Electronics and Wiring for Model Railways Kindle Edition

Although UK centric, the concepts are the same, and clearly illustrated and explained. If you are DCC, the basics of electricity and operations of signals and switching will be of interest, but this book has a DC focus. If you have 3 rail AC trains, this book is not for you. If you are a Raspberry Pi or Arduino fan, there are great opportunities to interface to old school electronics, just use your imagination and start replacing some of the manual controls explained in this book.

This book is almost all about DC control systems. He says this right from the start.Any serious modelers today is using DCC.Yes, you have a fairly large initial outlet, but the reduction in wiring and panel switches will make up much of the cost.You now have a layout where you run trains, not one where you run a control panel.The author described DCC as putting a constant 12 volt DC to the track. Surprise it’s 14 volts AC. (He could not even get that correct)If you really want a book on DC model railroading, (go visit your local club, I bet they use DCC, it will change your mind) there are plenty of old books you can get used.Buy them and skip this.

The book is OK and has plenty of useful data but I was dissapointed to find out, after the book arrived, that DCC was not covered in the book. This should have been mentioned in the description.

I was disappointed after reading the book and kind of expecting a more up to date book and this is why.The book in its debate about DC & DCC the DCC section is less than a page and directs to look it up further on the internet. There is nothing further about DCC or about electrofrog points and how to wire them. It appears to be all DC and insulfrog wiring. For me there is nothing you cannot find in a 1970's railway wiring book from a second hand book shop at a fraction of the cost or online for nothing. There is mention to wiring up cobalt switches but again non-digital. There is mention of single, double and triple slips, however the author has associated these to to 'Y points' and 3-way points not the expected Peco SL80 & 90 single and double slips, which may mislead people. There are some wiring diagrams for signalling and crossing gate lights, however by the time you have bought all the parts you could have bought a ready made kit. So having quite a few books on the subject I would say nothing new here, hope this helps. The fact the author prefers DC should be made more clear on the cover or back page, if you are new to the subject and do not want to go down the DCC route this may then be the book for you.

When first received I flicked through this book and was very satisfied that it was what I wanted. Unfortunately, there were very obvious errors, for example, states that a distant signal has red & yellow aspects, and also refers to a diagram that has no connection with the text. How many other errors are there? Are there any errors with the wiring diagrams?

Very elementary. Too much space given to planning and design which is covered in other appropriate titles. Only passing comments made about DCC. This book was written for the dark ages. Some factual errors and strange terminology. Also editorial cross referencing error.Extremely disappointed

I am a keen railway modeller but I didn't have much idea about the right way to go about the wiring. My wife bought this for me for my Birthday and I am delighted with it. It spells everything out in simple terms and even provides the names of companies who can supply the necessary bits and pieces.