switches/signals. The layout is totally digital.
made by 
and which has a Märklin keyboard, control 80f and an interface attached. I have added an Uhlenbrock IB Remote, two Uhlenbrock IB Switches, three Uhlenbrock Daisy's two Uhlenbrock FREDS and an IRIS (IR unit). These are all connected with a LocoNet system with Loy's Toys connectors located all around the layout. I can also control my trains using a Windows program, , which allows me to run a train as if I had a Control 80F and keyboards. With TPL I can run various routes that I create using simple commands. I have routes that run five trains at the same time. With planning one could run ten or more trains at the same time. The program also has a graphing module which allows me to diagram my layout and control switches and signals from the diagram.I used to contol the trains with an infra-red system developed by Modellbahn Ott connected to the Mărklin interface to control the engines and switches, should I choose to run the trains distant from the computer or the Control 80F. While it is still connected, I now use the Uhlenbrock IRIS which a far more versatile and powerful infra-red unit. It allows the contol of any four loks and can control functions 1-12. It can set any turnout and can even control routes created with the IB. A really powerful unit to have. Makes working on switches under the layout easier to test, allows easy contol of a lok when it derails a good distance from the other controls. I just walk to the lok, correct the problem and turn the layout back on and control the lok rigth there.
There are 120 switches, including slip and three way switches and a dozen or so signals. The layout had 5 Mărklin S 88's which had 60 contact tracks connected to them. I have since replaced the Mărklin S 88's with Uhlenbrock S 88's which connect directly to the LocoNet. This saved a tremendous amount of wiring.
The layout had all Mărklin metal track but I have converted most of the mainlines to C track for better conductivity since the layout is entirely digital. I have made my own transition tracks allowing me to connect C track to M track virtually anywhere on the layout. The only problem I have encountered with the change to C track is the unavailability of wide double slip C track switches forcing me to retain the M track switches. I have replaced many of the M contact tracks with C contact tracks.
I have several Mike's Train House 0 Gauge 
engines with appropriate car sets that I have running on the floor surrounding my layout. I was attracted to these engines because of their realistic scale, the sounds that they make and the quality of the product. I got hooked and, as happened with my Märklin layout, the MTH layout has grown over the past several years. I have added a few pictures of the engines and will eventually put them all on this home page as time permits.
