Track dead spots caused by turnouts


TRAINFAN9510

TRAINFAN9510

Member
Ok here it goes. I am new to the whole DCC track and wiring situation (I used to just have bachmann DCC turnouts). We just recently overhauled our old layout and put in Peco insulfrog turnouts everywhere (7 total of left and right hand, and 1 3 way turnout) (I went with insulfrog because I read that I had to gap the electrofrog turnouts and this sounded a bit out of my experience level at the moment) I went to power up a loco and run it and it went fine, until I threw the first switch. The loco died. Now I know it has something to do with track power, and I am sure I will have to run feeder wires to some parts of the track, but my question is where exactly do those go? I can throw a switch at the opposite end of the layout and the loco dies, etc...I will draw up a track schematic for you guys when I get some time, but Im not even sure where to begin. All help is greatly appreciated. I am definately no electrician lol
 
Do not count on the turnouts routing power to the track. All sections of track must have feeder wires to both rails. This way the turnout will not be required to be in a certain position to provide power to any section of track.

Bill
 
Ok thats what I sort of thought. So I assume I just wire all of the A rails together and all of the B rails together? Attached is a picture.
 
That's right. All A rails to one side and all B rails to the other. Especially those little short crossover tracks too.
 
You could wire the A to A and B to B rails. What we usually use is a 'bus' system.

The bus is two decent gauge wires running under the layout with feeds of smaller gauge wire linking each track section to the bus.

16 gauge wire is a good choice for large layouts. Your layout is small so you could get away with 18 gauge or even 20 gauge wire.

Check out the info sections on this link for a detailed explanation:

home: http://www.dccconcepts.com/

wiring: http://www.dccconcepts.com/index_files/DCCwiringpower.htm

more wiring: http://www.dccconcepts.com/index_files/DCClayoutwiringwire.htm

and a nice idea for the end of the bus; power bus suppression (3rd down on list):
http://www.dccconcepts.com/index_files/DCClayoutwiringwire.htm
 
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