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Starting Off With DCC
Rowan asks readers:
“I would appreciate some advice with selecting a power pack for my model railway. I have read the various features and will eventually head towards DCC and a hand held, but I’m not ready for that just yet. Can an experienced railroader recommend a not too expensive power pack that will be suitable for the future growth in my layout?
9 Responses to Starting Off With DCC
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Rowan,
I would suggest the NCE Power Cab it is a relatively small yet complete full DCC system, that can easily be expanded later if you desire.
Allen
I have the Digitrax Zephyr DCC system. I love it. The NCE Power Cab is also a very good unit. I would recommend either of these brands. Both are expandable (can add booster units).
When I do get money, after reading so much about the different brands of DCC cabs and such, I have already chosen to buy an NCE PowerCab. I would also buy a DC power supply from a supplier, add my own fuse blocks, do my own wiring and get some accessories, track, wood to build a layout with, foam and supplies to build up the terrain, wires, terminal block, air brush, paints, hardware, etc. I have a lot of things I am listing to get so I can start out when I do move into a place when I move.
First of all, just a few questions to determine the PSU power rating required:
1) What scale is your layout ?
2) How big is your layout going to be ?
3) How many locos do you want running at at one time ?
4) Will you have many accessories (lighting etc) in addition to the trains ?
As you intent to start DC and then convert, I advise that you get a sound basic grasp of DCC layout wiring principles (actually simpler than most DC !).
Then you can wire your layout in a way that makes it easy to modify when you change over.
A DCC power supply unit provides AC voltage to the track, and the DCC controllers impose a control signal on top of that.
So if you start with a DCC PSU, you will still need a rectifier circuit to provide the DC voltage for your DC controllers. (Unless your DC controllers have this rectifier circuit built in.)
I also use the Digitrax Zephyr system. My layout is 45 ft. by 13 feet in size. The Zephyr has no problems running 4 + trains at the same time. The layout started on DC many years ago and I changed it over to DCC 2 years ago. It is easier to wire up for DCC now rather than changing over later. The Digitrax system is easy expandable if you need to do so. I find that the Zephyr will run more than what most people have in a home layout. I hope that this is some help to you.
I have been there…..all of the comment made in regard to your questions are good. One thing I might add, the question on whether or not your layout will be designed where you can stand at one location to operate. The NCE Supercab worked good on my last layout. But I plan to build another one which probably require a walk-around.
I would go with NCE,I did a lot or reswarch building my layout and NCE was the best choice and highly recommended buyall the local tain hobby shops.. IF you have a problem they will be more than happy to help you out. their product line is extensive and will cover most situations.
OK, the question was” inexpensive power pack for DC” If you want your engines to run properly with out hesitation or speeding up or slowing down, you would need a descent power pack, one with momentum, and braking. I have three such ones not in use anymore. These will cost about the same as an NCE power cab. You want to eventually step up to DCC, I say and I think everyone here will agree, just start with the NCE –DCC. It will cost the same— it can be expanded for little money—-it will be more realistic operation—-you can control turnouts ,lighting, etc.. Also if you have a good DCC locomotive with a four + encoder, you can have 28 functions… I have an NCE with expander power pro with radio cabs. wireless operation.
All those above is fine for the DCC. But if you can wire the bus wires under the layout with wire drops going to the tracks from that every 4 to 8 feet while you are wiring. Wire drops can be phone wire as they are short to run from the track rails to the bus wire. This will keep you from loosing power throughout the layout. You can even wire manual control switches to kill power to certain tracks or sidings if you want Then when you swtch to a DCC system then just leave these control switches on.
My Portable layout has had regular DC hooked up to it. I have on occasion plugged in my DCC system to run some DCC engines on it. I used a trailer four prong plug to connect my standard transformer. I have My DCC system from my mail layout with that same plug so I can plug right in to my power wires of the portable layout. Although I do not switch it around anymore, once I have the engines converted to DCC that I take to shows all I have to do is plug my DCC System in and I am ready to go. Don’t mix your engines and get DC on DCC or vice versa. Just wire the layout for DCC and then when you are ready pull the old DC Transformer and plug in the DCC system that you decided to go with. from Newman