dcc wiring and boosters - all new to me


eddie

New Member
I purchased a prodigy express unit to power the trains. Excuse me about the number of questions but DCC is quite complex and I have never done any wiring for DCC until now. I thank everone for their patience in advance.

I developing a layout that is roughly 16 x 8. It has crossovers where trains reverse direction.

Is there a way to operate these reversing sections manually or is an auto reverse unit the way to go.

Do reversing sections need a separate power booster?

I will run at most 2 locomotives at the same time.

Is it necessary for my home layout to break up the layout into different sections and how do I wire these. Can I use the one power unit?
 
I am learning DCC too. I can answer some of your questions from what I just learned by other guys help on here and personal trial and error. No reversing units don't need separate power boosters. Power is fed thru a reversing unit to a section of track that is insulated from the rest of the layout. EXAMPLE: take a simple switch that loops back to its self, you need to isolate the whole loop at the switch. Place insulators on one set of rails (say to the turn off side) and take a auto reversing units red wires and attach to switch and the yellow wires to the track leaving the switch (straight ahead). This allows power to be fed to the loop thru the reversing unit. When the train enters the loop and it sees a short it flips polarity and flips it back when it reaches the other end. Daisy chain the power thru the layout but don't tie in the reversing section or your reversing unit does nothing. Autos are the way to go...They work without you knowing there there.
You can wire it with toggle switches that will flip polarity but it can be as complicated as going back to analog blocking system when operating several trains...Years ago the made toggle setups for this but it actually recommended like 3 switches for one Y or 2 to do a simple loop (one for each section)
 
That one I linked to at Tony's is a little pricey if you don't want all the bells and whistles. They have others but I'd recommend sticking to solid state (no relays) they are much faster and no clicking noise.

Ken.
 



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