Thanks for everyone’s help regarding the circuit breaker with the NCE device. My layout is 13x7’ HO in a single deck (layer). The main, accompanying sidings (5-7) and interchange will function as one discrict.
The second one is the yard. Where should the feeder wires originate in the yard? The yard buss? Is the wiring cinfiguration something like the following: yard feeders-circuit breaker- buss? Do alll yard wires get fed into the feeders that connect to the circuit breaker?
Thanks!
I ran a feed from the controller to a terminal block and then to 4 CB’s (now I have 3) I reemoved the CB on the program track.
From the Terminal block I feed 3 breakers which in turn fed 3 bus lines. 1-Mainline, 2-Sorting Yard and 3-Ferry Yard
If you are setting up your yard as a separate power district, use the same size wire as your primary bus wire and connect that bus wire to the input side of your circuit breaker. Use the same size bus wire and connect it to the output side of the circuit breaker. Then, connect your yard feeders to that bus wire coming from the output side of the citrcuit breaker.
Just to be clear, when I mention bus wire, I am talking of course about a pair of bus wires, one for each rail.
In terms of “splitting” the primary bus wire, the easiest way to do that is to use a terminal block, as Gary suggested. So, you would run the primary bus wire from your command station to the terminal and then split off the bus wires from there to each power district.
Rich
First, Rich nicely points out the terminology and wiring sequence; i.e., controller output (bus size wire), then yard (a sub-district) circuit breaker, then yard bus, then feeders off the yard bus to the track pieces.
In the yard throat you may have a number of close coupled turnouts. You may find it handy to create some unique wire arrangements to get feeders to every (6’ or so, assuming soldered rail joints or eqivalent) piece of track. Typically solder your feeder wires to the rails at the 6’ length midpoint, so the juice only needs to go 3’.
For instance, if the yard splits quickly into 5 tracks, I could (in my case) use 5 feeder pairs to the tracks from the buses, with 5 pairs of suitcase connectors. (Also consider where you want feeders to the turnout track pieces if you (like me) leave most turnout rail joints unsoldered / unpowered.) One alternative for the yard tracks is to make a pair of 5-feeder wire harnesses (or variations) with a short leader, with feeders somewhat longer than needed. Drill the holes by the rails for the feeder wires. Thread the feeders wires up through the holes by the rail. Connect the two feeder harness leaders with the suitcase connectors (or solder if your method) to the buses under the table. Trim and strip the feeders atop the table and solder to the rails. If your yard tracks were 12’ long (unlikely) you could repeat this from your extended yard bus with another pair of 5-wire harnesses at the 2nd 6’ length.
I found this approach much preferred, as under table work for me (with a crummy back) is awkward, uncomfortable and to be minimized. You can use any variations you like, just don’t let the feeder net length get too long (I kept to 18 typically, 24" max).
I also like the approach of using terminal blocks at the upstream end of thing in case you want to make