Isolating Accessories (Lights etc) - tips?

[curtis]

Folks, I've been pondering this for a while and thought it was best to ask the collective wisdom of this forum.

When building the layout, I ran 4 bus wires - 1 for the Central Station and 1 for a future booster. There are then two others for accessories - an 18v feed and a 12v feed for lighting of buildings and accessories. I am, however, hoping the 18v will be redundant as I'm making an attempt to use 12v LEDs everywhere.

With that context, so the matter at hand. I've been trying to work out how to easily isolate/control sections off the main bus for potential troubleshooting. I have a fear that one day I'll turn on the accessories power and it will not work as somewhere amongst all the buildings, point lamps and signals there is an issue. The idea of troubleshooting that sounds like a nightmare. My instinctive plan was to add toggle switches (on-off) to virtual blocks e.g. from the bus at a particular station - have a switch for station buildings, a switch for station lights, and a switch for signal lamps. The idea here being if my fear manifests, I can simply walk round the garden and switch things off until I find where the issue is.

Is a valid course of action? Any tips on the type of (toggle?) switches to use? I looked at these and considered adding them to the various junction boxes dotted around the layout.

Any thoughts from the forumers?

Curtis

 

[dunnyrail]

Hm on my line that has 6 significant stations I had pseudo power districts to each one using good car type dpdt switches as on/off switches. Each station had wires to each end of the section with that connected to each station switch. This meant I could isolate out each station to see which one may have been causing problems. Of course there were isolations at the end of each section to make each one a separate district. I call them pseudo power districts as the term is normally used for big power hungry DCC systems where boosters are used. I never needed a booster but stole the basic concept of districts for my own purposes. I can see no reason why the same could not be used for buildings but for each power supply as you have effectively installed a ring round your line you may need to think about splitting it up and putting switches in a building where they can be kept reasonably weather tight.

 

[ntpntpntp]

I used waterproof mains switch boxes for my trackwork section switches. They could work as bus isolation for accessories too I'm sure.

Outdoor Switch Box for Lighting, Ponds and Pumps - 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 Way | eBay

 

[Paul M]

They would work,but ntpntpntp's box looks neat. There's probably a way of having a warning light to show you which circuit or power district is at fault

 

[dunnyrail]

I used waterproof mains switch boxes for my trackwork section switches. They could work as bus isolation for accessories too I'm sure.

Outdoor Switch Box for Lighting, Ponds and Pumps - 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 Way | eBay

View attachment 311777

They look to be the ideal thing but I wonder for a larger layout if 1.5A per switch would be adequate, would have been ok on my line as there would likely only be one or two locos working per section not very hard. But would certainly be perfect for lighting circuit.

 

[curtis]

Hm on my line that has 6 significant stations I had pseudo power districts to each one using good car type dpdt switches as on/off switches. Each station had wires to each end of the section with that connected to each station switch. This meant I could isolate out each station to see which one may have been causing problems. Of course there were isolations at the end of each section to make each one a separate district. I call them pseudo power districts as the term is normally used for big power hungry DCC systems where boosters are used. I never needed a booster but stole the basic concept of districts for my own purposes. I can see no reason why the same could not be used for buildings but for each power supply as you have effectively installed a ring round your line you may need to think about splitting it up and putting switches in a building where they can be kept reasonably weather tight.

Reading this, I interpret you're talking about track power - is (was? As I was under the impression you switched to battery) this for reliability/troubleshooting issues? As in, you're able to see that as a loco enters a block and stops the issue is in there?

I used waterproof mains switch boxes for my trackwork section switches. They could work as bus isolation for accessories too I'm sure.

Outdoor Switch Box for Lighting, Ponds and Pumps - 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 Way | eBay

View attachment 311777

This is where I was going in my head with the idea. Probably would end up with 6 of these - 1 per station on the line + 1 for near the pond. It does seem like a fair investment (they start at £20 for a 2 gang) but at the time time the idea of troubleshooting the whole bus if something stops working (which, inevitably it will) is probably worth the initial outlay in timesaving...

 

[dunnyrail]

Reading this, I interpret you're talking about track power - is (was? As I was under the impression you switched to battery) this for reliability/troubleshooting issues? As in, you're able to see that as a loco enters a block and stops the issue is in there?


This is where I was going in my head with the idea. Probably would end up with 6 of these - 1 per station on the line + 1 for near the pond. It does seem like a fair investment (they start at £20 for a 2 gang) but at the time time the idea of troubleshooting the whole bus if something stops working (which, inevitably it will) is probably worth the initial outlay in timesaving...

Yes I am all battery now and was talking about my former power setup. Batter conversion was partially for reliability but more to save cleaning all the track, a real chore on my very long line. But I do not use the former sections for any purposes now, I guess I they could be used as block section indicators but that would then need some track cleaning for current to pass. Have not cleaned track for ages and would need to short out wheels for track circuiting to work. Interesting slant of an idea though.