I have a large u-shaped layout. DCC is NCE. Turnouts are Tortoise and Switchmaster. I have a bus around the layout for track feeders. I have installed a second bus that I will power with DC for the turnouts. Do I need to add a third bus (AC) for other accessories and general lighting, or can use the DC bus that is powering the switches ?

-- Pete Costa (pcosta@wi.rr.com), November 03, 2003

Answers

You don't need to run an AC bus unless you need AC.

However, do have some way you can disconnect zones from the DC bus. If you solder everything to it, you will soon find yourself cutting it up to find a problem.

-- Allan Gartner (bigboy@wiringfordcc.com), November 05, 2003.

Yes you can use DC for other accessories and general lighting. However, things can get rather high on powerconsumption. If you ahve a hundred little lights on your railroad, then you will already need to use between 5A and 6A. On my layout (14 x 15 feet, U-shaped), the lights of houses and street lights use up about 11A. If I were you, I power the lights separately.

Ulrich

-- Ulrich Albrecht (albreuf@auburn.edu), November 13, 2003.