Kato test track, which controller????

[exmouthcraig]

 

Today I recieved a parcel courtesy of @Trainfish  John, I'd thought about a dedicated test track for a while and when he announced last week about off loading some of his Kato track I jumped at the chance of 1, experiencing Kato track and  2, finally getting a test oval for a very reasonable price.

After reading the NGF journal and various other threads and opinions this will be something I play about with and will probably end up being something of a trial or experimental process of various layout parts.

I'm thinking about NOT linking the 2 ovals together with points but that might change  opinions invited

My main question right now is what controller do I buy to run the oval,??? I have my dcc setup track and my dcc controlled layout so prepared to keep this pure DC and as such a good simple twin track controller is needed, not really price limited but if we start heading above the £200 mark I might have to think twice!!!

Any help or recommendations will be greatly appreciated

[ntpntpntp]

Any decent DC controller will do.

A simple Gaugemaster unit for example? Not as cheap as they used to be for a cased unit (but nothing is )   

Maybe avoid a feedback controller if you have any coreless motors or DCC fitted locos you want to run on DC.

[Calnefoxile]

Nowt wrong with a Morley Vesta, which is what I use on my Kato Test track.

Cheers

Neal.

[Bealman]

My Kato test track came with it's own Kato controller, but of course that doesn't apply here, so yes, any decent controller will suffice. And of course you'll need two for double track.

I will say that the new Hunslet runs fine on the Kato controller, though! 

[Train Waiting]

Hello Craig

For a twin-track controller, I recommend the Gaugemaster 'Model D'.  Mine is about 30 years old and works perfectly.

I inherited another from a friend who died (I think he got it second-hand) and one of the circuits doesn't work.  I contacted Gaugemaster to ask if the 'Lifetime' guarantee applied in these circumstances.  'Yes, provided it has not been opened.'  Can't get better than that.  I'll send it off in the new year as it will be good to have a spare controller for Poppingham.

It's British-made as well, if that's important to you.

All best wishes

John

[Trainfish]

Nowt wrong with a Morley Vesta, which is what I use on my Kato Test track.

Cheers

Neal.

I also recommend the Morley. I have 2 Morley Vortraks (the 4 track version) which are excellent and they come fitted with a built in CDU which works well for me when switching 2 sets of points at a time fitted with Peco point motors. It may well switch more but I've never tried it. They also come with 2 handheld controllers which are very useful, I use 4 of these myself 

It seems Morley now make 2 Vesta controllers, click here, both dedicated to N gauge but 1 is classed as a "crawler" controller which they say is more suited to shunting.

[Gordon]

I'm thinking about NOT linking the 2 ovals together with points but that might change  opinions invited

My main question right now is what controller do I buy to run the oval,???

Two would take up more space than some twin track controllers, but Kato's own controller is very smooth, and is all part of the 'plug and play' Unitrack family so dead easy to install and link pint switches to.

The various Unitrack points can be easily installed to link two ovals, and if using the Kato controllers it is easy to manually synch the speed to allow a train to switch across without jerking

[osborns]

agree with Gordon