My layout is the perimeter of a 14’x16’ room with on 54"x72" peninsula. I will have 3 mainlines and several branches and a yard totaling about 330’. I’ll be running multiple two loco consists. I’ll be only operator. I have NCE 5amp wireless with EB1 circuit breaker. How important are multiple power zones?
thanks
As a lone operator? Not very. If you run a turnout and short the layout, you’re only affecting yourself. When you have multiple operators and someone shorts, you don’t want it making everyone’s train stop.
–Randy
IS there a difference between zones and districts? I don’t know if there is.
To me, if you have three mains, you’re soon going to run at least two consists. If you short the layout, would you like everything to stop? If it’s all one district, that is what will happen when the main unit detects a short and shuts the whole thing down.
On the other hand, if you’d like to have one train keep running, and just to have to clear the fault, you’ll want power districts protected by circuit breakers. Maybe each main protected so that it stays ‘current’ in the event of a short anywhere else, or maybe divide the layout in half as a physical whole…?
Something to think about. There’s nothing inherently wrong with either perspective and preference. It’s strictly a person choice. One will cost more.
aren’t some sort of short detection (e.g. bulbs) useful for isolating a short on any size layout? especially during construction
I am a lone wolf operator with a fairly large layout. A double mainline runs around the periphery of the layout. That double mainline is one power district. I also have two significant areas of track work inside the double mainline, a large passenger station and a pretty good size engine servicing facility. Each of those areas is its own power district. That way, if a short occurs inside the large passenger station or the engine servicing facility, trains running on the double mainline will keep on running, unaffected by the short.
In your case, you need to decide whether you want to protect different areas of your layout in the event of a short. That will answer your question, how important are multiple power zones.
Rich
There’s a difference between power zones protected by the circuit breaker in a booster and those protected by additional circuit breakers in series with one power booster.
The multiple booster solution may be required or desirable if maximum amperage draw is the limiting factor. Otherwise, dividing the layout into blocks as you might for DC, but double isolating the rails at the block boundaries, and adding a circuit breaker to each block would be handy if you want to run more than one train and a complete power shutdown due to a short somewhere would be inconvenient.
I’m thinking that since two of my mainlines are parallel and will be running in opposite directions it won’t hurt to have everything stop in the eventuality of a short. As far as during construction, I’ve been running my longest ¶and shortest locomotives (HH660) over all my tracks as I lay it. After I lay 20 or 30 ft I run both locomotives at low med and full throttle over everything I’ve built to that point and then I add a couple of heavyweight passenger cars and test it with them. Only problem so far was a little clearance issue on one side of a curved bridge I’m building but that was an easy correction.
Perhaps, but there are other reasons to break up a layout in to power zones or districts - choose your nomenclature. There may be shorts that are caused by something less obvious and having several districts can help you track down a short by limiting it to part of the layout rather than all.
Here are some comments I received in a discussion elsewhere when researching the best topology for my 12.5x33 layout which has a large staging yard, a main yard with industries and a mainline with 2 passing sidings. And a branch line.
–
A few thoughts from my experience: