New to DCC

[gooie21]

Hello, I'm new to DCC and I am confused as to the power arrangements. I understand for all loco's to be digital they need correctly fitted decoders etc, but to power the track and have control of the loco's is it as simple as analog or do I require an extra power box and more decoders etc? To simplify my ramblings, can someone tell me what I would need to run a simple 2 loco circuit with a siding? Thanks!

[Rog RJ]

Basically, DCC is as simple as analogue or even simpler. You need a power feed to the track and some means of making sure ALL of the track is live all the time. Where there are sidings and passing loops you can use the Hornby R8232 point clips or add another power feed. The point clips defeat the self isolating properties of Hornby points. DCC may seem a bit difficult at first but quickly becomes simple.
Rog :-)

[CRAZY.CRAB]

I was just about to post a question about this, i have a rail truck up to grade "C", just got a basic DCC train set for 1/2 price, £70, so all I need to do is get some point clips, convert all my trains to DCC and off we go,

[Brightstar]

Hi CRAZY.CRAB,

Have a look at the postings on this thread, titled DCC BUS AGAIN:

https://www.hornby.com/forums/hornby-forums/hornby-digital/274/

This deals with the installation of a power bus on a layout and will help with the conversion

of your layout to DCC.

Yes, you need power clips on all points and all locomotives have decoders installed in them. You also need a programming track, seperate from the main layout track for programming the locomotives.

You should also consider

installing a DCC power bus on your layout.

[CRAZY.CRAB]

Brightstar said:

Hi CRAZY.CRAB,

Have a look at the postings on this thread, titled DCC BUS AGAIN:

https://www.hornby.com/forums/hornby-forums/hornby-digital/274/

This deals with the installation of a power bus on a layout

and will help with the conversion of your layout to DCC.

Yes, you need power clips on all points and all locomotives have decoders installed in them. You also need a programming track, seperate from the main layout track for programming the locomotives.

You

should also consider installing a DCC power bus on your layout.

cheers for that, now sorting it all out,

[bocaj]

Well, you will need a programing track unless you want to take all of your locos of your layout just to program one of the locos.

[CRAZY.CRAB]

bocaj said:

Well, you will need a programing track unless you want to take all of your locos of your layout just to program one of the locos.

CHEERS,

[bocaj]

Your welcome!

[Snow_man]

Hi i'm not sure about the power bus?.
I have built the large layout hornby built for use in their cxatalogue a couple of years ago and was track plan 11 in the last trackplans book. Mine is a foot shorter and 9'2" by 6'5".
I have put 14 locos on

it all chipped, and two of them are sound locos. I only have a select unit and have never had any loss of power from the layout. I only want to upgrade to the elite as i want to get more sound locos and was told that the select will struggle with more than

two sound locos running on a layout

Chris

[Gregd99]

the power bus discussion is a long one:-)

There is lots of info available and it is the "right" thing to do.

I have about 20m of track with only one connection and no problems. I plan to run more connections but while everything works well

there are lots of other things to do.

[markSandD]

The wiring for a DCC layout can get quite complex, especially if you start using 'accessory point decoders' to operate points and other lineside equipment.

In my case the first layout I built, I made the mistake of simply connecting the point decoders

to the track, for their power supply, which caused no end of reliability issues.

On the new layout they are connected directly to the main power bus, which on my layout uses 10 amp lighting cable, which is more than adequate for the power usage!