Again this info that I am getting has been great. Here is another question...I am wiring my lower staging so that the mainline has power the whole time.But the staging track will be powered only when I am moving a train out to themainline...1) Should there be only one line of power to the track, and use jumpers aroundthe rail joiners?2) Or should there be small individual bus lines to each track.I think the former would be the easiest, but what do you think?Thanks againJim
I would use a separate bus from the main that can be switched off. The if you run the bus perpendicular to the staging tracks, say in the middle, you could just run jumpers up from that. Of course you might want to think in terms of some sort of occupancy detection as well, which might influence your wiring.
Simon Modelling CB&Q and Wabash See my slowly evolving layout on my picturetrail site http://www.picturetrail.com/simontrains and our videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCrispybake?feature=mhum
Thanks for the reply
This seems to be the opinion on this matter, so it does give me a direction.
Thank you again
Jim
Why go through the extra work and possibility of something going wrong by doing this? Wire it the same as you would any other section of the layout. Continue running the track main buss wires under the section of hidden staging and run your feeders to the buss. If you start putting in switches to trun things on and off it's jsut one more place for a problem to arise. Let the simplicity of DCC wiring work for you.The only need for toggels switches are to operated turnouts or turn on or off lights in your structures.
Allegheny2-6-6-6 Why go through the extra work and possibility of something going wrong by doing this? Wire it the same as you would any other section of the layout. Continue running the track main buss wires under the section of hidden staging and run your feeders to the buss. If you start putting in switches to trun things on and off it's jsut one more place for a problem to arise. Let the simplicity of DCC wiring work for you.The only need for toggels switches are to operated turnouts or turn on or off lights in your structures.
Agree with this fully. I have three hidden staging yards on my layout, along with two major freight yards and I don't have a toggle or switch anywhere to be seen. Let the track switches do the routing.
Bob
If you run passenger trains or sound engines, I would advise using toggle switches. The complexity is minimal. For freight with non-sound engines, you can leave the track powered. Of course, for hidden staging the extra safety of a kill switch for each track might be worth the small investment for a toggle switch and some wire.
Not all turnouts are power-routing. Of all the options, the use of power-routine turnouts to control power to a siding is probably the most likely to cause problems. Hidden staging? Murphy is chuckling already.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Actually Murphy hasn't been around my staging yards I mentioned, and they are at least 10 years old. But I will certainly look for him.
pastorbobActually Murphy hasn't been around my staging yards I mentioned, and they are at least 10 years old.
Another example of the virtue of being "religious" about your trackwork. Congratulations. I hope I can say the same about my own hidden staging 10 years from now.
For the minimal added cost and effort, might as well add the toggle switch (DPST). This way you are already set should you want to make the lower level a separate power district with it's own short protection. IMHO
Alan
Co-owner of the proposed CT River Valley RR (HO scale) http://home.comcast.net/~docinct/CTRiverValleyRR/
MisterBeasley pastorbobActually Murphy hasn't been around my staging yards I mentioned, and they are at least 10 years old. Another example of the virtue of being "religious" about your trackwork. Congratulations. I hope I can say the same about my own hidden staging 10 years from now.
Actually I do burn a little incense in one of the diesels before an op session. Or maybe I am just fortunate. My railroad is getting pretty old now, started in 1984, but I used a non DCC command control called Dynatrol until 2000 when I switched to NCE and I just never had any problems, other than replacing a switch machine or two.
Actually, I am going to have engines with sound and DCC, and passenger trains. So being able to shut the power off to these areas would be benificial so there would be no power drain.
I have seen articles where the turnout mototor routes the power to the track ie: when the turnout is not thrown there is no power to the track. Neat!
In my opinion, this is a very good thing to do so there is no excess power draw. My only question then is how best to wire it. I know that if I use my track as a bus there is a power drain, but it is only 18-20ft of track, so I don't think this is that big of a deal.
I never thought of routing the power to the middle of the staging track. this would mean that there would be only a 10ft track bus. That is not a bad idea.
very good ideas, keep them commin'
Do read Allan Garnter's General Considerations for Running Buses Under Your Layout on http://www.wiringfordcc.com/track_2.htm
Is this single-ended or double-ended staging? If it's double-ended, then you need to be concerned with the turnouts on both ends. Operationally, you can use a single toggle to control both turnouts, but you may not want to force yourself to run that way.
What brand of turnouts are you using? That will determine what options you have with respect to power-routing.
If your sidings will be 18-20 feet long, then you're going to want multiple feeders on each one. The general practice is to put feeders every 3 to 6 feet.
This will be double ended staging. I will be building the turnouts using fast tracks and I will use tortoise switch machines.
I guess I will be using mini buses for each of the staging tracks. I definutely want to be able to mpower the tracks down as I have all sound and DCC engines.
And yes I will need to wire both turnout motor to run off of one switch. It is a lot of wiring but it will be well worth it.
Thanks
jim