I was thinking of DCC and how you could turn lights on and off with the push of a button. I was thinking of ways to do that with regular DC and I thought I could hook up the track to both the AC and the DC with a SPDT (or whatever Pole and throw it is) so i could turn on the lights of one engine on a siding and run another. Could this work? Are there better ways to do this?
DCC sill allow you to do this without any special wiring or toggles. Each loco is controlled by a decoder in the loco that will respond to your commands.
You can control many engines independently of each other.
Yes, it would work if you like to see an engine’s motor smoke. Trying to make lights come on by feeding AC into the rail can burn out a locomotive’s DC motor and is an awfully expensive way to turn a light on. A DCC signal is very high frequency square wave AC pulses that is nowhere near the same as regular AC that you use in your house for lights.
I have never tried it but I believe you would do damage to both the transformer ( power pack ) and any engines on the track. AC and DC are not compatible. AC stands for alternating current ( back and forth flow of electricity ) and DC stands for direct current ( electric flow in one direction only ) and electric motors are wired diferently for each. Either way you can not to my knowledge have both AC and DC current hooked to the same circut.
Ray
GREAT NORTHERN LIVES !!!
Ok thanks for your help. I was just wondering if it was possible.