Wiring

[ihdude]

My son received a Bachmann DCC train set for his birthday and I'm trying to get things set up. My question is how do you wire accessories like the remote switches? There isn't a place on the DCC controller. Thanks!

[Doneldon]

ih-

It is helpful to have a coherent system for your turnout controls. One way to do that is to connect your electrical switches (I'll use "switch" to refer to the electrical controller and "turnout" to refer to the parts which make a train use one track or the other) connected in groups for different parts of your layout. For example, you could have one row of switches for turnouts along your mainline and another group for turnouts in a yard. However, if you only have a few turnouts total, it's easiest to have them all in a single line. In any case, it can be helpful to have switches in the order that a train would encounter them. If you do have more then one group, each group will need its own feeder but you can use the same power supply to feed all of the rows of switches. Just have as many wires as you need running from the power supply to the switch groups.

Some folks arrange their switches so one position, say to the right, always sends trains on the straight tracks of the turnouts and the left position means the trains always use the diverging route. It's also useful to label switches, both in terms of where they are and which way is which at the turnout. Many turnout switches, including Bachmann's, have little areas on the switches which you can use for the location label and the direction labels. Note that you can control more than one turnout with a given switch, which can be helpful for something like a crossover (a track which connects one track to a parallel track) where you will always want throw both turnouts.

It's easy to arrange your switches so they make sense and you will be glad you did so. Guests and children will be even happier as it will make it much easier for them to learn to operate your layout. Remember that you can move your green wires around so groups or one straight line have the switches in the order you want, and you can reverse a switch's direction by merely turning the green wire over. The ease of making such changes is a real advantage of Bachmann's EZ track turnouts.
                                                                                                                                                           -- D

[r0bert]

You will need a second power supply to power your accessories, it could be a standard brick style train power pack, or a radio shack type wall wart, old computer power supply, or anything like that with an output of 12 volts either AC or DC.

[cmd]

I have just purchased a Spectrum EMC Gas Electric (Doodlebug) that is not DCC ready.  there was a note in the box that says "warning! if using an advanced polarized DCC decoder, the green jumper wire must be cut.  for additional information contact your DCC manufacturer (Bachmann E-Z ommand control center 44901)".  Where is the Green wire located (diagram shows a 8 spot domino with that green wire going from the third spot [front the top] on the left to the second spot on the right and labeled "green wire")?  I have removed the body of the locamotive but do not see any domino type spots or green wire.
thansks

[cmd]

the doodlebug will light up but will not move.  I when i examained the pins and the two and 7 pin are missing.  so the engine lights but does not run, does not appear (not noted anyweher other than the not about the DCC decoder) to be a dcc model.  I should have mentioned that the loco lights.  sorry for that oversight. 

[Jim Banner]

Instead of a "green wire," there may be a copper trace between pins 3 and 7 on the jumper plug.  That would definitely have to be cut if you were to hard wire a decoder to that plug.

Personally, I have never heard of an "advanced polarized DCC decoder" but I found reference to this problem at
http://www.zealot.com/forum/showthread.php?p=310151
Scroll down to the post by engineerbob.
A thread on another site confirms this.
http://www.us-modellbahn.net/forum/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=4352

As a side note, "DCC READY" does NOT mean the locomotive has a decoder on board.  It simply means that the wiring is designed to simplify the installation of a DCC decoder.  In this case, the simplification is the socket into which a decoder can be plugged.  If you want to add a decoder, then taking out the dummy plug and plugging in the decoder would be the simplest way to go.

Jim