Craig North Carolina
The safest thing is to wire that stub siding to only the programming track terminals on the DCC system and never use it for anything else. If you do want to run trains onto or off the programming track, you can wire it through a Double-Pole, Double-Throw toggle switch connected to both the programming track and main track output terminals.
At a club I belong to, we have the NCE Power Cab which has terminals for the main and program track. When we use the program track, the Power Pro shuts down the main. We also have a program track with dpdt switch.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
richg1998 At a club I belong to, we have the NCE Power Cab which has terminals for the main and program track. When we use the program track, the Power Pro shuts down the main. We also have a program track with dpdt switch. Rich
Unfortunately, Empire Builder doesn't work that way. Empire Builder programs at full power through its track outputs.
There are directions in the Empire builder manual around page 27 for connecting the programming track through a DPDT switch. It cuts power to the main line and connects power only to the program track. The same could be done using a plug on the main track bus and a duplicate plug on the program track leads. Install a socket on the Track A and B output wires and just plug in the appropriate track.
Martin Myers
I use the DB150 Super Empire Builder with the output bus wires running from the terminals to a DPST. It has a toggle that permits power thrown one way and turns off power flipped the other way.
The power bus terminates on the middle poles, but also wrapped around those screws are two thinner feeder wires leading directly above to my 24" gapped turntable lead. On the other two (end) poles of the DPST, heavier bus wires continue their task of running power to the rest of the layout under the main axis of the bench.
When I want to programme an engine, particularly the address, I place it on the programming track only after I have flipped the toggle on the DPST. When I do that, the rest of the layout, fed from the two end-poles, goes dead. But remember that I have two sets of wires sharing the center input poles, so those poles are live. That means my programming track also remains live. Once I have done my address change, I merely have to reach under the bench once more, flip the toggle, and the rest of the layout comes back to life. I then run the newly addressed engine off the lead to join the rest of the engines, out onto the main, and continue to alter the behavioural characteristcs in Ops Mode, including tweaking chuff rates, individual volumes, inertia and momentum...the usual.
-Crandell