I’m working on setting up the wiring for the KATO Salt Lake Route track plan but the diagram they give you is pretty worthless for determining how many power packs you need and what feeder lines should go into which power.
So far I have three packs. Two feeders feed into one of the mainlines and one handles the other by itself. It’s all the yard and spurs that are confusing me.
If anyone is running this plan in DC please let me know how you got it all wired.
d
BNSF4ever,
Don’t know much about the Salt Lake Route track plan. But I would suggest, you pick up a book about, Cab Control Wiring for DC layouts. That will get you started on how to wire it.
Frank
BNSF4ever,
I have just reviewed that Layout and it is set for N-scale DCC, so to convert to Cab Control DC, you must first be knowledgeable in DC Cab Control Wiring. My suggestion to you would either go the DCC route for the simple reason being, less wiring. If you still want to go DC, then purchase a book on it and study and be prepared, for a lot of wiring. Are you going to go with the track that they have it set up for? That will also determine how it’s wired. Another suggestion, one more book on Block Wiring for DC.
I have the layout saved in a PDF in my files and will help all I can. I am a DC only user. Three Cab Control. That is a interesting plan for N-scale, with a double track mainline. In HO, it would have to be double in size.
Frank
Frank’s right, sounds like you need a book on DC wiring.
More specifically, you only need one power pack to make a layout run. You’ll likely need more than one set of feeders.
If you want to run more than one train at a time, then you add “cab” control. Essentially, cab control permits switching the feed to group of tracks between two or more powerpacks.
You do NOT want to use a different powerpack for each block. It’s nearly impossible to match the speed between powerpacks, so when your loco hits the gap between track fed by the different powerpacks, it’ll change speed or even direction if you haven’t.
Frank also makes an excellent point about wiring the layout for DCC operation, and then buy an inexpensive DCC controller. This would be especially true if the concept of DC wiring is causing such a problem for the OP.
I recall that this layout and its wiring needs has been an ongoing problem for him for the last couple of years. Do it in DCC and make your life a little easier.
When the MR staff had that layout set up for the January 2010 issue, they had it wired for DCC. That might tell you something.
Rich
Usually I don’t suggest DCC but,with the Salt Lake Route I think DCC is the best method.
Thanks all. I spent several hours into the early morning this weekend playing with wiring combinations. I have three packs and find that they are enough.One power pack each handles the “main line” double track. These, through careful selection of the turnouts, can power the intermodal yard and engine house spur. A third pack handles the industry spur. I added an addtitional spur for where I intend to put an engine house (using the layout one for something else) and this is powered by a feed into the third pack. I’m using standard Kato wiring and packs and I can tell that Kato’s three way spitters don’t work all that great. It seems like whenever I connected various blocks together, the pack hits its circuit breaker and shuts down. But through trial and error, I now know I can power everything. I am the only one who will be running trains so generally I won’t be running more than one or two at a time. Thus, having to align turnouts is not a big deal.
I bought the Kato SLR pack and I must say Kato did a disservice not providing better DC instructions. They give you a map of where to put feeder wires, but then don’t give you enough to finish the job. And I found that for my DC operation, most of them were unnecessary anyway.
The good news I got trains running this weekend. So now it’s just debugging and making sure everything works before I glue the track down.
As for DCC, my ignorance and unwillingness to pay extra for DCC-equipped units has kept me away. For N Scale, how difficult is it to retrofit a DC unit with a decoder?
What can I say? [banghead] [:D]
Frank
If you’re struggling with DC wiring, then now’s not really the time to tackle a decoder install in N scale. The exception would be for a decoder that is strictly a drop-in, no wiring required. I’m in HO, so maybe someone better versed than I can help. In fact, if you have a specific loco in mind, the DCC and Electronicsm Forum is a good place to check with what others recommend.
I suspect you’re not getting your gaps in the right places. Yeah, trial and error will get it figured out, there’s only a right and a wrong way. If your power pack is shutting down when adding track involving turnouts, you’re likly missing getting the gaps where they need to be. Again, this is something that a basic book or website on DC wiring will help and make things less trial and error.
BTW, while DCC wiring can somewhat simplify wiring if you go that route, you still need to know the basics of DC to really understand everything.
Unitack can be a wiring nightmare since the turnouts are power routing-even a simple crossover requires jumpers/feeders or a second power pack since once you make your crossover and normalized the turnouts your train will stop.
Kato does make a “feeder track” and feeder wires to help ease the wiring and they make selector switches for blocks.
Make no mistake this track system is modular and bullet proof.
I use it when I was in N and loved it since I could set up a yard switching layout on my dinning room table in minutes-I could do that…I’m a bachelor
My curiosity got the best of me, so I did a little research into this track plan. It doesn’t seem like a layout for the faint of heart, especially if you decide to wire it for DC and don’t understand DC basics.
Here is the track plan. I am curious what those little black markings are all about. Anybody?
Rich
Rich, this is were the Kalmbach folks had planned the feeders. If you use Unitrack, you don´t have to add as many feeders as with regular track, as Kato´s Unitrack joiners provide good electrical contact.
ahh, thanks for that info, Ulrich.
The OP was struggling with the number of power packs to run this layout. Last we heard, he had settled on 3 power packs. Being a DCC guy, the whole concept of block control, and the number of power packs typically used on a DC layout, escapes me. Are 3 enough, more than necessary, just right?
Rich
Overkill unless you plan on running more then one train.I ran a N Scale door layout with one dual pack and two Tech 2 1400-these was use for the yard and engine terminal.I used Atlas selectors and a controller for ease of wiring.DCC wasn’t around in the early 80s when I built that layout but it would be DCC if I built that layout today.
Speaking of wiring overkill. Those fellas at Kalmbach must have stock in a wire company.
That layout would be better DCC then DC…That double crossover needs extra feeders since its power routed.
The OP probably wants to run a train on each of the two mainlines, while messing with yard operations at the same time.
Rich
A dual pack for the main lines and a single pack for the yard should suffice.
I’m pretty sure it’s correct that the small squares are points where feeders need to hook-up. What it doesn’t show is where the gaps go needed to isolate the blocks from each other. Larry’s point about Uni-Track is well-taken. I’ve only seen it in HOn3, where Kato makes it for Blackstone, but since they haven’t produced any turnouts yet, I wasn’t sure how they handled gaps.
Based on what the OP wrote, I suspect he has the powerpacks wired up separately to what are effectively three separate blocks. That’s going to be frustrating if he doesn’t learn to wire for DC so he can switch the powerpacks to different blocks, rather than switching to a different powerpack when he needs to move to a different block.
With Unitrack and DCC I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t need any gaps here, although I would add a few more feeders on both the main lines outside of the yard area.
But with dc it could be run eaisly with 2 controlers, not sure where I would put the gaps though…Mike
As I mention Kato switches are power routed so,unless you really want wire overkill you won’t need a ton of jumpers…Crossovers and that beautiful double crossover requires jumpers.
There’s no need to wire a passing siding once the train enters stop and normalize the trailing turnout and that passing siding is isolated until you open the passing siding turnout after sitting the block for (say) cab B…
Since Kato makes feeder track wiring is as simple as adding a piece of feeder track and plugging its wire into a Untitrack connector.There’s even “extention cords” (Kato’s name) so you can easily run the wiring to the connector just by snap locking the ends together…