# DCC Digitrax Superchief wiring question



## Walman (Dec 18, 2011)

Layout: Just laying track now. Details: HO-scale 15' X 15' L-shaped dogbone. Single-track mainline with two small yards at opposite ends of the layout. Secondary local line down the middle of the dogbone which connects the yards and several industry spurs. Connects to the mainline at several points. Will run a Digitrax Superchief with 8amp booster. May expand the layout one day but going t finish this completely first. Using Peco Insulfrogs on all turnouts. Will use Cobalt turnout motors with DCC built in. 12g main bus and 18g feeder because I got both cheap. Will run 4-6 DCC/sound engines max at one time and have turnout motors powered but otherwise not much on the layout to draw power.

So I plan on breaking this layout into 4 districts to isolate electrical issues. Essentially I plan on two districts for the mainline and 2 for the secondary line. I plan on using just my Superchief command station and no other booster for electrical power. Was planning on using a PM42 Power Manager to manage the power, short circuit protection, and handle auto-reversing for each district. I do plan on getting around to JMRI at some point so was going to add a BDL168 for detection. I think I need at least one RX4 as well but not sure.

So what am I missing or not thinking about? Am I OK from a power perspective?

Walman


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## JerryH (Nov 18, 2012)

You have plenty of power. PM 42 is fine, just remember in each auto-reverse zone it is not a circuit breaker. It will switch back and forth if a short remains in that zone. The RX4 is only needed for transponder reporting if you have transponding decoders. You will need a pc interface such as a PR3 to use JMRI.


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## Walman (Dec 18, 2011)

OK thanks. Here is another question I have regarding what I need to wire up-front.

I want to get trains running ASAP and will scenic the railroad over time. My question is if I start with my Digitrax DCS100-PM42 combo for power, short circuit and reversal duties to get up and running how hard will it be for me to add the BDL168 in the future? I really want to do block detection and use JMRI in the long-run but can I 'easily' add them in the future? Any thoughts/tips on that? I don't want to have to change a bunch of wiring. But yes the difference in time and cost does matter to me in the short-term as I really want the kids to run some trains 

Walman


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## JerryH (Nov 18, 2012)

each block will have a feed from the bdl, each pm42 zone will feed1 to 4 detection sections into the bdl. if you put in the block wiring to barrier strips with jumpers near where the cards will be, then it will be easy to connect the dcs to get the trains running without the cards.


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## Walman (Dec 18, 2011)

Jerry:

So can you explain a bit more what the picture shows? My assumption is you have a BDL and a PM42 on your layout and that in your picture each of the 4 strips shown are connected to subdistricts 1-4 of a PM42? A lot of wires so just want to make sure I understand it.

Thank you!


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## JerryH (Nov 18, 2012)

I have 3 PM42s and 2 BDL168s. 1 PM42 is set for AR in the yard that is not part of this picture. The other 2 feed the BDL168s. The black wires are the zone common from the PM42s A-D & E-H. The red are the detection wires from the BDL168s 1-16 & 17-32. The yellow and blue are from the SE8C to run the tortoise motors. For DC or DCC operation without these boards you would just place jumpers across the appropriate terminals to feed all of the blocks. I initially tested the track wiring on straight DC this way.


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