At completion the two ends of the railroad will have a staging yard and return loop. The control panel will be centrally located about 30' from either end. The circuit breakers for NCE come mounted 6 to the card that will require block feeders of 10',20' and 30' in each directiion. I could cut down on the wire if I could place a breaker at each block and feed the block off a single set of leads 30' long and tee off them for each block. Am I missing something or are individual breakers available?
Hello All,
ndbprrThe circuit breakers for NCE come mounted 6 to the card...
You have the CP6 fuse array.
These are not circuit breakers, they are a type of fuse. The filament in the bulb will "break" (fail) when overloaded- -short detected.
A true circuit breaker uses either mechanical or electronic overload parameters to "trip" or fail in the same way.
These devices can be reset.
Fuse-type devices; which you have, the filament (fuse) will need to be replaced when they fail.
Now, back to your question...
The input to the CP6 needs to come directly from the DCC booster/command station, NCE connectors can handle up to 12 AWG.
Each output of the unit should now be considered a protected district.
The terminals on the output side of the CP6 can accommodate 14 AWG wire (if using stranded- -tin the ends).
You will need to break your bus into six (6) districts.
Each district; 1-6, will connect to the outputs; 1-6, of the CP6.
Because you have only "interrupted" the bus, rather than removing and replacing the existing wiring, the bus will be compatible with the power management device you have selected.
With filament-type power management, you might consider mounting the CPC close to or on the control panel.
If a fault occurs, and the filament ignites, you can address the issue before burnout.
When you have to replace the fuse, it is readily accessible- -rather than crawling under the layout to replace it.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
I use the PSX breakers from DCC Specialties. They are available, I believe, as single breakers, two-on-a-board and four-on -a-board packages. They are solid state, very fast devices that can be programmed to different trigger currents via DCC.
Note that a reverse loop also counts as an isolated zone and an auto-reverser also serves as a circuit breaker.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.