Wiring DCC I am not sure of anything except the red and the brown I think are right. The light and dark gray are the big question. And the green circles, where do signals go? Thanks, Loco1999 [ 06. September 2004, 00:18: Message edited by: loco1999 ]
The answerto your question is an auto reverse unit. I use the one from Tony's Toy Trains. You hook the two bus wires to the the auto reverse unit and the other leads to the track of the reverse section (In this case the light grey section.) It MUST, repeat MUST be totally isolated from any other trackage, so use insulated joiners on both legs of the switches at each end of the section. I have three of them and it works just fine.
Bob is right. There is no reversing section, so an AR unit is not required. As to wiring the blocks, just wire the outside rail of each blockto "Rail A" on your booster/command station (I'm assuming Digitrax), and the inside rail to "Rail B". You can isolate them via switches if you want to be able to use a DC power pack for" the decoderless".
Ira : How does the light gray section reverse the loco? If all the blocked sections on this layout were removed and the layout was one gigantic block, the loco's would run with out a problem. So there aren't any reversing loops on this layout.
Loco1999: You don't need the two gray blocks in DCC. Extend the green block, and extend the blue block. as well as the green block and the brown block. You need blocks in DCC to control signals, with a Signal board from Logic Rail Technologies. You also need blocks in DCC for block occupancy detection as well as feedback devices. Block in DCC are very useful if you have a short circuit and are trying to find the problem. It makes sense to divide your layout into blocks for this purpose alone. How do you identify a short on your layout if there are no blocks? Rick Nicholson on the Trainboard & Atlas Forum even wires each turnout as a separate block. The reason Rick wires each turnout as a separate block is because if a turnout fails he can readily identify the problem area. BTW, Rick uses a Digitrax Zephyr system. Rick states this is "overkill" on his part, but he wants the added protection of the blocks on turnouts. Hopes this helps a bit. If you read Signal control in the Logic Rail Technologies site placing signals is easy. Signals for each block on a mainline are placed at opposite ends of the block according to the description of block control on that website.
I am definetly clueless on this. I know blocks are not needed for DCC. This is only for adding some more fun when the layout is done. I will try and read more info. Thanks, Loco1999
Loco1999: Stick to the basics for the time being. You can set up the blocks with plastic rail joiners now. Your system will run with DCC, even if you haven't wired the ancillary modules to the blocks. The learning curve is very steep in the beginning, but once you decide on your system and begin using it, things will flow into place. The time to set up the blocks is before the track is permanently set down. As I said above, you don't have to use the blocks. but at least they are in place if you want them. [ 10. August 2004, 02:56: Message edited by: Powersteamguy1790 ]
