I am getting ready to build an around the room layout that will have an yard at one end, industrial area in the middle and another yard at the far end which will then connect back to the first yard. So an continous loop if you will. this will be an double track mainline.
Now my question. From what I gather I will run one set of bus wires around the layout and connect my feeders to the track from their. Now having doubletrack and extra track for siding, yards, etc. Do all my feeders come off the main bus for everything, or do I need to run 2 sets of bus wires around the layout, one for mainline, one for the sidings, yards, etc. or everything off of one set?
Rob
Rob.
It would be easy right now to run three or even four buss lines and keep the yards, industrial area, and 2 mains separate. Even if you are a lone operator any short in one district will not affect the others. Either 4 separate buss lines or one large buss with breakers and sub buss that the feeders would attach to. Another good reason to have separate buss lines is easier diagnostics.
Allan Gartners wiring for DCC web site is great. http://www.wiringfordcc.com/track.htm
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
Rob,
Pete raises some very good points about the use and the advantage of multiple buses.
Having said that, I have a fairly large double main line layout with multiple yards, and I use only a single set of bus wires. I have never really experienced diagnostic problems with only a single set of bus wires. But, I am a lone wolf operator, so when a short occurs and the whole layout comes to a halt, I pretty much know where the problem occurred, and I like to fix that problem immmediately before any damage is caused to equipment.
Rich
Alton Junction
Depending on the size of the layout, I would also suggest multiple bus lines. Each bus should be on its own circuit breaker to make this worthwhile. I personally use the PSX-4 quad circuit breaker from Tony's Trains / DCC Specialties, but there are other good products available as well.
If you have reversing loops or wyes, each of these requires separation. You can wire them through an auto-reverse unit. Many auto-reverse systems also provide circuit breaker protection, so these can be wired directly from your DCC base station and don't require additional breakers.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
The comment and questions related to how big is the absolute size of your layout are key. My layout is physically large in extent, but has relatively little track for its size. Being narrow gauge, a big yard for me is about 3 or 4 switched tracks with one being a future turntable to a thee engine roundhouse.
With a single 70 foot long mainline and only a few sidings, a single, two wire 12 guage solid buss is more than I could ever need. I am a single operator and have never run more than 2 DCC locos at one time and could not imagine ever running more than that.
You need to look at your realistic planned activity and trackage size vs. your physical layout size and figure from there. Over grandiose ideas up front can lead to needless expense and vast under-utilization in the end.
I prefer to start simple on the largest platform possible with minimum trackage and a simplistic operational regime and then expand as my capabilites and experiences allow, coupled to the normal recovery time of my purse.
I guess the only reason I got into DCC was for the sound and the doing away with the old switched block concept within analog operation. The idea of adding separate DCC power blocks, boosters and extra busses seems a bit like a giant leap backwards. However, if you are really building massive amounts of trackage and or huge phiysical size, or plan on having many cab controls, well.......
Richard
If I can't fix it, I can fix it so it can't be fixed