Thank you Simon1966, and Bearman for the advice. I have ran, on previous layouts, “welded” (soldered) track, and wondered if the blocks, as many as twenty on the loyout of this size was necessary, or just solder all of the track with bussing and feeders? I was a die hard DC fan, but now retired, I want to try DCC instead. Other questions, such as converting old Athearn locos (8-10 yrs. old). Is it worth it vs. purchase new ? And Kato vs. Broadway for main line power ? Your suggestions would greatly help.
Thank you
Scrap everything you remember about DC.
DCC means AC wave power on the rails “FULL” time for the purpose of carrying information to and from a locomotive.
I use a power supply, command station and a throttle from Digitrax. Others will tell you about thier systems. My Buses are divided this way:
Track Bus Rail A and Rail B These get 14 AWG wire and Im preparing to install 18 ga AWG feeders. I plan to cheat by not soldering these feeders to the rail joints. The wires will go directly under the joined rails.
Switches are Kato Unitrack tied to DS64 control with thier own wall power supply. There is a network called “Loconet” using what I call 6 wire “Ethernet” cable connecting everything so that the Command Station can understand what is happening.
Signalling will have it’s own power supply totally isolated from the railroad except for block detectors. Let’s not worry about that now.
To me, a Block in the old DC speak = Power district in DCC.
Example… Yard. It is all one “Block” or Power district. It is protected by a circut breaker so that if anything happens INSIDE the yard it will not stop the mainline traffic or any other power district.
Get books as many for DCC as you can and read. Read them again and learn as you go.
DCC is a method of picking one specific engine inside a roundhouse full of engines and “Driving it” wherever you want without interfering with other engines at all or worrying about who has which block.
I have a stable full of QSI equippted engines, one loksound engine and two analogs that will recieve thier own decoders.
The brand is irrevelant however… MRC does not do a good job with decoders. BLI may produce quality engines but they are doing thier own thing with Blueline. Also the BLI/PCM problem is that of waiting for engines. I just found out my 2-10-0 with 8 Axle tender order has now been re-scheduled from Nov 08’ delivery to… March of 08’ and AGAIN t
Hello. If a layout is wired for block control, or even as a monolithic block, in DC, it needs only to be hooked up to the DCC system for it to work, provided all the block switches are in the closed position if you want to operate the locomotive(s) everywhere. However, just as in DC, you’ll need to beware and reversing loops.
Not quite so simple as that, though…there is still the need for full power and the accompanying DCC signal to be available to the decoders in locomotives all over the layout, particularly at the far side from your main power. So, what DCC fellas do is to run a heavy wire bus along the length of the table or bench, and to then run thinner wires as feeders to the rails every 3’-8’, depending on one’s preferences. Some guys, for example, hard wire a feeder to every rail joiner, so that means a feeder every 3’. I go up to 8’, but usually am closer to 6’. My staging yard is fed by a single set of feeders feeding over 25’ of track, and I have no issues.
Once more, though, a bit more complicated than that. As the numbers of locomotives drawing current rise on a layout, shorts can cause some problems for decoders. So, most medium to large layouts will break their layout track plan into power districts with power boosters boosting both the signal and available current in that contiguous block…which is electrically gapped and isolated from those elsewhere on the layout. This adds complexity in wiring and in expense, as you would surmise. In my case, I had held to just the 5 amps provided by the old Super Empire Builder DB 150, but to keep the risk of damaging decoders to a minimum, I have used Joe Fugate’s tail light bulb treatment (wired in series into each set of feeders) to control the current draw during a short, such as when the leading truck of a locomotive derails due to misalignment of a turnout. The light bulb glows when the short takes place, and limits the current availab
A great web resource is http://www.wiringfordcc.com/ it can be a bit heavy reading at times, but as a reference site it is excellent with a lot of good information.
If you have a bunch of Athearn Blue Box locos, they are not just plug-and-play for DCC but they are not all that hard to install either. I have converted several and they can be made to run very well in the DCC environment. Digitrax makes a clip on harness for Athearn to make it an easier install, but if you are reasonably adept with a soldering iron it is not a hard job. Here is a link to a pictorial step-by-step on the excellent TCS web site, who IMO make some of the best DCC decoders. http://www.tcsdcc.com/decoderpics/Athearn%20SD45/athearn_sd45.htm
Take your time and have fun with this stuff, it can be very rewarding.
I would just disconnect one of the DC throttles (cabs) and connect the DCC controller there. Throw all the block controllers to that cab and ta-da a DCC layout.
Old Athearn locos are easy to convert. I guess it depends on how well they run and how well you like them.
Do you want sound? Sound - BLI, No Sound - Kato. Do the manufactures make the locomotive you need? I would think that would be a bigger consideration. The only one I know they both make is the SD40.
Listen to simon about the wiring site, it is excellent. Another one is http://www.litchfieldstation.com. I can’t speak specifically to your conversion question, but from what I understand virtually anything can be converted, the older the loco the more expensive the fix, however.