I am trying to decide if DCC is right for me. I have worked for the Phone Company for well over 30 years and I understand, for the most part, the old battery and ground and the new packet technology. I have been collecting for a long time and have a large number of G scale locomotives, over a thousand feet of track and 16 LGB turnouts and plan to by more. Unfortunately most of this is still in the box except for a temporary layout around my pool. I know I can wire my new layout in a conventional manner and make it work. DCC would make it much easier if I didnt have to run wires from all the turnouts back to a control panel and I feel confident this can be done. I plan on using Digitrax equipment and everything seems to be perfect except for one thing, the only stationary decoder they offer is the DS-54, which handles 4 turnouts and this is ok if all four turnouts are close to each other. I want to be able to use a single use stationary decoders in remote locations to operate a single turnout. Very simply I want to connect one end of the decoder to the track and the other end to the LGB turnout coil. Does anybody make this decoder and how would I Program it? Are there any problems using LGB turnouts with DCC?

Thanks for your help

Bobby Moss

-- Bobby James Moss (bjmoss-gnho@worldnet.att.net), June 04, 2000

Answers

Bobby,

Stay tuned in the DCC in the Garden section of my website www.WiringForDCC.com

I have done all the things you have mentioned with the equipment you intend to use. I just need to put it into the web page. I have quite a bit to add to the garden section and will probably be adding things all summer. I am writing the section on using Sierra sound and putting DCC into the Sumpter Valley and Unitah right now.

You will have two challenges. Primary will be waterproofing the DS-54. After a lot of thought, I gave up and decided to run the wiring to my garage. The cost of waterproofing just wasn't worth it.

Second is that the LGB switch motors draw a lot of power. A few of them will represent a significant load on your DCC system. Each draws about half an amp. For your 16 turnouts, your layout will need an extra booster just to run them. That's about $200! If you ran them off of an extra power bus you run around with your track, you will be able to supply that power for about 1/3 of that.

-- Allan Gartner (WiringForDCC@augustmail.com), June 07, 2000.