New to DCC & currently I'm building the layout below. Been thinking more about the fact that, unlike DC, DCC is sending a signal constantly to the rails. Also still wrapping my head around ohms & amps & resistance & length of layout. So I'm wondering if it's worth it to isolate certain sections that might not be used every operation & hook them up to toggles that I can turn on when needed. That way all the track won't be "hot" all the time. I've marked the locations of the breaks with red boxes: This would turn the industries to the upper left, the dockside (excluding the carfloat), the yard, & the enginehouse stalls. For the stall tracks, I read somewhere (MR?) about someone who had push-buttons installed, so that you had to hold it down while pulling the loco out of the shed. This way the parked locos aren't hot all the time too. Is there merit / drawback to the idea? Does turning a section of track on & off mess up the DCC signal? Does a layout of this size (9 1/2' x 7') even need sections? I'm using NCE PowerCab, with a 16-gauge bus & 22-gauge feeders every 18" (but I have only 2' laid so far). All thoughts appreciated! Cheers! --Mark
For that size layout I can't honestly see any point in sectioning it for power purposes. Isolating 'parking' spots, like roundhouse tracks has merit as it makes it easier to kill unused engines - if you get into sound this can be a major plus. You can of course shut down most modern sound decoders (and turn off lights) using the DCC, but flicking a switch is easier. The pushbutton idea is OK, but it means if you park a loco for a moment while doing something else you then have to restart it; and if it needs a hand-of-god nudge you have one hand with the controller, one one the button and your third to play god ... , so I'd use a toggle switch. Turning the power off doesn't normally mess things up - you have to do it every session anyway - but it isn't something I'd do more often than necessary.
You should go to the Model Railroad hobbyist website and look up Joe Fugate's Video on DCC and the things he has learned over the years. DCC: The good, the bad, and the ugly - MRH Theater | Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine There's a really good discussion in there on why you would want to make your layout into power districts - and Part 3 has a way to do it. A way around the Lightbulb trip is to simply let the circut breaker catch the short in the power district. You have a lot of switches in there, so every time you have a locomotive derail and short out, it will kill the whole layout, temporarily, including your buddy switching on the other half of the layout. enjoY!
If I do go with toggled blocks where I have the red rectangles (with an idea to move towards circuit breakers as the $ come rolling in), is it better to: take a pair of feeders off the bus, & then the 4-5 feeders off the centrally-located toggle OR splice of a branch bus to the toggle, continue the bus the length of the section & have the feeders come off the bus? (isn't the idea to keep the feeders short?)
number 2! Then when you get your circuit breakers, you just remove the toggle switch and put those wires to the breaker and call it a day (night?) Mike
