Graskie Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 I am just starting to lay and wire up a fairly large loco shed area on my DCC layout which runs all round the walls of a 10 and a half by 7 and a half feet room, with piggy in the middle. I use a combination of Elite with RailMaster, plus live frog points which I adapt in order to avoid shorting. The shed yard will fan out from a single access point on the inner circle of my 4 mainline running tracks to about 6 lanes which I estimate could hold up to about 20 sound decoder locos, often incorporating other features as well, such as smoke and lights. I already have a small shunting yard plus a couple of other sidings elsewhere. My concern is that, with so many locos on shed, how will that affect my amperage from the Elite? Would it be overloaded, taking into account trains actually running on the main layout at the same time? If so, I could switch each lane on or off, as required, with a bank of simple 1 rail on/off switches. However, it would also be convenient to have, say, the nearest lane duplicate as a programming track, in which case I would need to have the facility of ensuring the programming wires are not live when that section is also switched to run locos. I have seen this last aspect covered in previous threads and assume I would need something like a double 2 pole centre off arrangement instead of a single rail on/off switch for that particular track. My method would be preferable to switching power on and off in conjunction with point accessory switches, and surely I don’t need to consider a separate power district? Any comments please? Do I really need to worry about the possibility of overloading my Elite amperage maximum in the first place? If so, does what I have proposed seem to be the most effective way of wiring my loco area? Do any of you clever leccies have other suggestions? Meanwhile I’m just itching to get things sorted. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I can provide pictures if required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 @GraskieI have got planned a 4 lane roundy-roundy with storage sidings and shed yard in a 14'x10' shed (track 12'x10' size minus a bit for insulation and lining.I too will be using an Elite with RM to run trains and using the eLink to look after the points. I only have 14 locos, mostly sound, 2-3 running whilst the rest sit burning hay in the shed/sidings, but I don't expect the 4-amp power supply to trip out. I don't know whether the PSU or the Elite will do the actual tripping if and when it happens. Hornby reckon 10 locos running, so with each drawing less than 1/2 amp max = 8 at max draw takes the 4 amps, much less at normal running speeds. Generally a sound loco will draw less than 1/10 amp at idle, so another 10-20 at idle in addition to upto 4 running I would guess. If my big sums are correct after a glass of red wine.. As you plan to incorporate a few isolation switches I would have them arranged so that in future after a period of 'suck it and see' if it worked out that separate power districts were required then it would be easy to splice in a booster. Programming track - I use a rolling road as a programming track and to allow it to do double duty as a programming track and rolling road I use a DPDT centre OFF switch. Prog track A-B connect to one end of the switch pair, the Track A-B connects to the other outer pair and the output of the centre pair connects to the rolling road or designated siding in your case.So I can flip the switch to Prog and do programming, then flip to Main and run a loco on the rolling road - very handy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmanoz Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Not up to using the second car space yet Graskie so Elite will cope by my rule of thumb. If you do the maths, 4 locos, one on each main line plus a shunter or 2 at under 2 amps, leaving more than an amp for on shed sounds etc and throwing points from time to time. Then am I wrong about the extra current for a sound loco? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graskie Posted October 17, 2015 Author Share Posted October 17, 2015 Thanks, RAF. Fishy, you've got me worried. Quite a few of my sound locos have Zimo decoders that state online, "1.2A continuous / 2.5A peak." A lot of those have separate smoke decoders as well. I've had no apparent problems so far but............. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rog RJ Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 @Graskie I only have 14 locos, mostly sound, 2-3 running whilst the rest sit burning hay in the shed/sidings, but I don't expect the 4-amp power supply to trip out. I don't know whether the PSU or the Elite will do the actual tripping if and when it happens. Hornby reckon 10 locos running, so with each drawing less than 1/2 amp max = 8 at max draw takes the 4 amps, much less at normal running speeds. The Elite only supplies 3 Amps to the track with 1 Amp reserved for accessories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graskie Posted October 17, 2015 Author Share Posted October 17, 2015 That's what I thought, Roger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmanoz Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Modern loco motors only draw around 250mA max by all reports, 12 at the same time on the 3 amps available. And just because your Zimos can handle more than an amp doesn't mean any of your locos are going to draw that Graskie, not likely unless they are older types. But the simple insurance is to do your track bus such that it can easily be split into 2 power districts later if you find your Elite (not the PSU) tripping. Then you will know a booster is justified and that you can fit it easily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graskie Posted October 18, 2015 Author Share Posted October 18, 2015 Thanks, Fishy. I'm going to see just how many of my power hungry locos can be run on my 4 main loops at the same time. What can I expect to happen if the maximum amperage of my Elite is exceeded? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmanoz Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 It will eventually overload and trip out, just like a coin test on the track. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graskie Posted October 19, 2015 Author Share Posted October 19, 2015 Thanks, Fishy. I'll give it a go then, hoping my Implanted Cardiac Device (ICD) doesn't trip out at the same time. Provided the latter doesn't happen, I'll report back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 I'd like to see that Graskie - you juggling an ever increasing number of locos on the 4 roads, not the cardio thingy tripping out though. How will that work then, do you have the equivalent of a motorway slip road where you can feed the next one in or are you fast fingered enough to have them all on track at once and set them off in sequence loop by loop. Or if using RM you consist them into triple sets and load the power supply gradually that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 Edit to remove duplicate reply, due to finger trouble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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