Wiring Loop

baldwinjl

Member
60103 said:
On whether or not the track bus may/should be looped: If you connect two power wires to a loop of track, don't you have the equivalent of a looped bus?

I understand that the control circuit should not be looped. Do you need any 50 ohm resistors at the ends of it? :D :D (from an old ethernet man) :rolleyes:

Yes, the track would give you a loop. The relatively short distances and slow data rates of the DCC signal mean that it will probably never be a problem. Nontheless, I'll stand by my position that given the choice I would not make the bus a loop, and would probably gap the rails to prevent a loop that way. But, I don't think you'll ever see a problem either way.

As far as the control bus, I haven't read enough about the loconet to know, but I don't think it needs terminating. The (now) old coax ethernet cables did, but the signal was going to all the nodes through the same cable. With the twisted pair networking (and I think the loconet is this as well), each cable has only one pair of sources and destinations, so you don't get the same problems with reflections, etc. For those of you not wantint to worry about the technical stuff, son't worry. Just read the manual and follow it.

As far as railfanning in Tucson, that's where I am. The UP mainline (former SP Sunset line) runs through here, so there is a lot of traffic. I live east of town. The double track main separates, and runs out to the southwest. Let me look for a link....
http://home.comcast.net/~tucsonntrak/ASWMRR/ASWMRR_Fanning_Home.html

I think the Cienega Creek Bridge is pretty neat. I have never gotten the permit, but I've never left the car by more than a few feet. I have just watched from the parking lot, once we walked under the bridge to see a train approaching from the west on the lower track. We are trying to capture that scene on our layout, we are a ways from that point yet.

Jeff
 
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