Model Railway Forum

hi guys again when i say my layout has a bus wire for powering up the track i mean a bus wire for each one could this be the problem with my layout should i only have one for the whole layout this might sound daft but i am a novice with dcc thats why i keep asking all these questions for you to guys to help me thanks for your help with this problem regards bob

Bob i think it best if you read this article on bus feeding https://www.brian-lambert.co.uk/DCC_Pag ... Bookmark17
Scroll down and look at the layout diagram.

Hi Bob

If you have several feeder wires coming from various DC controllers "Track" outputs then disconnect them from their DC controllers and then you can join all of one rail feed wires together and do the same with all the other rails feed wires and take them then as two wires to the DCC consoles Track output connection.
What you MUST ensure is that all feed wires going to ALL OUTSIDE rails are joined together and all feed wires going to ALL INSIDE rails are joined. If you get any crossed over you will have a short circuit on the wiring!

A bus system is a pair of feeder wires to which pairs of droppers are attached. These droppers as stated connect all inner rails to one bus wire and all outer rails to the other bus wire. The bus feeder pair then connect to your controller.

hi guys should i replace all the dc wiring and fit one main bus wire for the dcc i am getting to the point of staying on dc if i cannot cure this problem one way or the other spent a small fortune on dcc decoders and controller and am really fed up with it all not coming together regards bob

You don't have to have a DCC bus pair, but installing such can only improve power and DCC data transfer to the rails.

What you need to ensure is that all rails are kept spotlessly clean as too should all the loco wheel rims.

Next ensure all outside handed rails are all connected together and all inside handed rails are to the other group and connected together.

Finally on DCC, all tracks should be live regardless of any points position. Unlike DC where the point isolates the unset direction.

All locos on a DCC powered layout need to have a Decoder fitted. If they dont and are placed on DCC powered rails you risk the locos motor burning out.

hi guys i have decided to bite the bullet and rewire my layout the wire i have used is not as stated here on the forum so i am going to try wire of the sort you guys recommend and see how it goes thanks for all your help and fingers crossed my problems will be over wire sizes will be 32/02 bus and 16/02 droppers with soldier to rails and scotch locks beneath the baseboards best regards bob

You were doing so well........then you mentioned ScotchLocks. If you must have a joint that doesn’t involve soldering then look at Wago connectors.

Nothing wrong with Scotchlocks provided you use the correct size for your wire. I use 5-way Wago connectors which are connected to the bus via a thick wire from one port using a Scotchlock, leaving the other 4 ports for droppers. The Wago connectors can take two droppers per port provided they are of the same size. So you can easily wire whole sections of the layout with only one wire to the bus, with no soldering under the baseboard.

I use the self locking terminal connectors, had no issues at all, used with the lighting circuit, points wires & bus etc etc can also be screwed into place as a traditional terminal connector,

can you securely fix a Wago?