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I have some (very small) DCC knowledge, some greater electrical knowledge. Here is an opinion based on that: DCC does encode a digital signal on the rails (and on the bus, for that matter). I think that the frequency of the signal is actually pretty low, in electrical terms, or it would not be forgiving to all of the various wiring methods that obviously work. So I'd start by saying that especially in a smaller layout there it isn't going to make a bit of difference. If the path is long enough, and the frequency is high enough, there theoretically could be trouble. So given that, it seems that the right way is to not close the loop for the bus, and to break the loop in the track as well. Even if you don't use additional boosters Joe Fugate's FORUM CLINIC:Twelve Years Experience Using DCC http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=36389 shows some good reasons to break the loop, and an interesting method. So, I'd say the answer is that strictly speaking you only want a single path from the sorce to the destination, so not completeing the loop is correct, and for the some reason, as well as others, the track should not be continuous either. So, yes, theoretically a looped bus could add interference, though in most cases it will probably not be noticed. Thinking a bit more, the bus should probably be broken at the point farthest from the source, to minimize the maximum distance to the destination. In some cases more of a star bus might make sense, as long as you always know that any section of track is only powered by one leg of the star. you could even go with all "home runs", but I think that's over the top! Jeff
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