As I prepare for my move to DCC I have a couple of questions about Kato turnouts. I am using Kato Unitrack for my layout, and for a beginner it has been perfect. I have not had a single track problem to date. Right now the turnouts are working great for DC, they route power only to the active line, the inactive line is dead. It seems to me that with DCC, I would want all rails to have power all the time. Is this correct? If so, what is the best way to bypass the power switching of the Kato turnouts?
Some models of Unitrack turnouts have a jumper of sorts on the bottom to toggle them to be non power routing. Otherwise, you need to provide additional feeders to the rails - a good idea regardless. Unless you have a very simple and trivial track plan, you’ll want multiple feeders spaced out around the layout to ensure power delivery at all points of the layout and no slowdowns of the trains.
–Randy
Randy: Thanks for the information. I will need to open up one of my turnouts and see if I have the jumper. My plan was to have multiple feeders, but there are some areas where the feeders would be a bit of overkill, such as on each and every spur. I suppose if I don’t have the jumpers, I could solder some jumpers between the rails. As I understand it, the outer rails are always hot, and the turnout switches power on the inner rails.
The jumpers are accessed on the bottom of the turnout, no need to open one up.
Is this N scale? # 6 turnouts are power routing and do not have screws on the bottom to change to non power routing. # 4 turnouts do have the screws. For DCC you want the turnout set for non-power routing. On my #6 turnouts I had to isolate it at the end of the switch (branches off to two tracks) and install appropriate feeders. I control movement from the Cab with NCE Switch-KAT decoders. Here is a good read on Kato switches:
http://www.wiringfordcc.com/switches_kato.htm
Good Luck![:D]
Brian: Thanks, this is exactly what I was looking for. (And yes, it is N scale.) All I have at the moment are #6 turnouts and I didn’t remember seeing a means to change the power routing. I was also looking to add crossovers and it looks like they are in the same boat as the #6 turnouts. I read the description of what is required to DCC-enable the #6 turn-outs and I am reticent to open them up. A) My eyesight isn’t what it used to be, and B) I have very limited mechanical prowess. I will either solder some jumpers to the rails, not a very elegant solution, or sprinkle feeders all over the place.
Richard:
Do not open up the switches. I have tried to open them up and make them non-power routing but to no avail and I damaged the motor inside[:(!]. Buy a few of these:
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Kato-HO-N-Terminal-UniJoiner-35-p/kat-24818.htm
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Kato-HO-N-24816-Unitrack-Insulated-Unijoiners-20-p/kat-24816.htm
I tried making my own feeder wires and I did not like them. I just dropped purchased feeders after every piece following the switches turnouts.
Have fun![8D]
Brain: Once again, thanks! I knew about the insulated Unijoiners, but not the feeder Unijoiners. I have (at least) one more question for you. Did you isolate the turnouts, and if so, where?
Hi Richard;
The gaps in the rail on the switch is large enough that you do not need to worry about that. Just remember to isolate ALL 4 ends where the turnout branches to two lines.
The grayed out sections needs the isolated track joiners.
Kato track and Kato trains are amazing products.
Brain: Got it. I am just getting started and all I have is Kato track and engines, so I know no different. All I know is that I put the track together, put on the trains, and everything works. I did upgrade my DC power supply to an MRC200. The light kits in the passenger cars, plus a couple of engines, was a little more than the Kato power supply could handle. I am still using the Kato supply to power my switches and my isolated switching yard. When I make the move to DCC, I plan to use the Kato DC convertors for my switches.
Any idea on a DCC system? I suggest the NCE PowerCab. You can find them new for about $140.00. I have switched all my DCC systems ( Bachman, MRC and Digitrax) to NCE. [A]
I was looking at the Digitrax Zephyr Xtra, but haven’t made up my mind yet. I am also looking at the TCS engine decoders. What made you choose the PowerCab? It seems like when I was doing my research, the Zephyr had a bit more power out of the box than the PowerCab.
I had the Zephyr but I did not like the cryptic programming display. You can also run a non DCC engine as well if want to. TCS make great decoders and I think you are doing yourself a favor to use them. The goof-proof warranty adds peace of mind and I have used it twice ( on HO decoders that I muffed up). I really would not worry about power at this point. You can add a booster later on and your system is 100% upgradeable.
Digitrax is a very good system and I would be doing you no service to talk you out of it. [;)]
I look forward to seeing some of your track photos - all the best!
Brian
It is NOT neccessary to isolate the turnout.
Robert: If you could enlighten the newbie (me), that would be great.
Please Robert enlighten me.[:#]
Why would you isolate the legs of the turnout? I can think of a few reasons - if you want to be able to shut off power to one leg or the other, if you want to isolate them for block detection, or if they form a reversing section. If none of these apply, then there is no reason to isolate them.
There is one other common reason for isolating the legs of power routing turnouts. Many power routing turnouts will cause a short on the leg that the turnout is not aligned for if power is fed to track on that leg. They do this because the frog and inside rails are all common with each other and the turnout switches the frog according to the turnouts alignment. Kato turnouts do not operate that way. The frog and inside rails are isolated from each other, and if the turnout is power routing it simply cuts the power to the inside rail that the turnout is not aligned for. Therefore it does not create a short and does not need to be isolated.
Your original post mentioned that the layout is running fine on DC. If that’s the case then it will run fine onh DCC. Personally, I would add feeders to every spur but that’s my preference. I don’t like depending on the switch points to power my track. If you just hook up DCC the layout will still work as before. Those power routing switches will still route DCC.
I did the electricfal work on M.B.Klein’s N scale store display layout. It’s all Unitrack. There are 4 sets of feeders on the main loop. An additional pair are on each siding. I left the switches set to power routing because it didn’t matter. It is set up to run with either Digitrax DCC or an MRC DC supply. using simple plug.
Martin Myers
Never should use switches for power routing especially in DCC. Very bad wiring practices as per my research [banghead]. Power routing was used by Kato for DC layouts.
I am just sharing my experience and what works for me.
Let me see if I can net this all out, to see if I understand.
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If I have a Kato layout using power routing turnouts and a single feeder, and it is currently handling DC without a problem, I can simply unhook the DC power supply, attach the DCC supply and everything will work exactly as it did before. (Assuming, of course, a DCC-enabled engine.)
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Given #1, there will still be power routing, ie. the non-switched track will still be dead. I will not be able to run an engine on that track. (I realize this is fairly obvious, but I am a simple person.)
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If I ensure there are correctly configured feeders for every section of track that can be isolated by a turnout, life is good and I can run an engine anywhere, anytime, regardless of the turnout direction.
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It may be a good practice to isolate the branches of the turnout, but there is some disagreement about this point.
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If I do #4, there shouldn’t be an issue, other than the short section of the non-routed turnout will not have power, but a running engine should never be on this little segment anyway.
How’d I do?