Here's what my set up will be as it stands now once I finish the wiring. Layout is basically two 4' x 8' sheets connected in the middle by a 4' x 3', U shape. The main runs along the outer edge, with 8' sidings down both sides, and off the sides there a a few industrial spurs. My yard consists of 15 open ended laddered tracks. District 1 will be the yard, 2 will be the East or righthand 4'x8', and 3 will be the lefthand West 4'x8'. DCC set up will be a MRC Express, not connected to the track only for programing, connected the the MRC 8 AMP Booster connected to the 3 districts. For short protect I'm putting an NCE CP6/6 in for protection/isolation. I have available an MRC 5 AMp breaker if I need it. I plan on running 2 & 3 loco consists. Say a coal train on the main, couple of single loco locals on the sidings. The local switch jobs in the yard and to the industries. Three seperate AWG 14 open ended Buse, with AWG 20 feeders every 3 ft or so.
Could I get along with just a single Prodigy Advanced at 3.5 amps? Or should I keep my present set up plan? You're wondering why I ask. Will a little birdy told me my lovely wife brought me an Advanced for Xmas, not knowing that I already had what I needed or thought I needed.
The determining factor for your booster decision is how many locomotives and lighted cars will be drawing power at once. I doubt that you will need a booster, but if you are not sure, wire it for two and just connect the two sections with a jumper. If you find that your power is not sufficient, remove the jumper and place a booster in it's place.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
I'd bet you can get by with your existing set-up. The few trains you're talking of running will use a large part of it's capacity, but I doubt it'll exceed it.
8 amps is way more capacity than you'll likely need. I have two 5 amp boosters and can run 6 operators and it's never shown any sign of being close to capacity. However, if you're thinking of adding more trains, that could come in handy, but only if you're talking a significant expansion.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
I agree. There are 2 reasons for boosters - power requirements and length requirements. I don't think you're going to need one for either reason.
But, be good to your future self. As suggested, wire the layout as if you would be adding a booster, isolating both the bus structure and the track. Wire it with hefty bus wires, too. Instead of a booster, insert a circuit breaker to both protect the sections and to help in solving wiring problems down the line. (Yeah, you'll have them.) You might even consider subdividing the sections further, with more breakers.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I have a 2.5 amp system running my entire 13 X 24 layout. We regularly have four operators running multiple unit trains and have never overloaded it .... which in all honesty, always surprised me !
Mark.
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