Greg Elmassian said:
By the way wiring it for DCC would be simple. Autoreversers make everything simple. Insulate sections until you don’t have a short and use an autoreverser on each insulated section. No programming no moving parts.
One of the many “freedoms” of DCC track power. Yes of course battery needs no track power.
Greg
I always wondered how that was done. I did it in ho, before DCC, and that was a prime consideration in going battery. Good to know.
It’s sort of a simplistic way to say it, but the method works. There’s a lot of flexibility where you can place the insulators, but if you follow that simple procedure, it works. Actually running your fingers on the rails until you wind up connecting the left to the right rail so to speak.
Greg
The company that runs it: http://arst.sardegna.it/index.html
Rail cars and in summer tourist trains all over the island.
and apparently they have a rail bus:
the link below will have to be copied and pasted because LSC breaks links with special characters:
Greg
Pretty scenic railroad from the few pictures they have. Neat stone viaduct.
From reading their site, seems that more and more of the railroad is being “converted” to busses.
Greg
Dear All,
Referencing “The Complete Atlas Wiring Book” (Book#12) c2000, Pg. 41, Figure 5-15,
I believe you could pick one of the three turnouts of the wye,
and put insulators on both rails of its main and diverngent paths, (4 total insulators).
One side of the insulators gets
the input of the DCC reverser ( = output of DCC controller or booster),
the other side of the insulators gets the output of the DCC reverser.
My symmetrically leaning brain sees the target turnout being the tail…
If you had more than one reverser (on independent turning areas),
you would put the input of the DCC reversers ( = output of DCC controller or booster)
on the main line.
Hope this helps.
Sincerely,
Joe Satnik
lots of variations . . .
With the Wye the club uses, and the club uses DCC, one leg is gaped, between the switches on both ends of that leg. A toggle switch is mounted beside that leg. Throw the toggle, so its pointing to the gap the locomotive is about to cross and things work great. But, its knowing when to throw the toggle, and what direction to throw the toggle, that confounds so many club members.
Here is another one, not quite so confusing, but busy none-the less. Located at the Leetsdale Industrial Park, approximately ten miles east of CP East Conway and Conway Yard.
I was actually trying to find another trackage layout I remember from my time on the Harrisburg/North Jersey pool out in New Jersey on the Chemical Coast Secondary. Unfortunately it appears from Google Maps that the trackage I remember has been ripped up, I can’t even locate teh right of way from it.
David, you have a club that has DCC and they are not using autoreversers? Wow, they are so cheap.
Get a Tam Valley “frog juicer” and put it out there on the layout in a little weatherproof box.
Toggle switches indeed! (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-sealed.gif)
Greg
Greg, no the club isn’t cheap. Since the layout is modular, FreMo, there usually ends up being a lot of connections between the power module and the Wye module. The story goes, because of the power loss through all of those connectors, the auto reverser didn’t always reverse, and when it didn’t, it just sat there and cooked itself. Now this was all before I joined the club, so I do not know what make and model of reverser. I do not know if it was just one reverser or more. And I do not know the truth, or the whole story. This is just the story I was told. The person telling the story was one of those who was prone to a bit of exaggeration though.
Actually, using a toggle switch is a cheap, easy and effective way to reverse a Wye, and the same set up is used on the reverse loop (balloon track). If one flips the toggle reasonably fast, the locomotive doesn’t even stutter.
sounds like a mess.
one of the very basic rules on DCC is to deliver the current to the rails, and test your breakers by shorting the rails.
There’s definitely something wrong with the story, probably someone is not understanding something right.
Poor power delivery to a module could easily make it so a dead short on the module might not draw enough current to trip the main “breaker” that was “far away”. This is typical in many layouts where people do not use large enough gauge wire, poor connections, wrong settings on the breaker.
But what is great about autoreversers is that they are a 4 terminal device. Connect the “input” to 2 rails near the “reverse loop”, and then connect the “output” to 2 rails In the “reverse loop”.
thus a short circuit is really independent of any other voltage drop to the module, or anything.
since these are modules, it would be really, well, stupid not to put the autoreverser right on that module, with leads no longer than about 6 inches.
done this way, there should be no issue at all. I’d bet hundred bucks that the person that got this messed up just does not “see” the wiring or tried to remote the autoreverser, or set the trip current greater than what could be delivered to the module in the first place.
(typical situation, leave autoreverser to trip at 8 amps, but you cannot deliver 8 amps to the input of the autoreverser, therefore it never trips)
Modern autoreversers have a settable trip current. I use PSX-AR units and they are very reliable, in G and Z scales.
Greg
Greg Elmassian said:
sounds like a mess.
one of the very basic rules on DCC is to deliver the current to the rails, and test your breakers by shorting the rails.
There’s definitely something wrong with the story, probably someone is not understanding something right.
Poor power delivery to a module could easily make it so a dead short on the module might not draw enough current to trip the main “breaker” that was “far away”. This is typical in many layouts where people do not use large enough gauge wire, poor connections, wrong settings on the breaker.
But what is great about autoreversers is that they are a 4 terminal device. Connect the “input” to 2 rails near the “reverse loop”, and then connect the “output” to 2 rails In the “reverse loop”.
thus a short circuit is really independent of any other voltage drop to the module, or anything.
since these are modules, it would be really, well, stupid not to put the autoreverser right on that module, with leads no longer than about 6 inches.
done this way, there should be no issue at all. I’d bet hundred bucks that the person that got this messed up just does not “see” the wiring or tried to remote the autoreverser, or set the trip current greater than what could be delivered to the module in the first place.
(typical situation, leave autoreverser to trip at 8 amps, but you cannot deliver 8 amps to the input of the autoreverser, therefore it never trips)
Modern autoreversers have a settable trip current. I use PSX-AR units and they are very reliable, in G and Z scales.
Greg
Hmmmmmm, sounds like a nightmare. So many things to go wrong.
Further, deponent sayeth not.
Walking away, whistling in the dark. 
Actually very simple, but like anything else, something built on a bad foundation is likely not to function well itself.
It’s like many newbies (including myself) that did not believe in the fundamental importance of good trackwork.
Oh, it’s just this car, or that car.
I ran a train, and the last car derailed… ok that car is bad… take it off. Run again, oh, the last car derailed… that car is bad TOO… run again, same thing… when the train got down to a loco and one car, the little light went off and said, hey it’s not likely all your cars are bad, it’s the track!
Likewise in electrical wiring, if you cannot supply good power in the first place, then the stuff connected cannot be expected to work properly.
Greg
Greg, like I said, the story was of an event or events that took place before I joined the club. The story was relayed to me by a gentleman who is prone to exaggeration. So I do not know the whole story, nor the true story of what happened. Nor do I know how it happened, nor any of the details.
I have never used an auto reverser, but I figured that it worked like you described. So, even when the story was being told to me, I was confused as to the how and why part of the story. If it was installed correctly, and set up correctly, it should of just worked, correctly.
Thanks David, my “tirade” was not for you, but others that are on the forum that might get the idea that DCC wiring is complex. It’s the easiest track power setup. There’s a lot of “old wives tales” about DCC, like it does not work outside, or in the rain, or needs spotless track to run.
Sorry if my longish explanations seemed pointed “at” you.
Regards, Greg
Greg, yes I understand. For some reason DCC is surrounded with all kinds of myths and ledgends. It is described as some kind of magic by some modelers, something that cannot be understood, when the truth is far from that. As for the rest of your post, good trackwork, properly gauged wheels and properly adjusted couplers are also a kind of dark art to some folks too.
