Large Scale Central

"DCC-friendly" turnout wiring

Hi all, Time to show what I do with the wiring to have as few problems as possible. Commonly referred to as “DCC friendly” this makes sure that there are no opposite polarities in close proximity.

Jumpers between the stock rails and the main point and short point rails. Note the frog is insulated by cutting gaps with the Dremel HD disk and filling the gaps with strips of styrene held in place with CA.

Feeder wire to the frog. To attach wires I drill a hole in the base of the rail, thread the wire through and solder. The small cross section on the outside of the base heats up really quickly.

Jumpers between the stock rails and closure rails.

Wires to the toggle switch, note that the solder lugs for the switch are 7mm off the base. Chances of getting shorted by water are minimal.

The brass reinforcing tube under the throwbar connects to the toggle switch with a piece of steel music wire (.032" dia) which provides enough spring for the extra preload of the points. :wink: :wink: :smiley: :smiley:

You want me to post a photo of my battery r/c friendly switch and what you have to do to one to make it so?

Curmudgeon said:
You want me to post a photo of my battery r/c friendly switch and what you have to do to one to make it so?

Hi Dave, Why not? For all I know some of the members from afar haven’t seen how that works. :wink: :smiley: :smiley: And while you’re at it, add the live steam friendly version, too.

BTW how many times have you read that engines shorten out when going across turnouts - some commercial turnouts, that is - and : “How do I fix that??”. The DCC-friendly scheme takes care of that if trackpower is used.