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Powering Turnouts

Philip has a question for readers and asks:

“Does anyone know can I wire my turnouts directly to my DCC bus lines or do I need a seperate power source and if so what kind and voltage?”

To help Philip – you can add your feedback using the green Comments link below.

One Response to Powering Turnouts

  • Herb Sr says:

    PHILLIP, YES YOU can use your buss, but I perfer to use it only when I am using the accessory decoders, such as Digitrax DS 64 ot Lenz which work thru your throttle to throw the switches, such as atlas or whatever. I have this setup on my staging yard and it works fine in areas that are out of the way. The digitrax has four outputs and the Linz six….Instructions come with the units.My setup is Digitrax with Atlas switches and attached power machine….I just punch in the switch number, hit T and switch throws, hit C and switch closes, hit function to clear throttle.This system has quite a bit of under table wiring.For seperate power switches around the layout I like to use seperate power supplies in different areas of the layout. I had some transformers and picked up a few more to run these switches. I place the manual throw switch on ouyside od layout and transformer under layout, one good transformer can power many switches, I use different transformers to cut down on wiring, any HO transformer will work except the old ones that came with train sets, they seem to be short on power and will not throw switches. I mainly wanted to leave my buss for just track power, and still do, but that setup worked well in my staging yard. Hope this helps some.

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