Thank you... I do have a some areas that are not so clean...It's hard sometimes to find places to put all the wires when you have bus wires, detection wires, signal cables, turnour power wires, control panel wires and feeders. I do try to keep them in channels. I use 1/2" romex staples to hold wires around the layout where I don't have premade wire holes in the benchwork. I built my layout based on a 2'x4' and 1.5'x4' modular framework which has predrilled (2" diameter) holes in all the cross braces for wiring. They look alot alike the new Seivers benchwork you can buy now but these were built with my dad about 2 decades ago now (I was 10). We built a jig for them and got most of them built (about 20-30)in a single weekend.
Colorado Front Range Railroad: http://www.coloradofrontrangerr.com/
Renegade:
It's always good to see a neat, well organized, and labeled layout. There are so many rats nests out there.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
I have a similar layout to what you describe. I have a 12 x19 layout space with 3 levels (staging, lowel and upper). I have a DCS100 as the command station and an DB100+ boost (which they don't make anymore). I have subdivided the layout into 12 power districts. The upper level has 3 zones, the lower level has 4 zones, the helixes are 3 zones and the staging yard and reverse loops make up the other 2 zones. I use both DCC Specialties PSX breakers as well as Digitrax PM42's (I got 3 of them for free, might as well use them). I prefer the PSX breakers over the Digitrax ones. They handle sound locos better (in rush current thing). Of the 12 zones 7 are on PSX breakers. The rest are on the PM-42's.
Detection wiring is much different than running just a bus wire and hooking up feeders. you need to isolate your tracks into seperate blocks. Each of these block are on their own sub bus. For each area of the layout I have 3 bus wire sets. One is for the main, the second is for the siding and the third line is the general bus which powers all the non-detected tracks (spurs, team tracks, etc) as well as the turnouts. The turnouts are isolated on all 6 joints and have their own feeder wire.
I use RR cirkits for their block detection since you can run the sensing coils out remotely and don't have to have them all in a central location. This lets me put the sensing coils on the turnout feeders and run them back to the detection board. This allows me to power them off the general district bus.
Documentation will help you on immensely when trying to do block detection and signalling.
Here is some pictures of my circuit breaker panels and my wiring diagrams.
Wires are color coded. Gray Boxes are barrier strips. Green boxes are current detection coils. The "LS" numbering is the "LocoNet Sensor" Designation for that particular block. This feeds into my electronic distpatchers panel in JMRI.
I use DS-64's to drive Tortoise switch machines. I like to have local controls as well as dispatcher control. I use the se8c for signal however i do not use the tortoise motor function nor the control functions as this would introduce extra wiring around the layout. I can place a DS-64 at each siding where as the se8c is centrally located. The bus runs for the control wiring and panels would be much longer.
I use an old computer power supply to power 5 volt and 12 volt auxillary busses on the layout. All of the breakers, DS-64's, Se8c's and TC-64 (rr cirkits loconet I.O board used for detection) off this power supply. IF YOU HAVE NEVER CONVERTED A PC POWER SUPPLY TO RAILROAD USEPLEASE USE EXTREME CAUTION. This is due to the high current it can put out and also additional parts need to make them function. which involves opening the case of the power supply.
I can also run switches and other things (lighting, animation) that are not on the DS-64's off this bus as well.
I agree with MrB. My layout is in my 20x20 2 car garage. The layout is 16x18 around the room. Each 8 foot module is isolated from the other modules. When I built it I planned for future changes. My bus connections are barrier strips with jumpers on swing down boards. As each future change is made, I have only to remove the jumper.
I would recommend starting with just the DCS100 system. It's 5 amps, which should be sufficient to power your engines and layout. Mount it in the center of the layout so the bus runs are kept at short as possible, but it shouldn't be a problem in a room that size.
But, I'd suggest breaking the layout into isolated zones with circuit breakers. This helps with fault isolation, and allows you, for example, to keep running trains on the main even if you have a short in your staging yard. Another reason to do this is that you will still have the layout wired and gapped if you decide you need a booster later on.
I have a 24x24 foot room, and I might have 6 or so engines running and a few other idling with sound, with some lighted passenger cars, too. My 5-amp Lenz system has no trouble with this load. I've broken my layout into 4 circuit breaker zones and two reverse loops, which function like circuit breakers with auto-reversers.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
"A couple of questions: How many locomotives do you plan to run at once? What is the physical arrangement of the track, with dimensions? Generally, you don't want your bus lines to get too long, and that's one reason to add boosters. Likewise, if you're running 4-engine consists on a half-dozen trains, that's going to take more power and it's better to spread it out."
Say 4 locos with sound and some having lighted cars. Size is a U shaped layout that is roughly 12 by 14. There is a large hidden storage level underneath the main level.
Thank you!
Christian
OeBB Does any of this change if I decide to use detection?
Yes, sort of. If you plan to install signals by using the SE8C, then you may not need a lot of DS64's. The SE8C will also control 8 Tortoise machines that you can use for switch machines. It also has 8 aux inputs that you can connect toggle switches to for local control panel turnout control. Many of us that have detection and signals use the free JMRI programs to integrate the RR electronics together for operations via computer.
You should read up on the SE8C. Digitrax has posted the instruction for it on their web site. The SE8C is a dumb board that needs a computer attached via LocoNet with a control program to operate it. JMRI is one.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
A couple of questions: How many locomotives do you plan to run at once? What is the physical arrangement of the track, with dimensions? Generally, you don't want your bus lines to get too long, and that's one reason to add boosters. Likewise, if you're running 4-engine consists on a half-dozen trains, that's going to take more power and it's better to spread it out.
Consider how you plan to operate your turnouts. I think the DS64 allows you to control the turnouts either with your throttle or with a toggle switch. Or, you can just run them off toggles if you prefer. If you're planning to use the throttle and no toggles, you can save some money with a DS44. I have a few turnouts on a DS44, and I'm seriously considering going back to toggles. They work fine, but I'm not convinced that I want to run my railroad that way.
Detection means you need to isolate the track sections you want to detect. On a passing siding you would need to creat sub-busses for the two tracks. In practice you can do this by having one rail all on the same bus, and then for the other rail connecting the detector between the sub-bus and the main bus for that rail.