The whole "DCC Friendly" tunout thing is, I think, often blown out of proportion. Frankly, if the back of the wheelset is touching the open point rail and causing a short, I'd say your wheel were out of gauge. Most commercial turnouts are made with excessive (FAR excessive, compared to the prototype - take a look at a real railroad turnout sometime) clearance on the open point, since model wheels, except the fine scale ones, are generally too thick, as are the flanges (let's ignore the flange HEIGHT for now). Now, if you were building your own turnouts closer to exact scale standards, you might want to make the modifications to keep the open point rail dead, or tied to the adjacent closure rail (either is safe from shorts).
The insulated joiners on the diverging rails of Electrofrog are required for DC or DCC, any time there is the possibility of a power feed from the frog side - even a simplistic oval with one turnout and one pair of power feeds to the whole thing.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I live in Townsville in North Queensland, Australia and I have been pulling my hair out with a couple of issues as i have just purchased an NCE ProCab Radio controlled system from the USA as we have no model railway shops (at all) up here and my "local" hobby shops are in Denver, CO and Cockeysville, MD.
However i needed a 15v AC transformer and the local JCar shop could not help me so i called Brunell Hobbies in Melbourne as they were advertising a suitable unit. They told me that the Australian NCE distributor would not allow them to sell a transformer on its own! i said thats too bad as i was going to buy a 2nd NCE controller from you as well. I also wonder what ACCC would say about such a restrictive trade practice. As it turned out they did not have the controller in stock (so much for buying from an Australian hobby shop) and i bought a very good transformer from TorTec in Sydney (http://www.tortech.com.au/) for $20 less which works just fine and meets NCE requirements.
I then started to worry about turnouts and spent a lot of time watching lots of Youtube videos and reading web pages written by HOers in which they advised making modifications to Peco Electrofrog turnouts and adding a SPDT switch. Well while thats an option in HO (and Peco have apparently modified their HO turnouts to make it easier) making the changes to N scale turnouts is much more difficult. Then i found a web site at http://www.dccwiki.com/PECO_Electrofrog in which the guy said that whilst all of these wiring mods are a good idea all that you HAVE TO DO is add insulated rail joiners (or gaps) after the frog on BOTH the mainline and diverging routes. I already had a test layout set up with two (2) turnouts configured as a crossover and had experienced the expected shorts. But after i cut gaps in the two rails after the frog everything worked just fine.
The website went on to say that you "may still have an intermittent short as our locomotives go through the points and the inside and mainline diverging rails." But the big word here is MAY - which is not the same as you WILL.
So given the challanges of making mods to N scale turnouts, not to mention the time and cost, I will take my chances that i may have problems from time to time.
So in the end my NCE system is working just fine and i am very pleased with my purchase.
Dennis
Hi Hamilton it's an H0 Atlas Classic - Maine Central RS-11
Modelling the UK in 00, and New England - MEC, B&M, D&H and Guilford - in H0
By the way mikelhh, what loco is the yellow one in your sig?
Springfield PA
Thanks Andy!
Hi Mike, Try Austral Model Craft in Mount Gravatt. They have everything you need. I bought the power cab from them for around $250 which included the power supply for connect everything up, program you train and go.
I have been happy with the system to date and still upgrading. The only extra that I additionally got was the SB3 (at the time) 3 amp booster.
Andy
Hi Randy thanks for clearing that up for me!
Much appreciated.
Mike
That would be for the PowerPro system, which does NOT come with a power supply, even in the US. The one they sell here is 120VAC in only, and would not work. Plus even the 5 amp one is rather heavy so shipping costs would be high. But the PowerCab system comes with its own power supply, which carries the ratings you posted, and is suitable for just about anywhere.
Thankyou everyone for your replies. I feel much better about things now.
I have emailed NCE but am still waiting for a reply.
Here in Australia there seems to be some concern over the power supply. The Australian importer of NCE does have a special transformer for the NCE units but will ONLY sell them to those with Australian supplied Command Stations, which is a pretty shabby attitude, in my opinion - not that I understand the reason for 'needing' one in the first place.
Since the specs say 100/240VAC, it's a universal type power supply and will work fine. You just need the appropriate adapter for the plug as it has north american style blades. Those should be fairly easy to find locally as these days most small devices have universal power supplies.
The NCE Power Cab power pack will work off of 240 just fine. Now matching the two metal contacts will be an issue. These type power packs are switching power supplies. They are a couple of power transistors used as a power oscillator. There is a transformer in the power pack but the frequency of the power oscillators is much higher than Mains frequency resulting in a much smaller transformer. The transformer is required to provide complete isolation from the Mains like standard transformers power supplies.
The NCE Power Pro requires a 120 vac to 240 vac transformer because the first device is the transformer inside the Power Pro, not a pair of power oscillator transistors. This works ok for low power devices like the Power Cab.
My cell phone power packs are the same, 120 vac to 240 vac
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.
Alan Jones in Sunny Queensland (Oz)
My recommendation on any question of this sort is to contact the manufacturer to get the correct answer. That way you have a fall back position incase you get told wrong. However, here is a quote from the Tonys Train Exchange website:
"The Power Cab comes with a plug-in-the-wall Power Supply. The supply is designed for use with an input of voltage of 100 to 240 volts, 50 or 60 Hz. This would allow it to
Here is the link to the entire document: http://www.tonystrains.com/download/df-powercab-rev.pdf
I don't know if there is some sort of plug adapter that would be needed to connect to your wall outlet.
If you got the procab that would be a different story. You can use any power supply that puts out the 16vac, making it easier for you. By the way, the power cab has a plug in transformer. I'm sure you can substitute it for something local that has the same output specs.
If they don't have a 240 volt version I'm sure you can get a converter that will reduce the 240 to 115.
Hi guys
I'm thinking of getting the NCE Power Cab, but I'm getting lots of conflicting information in regard to setting it up here in Australia.
Can anyone please tell me if I will need a separate power pack or transformer for it? Or is it a 'floating' type of voltage that will work as is on our 240 volts here? [with of course a pin adaptor to suit our power outlets]
Some places are telling me I'll need a separate power pack costing about $125. I can't believe that's true. I just hope someone here can tell me in plain simple English whether a Power Cab purchased direct from the US will work here.
It's version 1.28 item number 524025
The kit is said to contain:
100V/240V - 50/60Hz Power Supply can be used in most countries...."
Thankyou