Non-sound equipped DCC locomotives are no longer appreciably mo re expensive than a simple DC offering - admitting that even an entry-level Command Station is still more expensive than a good DC power pack but a few can be had for about the cost of two good DC power packs.
For the ubiquitous 4'x8' starter layout with two trains running at once, successful arguments could be made for either DC or DCC. However, as layout complexity increases, DCC quickly becomes the more attractive proposition from a control perspective alone.
Adding sound and lighting effects in support of prototypical operations, DCC gains even more ground. While many audio and visual effects can be achieved in locomotives with DC, the commercial offerings to do so have dried up, and the skills of the individual to do it themselves have all but disappeared.
Such efforts are almost certainly NOT something one would ask the beginner to undertake. I own a DCC system. I've built DC throttles from scratch. Command Control in general is a superior experience for the end user, especially on small layouts with short electrical blocks, as soon as you have more than one train running at once. Command Control in general is also more readily scalable than DC; changes are incremental and layered.
DC systems must consider expansion from the start, witness Bruce Chubb's many miles of dedicated laced wiring harnesses on the cab controlled version of The Sunset Valley RR and think about merely adding one more lamp to a signal head.
With respect to the original question, like any new endeavour, the beginner should start with something appropriate for them. If they are technophobes or Luddites, then DCC is not the way to go.
If they are desperately remote from a club, or have little or no access to the Internet, then DCC is not the way to go. As a beginner, my decision to buy at the outset must be based on what I can handle alone or with a reasonable amount of help or I'm bound headlong for disappointment.
If one has to have a live-in nerd simply to run trains I'm sure they won't be keen on the idea. Of course a beginner's tastes and skills will change over time but, if they have a negative experience at the start, they won't continue with the hobby long enough for this debate to matter.
Non-sound equipped DCC locomotives are no longer appreciably mo re expensive than a simple DC offering. And this is paralleled with all their other offerings. The only company that will happily let you have a crack at DCC for less is Bachmann.
As a beginner modeler, or where you have long single track mains and decent separation due to efficient planning, there is an appreciable difference in not adopting DCC right away.
I'd budget it out only after you know the layout is going to be in place for a while, after it has been completed. Otherwise all the DCC bells and whistles just sit. Locos often come pre-fitted with decoders while staying in the same price range. Let's keep this as an apples-to-apples discussion. As a matter of operating procedure, is it usual or reccomended to leave locos randomly scattered around one's mainline?
I would suggest most likely not. Any loco which is not actually running is deliberately "parked" somewhere, usually off the main. If that "parked position" has even 1 turnout between it and the main, then basic "turnout-driven isolation" is a very effectively way to control "which loco's moving", without needing the operator to have to manipulate any "non-proto" traction-block switches.
If the turnout is set against your loco, it doesn't move. Simple I accept that dropping power to a sound-equipped DCC loco will cause it to go quiet. However, the number of posts even in the last 6 months here on-forum covering the subject " Magazine Home Payment rates Contact us. Questions and answers New forum move blog prep Request an article, book, or video Submit magazine trouble ticket How to read the magazine MRH posting guidelines Contact us. Mynxx Optima Geneva Helvetica. Lucida Georgia Trebuchet Palatino.
Another one for the beginners - DC vs. Fri, — DKRickman Modeling general discussion. Login or register to post comments. For years I looked for a way to make my steam engines sound like steam engines. I even crammed a 9V battery and Circuitron sound system remember those? The sound was so-so, when it worked.
How great is that? Even on my little layout, with just a Zephyr and a homemade throttle on the jump port, I can easily run multiple engines.
I can bring a train in, then flip over to another engine to grab a car off the rear, or move out of the way. I only run one engine at a time in most cases, but it's amazingly simple to use multiple engines sequentially, and without thought to blocks or locations. Simplicity in wiring. My layout is one big block. It's small enough to run from a single booster, so there is one bus running the length of the main line, and every track is fed off of that.
I didn't have to plan an operating session to figure out where I might need insulated gaps. I didn't have to run multiple busses for multiple cabs. Heck, I didn't even think about power. I just laid the track where I wanted it, soldered the joints, and then ran feeder wires wherever it seemed appropriate. Clean appearance.
Because I use manual ground throws on all of my switches, there is nothing at all on my fascia at the moment. I think you could get into "virtual reality" sound. So for example, the closer you are to the engine, the louder the engine sounds in the headphones or speaker. You may be able to make it so that with headphones, if the engine is to your left, the sound is louder in the left earpiece. Plus, you could have proximity-based background sounds running, like street sounds in the big city on the layout, mooing when you're near the dairy farm, etc.
I'd think a lot of it could be done now with transponding DCC technology? Tom, constant brightness headlights have been pretty standard on all but the least expensive DC locos for 20 years or more now.
With my PWM Aristo Train Engineer wireless throttles, my headlights come on full brighness way before the loco moves, in fact you can leave the loco sitting still with the lights on. Then as you accelerate the lighting stays constant at all speeds. OK, if you model modern times with ditch lights and what not, I get it. DC verses DCC views. Order Ascending Order Descending.
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Posted by doctorwayne on Tuesday, May 28, PM. To run multiple trains simultaneously on DC, you need multiple power blocks, and you need to always be aware of your block boundaries Member since January From: Maryland 11, posts. The replies to these threads are always interesting After that it gets complex as to the virtures and vises of each system. Yet I do not use it on my own layout. It provides an impressive list of features: Wireless radio throttles for walk around control.
Single button route control of turnouts with working signal interlocks. Simple operation requires only using five buttons on the handheld controller. It does not provide for: Onboard sound. Thanks for your input, Sheldon, and for your kind words. Member since September From: Southeast Texas 5, posts. Posted by mobilman44 on Wednesday, May 29, AM. Member since September From: Dearborn Station 21, posts. Posted by richhotrain on Wednesday, May 29, AM. Posted by rrinker on Wednesday, May 29, AM.
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Posted by kasskaboose on Wednesday, May 29, AM. Member since March 1, posts. In terms of basic layout wiring, I know for DC you match one of your two bus wires for the inside rail e.
My bus wire is 14awg. From there, occasional feeder wires 22 guage to connect bus wire to rail. Once you choose which rail is 'black', and which is 'white', you must stick with that convention throughout the layout maybe not for block wiring, don't know. But does the same hold true for DCC? I mean, I cannot mix 'n match here, once I have started it one way, right?
Thank you. I know - overkill. But I haven't really seen this question answered. If I had a better understanding of how things work, electrically, I'd probably have my answer.
Generally speaking, the same wiring protocol holds true for DCC. Even if the DCC layout is divided into separate power districts, sub-buses should be wired in phase with one another. On my DCC layout, I added a second booster and, even in that case, I needed to make sure that the bus wiring was in phase to avoid pauses as locos crossed from one booster district to another. One exception would be reversing sections where it doesn't matter whether the input side is in phase since the function of the reversing switch auto-reverser or DPDT toggle is to match polarities inside the reversing section.
Yes, the same convention holds true. A short circuit is a short circuit no matter what the type of power is.
Maintaining a consistent color code for your under-layout wiring is always a good idea. It just makes repairs and changes so much easier. I like to label my wires, too, either with tags or just by writing on the underside of the layout with black markers. Sometimes it is easy to get confused as to which rail is which. I mark the layout next to each rail with two different colored tapes. Then I put a flat car on the track at that point and put the colored tape on each side of the flat car to match the layout.
By moving the car around the track as you wire, you can keep the polarity correct. Knock the car off the track? I would just like to clarify one point Your DCC controller sends a Digital command through the rails to Your Decoder equipped engine to change it's motor control functions The decoder does that In 5 or 10 years or more , you won't remember exactly how you wired the layout.
Once you do it and stop looking at it, it will fade from memory. This has happened to me on my club layout when I was doing a lot of wiring from to What saves me when I go back to look at a problem is that I was consistant in what I did.
I always wired the same way, over and over. Under my club's old DC layout that stood from to , the wiring was done with whatever was on hand.
When we took in apart, there was everything from TelCo. It was a total horror show whenever you tried to chase down a problem.
I also see the term ground sometimes used for decoders. Decoders have positive and negative for the DC operating power. You just don't use the term neutral with Direct Current. So, the correct terminology is important to me. When do you refer to that "second" wire as neutral, common, ground?
For household electrical projects around here in the Chicago area, we are required to use metal conduit, so that green ground wire is less critical than the white wire which I refer to as neutral or common. All neutral wire connects to a common bar in the service box which is grounded.
In areas of the country that use plastic cable such as Romex, the white wire is still referred to as neutral or common and the green wire is the ground wire, taking the place and function of metal conduit. In, household wiring, the black or red wire is the HOT wire. In DC, whether it is used in an automobile or on a model railroad, the two wires are referred to as positive and negative. At least, that is how I have been taught to use the terms. The traditional method of controll is DC, meaning direct current, is a method of control provided by modifying the flow of electricity from one rail to another along the track of your model railway.
DC control is commonly referred to as analogue control. You control the speed of locomotives on your model railway by varing the current of the electricity supplied to the track, which provides more or less power to the motor in the locomotive.
To change the direction the locomotive moves you switch the direction that the current flows through the track. This is done using an analogue control unit. This unit will have a dial to control the current, and a switch to control direction. If you have more than one locomotive on the same section of track they cannot be independently controlled with DC. If you build you layout with separate loops, sidings, and fiddle yards, the sections can be controlled separately by buying additional control units or a multi-channel control unit.
We stock a number of multi-channel control units from Gaugemaster. Each separate control unit, or channel from a multi-channel unit, needs to be wired up to each section of your layout.
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