I am starting a large layout in N scale (it’s in a 16’x20’room that has a 4’ wing). I had a layout 20 years ago that I disassembled when I moved (it was DC). I have just been a collector of N Scale items for the past 15 years. I went to an estate sale recently and bought a box of DCC items and have no experience with DCC. The box contained 2 MRC Prodigy Advance 2 systems (both new in their boxes) with an extra throttle and a reverse loop component. The box also had a NCE Power Pro, a p515 power supply and a NCE PB105 Five Amp DCC Power Booster Station (all new in their boxes). I have tested all 3 systems and they all work fine (I think I got a good deal; 200.00 for the box). So now I am thinking of doing this layout in DCC rather than my original plan for a DC layout. My track plan is going to have a coal train (or whatever freight the grandkids want to run around) that will make a big loop with two hidden staging areas in that loop. I also will have another loop that will be an excursion train (grandkids just want to see trains moving). For my entertainment I will have a large switching yard attached to the main line loop and then a short-line track from that yard to another yard that will be a Great Lakes port that has a few industrial buildings and a reverse loop back to the main yard. My question is that when I’ve researched DCC I see that DCC has power districts, circuit breakers, power boosters etc. Since I have 3 DCC units would it be advisable just to run each of these 3 railroad districts I’m planning on having on these 3 DCC systems sort of as as their own power districts? Would I need power boosters then? Do these districts still need circuit breakers or is that a compnent in each of these DCC system’s “main” unit? Lastly, would I need the NCE power booster and if so I assume it would be best for the larger switch yard and Great Lake port? Any suggestions/advice would be much appreciated, Thanks.
$200 for the whole shebang??? You did not get a good deal…you got a smoking deal. In fact you stole it. The MSRP on the Power Pro alone is over $500. Although you can get it for closer to $400. I am not an expert when it comes to DCC, but I believe you will find the wiring easier than for DC. You should have a separate circuit breaker for each power district/subdistrict. Even a DC system has to have power blocks if you want to run more than one train on the layout. And you dont have all those switches to throw as a train runs into the next power block. Check out a web site “Wiring for DCC by Allan Gartner” to get going about how you want to divide up the layout and how to wire it.
And, of course, there are any number of people who will respond to your questions on this forum. These people know a lot more than I do about wiring and DCC.
Also, I do not believe that you should mix up the different DCC units. Choose one and then recoup your $200 by selling the other two. At 5 amps, especially with the booster, there should be enough juice to run the layout that you briefly describe. If I was you, I would go with the NCE system. I am biased, as I run my layout with the NCE Power Cab and just added the SB5 smart booster so I can add more UTP panels for walk around control. I have a modest 50 +/- sq foot layout and if it were not for DCC, I would not have gone this big with it.
I think you are thinking like a DC man.
All-in-all, wiring for DCC is way easier than DC.
The main reason for power districts is to isolate the source of a short quickly. This is a good thing if you have 4 or 5 operators going at once and you want to know quickly who is creating the problem. If you are operating by yourself or with another person, you’ll know where the problem is right away without power districts.
Wiring them is just a matter of isolating the district and suppling a seperate circuit breaker for that district. The DCC units themselves have built in circuit breakers, but very quickly try to reset themselves. A shorting locomotive may get fried if it is subjected to on off shorting. Believe it or not, you can use an automobile brake light as a safeguard instead of a circuit breaker. When the track shorts, the light comes on and creates resistance saving the locomotive (and indicating which district has the short.)
As for boosting power, that depends on the layout and the number of locomotives you will be running simultaneously. Your MRC units will power a pretty good sized N-scale layout by themselves. I operated on a layout about your size in HO (ten operators running 10 trains) and it was powered by a single MRC unit. The controls on the MRC
No, he won’t. PowerCab is at least as complete as MRC. And more expandable.
I think it would be a mistake to try to run multiple DCC systems on one layout. IMHO, the Original Poster should pick one (I’d suggest NCE), and then sell the others. With the proceeds, he can pick up additional throttles, circuit breakers, etc. as desired.
One other thing to consider at the beginning is the track bus. The DCC manufacturers all have recommendation regarding the minimum wire AWG that you should use for whatever length of bus your layout will require.
I think I may start haunting estate sales. I agree, sell the other two and you are well on your way to financing the extras that the OP might want.
Totally read over that. I only saw the power boster.
Actually it is the Power Pro not the Power Cab.
Kevin, just as you need more power to run more locomotives, it works the same way in DCC. All DCC does is help you to communicate your druthers in terms of locomotive performance directly to a brain resident in the locomotive. As we say here, DC is a lot about managing the rails, while DCC is more like driving the locomotives. This is because of the architecture involved. With DC, you need block control because the motors respond only to track voltage and polarity. In DCC, the motors only respond to the decoder…the intermediary. And they do that irrespective of the PHASE of the voltage on the rails because in DCC it is constantly full-voltage AC. It’s just a digital AC, so-to-speak.
So, you’ll still have amperage draw, and the more locomotives and lights you have taking up the available current, the more you’ll need to provide. Same, same. All a power district is is a ‘block’, except, as Chip says, you are attempting to keep the power better arranged and monitored. Each district has a booster, usually, which does its own track monitoring for the dreaded shorts that can heat up and destroy a decoder inside a second. Each booster keeps the voltage high because it is only feeding a portion of the rails, not the entire layout. The robust voltage helps the various short detection circuits sense them more quickly and to remedy them. That is why we have what we call the ‘quarter test’. Really, any metal across the rails to test them will have your properly ‘fed’ rail system showing the shorts quickly, and your booster or command station will shut off track power. If it’s a booster, you’ll know where the short is because that part of the layout will have no activity.
Looks like I read it wrong in the first place, and perhaps it’s been revised. I now see:
That, again, would be a very complete system, lacking only a throttle or two.
I’m a big fan of DCC. With DC, you run the track. With DCC, you run the trains. If you’re going to have multiple trains and possibly multiple operators, you want to spend time running the trains and not have to concentrate on where your blocks start and end.
Yes, you only need one DCC system, and in fact that’s the preferred way to do it. That way, you can assign a throttle to the train and that throttle can stay with the train everywhere. With most systems, if you prefer, you can switch command between throttles also. On my Lenz DCC system, I can start a train and it wil keep running while I start another and then another. Switching back control is a simple as punching the engine number into the throttle.
Each engine needs its own electronic “decoder” installed in the locomotive. This can be tricky. If you have a lot of engines to convert over, it can be time-consuming and perhaps expensive, as well.
You only need one command station. Plus a booster, more if needed, which each one having its own power district.
Start here. Lots of information.
“…which each one having its own power district.”
Not necessarily. I just added an SB5 to my layout which has two power subdistricts and it appears to work fine.
Debbie Downer weighing in. If you have held on to your old locos, they will need to be converted to DCC. You can’t simultaneously run DC and DCC.
It IS doable. It gets a bit more fiddly if you have to swap out bulbs for leds and find room for speakers in a loco that wasn’t designed for speakers.
In full disclosure, not everyone likes sound and not everyone is a believer in DCC. Like you, I had a 20+ year pause in my model railroading. I like sound and DCC, but I am slow on the DCC conversion process. There are lots of videos on how to do it.
[#welcome] to the forum. Big long blocks of text are hard for some of us to read. It’s a visual thing, like dyslexia.
The club I use to belong to runs the five amp Power Pro and sometimes about eight to ten sound HO locos with no issues.
One large room and one small room all connected together. Most PFM, couple Tortoise turnouts.
Rich
Thank You all for your quick responses and input. I did find the MRC quite easy to use on my little test track section but eventually figured out the NCE. It appears that between the MRC and the NCE I have a more complete system with the NCE. Can I use the MRC reverse loop control with a NCE system or should I stick with all NCE “components”? I have a nephew that wants to start a layout so I will give him one of the MRC units with the extra throttle and sell the other. Any further comments on my original post are still welcomed. Thanks again; you are all amazing how willing you are to help out and how quickly you respond!!! What a great support Model Railroader offers us newbies.
If you have the throttle for the NCE - you can get your $200 back by selling the two complete MRC systems individually.
MRC reverse loop controls are about as basic as they get. You’ll have better results with a more modern type like the PSX-AR. Especially if you will have sound locos.
You only need to stick to NCE components on the cab side. Once it comes to the track signal - it’s all NMRA DCC compatible so you can mix and match - you don;t have to use NCE decoders in your locos, for example. But you can;t use one of the MRC cabs on the NCE system, you have to get NCE cabs if you want to add more throttles. NCE has some less expensive simpler ones that are designd to run trains and don;t do the decoder programming and so forth that the big throttle does - they are smaller and cost less and are all you need to allow another person to run trains at the same time.
–Randy
I believe you said you are in N scale–I would think the NCE system you describe would have more than enough power for an N-scale layout. I am not well informed about N, but you may find some locos difficult to impossible to convert to DCC. If you have many locos from before your hiatus you might find buying decoders will eat up whatever you can gain from selling an MRC system.
Once again I’m here to defend MRC Prodigy. I’ve been running MRC Prodigy Advance² for 11 years without an ounce of trouble! It does everything I need and the 3½ amps is more than enough for my layout. I have a Rob Paisley DCC current meter and I’ve never seen it much over 3 amps. All of my trains are much heaver that NMRA Standards and I have 3½% grades. The max trains I can run on my layout is two dual locomotive passenger trains because when I designed and built my layout 30 years ago I didn’t plan on DCC so the max is limited to two. I do leave several diesels idling with sound with sound on in my yards for their sounds. I like the DCC sound!
If I were to start over today I would still go with Prodigy. I’ve never had any problems with any MRC power pack since my first one over 50 years ago.
I have no monetary involvement with MRC I’m just a very happy user of their power packs. I really like the simplicity of both hook up and ease of operation. I haven’t used any other products so I’m not saying it’s a better product than any of the other systems as I have no knowledge of them.
Mel, I dont think anyone is knocking the MRC system. I for one am not, and for no other reason that I have absolutely no experience with it. I started off with the Digitrax Zephyr and graduated to the NCE Power Cab when I realized I wanted walk around control and felt that expanding the Zephyr was a little too pricey for me. At that point I also realized that most of the railroaders around here were using NCE so I went with NCE. If the MRC works for you, hey, fantastic!