DCC/Booster requirements and wiring for a G-Scale layout

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in news:6b6d745f-49b7-4270-9fa1-8e1d51d7d6c7@

That's way too few. A good rule of thumb is that every piece of track should be soldered to something, whether a feeder or another piece of track. If you're using Aristocraft track joiners or something similar, I'd definitely want a lot of drops.

It's always easier to go overkill on the drops before the track is installed and ballasted.

A more powerful booster is usually cheaper than a second less powerful booster. You might have to buy a power supply, so you might as well go with a more powerful one. Circuit breakers or light bulbs will protect your train from shorts.

Take a look at the website Wiring For DCC:

Power level of the booster is determined by the amount of locos you are going to run with it. Even caveman era motor only drew about 0.7Amps of current so there isn't much of a problem with two of anything on any of hte boosters. The big thing is to make sure that the track is well fed with the power. You should be able to trace back every foot of rail to a soldered connection to the rail and the only exception to soldering is to have crimp lug terminals on strips for connections. Also try not to have too many of those as any joint is a resistence point which will drop the voltage. Also, long lengths of rail will also cause voltage drops.

-- Bob May

rmay at nethere.com http: slash /nav.to slash bobmay http: slash /bobmay dot astronomy.net

Thanks for the replies guys. I'll head on over to that DCC page. It sounds like I should solder my track together as well. I am using the aristocraft joiners with the screws to keep the track together, but it sounds like I need to beef up the connections.

-Scott

snip

The page in question shows how to add bonding wires across the joints - just like the real railroads do (they use them for signal circuits.)

HTH

I doubt you need to do that - just run a big fat wire alongside or under the track and occasionally (say every 6 feet or so) run a smaller wire to the track and solder that. Bear in mind though that your G-scale engines pull more power than HO, so don't use HO wiring standards! Use something like 16 gauge for track feeders and 14 gauge for the buss lines. If you want to go a little overboard, use 14 and 12. I've heard that many G scale builders use the same wire that low-voltage patio lighting uses.

Personally I hate soldering track connections - it makes maintenance a hassle and it won't look nice with the brass-colored track.

As for boosters - digitrax makes high-current decoders and an 8 amp booster for G scale. Those engines pull a lot of power, and you've got a lot of distance to electrify, so I'd go with the higher capacity. A normal 5 amps probably isn't enough for two engines to work well. *

Yup! You need to beef up the ELECTRICAL portion of the connection. Soldered jumpers across each rail joint. NOT soldering the joiners.

'Thermal expansion/ contraction' flexes the 'rail/ joiner/ solder' and over time will/can break the connection [this will be very hard to spot physically]. A wire jumper will allow for 'flexing' of the rail joint while maintaining the electrical connection. Another way of accomplishing the desired end result [some ways a better overall solution], is to run 12ga or 10ga feeder buss wires under the track, and provide EACH piece of 'running rail' with it's own 'drop wire'.

Chuck D.