I have a 5x10 loop with a passing track at one end. The turnouts are all Walthers DCC Ready or Peco DCC Ready.
Do I need to add any insulated rail joiners near the turnouts?
Photos in the 2/08 MR (p.45 bottom left - p.46 top) seem to show insulated rail joiners on both diverging sets of rails (can't see the other end of the turnout).
They talk a lot about soldering rail joiners, but not a lot about when to use insulated rail joiners.
It would seem to me that on a small layout with feeder wires to each section of track, the feeder wires would defeat the purpose of the insulators since the track bus doesn't also have insulated sections (though it could be divided up and connected to a DCC booster with a reverser).
So I'm wondering, am I missing something? I haven't had an issue with this sort of track arrangement in my DC days (didn't need insulators there).
Simple rule of thumb: if it didn;t need insulated joiners in DC, it doesn't need insulated joiners in DCC. And vice-versa. A short is a short is a short, regardless if the power source is DC, AC, DCC, or magic.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
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rrinker Simple rule of thumb: if it didn;t need insulated joiners in DC, it doesn't need insulated joiners in DCC. And vice-versa. A short is a short is a short, regardless if the power source is DC, AC, DCC, or magic. --Randy
So why does the MR crew seem to use insulated rail joiners so much during their layout construction for DCC layouts (eliminating the need for blocks)?
They used insulated rail joiners to connect this branch line to the other parts of the layout,(not shown in the layout diagram p.47 of Jan.08 issuse of MR), because they probably join reverse loops or wyes in the rest of the layout. Or, more probably, the insulated joiners are used to isolate this branch from the rest of the layout, so that each Power District can be turned on or off by toggle switches. I have divided my layout into four Power districts, which can be operated independently. A short in one district does not affect operation in any other district. It makes location of shorts and test runs more efficient. I use insulated joiners extensively on switches, with jumpers soldered across the insulatd joiners, I never solder joiners to tracks directly. Feeder wires can be clipped and rearranged easier than trying to unsolder joints for rearrangements. (Especially, on switches!) With a single loop and passing siding, you have no reverse loops or wyes to contend with, so the use of insulated rail joiners is not necessary. On my DCC layout, there are six reverse loops and three wyes, with the seven track pass-through staging yard being part of a reverse loop. Even though the DCC is not DC, I marked the rather complicated layout with + and - , to determine where there would be change of polarity, that must be taken care of. In general, "If it worked OK with DC, it will work OK with DCC. Bob H.
The need for gaps on that passing siding also depends on the type of turnout being used.
PECO Electrofrogs would make a gap mandatory on a passing siding, but none would be needed on a stub end siding.
you could use the insulated joiners to isolate the passing siding should you want to control the power to the passing siding to park a train and have it unpowered. Other than that you have received good advice fron the other guys.
This is DCC, you do not need to turn off power to "park" a train.
You can have multiple feeders to a layout to minimize voltage drop.
Multiple power districts basically mean nothing unless you might not run DCC on parts of the layout or you have independent circuit breakers on each power district.
The old timers find it hard to break old habits sometimes.
Regards, Greg
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True, although as we've discussed here several times, there are a few cases where it might be useful to be able to switch off the power completely, even though technically it's not required in DCC. Agreed a simple visible passing siding is probably not one of those.
And Greg, if you edit your signature and put [ u r l ] in front of your web page and [ / u r l ] behind it, it will make the link active so peopel can just click on it. No spaces in the commands.