of two booster districts without some fancy electronics that
are beyond the scope of this column.
Plan ahead
If you think you might ever be interested in signaling or com-
puter control, you can make later conversion much easier if
you plan for it before you build (or rewire) your layout. What I
recommend is:
Decide what sections of track you might want to make into
dection districts in the future, then:
Cut the track gaps to isolate these sections.
Wire each section to its own (14 AWG) detection district –
both rails.
Connect each detection district bus to the booster district
bus.
That way, you are ready to add block detection whenever the
mood strikes you.
Also, if your goal is to signal your layout, you may want to
decide upon a signal system before you choose your detectors.
While any detector can, theoretically, work with any signal sys-
tem, many are plug-and-play if you have the right parts. Signal
systems will be a topic for a future column.
Gap one rail or two?
Since detectors sense current flow in one rail only, there is no
reason to gap both rails, as long as you are consistent in which
rail you gap throughout the layout. However, gapping both rails
is essential in reversing districts, as you must switch the power
being applied to both rails.
DCC Impulses - 3
MRH-Aug 2013