Common rail, good idea, or mistake?

[HEdward]

Thanks for being professional to Jeff.  I was being a meanie.  Sleeping on the in-laws sofa has made me unhappy.

[Texas Zepher]

This is not rocket science.

Are you sure about that?  I've read a few threads where they talked about Mars and aliens and I even made a reference to a model rocketeer using DCC.

Ha, he, ha, ha, ha, ha.....

[jimrice4449]

The major limitation to double gaps and dpdt switches to select cabs is that you're limited to 2 cabs.   I run 2 mainline cabs, 1 hostler cab and a depot switcher cab on my (common rail) RR in my psgr depot and in normal operation I commonly am cutting power off of one end of a track while the depot switcher is tying onto the opposite end, an inbound train is arriving on another track and a departing train is starting to pull on a third track.   No smoke, no sparks!

Another factor to consider is that common rail uses slightly more than half of the amount of wire that double gapped systems use.   If you're operating medium is a 4X8 this isn't all that important but if you're talking abbout a large RR (I have almost 2000' of track) and you think that's not a factor you haven't been pricing no.12 braided wire lately.

[tomikawaTT]

This is not rocket science.

Are you sure about that?  I've read a few threads where they talked about Mars and aliens and I even made a reference to a model rocketeer using DCC.

Ha, he, ha, ha, ha, ha.....

Hey, guys!  When I'm not trying to figure out how to do the impossible with common rail wiring, I write science fiction.  If anyone thinks rocket science is complex, try checking out subnuclear particle physics.

Reverse loops and wyes are special cases, no matter whether the operating system is DC or DCC.  I will say that a single DPDT toggle switch is almost certainly less expensive than an electronic instantaneous DCC autoreverse circuit.

As for how many cabs (locomotive controllers) can be operated with common rail, my EOT module could, theoretically, have as many as six connected.  As a practical matter, it would be all but impossible to operate more than three without tripping over each other - the module is only 16" by 96".  (There are advantages to operating in HOj, one of them being that my freight cars are about as long as N scale 50 footers.  My teakettle tank locos aren't giants, either.)

Chuck.

[Texas Zepher]

If anyone thinks rocket science is complex, try checking out subnuclear particle physics.

Yeah but saying, "It's not Psi / J science", doesn't have the same ring to it, nor mean anything to the general population (Assuming one buys into the quark model.  Sorry my sub-atomic particle physics knowledge is 20 years old.).