quick question on wiring for DCC

[Texas Zepher]

dngnrr

For DCC, can  you get by with just a single buss down the center of the layout, and run the feeders to it or does it need to follow the tracks above and then connect with shorter feeders?

Short answer yes.  So it doesn't matter.  Strickly speaking one does not even need a bus.  It could be wired just like a cab control system with a wire from the DCC system to each block.  It is usually much less wire (i.e. cheaper) to have a bus.

[Phoebe Vet]

My track bus is 40 feet long and it's location has no relationship to the track or ROW.  It runs along the the underside at the front of the layout and all connections to it are made on swing down boards.

I intend to add detection in the future, so I wired it to make that all doable on the swing down boards.  All I have to do is remove the jumper on the bottom of the terminal strip and wire in the detector right there on the board.

[Jacktal]

It is not a necessity to have your buss following the track,specially on a small layout.However,feeders are generally very small wires  that should be kept as short as possible.Then you could chose to use bigger wires but you'll find them more of a problem to solder them to the track.The big factor here is distances,so on a small layout (you didn't say) you can get away with one single buss and longer feeders.

[dngnrr]

For DCC, can  you get by with just a single buss down the center of the layout, and run the feeders to it or does it need to follow the tracks above and then connect with shorter feeders?