#1 – Zero maintenance layout (2200 sq ft layout) – You can’t maintain a large layout by yourself #2 – DCC 8 amp boosters and welding engine wheels of the engine derails #3 – Track Cleaning – Never again! #4 – Reverse Loops – Using a toggle switch with DCC #5 – Not removing ties on flex track #6 – IDC connectors - #M scotch locks/Suitcase connectors for track wiring-NEVER #7 - The Rolling Stock Truck Tuner tool & why do you need one #8 – Soldering Track Joints #9 – Homasote Expansion vs Wood #10 – DCC and you have to modify the turnouts – YOU DON”T #11 – Homasote Cost – making a mess when cutting – You Don’t have to make dust when cutting
PLW the MRR Myth Busters – #4 - The Myth is:
A DPDT switch will not work for a DCC reverse track!
Myth Busted in 2001 on my home layout and I even used a center off Double Pole switch to boot.
The switch is wired for polarity reversal just the same as you would for DC.
I wired the switch into my Reverse Loop and tested the train. By flipping the switch very quickly the train will continue right on as before and come out the opposite end of the reverse loop.
I used this on my home layout for 6 months until I was ready to install the Digitrax PM42 reverser.
And no you do not have to use an all electronic version reversers as I have the Digitrax PM42 relay style on my layout (actually 5 of them) and have had no trouble in 5 plus years.
All of these techniques have been proven on a HO scale home layout with over 15 scale miles of mainline track and has over 2800 feet of track (42 scale miles) total in place, so far. The layout hosts bi-weekly Operations and yearly OPTUD’s (OP Till U Drop) 12 hour sessions and has had up to 40 operators at some of these sessions. The layout runs Digitrax DCC Radio. All of these so called MRR Myths have been Busted
The only thing an automatic reversing module does for a DCC modeler is to electronically reproduce the effect of a DPDT switch so the locomotive operator (I’m staying away from that engineer versus driver can of worms!) doesn’t have to think about the track. If the turnouts are lined by towerfolks or a CTC operator, all the LO has to do is run in accordance with the timetable and train orders, or track warrant, or signal indications.
Being a solo operator, and running pure DC, I recognize that controlling the speed of the locomotive is only part of getting my train over the road. At various times I have to play tower op and dispatcher as well.
As for my reversing connections, they involve various interlocking and alternate feed circuits that, if analyzed with Boolean algebra, break down into simple DPDT switches.
Yup, it works it’s just not automatic hands free so for some that’s too much work. I do know of three ways to make it automatic, but not hands free. On an Ntrak module, I was planning to put a turntable on the mountain line that would only be used to turn equipment 180 degrees (one track on or off the TT, like it was at a summit). when I was first getting into DCC, one of the first things I was wondering is if I could just use a DPDT micro switch ( tripped mechanically when it turned ). Someone could use some extra switch contacts (micro switches) conected to the turnout motor or linkage on a reverse loop or for the stub end of a turning “Y”.
Obviously you and a lot of others do not spend much time reading this forum.
This idea gets kicked around every once in a while.
This is just like the other Myths I have already talked about and others to follow.
While they MAY not work for everyone they do work for enough modelers to make them real alternative fixes for problems.
And the continual complaining and crying of so many threads on this forum I just made canned responses to the same threads over and over again.
There are some that just have to try and prove everyone wrong on any help anyone tries to provide here. And my Myth #1 does work but only if the person wants to make it work. I have been using the majority of the techniques I have listed for over 20 years and obviously they work. Others have tried them and they are working for them! Do they or Will they work for everyone in every situation NO! But how does one know IF you don’t try them. And if they don’t why is your situation different than others.
Sorry for the rant - Getting down off the soap box for now
Coming back from a long weekend and noticed these “MRR Myths” topics. One question: How did this list get arrived at?
So these threads (plus 7 more) is going to somehow reduce all the ‘continual complaining and crying of so many threads’? How long have you been on this forum now?
Bob,
Whenever some one, anyone, comes on just about any forum I’ve ever seen and starts proclaiming that certain things are “myths” (a.k.a. “false”) when they certainly are not…surprise!..these people get some flack, or at the least, folks disgree with them (sometimes strongly). Some of us cannot let false statements just sit there. There is no opinion moderation here (Bergie moderates the forum, but not each post for opinions…good or bad), so if someone states that Atlas is no good because they had a bad experience 20 years ago, I feel I have to reply and straighten him out before someone else believes him.
Perhaps if you had labled your list as “free advice” rather than “myths”, maybe folks wouldn’t feel the need to debate each point you make.
BTW, while a toggle is certainly doable, and we have one on one of our diamonds, we still have operators from time to time forget to throw it, and they short out. It’s not a big deal, but each problem eliminated makes the members happier.
Depends on what one considers a lot of time. But I’ve never heard this myth even in the real world in 10+ years of DCC usage. Of course, maybe I’ve just filtered out the really inane theories in my perusal of these forums. To quote Niels Bohr - “it isn’t even wrong.”
cvrproducts, I have a myth that you might want to add. You need a reversing module or a DPDT switch for turntables. FALSE! if you set up your turntable to be a split ring table it will automatically reverse. No reversing module required. This is how the atlas TT works BTW.