I have several older Walthers switches (non DCC Ready) that I am using on my layout with a block system. All of my leads that are wired with the same polarity as the main line and the leg that come off of the switches are isolated with insulation joiners. I am looking to go to DCC and I am wondering do I have to cut and rewire all of my switches (60 in all) or since I have insulated the legs that come off of the switches and have wired the legs with the same polarity as my main line am I ok?
On my DCC layout I have a lot of older non DCC friendly switches. The throat of the switch is connected to the rails. The diverging route and the main leaving the switch are insulated from the rails. Just like yours?
I have not had any problems with this setup running DCC engines.
If your layout was properly gapped, operating after DCC conversion should be no different from operating with plain-Jane DC - except for the elimination of any kind of rail power routing circuitry.
The exception is found with some older Shinohara turnouts, which had contact blades attached to the points, which sometimes caused direct shorts between the stock rails. The cure is removal of those little contacts, which can be done in place with a Dremel tool.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
If it works well in DC, it should be fine in DCC. Convert over and see if any problems crop up. Fix only as necessary. I know of several large DC layouts that converted to DCC without any track modifications and work great. I think you'll like DCC....
Guy
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site