I haven’t seen much discussion on how isolate sidings and yard trackage. Like. do you insulate both tracks or just one, the positive or negative track, if only one?
Welcome to the forums!
Wiring differs some whether you are in DC or DCC. In DC you can insulate only one side, unless you have a reverse loop. I am not as familiar with DCC, but they do seperate power districts somehow.
Both Kalmbach and Atlas (using their components) have books on wiring. I would suggest you select one that describes the type of operation you plan. There are many little things that may or may not pertain to your needs.
Good luck,
Isolate both rails and use a double pole double throw switch to power the siding when you want to use it.
My [2c]
Have fun
Lee
It is sufficient to isolate only 1 rail, and to power that through a single-pole, single-throw toggle switch. Another option is to use a “power-routing” turnout like a Peco “electro-frog” which only sends power down the siding if the turnout is thrown that way.
In DCC, you don’t have to shut off power to a locomotive to keep it from moving. So, you can just park the engine on a “hot” siding and leave it there, without any form of isolation. However, some of us like to have “dead” sidings for storage purposes, so that the engine isn’t getting any power and won’t take off if you accidentally punch in the wrong address. If you’ve got sound engines, they are drawing power and making noises even when “idling,” so it can be an advantage to store them on “killable” sidings as well.
thanks for the replays
Hi!
The previous posters were right on, but I’ll add my 3 cents anyway…
I just picked up 5 dpst toggles to allow me to shut off power to staging tracks and loco terminal tracks on my medium sized HO DCC layout. Yes, a spst toggle will work fine, but I prefer to switch both wires going to the track just “to be sure”.
It is also true that you can shut off a loco’s sound, and “what not”, and some will assert that the cut off switches are just not needed. Again, I won’t disagree, but I have proven to myself that I need them.
My reasons are two circumstances of “creeping locos” where I accidently left them on a low speed step when I “parked” them. Another is when I parked a train on a staging track, got distracted and speeded up a throttle for another train (or so I thought), and ran a $300 BLI steamer into an end of track bumper.
ENJOY,
Mobilman44
better to be safe and not sorry[:)]
Not all sound decoders have shutoff sequences. I’ve got an older SoundTraxx LC decoder which has no shutoff, and the mute function needs to be manually restored after a power-down, including a short circuit shutoff. Likewise, my Tsunami-equipped GP9 does have a shutdown sequence, but it comes back to life after a shutdown. So, after initially hard-wiring all the stalls of my roundhouse, I went back and rewired them all with toggles switches.
The other big reason for shutoffs is illuminated passenger cars. These can draw significant current if they’re lit with incandescent bulbs, and a long string of them just makes the problem worse. Besides, a line of idle passenger cars wouldn’t be all lit up anyway.