Darthtrainspotter

Hi Recently had a very annoying issue. turned my layout on, I use an Elite with DCC Concepts Alpha power and two circuit breakers. kept showing up a short on the main layout. Anyway, after an hour of fault-finding, it all boiled down to a Bachmann class 25 loco. Took it off the track fine, no short, put it on shorted. Changed the decoder and fingers crossed all is fine. My query is, I have about 50 locos of all shapes and sizes always on the track, in sidings and sheds etc. When the layout is in used all the track is powered up. Does having a loco sat on a powered track for long periods without moving cause issues or have I just been unlucky with a duff decoder.

Looking for options on the following. Read a lot about the potential failings of pre soldered droppers on fish plates. Corrosion, loose connection, PVA from ballast getting in between the connection etc. could one solution, if you have already purchased a load of them (yep jumped in without any research), be to solder the fish plate to one end of the rail. Leave the other end as push fit in case of expansion issues. That way at least one end will have a long lasting connection. That way at least they won’t go in the bin. ????

Your not alone ive been scammed by unscrupulous buyers. The odds are stacked in there favour. i Got eBay to step in and I at least didn’t loose my postage costs. A lot of buyers are looking for the seller to offer a discount and Threaten the negative feedback route. Why oh why they removed negative feedback for buyers god only knows

Cheer for the info. Still in the planning stage. I’m dismantling the loft layout which is about half the size the new one will be. Didnt think about all the locos being up one end, doh. Will look to have two double track isolated loops. i May not even link them together, sort of run them as two separate layouts controlled from one elite with the booster sending the signal over the the other loop. any comments welcom

hi I have read just about all the relevant threads but not sure my particular query is answered. I want to instal a power booster. The layout is run off an elite with a power bus and associated droppers. the Layout has 4 loops approx 7m by 3m with various sets of sidings at each end. I intend to split the layout in half isolating the loop at each side, imagine two separate semi circles. Stupid question time I take It I will essentially have two separate buses one fed from the elite, one from the booster. With the DCC signal coming from the track fed by the elite. cheers

Well all seems fine on the voltage front. Doesn’t drop lower than 14.3 going to check my bus wires and droppers. Maybe it’s just me being pickie the speed drops not that great cheers

Cheers

Thanks for reply if the voltage does drop is it going to be the power supply. Ie the 4 amp transformer that plugs in or is it going to be the elite that’s developed a fault. I have got a spare 4 amp power supply so could try that

hello thinking of using a power booster on my dcc layout as train speed is dropping as I approach 5 trains. My layout has a branch line that leads to a large fiddle yard. I want to isolate this section and install a power booster To run trains on this section. my question is do I need to use hornby isolating track or can I use isolating fish plates. I’m concerned that as the wheel travels over the gap in the rail it will drop and connect the two rails. Not sure if the isolating track has a segment of plastic between the rails to prevent this. I suppose I could just inset a wedge of plastic if useing the isolating fish plates. Any thoughts