hello everyone, after fighting with a few of my older Shinora turnouts trying to make them DCC friendly, i decided to purchase new ones. i purchased the Peco Insulfrog ones after reading here that they were good for DCC. after installing some of them in my yard, i noticed that they act like they are power routed? when ever i throw the points to a different route, it kills the power to the other rail. im sure im doing something wrong, but i have searched the forums here and i cant find any information. im useing a regular DC power pack to test these with, but ill be useing a NCE PHP which i just purchased but havent installed yet. is there something else i need to do to get all power to all lines at once? thanks! steve

-- steve manchester (trainzman@verizon.net), October 10, 2004

Answers

Steve,

I have studied my drawings on my website. I believe I know what is happening to you. Yes, you are seeing something that appears to be like power routing.

I suspect you are using the turnout to apply power to the tracks leaving it. Look at my drawing on my website. http://www.wiringfordcc.com/switches_peco.htm

If you don't do option 1, you will notice that as you flip the points, the other track will go dead. Furthermore, using your turnout in this fashion means you are supplying power to the departing tracks through your points.

Instead of using the turnout as you are now, either implement option 1, or better yet, connect the tracks that go dead to your bus that you will build. Use the red and blue colors of my drawing to guide you.

You should be all set!

-- Allan Gartner (wire4dcc_admin@comcast.net), October 10, 2004.

Read the section on turnouts:

http://www.wiringfordcc.com/switches.htm

And also the sections on track wiring:

http://www.wiringfordcc.com/track.htm

You will see that my preference it to attach feeders to the track that is making up your yard, industry, or whatever it is that you are building.

You will also see that I suggest that you have more feeders than I suspect you were planning. Don't count on your track, and particularly the joiners, to carry the electrical power for your trains.

Last, but not least, is the short test. You should be able to short your track causing your DCC booster should shut down. If it doesn't, your wiring is inadequate.

-- Allan Gartner (wire4dcc_admin@comcast.net), October 10, 2004.

thanks for the info Allen, i was reading your reply and im wondering which option would be better? if i add feeders to all pices of track, that would reduce my chances of melting a tie or two. on the other hand, if i add the jumpers from the closure rails to the stock rails, i dont take as much of a chance melting ties. just wondering which option you would reccomend out of the two? thanks again! steve

-- steve manchester (trainzman@verizon.net), October 10, 2004.