revisedmanual:man_electrical:power
Powering Locomotives and Layout Control
Broadly speaking there are three means of supplying electrical power to a model locomotive; DC (Direct Currant), DCC (Digital Command Control) and Radio Control (Dead Rail).
DC
DC layout wiring is straight forward on smaller layouts which only have one locomotive running at a time or test tracks where each loco has it’s own dedicated circuit. It is a (relatively) simple matter of ensuring that each piece of track is connected direct to the controller and this can be accomplished with a two wire bus. There could be minor complications with points, depending on the configuration of the point frog and this will be covered in a later section.
If two or more locos are to be run simultaneously with each being able to access any part of the layout (CAB Control) the wiring can easily become very complex. Each section or route has to be connected back to the panel and the latter has to have a means of switching these section feeds between the various controllers. With large layouts with complex pointwork and many baseboards the wiring can become complicated. Numerous multi-way connectors between baseboards will be needed, each a potential source of unreliability and planning and record keeping can be challenging.
These difficulties can be very much reduced if a layout control bus is used and this will be discussed in a later section.
Different aspects of DC are described in theses pages:-
The following produce DC controllers specifically for O Gauge Locomotives:-
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Helmsman Controllers have now been taken over by Peco and will be available from them in 2024
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DCC
The following is taken direct from the DCC Wiki 1)
Digital Command Control System Components
Digital Command Control systems can be as complex or as simple as you want. To get started, you only need the following items:
Throttle
The controller for the layout, also known as the cab, and is often handheld. This is used by the operator to control a locomotive, or a group of locomotives in a single train. Throttles send control commands to the Command Station
Command Station
This is the brains of the layout. Its job is to collect inputs from throttles, and send those signals to the train via a booster.
Booster
The booster's receives commands from the Command Station, amplifies and delivers them to the track.
Decoder
A small electronic device installed inside a locomotive and is responsible for responding to commands from the command station. Unless you're using battery power, the rails are always powered at 100%. It's the decoder that decides how much power to deliver to the locomotive's motors, play sounds, or control lights.
Wiring for DCC is similar to that for “one loco” DC systems in that it is a matter of joining every section of track to the power bus and hence to the Command Station. Higher levels of power consumption can be catered for by the use of either very high capacity Boosters or by dividing the layout into power districts each with its own booster. Given the voltage sensitivity (and cost) of the electronic modules involved it is important to avoid any wiring faults that could cause damage.
Different aspects of DCC are described in theses pages:-
Radio Control
Battery powered radio control eliminates the need for layout wiring, track cleaning or even conductive rails.
There is a movement OS-Railway that is focussed exclusively on 3D printed track, rolling stock scenic items in 1:45 32mm gauge. This is an Open Source project and there are many downloadable 3D models available on Thingiverse Search_OS-Railway.
The “Radio Control for Hope Street” is an excellent introduction to wireless model railways.
The following pages describe aspects of Radio Control for model railways.
revisedmanual/man_electrical/power.txt · Last modified: 2024/06/09 18:14 by 127.0.0.1
