Don’t forget those lighted buildings that you tacked on to the
track bus.
I recommend building your layout with power districts in mind
– based on what area of the layout is likely to be under the
control of a single operator. This way, you can split sections off,
using circuit breakers as needed.
If you need more power, your booster will tell you by shutting
down during peak operations. Add another booster and move
some of the circuit breakers over to it.
4. The highest current booster is best
Initially, this makes sense. You add up your power needs, factor
in something for future expansion and buy the booster that fills
that need, say 10 amps. Then you use circuit breakers to break
it up into reasonable districts.
Points to consider are
:
This makes the operation of your layout dependent on a sin-
gle item – the large booster. If you were to use two smaller
boosters and one failed, a jumper cable would have the sin-
gle booster delivering power to the entire layout for running,
perhaps in a diminished capacity.
DCC Impulses Column - 4
all the lights on. Okay, let’s assume that you have a loco that
draws ½ amp maximum – a reasonable value for modern HO
models. It will draw the same ½ amp whether it is on a yard-
long test track or 100 yards away on a huge layout.
Yes, large layouts have more room for more locomotives to be
running or sitting and idling.
An HO scale passenger car with incandescent bulbs can draw
more power than a modern loco. It is possible for a long string
of passenger cars and a multi-unit locomotive set to over-
whelm a DCC system rated at 5 amps.
If you are using your DCC power to run turnouts, either directly
or through stationary decoders, they add to the load, too.
4
4: I can run a low current draw G loco over my entire gar-
den layout with my PowerCab (1.5 amp) system due to
good wiring practices.
“Two or three smaller boosters and power
supplies will be more useful than one large
booster. In the event of a booster failure,
you will be able to jumper from one district
to another and keep running, perhaps with
a reduced roster. One large booster and the
necessary power supply may NOT be less
expensive, either.”
MRH-Mar 2014
